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roseyful · 3 years ago

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Mars Red: Edge of the Nightmare - Review

Now, my Tumblr has been a bit quiet lately (been queuing a lot of things so then it wasn’t too quiet during my absence), but it has been for a good reason; last month I was approached [on my private twitter account] and asked if I would be able to playtest a game and write a review, and of course, being someone that enjoys games, especially those that follow an otome style, I had to say YES.

So its proud to say that after a while of playing the game, I finally get to write this review.

Now before I get into the game itself, I would like to take the moment to give appreciation to the team for being so helpful during my time of playtesting the game and before that, as not only would they let us know when there was an issue and the date had to be pushed back, they were so polite and helpful whenever I would run into a problem. That’s something you’d want to see in a gaming company and I’m so glad that my first experience with this company is one with positive results. I personally found no issues with the team themselves, and I do hope they keep this up after the release. Thank you favary for being so lovely and patient with me, and other beta testers.

Mars Red: Edge of The Nightmare was the game that they asked for me to play, however when I originally looked at their website, I couldn’t help but notice that the concept was originally one of a ‘Sound Theatre’, and while I couldn’t figure out what that was, I eventually was lead down a rabbit hole and ended up looking at the other things that Bun-O Fujisawa has worked in. Very interesting stuff, just like the game. However, it’s best to look at his other stuff in your own time.

Please note: I will be keeping this spoiler-free for the sake of letting people go in with no idea of what’s going on besides what I mention and on the website.

Story

The game is set in the early twentieth century in Japan, or better known as the Taisho, in which the website also says ‘[is] influenced by Romanticism’, in which vampires rule the night, as they could only feed off blood and those that stepped into the sun would surely die. Keen senses, incredible physical abilities, and yet they were still vulnerable. You see that very early on with the main character that we play as; Yutsufusa Yuki, a vampire whom became one against his will.

I will be honest, I did not like Yutsufusa when I first started playing, as I felt like he was a bit too willing to die, but that is something that you can overlook when you get further into the story. Yutsufusa is obviously one of the youngest in the group, due to the fact he wears the more ‘modern’ [at the time] clothing out of everyone, well, there is someone else who wears similar clothing but he’s human.

You control Yutsufusa throughout the game, influencing his voices and living his life through his eyes, him acting as the reader insert as you learn about the other characters and begin to grow a bond with them. While the story is a bit slow at first, it does start picking up around the middle-end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2 after you play the prologue, as you begin to assist “Code Zero” in their work to rid the world of vampires that wish to feast on humans..

Be mindful that there is an anime, however, Yutsufusa does not appear in it, as it focuses on the other main characters, so if you have watched the anime already be sure to remember that they’re either two separate timelines or different points in time. I do not want to confuse anyone with this.

The main cast is quite an interesting bunch, as it covers a wide range of personalities, and sometimes even time periods as you play through the game and unlock things; you might say you might learn a bit of history from it if you end up looking up some of the references I’ve found in the game. This is a great reflection on the idea of ‘immortality, and even has moments where said immortality leans into a few jokes (such as knowledge of birds).

If you’ve played games such as ‘Ikemen Revolution’, you may be familiar with the ticket system. Every day you’re allowed a certain amount of tickets to progress through the story, however, if you run out of tickets and you must read more, then you’re able to progress the story via using ‘amber’, the game’s currency that you can use for different functions. However, this is not needed, as every day your tickets will be replenished. I personally found myself not even needing to use my amber, as I would always wait for the next day. There are mini-stories that you can get if you finish a chapter within a certain amount of time, but I personally don’t find them to progress the story a lot after I read the first one I got. Then again I had other things to occupy my time while I wanted as well. If you wish to reread chapters, you get a bonus third option of currency; coins. Coins can be used to reread chapters in the place of amber or tickets, which means that you can grind out coins via the exploration option in order to see more options (looked at a bit later).

I personally found the story to be engaging, between the use of minigames (or investigations, covered a bit later), it broke up the reading with fun activities that progressed the story.

Is the game an Otome?

No! I was shocked as well when I saw the all-male cast since I was wondering if I was playing a boys love game, but in the end, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is actually a detective game. While it may carry the usual look of an otome, with the story and choices of how you speak influencing the endings of chapters, the game more feels like one of finding new friends and solving kick-ass investigations than finding romance. It’s refreshing.

This is especially true between the minigames in which helps influence the story that is all very unique in their own way and do not seem repetitive once you get into the flow of how they work.

Minigames

The minigames come forward in two forms; investigation, interrogation, and infer. Investigation sounds exactly how you’d expect, as you have to poke around and look at things, which you can review in a little notebook that sits in the top right of your screen in the case you need to review what you’ve looked at. When I was first launched into this section for the first time, I had a little trouble remembering exactly what I needed to look at (as I was given a set of things to tap), however, I do have to thank the team for thinking ahead and adding the option to be able to watch ads in order to see what you need to do. This was one of the two times I’d have to watch ads, as they don’t shove them in your face every few seconds like most mobile games do which is rather nice. Sometimes you gain information or items that you have to use later, so it’s a good idea to keep track of what you look at.

Interrogation acts as a question-based information gathering, in which you talk to NPCs in order to gather information to use in the investigation. Like Investigation, these points are put into your notebook for later.

Infer takes the first two investigation segments and combines the information, as you now get interrogated by one of the main characters, and you must respond back with the proper information in order to make sure that this segment is successful. You are able to read back on the notes from the other segments at this point by pressing the button with the book icon in the upper right corner, as this aids you in selecting the right answers. When I first came to this section, I did feel under pressure due to it, but it was interesting to see the negative answers from the character if I got it wrong.

Exploration is another part of the game, that while outside the story, there are parts that require a certain amount of story points in order to clear ‘point blocks’. This is where you get the coins from and frankly is good to use once you have finished using all your tickets for the day and want to use the rest of the time to grind coins. During the exploration, you set up 2 characters, a place, and a set [in real life] time of how long you want them to be out and about. Depending on the number of points earned, you may earn something called a ‘mummer’, which reveals more about the characters you chose to send out, and even get dialogue of the characters interactions (which can be pretty funny in itself) that shows the dynamic of the two characters- are they friends? Are things tense? You get to learn more by sending them out together.

Artstyle

As an artist, I was incredibly pleased with the art of the game, as the characters do not look the game, there are different body types and ages (from teen to elder), you never had to look at the same face twice for two characters. I will be honest, I do wish the characters were a bit more ‘animated’ with their expressions (such as body movement when they’re feeling certain emotions), however other than that, the sprites are magnificent.

The backgrounds are also really interesting to look at and even tell so much story before you even start investigating within the investigation sections. The design team also needs props, because while a few characters are wearing similar outfits, they’re all wearing them in different ways which shows their character and even the way they probably fight. Though I will say I am a bit biased towards Takeuchi, then again, I really enjoy fun and loud characters in general, and his hair is interesting in a sea of mostly black, purple, silver or blonde hair. Maybe will make a fanart of him in the future if I learn to draw his eyepiece. (on that note, please release the full sprites for us artists to reference, we’d love you eternally for it haha).

Oh no, it’s a-

Yes, its a bit of a gacha game, however, you do not need to actually play the gachas in order to progress through the game; it mostly just unlocks bits of story for those that want to have extra stories, or just want that extra dose of dopamine (haha, me). As someone who plays gacha games ever since they turned 13, I was glad that this game isn’t actually gacha centric, and thus is very free-to-play friendly due to this.

Who would I recommend this for and would I recommend it myself?

Personally, I think this is a game that suits the niche of those that enjoy a good mystery and even play those ‘find an item’ games, mixed in with those that enjoy reading otomes and history. Maybe even someone that enjoys theatre since there’s a character that does theatre. Would I personally recommend it? Yes, I would. The game is very interesting and engaging, the staff behind the game are so lovely.

Once more, here’s the game’s website link ❤️: https://marsred-game.net/en/

#Mars Red #Mars Red: Edge of The Nightmare #otome #game review #otome review #mobile game #mobile otome

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theotherwesley · 4 years ago

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tagged by @skyeventide! BRO THANK YOU <3

Rules: Choose your favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

1) Right at the beginning of 2020 (*can we even count the January-February Era as part of 2020? It feels like a separate timeline lol) I designed a homebrew D&D campaign around an extended-universe Watership Down world, where all player characters are rabbits. :3 I designed it over the winter and DM’d my first test game with my family! It was so, so fun, and I had high hopes of continuing to playtest it and refine the rules this year.... ah, the best laid schemes o’ Buns and Men gang aft agley. U_U

Some samples:

2) I got a truly awesome commission from a client on FR to do some stained glass window designs for their D&D campaign’s pantheon of gods. I got 4/6 done with them before my computer staged a revolution amongst our household electronics and went into a coma, taking BF’s laptop, a backup disk, and for some reason the toaster, with it. Then after that, the 2020 vibe got really uhhhhhh, shall we say, intense, and even after I found solution for my computer trouble I basically had zero creative fluid in the tank, so this was the last serious art I did for most of the year. :(

But! I do really like these pieces, and I will eventually get to the remaining two...... sometime. I don’t want to jinx it. >>;

3) Got into a SUPER JUICY and EXTREMELY DENSE long-form RP with @salmaganto over on the Tolkien Blog. It involves so much research into historical and logistical minutiae about running a Big Evil Fortress, surviving sieges, uh... managing thrall labor, transitioning between war and peace... It is absolutely my favorite shit lol, just,,, 100% gratuitous worldbuilding nonsense, with my favorite micro-rarepair ship (or rather, its platonic counterpart). Again, this level of creative output, especially dealing with some controversial topics and in-depth analysis of like, authoritarian regimes, lost a looooooooooootttttttt of its um, escapist appeal. I desperately want to pick it back up, but man, this year was a lot, and I’m still recovering. _( :’| 」∠)＿ We’re all still recovering.

4) Did some nerdy fanart for two of my favorite actual-play shows:

5) Attended a Zoom life-drawing session hosted in Perth, and it was a blast!

6) Okay so this is a weird one, but, I edited a font??? I’m disproportionately pleased with this niche accomplishment. I had ZERO working knowledge of font design programs, and I went with a free, super nuts-and-bolts shareware application, taught myself how to use the basic functions, and then muddled my way through editing one of my favorite fonts, HamletOrNot:

“Well, this font isn't really Blackletter, but it has a certain historical touch, so it is welcome on these pages. The typeface Hamlet was designed by Edward Johnston for a Shakespeare edition, Cranach Press, 1929. The award winning book Hamlet was considered “the most beautiful book of the year 1930”. HamletOrNot – digitized by Manfred Klein & CybaPee.“

If you hunt down the mysterious user “CybaPee”, you find typographer Petra Heidorn and her many, many preserved, historical fonts, which have been painstakingly digitized and made available for free on... well, pretty much every free font website ever, which made it a real pain to source.

I love this font with my whole heart, and I very much wanted to use it for parts of my comic (you know, the one) but HamletOrNot has a couple of readability failings that made it a bad match for small dialogue, and worse for ME, SPECIFICALLY: it does not include most diacritic marks. *cries in Tôlkíën*

So I embarked on this fool’s quest to do some touchups and add the diacritics and special characters I’d need to spell all the crazy bullshit for the comic, because HOW HARD COULD IT BE, HAHA, TO ADD A FEW MARKS AND CLEAN UP A FEW TANGENTS? HAHAHA. HAHA. .....Anyway, I think I actually started this process sometime in like, 2019, but I FINISHED IT IN 2020, and I’m proud of myself.

I’m calling the modified font ArdaOrNot, and it looks something like this:

7) Oh yeah, about that comic (you know, the one):

‘Ey, would you look at that! Progress! :D Slow, agonizing, unoptimized progress! I was hoping I’d have the first six full color pages ready with lettering and everything by the end of 2020, but.... well, here we are. Wow, I am SO TIRED OF BEING SICK, I HAVE THINGS I WANT TO DO SO BAD HAHAHAA FUCK

8) Another minor accomplishment that I’m disproportionately proud of, I made some new baller playlists and polished up a few old ones to a fine gleam.

Anyway-- I don’t know who has and hasn’t been tagged, but consider this an invitation to anyone who has the energy to post your highlights from the last year. It was actually pretty therapeutic to see some things I DID manage to accomplish, because so much of this damn year felt empty and lonely and barren. But there they stand: the weird little triumphs that were sprinkled throughout the months, somehow improbably blooming in the wasteland. :’)

#WesleyArt #art by me #Lapinland #Forging Arda #long post #Wesley's 2020 Art Recap #Despite Everything

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starshine-selfships · 3 years ago

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1, 10, 11, and 12 for the ask game ? 😺🙏💟

Hi hi hi!! You're getting long answers to these bc any excuse to talk about this man makes me go crazy stupid 🙌🙌🙌💕

1) What's a Hot Take you have about your f/o?

HE👏IS👏NEURODIVERGENT!! I'm specifically talking adhd, but he checks a lot of boxes for something more ambiguous too. I'm actually rewriting my adhd sh.aiapouf post and I'm gonna put it here too, but the cut time version IS: noticeable hyperfixations/special interests in music and the monarchy, practically no empathy + has difficulty understanding the emotions of others, fast thinking + thinks a LOT, almost weirdly analytical + book smart with little to no interpersonal skills, extreme emotions all over the board, like there's a LOT here and it explains like 80% of why he's Like That 😤

10) How did you feel when you realized "oh of course I had to like That Character"?

Okay I have a lot to say on this one djnfkffk please bear with me as I write a whole novel

✌U_U ✌

Honestly,, , I wasn't happy LMAOOO, around the time I watched the anime for the first time i was actually still pretty into j.jba and unfortunately was really into dio U_U

I was fascinated by pouf as soon as I saw him in the opening, lots of neat ant designs and then this butterfly man?? I need to know everything about him 👀 His intro with the rainbows in the wings, the fairy chimes, the solo violin, all had me like 👁👁 Sir I Am Going To Study You Like The Insect You Are, and then I saw him actually play the violin and was sold lmao. He was funny as far as comic relief went and then? The giant improv ballet breakdown and antagonistic turn drew me in further and then I was invested in a no going back sorta way as soon as he went chibi for the first time, just watching the chaos of the entire scene with this ridiculous huge grin dhjdkxkf every single thing he did was in the extremes and it was like watching a train de-rail in real time, I saw him face down in the dirt at the end of the arc and didn't even feel anything, he was just so WILD

So I finish h.xh not too long after that and texted a friend and was like hmmm. I need to watch j.jba to return to my roots and also to forget that I think I might've accidentally given myself a lil crush on the butterfly man 😳 idk if that return ever happened but I DO remember being frustrated with how pretty he is,, I didn't really wanna shift hyperfixations at the time and also didn't know if it was attraction or gender envy bc. what I would give to simultaneously look so fem and so masc 👁 either way it was a 3 month struggle of "oh no oh my god I wanna kiss a bug so bad?? 😞" and then I caved at midnight in a denny's and was like okay. fine. I'm gay for a bug, I really really like him but *i* don't have to like that 😤

I did, in fact, proceed to like it, enough to make an entire separate blog for him. It was a slow progression of "I mean, I'd share a ballroom dance with him, like a waltz maybe", "hmm okay he's funny but whatever", "oh uh. he uh. I mean he's neat, a lot of people didn't like him but I just think he's an interesting character 😳" and. and then I finally caved and I never stopped talking sjdkfkf though to be fair, I was already talking about him a LOT on my main, I just decided that maybe it would be nice to have a space to just. contain 90% of my poufposting LMAOOO

Final note on this, but I think what really got me is how many characters are in this series and yet I gravitated towards the one no one could stand 😞✌ though to be fair the hatred for him has definitely gone down compared to what I can remember from a few years ago; absolutely does not change the fact that He Is The Way He Is, but I saw the war crimes, malice, potentially treason, and I won't name it but it's by far the most uncomfortable thing to sit through in the arc, I saw ALL of that and still went hmmmm yes I want that one U_U true love huh

11) Do you think it's better to have copious amounts of content for your f/o, even with the risk of finding a lot of ship art, or better to have a lot less?

The art situation with him is strange bc there's a decent enough to be notable amount of art of him captioned with some variation of "I hated him but he had a really cool character design", but it's still content. Surprisingly, I actually don't track the tag for him but take a look at it anyways almost every day and there's maybe one new thing there like once a week, minimal content bc so many people just didn't like him, which is fair!! But also, he was definitely there as a prominent character, I'd just like to see more of him U_U I would put more art here but I'm too conscious of the art ops seeing my bs over here jdkdkfkk

There actually are a handful of ship art drawings of him, which astounds me bc this man wasn't there to make friends, not even with his own siblings :/, but the errant art of him with morel or kite is honestly pretty cute, please just let this man be happy, I love to see him smile 🥺

12) Aren't you tired of being nice? This is an excuse to rant.

He wasn't the worst guard!! All three had reasons for doing what they did and arguably, pouf's motives were the most complex. Yes he did some pretty awful things, but he considered them to be the right thing to do without a doubt in his mind, all his actions were selfish in that they were based off his own feelings, but he did things ultimately for the king, so his actions also had an edge of selflessness to them as well. He was just. so much more than annoying and while his character development wasn't positive, it was still some pretty astounding growth; as an antagonist, he's also fairly plausible 👀 sometimes people just are manipulative, sometimes feelings do get the better of you, pouf just has all those factors amped up to 11 at all times so they're magnified. I have. a lot of thoughts on him, he interests me very much 😞👀🤔👀

#i am saying so much!! he is very meaningful to me!!#he resonates with me on a weirdly intimate level and while i still don't totally know how to take that #i suppose it's pretty neat nonetheless; i have MANY thoughts about him and i love being able to share them lmao #ty for the ask!!!! ❤💕#lovebug #asks

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swissmissficrecs · 6 years ago

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Best Fics of 2018

Once again, this was a bumper year for fan fiction in the Sherlock BBC fandom*, with a few very long-anticipated fics coming to completion alongside some recent smash hits from established authors and even a couple of newer and lesser-known writers hitting it out of the ballpark. My picks are all, unsurprisingly, long, plotty, angsty Johnlock fics, featuring in particular post-series 4 fixits and Parentlock along with AU's, especially other professions and fusions/crossovers. What they all have in common though, is being of absolutely stellar quality not just in the technical aspects of the writing, but also the handling of themes, the character work, and the emotional impact. Any one of these could be a published book, and perhaps in the near future, some actually will be!

* (I also snuck in one ACD series because it’s my list and I can.)

My caveat as always: this list is obviously skewed toward my own personal preferences and reading habits. There are plenty of other fics that I loved, and even more that I simply didn’t get around to reading (yet), so it’s not a judgment if your favorite (or one you wrote) isn’t on here. Think of this as a sampling rather than a definitive list. I hope this will help you to re-acquaint yourself with fics you loved, give a chance to others you may have skipped the first time round, and possibly discover something entirely new and astonishing.

So here they are, in descending order of length:

The Men Who Talked Between the Words (439746 words) by Odamaki Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade Summary: John expected to be a father some day; he expected to have the house, and the wife and the nice suburban job. Sherlock never expected to have children, in part because he never expected to make it past 30. As it turns out, you don't get a choice. Crammed into Baker Street with a baby, John struggles with single-parenthood and his own fears, while Sherlock treads the fine line between doing too little and saying too much.

Gravity (English Version) (282983 words) by kirin_calls Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Greg Lestrade/John Watson, Sherlock Holmes/Victor Trevor, John Watson/Victor Trevor Summary: Part 1: When John takes up mixed martial arts training, he doesn't expect it to lead to a new relationship. But there are darker things afoot at the gym, and John is soon drawn in deeper than he wants. When an old flame from Sherlock's past turns up, it's time for everyone to declare their loyalties... and for John to finally discover where his heart truly belongs. / Part 2: John is struggling with his loss. Plagued by nightmares, his life gone topsy-turvy, he is no longer able to lead a normal existence. As he seeks out some stability, some way to slowly pull himself up out of the morass of his grief, old rivals become friends and details about Sherlock's past come to light, leading John to discover something strange that won't let him go.

Radioactive Trees In A Red Forest (280332 words) by Maribor_Petrichor Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: John Watson is what happens when a man can no longer see a reason to go on. John Watson is what happens when a man starts to let go. "It is what it is." John Watson is what happens when what "it is" becomes too much to bear. This is a story of the life, death, and resurrection of John Hamish Watson.

The Bluest of Blue (196473 words) by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Molly Hooper/Greg Lestrade Summary: John Watson's 10th season as a Denali National Park Ranger was shaping up to look like all the years before. Until a special team from Europe was flown into the Park for a summer-long wolf-tracking research project, and the head of that research team was wearing a perfectly tailored suit.

Scar Tissue (192179 words) by J_Baillier, 7PercentSolution Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: John has scarcely recovered from his Afghanistan tour when Sherlock is injured at work, putting their already strained relationship to the test.

A Game of Hearts (162553 words) by zmethos Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/OMC Summary: Seven stories written circa 2010, after the first series/season of Sherlock but before Season 2. Therefore, none of these stories reflect anything from Season 2 onward! Think of it as an alternate timeline or something. Slow build of a relationship between Sherlock and John. Gets quite dark in places. [Note: This is an AO3 repost of a fic from fanfiction.net.]

Drift Compatible (130546 words) by J_Baillier Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: A washed out war hero struggling with his past. A prodigy who wants nothing to do with his family legacy. Both are looking for something—and someone—worth fighting for in a world where human civilisation is constantly under threat.

The Burning Heart (119461 words) by May_Shepard Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/Original Male Character(s) Summary: When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

Maintenance and Repair (106650 words) by patternofdefiance Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/OFC Summary: John wants to explain the rush of sensation and data, which is just another form of sensation (or is it the other way around?). John wants to say: Augmentation circuits report temperature, pressure, various forms of quantitative input. Sudden changes are reported as pain, since sudden changes are dangerous, and pain is the quickest way to encourage reflexive extraction. But all John can manage is, “Nng.” Because this sudden touch is not reporting as pain.

The Wedding Garments (105390 words) by cwb Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: This is the story of a young consulting detective who wants nothing to do with marriage and an army doctor who wants to find true love. It's 2020 post-Brexit England and the British government is encouraging arranged marriages. Candidates meet through state-run agencies and date in hopes of finding love (and tax benefits). Sherlock doesn't need or want a spouse, at least not until John Watson shows up. Hesitant to give in to his more carnal urges because of the way they derail his mind, how will Sherlock progress toward the more intimate aspects of a relationship? The answer lies in a very special wedding gift.

Kintsukuroi (91822 words) by sussexbound Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: “I love you.” Sherlock sees the words hit John with almost physical force. He reels back a little, jaw twitching and eyes filling. “I love you,” he repeats, a little softer, a little more gentle, as earnest as he possibly can. Because they’ve been teetering on the brink of this thing for years, and it had become painfully obvious over the last few months that they were at a tipping point. This had to happen. Now it has. Now they can see where they end up. The tears in John’s eyes spill over, and he wipes at them angrily. “Do you even know what that means?”

Missing Pages (78852 words) by PlaidAdder Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mary Morstan/Violet Hunter Summary: This is a group of interlinked short stories (most between 2000 and 7000 words) which tell the story of how Holmes and Watson really came to be separated at the Reichenbach Falls, and how they found each other again. Each story is in the form of a document--a letter, a journal, a surveillance report, an affidavit, etc.--which is linked to one or more ACD canon tales, and which tells us something about that story that was changed or suppressed in Watson's published account of it. Holmes/Watson, with glimpses of other relationships.

Summit Fever (78782 words) by J_Baillier Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, James Sholto/John Watson, James Sholto/OFC Summary: After graduating from medical school, John Watson followed his heart to the Himalayas. Ten years later, he's a haunted cynic working for his ex-lover's trekking and mountaineering company. Will leading an expedition to Annapurna I—the most lethal of all the world's highest mountains—shake John out of his reverie, and who is the mystery client added to the group at the last minute?

The Vapor Variant (72684 words) by 88thParallel Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade Summary: Little did Sherlock know that the vapor to which he exposed John was a bioweapon— containing a bioengineered hybrid virus. Now, John is fighting for his life in the early stages of encephalitis, and it’s down to Sherlock and a team of scientists to save him, if they can only find him first. Sherlock needs to keep fear and guilt from getting the better of him if he’s to salvage his relationship with John—and that’s assuming the love of his life even survives….

Roommates are for little people (69055 words) by alexxphoenix42 Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: John was looking forward to seeing his friends back at uni, but a new year brings new complications, not the least of which is a dorm room with only one bed, and a stroppy roommate with an utterly spectacular arse. God, John doesn't need the headache.

Masters of Ink (67482 words) by Indybaggins Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: John has a triple-coiled tattoo machine in his hand and a row of inks at the ready. He has gloves on, a willing client in front of him, and a detailed stencil. He is ready to win this bloody competition. Except he’s competing against Sherlock Holmes... First-meeting-on-a-reality-show AU, Ink Master edition! There is expert tattooing, slightly less expert flirting, and two men falling hard. But John is married, and they can’t all win.

floating through a dark blue sky (58872 words) by Lediona Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: Of course, I’d seen his films and always thought he was, well, brilliant -- but, you know, a million miles from the world I live in. *** Or, when John is the owner of a travel book shop and the famous Sherlock Holmes stops in one day. [Notting Hill fusion]

The Wolf (55817 words) by Laur Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: Sherlock gets it wrong. Days, months, even years in the future, Sherlock’s oversight during the Baskerville case will continue to torment him, but nothing about that night will ever be as painfully vivid as the memory of John’s screams. This is how it begins.

Christmas Time After Time (41473 words) by PlaidAdder Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mary Morstan/John Watson, Clara/Harry Watson Summary: John's not really big on Christmas; and this year, the first after Mary's death, he's not feeling it. Everyone's away, Sherlock's on a case--alone--and Rosie's asleep. But that's all right. He's fine. He'll just have a quiet Christmas Eve by himself, drinking in front of the telly. Only out there in time and space, there's another Doctor who thinks that sounds like the saddest thing ever. And she's going to do something about it. Thirteen takes John on a whirlwind tour of Christmases past and future. The more he learns about this time travel thing, the more John starts to wonder: how did his current timeline become...what it is? And might these alternatives hold the key to a less miserable present, and maybe a brighter future?

Whiteout (37041 words) by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: A documentary crew follows the Matterhorn aerial rescue team from Air Zermatt, profiling the mechanics, pilots, and paramedics as they save patients on the infamous mountain. Their camera may catch more than they're looking for, however, when it comes to a certain paramedic named John Watson. . .

The Winter Garden (31211 words) by Callie4180 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: As Sherlock nears the end of his career, he's given the gift of a cottage in Sussex. The honey from the beehives out back is amazing. Almost...magical.

A Home for Us (30583 words) by sussexbound Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: He has been on the road for two years, and he is exhausted. He’s almost accepted that he will never see London (John) again—almost. But then there are nights like tonight, where he is weak, and all he can think of is the warmth of the flat they once shared, the crackle of the fire in the hearth, the teasing smile playing at the corner of John’s lips, the boxes of half-eaten Chinese takeaway balanced precariously in their laps. He aches at the memory of it, at the realisation that it is something he may never experience again.

Another Auld Lang Syne (30234 words) by DiscordantWords Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: There had been years of missed chances.

A Singular Friendship (28679 words) by agirlsname Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: Sherlock is closer to John than anyone has ever been. It's almost like a relationship - but John isn't gay, so it's clearly not. Not even when they hold hands and hug every day, not even when they sleep in the same bed, not even when they cuddle every morning...

Stradivarius (20298 words) by Berty Rating: Explicit Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: Life goes back to what passes for normal at 221B Baker Street. Sherlock's back and his scars have faded. John's still a confirmed bachelor and his nightmares have mostly ceased. So why are there awkward pauses and uncertain glances? Why are they both on their best behaviour? It's been a long, cold winter in London and there's more to come before spring arrives.

One Good Scare (17381 words) by blueink3 Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: Mummy invites Sherlock, John, and Rosie to the country for her birthday, which just so happens to coincide with the annual Harvest Festival, an event Sherlock loathes. With John seemingly making the wrong move at every turn and with ghosts hiding in each of their closets, what will it take for their (Halloween) masks to finally come off?

Oh, my friends, it's been a long hard year (11914 words) by splix Rating: Mature Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade, Mr. Chatterjee/Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes' Father/Mummy (Sherlock) Summary: Christmas is rubbish this year.

#rec list #best

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farvn · 5 years ago

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Interview with novajam of Studio NoGood

With the upcoming Visual Novel “Nekodeito” which is about a catgirl living with you, I am glad that novajam of NoGood has taken the time to answer some questions for both NoGood and Nekodeito!

1. When did you start Studio NoGood and what was your motivation to do so? “ It was late 2018 when I started fronting publicly as NoGooD. I'd been writing scripts for VNs as early as September that year, a lot of which got trashed or shelved but it was December before I registered a domain or anything like that. The motivation was to keep my VN game development activity under a separate banner from my online handle, but I integrated my handle into the company name so I don't know how well that worked. Ahaha”

2. As an indie studio, what are your top priorities for both your games and your fans? “ I think quality is the first priority for both. Fans want good games and good stories so straight away it's in my interest to set the bar high. The very close second is communication though. Independent projects will live or die by the goodwill they can cultivate with an audience and I feel I've been very blessed to have such good reception already. It's a sort of symbiotic relationship. Provide what the fans want, what they're looking for, and they'll support you in return.”

3. Is Nekodeito your first game? “Yes. No!! Oh god haha no actually! I made a very budget looking version of Geometry Wars in University with Gamemaker ahaha. That's probably everyone's first game project, some kind of twin stick shooter or platformer. Before that I'd played with mod tools for other games, The Elder Scrolls Construction Set and such if you'd count that.” Sure, that does help in devwork so why not. Any other games I should know about? “I just remembered making this platforming engine in Gamemaker Studio 2. It might look okay here but it was very buggy and the project it was intended for quickly became overwhelming so that's abandoned now.”

4. Who came up with the look/ personality of Nekodeito's Machiko? “ I came up with the look, and most of the personality but other experts in the field of catgirl engineering were consulted though, mainly my friend TMMTO. Parts of the personality changed over time and little traits here and there have been crowdsourced here and there from fans. I made this collage and sent it to my character artist, critterpunk, as a reference when she was doing character and outfit designs for me.

It think it stayed mostly intact. The sizes are off and I think I made her a more responsible big sister type character than a lazy one in the end.” I can see her big melons stayed intact! “Big tunas” Speaking of big tunas! For Nekodeito, would there be any features like headpats, tail fluffing, tickling, etc? “Of course of course! Nekodeito has a sort of dating sim style system where you pick what order to progress through story segments, and in between segments her sprite is interactive. I hope people will enjoy booping her on the nose.”

6. As Nekodeito is developing over time, what is the hardest obstacle you have encountered? “Distraction. It's very easy to get sidetracked on Youtube or Twitter which is very annoying, but games too have been a problem. My productivity improved a lot once I slowed playing mobile games so much.”

7. Did you have any inspirations that helped you make Nekodeito? “Ha, dumbly enough, mobile games. Well you know about this, but for people who don't really play them, when you log in to Girls Frontline or Azur Lane or something you have a secretary character that greets you. I set mine in Girls Frontline to Mk23 and the greeting pulled my heartstrings a little. I really like the idea of being able to come home to someone who's happy to see you no matter what, so that's what the game is about. That kind of romance is what I want for the game, one that's very cozy.”

8. When did your love of catgirls start? “Oh jeez. I don't think I have an exact date. But who really is incapable of loving catgirls? Spice and Wolf probably played a formative role, even though that's not about a catgirl.” I don’t blame you, floofy girls all the way!

9. As a developer what goes through your mind for when you release it? Do you have any concerns? “Will people like the game? Will people even find it and engage with it? Will it be able to recoup it's costs? Will I even be able to make another after this Will there be some kind of problem with the software I'm incapable of fixing? Will I be able to deliver all I've promised in the first place? There are many worries. On the other side of that there's a good fanbase already and a fair amount of risk is already mitigated but the worries are always there nonetheless.”

10. Which types of Nekodeito merch are planned? “Hell yeah! Alright so, we have a voice actress for Machiko, and we're going to go to crowdfunding to try and get the game fully voice acted by them. Merch rewards will be sticker packs and keychains, we're trying to get some of those "ergonomic" mousepads made too. We're seeing if you can get your own TUNA shirt too, just like Machi wears in game. Digitally, you'll be able to get an art and commentary book and the original soundtrack for the game.”

All them goodies! Let’s say the crowdfund went too well, like ultra succeeded, would you consider a limited edition figure of Machiko? “If I did that I think it would probably be an extremely limited run, and probably like a trading figure or nendo sized thing rather than a 1/7 scale, but hell yeah I'd love a little Machi fig on my desk! More realistically if crowdfunding exceeded expectations then we just expand the game, offer a free DLC down the line of an after-story or add extra CGs and scenes to the base game.” DA CATGIRL FAMILY! “Oh god I gave Machiko ten sisters. That's so many sprites to get done...”

11. To your current fans and future ones, what would you like to say to them in prep for Nekodeito? “Thank you all for your support, for telling all your own friends and groups about it and spreading the word. Thank you for all the fan art and nice messages, and most of all thank you for your patience and thank you for appreciating cute Machiko! I hope to have a demo ready in June for the public to try, so please hold on a bit more.”

Would you like to add anything else? “Additional thanks to everyone who's worked with me to create Nekodeito, all the artists (chlorophill, Rialyn KV, critterpunk, ds sans, Cheschorv) my editor (Cipher), my composer (Igneus) voice director (Sandra MJ) and soon to be debuting voice actress, Wolf and Alch at Team Watercress for lots of help starting out, reps from Degica for assistance with the engine (andre and Archeia). So many people! NoGooD is officially just a one-man show, but without all these people I'd have nothing to put my game together with. This is turning into the credits section!”

A big thank you to novajam for taking the time to answer my questions! I really appreciate the game’s progress and I hope to see more!

NoGood Twitter: https://twitter.com/StudioNoGooD NoGood site: https://www.nogood.games/games.html Nekodeito itch.io: https://studionogood.itch.io/nekodeito Nekodeito Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072790/Nekodeito/

Novajam [NoGood, Nekodeito] Interview May 29, 2019 Far2close - Visual Novel Playthroughs https://www.youtube.com/c/Far2close https://twitter.com/xFar2closex https://www.facebook.com/Far2close/

#nekodeito #visual novel #anime catgirl #dating sim #NoGood #Far2close Interviews

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blackheartbrightlove · 3 years ago

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Wiki Targeted (Games)

02:05

There are various Silent Hill projects, including comics and games, that were cancelled by Konami or evolved into other projects.

Silent Hill (Com.X graphic novel)

Advertisement in a European product catalogue.Initially planned for release in November 1999 from publisher Com.X, a 70-page original graphic novel adaptation of the original game (ISBN:978-1903286005) was written by Jon Murphy and penciled by Neil Googe.[1] Com.X founder Eddie Deighton explained in 2008:

Neil originally came for an interview as a designer at the design agency Russell and myself ran, but as soon as we saw in his portfolio that Neil had trained as a comic artist and had worked on 2000AD, we ended up talking for about 4 hours about comics and the industry in general. By the time we finished, we felt that Neil's talent would have gone to waste if we'd taken him on as a designer, so we decided instead to propose to our client, Konami, that we should work with Neil on a graphic novel for the computer game Silent Hill. They felt it would be a cool thing to do, so Neil came on board and we began developing the project. Very quickly, we found that we all got on really well and by about the third week of working together, we felt we had a lot to contribute to the comic industry in terms of enthusiasm and creativity.

[2]

Googe was assigned six months to finished the full colour art for the graphic novel. Although it was completed and an advertisement was featured in a European catalogue, the adaptation was never released by Konami. He took an experimental approach to the comic layout, but because of his inexperience and lack of planning at the time, felt that not everything he tried worked.[3] In May 2021, he explained in an email that the comic had been lost over time and alledged that (to the best of his memory) it was cancelled due to inter-company politics:

Sadly that particular project has suffered the problem of so much older digital work. Stored on CDs and those CDs being lost over the years.

The project was indeed finished. As for why it was never released... It was a long time ago now, but I will outline the basics of what I remember. Konami, as a company is broken down in to regional companies. We were commissioned by Konami europe (I believe) to produce the comic as promotional material for silent hill 2. It was going to be published separately and in a special edition of the game. Konami japan also wanted to use the comic. Konami europe, who had paid for the project, wanted some sort of payment for that use, from konami Japan. Konami Japan refused to pay any kind of fee. So Konami Europe said they couldn't use it. At which point Konami Japan, who technically own all copyrights on silent hill, then blocked europe from releasing the book under usage rights, not geting proper permission, etc. etc. And so... it was shelved.

Now as I say, this is just my understanding of what happened from what I remember of a 20 year old project. I wasn't involved in any of those discussions or politics... I was just a guy hired to do a book.

[4][5]

Silent Hill 3 (Scrapped) and Silent Hill 5

Despite its daylight setting, Silent Hill 5 would have had the darkest tone in the series, going back to the psychological roots of the second game.The original plans for Silent Hill 3 were much different than what was released. The story would have continued the "inner fears" concept used for James Sunderland, Angela Orosco, and Eddie Dombrowski in Silent Hill 2. However, Konami was not pleased with the slow sales of Silent Hill 2 and pushed Team Silent to turn the game into a more commercial arcade-style rail shooter spin-off (not to be confused with the later-released Silent Hill: The Arcade). This plan was rejected by the team, but the process wasted much of the budget and development time for Silent Hill 3.[6][7][8][9]Silent Hill 2 was also criticised on the internet at the time for not focusing on Alessa Gillespie and not having the same art style, characters, and creatures as the first game.[10][11] As a result, Team Silent did not immediately move forward with their original Silent Hill 3 plans, instead opting to conclude the Alessa story from the original Silent Hill and tie up loose ends to appease fans. Not every Team Silent member agreed with this decision, though Akihiro Imamura stated that they also did not want to use a similar template for two games in a row.[12]

Masashi Tsuboyama stated in 2004 that development had begun on Silent Hill 5, but denied rumours that the game would be titled "Shadows".[13] After the release of Silent Hill 4: The Room, Team Silent began re-purposing their Silent Hill 3 plans for Silent Hill 5. Because of the underwhelming response to Silent Hill 4, Imamura wanted a strong fifth installment. The game would not follow the same gameplay style as Silent Hill 4 and would have had less melee combat and a more dramatic Otherworld that takes advantage of PlayStation 3 generation consoles. The plot of Silent Hill 5 (and previously Silent Hill 3) would have focused on a damaged human being summoned to Silent Hill, Maine for a very specific reason, described by Akira Yamaoka as "the darkest story we have come up with". Imamura speculated that some things would have to be cut to get passed the ratings system.[12]

In contrast to the previous games in the series, Silent Hill 5 would have started off in Silent Hill as an everyday town with people going about their daily lives, which would slowly rot away as the game progresses. Taking inspiration from Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Jacob's Ladder, the game would have innovated the series with a brand new concept for daylight horror through a creepy sunny Otherworld, playing with the idea of how light interacts with darkness (rather than focusing on horror obscured by fog and shadows). It would have gone back to Silent Hill 2's psychological roots.[12][14][15][16][17][18]

#silent hill 5

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fridge-reviews · 6 years ago

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Mirror's Edge: Catalyst

Developer: EA DICE Publisher: Electronic Arts Rrp: £9.99 (Origin) or £3.99 a month / £19.99 a year (Origin Access) Released: 9th June 2016 Available on: Origin Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard Approximate game length: 12 Hours In the city known as Glass corporations control everything, by all accounts these corporations rule the entire world. Every movement of the populace is monitored, analysed and stored for future use and the general populace pay no attention. At one time people did care and attempted to stand up for their rights but they were beat down and broken. What remains of those dissidents lives on in the form of the Runners. Runners carry the information and items for people who want to don't wish to be monitored or traced, running across rooftops and through building sites in order to ensure that don't get caught. Of course not every run goes according to plan... Did that intro seem familiar? It should, because it's a rehash of the one I posted for my review of the original Mirror's Edge. You may be asking why I've brought attention to this, and the answer is that I wanted to reflect the game itself. For a while I was unsure of whether this game was a prequel or a reboot. I knew it couldn't be a sequel because had EA confirmed that before the game came out. Based on a few story elements that are different (ie some of the new characters that exist and some that are absent entirely along with one being confirmed dead where in the first game they aren't) my best guess was to call this release a reboot.

As it was in the previous game Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a First Person Platformer set in a semi open world. You, the player, take on the role of Faith, who has recently been released from juvenile hall. Notice that I said that the world you run around in is 'semi open' this is because most of the map becomes accessible to you as you progress through the games story. So far so standard for most open world games I know. However the areas of this world are quite small making the whole game feel quite crowded and that's before you start thinking about all the content that tends to fill up these kinds of games, but we'll talk on that in a moment. Of course, any game with an open world needs to have a map system of some kind, especially one such as this. Well Mirror's Edge Catalyst has got you covered there, not only do you have a map, you have a map you can rotate and angle. You have no idea how often I would accept a mission and then immediately look at the map to try and figure out my best route. This might actually be my favorite in-game map I've seen so far, which is not a thing I ever thought I would say. Annoyingly the backstory for why Faith ended up in Juvenile Hall (where you start the game) was put into a separate comic. Since I run a comic book store, as I have mentioned a few times, I got the chance to read this under the guise of 'research'. However many people don't know that the comic exists and will end up wondering why we just start in Juvenile Hall. Basically, I just think that separating a fairly important portion of the story to the game was a cheap cash-grab from EA.

The default controls for the mouse and keyboard have the middle mouse button (or mouse wheel) as the light attack. I found that quite confusing at first, wondering why they didn't assign that to the left mouse button. However as the game progressed I discovered that the left mouse button was set to be used for heavy attacks, which are used far more commonly once they've been unlocked. The melee combat system is more extensive than in the original Mirror's Edge adding in directional attacks and having the enemies you face adapt to your moves. One thing that is notable in its absence is the gunplay, which felt very out of place in the original Mirror's Edge, and that's a good thing. This isn't a First Person Shooter after all.

As you progress through the game complete missions and gather collectibles you'll gain experience points (Xp). Once enough Xp is earned you're given an upgrade point which can be spent to unlock additional skills in either combat, movement or gear. Missions come in few varieties, main storyline, side quests, deliveries (which have several variations in themselves) and time trials. Along with this the later game allows the ability to play user generated content as well as create your own.

As you run you build up a 'focus shield' that protects you from projectiles. This shield depletes quickly once you stop moving, go too slow or take damage. Unlike in the previous release you now have a visible, although not intrusive, health meter that sits besides your focus shield meter. The game has kept its unique aesthetic, which looks wonderful in the Frostbite 3 engine, and has even has a few areas that really change up the games colour palette.

So is this a game I recommend? Is it actually any better than its predecessor? Actually yes it is. The main storyline would probably last about eight to ten hours, however the side quests and optional missions make the game feel more substantial. It's just as enjoyable... nay, its better than its predecessor in nearly every way. If this appeals to you perhaps try; Vector Mirror's Edge Jet Set Radio

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seven-oomen · 4 years ago

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Lol, glad to be of service on the plot detail. Can not wait to find out precisely how I helped, and congrats on finishing the chapter. Very, VERY excited for the new one, though if previous experience is anything to go by, it’ll probably show up right about when I have to clock in. But that will give me something to look forward to during my shift. :D That game sounds awesome, but so intense. The other person I know paying it said she only made it about three hours before she had to pause for a while due to emotional overload. And I’m well used to that authorial tendency towards “sorry not sorry” when it comes to reader reactions. XD

Oh god, I love the idea of them as potentially competing players. Huge chunks of the unaffiliated/unaffected Houses would get caught up in the rumors and romance of it all. Chris in the stands getting all kinds of weird looks because he keeps rooting for both teams (uh…no pun intended?). And yeah, I like Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic for Chris. Oh god I can see all of them excelling at the dueling club. He and Noah take Muggle Studies and develop a minor fascination with muggle weaponry. Ooh, what would their Patronuses (Patroni?) be? Would Peter be a wolf Animagus instead of a werewolf given their representation in the books?

And I love all the kids reacting to new siblings. (Jackson will always be the baby, even when he’s not, lol.) Hmm, I can’t decide if I like the idea of going more fantasy or sci-fi for the nursery (Fables sounds amazing, though, and I feel I need to find some copies. But perhaps slightly dark for a nursery.) Part of me feels they could give it sort of Hobbit-y feel, with rolling hills and towering forests, but add woodland characters in from lots of other series, too, scattered throughout the trees (and Ents, and Groots). Maybe a fake tree in one corner with one or two of those hanging chair things. But part of me just keeps screaming “OMG OUTER SPACE!!!" She could paint galaxies and nebulas across one wall. They could put glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, and have a mobile of Star Wars ships over one crib and one of Star Trek ships over the other. Gah, I can’t decide! And Malia (or Peter) would totally need to make them each one of these wolf lovey blankets. In the correct colors for Peter’s coat, possibly out of the yarn with his fur, so the scent could comfort them. I actually found a number of geeky hats, etc, that she could make for them (I may have gotten a bit carried away. Again. In my defense they’re adorable.) Now I’m also curious how the kids set up their own rooms in the new house. Also curious where Ben’s deductive skills might later lead him.

You are very welcome for that image. It is a lovely one isn’t it? And can you imagine some of the poses they’d do for photo ops (especially with how shameless Peter is?) I also think one of the kids would manage to convince them to go out into the Preserve in those costumes to get some nicely atmospheric shots for Malia’s blog. At least one of those ends up on one of the walls of the house (nursery if more fantasy themed, living room/den otherwise) I just wish I could have found better pics than Google was providing. I refuse to believe there are that few guys that do Red Riding Hood. I know I’ve seen it at cons before.

Ugh, I have SO MANY FEELINGS about slow dancing together, and singing to/with each other. Just. All the yes. Gimme. Which reminds me, I was listening to one of the Guardians Awesome Mixes the other day, and it occurred to me that "O-o-oh Child” would actually work fairly well for the playlist, or as a lullaby they sing to their kids (maybe a hand me down from another family member, sung together before everything went to shit, then separately as a tiny point of connection, they start using it again when the newer kids come along. Maybe they even catch one of the older kids singing it to one of the babies? Idk, I’m apparently having feels.)

Omg, yes, go to bed, lol! Sleep is helpful and useful, especially when sick. (I say, as though I’m not terrible about it as well.) Enjoy your day off, and the probable many hours of gaming it will entail.

This is the section I changed:

The condom breaking on Noah and Peter had been one hell of a spectacle between the three of them. After what happened with him they’d been on edge and actively trying to avoid another accident. Anu, however, had other plans for them and had caused another pregnancy scare. They could only hope that they wouldn’t have to face reality once again. When Peter had told him he had three heartbeats and his scent had changed, he’d freaked out beyond belief. Merlia had bought him a pregnancy test and Talia had offered to have a talk with his father when it came back positive. He’d declined. He really didn’t want to tell his father that he was currently pregnant. And if Peter and the wolves were to believed, with twins. His father would carve his babies out of his stomach before he allowed him to carry to term. A protective hand rested on his abdomen and he looked up to find Peter staring at him, smiling.

Originally I had written that Chris wasn’t worrying and that he didn’t know he was pregnant just yet. Thanks to our back and forth, I realized, wait a second that’s a really big plot hole and I need to fix that.

I think Malia not telling Stiles was a plot hole as well, but I didn’t catch it on time and it’s not glaring in this case. (I think, I hope.) Whoops.

I’ve finished the game by now and I am very torn on it. On the one hand, I was very emotional but it just got darker and darker as it progressed and we are forced to spend time with a character we don’t like. And the way they wrote that story just doesn’t work for me. Which is really sad because the first game was my favorite game ever. And my Joel cosplay was one of the first cosplays that let me be a dude. I realized I was trans and got comfortable with that fact through cosplay. And Dean Winchester and Joel were fundamental cosplays for this. (I’m also planning a really dope Peter Hale cosplay. I’m so excited. Lemme show you some pics of what I want to do with SFX)

So this game, it’s very intense for me and I couldn’t finish it because of its story. I watched the rest on Youtube and I agree with many that it’s not a bad story, it’s just not likable. And you’re not meant to like it, but when I play games I play them for the story and to know this story is so unlikable. It kinda kills me inside.

But it definitely drives me to write a really good likable story myself. Even if it gets dark, I want people to say yeah, ok. I get it. I understand why these characters did this. But I’m happy this ended well and my favorite characters got a happy ending together. That’s what I want Once upon a Time to mean.

"O-o-oh Child” would actually work fairly well for the playlist, or as a lullaby they sing to their kids (maybe a hand me down from another family member, sung together before everything went to shit, then separately as a tiny point of connection, they start using it again when the newer kids come along. Maybe they even catch one of the older kids singing it to one of the babies?

I loved this suggestion so much, I once again put it in the story. It’s gonna be sweet but also heart wrenching. I can’t wait to see your reaction.

And once again, I adore all of this. I just have a lot I wanna say, also in regards to your reviews and I’m trying to figure out what things I can talk about.

This story is rather full of men who are uncles, in fact. But not men who are from U.N.C.L.E., that's a different fandom entirely. Am I getting a bit slap happy? Quite possibly. Oh well.)

This had me hollering, thank you for that. I honestly don’t know what my uncle obsession is in this story. It just fits? But this was funny, my god.

"Please..." Melissa muttered. "Uncle Chris, you patented the kicked puppy look" Did you mean for that to be Derek?

Yeah, the lines were supposed to be :

"Please..." Melissa muttered.

"Uncle Chris, you patented the kicked puppy look"

I missed that one in the edit, but I fixed it! So there was a space that I missed. New line, new character saying something.

Had a moment of delayed reaction to noticing that Peter says "I've made these", not "I've had these made" (was too excited and reading too quickly the first time), and like, made as in carved himself?

I was wondering why that hadn’t come up yet, hahaha, but I see. And yeah, he carved it himself with his own claws. I thought that had a deeper meaning and that’s where the wood carving headcanon came from.

I think that’s everything that I can address right now. I’m definitely writing everything else down.

And I will definitely share a sweet little flashback today and find a good FC for John Hale. (Nathaniel, Talia, Merlia, and Peter’s dad.)

I’m thinking:

But if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know ^^

#ben says stuff #once upon a time comments #submission

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effloresceawe · 5 years ago

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Post 6. A Ludological analysis of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.

Introduction:

El Shaddai: ascension of the Metatron is a single player hack and slash game unlike any other. Its gameplay style is the classic third person hack slash location based game that follows a linear path. But it also has 2D platform and rail shooter elements.

Narrative.

The story of el Shaddai Is based on the dogmatic texts called “The Book of Enoch”.

It tells the story of Enoch, a human so righteous and kind that god gave him a place amongst the angels. Which was unprecedented. One day Enoch is working as a clerk in heavens great library, and is approached by Lucifel (who is obviously Lucifer before his fall, giving the player an idea of the timeline without having to specify it) with a request (not command, showing gods respect for Enoch), 7 angels have fled from heaven taking some of God’s knowledge with them and god asks Enoch to go get it and them back. Also God will grant Enoch immortality on earth to defeat the angels.

Enoch doesn’t even have to think about this, he immediately gets going.

This gives the player an idea of Enoch’s character from the very start. He is a true hero, he knows people are in troubles, asks no questions and acts immediately. Ibrave yes, but maybe also a bit stupid?

He takes a kind of celestial elevator down to earth. When he arrives he has to make a start as time moves differently in heaven than it does earth. So it’s been about 100 years since then angels fell, an in that time they have had a lot of time to hide themselves from even god’s gaze. They have also shared god’s knowledge with the humans and technology has disrupted the natural evolution of mankind.

Enoch searches for their whereabouts for a very long time as the angels have hidden themselves very well. The game goes into a sort of montage at this point letting the player control Enoch as he runs along the bottom of the screen. Telling the story of Enoch’s journey to find them over around 200 years in a very sort amount of time.

Enoch eventually finds a tower the angels have erected in behind a hidden veil, he then starts to ascend the tower, he is greeted at the very beginning of the tower by Beliel, the head angel, and is quickly trounced by him, this is a clear indicator of the angels vanity, belief in the own power and that they are still out of gods reach.

Enoch recover from the beating and continues up the tower through each of the fallen angels separate worlds, each reflecting their own desires for a life on earth, i.e. a nursery, a nightclub, a futuristic landscape that humans had created with the knowledge that the angels had stolen from god. Enoch then climbs the tower defeating angel after angel, every now and checking in with Lucifel and eventually meeting up with the child reincarnation of the Istar.

I will say this about the games narrative though, that it kind of just gives you the story expecting the player to know it already. It’s very broken and the miss a lot of back story, which they constantly reference. So the player doesn’t really know what is going on. What element of the backstory the player get given in the form of the freeman note, which come in poetically vague verse that the player must decipher, thus, not really giving a back story at all.

The narrative is an age old hero’s journey trope, he given a quest by an unseen entity, given incredibly powers by this unseen force and then must do whatever he has be asked of, much to his own detriment.

Information:

The player is given all the information at the beginning of the game, In a 4th wall breaking tutorial. A tutorial that treats itself AS a tutorial.

I narrative information through the game is provided exclusively via characters and collectables.

The environment itself give the plater information too. The linear paths tell the player where to go with no deviation.

There’s definitly a lore component to the narrative, but its comes across more thought dialogue, which comes mostly from lucifer, home oddly enough act’s as sort of a virgirl to you dante in this game.

Components:

All in all, el Shaddai has very little components. There is one playable character, a variety of enemies and collectables. That is all.

The game is an exercise in design by subtraction. In the attempt to make something pure. Fitting being that it’s a game about angels. Nice little aesthetic tie in there, honestly the whole game is a masterpiece of theme, using an concept as ethereal as “grace” and then building a game around it. Where every component of the machine feeds back into the spirit of the thing. Inspired is what it is. Truly breath-taking design.

Collectables:

Red orbs = Fill up “hyper mode”

Hearts = health (Obviously)

Freemen notes = Notes of the corpses of the freemen resistance group, telling the story of the fall of Istar

Istar shards = Shards of Istar’s armour littered throughout gameplay, Unlocks a “invincible armour” on next play through.

Weapons = Arch, veil, and gale. (Sword, shield and gun)

Ruleset:

The games ruleset I also incredibly simple. Gameplay is 80% combat and 20% platforming. So it’s safe to say that the core gameplay aspect is combat.

All aspects of the combat can be boiled to a basic rock, paper, and scissor formula.

Enemies and bosses follow have three styles of combat based on the weapon the have (in the enemies case) or what type of attacks they use (in the bosses case), The weapons create the ruleset, and players ability is the what affects the outcome.

Enemies/weapon outline:

Knight/Arch (sword): quick and agile, weak to gale as sword is to gun. Strong against shield, as it is quick and able to “get round” the shields defences.

Archer/gale (projectile): swift, graceful and with over powered tidal wave like attacks that simply over power a player equipped with an arch. Weak against veil.

Tanks/veil (Shield/gauntlet fists): slow, but incredibly powerful, three hit kill enemy. Strong against projectiles as its shield can deflect the projectiles and get in close to enemy and overpower. Weak against archs as they are too fast for them.

Enoch cannot die either. Given the power of immortality by god. The player can press the back two buttons in a rhythmic pattern to revive Enoch in battle, but if you are unable to do this in time, Enoch will miraculously turn up at the beginning of the area in which he died in.

The basic, stripped down, main goal rule of el Shaddai is simply: fight your way to the top of the tower.

Goal hierarchy:

El Shaddai goals system is a purely narrative driven as opposed to a token/point/prize/score goal system game mechanic.

As I said before the main goal of el Shaddai is to get to the top of the tower and kill the angels. There are no other goals. The player can collect collectables along the way, but there is basically no deviation from the narrative.

You are given a quest from god and you do what he asks of you. But as the game progress the narrative changes from just simply kill the angels to something more empathic as the narrative develops.

Interface:

The interface is minimal to the point of non-existent. There is no HUD, so no health bar, score or gauge indicating “hyper mode”. The player can only tell the characters health by the amount of armour that hasn’t been beaten off him and by the edge of the screen becoming red and cracked.

This is an emersion tool. Making the games seem more like a movie than a game.

It is worth mentioning that if you play through the game again, after the first time, you are given an option to have a HUD display. Showing health, HYPER bar and even a score. The reason for this seems more like humour than placating a certain type of player.

It also indicates that on the first play that the director did this so you would play it the way he intended it to be played, as a work of art.

It also goes along with the games sort of self-referential surreal humour that japan is famous for.

Players:

There is only one player. The player moves the character through levels fighting enemies as they come to the top of the tower.

The player’s motivation at the beginning of the game is simple, because Lucifel and the archangels have told Enoch (or rather the player) what his motivation is. Stop the angels from messing up earth. The player’s motivation changes due to the narrative changes. Basically, as other characters are introduced the game/players motivation elements become more varied.

Game mechanics:

In regards to game mechanics, el Shaddai is unusual compared to other hack and slash games. In which there would normally be a light attack and heavy attack. El Shaddai gives the player very little controls, you can block, steal/purify, jump and attack.

It’s the player ability to time button presses that affects the outcome of combat. Mere button bashing in el Shaddai will not do. The player must be graceful as an angel in his button combos.

In combat the player cannot “lock on” to enemies. But rather is controlled by the player pointing the character in the direction of the enemy and then the character will lock on automatically.

As I said before the combat mechanic is a rock, paper, and scissor formula.

If Enoch has no weapon equipped he can beat an enemy with his bare hands till the enemy is stunned, and then can proceed to steal said enemies weapon. You will need to do this during battle, but fortunately in every battle there will be enemies with corresponding weapons that the player can steal. Weapons of enemies are “impure” and must be purified by Enoch, the weapons also get impure as you use them on enemies. The less pure the weapon is the less damage it can do and the more likely it is to shatter.

Environments:

In regards to environment compared to other hack and slash games, el Shaddai is unique. Theme and boss architypes are directly connected to the environment. The look and style of each level is related to the currently chapters “Boss”, Thus making the environment and narrative basically two sides of the same coin, telling the story through environment.

Each environment that the players finds himself is also incredibly beautiful, Using perspective, screen filters and illusion to create unique style.

Theme:

The theme of el Shaddai is evident. The whole game is dripping in dogmatic Christian myth. There’s a weird extra layer to it though, Its almost like a romanisation of the thing, maybe because Christianity is so prevalent here in the west, whereas compare to Japan, Christianity is treated more like a mythology.

A game so steeped in angels mean its very gameplay is graceful. The gameplay mirrors the theme and vice versa. The story theme is simple also, it’s about doing the right thing even if it’ll kills you, and from the antagonist point of view, it’s also about free will. (As it always is with angels).

The game also has a lot of humour, it’s fairly self-referential in the special kind of surrealism that only japan does, there are lots of moments when the game is very self-aware.

Personal Opinion:

It’s is an absolute shame that El Shaddai remains a relatively hidden gem. It’s a absolute work of art. The voice acting is amazing- It’s just so raw and perfectly realistically delivered. The art style is unlike anything ever, It’s like a journey through different eras of art at some points. The gameplay is akin to games like Neir Automator (even thought it was its predecessor), in so much like Nier Automator it absolutely defies genreization. It’s not one thing, its many, all working together in perfect harmony. It’s not trying to fit to many opposing and messy ideas into one thing, to be gorged on like an all you can eat buffet. It’s a journey instead. Taking the player on one hell of a ride.

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theadmiringbog · 5 years ago

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*wakes up and looks at phone* ah let’s see what fresh horrors await me on the fresh horrors device

–@MISSOKISTIC IN A TWEET ON NOVEMBER 10, 2016

A more recent project that acts in a similar spirit is Scott Polach’s Applause Encouraged, which happened at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego in 2015. On a cliff overlooking the sea, forty-five minutes before the sunset, a greeter checked guests in to an area of foldout seats formally cordoned off with red rope. They were ushered to their seats and reminded not to take photos. They watched the sunset, and when it finished, they applauded. Refreshments were served afterward.

—

Bird-watching is the opposite of looking something up online.

They write: If you can have your time and work and live and be a person, then the question you’re faced with every day isn’t, Do I really have to go to work today? but, How do I contribute to this thing called life? What can I do today to benefit my family, my company, myself?

To me, “company” doesn’t belong in that sentence. Even if you love your job! Unless there’s something specifically about you or your job that requires it, there is nothing to be admired about being constantly connected, constantly potentially productive the second you open your eyes in the morning—and in my opinion, no one should accept this, not now, not ever.

Audre Lorde meant it in the 1980s, when she said that “[c]aring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

As Gabrielle Moss, author of Glop: Nontoxic, Expensive Ideas That Will Make You Look Ridiculous and Feel Pretentious (a book parodying goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s high-priced wellness empire), put it: self-care “is poised to be wrenched away from activists and turned into an excuse to buy an expensive bath oil.”

Thinking about sensitivity reminds me of a monthlong artist residency I once attended with two other artists in an extremely remote location in the Sierra Nevada. There wasn’t much to do at night, so one of the artists and I would sometimes sit on the roof and watch the sunset. She was Catholic and from the Midwest; I’m sort of the quintessential California atheist. I have really fond memories of the languid, meandering conversations we had up there about science and religion. And what strikes me is that neither of us ever convinced the other—that wasn’t the point—but we listened to each other, and we did each come away different, with a more nuanced understanding of the other person’s position.

The life force is concerned with cyclicality, care, and regeneration; the death force sounds to me a lot like “disrupt.” Obviously, some amount of both is necessary, but one is routinely valorized, not to mention masculinized, while the other goes unrecognized because it has no part in “progress.”

Certain people would like to use technology to live longer, or forever. Ironically, this desire perfectly illustrates the death drive at play in the “Manifesto of Maintenance Art” (“separation, individuality, Avant-Garde par excellence; to follow one’s own path—do your own thing; dynamic change”)30. To such people I humbly propose a far more parsimonious way to live forever: to exit the trajectory of productive time, so that a single moment might open almost to infinity. As John Muir once said, “Longest is the life that contains the largest amount of time-effacing enjoyment.”

Poswolsky writes of their initial discovery: “I think we also found the answer to the universe, which was, quite simply: just spend more time with your friends.”

... he said, with an epiphany he had while accompanying a fellow clergyman on a trip to Louisville:

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness.

My most-liked Facebook post of all time was an anti-Trump screed. In my opinion, this kind of hyper-accelerated expression on social media is not exactly helpful (not to mention the huge amount of value it produces for Facebook). It’s not a form of communication driven by reflection and reason, but rather a reaction driven by fear and anger.

Obviously these feelings are warranted, but their expression on social media so often feels like firecrackers setting off other firecrackers in a very small room that soon gets filled with smoke.

Our aimless and desperate expressions on these platforms don’t do much for us, but they are hugely lucrative for advertisers and social media companies, since what drives the machine is not the content of information but the rate of engagement. Meanwhile, media companies continue churning out deliberately incendiary takes, and we’re so quickly outraged by their headlines that we can’t even consider the option of not reading and sharing them.

To stand apart is to take the view of the outsider without leaving, always oriented toward what it is you would have left. It means not fleeing your enemy, but knowing your enemy, which turns out not to be the world—contemptus mundi—but the channels through which you encounter it day to day. It also means giving yourself the critical break that media cycles and narratives will not, allowing yourself to believe in another world while living in this one.

Standing apart represents the moment in which the desperate desire to leave (forever!) matures into a commitment to live in permanent refusal, where one already is, and to meet others in the common space of that refusal. This kind of resistance still manifests as participating, but participating in the “wrong way”: a way that undermines the authority of the hegemonic game and creates possibilities outside of it.

A crowded sidewalk is a good example: everyone is expected to continue moving forward. Tom Green poked at this convention when he performed “the Dead Guy,” on his Canadian public access TV show in the 1990s. Slowing his walk to a halt, he carefully lowered himself to the ground and lay facedown and stick-straight for an uncomfortable period of time. After quite a crowd had amassed, he got up, looked around, and nonchalantly walked away.

So to a question like “Will you or will you not participate as asked?” Diogenes would have answered something else entirely: “I will participate, but not as asked,” or, “I will stay, but I will be your gadfly.” This answer (or non-answer) is something I think of as producing what I’ll call a “third space”—an almost magical exit to another frame of reference. For someone who cannot otherwise live with the terms of her society, the third space can provide an important if unexpected harbor.

Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” Bartleby, the clerk famous for repeating the phrase, “I would prefer not to,” uses a linguistic strategy to invalidate the requests of his boss. Not only does he not comply; he refuses the terms of the question itself.

Facebook abstention, like telling someone you grew up in a house with no TV, can all too easily appear to be taste or class related.

We need to be able to think across different time scales when the mediascape would have us think in twenty-four-hour (or shorter) cycles, to pause for consideration when clickbait would have us click, to risk unpopularity by searching for context when our Facebook feed is an outpouring of unchecked outrage and scapegoating, to closely study the ways that media and advertising play upon our emotions, to understand the algorithmic versions of ourselves that such forces have learned to manipulate, and to know when we are being guilted, threatened, and gaslighted into reactions that come not from will and reflection but from fear and anxiety.

“In short, when the inattention stimulus falls outside the area to which attention is paid, it is much less likely to capture attention and be seen,” the researchers write. That’s intuitive enough, but it gets more complicated. If the briefly flashing stimulus was outside the area of visual attention, but was something distinct like a smiley face or the person’s name, the subject would notice it after all.

As an artist interested in using art to influence and widen attention, I couldn’t help extrapolating the implications from visual attention to attention at large.

In a post about ad blockers on the University of Oxford’s “Practical Ethics” blog, the technology ethicist James Williams (of Time Well Spent) lays out the stakes: We experience the externalities of the attention economy in little drips, so we tend to describe them with words of mild bemusement like “annoying” or “distracting.” But this is a grave misreading of their nature. In the short term, distractions can keep us from doing the things we want to do. In the longer term, however, they can accumulate and keep us from living the lives we want to live, or, even worse, undermine our capacities for reflection and self-regulation, making it harder, in the words of Harry Frankfurt, to “want what we want to want.” Thus there are deep ethical implications lurking here for freedom, wellbeing, and even the integrity of the self.

In an effort to make the user aware of persuasive design, Nudget used overlays to call out and describe several of the persuasive design elements in the Facebook interface as the user encountered them. But the thesis is also useful simply as a catalog of the many forms of persuasive design—the kinds that behavioral scientists have been studying in advertising since the mid-twentieth century.

Vivrekar lists the strategies identified by researchers Marwell and Schmitt in 1967: “reward, punishment, positive expertise, negative expertise, liking/ingratiation, gifting/pre-giving, debt, aversive stimulation, moral appeal, positive self-feeling, negative self-feeling, positive altercasting, negative altercasting, positive esteem of others, and negative esteem of others.”

Vivrekar herself has study participants identify instances of persuasive design on the LinkedIn site and compiles a staggering list of 171 persuasive design techniques.

“knowing your enemy” when it comes to the attention economy. For example, one could draw parallels between the Nudget system, which teaches users to see the ways in which they are being persuaded, and the Prejudice Lab, which shows participants how bias guides their behavior.

Or that the woman in front of you in line who just screamed at you is maybe not usually like this; maybe she’s going through a rough time. Whether this is actually true isn’t the point. Just considering the possibility makes room for the lived realities of other people, whose depths are the same as your own. This is a marked departure from the self-centered “default setting,”

Last week, after a meeting, I took the F streetcar from Civic Center to the Ferry Building in San Francisco. It’s a notoriously slow, crowded, and halting route, especially in the middle of the day. This pace, added to my window seat, gave me a chance to look at the many faces of the people on Market Street with the same alienation as the slow scroll of Hockney’s Yorkshire Landscapes. Once I accepted the fact that each face I looked at (and I tried to look at each of them) was associated with an entire life—of birth, of childhood, of dreams and disappointments, of a universe of anxieties, hopes, grudges, and regrets totally distinct from mine—this slow scene became almost impossibly absorbing. As Hockney said: “There’s a lot to look at.” Even though I’ve lived in a city most of my adult life, in that moment I was floored by the density of life experience folded into a single city street.

When the language of advertising and personal branding enjoins you to “be yourself,” what it really means is “be more yourself,” where “yourself” is a consistent and recognizable pattern of habits, desires, and drives that can be more easily advertised to and appropriated, like units of capital.

In fact, I don’t know what a personal brand is other than a reliable, unchanging pattern of snap judgments: “I like this” and “I don’t like this,” with little room for ambiguity or contradiction.

The fact that commenting on the weather is a cliché of small talk is actually a profound reminder of this, since the weather is one of the only things we each know any other person must pay attention to.

(“bland enough to offend no one”)

The professional social media star, a person reverse-engineered from a formula of what is most palatable to everyone all the time.

Everybody says that there is no censorship on the internet, or at least only in part. But that is not true. Online censorship is applied through the excess of banal content that distracts people from serious or collective issues.

Our interactions become data collected by a company, and engagement goals are driven by advertising.

Mastodon... They allow more granular control of one’s intended audience; when you post to Mastodon, you can have the content’s visibility restricted to a single person, your followers, or your instance—or it can be public.

... forming any idea requires a combination of privacy and sharing. But this restraint is difficult when it comes to commercial social media, whose persuasive design collapses context within our very thought processes themselves by assuming we should share our thoughts right now—indeed, that we have an obligation to form our thoughts in public!

A counterexample would be the sparse UX of Patchwork, a social networking platform that runs on Scuttlebutt. Scuttlebutt is a sort of global mesh network that can go without servers, ISPs, or even Internet connection (if you have a USB stick handy). It can do that because it relies on individual users’ computers as the servers, similar to local mesh networks, and because your “account” on a Scuttlebutt-powered social media platform is simply an encrypted block of data that you keep on your computer.

In #NeverAgain, David Hogg writes that “[a]nger will get you started but it won’t keep you going.”

Before long, the conference would be over, and I would have missed most of it. A lot of things would have happened there that are important and useful. For my part, I wouldn’t have much to show for my “time well spent”—no pithy lines to tweet, no new connections, no new followers. I might only tell one or two other people about my observations and the things I learned. Otherwise, I’d simply store them away, like seeds that might grow some other day if I’m lucky.

Seen from the point of view of forward-pressing, productive time, this behavior would appear delinquent. I’d look like a dropout. But from the point of view of the place, I’d look like someone who was finally paying it attention. And from the point of view of myself, the person actually experiencing my life, and to whom I will ultimately answer when I die—I would know that I spent that day on Earth.

“I would prefer not to.”

#How to Do Nothing #books

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t-oresama · 7 years ago

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“Everything, Everything” by Nicola Yoon

Synopsis: My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I'm allergic to the world. I don't leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean, and wearing all black-- black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. Maybe we can't predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It's almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Published: 2015 (Delacorte Press) Genre: Young Adult, Fiction Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Reader Review: This book has been on my radar for months. I first saw the cover of it on a normal day at work at the library. I adore this cover, by the way; it's illustrated by Nicola Yoon's husband, David Yoon, and it's vibrant and eye-catching and... everything (ha) that I would want a book cover to be. Anyway, soon after, I found out it was going to be a movie, which is also something that has been and still is on my radar. But before the movie, I wanted to be that person that I've been with similar books-turned-movie adaptations (such adaptations including "The Fault in Our Stars" and "My Sister's Keeper") and get to know the source material to better compare that to the movie. Turns out, as is the case with many books that people discover a recently-released movie originated from, there were many holds on many copies of this book. I was #14 on the list. Yet three days later, the book arrived and all but fell into my lap. Chalk it up to a working of the Library Network gods.

The story itself revolves around a sickly girl named Maddy, who is otherwise actually a healthy girl save for the fact that she has Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), a disease that prevents her from mingling with the outside world for fear of anything triggering the illness. She lives in a sterilized, air-locked house that she has not left since infancy with her single mother and (legitimate) nurse, Pauline; her father and brother were killed in a car crash around the time of Maddy's diagnosis. One day, neighbors move in across the street, including a boy Maddy's age, named Olly. Despite never leaving her house, the two manage to strike up a friendship that develops into more over time, as they face adversities that affect their everyday lives between Maddy's disease and Olly living with an alcoholic father. So, yes, even though I just said in the last review that romances aren't usually my bag, I fell as head over heels with this one as Olly does with Maddy. I would say "Whoops", but I can't really find myself feeling bad for reading another "not another teen romance" novel.

To start (well, aside from me starting off with needless praising of the book's mere cover), it's been quiet a while, possibly since "The Elephant Man" (review here), since I've read a book and it became all I thought about. Waiting for any spare moment of time to pick it up and continue on. Wondering, "And then what???" That was, of course, until this book. I literally could not put it down; I chipped away at it between work breaks and breakfast and afterwards dedicated my morning off to finishing it, taking a grand total of 8 hours for me to complete. The main reason for this is because, as was the case with "Eleanor & Park", I love when people can do a trope/cliche (the "teen love story" one, in this case), and do something to freshen it up and make it more than its stereotype. I was fascinated by the idea of a "limited love", especially for teenagers who get distracted by technology and hormones in the modern age (only a slight exaggeration, let's be real). A "limited love" where they have to go the extra mile in order to be with and communicate with that person, and where the conflict isn't just "one of them cheats"/"they get into a fight"/"they have to separate to go to different colleges", etc. Because, well, that's boring, especially when you're living it/have lived it. And it prompts the author to get creative while also keeping it realistic, something I feel Yoon did to a tee with the situation she created. So give me something with a twist-- in this case, a girl who could die if she even touches a non-decontaminated boy-- and I'm sold.

Speaking of creativity of the author-- and this may just be a case of me not having read enough YA novels from this decade-- but Yoon takes the creativity to the presentation as much as she does the subject matter. Her short chapters aren't just dialogue and paragraphs; sometimes they're pictures or journal entries "hand-written" by the narrator, Maddy, sometimes they're "realistic pictures" of things that propel the story forward, such as medical documents or plane tickets, and sometimes they're e-mails and instant message conversations. It adds that multi-media flare that encompasses new young love nowadays (boy, do I feel old for writing that), and shows the progression of Maddy and Olly's relationship, from a person Maddy wistfully watches from her window, to a crush and, eventually, to love. However, this does act as a double-edged sword. It forces the reader to read between the lines and interpret a deeper meaning from some of these e-mails and IMs. Text is so two-dimensional and without the interjections of the narrator’s thoughts and feelings as I've seen done in other books, some chapters are just completely IMs where we have to imagine how they're "saying" this, what they're feeling when they're "saying" this, how long between each message they paused or backspaced before continuing on. We have to assume it's what the story has set itself up to eventually be, but sometimes it could be taken in a few different contexts. Art imitating real life first-world problems.

There are four major players in this book: Maddy, Olly, Maddy's mother, Pauline and Maddy's nurse while her mom is at work, Carla. The relationship with Maddy and her mom is depicted as such a loving one, as her mom really is Maddy's best friend given her limited interaction with other people. And Maddy has that type of friendly relationship with Carla as well, having known her since she was 3 (she's 18 in the present day of this novel). However, rather than being shown as a lonely girl wanting friends and the beach and escape, she's shown as a girl who has for so long dealt with her disease and its limitations, she knows that hoping for more is not possible, and never lets herself. Instead, she absorbs herself in copious amounts of reading, her online studies, and special game nights with her mom. It's set up so that, when she meets Olly, not only does her heart open up in a way it never has, but so does her entire perspective on life. She wants more, dares to be a dreamer, because the world brought her Olly, and there's so much more the world could bring her if she goes for it. Her relationship with Olly is one that is new for both of them in different ways, and the pacing of their relationship is well done and believable, with no act being done too fast or too slow, and the only limitation (most of the time) being Maddy's illness. However, the way that her relationship with her mother is portrayed is one that can make your heart feel warmed more than some scenes with her and Olly. They are dependent on each other; they're all the other one has. And they have such genuine and tender mother-daughter moments, it made me want to go and play a board game with my own mom. I think this speaks to Maddy herself, as she doesn't have many people she can be around, so she cherishes each relationship with those in her very small circle, and it shows.

Now to the part where I answer the burning question of, "But if there's so much good about it, why is it only a 4.5?" Well, for one, I'm very selective and often skeptical of what a "perfect" book is. I can see by the source material why they wanted to make this a movie, in the same vein as the aforementioned "The Fault in Our Stars" (which also has that "dying girl love story" premise, now that I think about it...). It's different, dramatic yet still realistic and tugs at your heartstrings. But there are details omitted in this novel that I felt would have given me a better, fuller picture. One thing that bothered me was the lack of details pertaining to Maddy and Olly's families. There are a lot of details about Maddy's family already, but despite all of this, her father and brother are never given names, and her brother's age at his time of death is never specified. All that's said in regards to the latter is that Maddy was only a few months' old when the car crash that killed him and their father happened. But by making them nameless, they could be anyone. It's less personal and you don't feel the tugs of sympathy for the family that you should because these two are more just "there" than they are characters that serve the story as a whole. Olly's home life is the same. Maddy jots down the happenings of each family member from what she observes outside of her window, so we get to know bits about them by the bits Maddy knows. Olly's father-- also nameless-- does serve a greater purpose for the dynamic of the entire family, but we never get to know any of the other family members outside of their toxic relationships. And sometimes, Olly comes off as a very typical too-cool, rebel, loner kid, always wearing black and being really into parkour for no explained reason. And his e-mail name is "genericuser033," for crying out loud. While he does open up, and we do see both that he is more than his rebellious persona and that he also is that way for a reason, things like this just make me cringe a little. This is how teens can be though, so I'm probably nit-picking at this point. To continue nit-picking, one scene that left me confused due entirely to its lack of clarity is when-- semi-spoiler-- Maddy's mother does eventually find out about Olly, and Maddy indicates that it's because of a black rubber band she accidentally leaves on her nightstand that Olly likes to wear and fidget around with, but we're never given any explanation: Does her mom just know because it's something she's never seen before? Does she know because she's seen Olly wearing it? And what is the significance of that rubber band anyway? It's not a hair tie, as Olly is described to us as a boy with really short hair, so why did he give it to Maddy? And when? So many questions for a little rubber band but, really, it does make all the difference.

Some of this is, as I wrote, splitting hairs, but books are written to enjoy first and critique second. Not just authors, but all artists of all mediums pick and pick at the tiniest so-called imperfections in their work, but because of that, a lot of them know how to take constructive criticism. I can't help but feel like Yoon could be one of those authors. Especially for this being her debut novel (Having your first book be a movie? You have to admit that that's pretty amazing), I'm sure she herself could look back and pick parts she would want to change now with a couple more novels under her belt. In the end, "Everything, Everything" does give us everything (everything): romance, comedy, a healthy blend of serious and light-hearted moments, and drama. Especially drama. I won't spoil it for you, but the last fifty pages are probably the best part of the entire novel. There's a twist that caught me so off-guard and also answered my burning question of "How are they going to overcome this???" so brilliantly, I'm still reeling over it. It's so good, and is extremely poignant. It's one of those twists that makes you go back and reread certain earlier excerpts in a new light and just... I could go on. Instead, I'll use these last few lines to urge you, if you like YA, to read this book. I feel like it's the quintessential 2010s YA novel. It has a copious amount of multi-media insertions, while also giving nods to both modern and classic references. It tackles heavy issues. It's quirky and sometimes sarcastic. But overall it was such a lovely book to binge-read. If I didn't have a literal stack of books to read, I'd reread it and look for more details lost on me the first time reading. What I'll do now, with cautious optimism, is go and see the movie, and pray that whatever liberties taken for the movie aren't ones that make me disenchanted with this enchanting story.

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wendynerdwrites · 7 years ago

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Im glad that u also like archer. Ive been rewatching it (im on s2) and i feel guilty as a feminist for liking it so much :( i know a lot of the jokes are supposed to be ironic but i still feel bad for laughing, and my bf has made comments abt "how can u laugh at that as a feminist" (he isnt one, hes using it as a gotcha). How do u feel about this? Any advice for separating myself from toxic fandom to just be able to enjoy something problematic? Love ur blog btw happy friday 💋💋

Thanks, and don’t worry, anon: You’re not a bad feminist.

It’s funny you ask this, but I used to have an entire essay series on this exact topic, and on Archer, particularly!

My philosophy is: don’t ignore the problematic, examine it. Use it as a springboard for analysis so you can learn more about the issue conveyed. Use your problematic responsibly! Because, let’s be honest, there ARE no unproblematic pieces of media. So just use it to educate yourself instead. For instance: my love of West Side Story (starring Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican Maria) got me to learn more about the issues of white-washing.

Being a feminist is not about being perfect, it’s about learning and being open to examination and learning. Use your fandom for good!

Laughter is the balm for the soul. And listening to your boyfriend telling you how to be a feminist… less so. Kind of the opposite.

My old articles are lost, for the most part, but under the cut, I’ve pasted them for reference and included a great video on satire that also very easily applies to this discussion (just substitute feminism with the Holocaust)

Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)

Nothing and no one is perfect, so isnt it about time we learn how to call out the things we love?

We are all familiar with guilty pleasures: those things we like in spite of ourselves, that we are ashamed to admit we enjoy. Usually the term is applied to something we enjoy despite a perceived “lameness”, or because we’re not the right demographic for something. For instance, I still have a deep, abiding affection for Sailor Moon: that colorful, stock-footage-laced Japanese phenomenon that still gets me shouting “MOON PRISM POWER!” when I’m in the right mood. Yes, childhood is over, and yes, the show’s American dub did give me incest panic as a child, but I can’t help but love it.

But then there is the more difficult brand of guilty pleasures guilty pleasures that involve actual guilt instead of “mild embarrassment”. I’m talking about problematic faves the stuff that we love despite it containing clearly objectionable material.

willing18

(Image copyright Vertigo Comics)

…This is a panel from Bill Willingham’s Fables. The character there is Bigby Wolf, one of the main (anti) heroes of the story and the character the writer identifies with most. The person Bigby is waxing poetically on pro-Zionism to is someone literally called “The Adversary”.

Fables also happens to be one of my favorite comic book series on the planet.

Safe to say the issues surrounding Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East are a bit more complicated than that. And my own feelings on the matter are far more complicated. But this glorification of Israeli military policy is… um… in very tame terms… uncomfortable. After reading this, I resolved to only check Fables out of the library: a way for me to enjoy these comics in a legal way without financially supporting these ideas, however indirectly.

There are other problems with Fables: a lack of ethnic diversity, some murky racial and class commentary, and instances of some objectionable tropes, but there is a lot to recommend of these books as well. The stories are fantastic, the art brilliant, the characters well-fleshed out, and there is a definite progressive take on issues like gender and sexuality. But as much as I love this series, there is no getting around the fact that these stories have issues.

No excuses.

But it’s not just Fables that has disappointed me in the past. I am now and forever a Trekker, yet despite how horribly sexist episodes like “The Turnabout Intruder” are, or the very troubling anti-Semitic coding of the Ferengi. The Star Wars prequels famously had racist caricatures with the Trade Federation and the infamous Jar Jar Binks.

In the world of media, there’s no shortage of problematic content. From the novels of Robert Heinlein containing pro-fascist commentary, to HBO’s Game of Thrones misogynistic adaptation decisions, there’s nothing that is quite free of some messed up messages, subtle and blatant alike.

Now, when we talk about such media, we don’t merely mean triggering factors (i.e. the presentation, portrayal, or discussion of potentially traumatizing issues like domestic abuse, racism, hate crimes, substance abuse, or sexual assault), but rather how these matters are portrayed. A piece of media, such as Marvel and Netflix’s excellent Jessica Jones series, can portray certain issues (such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and mental illness) in a respectful, progressive, and sensitive light. Thus, while the content of the show can be triggering, the skill with which they portray these matters keeps it from being problematic.

In contrast, something like Game of Thrones, which portrays sexual assault in a thoroughly insensitive, exploitative, and misogynistic manner, is highly problematic.

Unfortunately, progress has been a slow-moving process, with many issues such as race, gender, sexual identity, mental illness, substance abuse, and violence only being examined in a more nuanced way fairly recently. As a result, almost all media is problematic in one way or another. Especially since even today, the majority of executives crafting, publishing, and greenlighting books, shows, comics, movies, and other forms of media are in fact cisgendered, heterosexual white men.

So what do we do?

Good news: here at Fandom Following, we don’t believe in dropping something you like just because it’s problematic. Why?

Because knowing, examining, and yes, even appreciating problematic content can be incredibly important. While certain content can be damaging, it can also teach us a great deal. Not only about current issues, but also about how to go about discussing these matters, and constructing narratives in general.

The racial issues in things like Star Wars and Star Trek can teach us much about how coding works, and how to avoid reinforcing stereotypes. The exploitation of women and rape on Game of Thrones can open up a dialogue of how to portray these things properly and improperly.

There are three tricks to enjoying problematic media: 1) Recognizing that there is an issue, 2) Being ready for a dialogue, and 3) Not ignoring or silencing the complaints about said issues.

Well, we here at Fandom Following have decided to tackle this issue head on with a series called “Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)”, where we will be exploring specific media franchises, creators, and works and, specifically, the problematic content they contain. In this series, we’ll be examining the issues, talking about why they’re important, discussing what this piece of media did wrong, how to approach the issue in a more progressive way, and the best ways to go about discussing the issue itself. Various writers will be contributing to this project, and we’re excited to present this feature to you!

So let’s get down and dirty, people. We all have our problematic faves. Let’s talk about them.

My Face is Problematic: Archer

Honestly, doing a post like this on Archer, a show which is deliberate in its dark humor, is a bit hard for me. Not because I like the show, but because I think there’s true validity in the argument that humor and narratives about really messed up, problematic stuff has its place. The show exists to be as outlandish and absurd as possible. The extremes and the awfulness of the characters’ personalities and their actions is the point.

I VUZ BORN IN DUSSELDORF AND THAT IS VY THEY CALL ME ROLF!

Joking about awful things, awful circumstances, and awful people is hardly new ground for comedy to cover, nor does it send a poor message, necessarily. Mel Brooks wrote a movie in which one of the characters was a Nazi, who wrote an overblown pro-Nazi musical produced by men deliberately trying to make a flop. Springtime For Hitler, as it exists in our universe, is not problematic. The Nazis are the butt of the joke, in which any pro-Nazi sentiment can only function if it is wildly fabricated and over-the-top, and even then, it will still be taken for satire. Because Nazis are utterly terrible, they built their movement on total bullshit that they dressed up in shiny boots and Hugo Boss uniforms and German exceptionalism and “glory”. This song-and-dance number about “Don’t be stupid, be a smartie, come and join the Nazi party” only ever deserves to be a joke, as the Jew who wrote it can tell you. Nazis fucking suck and it’s hilarious that anyone would ever suggest otherwise.

There’s justice in reducing Nazis to self-parody, and doubling down on that by making a joke about them being reduced to self-parody. Especially when said self-parody and depiction of it is crafted by the very people Hitler tried to destroy. No one enjoys or masters mocking Nazis like the Jews. Plain and simple.

Joking about awful things and how terrible they are can be a good way to process things and not allow them to hurt you anymore. Comedy, at its core, is a defense mechanism against horror and pain. There’s a reason slapstick is a classic subgenre of comedy that people have built entire careers around. Laugh at terror and pain to make it go away. Unfortunately, some of the things we manage to find humor in can really make you wonder if were all just terrible and have no limits.

Angela’s Ashes is a memoir by Frank McCourt about his impoverished, abusive, dangerous childhood in Ireland. In it, he chronicles his own starvation, life-threatening illness, abuse, and suffering at the hands of alcoholism and brutality from adult authority figures. He was a child laborer who went days without food while his father drank away the family’s money and abused the rest of the family, who often came down with horrifying illnesses as a result of the terrible conditions he lived in, and spent his formative years suffering along with all the people he loved. Three of his infant siblings die within the space of a chapter. We get a glimpse of the time when his father, overjoyed at the birth of his daughter, finds the will to stop drinking, stop mistreating his family, go to work, provide for his family, and just generally be a better person so that his children don’t have to suffer. For a short period, the McCourts have food, heat, and happiness. Then the baby promptly dies and Frank’s father is back in the pubs, once again squandering any pay he manages to acquire on alcohol and returning home at three am to scream at and beat his wife while his remaining children try to cover their ears and sleep on the cold ground.

Along with being praised for it being a both an unflinchingly brutal depiction of poverty and a testament to the triumph of the human spirit, the book is also praised for its humor.

Remember: Angela’s Ashes is a true story written by the very man who suffered through all of these horrible things. And it’s considered a pretty funny book. And the author who, once again, is the person who actually suffered all of these horrible things, actually did intentionally try to make people laugh as they read about that time he was in the hospital with Typhoid Fever and enjoyed it because it was the first time he’d been in a place where he was fed regularly and got to sleep in a warm bed.

Hilarious.

That being said, there’s satire and dark humor, and there’s just gratuitous, shock-jock bullshit. There are jokes that are terrible simply because of what they’re about and how they’re handled. George Carlin said that anything can be made funny, even rape, if you imagine Elmer Fudd raping Porky Pig.

If we can build entire films and musicals about how any pro-Hitler sentiment can only ever be taken as satire, isn’t that proof that you can joke about anything?

Yes, you can, but that doesn’t mean you should try, that the joke is funny, or that it’s alright, necessarily. Maybe Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and Springtime for Hitler prove that anything can be made funny and that’s okay. But if that’s true (and no, I’m not saying that it is), that still doesn’t mean every attempt at making something funny is either acceptable or funny.

Springtime for Hitler is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for any attempt to make a terrible subject the object of humor. Standards need to exist.

Unfortunately, the line between good or acceptable dark humor and simply gratuitous, insensitive, inherently problematic jokes can blur. The excuse of humor can only go so far. Yes, make light of Nazis. But there’s still a point where “humor” is used an excuse for people to act like assholes. And it’s an excuse that is used all too often. Radio Shock Jocks have been using that excuse to help reinforce racism and rape culture for quite a while. Whether certain dudebros like it or not, there’s a point where it stops being gross-out and just starts being gross.

Which brings me to Archer, the animated spy comedy on FX that premiered in 2011. Like many comedy series like Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a major part of the premise is that certain characters are, quite simply, terrible people. These characters and their abhorrent behavior is the joke. And, as the show is about spies, these terrible people are often put into highly dangerous, outlandish, and traumatizing situations.

So, the main characters, by virtue of their profession, spend a lot of time killing people in cold blood. Or trying to seduce or manipulate enemies. Or engaging in clandestine operations of sabotage that harm a lot of people. Horrible, violent things are going to happen, things violent enough to serve as narratives on their own. But most of the characters are as awful as the situations they encounter, so the horror is amplified. And it’s a comedy.

Indeed, in the first episode of the fifth season, we get the whole main ensemble recounting all of their actions and experiences working for the spy agency ISIS that we’d witnessed over the course of the show’s run at that point. Drag racing with the Yakuza, knee-capping the Irish mob, encountering human traffickers, 30 year affairs with the head of the KGB that only ended when the guy was blown up because one of the ISIS members had choke sex with the victim’s cyborg replacement, actual piracy, paying homeless people to fight for spectators, defling a corpse, defiling a different corpse, sexual assault, kidnapping the pope, blowing up oil pipelines, “smuggling Mexicans”

Yeah.

There are comedic arcs about cancer, illegal immigration, kinky S&M bondage murders, cocaine addiction… a lot of stuff, basically.

Now, take those situations, and add in characters who get aroused by things like homeless people, being choked, sex with food, and the thought of their mother dying. Who spend their weekends starting fires, making hybrid pig-people, rubbing sand into the eyes of their employees, competing in underground Chinese Fighting Fish tournaments, and calling in bomb threats so that they can get a table at a fancy restaurant. You get the idea.

And it’s all totally awesome and hilarious and god damn it I kind of love these characters.

This show has a season-long sub-arc about one of the main characters getting so aggressively addicted to cocaine that she not only consumes (literally) half a ton of it in the space of a few months, but almost gets her head chopped off for buying amphetamines from the Yakuza with counterfeit money. It’s one of the most incredible things the show has done.

Pictured: An absurdly self-centered man feeling genuine dismay and concern over his friend risking her life to achieve an unrealistic standard of beauty.

The title character has a butler named Woodhouse who practically raised him. One of the first interactions we witness between them is Archer not only threatening to rub sand into Woodhouse’s “dead little eyes”, but making him go out and buy the sand himself and check if they grade it, because he wants the sand to be coarse. He’s also done things like make the man eat a bowl of spiderwebs and deliberately keep him in the dark about his brother’s death and funeral.

Another character is a mad scientist and possible clone of Adolf Hitler who kills a young intern by giving him a drug designed to turn him gay. That’s one of the less disturbing things Dr. Krieger has done.

Frequent gags on this show include one guy repeatedly getting shot, another character repeatedly getting paralyzed (it’s complicated), people trying to remember the inappropriate puns that they wanted say as one-liners, the horrific abuse and neglect Sterling Archer has received from his mother his entire life, and basically everyone being a sex-maniac.

There are plots revolving around mind-control, drugging people, and hypnotism. You can imagine the paths some of those episodes go down. Yes, there is a character that has tried to sexually assault one of her sleeping co-workers. And later deposited two unconscious, naked coworkers in a bathroom stall with an octopus, in an episode that has already made tentacle hentai jokes. Yes, the openly gay character on the show is often the target of jokes about him being gay or a woman from his coworkers. Yes, the female lead, a black woman, is referred to as a “quadroon” at one point by one of the characters.

Yes, the following exchange of dialogue does take place in an early episode:

“Oh my god, you killed a hooker!”

“Call-girl!”

“No, Cyril, when they’re dead, they’re just hookers!”

And yet… Oh my god. How it manages to play around with stuff in an amazing fashion. For one thing, it is amazing how often this show skewers micro-aggressions and fucks around with stereotypes. And, despite how unabashedly messed up it is, the writing in it actually manages to be oddly pro-social progress in ways that most modern media doesn’t even seem to be aware of.

I take pride in my sex work and I will not put up with your bullshit!

For instance the “hooker” referred to in that exchange? (spoiler alert: she wasn’t really dead) She’s Trinette, and she an unbelievably refreshing and strangely progressive depiction of a sex worker. While she’s a minor character, every time she shows up, it’s awesome. Trinette is a sex worker who is unashamed of her job, a woman who truly does take pride in and enjoy her work, who does not put up with poor behavior from her clients, and is just generally awesome. She call people out and makes them pay for any mistreatment she receives, from calling out micro-aggressions by insisting on her preferred terminology for her profession (“Call-girl, you puke!”), shaming men for their sexual misdeeds (“How can you cheat on Lana bare-back?!”), demanding restitution for any injuries or threats she’s suffered (Threatening Archer into giving her his car after he fakes her death and stuffs her in a rug to fool Cyril into thinking he killed her), and determining her work and clients (“What about Trinette? She said that? Damn it!”). When she has a baby, she gives it her last name along with his father’s (“Magoon-Archer”) and she unapologetically proud of her Irish heritage. She’s easily one of the most functional characters in the show, and every one of her appearances on the show manage to defy at least one whore-phobic trope a minute. She’s the best.

Then there’s the show’s handling of race, which is mixed. While arguably the most important female character in the series (the show, despite its name, is very, very much an ensemble, especially as the series progresses. But in the early episodes when they focussed on fewer characters, she was the one who got the most screentime) is Lana Kane, a highly-competent (for ISIS) African American woman who is really, really well-developed, there is also the fact that she’s the only POC in the main cast. Granted, part of that IS the point. One of the earliest episodes is “Diversity Hire”, where, aside from Lana, the spy agency is so overwhelmingly white that they hire a “diversity double-whammy!” Conway Stern, a black Jew.

“Sammy Gay-vis Junior!”

Now, granted, that doesn’t sound great the way I describe it, but there are so many great moments in this episode alone. For instance, when Mallory Archer, terrible woman and owner of the spy agency mentions their lack of diversity, Cyril, the tragically white accountant and “nice guy” puts his hands on Lana’s shoulder and says he thinks they’re pretty diverse, a statement Lana finds hilarious. Cue Sterling Archer, other horrible person, telling Lana she’s “black-ish”, then responding to her offense at this with “Well, you freaked out when I said quadroon!”. The framing of this entire discourse is that Cyril and Archer are fucking idiots and Lana is of course taking offense because, duh, she should. The episode proceeds with a lot of references and discussion about racism, highlighting casual racism in a nuanced, funny, and organic way. For instance, Archer’s relief that Conway didn’t sleep with his mother. While Archer freaks out about anyone sleeping with his mother, regardless of race, Conway believes it’s racism on Archer’s fault. And in no way does the narrative act like he’s overly-sensitive or irrational for thinking that. Because the stereotype about black men seducing white women and fear from white men about this is still a very real, pervasive thing that has somehow managed to survive in our “enlightened” times. Of course Conway encountering a guy who displays a downright violent fixation on whether or not his new black coworker is sleeping with his mother will assume it’s a race thing. Because why would anyone be so preoccupied with such an idea? In that situation, it’s almost certainly based on the long-standing paranoia white men have about black men’s sexuality “conquering their women.” It’s one of the most common varieties of anti-blackness in existence.

Of course, since it’s Archer, who has kidnapped a LOT of people under the suspicion that they were having sex with his mom, we know this is the one case that it isn’t racism. It’s Archer’s disturbing, Oedipal relationship with his mother. He even kidnapped and threatened his role model, Burt Reynolds, for dating his mother. When he says “Not in a racist way” to Conway in this episode, it’s actually true. He’s just honestly that screwed up where his mother is concerned.

Conway’s conclusions on this, regardless, are still framed as a totally understandable. To the point where the episodes suggests that it would make no sense for Conway to think otherwise. Part of the joke is that no, Archer isn’t a horrible racist at all. He’s way too screwed up for his actions to be motivated by racism.

And before anyone asks, no, this wasn’t the “episode that acknowledges that racism is a thing.” You know the ones… The episodes that talk about race and why racism is bad to prove to the audience that they’re not racist, then proceed with the rest of the show, which never acknowledges race and racism again. There are frequent instances of highlighting racism, from violent outright bigotry to common micro-aggressions to clueless white people demanding how the thing they just did/said could POSSIBLY be considered racist! They’re not racist! How is THAT racist?! Cue Lana face-palming.

I just really, really like this. It doesn’t just end there, either. Racism is called out pretty frequently on this show, and not in a cliche, strawman way. Nor is it treated like something that only exists in the form of aggressively bigoted bad people shouting slurs and holding cross burnings. Nope. The “heroes” of this show just say shit that you could easily imagine someone saying in real life, shortly before getting defensive about any racism on their part. It’s treated as a common, pervasive thing that Lana and other PoC have to deal with every day, and the offense they take at it is treated as nothing short of sympathetic or justified (even in the cases of misunderstandings, like with Conway). This includes Mallory telling Lana to “put [the race card] back in the deck!” as reminder of how much of an unapologetic douche Mallory is.

It’s made clear: people say and do some super racist shit on a regular basis with realizing it or meaning to, and regardless, it’s still uncool and people have every right to get upset and call you out on it. See: Ray’s bionic hand at the end of season six.

Lana’s reactions and how they’re framed is usually pretty awesome. Mostly they come in the form of small, reasonable confrontations, which are never framed as an overreaction on her part. The fact that she “freaked out” when Archer called her a quadroon is framed as “well, duh, of course, she should.” Then there are instances like when she, Archer, and their child visit a high-end nursery school where they encounter a pretty obvious racist. The guy ignores and dismisses Lana at first, then expresses surprise at the fact that she’s the mother of the child (despite the baby being black), remarking about the “times we live in” and telling Lana “good for you!” when she informs him that yes, she is the mother, not the nanny or the maid.

Not all of the racism stuff stems from Lana being back, either. They skewer bigotry against Latinos on a pretty regular basis. When an Irish mobster rants about Latinos (he doesn’t refer to them by that name) “taking American jobs!”, Archer immediately calls bullshit, recalling actual history of the Irish being accused of that exact same thing during the mass immigration of the Irish to America during the potato famine, and it’s just as shitty and bigoted to say such things about immigrants now as it was in 1842. He is extremely irate about a mission ISIS is assigned to do on behalf of border patrol to arrest people who just want to get a job, and he ends up siding with and befriending the Mexican illegal immigrants he encounters. All of this while aspects of certain Latinx cultures are often highlighted, often very favorably (“Ramone is Latino, so he’s not afraid to express affection.”)

That being said, there are still a lot of issues in the show. The lack of diversity is definitely an albatross around this show’s neck. Especially so many seasons after the “Diversity Hire” episode. While I do praise Archer for not treating racism as a thing that is rare and only needs to be addressed in one twenty-minute block of time, it is telling that the lack of diversity at ISIS is never addressed again.

Then there’s the approach to sexuality. The show loves gross-out sex humor, especially regarding Krieger. And the depiction of sexuality is actually pretty mixed. On one hand, the openly gay character in the show adheres to a lot of stereotypes about gay men: he mocks Lana about her “knock-off Fiacci drawers”, his go-to alias is “Carl Channing”, his free time is spent at raves, and he loves to make effeminate poses. He’s also a frequent target of homophobic jokes and remarks. His outrage at this is treated as being every bit as valid as Lana’s, but it doesn’t change the fact that their main gay character is basically ALL of the stereotypes, as are a number of the other gay characters.

“Alright! Were off to get our scrotums waxed!”

Then there is the sexual assault. Which, once again, is called out for being what it is, in defiance of many common biases (such as the idea that female-on-male sexual assault isn’t a thing). But this show is way too flippant about this.

While I consider Archer to be very sex-positive, allowing every character, regardless of sex, age, or orientation, to be comfortable and expressive about their sexuality without judgment (a lot of jokes, yes, but not any that come off as particularly shaming). Almost every character, male or female spends a fair amount of time naked or scantily clad. We see Archer stripped down just as often as Lana. And the fan service isn’t relegated to just women who adhere to the typical youth and weight obsessed eurocentric standards we all know and hate.

Pam, who is a big woman (and often the target of fat jokes, which the show always treats as nothing short of detestable) is a total sex goddess who grows to be utterly confident in herself as a woman to the point where she’s giving Mallory (one of the most desired women on the show) advice. When she reveals that she keep ingesting cocaine because it’s made her thin with big boobs, Archer is utterly dismayed, telling her she was way better off the way she was, acting horrified that she’d risk her life to be “hot”, and just generally freaking out about Pam’s desire to be thin. It manages to avoid being cliche or empty given that Archer considered Pam the best sex he ever had before she got thin, to the point of blowing off assignments just to have sex with her, because she’s just that awesome. After she gains the weight back in season six, she’s still sexy, making Archer’s jaw drop in the episode “Edie’s Wedding.” She’s also unapologetically pansexual, which is awesome.

Mallory, meanwhile, is still actively sexual and treated as desirable. While sex and sexuality are always sources of gags and jokes on Archer, never do the jokes about Mallory’s sexuality ever come across as ageist. Sure, some characters make ageist comments on the show, but it’s never treated as valid. Mallory is still treated as being extremely sexy and confident about it. While Mallory is generally a horrible person, her enthusiastic sexual agency is never once treated as a flaw or something disturbing or gross. What’s disturbing, gross, and worthy of ridicule is her son being so preoccupied and reactionary about his mother having a sex life. It’s clear: if you have a problem with Mallory having a lot of sex and enjoying it, you’re the one with issues.

Even the one young, thin, white woman in the main cast gets to be unapologetic about her kinks. It’s really only a problem when her desire for choke-sex motivates her to lead a KGB cyborg to the ISIS safehouse. Or when she coerces Cyril into sex. And generally acts like a violent, awful person.

Essentially, there’s no tolerance for shaming women for being sexual. All of it, regardless of preference, age, size, or race, is nothing but fun and should be enthusiastically represented. “Can’t talk, got a pussy to break!”

Being a predator is shameful. Having belly rolls is not.

Who on Earth finds this funny?

But, then there’s the flippancy about sexual assault. There ARE gags about Pam and Ray dropping their pants when encountering an unconscious Cyril. And sorry, but the framing of it is all manner of screwed up. There’s tons of sexual coersion as well. Another one of the most problematic instances comes in an episode of season two, where Archer is repeatedly sexually assaulted by a sixteen-year-old German socialite. The show goes out of its way to make it clear that Archer explicitly refuses consent, that he’s being violated, yet the show treats this as funny.

While I get that this is a comedy show and that in-depth exploration of the trauma of sexual abuse isn’t going to be something they can spend a lot of time on, the option they should have gone with is, you know, not base an episode around a german schoolgirl raping the main character. It’s not funny, guys. It’s not necessary. It’s actually just uncomfortable and off-putting.

The show mentions things like alternative gender identities, emotional triggers, and sexual exploration in ways that treat these things as totally valid, which is good. It also frequently portrays poor people as jokes in and of themselves, which is a lot less good. While materialism is lampooned frequently, it’s not treated as a joke in and of itself the way poverty is.

The way the show often portray legitimate abuse for laughs also often goes overboard. While the show does a good job of exploring and following through on all the ways Mallory’s abuse screwed up Archer, there’s a point where the volume of “abuse humor” gets to just be downright gross. Dark humor is one thing, not being able to go an episode without a “Haha, ten-year-old archer was abandoned in a train station at Christmas!” joke is, uh… Not great.

Archer is an awesome, immensely watchable show. But it’s not one I always feel clean watching. It’s a show that celebrates extremes, yes, but there’s a point where certain lines are crossed and it’s just problematic rather than gallows humor.

Archer is one of those series that really makes me struggle to distinguish the gallows humor from the simple tastelessness. To give pause to the idea of problematic content being the “point.”

The line blurs with Archer. A lot. It often manages to distinguish itself with the things it gets right, especially since they often do well on things that most shows, movies, and books are often terrible at. And that’s enough to buy it some goodwill for when they screw up.

But seriously, guys, please stop treating sexual coercion and child abuse as bottomless gag wells. I would have really preferred to have Pam and her awesome sexuality without her sexually assaulting Cyril and Ray. It’s not funny or clever or edgy. It’s just gross.

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#archer fx #your fave is problematic #anon #feminism

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isthisprogress · 7 years ago

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Contexts of Game and Play - Game Jam TIMELAPSE

Conceptual Statement: For our game jam, we would like to explore how walking simulators work in Virtual Reality. With my personal focus being towards the techniques that can be used to explore locomotion and player displacement in Virtual Reality.

Executables:

Keyboard and mouse controls are enabled, if a HTC Vive is not connected.

Windows 32-Bit

Windows 64-Bit

Project Concept:

The project itself focuses on making a Kayak move and function in a virtual reality space with a HTC Vive.

Additionally, there was a VR Kayak experience that used a Samsung Gear VR. However, this was only a 360 video and was not a truly immersive play experience; all you did was watch someone else kayak through a GoPro.

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(Jakub Vetrovec, 2016)

Why I did this project?

The ideas is based on something that Aldo wanted to do for a studio project. The idea was neat and felt like a good technical challenge. Furthermore, throughout the semester I have not felt challenged and feel most of my projects have a low risk rate.

Additionally, locomotion has always been one of the biggest issue in VR and to be able to say that you created a solution give us a bunch of bragging rights.

Inspirations:

ABZÛ:

This was also one of my play experiences.

This inspired more of the level and feeling we are attempting to create, over any of the technical aspects.

For starters, we were hoping to mimic the art style. By creating a cartoony and low-poly art style. The art-style was basic and worked well in empathising the secluded atmosphere. It worked well with the character and other creatures in the sea.

Furthermore, the swimming got frustrating; where I had to ensure turning angles were correct to get to a certain point. However, this is what immersed me; I know that movement through water is not as easy as running. Even though, I got frustrated this never made me question the design.

(Giant Squid, 2016)

» How This Developer Created a Portal Locomotion System in 'Budget Cuts'

I did an analysis on this article last year and found myself referencing this post: http://isthisprogress.tumblr.com/post/149360286110/how-this-developer-created-a-portal-locomotion

(UPLOAD, 2016)

Tools Used

Unreal Engine 4

Blender

Day 1:

So as a team we began dividing up our roles and focusing on our respective areas. My role being the programmer.

For starters, I setup the pawn with the components that I felt were relevant for the kayak character:

Full Resolution image

I colour coded the paddles to make differentiating the motion controllers, easier.

Each paddle was a child of its respective motion controller.

Everything was parented to a blank scene component, to make snapping the pawn to the ground a lot easier. (Little did I know this was the cause of the problems that yet to come).

Furthermore, I did another iteration of setup; where I did not have any motion controllers in the pawn. Rather they were separate actors that would spawn into play and allows the player to controller. Honestly, it may seem like an unnecessary step; but it would make it easier to manage to potential problems with controllers and make editing them a lot easier.

Full Resolution image

However, once spawned these controllers would not move. I printed the values and it noted a change, but no difference were displayed on screen. I looked at the sample and copied over the same blueprint; yet the same problem persisted. I spent at least 1.5 hours trying to figure out why. This was one of my first dumb work choices. Rather than progress, my curiosity got the better of me.

The day went on and regardless off what mesh and collision properties I changed/added to the pawn or its sub-components. The Kayak clipped through all the objects.

After some research, i discovered that when using a Vive the game spawns a virtual HMD in the players original location and the parent overrides the collision properties of the mesh. Thus, using a default scene component took a toll on my work.

In the end this is what the pawn looked like:

Full Resolution image

Day 2:

Going of yesterdays very slow day, I started doing the programming for the kayak.

The prominent logic I came up with was this:

Getting the point at which the paddle strike the water and it end point, then taking the relative x difference as the speed. Then I took the inverse tan off the the y difference over the x different off the start and end location to find the angle to rotate the kayak by. Then stutely teleport the actor to said location.

I started with basic teleporting, due to there being no built in movement component for VR. The problems I faced were:

1. The kayak would clip through objects.

2. The kayak would not move.

3. The kayak would move but not rotate.

4. The Kayak would glitch out, with random physics actions.

5. The Kayak would have no momentum.

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Sadly this was the only video I recorded

A couple images of the Blueprints

Day 3:

As the roadblocks got stiffer, I began to do more research on how to make the Kayak. The found a video tutorial about arm swinging movement with a Vive, I created it then tried to implement it with what I already had.

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(David Dewhirst, 2017)

Which was based off the movement system within the book “Ready Player One”.

However, this would not have momentum and did not really solve any issues with the Kayak. But, it did lead to a locomotion mechanism that involves dancing in VR ;)

After, some more research; I discovered the Runeberg VR Plugin. This allowed me to actually add velocity to my pawn. Sadly the pawn refused to rotate, when moving.

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(Rune Berg, 2016)

Nevertheless, with time constraints I will not be able to get something that feels very natural in time....

Day 4:

Close to the deadline, I had to think of a cheap hack around it. I decided to make it into VR Speedboat, Aldo, suggested a quick hack of using one of the vehicles and placing a Kayak Mesh over it.

I did that and added a few more tweaks and scripts. Then I finished, my role. Ryan continued to model and create the level. While, Aldo worked on the cell shader.

References:

Jakub Vetrovec. (2016, August 7). Samsung Gear VR : Kayak Experience [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzWLmPq6P_E&ab_channel=JakubVetrovec

Giant Squid. (2016). ABZÛ [Video game]. Milan: 505 Games.

UPLOAD. (2016, August 6). How This Developer Created a Portal Locomotion System in ‘Budget Cuts’. Retrieved from http://uploadvr.com/budget-cuts-portal-locomotion-design/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=Page%20post%20boosting&utm_content=This%20is%20a%20pretty%20inter…57a875d6f4bd3bc90d8b4778&utm_id=57a875d6f4bd3bc90d8b4778

David Dewhirst. (2017, January 28). Arm Swinger Style Movement Tutorial for Unreal 4 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMieSD_7nSg&ab_channel=DavidDewhirst

Rune Berg. (2016, May 12). SUPERSEDED // See V2 Highlights // USING THE VR MOVEMENT COMPONENT [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfXD91JnPj0&ab_channel=RuneBerg

#timelapse #ardn611 #ContextsOfGameAndPlay #game jam

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proverbesdamour-blog · 4 years ago

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7 small habits that will radically change your life

The ability to listen, and most importantly to hear, is the most powerful tool in the art of building relationships with other people. Unfortunately, we often forget about this, trying at all costs to convey our thoughts.

Happiness and success directly depend on how constructive our thinking will be, firm intentions and strong relationships. Too complicated and too many conditions? Don’t be alarmed: the good news is that we have control over all of these things. We are not passive observers in this “theater of life.” And that means we can choose the changes, even if they are very small, which will greatly change our whole life.

So, we present the most effective changes that will change a lot.

1. Watch your thoughts.

Thoughts control your emotions and feelings. And your feelings, in turn, determine your actions and actions.

The fact is that you will never gain self-confidence if you constantly doubt your thoughts. “I’m not good enough for this,” “I can’t afford such a high standard,” “I don’t have enough knowledge and experience for this task” – such installations block a person’s ability to go forward and achieve success.

It is not surprising that your self-doubt is transmitted to others. They literally hear your inner dialogue and decide: “If this person is not self-confident, can he be counted on and taken seriously?”

Reprogramming thinking requires time, and often considerable. But aren’t you in a hurry? Moreover, the game is worth the candle. So, the first step in this direction is a kind of introspection with the aim of revising your own self-esteem. You must be clearly aware and capture your thoughts. Ask yourself: “What is on my mind now and why? Do my thoughts really help, or vice versa – do they harm and prevent me from acting? ”

Take a break. Stop and think carefully before answering this question. Rebooting will certainly help: you will gain confidence, determination and a positive outlook on things.

2. Separate your feelings from what you are doing.

Take the time to realize what you really feel. Watching your thoughts does not mean hiding or ignoring your feelings. They exist, and you must admit it. But at the same time, separate feelings from actions: your actions are exclusively your choice and your decision.

For example, if I work with a colleague on a complex and interesting project, and at some point I understand that it not only does not help me, but, on the contrary, slows down, then this is not a defeat. Yes, I admit that I am upset and disappointed, but then I sit down and think about how to deal with this. After all, you can always come up with something, and not rush to extremes.

Or another example: your friend constantly promises something and does not keep his words. At the same time, he is a magnificent person, treats you very well, but is optional and punctual. How to proceed? Do not pay attention to this “peculiarity” of him, hold a grudge, break off relations with him or … The answer is simple: talk to him directly and openly about how his behavior affects your relationship. In this case, you will at least have a chance to convey what you feel, to warn that if a break occurs, it is his fault.

Your actions should not be determined by your feelings and emotions, but by your mind.

3. Stop constantly comparing.

There will always be someone more successful in life than you, more lucky. Someone will have better starting conditions, more money and innate talents. But this does not mean that you should compare yourself with them and be upset.

This “comparison game” will never end. Nobody has come out of it as a winner. The fact is that the bar will constantly rise, and you will jump up to exhaustion. So you must set your own bar based on what is the starting point, progress already made and the ultimate goal.

As a working mother, I always worried that I did not spend enough time on children or work. And that means – I will lose on both fronts. And only with time I realized that whether you are a good mother or not, does not depend on how many times you run to school for parental meetings. It is important for me that my boys are happy and happy, and not to compare themselves with mothers who have more free time.

You must clearly prioritize what is really valuable and important, and what is imposed by the stereotypes that exist in society. Only you determine what a real achievement is based on its value, the distance traveled and the starting point.

4. Plan your day every morning.

Time is our biggest asset. If we live consciously, rationally use it, then the chances of living the life we want are much greater. Therefore, how you start every day determines what your whole life will be like.

Take a few minutes in the morning to think about how you want to spend your day: what should be your thoughts, activities, small steps in the direction of your dreams. Prayer, meditation, exercise and planned pauses for reflection in silence – all this has a huge impact on your day, week and even years.

Planning time and even thoughts is one of the first steps to get rid of worries and anxieties. And that means a better life. For example, the most important decisions and changes in my life took place precisely after I took the time to think in a calm environment, what I really want.

Find some kind of secluded and quiet place where nothing will distract you (just not the kitchen!) And just think about life, about yourself, about what makes you happy and what is vice versa.

See also: A simple test from billionaire Charles Munger to determine who you can trust

5. Do something new every week.

As a rule, all our days and habits are predictable. We are moving along the track, so it would be naive to believe that something in our life will change. Therefore, try to do at least something tiny every week (if you are really busy), but new.

For example, my friend proclaimed for herself “the year of life in a different way.” She enrolled in cooking classes, changed the design and decoration of the house, planned and carried out several trips, and also was fond of fishing. It seems to be nothing special, but how exciting it was and changed her life! Moreover, all this would never have happened if it had not been for the “year of life in a different way”. And what prevents each of us from declaring “a month of life differently”? Or even a year?

Do not live bored, do not live gray and monotonous. Always try something new that you have never done before. It may be something very small. For example, the habit of watching an interesting and inspiring presentation by a TED conference while making breakfast. Or even experiments with cooking meat and vegetables on the grill. There are many options. It would be a desire! See how much energy and motivation you have, how many new and interesting things you will discover!

6. Learn to listen, not just talk

The ability to listen, and most importantly to hear, is the most effective and powerful tool in the art of building relationships with other people. Unfortunately, we often forget about this, trying at all costs to convey our thoughts.

But the modern world is changing literally every day. How do you learn something new if you do not listen to others? From books and articles? I’m afraid you’ll completely come off reality. Because real life is in daily contact and communication.

Ask questions and really listen during the conversation, rather than scrolling through your head what you are going to say next. Your sincere and genuine attention is the biggest compliment you can give to another person. In addition, you will not be left without a bonus – you will learn something new and really important.

7. Get rid of the desire to always be right

Do you want to be always right or still happy? In your desire to have your last word, you can destroy the strongest and most healthy relationships. Perhaps your ego will be flattered when you prove with foam at the mouth that the interlocutor is wrong, but why assert oneself at the expense of other people? Especially when they are loved and dear.

Ask yourself: “Is my opinion the only right one? But what if there are several answers? Perhaps in what the interlocutor says there is a rational kernel? ”

Of course, standing your ground and defending your own point of view is important. But only when it comes to some fundamentally important things and values for you. But not during the discussion of working moments or the debate about the color of the curtains in the living room.

Learn to hear other people – their thoughts can be no less valuable than yours. If you get rid of the desire to always be right, then life will change for the better. After all, what kind of joy is “winning the battle, but losing the war”?

The post 7 small habits that will radically change your life appeared first on proverbesdamour.

https://proverbesdamour.com/?p=2290

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