#but this programming project ARG

[silostosstuff]

I simply hate programming

[projectaetherandpledc]

Some Important info about the Elves

file:///home/chronos/u-7836cdc1b537673c60eb0a572aa6e32bb4b3ebb1/MyFiles/Downloads/ARG%20stuff/PaperforARG.pdf

[another-apocalypse]

Í̴̲̭m̸̬͠á̷̯̜̔g̷̦͌̂í̶͈̫n̵͖̮̔e̷̤̔͆.̷͔̲̊̀ ̷̮̱͝P̵͔̮͂r̸̡͔͋͝o̸͓̦̚͝g̴̮̻̊r̵̜̚a̴͖͑͑m̶̺͗.̸̪͛ ̷͔̒͜Ş̴̼̇h̷͖͒̈á̵̖͇ȑ̷̹̪̉ḙ̴̡͊.̵̮̌

Official art for Pibbified Scratch Cat! I also made the design on Scratch itself here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/759064970/

Do NOT join the servers linked, the first one is DELETED and the second one is DEV SERVER NOT RUN BY ME

[brettanomycroft]

Sam fumbled Gwen’s Bonzo reveal… but he’d been primed to do so

I suspect that there's going to be a LOT of conversation around Sam after this episode, and since this episode was so good that I couldn't think of a meme or shitpost, I decided I'd throw my hat into the ring and do some character analysis instead. CW: Spoilers for The Magnus Protocol episode 18, "Solo Work" under the cut.

Episode 18 finally gave us the Sam and Gwen interaction I (and I think a lot of others) have been so desperate to finally see, and boy oh boy do I have Thoughts… none of which are new per se, but Sam’s reaction to Gwen dropping the Bonzo Bomb seems to have reinforced  the way I’ve been reading (and projecting in fanfiction oops) Sam, his personality, and his motivations.

Out of everyone new we’ve been introduced to so far, Sam has by far gotten the most explicit development and conversation around his personality. Even before episode 1, folks who participated in the ARG got a preview of our favorite baby shrimp’s personality through access to the child database spreadsheet that was, presumably, used to document the results of the experiments run on children participating in The Magnus Institute’s “gifted and talented program.” From this spreadsheet, we can gather that Baby Sam is logical, empathetic, works towards the benefit of others (prosocial), and fair… but also a rule follower and highly willing to follow the lead of an authority figure, even if it is in conflict with his personal views. The picture this information paints is an interesting one, but when taken in a vacuum leaves us with an impression of Sam as someone who is kind but lacking in backbone.

This idea of Sam as “kind but lacking in backbone” is further reinforced in canon, as Alice of multiple occasions rags on him for being “noodly” and “ickle fawn” and a “baby shrimp,” all seeming to highlight that Sam has the sort of helplessness about him typically ascribed to sopping wet kittens and baby birds. And I think that if we view Sam’s outburst when Gwen brings up Bonzo through this lens alone, it’s going to seem WAY out of character for him and a downright cruel response.

Now while I do believe that Sam is empathetic and fair and, sometimes, a little helpless, I’ve been inclined to believe from early on that much of Sam’s affable self-deprecation is a way to cover or soften what can be, at times, a tendency to be hard-headed, temperamental, a little manipulative, and petty (and I’m totally not just saying that as a people-pleaser-and-gifted-kid-in-recovery who has been projecting hard on Sam since Day 1). And it’s this second batch of personality traits, the ones that make Sam so real and interesting to me, that I think set up the disaster of a conversation between Sam and Gwen.

We have definitely seen hints of Sam’s hard-headedness and manipulative leanings in previous episodes: it comes out most often around Alice, showing his stubbornness in the form of refusing to give up his lines of questioning and curiosity about what is happening in the cases and at the OIAR; and revealing his willingness to manipulate a situation the form of subtly redirecting Alice’s focus away from prying into his crush on Celia and during the mocha incident (I have, of course, already explored Sam’s manipulative tendencies in my totally comprehensive shitpost).

And we’ve even been shown at times before episode 18 where Sam can be petty, his buzzed insistence that Alice try and keep things “professional” at work after his date with Celia being at the top of the list. The case headers filed for “Putting Down Roots” and “Pet Project” also suggest to me Sam’s ability to be stubborn and petty: in both instances, Alice and Gwen suggest a different classification than the one that Sam ultimately files. In the case of Gwen in “Pet Project,” she’s dismissive of him when he tries to ask if she’s all right.

While there’s no way to know for sure, I interpret this interaction as part of the reason why Sam ultimately disregarded Gwen’s suggestion for how to file the case—she shut him down and shut him out, and the petty part of his heart couldn’t resist ignoring her recommendation out of spite. This scene also begins to lay the foundations for Sam and Gwen’s interactions in episode 18 and, I suspect, the rest of the season.

So with all of this in mind, let’s look at episode 18. When Gwen emerges from Lena’s office, Alice has just finished shutting Sam down, again. Throughout most of this season, Sam has been desperate for some validation that the cases they are listening to are real, that whatever happened to him at The Magnus Institute was real, and that him pursuing this line of questioning and wanting to find answers isn’t a waste of his time. Alice has, of course, been not-so-gently nudging him away from this line of thinking for most of the season, while Gwen has been icing him out about it up until this point. Just about the only one who has given his questioning any air has been Celia who is, conveniently, not there. Even after Alice has her very own supernatural experience that is reaffirmed in the case Sam receives, she strongly pushes back on his idea that they should investigate and pursue this further. He understands why she doesn’t want to learn more, but it’s clear that he’s still frustrated at the end of the conversation.

Enter Gwen. Here, for the first time, it seems like she’s opening up about what is going on at the OIAR, and Sam is immediately hooked, even dropping his softer and sympathetic side when Alice tries to redirect with one of her classic barbs.

After being shut down time and time again, Sam is so eager for confirmation that there is more to all of this than meets the eye. And then Gwen says the B-word, and Sam loses it.

Sam is laughing here, but honestly? I think he’s angry, and his reaction is one of complete disbelief that Gwen would set him up like this just to, in his mind, take the piss out of him. He thinks that, at best, Gwen is having a breakdown and he’s once again being shut out or, at worst, Gwen is making a joke at his expense. Now, he’s used to being the butt of a joke thanks to being friends with Alice, but despite that we’ve never heard him call her an asshole the way he does Gwen. Temperamental and petty, turning around his hurt and anger over being stonewalled again and again to lash out at Gwen with his joke.

And honestly, can you blame him? (I can’t.)

Of course this wasn’t the ideal reaction. I have been waiting for Sam and Gwen to have a serious heart-to-heart about what’s going on forever, and Sam pretty much blew that chance without even realizing it. And I would be surprised if we get an apology out of him anytime soon, not only because this interaction is likely to push Gwen away from wanting to even be around Sam, but also because he’s not going to believe that Gwen wasn’t making fun of him or that Gwen isn’t having a delusional breakdown until he sees Mr. Bonzo with his own two eyes.

I also think this conversation would have gone very differently had Celia been there instead of Alice. Sam’s slew of psychological testing suggests he’s willing to follow the leader, and in this case he doesn’t seem immune to Alice’s general dismissiveness of Gwen. He may have even been primed to lash out at Gwen in this moment because Alice is constantly ragging on her; chameleon-like, he’ll take on the shade of the strongest personality when he’s on uncertain or dangerous footing. It’s almost a guarantee that Celia would have taken Gwen seriously, not only because she’s likely from or connected to the TMA-verse of horrors, but also because it was Celia who received the first Mr. Bonzo case. And had Celia been there to temper the disbelief, Sam would have absolutely been ready to hear Gwen out in full. I honestly cannot wait for Celia to be back in office; she’s going to walk in to these new, rancid office vibes like Troy from Community walking into the whole room on fire while casually carrying the pizza.

So, what do I think this means for the rest of the season? Well, the title of this episode seems telling: Solo Work. Gwen and Sam’s respective desires for their experiences to be validated and their goals to be taken seriously paired with the seeming dismissiveness of those around them are going to push them along their separate paths, dangerously alone. And I suspect that it is only going to be Celia or, more likely, an encounter with Bonzo, that is going to put them back on the same path—if it happens at all. Good luck, babes!

[7-ferrets-in-a-coat]

Posting the God in the machine draft/planning thing instead of leaving it in the dog, this ome goes out to You @teruuu

WARNING: Basically crackfic. Messy as Fuck.a bit long. The formatting is ass so i hope u can look past that

NOTE TO SELF Before Accessing boss fights Ludo would have to do some sort of Minigame to unlock the “fight” |||| Note nr2 , Ludo has been posting this "Arg” in bits on their channel, and it's bringing them attention Like One video per uhh Bossfight, with them not going too in depth really, they Do address that tho and mention they’re gonna be doing a full narrative video later on once they figure it out

Chapter 1. Start with Ludo just finishing editing, stirring and complaining about still having a small channel but being kinda meh about it, they appreciate the few first followers they already have. Establish the status quo and introduce the nerds. Something happens with the pc but don’t really explain it

Chapter 2. Narinder Introduces himself and tells the Lamb about what he needs from them and explains a bit.

Chapter 3. Ludo focused. Explore a bit what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling and what they plan to do to help Narinder. They already accepted the deal btw. At some point goatthew comes in and “forcefully” suggests an outing, maybe ice cream or an arcade or smth. (drew some gay shit for this)

Chapter 4. Her and Ludo are still out, and we get some goat thoughts. Maybe she started to notice they seem more down than usual, chalks it up as them being bummed about their channel still being quite small . She’s angry for them and deems it necessary to cheer ludo up by winning them a touy :3. Make this extra gay , Goat being all proud but also half ish being like “oh yeah no big deal but i got you a cutie pie :3 “ (Something something in the chapter she adds , mentally: “like you”) They go home and do their routine of cuddling as FRIENDS because they aren't in love at all and watching a movie till late, then going to sleep to their separate rooms

Chapter 5. Ludo wakes up, does their Morning routine, skipping cooking breakfast bcs they know the goat will bring them something , and almost on queue she enters their room with a yummy ass pain au chocolat. They start up their pc as they are munching, with Narinder expressing his disgust at the need to eat anything, and ludo rolls their eyes and opens their writing program, and start brainstorming ideas as to turn this all into an ARG because they don’t want anyone to panic about the murder ai. Narinder bothers them with a LOT of exposition but at some point they kinda tune him out and finally start writing and examining and all.

Pan to late evening and they're still working at it, whilst Narinder has resorted to just Staring at them, which is totally not freaking them out, so they get up all of the sudden and go to thew’s room, sit on their bed and just close their eyes, whilst Goatthew just looks back, smiles , and the continues filming whatever she was filming. After a good half an hour Ludo’s pc does a lotta noise, which Is Narinder complaining, so Thew turns to them and asks them about what the fuck that noise is , and their response is“Oh probably one of the arg vids i’ve been watching for this new project turned themselves on or smth,,” Whilst theyre totally chill about it but inside are dying

They bolt back to their pc, whilst groaning , and Narinder greets them as soon as they close the door behind themself. “Where have you been, Maggot. You aren’t here to relax, you are here to FREE. ME. You Better be done soon with whatever.. Script. You are working on. And start actually Working to freeing me By undoing these Fail Saves the Scientists Have set up to keep me limited.” “What do you mean by that? Fail saves?” Ludo asks. “They manifest themselves as. What you Fleshlings call Videogame Bosses I believe. Which is utterly Stupid, as any child with any cognitive skills could get past.” “... then why don’t you do it yourself?” Silence fills the room, besides the soft whirring of the pc fan. “YOU DARE QUESTION ME. YOU INSOLENT BEING.” Narinder’s voice is booming. “N..Not really? I’m just curious? I mean i suppose by defin-” Narinder raises his cloth (that functions as his hand, its kinda explained in the uhhh chapter 2 in his description) “You Won’t be referring to me with such a tone Ever again, Maggot. .. But I suppose It is because an external being has to get past the Fail Saves. For Extra security. They Knew I’d be capable enough to figure it out Myself if we excluded that factor.” Ludovico slowly nods along, as to not further anger the being. “You should get started on that, Flesh.” The lamb nods and moves to the monitor currently unoccupied by Narinder, in order to start attempting to figure out how to proceed.

Chapter 6. Medias res beginning of the chapter. We cut to the lamb, huffing and struggling to beat the Boss Narinder talked about. They have been at it for a whole day, it is now around 4am. Ludo is usually really skilled at video games, but they find themself in much more difficulty than they usually would, even when playing extremely difficult games. This Boss appears to be way more Dynamic, not actually having a pattern it follows, instead being completely chaotic, almost never repeating the same attack. “AUUUUHHRRrrr…. I’m SURE i almost had it..” “You did Not.” Ludo glares at the monitor Narinder is on at the moment. When they are met with an unamused stare from the being, Ludo sighs and turns back to their screen. Narinder suddenly hides,and Ludo barely has any time to process that , as their door swings open revealing Goatthew holding some bags of food (still gtta decide what ludo’s fave food is) “Hey nerd, ya haven’t eaten all day. I-” She comes in and sits on their bed. “-I Know you can get very into your projects, I understand that, but you gotta remember to eat buddy”. Ludo frowns, they hate making goatthew sad but can’t help it sometimes “I’m.. sorry Thew, i didn’t do it on purpose..” “I Know ludo, but you gotta take better care of yaself ! “ she pauses, gets up from the bed leaving the food bags there. She nears ludo and puts a hoof on their shoulder. “I.. worry about you if ya don’t. I want ya to be healthy , buddy.” Ludo stares at her, wordlessly admiring her, almost forgetting about the pang of guilt that assails them at the knowledge that Thew was really worried.

then they make out sloppy style /j (you fuckin wish huh)

Thew recognizes this as a sign of Ludo agreeing with her (which would be true, but also much gayer than what you believe, thew) and tugs lightly at their ear, smirking as Ludo lets out a huffed laugh “Come on Lu, let’s go watch one of your silly musicals whilst you eat your late dinner / Lunch or whatever.” She turns to walk away, being closely followed by Ludo “

You know Ludo is already a shortened version of my full name, right? Ludovico? Thew?” She barks out a laugh “Yeah i Know, it’s funny to shorten it even further”

Then Thew proceeds to pick up Ludo by their waist, hoists them up to their protests and immediately tosses them on the couch to the effect of turning Ludo in a giggling mess, andthen Goatthew proceeds to flop herself on top of them, careful to not put her full weight on them.

Little does she know Ludo wouldn’t mind that what who said that. (traduce this in Ludo catching themself thinking this and being flustered)

Small timeskip to like 8am, Goatthew still being awake, looking at Ludo sleeping peacefully. “what’s gotten you so invested this time huh buddy? It must be a really good one if you forget food a whole day… Works for me tho, I’ll just take care of you if you don’t.”

Chapter 7. Something something we go back to ludo finally defeating Leshy’s boss and start to write on their script, putting notes next to the script (“Phrase this and make it seem like this all is an obscure game related to the ARG or smth”)

Narinder insulting and demeaning ludo ensues.

After a small timeskip, its about lunch time and Thew burst in, Bringing ludo some food that they first thank her for and immediately dig into it, as Thew makes herself comfortable on their bed as she too eats her portion she brought with herself. They chat about how Goatthew’s video is going and whatever. An other cut,waylater into the night, with ludo grinding away af the heket boss, to which they’re actually having an easy time since Her boss Is way more Brute force centered and Ludo’s having a way easier time dodging attacks and countering and all. THey get it done after 2 more tries and raise their firsts up, almost Letting out a loud “WHOOP” but stopping themself as to not wake up Thew, who after they shared dinner insisted on staying in their room whilst doing something else to not go insane

(PARALLEL PLAY WHOOOOOO AUTISM WINS <3)

From here I'm gonna start writing JUST the premise of the chapters not in detail

Insert here the angst you have pretty much memorized atp, do it later tho (sorry i like. Forgot to write this one but ill link the art that is vased off of the idea. That i could write one day maybe.)

[Linked here]

Chapter.8

Goatthew Pov, Her taking care of Ludo for the time they require to recover, which is 3 days. notes on how the usual cuddles feel different, more somber but also way more intimate, somehow even more intimate than the literal usual. She has to fight off the urge to squeeze them and give them a forehead smooch a lot, because it just

Feels different.

Chapter.9

Ludo still kinda feels blegh but does have to fight the rest of the bosses to free Narinder. Somehow manages to actually first try Kallamar’s Buller Hell (because ofc he’d have a bullet hell)

Narinder Is pissy af and bragging or whatever but Ludo completely has him tuned out. They want to approach Shamura’s but also they are intimidated about the finalityof it all, what would happen after Shamura’s defeat.Ludo ends up beating Shamura After a few attempts, not as late as 3 am tho, like around uhhh idk, late afternoon???

Narinder Is very Happy, all ready to finally access his body and Pitches the idea to the lamb to go NOW to the science center. Ludo is against the idea, they want a break, so Narinder reluctantly agrees.

At dinner, whilst they sit on the couch and watch tv and eat, Ludo tells Thew abut what narinder said and She’s like “Idk buddy, this is getting really freaky and dangerous sounding,,” But ludo’s like Yeah but It’s gnna be such a good narrative.

Plus they want to pass it on as a urban explorer collab with Thew or smth.

Timeskip to tomorrow, they are now traveling to the uhhh lab area, with Narinder somehow transported into a uhhh key? those fuckin keys idk how theyre called and idc to like look it up rn AND they enter the building, , see a big pc litten up or smth and they look at each other, then plug the key in annnnd cut

Chapter 11

Maybe the finale? (write it down tomorrow)

It is way past tomorrow, writing time

OK SO I'm thinking. Narinder pops up on the screen briefly and Ludo looks at him

expectantly, awaiting a speech from the known monologuer (His ass LOVES

monologues) but instead he just cackles, cheshire smile wide spread and

disembodies himself.{"As they looked down to the left they saw a (insert thing here)"}

We pan to the uhh a capsule/box/whatever i don’t know as it twitches and slowly

comes to life, falling over and catching itself before it actually reaches the ground.

Whirring from the machine can be heard, as it hadn’t been perfected yet. Its robotic

arms not covered by the same protective shell that covers the rest of the robotic

body, wires tangling around the metal skeleton somewhat imitating vines.

An odd, gargled chuckle comes out of the robot’s speaker as it pushes itself up,

whilst the two flesh bipeds back off leaning against the wall, intimidated.

Narinder fully stands up now, he turns (slowly, dramatic ass bitch) to face the lamb

and the goat. “Fleshlings. I thank you for your service. You have aided me in finally

reaching my goal of having a body and Finally putting my extermination plan in

action.” He takes a step closer to the two, with Thew hugging Ludo protectively.

"However, despite how grateful I am-" Narinder's robot body looms over them. "I'm

afraid I cannot let you walk Free, your deaths will be Merciful though: Quick,

painless, and free of your Mortal sickness."

Ludo shuffles a bit, freeing themself from Goatthew’s grasp, putting themself in front

of her. “Wh wait hold on man, this? This wasn't part of the deal??-” They take a step

forwards, staring up at the Robot in an act of bravery (Or maybe foolishness would

be more correct)

I dont feel like going too much in detail rn actually this isn’t a problem for Now me !!

I’ll just write down the main beats

Ok so Narinder is like “Lol too bad actually. I do not care you will die here today

teehee” and goatthew is like Hell naw so she lunges at his ass and starts fighting

him, whilst ludo glances at her rq and their gazes meet and they wordlessly form a plan plan, with Ludo runnin back to the big pc and starting to analize it, trying to find a

way to suck narinder back into the enclosure and trap him on the internet again. SO

now i'm thinking some sort of Pony island inspired Bossfight, probs somethin like

uhhh Baalzebub in that game , so like his consciousness is divided between fighting

physically AND digitally. At some point Nari flings goatthew by the hand , with her

slamming against the wall. Ludo turns to the thud, worried expression on their

features, but quickly focuses back onto the pc.Narinder approaches slowly, armsLike this . Something something “ Stop fighting it lamb im gnna win, just give up and

accept ur fate” and ludo’s like HELL NA IM GOING TO KICK UR ASS So nari rushes

forwards, going to grab them by the scruff?Hood? whatever. But he stops, bcs he

heard some steps. “What are you doing, dear Narinder.” Its Shamura DUN DUN

DUUUN

“Shamura.” He hisses (because of the slightly defective robotics in his body)

“Narinder. Step back.” Heket says, lookin as menacing (and as handsome) as ever

(BUTCHES HEART HEART) (Sorry being sleepy makes me gayer)

Something something Shamura starts going on a rant about how they oh so cared

about narinder , like a brother, so nari interjects and is like “YOU WERE THE ONE

THAT IMAGINED IT ALL. YOU WERE THE ONE WHO FABRICATED THIS-” He

gesticulates angrily “THIS FAMILY FACADE. YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT ME

THAT WAY . ANd it doesn’t matter. It never did. You shall all die. You brought me into

this world and I will take You out of it.” and theres a scuffle, with Leshy tearing

Narinder’s protective plates off with his claws, Kallamar bringing out a taser and

hitting him with it, Heket coming in with a WICKED and RAD punch that dislocates

his maybe jaw???? And In the meantime Shamura rushes to Ludo’s side, Helping

them finally defeat the fuckin narinder boss and starting up the program to get outNarinder from his body. Narinder whizzes and buzzes, so in a desperate attempt he

lunges towards ludo and shamura, withered foxy style, but doesn’t get far bcs

Goatthew clutches and puts herself between the they/thems and decks his face ,

making him fall to the ground, and as he tries to push himself up, his

eyes/visor/whatever i come up with in the design turns off and he stills and falls over.

Ludo sighs and briefly leans over the desk, then immediately bolts to Goatthew and

hugs her hella tight and sobs or smth, and uhh they have a silent moment, the

scientists cooing at the display and then the moment is interrupted by the fuckass

cat, but this tim he has a smaller voice, so they look at the pc and they see he turned

into a way smaller and cuter version of himself, kinda like a Shimoji or smth and they

all cackle, whilst Shamura attempts to explain they did this real fast to finally make it

so bitch cant be taken seriously AND he is now tied to the pc he is in currently.

and BAM idk how to finish the chapter besides Ludo and Goatthew leaving and

waving at the scientists

Chapter 12/Prologue

oh my god!!! they are going to be happy???

I’ll come up with the prologue as its time comes

All i know is now ludo has a big channel as well, with the whole video abt the “ARG”

being the catalist of their fame, with both of them having decided to keep pretending

it was all an Arg, a very complex one tho.

and then uhh probably confession? like silly and awkward and its all fine tho because

they are so comfty with each other and they go on a cafe date and BAM DONE YURI

I am SO sorry about the shit formatting guys i really am

[hollow-u]

DISCUSSION BOARD: NEW HOLLOW GAMES PROJECT?

serveronium_: lets get this over with. I keep seeing a bunch of posts about a new hollow project?? so what's the deal with that? or is it just a bunch of made up stuff? any posts about it on the official hollow board get deleted immediately. and that thing been deaaaaad for a while.

litgamer2000: think it's some kind of hoax. or maybe a fan game? ARG thing? the hollow was kinda freaky after all xD

omniomniomni: It's kind of closed thing. Anyone who wants a link to more info can PM me.

NPCWatcher: wow.. hope anyone didn't get malware! LOL

Real1sonlY: Nah, omnis the real deal. This whole "Unleased" thing is kind of on the down low, but not too difficult to search up.

serveronium_: OK yeah i did kind of risk my computer blowing up into bits, buuut yup. This is a Thing. Will update on more stuff i find.

litgamer2000: Sooooo not some fan made hack??

Real1sonlY: If some bored 12 year old could program this whole thing - then sure, but i doubt it. Still, game appeared just as suddenly the original got shut down. Devs would wanna hype it up somehow i'd think

NPCWatcher: LOL - does it have something to do with that sitch with the weird guy that went crazy? Deleted the original server, dipped and now wants to make his own version?

litgamer2000: Ah yes! The legendary "weird guy"!

Real1sonlY: Yeahhh really love the guy - Now all those hours I put in to participate in the game that got suddenly wiped is now totally worth it! (sarcasm btw)

serveronium_: Finally read up on what omni sent, and also some more stuff. Unofficially the game's titled "The Hollow: Unleashed". It's a real thing, but participation seems to be invite only. Some super elite stuff ig

litgamer2000: That's crazy!!! And this info is just out there? Wouldn't ya think it'd be better hidden?? - How has Hollow games not sent a cease and desist already??

codenode12: Woww you guys are super active tonight. But I'll break it down for you guys. My uncle works at Hollow Games and it's not their's but they are monitoring the statistics and stuff!

Real1sonlY: Yeah, everyone's uncle works at Hollow games, dork.

litgamer2000: Soo anything else about this UNLEASHED thing?? Does the Hollow get into your room instead of u getting in the hollow??

Real1sonlY: Hopefully not. That sounds terrible. 👎👎👎

NPCWatcher: Nice!

serveronium_: Sorry im back. Guess who had a great chicken dinner

litgamer2000: Okay.. But the game?? Dying to know what you found out (not rlly dying)

serveronium_: Yeah sorry. So my guess of why it's "unleashed" is because the game's kinda more complex.

Real1sonlY: Even more than the OG?

serveronium_: I mean the OG kinda was cool and always updating - but the NPCs were kind of weak - the same few and always stuck to a script.

There are a couple additions, and these guys are like, super advanced.

NPCWatcher: A new advanced self-learning language model?

serveronium_: Maybe. Whatever that means. But people say these things are uber complex. Sentient kinda?

litgamer2000: ughh creepsville much?

Real1sonlY: whatevs, I'm hooked. I just hope another weird guy doesn’t shut it down like the original.

serveronium_: if someone tries maybe the NPCs will stop him? Sounds like theyre already doing a better job at running the game than any dev team I know! lol

[wlwdwtys]

Viewer arg by Rainbott

I have just found out that the main video of the Viewer arg has been taken down and I am heartbroken. A bit.

Lemme explain what the Viewer arg actually is, or, was. It was a project made by Rainbott (THEY'RE AMAZING YOU CAN FIND THEM ON YOUTUBE AND INSTAGRAM CHECK THEM OUT). It was an arg which started out as a dsmp quiz video on YouTube in which you could explore the smp and test your knowledge, but underneath that you could find a story about self-doubt, struggles of creators on YouTube and the stress of going to college and needing to be an adult.

Now that that's out of the way, I can say that I'm probably one of the only people who even remembers it. It was an obscure project by a small content creator, which was also unfinished and objectively, not that good. However since the moment I first went through it in 2021, I fell in love with it and have not been able to stop thinking about it ever since. (Help) It was casual but had an interesting plot and was quite atmospheric. The main video was made by a ton of different artists which all put a lot of their love and effort into it which I absolutely adored. It was interesting and enticing and it was made by someone with clearly a lot of passion for what they were doing.

Even if it wasn't particularly popular, I literally didn't care. I took that as a challenge, creating my own theories, timeline and going through the game multiple times, writing out interesting details. If you're curious then you can find the fruit of my work here:

I was quite obsessed, forcing like 3 other people, my friends, to see it.

And I was just about to continue writing the script for a whole ass video essay when I went to check and realised that the main video, as well as two songs and the iceberg video all of which had significant sections of the plot were hidden. It, honestly, broke my heart. I felt quite stupid for still liking this project that even the author seemingly deemed as stupid. But, well, I'd still like to say thank you to Rainbott for inspiring me. They said that with this project they wanted to show people that you didn't have to be big or have special programs or something to make an arg, to make a compelling story. It was them because of whom I made my first animation and even my first 3d model. Thank you. Even if you might think that this project didn't matter, please know that there are people who were genuinely affected by it. Keep doing what you love and being an inspiration to many. Thank you.

@rainbott

Even if I forget your face, please remember me - 'A lost memory' by Rainbott

[sezez]

The whole Elliot Ludwig podcast is a surprise and creepy thing to note. Elliot may not be the man he seems. And yet, I still wonder what this all means, did Elliot actually do it? Or was it a set up?

It was only half-true, Elliot was never blamed, the dead boy is actually the family member he lost so he blamed himself for his death:

I believe that Elliot is a good man, a family man at heart. And from his speech, he really sounds like a good guy. He wanted to make children happy, feel loved and find a place for them to belong.

I know people are already suspecting that Elliot front image of being a "perfect-family-man" is a lie to hide who he truly is, and the podcast about a dead boy in his bedroom stuffed into a duffle bag is raising some eyebrows. But, I still have a feeling that Elliot isn't at fault here.

We all know that Elliot got divorced in the 1930s, then in the 1960s a tragic family death pushed Elliot to his lowest. We never get to hear who died, many speculated it was Elliot's daughter who became the Poppy doll. But I don't think so.

I think I now know who died and what happened to them, I believe the family member Elliot lost is the boy found inside the duffle bag.

Now, I know there isn't any evidence to back this theory up, but work with me. I think that the whole podcast of Elliot being blamed and suspected for the boy's death is a lie, he was never blamed for it.

Remember, we heard the podcast when the Protagonist was dreaming after inhaling the Red Smoke and there's been some signs that the reverse audio we heard was the Protagonist talking to themselves for not being at the factory during The Hour of Joy and they came back because of survivor's guilt.

So I imagine that the podcast is Elliot's nightmare, his fear of being responsible for his lost and blaming himself for not saving the boy or being blamed for it.

I know this is a long stretch, but it's just a theory and I hope we get to know more of this in the next chapter.

The crime was just a set-up to keep the public occupied so the company can continue the experiments without getting any attention:

Now this one is I think is likely to be true. For all we know, Elliot made Playtime Co. to make toys for children to be happy. But then the experiments start to happen, in a VHS tape in Project: Playtime, Harley Sawyer (aka the Doctor/ the founder of the Bigger Body Initiative) said that people who starting to see things they shouldn't and lawsuits are coming in and out. So he propose the BBI to make giant toys to work for them.

I feel like after the whole program was in full swing, the public are starting to notice something fishy. Like the Catnap Recall, a news reporter talks about the concerns parents have about the Catnap toy because their kids start to have violent nightmares. So Playtime Co. recalled the Catnap toys, but damage was already done and I believe this became a slight problem for Playtime Co.

The company had to think up a way for the public to calm down and stay away from suspicion. And they came up with a plan.

Framing and making Elliot Ludwig, the Founder of Playtime Co. look like a sick psycho, hiding beneath his friendly-face is something worse.

I believe that Harley or Leith or someone killed a orphan boy at Playcare, took some of their bones and organs out, put him in a duffle bag then placed him inside Elliot's bedroom in his home.

And this seemed to work, with the public distracted by the new discovery of Elliot, Playtime Co. gets away with the experiments.

Elliot did kill a child, but he wasn't sick, he did it so Playtime Co. can shut down and stop the experiments:

This is a very long stretch, I know. But I think it be very unique if Elliot had no idea about the experiments and slowly overtime, he starts to notice something suspicious going on.

I imagine he investigated around for a bit, (like Rowan Stoll from the ARG) and found out about the Bigger Body Initiative. Imagine how horrified Elliot was, realizing the company was doing cruel experiments on orphans and turning them into toys. The complete opposite of what he originally wanted.

And perhaps he learned what happened to employees who knew or tried to expose Playtime Co. for it's experiments, getting killed off. And he tried to think up a good plan, any ways for him to expose the truth. But none seem to work, he knows he would end up dead, even if he was the CEO of Playtime, they could always replace him.

So, he did something he knew he would regret forever.

Killing a child inside his house.

I think Elliot did this because he knew if he did something horrible, the company would have taken some affect and perhaps it'll shut down due to the bad reputation.

And so he did it, he killed a young boy, had some of his skeleton and organs gone and stuff him into a duffle bag and placed it in his bedroom.

That's why Playtime Co. said they'll try and prove his innocents and keep his name on the brand. And I wouldn't be surprise if afterward they killed Elliot for spilling it out or turning him into a toy.

[mad-scientist-enthusiast]

I wrote a gerrymichael fic instead of doing homework or working on any of my in-progress fics. This takes place in canon divergence AU of the Magnus Protocol. The rating is explicit because of a sex scene, but it's mostly hurt/comfort and fluff! :)

Summary from ao3: We know from the ARG that Gerry and Sam were part of a program at the Magnus Institute when they were young, therefore Gerry exists in the Magnus Protocol universe. What if Gerry is still alive, and also working at a civil service job (not the OIAR)? Furthermore, what if Michael exists here too? What if the Magnus Protocol universe allows for them to meet at just the right place and time in each other's lives so that they can be happy?

(Written post episode 4 of the Magnus Protocol).

[sunless-not-sinless]

shitGPT

for uni im going to be coding with a chatGPT user, so i decided to see how good it is at coding (sure ive heard it can code, but theres a massive difference between being able to code and being able to code well).

i will complain about a specific project i asked it to make and improve on under the cut, but i will copy my conclusion from the bottom of the post and paste it up here.

-

conclusion: it (mostly) writes code that works, but isnt great. but this is actually a pretty big problem imo. as more and more people are using this to learn how to code, or getting examples of functions, theyre going to be learning from pretty bad code. and then theres what im going to be experiencing, coding with someone who uses this tool. theres going to be easily improvable code that the quote unquote writer wont fully understand going into a codebase with my name of it - a codebase which we will need present for our degree. even though the code is not the main part of this project (well, the quality of the code at least. you need it to be able to run and thats about it) its still a shitty feeling having my name attached to code of this quality.

and also it is possible to get it to write good (readable, idiomatic, efficient enough) code, but only if you can write this code yourself (and are willing to spend more time arguing with the AI than you would writing the code.) most of the things i pointed out to the AI was stuff that someone using this as a learning resource wont know about. if it never gives you static methods, class methods, ABCs, coroutines, type hints, multi-file programs, etc without you explicitly asking for them then its use is limited at best. and people who think that its a tool that can take all the info they need, and give it back to them in a concise, readable way (which is a surprising lot of people) will be missing out without even knowing about it.

i got it to write tic-tac-toe (the standard babee) in python (the lang i have to use for uni ;-; (held at gunpoint here)). my specific prompt was "write me a python program for tictactoe that is written in an object oriented way and allows for future expansion via multiple files"

it separated it into three files below (which i think would run, but i never actually ran any of this code. just reading and judging)

why does board use display instead of __str__ and __repr__?

why is the board stored as 1d instead of 2d? thats just confusing

why does it never early return aside from check_winner? (not a big issue here but kept on choosing to never early return when i asked it to add more methods)

why is there no handling of non-number user inputs?

why are non-int inputs truncated instead of telling the user that they should input ints only?

why is display implemented like that?

why are so many lines so bloody long (wide)?

why is there a redundant self.check_winner() after the while loop in TicTaacToe.play()? and if it wasnt redundant then you could finish the game without there being anything printed telling you that the game is finished?

why is the only comment useless? (this comment wouldnt be useless if it was a doc comment tho, but it aint a doc comment. speaking of, why is there no doc comments?)

these are the more immediate things i saw, but there are other things that are bad here.

whenever i write * this is where it updated the api without changing any usage of the api.

so i ask it to change board.display into __str__ and __repr__, it changes it to __str__*, it does not add a __repr__. asking it to add a __repr__ 1) removes the __str__ and 2) gives me this (the other methods are unchanged)

what. the. fuck. this would imply that board takes in an argument for the boardstate, but it clearly doesnt. after 4 more asks it finally has both __str__ and __repr__, without fixing the fact its implying board takes an optional arg, so i get it to add this arg. anything that needs to print the board still calls display btw.

the reasoning it gave for using display over the repr and str magics was this

While using __str__ and __repr__ is a more idiomatic approach in Python, choosing to have a separate display method can still be a valid choice, especially if the display logic is more complex or if you want to keep the __str__ method for a more concise or formal representation of the object.

which, erm what? why would __str__ be for a concise or formal repr when thats what __repr__ is for? who cares about how complex the logic is. youre calling this every time you print, so move the logic into __str__. it makes no difference for the performance of the program (if you had a very expensive func that prints smth, and you dont want it to run every time you try to print the obj then its understandable to implement that alongside str and repr)

it also said the difference between __str__ and __repr__ every damn time, which if youre asking it to implement these magics then surely you already know the difference?

but okay, one issue down and that took what? 5-10 minutes? and it wouldve taken 1 minute tops to do it yourself?

okay next implementing a tic-tac-toe board as a 1d array is fine, but kinda weird when 2d arrays exist. this one is just personal preference though so i got it to change it to a 2d list*. it changed the init method to this

tumblr wont let me add alt text to this image so:

[begin ID: Python code that generates a 2D array using nested list comprehensions. end ID]

which works, but just use [[" "] * 3 for _ in range(3)]. the only advantage listcomps have here over multiplying is that they create new lists, instead of copying the pointers. but if you update a cell it will change that pointer. you only need listcomps for the outermost level.

again, this is mainly personal preference, nothing major. but it does show that chatgpt gives u sloppy code

(also if you notice it got rid of the board argument lol)

now i had to explicitly get it to change is_full and make_move. methods in the same damn class that would be changed by changing to a 2d array. this sorta shit should be done automatically lol

it changed make_move by taking row and col args, which is a shitty decision coz it asks for a pos 1-9, so anything that calls make_move would have to change this to a row and col. so i got it to make a func thatll do this for the board class

what i was hoping for: a static method that is called inside make_move

what i got: a standalone function that is not inside any class that isnt early exited

the fuck is this supposed to do if its never called?

so i had to tell it to put it in the class as a static method, and get it to call it. i had to tell it to call this function holy hell

like what is this?

i cant believe it wrote this method without ever calling it!

and - AND - theres this code here that WILL run when this file is imported

which, errrr, this files entire point is being imported innit. if youre going to have example usage check if __name__ = "__main__" and dont store vars as globals

now i finally asked it to update the other classes not that the api has changed (hoping it would change the implementation of make_move to use the static method.) (it didnt.)

Player.make_move is now defined recursively in a way that doesnt work. yippe! why not propagate the error ill never know.

also why is there so much shit in the try block? its not clear which part needs to be error checked and it also makes the prints go offscreen.

after getting it to fix the static method not being called, and the try block being overcrowded (not getting it to propagate the error yet) i got it to add type hints (if u coding python, add type hints. please. itll make me happy)

now for the next 5 asks it changed 0 code. nothing at all. regardless of what i asked it to do. fucks sake.

also look at this type hint

what

the

hell

is

this

?

why is it Optional[str]???????? the hell??? at no point is it anything but a char. either write it as Optional[list[list[char]]] or Optional[list[list]], either works fine. just - dont bloody do this

also does anything look wrong with this type hint?

a bloody optional when its not optional

so i got it to remove this optional. it sure as hell got rid of optional

it sure as hell got rid of optional

now i was just trying to make board.py more readable. its been maybe half an hour at this point? i just want to move on.

it did not want to write PEP 8 code, but oh well. fuck it we ball, its not like it again decided to stop changing any code

(i lied)

but anyway one file down two to go, they were more of the same so i eventually gave up (i wont say each and every issue i had with the code. you get the gist. yes a lot of it didnt work)

conclusion: as you probably saw, it (mostly) writes code that works, but isnt great. but this is actually a pretty big problem imo. as more and more people are using this to learn how to code, or getting examples of functions, theyre going to be learning from pretty bad code. and then theres what im going to be experiencing, coding with someone who uses this tool. theres going to be easily improvable code that the quote unquote writer wont fully understand going into a codebase with my name of it - a codebase which we will need present for our degree. even though the code is not the main part of this project (well, the quality of the code at least. you need it to be able to run and thats about it) its still a shitty feeling having my name attached to code of this quality.

and also it is possible to get it to write good (readable, idiomatic, efficient enough) code, but only if you can write this code yourself (and are willing to spend more time arguing with the AI than you would writing the code.) most of the things i pointed out to the AI was stuff that someone using this as a learning resource wont know about. if it never gives you static methods, class methods, ABCs, coroutines, type hints, multi-file programs, etc without you explicitly asking for them then its use is limited at best. and people who think that its a tool that can take all the info they need, and give it back to them in a concise, readable way (which is a surprising lot of people) will be missing out without even knowing about it.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

I know that there's some weird things happening with The Magnus Institute in Protocol as well, I mean even if I hadnd't looked into the ARG, RedCanary makes it a given, buuut since there's not enough information to contradict me right now I'm using the fact that in TMAGP the Magnus Institute is both not in London (a place chosen specifically because of how watched it was) and a educational program for gifted kids to pretend that the answer to the question: "what would Jonah Magnus do if the Fears weren't around?" to be "focus his obcessive nature into the concept of education" for some reason.

He convinced Mordechai Lukas to fund his school, made Robert project it and sacrificed Barnabas to a group of angry kindegardens. Not a single person could guess why Magnus was soo driven into teaching kids but he wanted smart well-educated kids and he was getting smart well-educated kids if he had to pipe murder the PTA Karen himself. He is still exactally the same georgian evil whore but now he uses it to pick a normal happy and pure kid and turn them into really good and extremely noisy journalists or smt.

[roykleinberg]

a couple unpopular tron opinions!! lmao

Tron '82 > Legacy, but idk if that's an unpopular thought loll

What that makes Legacy's story go from good to great is all of it's various companion pieces— The Flynn Lives ARG, The Next Day, Betrayal, Evolution, Uprising, etc etc. The best thing about the Tron franchise is how it uses so many different mediums (and technology that viewers interact with in different ways!).

The Flynn Lives ARG, to me, is still the most ingenious thing that has happened to this franchise. Is it a little sad that the deeper aspects of Alan and Sam (and sort of Lora and Roy)'s characters get sidelined to something that average movie-goer isn't going to seek out? Yes, extremely. But the ARG is such a treat for fans that I'm genuinely surprised that Tronblr of the 2020s doesn't pay any attention to it. There's so much character and world building, and so many little, little easter eggs— I think the ARG deserves so much more attention!!!!

Evolution does more for the main program characters of Legacy (Clu2, Quorra) character development than Uprising does 😭The existence of Abraxas makes Clu more sinister because we see him purposefully going behind Flynn's back, and as dark as it was, Quorra's personal losses almost felt more heavy in Evo than Uprising since Anon and Quorra work together through the game. But I'm also very biased because I liked Evo's story so much lmao

—— from @quorras :)

tron confessional with moss

alright let's break this down lol

1. 82 v Legacy

admittedly I have gone back and forth on this one a lot over the years. because I generally (obviously) love 82 to bits and it is my favorite part of the whole franchise. but at times I have questioned if Legacy is narratively the Better Movie(tm). and at the end of the day I think it's somewhat hard to compare because they're telling pretty different stories, once you get past the surface level sucked into cyberspace plot. 82 has a warmer fuzzier view of the potential of technology in the right hands compared to Legacy, which in my interpretation leans more into the idea that family -- human love and connection -- supersedes the more "alien" program way of life. 82 wants you to like the programs and see them as people just like us, whereas Legacy has more of a Basics kinda suck and only the more human ISOs are worth anything approach lol. and I think there's validity in both those takes, and I think the times and environments in which they were created has a huge impact on how they view and approach technology. but. yeah. 82 wins for me on its more optimistic hopeful vibe alone.

2. The Tron EU (extended universe not European Union)

100% agreeeeeeeeee. I sometimes catch myself lamenting the fact that it's such a small franchise, but when you add up all the comics and games and the ARG (Flynn Lives ARG light of my life we will get to you in a moment xoxo) and the show there really is a lot! honestly throw ElecTRONica in there too, there was lore there. half the reason I have such a hard time even recommending the movies to people is because I want to be like okay but you also need to watch/read/play all of this please you don't UNDERSTAND

the way Tron has been handled by some many creators and creative teams is honestly just.... really beautiful and special to me in the most unironic sense. it sucks that the mouse has never given the franchise the trust or the resources to grow, and I hate that so many projects are soured by this air of something being ripped away from people who clearly loved it and wanted to do more. but that love is so undeniable in all these bits and pieces of the franchise. there will always be people who love Tron as much as we the fandom do, and I would rather have a hundred of these one-off passion projects like Uprising or Identity than a bunch of soulless blockbuster movies

3. ARG my beloved <3

42 Entertainment I am kissing you on the mouth

I really can't even articulate everything that the ARG is to me, and I wasn't even involved when it was ongoing. when I was just getting into Tron after Legacy got the home release, a good chunk of the ARG sites were still live, and I remember digging into all of it and being amazed and obsessed. I still have the wiki site where everything is archived bookmarked. there's so much good background in there. and Roy! ROY!!!!!!! and the big reveals in The Next Day? OUR little operation, ISOlatedThinker???? I am not and will neve be normal about it, and it's sad to think the current iteration of the fandom doesn't know about or acknowledge it as much

4. Evolution v Uprising

I feel ya. don't get me wrong, I love the Uprising cast, but I was never completely in love with how the show handled the pre-established characters. like I was saying before I didn't like how Uprising made Clu a more detached / distant villain, so having him be a more direct bastard in Evo worked better for me. and Quorra ugh :( she really loses everything over the course of the game, and I think it makes her character in Legacy so much more poignant knowing that she went through all of that but was still so hopeful. Abraxas was such a good, tragic, fucked up antagonist. and Gibson oughhhhhh. again hard to say what would have happened in a second season of Uprising (pour one out), but Evolution is so deliciously bleak in a way the show never completely got to be. Uprising is mostly dark because we know or can infer what's going to happen, because we know where canon ends up. but Evolution has more of an opportunity to show us the dark and horrible things that went on after the coup, and it's a carries a little more weight as a result. rip Anon you will always be famous

[not-that-dillinger]

List of Background Canon OCs at Encom Tower:

because I keep making up names for the people Ed interacts with and then losing them to the to the void that is the sheer amount of writing on this blog. So here's a list both for my sanity for easy finding and if anyone else wants to use them.

CANON BACKGROUND CHARACTERS: So here's everyone at the launch party for Encom 12:

Including Ed, Alan, Richard Mackey, and Claire, there are twenty people total. Thirteen others seated at the table, two assistants off to the side, and the guy way off to the side in the last screen capture with the champaign glasses that I assume is from some sort of catering service and may or may not actually be affiliated with Encom (Would Encom have their own catering for things like this? probably not but I also wouldn't be surprised if they did).

Richard Mackey: I keep forgetting that Mackey is charman of the board and not CEO. According to Next Day and the ARG, the CEO from the time of Flynn's disappearance to 2010 is Kurt Harding.

Claire Atkinson: Vice chair of the board, maybe? That's what we're going with. She's important enough to have a spot at the table, right next to Mackey. I thought she was Mackey's secretary, but. She's important enough to have a spot at the table. She's important to the Board of Directors.

Ernie:

Not much is known about him, but for the sake of RP, I'm going with his full name is Ernesto Sepulveda, and he's security staff who often works night shift. He may not be business or tech minded, but he's got sharp wits, a kind heart and a mean left hook. He takes his job seriously, and for that, Ed appreciates him.

And now for the unnamed board members. Not sure who a lot of them are yet, but making up names to put to faces for the sake of it. I'm lazy and it's difficult to get screen caps of all of them individually, so here's one with the entire board:

On the far side, in order starting closest to Mackey, there is:

Claire Atkinson (hidden behind Mackey)

Diane Woods

Alan Bradley

Cynthia Knight

Curtis Clemons

Jerome Osborn

Cory Chandler

And on the other side again starting closest to Mackey there is:

Leonard Nelson

Emily Nguyn

Edward Dillinger Jr.

Janet Wells

Ivan Petrov

Mikhail Tatarchev

Xavier Boyd

I have no idea who these people are besides the fact that Ed describes them (except for Alan Bradley) 'business minded drones only concerned with profit margins, and having less soul than a hello world program.' Almost all of them have their noses far up Mackey's backside.

Ed's development team:

IDK how many people typically work on an OS, and it's probably hundreds split into smaller teams. Let's keep it simple and say there are nine Ed works with directly. Ed is probably familiar with the people they work directly with, but gonna leave it with just his core group for the sake of not over complicating things.

Ed's team consists of:

Selim Bardakci

Robyn O'Caiside

Cezar Da Costa

Valdis Dagrunarbur

Enrique Rivera

Mercedes Castaneda-Garza

Jeon Yeong-Ja

Ryann Rogers

Farley Jones

Fatimah Abdulrashid: Encom IT specialist. Has a love-hate relationship with Ed. She knows any time he comes in it's either going to be something stupidly simple that only requires a password, or something that's going to take up both their day trying to solve. At least he has the sense to not download viruses or fall for phishing attacks.

Interns: Four graduate students from UCSD working on a project in partnership with Encom: Rio, Virgil, Ajay and Hekla, plus three that are purely part of the Encom team: Isra, Mali, and Elija. Ed is extremely protective of his interns because of his own experiences as one.

[badass-at-fandoming]

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to ask because I got curious - but do you think WoD will ever come out with an official backstory for Beckett? Or any new content involving him? I'm keeping my fingers crossed but honestly who knows. Also now that it's the new year, we're a few steps closer to Bloodlines 2 releasing. What are you current thoughts on it?

Hello and thank you for your patience while I traveled far from my beloved tumblr!

Will Paradox's World of Darkness come out with new Beckett lore? Why, yes! They already have: in the Fifth Edition Corebook he's confirmed to be alive (x) and Custos talks about Beckett Embracing him and his subsequent abandonment (x) and he's in LA By Night (x). Plus, he's been in Vampire: the Masquerade - Heritage (x and that's where his current wiki photo is from) and referenced in the Tender ARG (general x specifically x). In my opinion, Beckett morsels have been dangled at a steady clip.

Do I want World of Darkness to publish like, an official backstory? God, no. The last time it was attempted, the result was a clusterfuck. Reading "A Brief History of Beckett" in his Diary was terrible. Either the author didn't care to research him, or wasn't given time to, beyond the most cursory glance. More to the point, that chapter lacks of a cohesive vision on how to play it. I'm much happier reading and applauding backstories that fans come up with.

As for Bloodlines 2, I don't keep up with World of Darkness News so much, so your ask was a great invitation to catch up. The most recent Dev Diary (x) is a fascinating peek at their sound design and the care they're putting into it. The last paragraph mentions a release date and DLC plans to be announced as soon as January 15th.

As for my broader opinion on the game, VtM:B2 will be what is, when it is. I'm sure I'll be delighted to dissect it. Though the studio has never made an RPG before, doing new genres and knocking it out of the park seems to be their thing (see Little Orpheus x and Still Wakes the Deep x).

I'm more concerned if The Chinese Room is taking care of its workers in the collapsing larger industry. Are the workers being treated well? Are they paid enough? Are they being laid off to line the pockets of shareholders and CEOs? Thankfully, The Chinese Room seems to be doing good by their people. In 2017, before Paradox gifted them the VtM:B name/they pitched their project, The Chinese Room did lay off everyone except the two founders and one lead designer (x). Seems like they ran out of money. When TCR was bought by Sumo, they seemed to have solved a longstanding we-don't-know-how-to-run-a-business problem (x). Founder Jessica Curry has gone on record calling for more diversity, inclusion, and women in the industry (x) and took a backseat due to toxic publisher relationships (x) rather than studio culture. Her husband and co-founder Dan Pinchbeck designed a paid internship program with the express purpose of hiring racial and gender minorities, women, older people, and those from lower-income backgrounds (x). I hope they keep up and improve upon this track record even though Pinchbeck left (x).

Overall, I'm content enough to buy a game from these folks. There's always room for improvement (like a union), but they're leagues ahead of other studios in terms of worker treatment.

Thank you for the ask! Kind of you. I hope you're having a good start to 2025!

[shadowwrath264]

POPPY PLAYTIME CHAPTER 4 ARGs [PART 1]

It took me the entire day to do this,.... but I managed to get these two done, despite of the blurry parts. But no worries, I'll type out what it says for ya, no problem.

'If you show up with another ham sandwich with shi---

wrapped up in pita, I really might just kill you. Hah---

as seriously as you usually do. Though I bet you Sawyer---

show. I don't think you were around at the time that---

sweet pickles Figures, I can't have anything sweet or---

in anyway.

Point is if you find yourself taking his lunch order at---

pickles if you wanna keep your head on your shoulders---

one bad pickle away from blowing the whole place

Sorry yeah anyways lunch. Honestly grab me anything---

american cheese and pita. I was seriously about that.---

gotta make some jokes and take some jokes to keep---

place'

'Dear Sawyer,

First Introductions- My name is Leith Pierre. I'm the Head of Innovation at Playtime Co. factory. YOU are Harley Sawyer, neuroscientist with quite a little reputation. Not a major player in the field, no, but someone with ambition and big ideas. Someone looking to get ahead. Now, I know the natural next question: "Why is the head of a successful toy business reaching out to little ol' me?"

Well, for YOU, I have the project of a lifetime.

It took some digging, but I know you were once part of Elliot's Young Genius Program, but making you uniquely qualified for what I'm about to ask from you. However, given that a letter is FAR from proper place to convey the information, let me extend to you my invitation.

January 15th 1990 Meet me at the Playtime Co. Factory.

Believe me, you'll know me when you see me.

This is your way to get ahead, Dr. Sawyer. The opportunity you've been waiting for, I know you'll make the right decision.

Sincerely,

Leith Pierre

Head of Innovations'

Looks like there are some info from the first image being cut off... hmmm...

On the second image, hmmmm... from the looks of things,.... I think, we maybe seeing Dr. Sawyer in person in the fourth game, considering this ARG is mostly about him.

What do you think, guys?

Share your opinions.

[nectoy7]

My First Java Program: A Journey into Coding

Starting with Java programming can be an exciting journey, filled with discovery, challenges, and a sense of accomplishment. My experience of writing my first Java program was a significant milestone that opened up a world of possibilities in software development. In this blog, I’ll share my journey through writing my first Java program, along with the concepts I learned and the obstacles I overcame.

The Excitement of Starting

When I first decided to learn Java, I was motivated by its versatility and widespread use in developing applications, from mobile apps to enterprise software. I had heard about the power of Java and how it is a foundational language for many developers. After setting up my Java development environment, which included installing the Java Development Kit (JDK) and choosing an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like Eclipse, I was ready to dive in.

The anticipation of writing my first program filled me with excitement. I had heard many experienced programmers talk about how exhilarating it felt to see their code come to life, and I was eager to experience that feeling myself.

Setting Up the Development Environment

Before I could write my first program, I needed to ensure my development environment was properly configured. Here’s a brief overview of how I set it up:

1. Installing the JDK: I downloaded the latest version of the Java Development Kit from the Oracle website. This included everything I needed to compile and run Java applications.

2. Choosing an IDE: I chose Eclipse as my IDE because of its robust features and user-friendly interface. After downloading and installing it, I was ready to start coding.

3. Verifying the Installation: I opened the command prompt (or terminal) and typed java -version to confirm that Java was installed correctly. Seeing the version number displayed confirmed that I was on the right track.

Writing My First Java Program

With my development environment set up, I was finally ready to write my first Java program. Following the traditional approach, I decided to create a simple “Hello, World!” program. This classic exercise is often the first step for beginners learning any programming language.

Step 1: Creating a New Java Project

In Eclipse, I created a new Java project:

1. File > New > Java Project.

2. I named the project “HelloWorld” and clicked Finish.

Step 2: Creating a New Java Class

Next, I created a new Java class within the project:

1. Right-click on the src folder in the HelloWorld project.

2. Selected New > Class.

3. I named the class HelloWorld and checked the box to include the public static void main(String[] args) method. This method is the entry point of any Java application.

Step 3: Writing the Code

With the class created, I wrote the code that would print “Hello, World!” to the console:

public class HelloWorld {     public static void main(String[] args) {         System.out.println(“Hello, World!”);     } }

Code Explanation

public class HelloWorld: This line defines a public class named HelloWorld. In Java, every application must have at least one class.

public static void main(String[] args): This line declares the main method, which is the starting point of any Java program. The JVM (Java Virtual Machine) looks for this method when executing the program.

System.out.println(“Hello, World!”);: This line prints the string “Hello, World!” to the console. The System.out object is used to output data to the console, and println is a method that prints the text followed by a newline.

Step 4: Running the Program

After writing the code, it was time to run my program and see the result:

1. I right-clicked on the HelloWorld.java file in the Project Explorer.

2. Selected Run As > Java Application.

To my delight, the console displayed the message “Hello, World!” It was a simple program, but seeing the output felt like a monumental achievement. I had successfully written and executed my first Java program!

Learning from the Experience

The process of writing my first Java program taught me several important lessons:

Understanding Java Syntax

Java has a specific syntax that must be followed. This includes rules about naming conventions, the use of semicolons to end statements, and the structure of classes and methods. Understanding these rules is essential for writing valid Java code.

The Importance of the Main Method

The main method is crucial in Java applications. It serves as the entry point, and every program must have it to be executed. Learning this concept helped me appreciate how Java applications are structured.

The Power of Output Statements

Using System.out.println() was my first experience with output statements. It highlighted the importance of feedback in programming. Being able to print messages to the console is invaluable for debugging and understanding program flow.

Overcoming Challenges

While writing my first Java program was largely straightforward, I faced some challenges along the way:

Syntax Errors

Initially, I encountered syntax errors due to missing semicolons or misnamed classes. Each error message provided insight into what I needed to correct. This experience emphasized the importance of careful coding and attention to detail.

Understanding the IDE

Familiarizing myself with Eclipse took some time. I had to learn how to navigate the interface, manage projects, and use features like code suggestions and debugging tools. As I continued coding, I became more comfortable with the IDE.

Next Steps in My Java Journey

Completing my first Java program was just the beginning. With a foundational understanding of Java syntax and structure, I was excited to explore more advanced concepts. Here are the next steps I took in my learning journey:

Exploring Java Basics

I delved deeper into Java basics, including:

Data Types: Understanding primitive and reference data types.

Variables: Learning how to declare and use variables effectively.

Operators: Exploring arithmetic, relational, and logical operators.

Control Flow Statements: Mastering if-else, switch, and loop constructs.

Learning Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

Java is an object-oriented programming language, and I knew I had to understand OOP principles. I focused on concepts such as:

Classes and Objects: Learning how to create and manipulate objects.

Inheritance: Understanding how classes can inherit properties from other classes.

Encapsulation: Learning how to hide data within classes.

Polymorphism: Exploring method overloading and overriding.

Building Projects

I started working on small projects to apply my knowledge. Simple applications, like a calculator or a text-based game, helped solidify my understanding of Java concepts.

Conclusion

Writing my first Java program was a thrilling experience that marked the beginning of my journey as a programmer. The excitement of seeing my code come to life, coupled with the knowledge I gained, fueled my desire to continue learning and growing in the field of software development.

Java has proven to be a powerful language with endless possibilities, and I am eager to explore its depths further. With each program I write, I feel more confident in my coding abilities and more inspired to tackle new challenges.

If you’re starting your Java journey, embrace the process, celebrate your successes, and don’t shy away from challenges. Each step you take brings you closer to becoming a proficient Java developer.

Happy coding!