#but treating it like there is ZERO NUANCE and that every person who holds concern for whether the animal is suffering or not is ableist

[samuraisharkie]

that virtualtoybox person literally told me they aren’t reading what I said and then tried to talk to me w about as much in their tags lol. i never understand people that go ‘I’m not reading all of that but you should read what I have to say” bc like. imagine how infuriated ur gonna get when that response is leveled right back at you? and judging by their tags they didn’t read past my very first line. bc they started comparing animals and animal rights to eugenics which is EXACTLY what I was saying is extremely dangerous to do. That’s exactly how people start calling things that happen to animals a ‘Holocaust’ and I’m positive such a statement is made in that book they told me to read. I’m disabled too. I know what I’m talking fucking about too. In the animal section, I for SURE know more than you do! Because if you knew and truly cared about animals and their welfare, you wouldn’t be talking like PETA. Here’s a trick to other disability activists: learn about animal welfare by volunteering on farms and educating yourself on breeders and the industry rather than getting involved in PETA! And another critical trick: NEVER compare animals to people! That’s exactly what the freaks that think any living thing with a deformity that should die are doing. These people would clutch their pearls the moment they hear farms cull undesirable animals bc they can’t afford to keep every single one and have to streamline their breeding and raising to what will help keep the farm running. That doesn’t mean these farmers want to do the same to people, because the animal is NOT a person and doesn’t live like one. Our lives are not even remotely comparable! People like OP are the people that keep a wild bird with an amputated wing alive bc in their mind it would be insinuating all amputees should die if the bird is put down, and next thing the bird is on the Dodo as inspiration porn. Duex Face is an exception to two headed animals, not the rule. Don’t tell me to do my research when you’re spouting talking points from people that have caused more problems for animals as a whole second only to the commercialization of animal industry. Maybe you need some research (field research) instead! They’re going to block me and I’m assuming that’s why I can’t rb the post anymore even if I wanted to (like I said I didn’t want to start a fight so like. I’m not going to be yelling and acting like an asshole. I swore a bit in the tags initially bc I feel very strongly about how animal rights activists have fucked up disability activism by acting like there’s equivalency in our existences, but that’s not targeted. Most was going to respond telling them that if they feel this strongly they need to be reading more about the animal industry rather than relying on people that are in no way experts on animals talking as an authority on them, and using that to tie with their human rights activism as if animals rights and humans rights are even remotely the same in any way. Whatever though at least the tags are there if anyone who cares enough actually reads them and thinks about them. Will most likely just attract militant vegans and ARAs like the op but whatever)

[maleficore]

Sceleritas: Oh Master, consider the tiny mishap with the bard you had the last time we met.

Sceleritas: Your unconscious, clever mind hungers for extreme violence.

Sceleritas: Who knows you might kill next if you do not satisfy your Urge?

This bit of dialogue from Sceleritas fucks me up so bad. As Durge (unless you're metagaming for a particular outcome instead of going full roleplay) you're being placed before an impossible choice. Do you kill dozens of people by taking out Isobel or risk taking the blade to one of your companions again?

You know you can't control yourself fully so the threat is not empty. And you definitely care about your companions more than you do about a bunch of Harpers you've just met. But there may also be the tieflings involved, mostly children. Sparse in numbers now, but still people you've once saved. Was all that for nothing because now you might need to sacrifice them all? Do they tip the scale? How much is too much? What price are you willing to pay for your friends' safety and your own peace of mind?

"What is the worth of a single mortal's life?"

You and your companions are fighters, you have a mission. Fate of legions more people depends on you taking out the Absolute. Can you truly afford the risk? Whose survival is more important? Yes the Harpers may be valuable allies, but you are the ones with the prism. Without the party they don't stand a chance.

I hate how that's not ever touched upon properly in the game.

Killing or sparing Isobel is the only path-defining choice for Durge until the end of their personal quest and is treated as reference for their entire attitude towards being a bhaalspawn in act 3 no matter what other dialogue choices you make. Kill her and you more than embrace your heritage, you revel in what you are. Any other choices made up to that point are immediately voided.

But what if you did it out of fear? What if the "prize" you were awarded for it in the form of the Slayer terrifies you even more than the Urge itself? Which is a feeling you are able to express, but it holds exactly zero value because there's only two paths for you to take and nuance is not allowed. Why are you not able to express regret and have that matter? Not to mention that if Isobel dies due to unforeseeable consequences of other actions, it's still treated as if you went up the stairs and dug a knife in her back when nobody was looking because you simply felt like it.

Yes sacrificing Last Light is not the choice of a perfectly good aligned hero, but it is also not something only a villain would do. People make terrible choices when there's an axe raised over the nape of their neck and where the Urge is concerned Durge has absolutely no close confidants or support system who could help them make a better one.

The foundations of a complex character are there and every time I notice the game fumbling like this, railroading into an evil/good binary despite that, it ruins my fucking day.

[djaxtech-blog]

DMP Manager

Data Management Platform (DMP)

Within thought of progressing is 'get the message to the correct watcher at the perfect time'. Information is the center bit of this. There is boundless information betrayed by the watcher when they check out online exercises. Regardless, combining, taking a gander at and overseeing information from various online sources is astoundingly troublesome.

That is the detect the Data Management Platform or the DMP comes in.

What is that DMP?

The Data Management Platform or the DMP is a unified stage that gathers a tremendous extent of information. This information is used by progression trades, advertising experts and dealers. In that limit, it would appear that a focal data structure for front line displaying

DMP and AdTech

In the event that you are on edge to have a firm hold tight the crusading methods then you are in the perfect spot. Utilization of data amassed by Data Management Platform gives extra deftness to the Ad Tech errand — it improves the significance of the arranged interest assembling and following notification course.

The modifications in the crusade should be possible as demonstrated by the information secured from the stage and the information can be utilized for focusing on the careful gathering assemble who are probably going to react well.

DMP process is logically helpful and clear focusing on the normal interest suspect that makes changes that along these lines upgrade ROI from headway spending. Which is a central thing since progress and faltering are truly dangerous techniques in displaying?

What Data Management Platform can do?

• Handle and change progression battles as per acquired information;

• Real-time nuances to gather change rates and give a partner with client experience. This can build up a brand in a compelled capacity to focus time.

• Return of Investment [ROI] will expand by folds. Headway wastage will be decreased no vulnerability.

• Personalized substance as appeared by the client intrigue, this can expand the likelihood of switch and set up the brand.

• A persuading client profiling that can develop the capacity of focusing on.

DMP working

By what method may it work?

We should recognize an affiliation chooses to highlight its thing to new clients through plugs. The supporters obliged their view to the general open who have indistinct attributes and lead from their present clients.

With the DMP the marketing specialists can isolate the information and get in contact at a precedent profile of the party of people they need to target.

Marketing experts would then have the ability to utilize the dealt with information to design and mechanize their progressing. They can utilize the data to enable their cross-to arrange to propel whether it's a PC, tablet or a telephone and assurance they abuse their crusade.

The client gets persistent experiences on the estimation information, which can be utilized to channelize the headways to the opposite side and the potential gathering. The DMP connects with marketing specialists to know their clients and social event of people far unrivaled, due to continuously huge and clearer bits of data.

Information plan

• First assembling information: This sort of information is collected and constrained by the vendor or advertiser. Information, for example, CRM information, enlistment or intrigue information of their clients or social event of onlookers. When in doubt, it is gathered from the clients' treat information. It is free, exact and basic to the concerned substance.

• Second-party information: This sort of information is only the main party information of some other dealer or marketing expert which can be extended through a key affiliation.

• Third, assembling information: The on the web and isolated information open in the market which can be gotten from an information supplier we call as distant information. Information suppliers are those that gather or purchase information from various wholesalers. This kind of information is usually obtained and isn't especially right.

Information Collection

The basic development is the social occasion of information from the picked sources, routinely, this joins information from a first, second and pariah.

There are different frameworks related to social event information and continuing with it to also organizes.

• Pixel following

• Integration with the second and outsider information providers.

• Tags-by finishing name executive one can embed the bits of code into a site's pages that will be trailed by the picked limit.

• Cookies through Cookie Syncing — mapping and confining together client's ID over the assorted stages

Information division

Next Stage of DMP Operation is Data Segmentation. Right, when data is assembled — DMP makes it as appeared by the present legitimate game plan. It merges a mix of parameters. Some of them consolidate the client's precious information, others meld information concerning their association with watched substances.

Division coherent request is totally subject to the picked propelling model and solidifies just those parts that are principal to able focusing on.

Information Analysis

Exactly when information is divided, is managed to develop a clearly depicted client profile for focusing on.

For the most part, this task fuses an examination of clients past action near to, his occasions and impressions (clicks, and so on), inclinations, and reaction to takes note.

Information exchange

Exactly when data is accumulated, partitioned and isolated — it will all in all be exchanged to progression trades, Supply-Side Platform (SSP) and Demand-Side Platform (DSP) which thusly will pass on the things to the advertising authorities.

This data will perform consistently exact advertisement purchases amidst advancing offering assignments.

Conceivable Challenges with DMP

Coordination

Preceding the entire information, the authorities begin — you have to set up the connection between sources. Your convincing objective is to keep up an experiencing transmission of information different sources without reexamining and bumbling into a hazardous situation.

To get that going — you ought to check that the majority of the sources meet

framework fundamentals and are extraordinary with others.

Managing Scalability

DMP is in vague class from its scaling limit. That is one section key to its incredible endeavor. The thing is — standard Ad Tech practices contains immense measures of different occasions occurring on locales. Additionally, each and every piece of this data must be gathered.

In like manner, if the structure can't oversee such lingering occupation that should be done — pesters seek after.

A boss among the best reactions for DMP flexibility is to utilize a cloud orchestrate. Most of the associations give modified scaling highlights that will truly ease up the test.

Information Storage

Directing information is a certain something. Notwithstanding, you in like way need to store it someplace and that is a test. You have a huge stream of pushing toward data. It is always aggregated, managed, sectioned and exchanged. You have information in special use and information that was by then utilized. These things must be verified securely.

Refining Automation

DMP directs significant proportions of information beginning from different sources — that makes a need of making a lot of robotized conditions that will deal with the errand with its own exceptional settings. We're looking at an epic number of occasions reliably — there is zero shot an individual will probably supervise it physically.

Protection and GDPR

Full decision of GDPR is a beguilement changing minute for an Ad Tech industry.

On one hand, GDPR's headway of the significance of the client's precious information is convincing exceptional changes in ways to deal with oversee pass on progression content. On the other, it is an opportunity to pass on straightforwardness and trust to a somewhat decrease region of Ad Tech.

Over the long haul, GDPR will turn Ad Tech utilization of DMP on its head. The thing is — GDPR consistency isn't a joke.

Frankly, that recommends you have to propel the running with demand:

1. What sort of information would you say you will collect and from what sources?

2. Where is aggregated information going to be verified? Whatever degree is it going to be verified?

3. Who will approach it?

4. Are outcasts attracted with the development of security enduring?

Another fundamental thing is to have a structure that will store data about the use of data. That is a central factor in structure a thoroughly immediate and solid development.

End

dJAX Data Management Platform is the best course to pass on quality creatives to the focused on the gathering. Managing DMP with at most idea can help in structure an ideal stage to connect forward. A precise contraption with brilliantly working nuances to consider the present heartbeat on the techniques for the displaying attempts.

[uniformbravo]

so this post got me thinking about reigen & his attitude towards mob before and during the separation arc, so i thought i’d just. share my thoughts

(definitely read that post first, this is like partially based on it)

ok disclaimer before i start: im not saying anything im about to say is like. “”The Correct Interpretation”” or whatever, this is just. how i see things. feel free to disagree ok

now can i be real for a sec. like maybe a little Too Real: i really don’t like how the anime handled reigen. u can tell they pushed really hard to make him more likable, like they really really want you to like him so they intentionally framed him in a way that convinces you to admire him; the “conman with a heart of gold” who’s essentially adopted mob and acts as a role model for him, right

and it’s so easy to see him that way if your introductory (or sole) point of reference is the anime (especially with the way they inserted and altered that scene showing how mob & reigen met in ep 11). but in the manga, at least the way i see it, he is just Pure Sleaze through and through, doing anything and everything to keep manipulating mob into staying with him- tells him joining a club to make friends is a waste of time, tries to convince him that no one at school wants to spend time with him anyway, that they all just make fun of him behind his back. he doesn’t respect him, he makes him do things he is very obviously uncomfortable with, he constantly calls him out of the blue expecting him to drop everything (though “it’s not like you had anything going on anyway”) for random jobs despite having been asked several times before not to do that, etc etc

i honestly feel like any time it looks like reigen is being a Good Person and helping mob out it’s at least partially the result of selfish motives; he needs to keep mob happy on the job or else he won’t want to come back anymore (i wonder if that’s part of the reason reigen started taking him out for food). literally the main reason he even shows up for the first claw arc is because mob didn’t show up for work and he needs to drag him back to reprimand him (tho i could see there being an underlying concern for him there as well)*

i mean, just look at their entire situation objectively: a man in his mid-twenties takes advantage of a literal child for his own monetary gain like??? god

anyway the reason i love the separation arc so damn much is because reigen finally fucking realizes what a grade A piece of shit he’s being, and he feels guilty as hell about it and it’s so fucking satisfying like holy shit literally bye reigen

he realizes that mob is worth so much more than the shit he’s been putting him through (what a concept!) and, even further, he realizes that mob is an extremely important (even integral) part of his life and he’s been taking him for granted (an understatement) this entire time. he realizes that he looks up to mob, actually admires him, and that sets everything in perspective for him- the realization that this kid half his age is progressing more than he himself ever has, is a bigger person than he’ll ever be if he continues down the path he’s on now, and that the only thing reigen had ever done for him up until he finally left was hold him back in every way possible

most importantly though, to me at least, is the immediate change he goes through upon having these realizations: he admits that he was wrong and rectifies his last statement to him, publicly, in the hope that it’ll somehow reach mob wherever he is (because he isn’t planning to see or bother him any more in person after this), and he expects nothing in return (kind of amazing for a guy who thus far has done nothing but strive to squeeze every ounce of attention and respect out of every breathing human he comes into contact with)

and when mob shows up at the end, he isn’t received with the gloating “ha, i knew you’d come to your senses eventually” that reigen was very obviously prepared to give before, but instead with a simple, “why did you come?”

because he knows now, he knows he fucked up and that mob has absolutely no reason to forgive him or even speak to him ever again (”i said a terrible thing to him”) ((you said many terrible things to him)), so to see him then and there, after all that, his reaction becomes “what are you doing here, why are you even giving me the time of day, you were right to leave” and that alone already shows so much growth

(and mob, of course, forgives him, because he can see that reigen has learned his fuckin lesson now- honestly in the beginning of the arc reigen was waiting for mob to come to his senses so he could gloat but what really happened was reigen coming to his damn senses and mob going “i knew u had it in you :)” and i think that’s beautiful)

what i love about that analysis / modified translation is that it does a much better job getting across what a condescending piece of shit reigen was being before, and hammers home the weight of what this realization means to him, the full depth of it in context, the subtle nuances, just. everything. it’s so good. it’s so fucking good im #Blessed im living this is such incredibly valuable information @ op thank u???

In Conclusion reigen arataka invented character development, the separation arc saved my life, and that analysis made me immortal

-

*second disclaimer: when i say reigen only cares about keeping mob to work for him, im just talking about like. his base motivation. if he really was a heartless asshole who didn’t care about mob at all, the events of the separation arc wouldn’t have had any effect on him- he would’ve just gone on being bitter about his most valuable asset ditching him over what he saw as a small argument

i think that initially, back when they first met, reigen was only concerned with the thought of “oh shit i could make a fortune off this kid” (because before he found out about his powers he was annoyed & trying to get rid of him lol) but as time went on he grew a soft spot for him that eventually turned into actually caring about him, but it’s more of a subconscious thing; he doesn’t actually realize how much he cares about mob until he leaves, which is why it hits him so hard when he finally does realize

it’s not a random epiphany, either; it builds over the course of the entire arc, starting when mob stops showing up for work. reigen isn’t prepared to suddenly have that absence in his life, and he’s definitely not ready to confront the possibility (read: fact) that he’s in the wrong. so he pushes all the blame onto mob, convinces himself that he’s just overreacting and that he’ll come crawling back in no time, because mob needs him, he needs him. as far as reigen is convinced, mob doesn’t have anyone else to go to besides him, his sole mentor in life, so in the end it doesn’t even matter if reigen was shitty to him (which, of course, he definitely wasn’t) because mob has no other choice but to return in the end

then of course that all flies out the window when reigen sees mob with his friends in public and it blows his entire goddamn mind and he’s forced to acknowledge the fact that okay, so maybe mob does have friends, and even more, he’s having a good time with them?? he’s not completely floundering without reigen or obsessively thinking about him 24/7 consumed with the question of when things will go back to normal????

and reigen just cannot face that reality, that he’s not the hot shit he thought he was to mob, that his absence has literally zero effect on him, that he’s the only one falling apart over this, so he shoves it all aside and distracts himself with work. throws himself into his work, fuels himself with burning spite and dedicates every waking hour to proving that no, i don’t need him either, if he can get along fine without me then i can do a thousand times better without him holding me back. that’s what he tells himself, and that’s what he believes, but the whole thing is nothing more than one huge distraction, big enough to cover the giant absence suddenly gaping within him like a tarp thrown over so he doesn’t have to look at it, because he doesn’t want to look at it, he wants nothing to do with it

and that works, for a while. he gets wrapped up in success and fame and probably even manages to forget about mob for a little while- until everything comes crashing down and he hits the lowest point in his career, maybe even his life (definitely, from a writing standpoint, his story arc). only then do his thoughts return to mob, and only then does everything hit him in full force. everything he’s been holding back, everything he’s refused to admit, and then some- feelings he never even knew about in the first place but that he realizes were there all along

most importantly, he finally accepts that he was in the wrong and that he has no one to blame for this entire disaster but himself

and that’s where the change begins

(basically, reigen has cared about mob the whole time but he’s a dumbass and didn’t realize it so he just kept treating him the way he always has until mob got himself tf out of there and gave him the biggest wake up call of his life #goodnight arataka)

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Detention

by Ronan Wills

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Taiwan's history of martial law makes for an excellent portable horror game

Oooh! This is in the Axis of Awesome!~

Horror video games are in an odd spot right now. With my beloved Silent Hill buried beneath the ashes of Konami and the genre dormant in the big-budget space (although Capcom might be giving it a sharp poke back into wakefulness, if Resident Evil 7 and the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake are anything to go by), gamers looking for a scary good time have increasingly turned to the indie scene to get their fix.

But even that’s starting to stagnate, with a plethora of shabby titles ripping off whatever the latest big trend is. The

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

clones weren’t too bad, but things got really dire once

Five Night’s At Freddy’s

came along.

There is, however, another trend that’s flown under the radar. In recent years, indie horror games from south-east Asia have started to crop up here and there. Developed with an international audience in mind but touting their local culture and mythology as a selling point, these games stand out both due to their point of origin and because they tend to take inspiration from older, more well-regarded horror classics, instead of chasing the latest flash in the pan. The trend seems to have begun with

DreadOut

, a Kickstarted game from Indonesia heavily inspired by the Fatal Frame/Project Zero franchise, and over the last few years more and more have popped up on Steam and other digital platforms.

Jonesing for something spooky to play and realizing that I hadn’t dipped my toe into this particular corner of the market yet, I browsed the Nintendo Switch online store and spotted

Detention

, a Taiwanese game from developer Red Candle. I remembered hearing good things about it when it was released on the PC early last year, but I didn’t know much about it past the basic plot setup and that it’s a 2D side-scrolling game.

Now I’m just kicking myself for not playing it sooner. Everyone who loves classic horror games and who harbours hope for the future of the genre needs to play this game immediately.

Detention

takes place in the 1960s, during the period of Taiwanese history known as the White Terror. The country is under the rule of the nationalist Kuomintang, who use anti-Communist paranoia and tension with neighbouring China to brutally stamp out any hint of dissent among the populace. Our protagonist is Fang Ray Shin, a seventeen year old high school student on the cusp of graduation and adulthood.

Trapped in her school during an unseasonable typhoon, Ray finds herself in a nightmarish version of her familiar world, where ghostly creatures roam the halls and supernatural manifestations force her to confront the events of her recent past--events that she either doesn’t remember, or is trying desperately to forget.

If that setup sounds just a wee bit familiar, then you’ll understand why I sat up and gasped in delight more or less the moment I started playing

Detention

. It’s very clearly and obviously riffing on the older

Silent Hill

games, and unlike many horror games that have tried to do this over the years, it both successfully distills the essence of what made

Silent Hill

so memorable and also manages to retain its own identity.

Despite the 2D presentation,

Detention’s

gameplay is as familiar and comfortable as a favourite pair of slippers. You explore spooky, elaborate environments, searching for clues and items to help you solve puzzles that usually operate on some amount of dream logic. You’ll use items on environmental objects, you’ll hunt down keys, you’ll find statues that look as though they’re meant to be holding something but are currently not holding anything...it’s very familiar survival horror fare. The puzzles are uniformly clever and intriguing; as the game goes on they ramp up in difficulty nicely, eventually requiring the sort of lateral thinking that leads to satisfying “ah ha!” moments. Smart environmental design means that you’ll never fail to progress simply because you didn’t press A on the right piece of background; things you’re meant to interact with are clearly signposted as such.

Where Detention diverges from its inspiration is in enemy encounters. Realizing that combat was always the worst part of classic horror games, Red Candle decided to do away with it entirely in favour of light stealth mechanics. You’ll be looking to avoid

Detention’s

eerie monsters rather than kill them, although I don’t want to spoil the main mechanic by which you do that because it’s pretty original. Enemies aren’t very common--they show up just enough that you’re always worried about running into one, but the game doesn’t throw them at you just for the sake of creating artificial difficulty. Puzzles and plot are the main focus here, particularly in the game's second half.

Said plot is easily

Detention’s

greatest asset. From the very first scene, where a teacher is called away by the school’s political officer for unknown reasons, the game establishes a heavy atmosphere of dread. Its handling of Taiwan’s history really demonstrates the difference between people telling the stories of their own culture and an outsider doing it. A western developer would likely have gone much heavier on the White Terror angle, rather than taking the much more nuanced approach that Red Candle did.

The White Terror is both ever-present and distant. Like all people who live through history, Ray isn’t aware that her experiences will one day seem extraordinary to future generations, or that the society she lives in will come to be viewed as a transient period of darkness between relative stretches of light. This is just her life; she and her classmates and family and teachers have the same daily concerns as anyone else living at any other time, they just happen to exist in an environment where mundane actions and worries can get people killed. Feeling stifled by her surroundings and her home life and yearning to escape, but not knowing what that would look like in practice, Ray takes the kinds of reckless actions that young people the world over are prone to. The fact that her life is engulfed in tragedy as a result isn’t treated as remarkable or even unfair; it’s just the reality of the time and place she happens to live in.

If you’re familiar with

Silent Hill

-inspired games, you’ll know that they like to have Big Plot Twists of a certain nature. Very early on, I figured out what I thought was going to be

Detention’s

Big Plot Twist, but it turns out that the developers were one step ahead of me. Obviously anticipating this reaction from savvy horror fans, they de-twist the twist by basically giving the game away well before the climax. The suggestive symbolism littered throughout the personalized hell that Ray finds herself in lays out the basic fundamentals of what happened to her and the other characters and why she’s in the situation she’s in very clearly, and then a combination of cut-scenes and documents makes it explicit if you’re paying any attention at all. This turns out to be a smart move on Red Candle’s part, as trying to conceal the truth for a Big Plot Twist would likely have failed, and the exact specifics of why everything happened is more interesting than the mere fact that it did happen.

Ray herself is one of the best-written videogame characters I’ve seen in years. Initially encountered through someone else’s perspective, she comes off at first glance as the sort of timid, helpless heroine that horror likes to go in for. But as you peel back the layers of the plot, she turns out to be something very different altogether, both stronger and weaker than she appeared at first, and heart-breakingly relatable even as she’s caught up in circumstances that most of the people playing as her will (hopefully) never experience.

More than just well-written, Detention is subtle and intelligent. Visuals, music, plot and dialogue weave together in eye-opening and unexpected ways, forcing you to constantly re-examine things you saw earlier in new light. It really does reach the heights of meaningful, subtle symbolism that Silent Hill achieved at its best. At times, it might exceed it.

I’m enough of a

Silent Hill

mega fan that that’s high praise indeed. In case it didn’t come through clear enough, I loved every single second of

Detention

, from its mysterious, foreboding opening to it's heart-breaking conclusion. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the successor to the throne of the top tier of videogame horror that Konami relinquished when they started farming Silent Hill out to inexperienced studios, and my anticipation for Red Candles’ next game is physically painful.

All that aside, the game has a few irritating flaws. The English version is plagued with a number of typos and grammatical errors, including the occasional straight up missing word; judging by Red Candles’ English website, it seems like they don’t have any entirely fluent speakers on staff, and it shows. The problems aren’t enough to be a deal breaker by any means, but the mistakes are jarring given how well written the dialogue is, and it’s disappointing to see these errors uncorrected in a version of the game released well over a year after the initial PC release.

At one point, the game brings up a student/teacher relationship which (reading between the lines) appears to have become sexual. Taken at face value, the way the story leaves off this plot point could be read as alarmingly positive. Thinking about it a bit more deeply in context, the rose-tinted way the relationship is portrayed is being filtered entirely through the perspective of the student--who has understandable reasons for feeling that way and wildly mis-interprets other adult dynamics--rather than any detached authorial voice. The only third-party opinion we get on the situation comes from another adult who's generally portrayed as an empathetic type with her head screwed on straight; the fact that she basically calls the teacher involved a predator is, I feel, a pretty clear indicator of where the developers' own feelings lie (there are also some horror elements of the game that don't exactly paint the adult party in a positive light).

Still, I wanted to bring it up in case readers may be uncomfortable with the idea of playing a game that tackled this subject matter at all. Other than this plot point, the game stays entirely away from sexual violence and abuse, which I thought was an admirable bit of restraint given how dark some of the other topics handled are (this is, again, somewhere that I feel a western developer might have tripped up).

Also, the Switch version of the game chugs and drops the framerate during visually busy environments. I’m assuming this issue isn’t present in other versions of the game, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re considering where to play it.

Regardless of how you play it, I recommend you do play it.

Detention

is the best horror game I've played in years and easily one of the most nuanced, mature stories in the medium as a whole. I have no hesitation in making it my inaugural

Axis of Awesome

entry on Ferretbrain.

Themes:

Computer Games

,

Horror

[kayawagner]

Are You Crying For Real, or Just Pretending?

Phil Vecchione wrote an article on safety tools at the table, and we were approached around the same time about an article on larping lessons that could be applied to tabletop RPGs regarding safety. Since the topic of safety at the table is one of incredible importance, we decided to move up the running of this guest article by Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit games.  – John Arcadian

I think about safety all the time – my wife’s not-entirely-respectful nickname for me is “Safety Champ”. Live action games – freeform, larp, whatever – can be physically and emotionally intense, and while their capacity for actual harm is low, it is not zero. So as I make and play this sort of game, safety is on my mind. I don’t really want players to be thinking about it, but I want them to be embodying it – and there’s a lot of clever ways to approach this goal.

Metatechniques are tools that we can use to control a live action game from the outside. The idea of a GM whispering suggestions in a player’s ear is a metatechnique. For example, the “bird-in-ear” technique allows a GM (and sometimes other players) to whisper in-character thoughts or impulses into a player’s ear to help guide and motivate their character’s actions. While these are fun and useful, the most obvious use of metatechniques, as far as I’m concerned, is to make play safer. My thoughts here build on the work of many, many smart people with countless experiences using these tools – and others – both successfully and disastrously. I am not really saying anything new and urge you to follow the links at the end for insight, nuance, and revelation.

Take Care of Yourself

You need the freedom to leave a game for any reason, at any time.

All other safety metatechniques cascade down from this. The most common formulation of this principle (I hesitate to call it a metatechnique) is “The Door Is Always Open”, first articulated, as far as I know, by Eirik Fatland. Once this is understood, it is widely used in practice, to good effect. If you need to pee, go pee, even if we are all pretending to be locked inside a nuclear reactor. If you aren’t enjoying the experience, go do something fun and we’ll all be happier for it. If leaving somehow derails the game, that’s fine – sometimes that happens. Making it clear that people are more important than the game is remarkably freeing, and every other technique feels like a refinement of this sentiment.

Stop Everything!

Many larp communities use a single word to stop play in the event of immediate danger. The word “stop” is very likely to come up in play, between characters, in situations where nobody wants or needs the entire game to pause. A very common alternative, used in Nordic larp since the 1990s, is “Kutt”, or “Cut”, which is less likely to crop up as a word in play. Many campaign boffer larps, where combat with prop weapons may be a primary aspect of play, use “Hold” for this purpose during field battles, with an accompanying “Lay On” to resume the action. In my experience these are treated with deadly seriousness, and rightly so. This raises an important point – the more people involved, and the more potentially physically harmful the interaction, the more critical this tool is.

In practice Cut is rarely employed (although Hold is used readily, in my experience). When it is needed, though, it’s really needed. What’s more, the action of discussing and practicing Cut allows people to trust in the game and play more comfortably, even when it is never used. The down-side to Cut, as my friend Alex Roberts notes, being the person who grinds play to a halt and attracts the attention of everyone in the room is a social anxiety nightmare, particularly for people who might feel marginalized or uncomfortable already.

Ease Up, Buddy!

Another best practice is one word that calibrates intensity. The Nordic companion to Kutt is “Brems,” or “Brake.” The idea behind Brake is that, when invoked, it signals scene partners that you are approaching a level of intensity with which you aren’t comfortable. Essentially you are saying, “this far, but no father, please. Tap the brakes.” Unlike Cut, there’s no clear and standardized understanding of what to do when you hear Brake beyond “take care of your scene partner.” Used as intended, it requires a player to be aware of their level of discomfort and think ahead a little, which can be challenging if not impossible. Brake also has the distinct disadvantage, in English, of being a common word with a homonym (break) that is likely to come up often is normal conversation. Brake, because of this homonym, sometimes gets confused with break, and gets used like the semantically identical Cut. That’s a lot of potential for confusion.

“Largo” is a North American alternative to Brake, developed by LearnLarp LLC and used very effectively in their New World Magischola weekend larps. Largo, when spoken as a metatechnique, means “take a physical step back and lower your intensity.” This has a couple of distinct advantages over Brake, in my opinion. First, nobody says Largo in everyday conversation, so it jumps out verbally and demands attention. Second, the meaning is very clear: get out of your scene partner’s physical space and lower the intensity of the scene. Usually the reason for calling Largo is obvious, but if it isn’t, you have the distance and opportunity to check in. If Largo has any disadvantage, it is that it sounds a little weird to say and may be hard to remember.

Checking In and Checking Out

There’s a whole universe of tools that may or may not be appropriate for your particular game.

You might want a way to discreetly ask another player if they are feeling all right – like the title of this article says, the difference between genuine emotional distress and being super into your character’s emotional journey is pretty opaque from the outside. The best tool for this that I’m aware of is called the OK Check-In, and it is a simple hand gesture that is offered and reflected, signaling either “I’m good” or “I could use some help, please drop character and see what you can do for me.” The OK Check-In is so simple, and so easy to instantiate, that it is being widely adopted across North American larp scenes.

You might want a way to enter a scene unobtrusively, or exit without disrupting the action. There’s a clever metatechnique called the Look-Down that’s excellent for slipping into a class at magic school late without your character actually being late.

That’s Not How We Do It Around Here

I should note that culture and style of play have a huge impact on how these metatechniques get used, and how effective they are. Cut and Brake emerge from a style of play that assumes they will be the only two out of character words ever spoken during play, for example, while Largo fits in well with a play style where, if a player isn’t sure why Largo was called, they can comfortably drop character and ask.

Other obvious choice would be “Slow Down” or “Slower”, but these present many of the same problems as using Stop instead of Cut: it’s easy to say the words as a character without intending to invoke a metatechnique. On the other hand, it’s obvious, direct, and easy to remember. The consequences of not remembering it when you need it are serious enough that I’d still consider “Slower” a good option. When accompanied by a distinctive hand gesture the intent is unmistakable.

Tools In A Game-Shaped Box

Safety metatechniques need to fit the very specific needs of individual games and experiences  – in a game with a small player count where everyone is going to be engaged with everyone else throughout, for example, Slow Down/Brake/Largo and a relaxed group of players may entirely obviate Cut. There’s no one true way, just the right tools for the job.

Consider the implications of strictly verbal safety metatechniques, for example. What happens when I say “Largo” to a player who is hard of hearing, or not as receptive to auditory cues due to extreme engagement or the way their brain is wired? Combining it with a codified hand gesture – like a gentle pushing away at chest level – solves this problem. If everyone makes a big “X” over their heads when “Cut” is called, you know there’s a problem a mile away.

It’s also worth considering the number and complexity of the tools you choose – there are many appealing options, but you rapidly reach a point of diminishing return if players can’t remember or implement them effectively.

An Example

For the most part, I’m designing short live action games for 4-8 players. I began with Cut and Brake, switched to Cut and Largo as soon as I tried Largo and saw how well it worked, added The Door Is Always Open, and am now switching my calibration metatechnique to Slow Down, and moving away from Cut toward a sort of “cascading trust” model that subsumes it in a broader landscape of informal communication. You can see an example of where this is heading in my own work below. I believe this stuff is important and worth constantly tuning based on my experiences with actual play.

Here’s my current safety framework for a 4-8 person, two hour larp that assumes zero larp experience from the participants:

Getting Ready

Friendship

Always start with friendship. Make sure everyone is comfortable and has the tools to stay that way. Playing pretend – and that’s what you’re doing – requires a high level of trust! Trust that your friends are going to do their best to give you an experience you’ll love, and work hard to do the same for them. Approach the game with respect and love.

Three Ironclad Rules

There are three ironclad rules to playing this game.

People are more important than the game. If you ever need to decide between the actual needs of a real person and literally any competing impulse, go with the person.

The door is always open. No matter what’s happening in the game, take a break or stop playing entirely if you ever feel the need. Let people do what they need to do without questioning them. It’s their business; you can just keep playing.

Slow it down if you need to. If you are ever uncomfortable – if things get too intense, or too weird, or too anything – say “slow down.” If someone says “slow down” to you, take a step back and take it down a notch. If you aren’t sure why you are slowing down, ask. You can say “slow down” for others, too!

You may have other safety rules. Feel free to add them, but always use these three as well.

Helpful Advice

Here are three tips to help you jump right in:

Be obvious. Just do what comes naturally and say the most obvious thing. It isn’t a contest, and deliberately trying to be surprising or funny usually guarantees that you won’t be.

Listen. Use the information the setting and other players provide. Part of helping others have a great time is making their characters interesting, and the best way to do that is to listen and use what you hear.

Be kind. Respect your friends, share the spotlight, and do your best to make everyone else feel awesome. If this isn’t happening for you, remember the three ironclad rules and say something!

Ask questions. If you aren’t sure what is going on, ask. If you aren’t sure someone is having a good time, ask. If you aren’t sure your idea will be fun for your friend, ask.

If this sort of game is new to you, you should know that new players are, without exception, the best players. It’s just a fact.

I feel like these guidelines strike a good balance between openness and constraint. Every conceivable safety ruling descends from following three clear rules: we care about each other here, anyone can leave at any time for any reason, and we control the intensity of play for ourselves and, if necessary, each other. There’s no jargon, low complexity, not much to remember in a potentially stressful moment. Obviously this is an inadequate set of safety rules for a weekend-long game, or a game predicated on physical combat, or a game for eighty people. But for six players and two hours? I feel like these are the right tools. You may note that nowhere do I use the word “safety,” preferring to position the discussion around trust, love, friendship and cooperation. “Safety” terminology introduces anxiety (“Why do I need to be safe? Is this a dangerous activity?”) and a false expectation (“If I follow these rules I will be safe”).

More Thoughts on Safety

The brilliant Lizzie Stark has loads to say on this topic

Johanna Koljonen has a whole blog about larp safety…

…with tons of resources

Eirik Fatland on Kutt, Brems and The Door Is Always Open

The Nordic Larp Wiki has a whole category

Maury Brown is Very Smart

For Discussion…

The techniques discussed here come from experience in collaborative tabletop RPGs, small-scale and 100+ player larps, and other game experiences in between. These principles seem broadly applicable, but how broadly? How are you thinking about safety in your current games? How will these tools evolve as new situations emerge?

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