#demo week december

[medusapelagia]

Other events: General, Rare Pairs, Character Centered Events - October Update

Stevie-ween Three dialogue prompts and the a month to post them. All Stevies are welcome! Event Info

Eddie Munson Big Bang ( @eddiemunsonbigbang) Sign ups are close but you can still join as a pinch hitter! Event info

Metal Sandwich Bingo ( @metalsandwichbingo) Bingo card have been sent and the bingo will take place 1 Oct - 31 Dec, 2024 Event Info

13 Days of Hellcheer (@hellcheerweek) A mix of romantic, spooky and one word prompts for each one of the 13 days of Hellcheer! It starts on October 19th! Event info

Strangetober 2024 (@strangetober) 31 Halloween prompts! Event info

Corroded Coffin Fest (@corrodedcoffinfest) Corroded Coffin fest will host a pop-up event from October 25th-31st based around the 7 Deadly Sins! Mandatory Word Count: 331, 666, 1031 or 1313. Event Info

Billy Hargrove Big Bang ( @billybigbang2024) Teams were made and posting season will start in November! Event info

Spicy Six -ber month challenge 🍂❄️ (hosted by @thefreakandthehair) Lex is hosting another event soon! And the prompts were finally revealed! Find them here. Event Info

Metalsandwich Movie Mania ( @now-showing-at-the-hawk-events ) Pre-2000s Metalsandwich Movie Mania will take place November 10th-23rd!  Event Info and prompts

Demo Week December (on Twitter @/TwistedTwink69) A monsterfucking week from the 2nd to the 7th of December (event +18) Event info

Steve Harrington Big Bang ( @steveharringtonbigbang) Finally we have some info about this Big Bang that was postponed to 2025! Sign Ups Open -- January 01, 2025 Sign Ups Close -- March 21, 2025 Event info

The Monster Hunting Mini Bang (@stoncybangs) Opening in 2025 if you ship Stoncy, Stonathan, Jancy or Stancy this is your moment! More info coming soon Event Info

Stommy Minibang (@stommybang) Teams were made! Get ready for posting season in February 2025! Event info

StrangerThings Reverse Big Bang ( @strangerthingsreversebigbang) This year Big Bang was such a huge success that I can't wait for the next one! Sign-ups opening September 2025!

As always feel free to reblog and add other events!

Under the cut the past events masterlist or AO3 collection if you want something to read!

Stranger Things Sapphic Mini Bang ( @sapphicstevents) Here the AO3 Collection!

September Stobin Extravaganza (@sept-stobin-extravaganza) Find the AO3 Collection HERE

Corroded Coffin - Get a Job Masterlist (@corrodedcoffinfest)

Hellcheer Anniversary week (@hellcheeranniversaryweek) find the entries on their blog!

Stevie week ( @stevieweek), here the AO3 Collection

Stranger Things Big Bang ( @strangerthingsbigbang), AO3 Collection

Corroded Coffin Fest ( @corrodedcoffinfest), AO3 Collection

Summer Things Fest ( @summerthingsfest) Event info on AO3

Sapphic Summer- August Prompts (@sapphicstevents) Here the AO3 Collection

A Stranger Summer ( @astrangersummer) Here the AO3 Collection

[bmpmp3]

Getting into stuff that has a lot of pre-announced release dates is really good for me like vocal synthesizer products and new love live etc franchise music releases....I'll be lying in bed at like 2 AM with ur usual 20-something's fear and existentialism over time and the future and then I'll remember a piece of singing software or a new song related to cartoon characters I like is gonna come out like next month and I'm like 😌

[otomegamesandme]

Anyway if anyone actively follows this blog, what do you think is gonna be on my Top Otomes Played list this year?

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

3 Doors Down - Kryptonite 2000

"Kryptonite" is the debut single of American rockband 3 Doors Down, more famous for their 2003 hit "Here Without You". Even though the band has played it live since 1997, "Kryptonite" was originally released as a demo for local play by 97.9 WCPR-FM in Biloxi, Mississippi, then was picked up by several radio stations during November and December 1999 and was officially serviced to radio on January 18, 2000. The song first charted on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, reaching number one for nine weeks, then topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for 11 weeks; it was 2000's most successful song for both rankings. It also reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest-charting single on the listing.

"Kryptonite" received a total of 81,9% yes votes!

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles— Update 15/Nov/2024

Loads of tasks checked off the list this week!

Edits from the editor for chapter 4 went in, so I can send that over the final readers. I finished the rewrites and my edits for chapter 5, so I’ve sent that over to the editor. And I prepped and started writing on chapter 6!

I also did a recheck on the villain romance to work on pacing. It’s really strange going back to a romance that needs to happen within the space of one book, lol! I can’t have it going slow, or it won’t build enough to feel impactful at the end, but then I also can’t have it go too fast, or it won’t feel like it’s built enough to create the connection…it’s a tough balance!

Really working on that ‘love at first sight’ and ‘it’s fated’ feel for it to help with that—plus I just love that in romances, hehe! :D

Very excited for what’s coming in the next chapter! It’s the first time I’ll be writing Rebecca’s POV in the main game, which is going to be seriously interesting, especially considering what’s happening in the scene…

For those wondering about the next demo release, I’m looking at a New Year’s release. Something to give a fun and exciting start to 2025!

Next week, I’ll be pushing on with chapter 6, as well as starting to look at getting the special Winter scenarios for December on Patreon up together now the polls are over! Hoping those come out as I can see them in my head, hehe! :D

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We’ll be offline as usual, so I’ll talk update you all again next week! <3

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] November 2024

Hello, happy belated Halloween to you!

This dev log includes announcements of upcoming release dates and a brief overview of what was accomplished over the past month, so you might find it interesting to read to the end.

Announcement [Patreon Members]

With the start of this month, changes have been made to the Patreon tiers [Civilian $1 and Inspector $7].

If you haven't familiarized yourself with the updates yet, please be sure to read this post. Thank you for your support! ♥

Announcement [Release Dates]

Here's the release schedule for the upcoming updates:

Demo Expansion: November 9 [Patreon]

L's Side Story: November 30 [Patreon]

Demo Update [Chapter 3 Part 1]: December 7 [Public]

The full list of changes in the expanded demo will be included in the release post, but you can get a preliminary look at them here [in the "About my plans for the current month" section].

Regarding the public demo release: I had planned to release it earlier, at the end of November, but with L's Side Story release, I just won't have time to compile all the files.

Thank you for your patience and for waiting, I hope you'll find it worthwhile!

What was accomplished last month?

Refined the prologue and most scenes in Chapter 1, as well as some in Chapter 2 [especially I's scene].

Besides fixing grammar, I smoothed out parts of the narrative that felt choppy or awkward to improve the overall flow. Some elements in Chapter 1 still need polishing, but for now, my main focus is preparing the Expanded Demo for release. I would also like to thank everyone who submitted error reports. They were incredibly helpful, and I truly appreciate your time and support in improving my story!

Implemented height difference variables.

I've been working on how to best address the height difference between the ROs and the MC since I want the narrative to be responsive to these changes. However, since the two versions of the same RO differ in height depending on their gender, I had to implement 7 new variables to avoid writing multiple *if statements all the time.

A very simple example of usage: @{M_tall 1|2|3|4} = @{M_tall much shorter than you, around|shorter than you, around|around|taller than you, around} Mentions of height differences in the narrative will mostly if you choose flirt options.

Added additional customization for moles.

Thanks to the MC pictures that readers sent me [created with Picrew and drawn], I've decided to add this option for the MC customization. This option won't be mentioned in the narrative, but I thought it would be nice to give readers this choice, hoping that including it in character creation will help some of the players feel more connected to their MC.

About my plans for the current month.

This month will be entirely dedicated to preparing for the demo and side story releases.

In addition to that, the bonus content on Patreon that will be released this month will include:

T's NSFW Alphabet.

A short story [featuring I].

A detailed content release schedule for Patreon can be found here.

Author's Note.

Due to a heavy workload, I unfortunately cannot be active here and answer asks as often as I used to, and I apologize if you did not receive a reply.

I hope to have more time in December once the public update is released, especially since it will also mark one year since the demo was first released! ☺️

Thank you for reading to the end and for your support! Have a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[ligiawrites]

Answer to win some cool prizes!

Hello, everyone!

I hope you’re all safe and healthy. Would you like to win a pack of exclusive keys to all of my games? 

I’d LOVE to hear from you and understand you all better, so I prepared a quick survey that is completely anonymous and should take you no more than 5 minutes to answer. As a Thank You for sharing your opinion with me, you can choose to join a special giveaway! 

Four people will receive a pack of keys to:

ALL of the current and future content in "Love the Guard, Be The King" (Book one), 

An exclusive key to access the Supporters version of LtGBtK, now with more than 130k words (almost twice as much as the public version),

A key to my newest game, "Trek to Dead Water," so you can already play the demo, way before the public release in December. 

Cool, innit?

And if the winner is already a supporter on ko-fi (and thus already has all of these), they may choose between a fully painted portrait of ANY character they want OR a short story (of around 600 words) featuring any two characters they want*.

To join the giveaway, just answer THIS survey: https://forms.gle/XoFmE4CrZidcvB1c8 and please remember to leave a comment in THIS post (or this here post on Tumblr xD) so I can contact you if you win. If you have any questions, just send me a message on Tumblr or Itch.io.

This survey will be open from August 21 to September 21/2024, and I'll announce one winner per week starting on August 28. I'll make weekly announcements on my Tumblr, and a final announcement with all the winners on itch.

I hope to hear from you!

Kisses, Ligia / Ursa em Percurso

*content limitations: no explicitly NSFW content.

[bladeweaver-if]

Bladeweaver Demo Update (25/11/23)

Demo Link

After a few days' delay, I'm happy to announce the release of another update to Bladeweaver's demo!

This is a smaller one, taking the total wordcount from 83k to 102k. Please bear in mind that your playthrough's wordcount will be much smaller, owing to the fact that this update has a lot of variation between scenes depending on what you choose.

If you find any bugs, please do let me know about them so I can fix them quickly! I've tried my best to make everything ship-shape, but things always slip through.

This demo features a set of minor changes to wording and grammar, punctuation etc. across the start of the game. I will be shadow-updating the game every now and then with further minor changes like this, they improve how the story reads and make everything just fit, haha.

It sounds silly, but this feels more real now that I've passed 100,000 words. I'm happy with how things are progressing, though I've been a bit slow to get this one out. I'm aiming to have another update out in two weeks, then I'll be taking a break through late December before resuming work for the next large update.

As always, I'm searching for new beta testers, so please PM me if you're interested!

(Spoilers for the update under the cut) In this update you can:

Have a race with Sam, and use your favoured tactic to beat him (or let him win!)

Take a risk

Choose how to respond to your mentor's method of discipline, and potentially argue with them.

[darkrose-thewriter]

At the Mercy of Hatred (WIP)

At the Mercy of Hatred is a standalone work-in-progress interactive superhero novel by DarkRose and U12.

You will play as a vigilante seeking revenge for the deaths of their family and friends, while also uncovering the identity and motive of the murderer, and also as an antihero, a former agent of the Superpowers Regulatory Agency, who was accused of murder they did not commit, and who has returned to take revenge against their former friends and employer.

Synopsis:

The Butcher Story: I’m the most wanted person in the East Federation. They want me for a murder I didn’t commit. Everyone I considered close friends betrayed me. They thought I was going to disappear, but here I am. I’m back in the High City, and this time I’m here to get revenge on those who have wronged me.

The Vigilante Story: I have nothing left. My old life, my family, my friends - all gone. Agents from the Superpowers Regulatory Agency took them away from me, right infront my eyes, and there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t save them. All that’s left is a burning hatred and a desire for revenge, and I will find the truth about why they were taken away and for what reason.

 Features:

play as male, female, or nonbinary as well as trans;

choose your sexual orientation and/or romantic orientation;

full character customization;

choose your power for Butcher or power/powers for vigilante;

play as chaotic neutral or chaotic evil characters;

The information will be added to the blog and extended. Additions will be made as we write

Butcher’s ROs:

Jester (cis female/male): ex-assassin, joined the Butcher after they defeated her/him in battle;

Noise (transmasc nonbinary / transfemme nonbinary): hacker of the Butcher team; they’re helping Butcher because Butcher saved their parents;

Poison (cis female/male; trans man/woman): ex-superhero. Seeing as the superhero community isn’t so perfect, they decided to join Butcher;

Baron / Arthur Weeks (cis male): equips the team with money, transportation and weapons.

The Vigilante RO’s:

Frost (cis female/male, nonbinary): thief and leader of a thieving gang;

Abigail Day / Firestar (cis female): novice superhero, looking for her mom, who’s missing

Neo (cis male/female, trans man/woman, nonbinary,transmasc nonbinary / transfemme nonbinary): a hacker who continues the work of their parents, who are in prison;

Psyche (cis female): agent of the Superpowers Regulatory Agency and leader of Unit Zero;

Secret ROs: Dragon and Frostfire: secret weapons in the hands of the government;

DEMO (December 24) | post about demo | | CoG Forum Thread

hashtags:

main: #at the mercy of hatred if;

for asks: #at the mercy of hatred: asks; #at the mercy of hatred: ro's asks

for RO's: #at the mercy of hatred: ro's

for update and writing updadets: #at the mercy of hatred: demo update; #at the mercy of hatred: writing update

[herotome]

Devlog #141

Hi-ho, Wudge here.

I've gotten ahold of this tool from Feniks that helps you preview and put together sprite expressions, and it's been really nice...! My head hurts a bit rn and it's a bit hard to describe how it works, but I can say with relative certainty that it's already helped to make my life easier. It's rly good for making sure that each set looks cohesive and doesn't have any weird overlappy visual bugs (eg, if an eyebrow's shadow is somehow ON TOP of the eyeball, or if I used the wrong color for a specific upper lip png), and I've been able to start coding in expressions faster than ever before -- though I'll still have to playtest to see how it looks.

The tool has an addon that's really helped me get a bird's eye view of how many assets each character has - aka, what I have left to draw. Looks like I'll want a few for mouth shapes for Warden and Mia, and I have some exporting to do for Griffin. All three of their sprites have come a really long way from the demo release in december though.

Also, you may remember that I was struggling with bedroom eyes last week. I've since looked into it and it seems the problem was actually THE BROWS.

On the left: tired, not rly feelin up to it rn srry guys

On the right: less sleepy, maybe even intrigued

I'm not sure I have it exactly where I want, but it's an improvement. I drew in some new lips as well of course - and a few other parts of his face - I'll try to show off more of that tomorrow.

So yeah, I've pretty much been crawling through expression hell. Not much else to report, so I'll end the devlog here for now.

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[prettyoddfever]

the 2 different Time to Dance demos

The garageband demo of It's Time to Dance was posted to purevolume around October 24, 2004. Pete posted this on November 28th after listening to Panic's purevolume and then met them in Vegas around the following weekend. Then Panic went to visit Fall Out Boy in LA in mid-December 2004. That's the mansoup moment & when Brendon did his vocals for 7 Minutes in Heaven.

Then on January 13, 2005 P!ATD said they were heading into the studio to record It’s Time To Dance as a band. It sounded like they went back to visit Pete in LA to record a professional second version of the demo that could be used for promotional materials.

Pete shared these pictures on the Clandestine buzznet on January 15th. The first one said "in the lab with the scientists in panic" with the caption "your next favorite band. i promise."

Pete's caption for the last picture was “if james van der beek and gerard from my chemical romance had a baby – it would be the human holding this bass guitar. sick bra, brah.”

Ryan posted on livejournal on January 23 that "pete put a shitty picture of us up on the clandestine site. go make fun of it. brendon is wearing a bra."

Pete re-shared this picture on his blog in 2008 with the caption "arent you glad i was there from the very start with a camera in hand at all times. these are really some of my best friends on the planet."

(x) a relevant interview excerpt:

Pete Wentz: “and then you guys came out and stayed with me and Patrick at the Oakwoods to record Time to Dance. You stayed up all night I think playing video games.”

Brendon: “Yeah, man, I was away from my parents, you guys had ALL the video games! We started putting bras on, taking weird pictures and crap… it got weird!” 

Pete also told Nylon in 2006: “When we were living in L.A. they came over to hang out and I wanted to take hilarious pictures of them. Nobody knew how big they’d get at that point so I dressed them up in this ridiculous stuff. They were wearing these crazy hip-hop jackets. One of them was wearing a bra…”

Anyways, Ryan posted on livejournal on January 19th that they'd recorded a full band version of time to dance last week. The official demo for “Its Time To dance (cause boys will be boys)” was posted on purevolume the next day. That’s the version that was used on the FBR spring sampler and even played on some radio stations that year before the album came out. I guess I sort of view the original demo as the demo and the second version as It's Time to Dance... like it gets the title and feels like its own song because of how heavily it was used (even this dang site had it playing in the background). It’s also worth noting that Ryan referred to the song as just “time to dance” in his 1/19 post, while FBR's spring sampler still said “It’s Time to Dance." So the final name change wasn't as unexpected as Relax Relapse jumping to Camisado ha.

[medusapelagia]

Other events: General, Rare Pairs, Character Centered Events - November Update

Eddie Munson Big Bang ( @eddiemunsonbigbang) Sign ups are close but you can still join as a pinch hitter! Event info

Metal Sandwich Bingo ( @metalsandwichbingo) Bingo card have been sent and the bingo will take place 1 Oct - 31 Dec, 2024 Event Info

Billy Hargrove Big Bang ( @billybigbang2024) It's posting season!!! Find the AO3 Collection HERE!

Spicy Six -ber month challenge 🍂❄️ (hosted by @thefreakandthehair) Lex is hosting another event soon! Find the prompts here. Event Info

Sapphic Holiday Exchange (@sapphicstevents) Sign up open till the 28th of November, assignement will be sent by December 2nd Event info

Metalsandwich Movie Mania ( @now-showing-at-the-hawk-events ) Pre-2000s Metalsandwich Movie Mania will take place November 10th-23rd!  Event Info and prompts

Corroded Coffin Fest (@corrodedcoffinfest) Another pop-up event! This time the theme is BLACK FRIDAY! 29th of November! Event info

Demo Week December (on Twitter @/TwistedTwink69) A monsterfucking week from the 2nd to the 7th of December (event +18) Event info

Stevie's Holiday Movie Marathon (@stevieweek) Two movie titles and four prompts for each week of December! All Stevies are welcome! Event info

Steve Harrington Big Bang ( @steveharringtonbigbang) Finally we have some info about this Big Bang that was postponed to 2025! Sign Ups Open -- January 01, 2025 Sign Ups Close -- March 21, 2025 Event info

The Monster Hunting Mini Bang (@stoncybangs) Opening in 2025 if you ship Stoncy, Stonathan, Jancy or Stancy this is your moment! Sign Ups open from April 1st to May 31st Event Info

Stommy Minibang (@stommybang) Teams were made! Get ready for posting season in February 2025! Event info

StrangerThings Reverse Big Bang ( @strangerthingsreversebigbang) This year Big Bang was such a huge success that I can't wait for the next one! Sign-ups opening September 2025!

As always feel free to reblog and add other events!

Under the cut the past events masterlist or AO3 collection if you want something to read!

Stevie-ween Find the AO3 Collection HERE

13 Days of Hellcheer (@hellcheerweek) Here the AO3 Collection

Strangetober 2024 (@strangetober) Find the AO3 Collection HERE

Corroded Coffin Fest (@corrodedcoffinfest) Here is the AO3 Collection and the Masterlist of the 7 sins pop-up event.

Stranger Things Sapphic Mini Bang ( @sapphicstevents) Here the AO3 Collection!

September Stobin Extravaganza (@sept-stobin-extravaganza) Find the AO3 Collection HERE

Corroded Coffin - Get a Job Masterlist (@corrodedcoffinfest)

Hellcheer Anniversary week (@hellcheeranniversaryweek) find the entries on their blog!

Stevie week ( @stevieweek), here the AO3 Collection

Stranger Things Big Bang ( @strangerthingsbigbang), AO3 Collection

Corroded Coffin Fest ( @corrodedcoffinfest), AO3 Collection

Summer Things Fest ( @summerthingsfest) Event info on AO3

Sapphic Summer- August Prompts (@sapphicstevents) Here the AO3 Collection

A Stranger Summer ( @astrangersummer) Here the AO3 Collection

[valiant-if]

Update!

Hey, everyone! I'm not quite back to writing yet, but I wanted to let everyone know about my upcoming plans!

As a little holiday/end-of-the-year treat to all of you, you will be getting the exclusives normally meant for Ko-fi members for free for the month of December!

This means weekly demo and devlog updates, the monthly short story, access to the Q&A for December, and any other goodies I might decide to release for that month.

Ko-fi members should have already seen the update on this, but if you are a Ko-fi member and you do not want to be charged for the month of December, make sure you cancel your sub before then. If you decide to re-sub again in January or even continue to support me through the month of December, I will be very grateful, but please feel free to take advantage of this opportunity.

Money can get tight for a lot of people around this time of year especially. It's not much, but I hope it gives some people a little something to look forward to in December.

I'll be back to writing as normal starting next week. See you all then! 👋🏾

[heart-forge]

Ko-fi Update, Bad Ritual Update Part One, and more!

Okay, it's live on Ko-fi now! Tiers have been integrated, drabbles have been posted, and early access has been opened up for Employee of the Month tier. With this update, your options for both supporting me and accessing the extra goodies that I have posted are:

make a one time donation and get a copy of the full Manor Hill release, when it exists

subscribe for $5 a month and get the full Manor Hill when it exists, continuous post-demo Manor Hill updates, and one week of early access to game updates. This month on December 15h (2023), you'll get access to phase one of the Bad Ritual update which includes extensive rewrites, new achievements, a redone profile page, new character creation options, and probably more stuff that I did so long ago I forgot!

subscribe for $10 a month and get access to all the benefits above, as well as a monthly snippet! The re-vamp launched with three, one for each of the Manor Hill Lis depicting them just before they took off for the Harvest Festival. Your early access also starts today! Subscribe and get access to that link as soon as you like.

Thanks for your patience while I did this !! I hope yall like what I have to offer here.

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Update 22/Dec/2023

Oh, making the switch back to Book Four after Holiday Magic has been quite the experience, hehe!

For a start, I have to keep remembering that Book Four is set at the end of Summer instead of winter and lingering descriptions of sparkling snow drifts is a bit out of place! :D

But I have enjoyed reading through the plan of where I was at. I was thinking on just getting stuck back into the writing full steam, but with Christmas break so close on the horizon, I ended up editing instead…the sensible option, lol.

I am really promising myself this time around that I am going to be so much more organized with editing! :D Anyone who has followed me for a while knows it’s not exactly my favourite part, as much as it’s the most important!

So, I resisted the urge to just write and focused on rewriting a couple of bits I knew I wanted adapting, as well as changing a couple of choice sets, then rereading and editing all of what I’ve already written.

It actually puts me in the perfect spot to come back to, which works out well because we’ll be going on Christmas break tomorrow!

We’re all a bit knackered after Holiday Magic’s release and jumping back to Book Four, so I think a rest is much needed…although I keep looking at Book Four’s plans and thinking how desperate I am to get to a certain part coming up, hehe!

Our Christmas break will be from 23rd December 2023 to 3rd January 2024.

That first week back in January we will be coming back into things slowly and getting ourselves organized for the year ahead, as we have some amazing things planned. Though my focus will be completely on Book Four and getting the first demo released!

We hope you all have the most magical festive season if you celebrate it, and if not then just a wonderful time ahead, and a sparkling New Year! It’s gonna be a good one in Wayhaven, hehe! ;D

[blazehedgehog]

What do you think of the idea that YouTubers in the 2010s are the reason Sonic had/has a bad reputation?

It's really stupid. Completely unfounded.

You know why Youtubers in 2010's felt that way? Because a lot of people outside of the Sonic fandom felt that way.

I was in high school when Sonic Adventure 1 came out. I got my Dreamcast for Christmas in 1999. Purely by surprise, my brother sent me $200 for Christmas that year after not hearing from him for a decade. I was living in Colorado, and we'd had a white Christmas, meaning the roads were too slick to drive anywhere on December 26th. But I knew I wanted that Dreamcast.

The local Wal-mart was a little over a mile away. So, I bundled up and hiked it. With other money I got for Christmas that year, I had just enough for the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure, an off-brand VMU, an issue of Official Dreamcast Magazine with a demo disc, and a lightgun -- I'd wanted House of the Dead 2 and I was desperate for a home port of The Lost World.

I played Sonic Adventure all day, every day, for like a week. Some of that was the fault of the cheap VMU I got -- it wasn't even a VMU, it was just a memory card, and it was half the price of the official thing. For whatever reason, Sonic Adventure (and ONLY Sonic Adventure) had trouble saving to that thing. My saves would frequently corrupt and disappear. I didn't mind as much as you'd think. I willingly and happily replayed Sonic Adventure over, and over, and over, and over.

When I got back to school in January of 2000, a lot of other kids had gotten Dreamcasts and Sonic Adventure. And it turned out I was the Sonic Adventure evangelist.

I wouldn't say everyone hated Sonic Adventure, but they were pretty frustrated with it. The main talking point was that there were too many characters in the game and most of them weren't very good. Everyone had their ranking list for who they'd rather be playing as, and universally, everyone just wanted to keep playing as Sonic. Knuckles, Amy, and Big brought up the rear for the most-hated gameplay styles. A lot of kids were saying they weren't even going to bother finishing the game if it meant having to play as Amy and Big.

My point of view was that it was normal. Sonic 2 introduced Tails, Sonic 3 introduced Knuckles, so it makes sense that Sonic Adventure would introduce new playable characters as well. It did little to address their complaints that most of the non-Sonic characters were annoying.

This sentiment never went away. A year later, in 2001, Penny-Arcade, basically the biggest webcomic in the world at that point, awarded Sonic Adventure 2 "the best Sonic game where you do not play as Sonic" award, which was less of an actual award and more of a jab at how Sonic wasn't actually in 75% of that game.

Then the Gamecube ports started coming in, which, if you've watched my Definitive Way to Play series, you'd know that SA1 and SA2 were quick and dirty ports that introduced a lot of problems in visuals, control, and sound. Reviews for those versions deservedly slammed them, citing poor music that drowned out the dialog, rapidly dated visuals, and a generally buggy presentation, on top of all the problems people had with the original Dreamcast releases.

After that, the decline really hit its stride. Sonic Heroes, then Shadow the Hedgehog, then Sonic 06. A real triple whammy of things just getting worse, and worse, and worse. Sonic 06 in particular was so much worse that it hit the fabled point where it wrapped around to being kind of funny for some people.

All of this was YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS before "2010's Youtubers" ever stepped in front of a microphone. Those people were just recounting the lives they had lived.

Anyone who thinks 2010's Youtubers did anything are just revealing how young they were back then, and how ignorant they were about the general temperature of things beyond "after my nappy time and my juice box I'm going to play the colorful animals game, yay!!!"

Before that gets me into too much trouble, I'd also like to say that obviously, times change. Opinions are a fluid thing. There will always be a "younger generation" that thinks about things in a different way than the older generation. Anyone, no matter what era they grew up in, can go back and find some beloved nostalgic classic getting blasted by critics. (For example: recently I rewatched Howard the Duck, a legendary bomb for Lucasfilm, and I loved that movie as a kid)

Loving something that you realize everybody hated when it originally came out is kind of just part of the human experience. A rite of passage, almost. But it helps to embrace that perspective, understand it, and realize you can still keep liking that thing regardless.

2010's Youtubers did nothing except exist.