#earning exp

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - Commands - Victory Pose

[momotech764]

okay so. today i decided to try out a "rush" strategy in ror2 and it's going surprisingly well.

the trick is to play Captain with two hacking beacons and spend as little time looting as possible.

(specifically: use your beacons on the first Large Chest, Drone, Turret (if it's in a good spot, like near the teleporter), Shrine of Chance, or desirable multishop item you see every stage. or if you see any two chests that are close enough to activate with one beacon.)

it saves so much time and somehow i feel like i have more- and better- items than i would if i used my usual full-looting strategy

[applepies-and-starlight]

Running into Canto V with this team, does anyone have any suggestions for IDs (if you need a full list of IDs i have just tell me)

[electric-plants]

i’m such a lesbian that i actually forced myself to do adventure missions in order to get her

[arolesbianism]

Y'know Im not even gonna pretend to get ppl complaining abt the new skill trees because it makes Wilson less unique or whatever. Like there's plenty to complain abt with the skill trees, but you have to understand that the actual abilities Wilson gets from them are still unique, and still quite powerful in some cases. He rly isn't losing anything he hasn't lost by getting a skill tree in the first place, and in particular he could have a lot of use for certain speedruns and at worst is situational, which in itself means he's gained a unique role as a character. He doesn't need another new rework now or anything, the only rework Id want is a rework of the skill trees in general, Wilson is genuinely going to be just fine don't worry

[fern-pajamabrain]

First day of my new save going great. As a challenge I can only earn money with stuff related to fishing (selling/using anything caught with a rod/crabpots, fish related quests, etc)

[soft-serve-soymilk]

Tried challenging the elite four today… I almost felt like crying 😅

[al-perthe]

Okay, Kaeya, so Chicken Skewers - your specialty - gets a pleased reaction from you. But when I make Northern Smoked Chicken - a dish 'fit for a king' - you love it.

Mmhmm. Yep. I'm not reading too much into this. /j

The game is like "no, stop, you've already maxed out your companionship exp for the event today" but I want to treat the characters that are always fighting alongside me <3 So Amber got steak and Noelle got pancakes too

[froggyrights]

Me n the besties getting demoted from the diamond league <33

[sweet-herba-mystica-archive]

FUCK

[tea-with-eleni]

I WILL force my party to finish something.

Tonight, the party ventured to Berez.

They are horribly underleveled due to not following through on a single lead. They were gonna go to the orphanage but decided to go shopping instead. They found Mordenkainen but ran away instead of doing anything to help/subdue him. They told Vasili von Holtz about it - and also that they’d been trying to find Van Richten at the time. They explored Argynvostholt, literally detected the symbol of ravenkind, and left because the scary revenant told them to leave. They met Stella Wachter and were kinda like “Welp that’s sad, sorry your kid’s cray” to Lady Wachter. Lady Wachter tried to get them to join her revolution and they’re just like, “Nah”. 

My guys. You’ve done so much. But also. You have done nothing.

They made it to Berez and were initially like “Nah seems scary let’s go back”. Fortunately, they are not the only ones who have a say in this. They have Ezmerelda d’Avenir and Ireena with them. Ez pointed out they ought to at least scout around Berez, if only to know the best way to run when everything goes horribly wrong. 

This was my smokescreen for discovering Marina’s monument. They were appropriately creeped out, especially Ireena. There was some concern it was a crypt, and some talk of, “What would happen if we speak with dead.......?” Ez poked it and confirmed it really was a statue. 

After some noodling, the wizard pointed out it was getting late and we should end the session without a whole lot happening. I said, “I can get us to a stopping place right now, if you want.” Ireena poked the monument.

The swamp around them vanished.

Next week: They’re going on a vision quest to help Ireena confront her past lives... whether they want it or not! I’m not letting them out until they’re done. They WILL level up from this or SO HELP ME STRAHD.... 

[somehow-still-sane]

I ACTUALLY WORKED AT WEBNOVEL ONCE SO I CAN SHED SOME LIGHT ON THEM

I was more of an intern and even though I signed on as an editorial intern, I think the entire "internship" was disguised as a way to train authors on popular works on the site so they'd be primed to make stuff that appeals to their existing demographic. Either way, I am sadly very familiar with this site and some of the behind-the-scenes.

As far as I understand/remember (I was an intern in 2021):

No, fanfic authors cannot earn money off their works. Copyright and such prevents you from earning that money.

HOWEVER, original authors do earn money off their work. The caveat is that you have to create a very specific type of story for it to be monetisable. This is why there are editors hired at Webnovel for these paid authors. Contracted authors will get a base amount of money plus (a small portion of) how ever much their stories have earned from the on-site currency. As interns, we even met authors that do earn a sizeable income from what they write on the site. Idk if it earns them a living, though. So yes, you can earn money from Webnovel.

That's not to say it isn't predatory btw. I'm sure the company is earning wayyyyy more from their non-contracted authors bc they don't get anything from the on-site currency spent on their stories. Fuck webnovel fr.

I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.

(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)

The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.

So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.

I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.

First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?

And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:

Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.

Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.

I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!

Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.

Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).

Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.

So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.

They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.

I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.

Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.

[ev-n-learning]

I suspect my time with czech is coming to an end soon...

I have six and a half units to go, and with the dramatic decrease in unit content, it will probably only take me a few months to finish them! By the end of the year at most, but more than likely before then.

...sooo I need to pick a new dabble language from the list. And maybe resolve to finish it a bit faster than 1&¾ of a year, LOL. I have other things i wanna learn...!!

Anyways, there's 11 languages on the list and i don't think a single one of them is slavic, so it's gonna be a bit of a struggle no matter what i do, haha. Add in at least 4 new writing systems*...

*one of these is japanese and i still don't really want to learn it. Hmmmm.

[meistoshi]

baldur day,,,,,

[abra-ka-dammit]

the graphics and style in lord of the rings online is peak

found out theres. no mods for the game. i guess some things are too perfect to fix

[dalishious]

Zevran Arainai is an Underrated Delight

There is so much depth to Zevran Arainai’s writing that is often overlooked in favour of either sexually objectifying him or ignoring him altogether… which is kind of ironic, considering that’s how so many people in his life have treated him within universe. And then, of course, there’s the biphobia directed at his character back when Dragon Age: Origins first released. He was a joke in many Gamer Bro circles about how they killed him for flirting with their male protagonist. It’s such a shame, really. Because personally speaking, Zevran is one of my favourite characters in the entire Dragon Age franchise.

Zevran’s introduction to the game immediately sets him apart from every other character who is capable of joining the party. He first appears as an enemy; an assassin hired to kill the Warden by Loghain, the Warden’s political opponent. You immediately have the option to either kill him, or add him to the party roster. Zevran does not initially join the Warden’s cause out of the goodness of his heart; he does it because he knows that the Antivan Crows who essentially own him – which we’ll get to – will kill him for failing to assassinate your character. This really paints his original placement within the group’s dynamics in an interesting light. No one really trusts him; Alistair and Morrigan both outright voice this. Zevran himself believes he is only safe with the Warden so long as he makes himself useful, per how he sells his worthiness to the Warden when trying to convince them to let him join. There’s tension there that really makes getting to know him extra interesting, because before anything else, you need to build trust. So, when he’s finally ready to start revealing parts about his personal history, you the player really get to feel like you’ve earned something special from his character.

Zevran’s mother was Dalish, but fell in love with an elf from the city and left her clan behind. Unfortunately, Zevran’s father was assassinated, leaving her with nothing but his debts to pay. She turned to sex work, until she died giving birth to Zevran, and all that debt fell onto him in turn. Zevran was raised by the sex workers in the brothel his mother worked at, until the age of seven, when the Antivan Crow Guildmaster Talav Arainai bought him for seven sovereigns; one of eighteen children made into “compradi” (recruits) that year. In his training, Zevran was tortured in a variety of ways, and in his own words, “taught to know nothing else but murder”. Of those eighteen, Zevran was one of two who survived the training, the other being a human boy named Taliesen. Then, a woman named Rinnala (“Rinna”) was placed into House Arainai from the Azul Contract that dictated the Crows were to take in unwanted bastard children of the Antivan Crown. For a time being, Zevran, Taliesen, and Rinnala worked well together as a professional and romantic trio. But when Zevran and Taliesen were tricked into believing Rinnala betrayed the Crows in an internal Crow scheme, they killed her. When they learned otherwise, Zevran took it particularly rough, combined with the realization of how little he himself mattered, too.

The trauma that Zevran has experienced is something he often makes jokes about, or speaks detached from. I’ve been called out many times on doing the same thing with my own trauma, and I know it’s a pretty commonplace response in others as well. That makes it feel all the more real; his responses are so authentically relatable. It’s also in a way, I find a little therapeutic to get to comfort a character whose survival mechanism has been to downplay his trauma for so long. The Warden is able to tell Zevran that what he’s been through sounds horrible, and even though Zevran tries to excuse things as not being that bad, you gain significant approval from him, just for showing him sympathy. Sympathy is something he’s severely lacked in his life. For all Zevran jokes about his traumatizing experiences, they clearly left a mark on him. Zevran eventually admits to the Warden that he did not actually anticipate being able to kill them, and that what he really wanted in taking on the job was to die. Again, sorry to get personal here for a moment, but I too have attempted suicide, and honestly I still struggle with ideation sometimes. And yet again I must say that I find something really beautiful in a character like Zevran, who is able to find peace and happiness on the other side of surviving such a thing.

As for Zevran’s romance… oh, Zevran’s romance path is such a delight. He is so multidimensional in that he’s very flirtatious and fun, while also showing genuine vulnerability in time. He admits that his role as a Crow meant he was encouraged to use seduction as a tool. His only experience with a true relationship ended very poorly, with Rinna’s death and a wedge forming between him and Taliesen, who he is eventually forced to kill too in the game. One of my favourite moments in the entire game, is when you invite him to your tent and he says no… and if you accept his consensual rights, that is what changes everything for him and the Warden’s relationship. Zevran feels safe and loved, and he gets to be happy. As of Dragon Age: Inquisition, a romanced Zevran is still at the Warden’s side, too, if they’re alive.

I love Zevran Arainai so much. He truly is an amazingly well done character, and deserves so much more respect and interest than he gets.

*Sourced from in-game dialogue and World of Thedas vol. 2