#first getting into it all. I was never an MMO type of person so it was super hard to get invested. But making Link made it easier and ;; ;;

[hyaciiintho]

🌸｡*ﾟ+. Just an appreciation post of how beautiful my boy is in FFXIV... absolute softness. I love him so much ugh. BRD (his main) is top left and accurate to his current look. I've just recently changed my AST and WHM glams this month, and the bottom right one is just on his wedding/vow renewal day ♡ PLD in the middle left was modified slightly with new weapons (I do not do Good Tank™️ I have Big Fear LOL), his cutie SCH glam in the middle remains the same (WHM again in the middle right, I've used that for YEARS for him).

Just... -SHOVES HIM OVER- love him as I love him ;;; A ;;; Jk that's impossible, I would literally die AND kill for him

Featuring @diademreigned's boy (Link's adopted son) on the top right and @tenebriism's boy (Link's husbando) on the bottom left ✨

[faeiri-tft]

PLEASE do the toontown online rant i want it so badly

this post kinda got away from me, and by "got away from me" i mean this 3000 word toontown rant is Part One. there will be a Part Two to this later in which i actually talk about the fanservers i wanted to talk about. anyway let's go

toontown online (tto) was a children's mostly-turn-based subscription MMO released in 2003. after a few years of obviously being on life support, disney gave a one-month notice that tto (and several other games) would be closing on september 19th, 2013. on the same day the game closed, the fan-run server toontown rewritten (ttr) was announced (with multiple other fanservers/fangames/reimaginings being established since), and is a few months away from outliving the original game

see, one thing about tto that allowed fanservers to crop up so quickly and easily was that it had, um, interesting choices. very interesting choices. like, "kids could use a code injector to turn their backyards into giant mashed-together nightmarescapes"-level choices

(loose video description: a rabbit toon running around a chaotic mismash of rooms, obstacles, and npcs that Should Not Be There. audio caption: Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life".)

but ok let's talk about the actual game first.

toontown online (tto)

the game starts with you creating your player character - you can pick from eventually-9 species, a couple body types, and 2 dozen preset colors. the gender code is a spaghetti nightmare but you won't learn this until the fanservers come about so don't worry about it. you're then taken to the Toontorial, which explains maybe 20% of the game's mechanics before setting you loose into the main game

the toontorial also gives you the basic "plot", such as it is: Toontown is suddenly* under attack by a bunch of boring businessrobots called the Cogs. their goal is to turn toontown into a dreary gray featureless corporate hell; their business activities are so boring that they're physically painful to be around. luckily, they can't take a joke, so the toons have figured out how to defeat them: by playing pranks on them until they laugh so hard they Explode

*originally, the game installer had a little animation giving a backstory for the Cogs' creation. this was never referenced in game, removed pretty quickly, and i think even the devs kinda forgot it existed

that's...pretty much the whole story! in that context, your toon progresses through all of toontown, helping some mostly-pretty-interchangeable shopkeepers, reclaiming buildings from the cogs, eating ice cream, etc. occasionally, the cogs would Come Up With New Tricks (read: major content update) and the toons would Find A Way To Fight Back (read: same major content update). that was the closest thing to Plot, unless you count "the devs scheduled a bunch of invasions of high-tier cogs right before the game's closure". but...i doubt most the kids really expected a Plot. mickey mouse was there

the gameplay:

the Free Account

there were two...pretty different approaches to playing toontown online. when the game launched, there was a 3-day free trial to the entire game, after which you got kicked entirely until you subscribed. at some point, this was changed so that the first area, Toontown Central (TTC), was Always Free - you could do all of that area's quests/"taskline" and limited activities, indefinitely, and in theory this would make you beg your parents for the rest of the game

i have no idea if this actually got more subscriptions or not. from what i can tell it just spawned more warrior cats

(source)

there were. a Lot of warrior cats. there were some other social activities, too, such as Fashion Shows (with your limited range of clothes) and Begging Subscribed Players To Summon Cog Buildings To TTC and Getting Chat Banned. ...however, as one of the subscription kids i didn't really interact with this side of the game, so i'm not the best person to talk about it

2. the Paid Account

mmm look at those crisp clear graphics. hell yes

a subscription account gave you access to this whole map, along with all these areas' tasklines. to progress through the game, you must complete a variety of "ToonTasks" for the Toon Resistance (it's called that. their catchphrase is "Toons of the World, Unite!". you were giving disney money for this). these reward you by increasing your max health (your "Laff Points"), slowly unlocking more combat options, and sending you to different, higher-difficulty areas of toontown

some of these tasks were...longer than others. generally, though, they all boiled down to: "just go fight some cogs"

combat:

(source)

toontown battles are turn-based: the players use their attacks ("gags") first, and then any surviving cogs attack you with, usually, office equipment and puns thereof (unless the cog is e.g. a Loan Shark, in which case they can just fucking bite you). if you defeat a cog, it explodes; if the cog defeats you, you "go sad" and are sent back to the safety of the playground, lose your gag inventory, and can't leave until you heal.

early on, most your battles are 1v1, but later on almost everything is a multiplayer 4-ish-v-4.

an...interesting feature here in the game's early days was that you could only Type Your Own Words to someone who shared their "friend code" with you IRL. otherwise, you had to use this thing:

(source)

you had a set list of phrases you could string together, which generally covered most the things you wanted to say. but it could get frustrating when you wanted to have a real conversation with your toontown friends! so...as the source above mentions, people obviously found ways around the system. turns out that if you let players move objects around their houses, they will use that to Draw Letters and pass their friend code along regardless

eventually - before the warrior cats, of course - disney presumably realized this system was pretty goofy (🥁) , so the game got a real chat, albeit one that functioned on a very strict whitelist. my favorite is that it didn't let you type numbers, however you could just say won too tree for hive etc. like. disney i really don't know what to tell you. anyway

(isn't he charming)

cogs come in levels 1-12, with levels displayed above their heads, and as you'd expect their damage output and HP increase with their level. however, the game doesn't...actually show you cog HP? instead they have a little colored light on their chest that fades from green to red until they explode. you see numbers on all the damage you do, and you see your own HP/laff, but never the cogs'. also lategame cogs are Too Tall For You To See Their Level once they line up for battle (which isn't actually that bad but it's funny). there's a formula for HP per level, but it's never mentioned in-game. i guess someone can teach it to you but then you have to watch them type "a level tin cog has won tree too health" and is that really worth it

(as you can tell i just…don't get this. "my kid is practicing arithmetic with toontown!" - marketing angle expressly denied by god. the stealth edutainment was right there)

anyway! in theory, you have seven base combat options ("gag tracks"), which combine in a variety of ways:

toon-up, which restores your teammates' health;

trap, which does guaranteed high damage but only if someone uses lure;

lure, which stuns the cogs for a few turns and is the only way to make trap work

sound, which does low damage to every cog;

throw, which does medium-high-ish damage to one cog; multiple throws combined give percentage combo damage, and hitting a lured cog will also add percentage "knockback damage";

squirt, which is exactly like throw but less damage;

and drop, which does high damage but cannot hit lured cogs, and has low accuracy unless you hit the cog with something else first

each gag track has 6 levels, which you unlock by using that gag track a bunch. you can't carry as many of the high levels with you - i mean, putting one piano in your backpack makes perfect sense, but two is just silly, right

a few years into the game's lifespan, level 7s were added - these were huge AOE that you could regain with every 500 track EXP. there was also something called "organic gags" to promote the please-log-in-every-day gardening system

every player starts with throw and squirt, and throughout the game you slowly unlock four more gag tracks. your choices are permanent: once you have your six tracks, you're locked out of the seventh forever.

in theory, all of this opens up a huge variety of combat options!

in practice, the battle strategy looks something like this:

use sound

as mentioned, almost all of lategame will be 4v4 battles, which means sound will almost always outdamage everything on earth. you don't even need four foghorns (the highest normal sound gag) to break 200 AOE damage, and the highest health a cog EVER has is 200*. and two of the boss battles can reward you with gag restocks and heals that you can use mid-battle with no consequences (other than having to grind for those rewards a bunch). and failing THAT, you can just...ration your foghorns and take 2 turns to clear a set of cogs, interspersed with healing.

(*okay there was something called "v2.0 cogs" but they were...strange, and we just used sound anyway)

sure, once level 7s were added you could use those occasionally. and you could fall back on lure+throw if you didn't want to use your sound restocks. but even then, for most of tto's existence there was something called the "knockback bug" which. well. just look at it

(link for transcript. it's tvtropes sorry)

if you are a target-audience eight-year-old this translates to "lure + throw will only do enough damage if the cogs Feel like it." like it's really just insult to injury at this point. this was the result of One misplaced variable and was not fixed until the game closed

in the tto era, if you didn't have sound, you were kinda doomed to be kicked out of every fight forever

(bonus fun fact: there were Four entire battle themes and they were 40-second midi loops. let me out)

the bosses:

each of the four cog departments has a Boss Cog. to face off against them, you have to assemble a cog disguise and collect enough merits/stock options/whatever to be allowed into the boss's office.

(pictured: your convincing disguise)

when you enter, your disguise pops off due to Reasons, and you have to fight through...a bunch of waves of normal cogs. it's basically a really long normal battle. once the minions are dealt with, you have to, inexplicably, do a live-action battle against the boss themself:

(loose video description: four toons defeating the CFO by using magnet cranes to hit him in the face with safes for 32 seconds.)

the live-action rounds aren't supposed to go this quickly, but it's still...kinda strange? certain reoccurring game areas require Parkour, but there are no battles like this outside of the Four bosses. the CFO's room is the only place you see these cranes and they have A Lot Going On. the other 3 bosses have their own unique weird mechanics. before the first boss was added we neither had nor needed the ability to Jump. it's just weird

once you've defeated the boss, you're given a reward of varying usefulness (the best/most unbalanced reward type is Unites, which are a free heal or gag restock you can do inside or outside of battle. essentially lategame toons can simply choose not to die. riv2u etc.)

and, um. then you get some more merits/stock options/whatever and do it again. and again. and again. and again. and agai

the grind:

so the thing is that tto was a subscription mmo. every addition to the game had to be measured, above all, in terms of "how can we best get kids to beg their parents to give us money." this especially shows in the suit grind:

(source/source)

you have to defeat each boss 78 times in order to get all their laff points - and as you proceed, you have to defeat an increasing amount of cogs to even be allowed into the boss (although once you max you get in for free).

by far the easiest way is to run through the designated HQ facilities - basically, cog fights interspersed with some platforming or minigames. you only collect your merits/whatever at the Very End of the facility. the only way to increase what a facility gives you is if your last battle ends during an "invasion" - a timed period where One Specific Cog replaces all street cogs, usually summoned with boss rewards.

the sellbot HQ grind isn't so bad. bossbot HQ - the endest-game HQ - frequently requires you to do an hour-long facility and on six separate occasions you have to do seven of them. if the invasion ends before your final battle, you have to sit around until someone summons another. if you lose your internet connection because it's 2008, or if your parents make you come to dinner, or if hacking or the game's general bugginess cause a server reset because you're probably in the busiest district for the invasion bonus, you have spent that Entire Hour On Nothing. the CEO (bossbot cog boss) probably also takes an hour because you and your fellow players are 10

this shit, combined with laff points locked behind gardening (time-gated), racing and golfing (multiplayer minigames with absurd requirements), and fishing (RNG-based with some fish being absurdly rare. i watched my mom fish for one every day for a month), meant that maxing a toon took Years, if you managed it ever.

it wasn't, um. it wasn't good

ok so what else is wrong with this game:

i had "aged out of the game" (lol) by the early '10s, so i'm not the best person to do a writeup of the hacking/scripting situation of those days. that said, what i'm going to do is give you a few examples, and i want you to just...look at them

(source)

(source). early '10s youtube was funny i'm trying to decide if i miss it

(source). fun thing to note here is that other players had collision, so a swarm of t-posing toons could just barricade the gag shop if they wanted to

(video description: toon who has Replaced His Head Model With An Anime Logo throwing thousands of jellybeans at everyone) (cw mild flashing just in case? and also the feather headband accessory)

i should note that the Bring Me To Life vid i started with was client-side, meaning only the player could see their technicolor hellscape. this guy's face was server-side. i do Not Think you should be able to do that

(video description: a player demonstrating use of a bot to get into the nutty river district, followed by other players using it to go to different game areas)

the above video was posted on august 17th, 2013. if you don't want to watch an Unregistered Hypercam 3 recording at about 5 frames per second, what's going on here is:

the player goes to a specific location and says a specific speedchat phrase.

a bot toon teleports to their location and provides some prompts on how to use it

the player tells the bot, via speedchat, to teleport to the (currently closed from the outside) busiest district so the player can follow

these "taxi toons" were server-sided, persisted across server resets, were made by a future fanserver dev, had younger kids referring to them as a "glitch" as if this were something that could Accidentally Happen, and stayed functional until the game closed

like...a lot of the "hacking" was just baby's first script download. this one - afaict also created by the laughing man head guy - is like...the fact that after years of no substantial game updates, someone effectively programmed their own "QOL feature" (note: not actually good for the poor mid-00s server being turned into a clown car) into a silly disney MMO and it just fucking sat there for a year is just. it's just.

i don't know what this is. this is not Playing The Game Toontown Online. this is nothing. this is everything. there are comments from 2013 on some of these videos saying stuff like "hackers killed toontown", but your game cannot have this happen if it is not already dying

and, like...it was. i'm not sure how many moderators there were by this point, but at the very end of tto, the number of active devs was One. the original devteam recently brought this up at the 20th anniversary celebration: devs just...slowly started getting pulled from the game, one at a time. there were a few updates after bossbot HQ - Field Offices, which i've basically never heard anything good about in their tto form ever; the Silly Meter, a yearly event...thing whose main function was to add unskippable dancing-inanimate-object cutscenes to your street battles; Parties, which...yknow parties were okay actually. i accept parties. but they weren't exactly a Major Game Update like the ones that had come before. in 2011 we gained the ability to Wear Hats. in 2012 the test server got some actual QOL updates that never made it to the main game; the final test server update was some maintenance in february, and then nothing for 18 months. disney was not providing enough resources to address the scripting because disney was not providing enough resources to address toontown. imagine being the last dev standing on an MMO that was older than some of its players, was losing its business model to mobile gaming, and spent most of its life falling apart at the seams. just imagine it, for a second

it couldn't have kept going, not like this.

on august 20, 2013, the closing announcement came: we had a month left of toontown online. the test server shut immediately; subscription refunds went out, and the game became actually F2P for the month; the part of the announcement that went like "we're shifting our focus to other games!" made a bunch of twelve-year-olds hate club penguin as if club penguin wouldn't also close in a few years; all the holiday events went off at once; and...

there wasn't a "thanks for playing!" popup. everyone online just got kicked, all at once. it was finally over

hey wait.

[rowanwritestoomuch]

How to Take Advice On Writing

It may seem completely sensical that advice presented by successful authors is good advice on writing. I am here to tell you the truth---

It is not.

Advice on writing is completely subjective. Successful authors are often successful because of the strength of their voice, the ability of their stylistic choices and accomplishment within the language that they are writing in. It is not how they wrote their book, or the choices they made for the text, which makes a successful author. It is the skill in which they wrote it.

Skill can be terrible and still be recognizable. Colleen Hoover for example seems to be highly skillful at enthralling the reader despite having little to no artistry within the body of her writing voice and some poor stylistic choices (see; 'we both laughed at our son's big balls'). But her work does seem to hold a compelling note that has pushed her to the top of the market-- and that is a skill, which is obtained through practice and education, not advice that can be given or taken.

You cannot gain skills through emulating others, you can gain them through practice and focus. If any advice should be taken from other authors it is that you should become proficent in the language you are writing in. Grammer is important, literary styles and archetypes are universal and should be understood, punctuation should be comprehensible. You cannot bend or break the rules to give birth to your writer's voice if you do not understand them in the first place. Fall in love not only with the art of writing but too with the act of it. Study literature and how to create it just as closely as you research niche topics of interest for building your characters or world.

Many people ask how I have written Frisson so fast; 67K published words in 35 days and over 200K scripted. I type at 160 WPM. That's literally the only reason, my fingers are sore but they can move as fast as my mind and many authors find themselves far ahead of what they are writing. I believe this may be a lack in typing skill. I often brush up on my skills, using school-age programs that teach typing to children or tools that rate typing for careers, to make sure that I am remaining capable to create the words as fast as I can think them. I got this skill from playing online MMOs, so consider removing your microphone every once in a while and see how well you can keep up with your teammates in the live chat.

Beyond that, in order to develop your voice, you must not confine yourself to the rules of others. I often followed my mentor's advice of 'only use dialogue when needed'. Now I find myself writing scenes entrenched entirely within the dialogue and using the subtly of vaguery to entice my reader instead of making my characters painfully self aware. Often our lives exist so entirely within the confines of a conversation, memories and photographs all invoke the response of words said, and I would never have noticed how important dialogue was to my writing voice if I had followed that advice which suited the writing style of my mentor so well.

I see many people sharing the rules that other writers have lived by. If we all went the way of 'write drunk, edit sober' such as Hemmingway did, we would simply perish from alcoholism, not create art. It worked for him (debatable, but the point made), it does not need to work for you. Create your own rules for prose once you understand the general idea of prose. Do play with the techniques of others, but do not integrate them as if they are laws that have to be followed regardless of context.

You can create new words. You can use fifteen commas in a row (I personally believe that prose, like a song, can hold the reader in suspence until the period releases them). You can create a brick of text that the reader must get lost in or you can quadruple space for extra effect. You can aliterate in any way you want (often we get hung up on repeated mundane words, but what if you did it with purpose, to create a sound, to create a feeling, to haunt them or enliven them. You choose). You can have your charaters talk for an hour, give a monologue, say nothing at all. You, yourself, the writer, can speak to the reader through the fourth wall if you do it right.

Finding your voice is the hardest part. No one can teach you how to find it. If you follow the rules of other's voices, you will only suceed in being a ghost of them, and there is merit in that too, ghostwriters are incredible people of great skill in their own, however if you wish to obtain a song that is unique only to you; my advice is to become skillful, so that every tool you could ever possibly have is available to you. And then, just write. Write until you can hear yourself speaking the words back to you. Get lost in it, find yourself.

And don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't become skillful. I grew up in a home of povertous rednecks with no desire for the literary arts and an extreme case of dyslexia that prevented me from even learning to read until I was 10 years old. Anyone can become skillful in anything if they have the passion for it, and you need not even a book or a learning partner to learn how to use words, as they are rife in the world around us. Just go out and seek them.

And always, always, always remember, write because it hurts if you don't.

til next time.

[dyke-pollinator]

(this ask is a get-out-of-jail-free card to infodump about osrs)

OSRS is by far the best mmo as far as I'm concerned. You can do literally anything in it. It's so simple. Its just a little medieval fantasy point and click RNG simulator. But that simplicity is what makes it so addicting.

You can literally just do whatever the fuck you want on it. The game doesnt hold your hand at all, and while I can see how that would be overwhelming for new folks getting into the game, its an aspect that keeps me coming back.

It's kind of a single player mmo. Like sure there's content to do with other folks, and it can be social at times, but like your account is yours. Everything takes such a long fucking time in that game, especially if you're playing as any type of Ironman account, that the game feels more personal.

Like I don't play nearly as much as some folks that I know and I still have nearly 5000 hours of in game time on a single account and its not even in the late game yet.

Like sure these stats are pretty decent for an iron, but I haven't even started going most of the end game content like Raids, CG, Nightmare, ect.

No only that but I legitimately that the osrs content creators are some of the absolute best gaming content on Youtube. By far. It is insane what some of these people do with the game, all because of how much of a sandbox it is.

Even if you know nothing about osrs or Runescape in general, I would HIGHLY recommend checking our SoupRS on Youtube and watch his Gielinor Games series. All of them. Start with the first season, and watch them all if you like it. Its like a survivor style game with challenges, voting, bannings, and testimonies, all through the lens of osrs.

Settled is one of the funniest motherfuckers on Youtube and has multiple videos about region locked accounts that are still easy to understand for folks who have never played the game.

Jeporite has a NorthernUIM series that leaves me in hysterics every video.

J1mmy is one of those content creators that turns everything he touches into something good. I cannot praise all of his videos enough, including the ones he makes that arent related to osrs. However, his osrs F2P series is one of my favorites.

Hannanie is a trans woman content creator that just makes some of the most off the wall insane videos I've ever seen. Seriously, she made a fucking 21 part series about cutting fucking trees in this game and managed to make every installment a banger. Hannanie is a treasure and everyone should know her content.

Imo the only gaming content on YT that comes even close to osrs is probably Minecraft, but that is mostly because you can do so much modding that the content stays fresh.

Also look at my silly little pets:

I promise you I spooned the shit out of every single one of them.

Rock Golem at 89 mining, Groot at 86 farming, TWO fucking rex pets before 140kc, 42kc thermy.

Plus with the RuneLite client, you can make your in game interaction as customizable as you want. My whole client is fucking Miku themed lmao. The community has made so many amazing plug ins for this game including a full HD client with dynamic lighting effects, increased GPU distance rendering, ect.

OSRS is a great fucking game and you should definitely be playing it. I will take full responsibility for the thousands of hours that you lose to it. I could go on but this post is already a lot longer than I was expecting it to be.

As an aside: Ironman does something to you. Why do I have 117k Light Orbs in my bank? Idfk might need em. 20k gold tiaras? Just in case. 10k snake skin? You never know when something might pop up. Hoard Everything.

[shamera]

March-April manhwa reccs

In the vein of my last few reccs, here is the latest instalment in Shams-reads-too-much (I know it's only mid-April). This time, I'm back to the top 3 format but with a list of Honorable Mentions because oh boy, the readin' don't stop!

3. The Guild Member Next Door [30 chapters so far]

How is no one talking about this one? The first BL series to make it on my top lists, this is an online gamer meet-ugly cafe story that had me cackling through every chapter. It will brighten your day (threat). The story of an office worker slash secret gamer who starts playing the MMO Illusion and tries to join Poseidon guild only to immediately get PK'ed and accused of being a stalker's alt account, and in his revenge he befriends the entire guild as an FU to his attacker, only for his attacker to in-game propose to him to troll him in return. An adorable and hilarious story following the two as they purposefully step on each other's toes all the way until they're friends in-game, never realizing that they actually know each other IRL!

2. Martial God Regressed to Level 2 [one season]

Let's just say in chapter 1 all of humanity dies, so we already know how this story's going to go. Another OP protagonist whom I really enjoy, starting from scratch in hopes of saving the world. It's Seong Jihan's relationship with his family that makes this series hit different, as he not only uses his knowledge to try and prevent humanity's tragedies, but also does his best this time around to save his niece from her downward mental spiral and become a good role model for her after her father walks away. With little to lose now that he knows what's to come, the MC is more than willing to make enemies out of everyone to ensure they step up their game before the real fight for humanity begins.

1. SSS-Class Suicide Hunter [3 seasons]

This was already on Honorable Mentions back in December, and I know my recc list is meant for new reads, but I had to slap this down again after the PHENOMENAL season 3 ending. We've already seen Kim Gongja's crazy fights to ascend the tower, but the sheer hope. The belief in a better world that these characters have, and their determination to make it so, brought me to tears at the end of season 3. The story of a hunter with negative survival instincts, and a power that allows him to regress to a day before he dies every time he dies... it's not the type of story that I expected to see such delicate beauty within suffering, but here we are, with an MC ready to delve into storybooks to empathize with and relieve the suffering of the characters within, no matter what it takes. I'm so excited for season 4 and the next storybook, I am vibrating.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Raising a Sacrifice

This series is impossible to describe and impossible to put down for long. This is the ultimate fantasy time-loop transmigration system apocalypse god-maker BL I have ever read? It's what happens when the apocalypse keeps resetting and you can never escape that last year no matter how many times you die, and the toll on one's mental state when you start trying-- everything. Murder. Genocide. Madness. And falling in love, again and again and again. And being alone again, after every reset. Thousands and millions of times until you lose all hope, until one day... the MC wakes up with memories of being murdered by his faithful knight, and now there's finally two people with memories beyond one timeline.

Medical Return [complete!!]

The story of a surgeon who led a pitiful life, only to return to his childhood once more by the grace of the gods-- and this time he's determined to not lead the same life again! Now if only the world got that hint, as he seems to be continuously steered back onto his original path, while trying to dodge the tragedies in his life and save just one more person others gave up for dead. This time around, he has a little outside help to finally uncover just why his life went so wrong at every turn the first time and help him retain that inherent goodness without being taken advantage of once more. With an MC with a deposition truly befitting a good doctor, this is for all fans of hospital dramas, and is complete!!

Kill the Villainess [complete!!]

The only way to return home is to play the role of the villainess, Eris, who is condemned to death after attempting to kill the heroine. There is no way to escape that fate, as Eris can't even succeed at taking her own life before she completes her part in the plot. The story of a villainess trying to die to change the story, yet unable to as she continues to uncover backstory beyond the original novel to find the reason why her soul was stuck in this world and unable to leave, while attempting to bypass paths that would trap her in the novel forever. At what point will her actions make her a true villain, and just what is she willing to do in order to return home to the real world?

Little Mushroom

...my cheat this month, with me using the novel cover and everything. (Please read the books, there are only 2 novels and the prose is breathtaking.) The manhua is absolutely gorgeous beyond compare, and the story covers a sentient mushroom post-apocalypse who is journeying into a dangerous human settlement trying to find the spore that was taken from him. In a world where threats to humans loom at every corner and shadow, drastic measures are taken to protect those who survive, employing "Judges" with absolute power to kill if they suspect a being of not being human. It's the story of a non-human and a Judge finding themselves and each other by navigating the active end of the world.

My Darling Signed In [complete!!]

Cute?? Adorable???? Another online gamer couple who meet in real life, this BL story is genuinely all fluff as the MC is found to play a beautiful female elf online, yet their beau falls in love either way as it was the same charisma and personality that drew them in. A green flag couple with turns that surprised me every time with how wholesome things are. It's 2 seasons and complete, featuring them from collage to work space through their ups and downs, navigating their relationship and growing as people all the while continuing their game. Do you need a cute read with a guaranteed happy ending? Here it is!!

Zero Day Attack [1 season done]

Another BL on the list?? This month is full of surprises, as this time it's about a hacker who had to go into hiding after being exposed and is now a barista by day while working to find the man who betrayed him by night, all the while running away from both the organizations he hacked and his old colleagues who are looking for him. Things get complicated when a man who shows up at the cafe he works at won't leave him alone, and blurs the line between his search for revenge and the fake life he's currently living. This one eked its way above Netkama Punch for the mystery and intrigue (as well as having a main couple who is obsessed with each other without wanting to bring harm to the other).

I Will Change the Genre

A transmigrater meets a regressor, and suddenly the novel plot is going very, very awry! In the novel, Judith Maybaum is the hateful aunt of the main character who betrays her nephew and dies for it, yet "Judith Maybaum" isn't actually the same character now, and her nephew is also acting very odd when the story starts rolling. She's determined that her nephew will not go through his lonely and sorrowful life this time around, even if it means giving his custody to the Duke Winterwald, yet for some reason the protagonist clings to her and calls her 'mother' when the Duke comes to take him away! A touching and funny story with, once again, a green flag couple as well as an adorable aunt and nephew pair, both with foreknowledge of the future in different ways as they mess things up and unravel a story that neither of them knew.

GOOD ENOUGH I READ EVERYTHING: -Netkama Punch -The Bromance Book Club [complete] -The Live [complete] -I'll Be the Matriarch in this Life -Reincarnator -Dark Mage Returns to Enlistment -The Main Characters that Only I Know -My Lucky Encounter from the Game Turned Reality -The Archmage's Restaurant -I Tamed a Tyrant and Ran Away -I Created an Urban Legend -The Regressed Demon Lord is Kind

[dokidokitsuna]

Looking forward to playing my first Splatfest ever! As you can see, I’m Team Sour~

I feel like I’m in a kind of odd in-between position; where I’m new enough that I can still relate to the Christmas noobs, but experienced enough to already have a solid playstyle and a few weapons of choice…and if there are any fellow new players following me or casual players who are just looking to improve, I’d like to share a vital piece of wisdom I’ve gained over the past ~1.5 months:

Find your comfort zone, and make it your niche.

Before, when I used to imagine what it’d be like to play Splatoon, I thought of myself as a ‘support’ player, who’d probably spend most of my time inking turf and helping my allies defeat enemies, rather than going full offensive on my own.

When I actually started to play, I did do that for a while (out of fear XD)…but before long I started trying to copy everyone else, thinking that jumping straight into battle was the ‘right’ way to play and that I needed to stop being a ‘coward’. Long story short, I got killed A LOT doing that (lots of unhappy memories with the Reefslider…), and I found myself getting more and more frustrated after matches, and eventually I thought “Y’know what? Clearly this isn’t working…maybe I should just go back to the non-confrontational approach”.

I made a point to stop using weapons with specials that made me try to get into the middle of fights, and stick with specials I could use from the sidelines (Tacticooler, Wave Breaker). Then I went back to playing like a ‘coward’...and I started learning things.

My first breakthrough was literally just learning tactics-- watching player behavior, and figuring out how to exploit it. For instance, when my team was getting cornered or otherwise unable to advance, I would use the ‘suicide run’: sneak around the side of the map and make a mad dash into enemy territory. Not necessarily to ink turf, but to simply get everyone to turn their backs on the front lines and focus on the intruder (who is always seen as the more urgent threat). If you can survive for at least 10 seconds, it’s a valid strategy, and doing this on the regular also taught me evasive skills pretty early on. When you’re constantly getting attacked by 2-3 people at once surrounded by enemy ink with no one nearby to help, you learn fast. ^^

My next breakthrough was learning to aim…which is a valuable skill that not everyone has, believe it or not. ^^ And as the person who usually wandered off alone to ink all the unloved corners of the map, I often found myself in a position to sneak up on enemies and quickly splat them when they were focused on other things…which eventually became the cornerstone of my playstyle.

At this point, I’ve gone back to focusing on inking turf and ‘Splat Assisting’...but I do it not out of fear of trying other things, but because I’m GOOD at THOSE things and now I know how to do them in the most beneficial ways. I’ve learned to ‘splatter’ enemy turf to slow down opponents’ movements and draw them out of hiding, and even to paint escape routes for struggling allies. My aim’s gotten so good that anyone I can hit before they notice me is usually splatted in 2 seconds, and I specifically target people who are preoccupied so I can get those kills. Yesterday I racked up 21 in Clam Blitz (a mode that, just last week, I was afraid to even try) just by doing what I do best and ‘assisting’.

All that is to say, what you feel comfortable doing (in any MMO game, really) is probably what you need to be doing; you just need to get yourself the right tools and tailor your playstyle to accommodate it. There are lots of types of skillsets that can be useful in Splatoon, and lots of ways to work with each weapon class (and Salmon Run is a great way to trial-by-fire yourself into finding weapons you never knew you’d click with…once upon a time I almost considered becoming a Splatana main). Just go with your gut, believe in yourself, and always prioritize having fun~

[sylvaridreams]

20 19 questions for writers

<- why did they lie to me about the #? i demand answers.

I was in bed and going to bed and then I saw that I was tagged by ANTA MY FRIEND @antariies so i got out of bed to answer these

tagging: um. well i dont know. teensie. do you write...? you have to do this then. even if you are in bed.

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

39 right now, but I know I've orphaned about that many as well

2. what fandoms do you write for?

right now... all guild wars 2.

previously I've done a lot of metro 2033, half life, jojo's bizarre adventure, digimon, katekyo hitman reborn... and then less of hlvrai, final fantasy vii, and fruits basket... gw2 is all i do for right now. <:)

3. what are your top 5 by kudos?

This is super skewed because I orphaned a tooooon of my more popular stuff but Nuclear Option, two other vrai fics, Lent (<- should be number 1 if we're being honest and true) and a fruits basket thing that i should have probably also orphaned. the overwhelming urge to orphan things to skew the data further. you have to hold me back

4. do you respond to comments?

yes but not in a timely fashion (last round took me. over a year before i replied to anything. pensive.

5. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I dunno about actually angsty.... the fic that makes me cry every time is butterfly bridge; I wrote it after having to put a pet to sleep. if I ever got around to writing more "portal to the metro" the ending would probably also rank up there. due to. the tragedies.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

proooooobably Lent? idk I feel like I get a lot of "fuck yeah that ending ohhh the catharsis" type reactions on Lent.

7. do you get hate on fics?

I have a number of times. sometimes anon but sometimes people put their names to it?

8. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

yes. sorry. the apologetic kind.

9. do you write crossovers?

not often... usually a crossover is a pretend thing just for me in my Imagination. however. portal to the metro... it was a roleplay between myself and a friend. and then i started writing it in earnest. and then i got tired. then i started writing primarily gw2 stuff. you understand. but someday I'll return to it. and then they'll all be sorry.

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

um. kind of. when I was 17-18 I plotted out a fic I was working on and shared it with a couple of dear close friends. and then like a couple weeks later a massively popular person in the fandom in question posted my fic: their version. down to every little detail. 🙈 never found out which of my friends shared the planning with them.

11. have you ever co-written a fic before?

yeah, Pluto's Moon -- started 8 years ago, finished almost a year later... I wouldn't bother rereading it at this point but. it was a fun experience. we had fun. I also cowrote several chapters of a Reborn crossover fic with my long distance mmo friend when I was a freshman in high school. I don't think we ever got anywhere with it let alone posted it to FFN or anything-- I was handwriting short chapters between classes lol. I might still have those pages somewhere...

and then I think I would also consider portal to the metro a co-write in many ways. because it came from both of us :)

12. what's your all-time favorite ship?

well. I think Canach/Alba has been too prominent for too long for me not to say it. canon/oc numero uno!!!!!!

13. what's one WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i dont even wanna answer and jinx it nooooo cry2. I yearn to finish everything... i guess maybe I have some weird misc smut fics I don't anticipate finishing. due to the strangeness.

14. what are your writing strengths?

dialogue is my dearest sweetest friend. my sweetie pee

15. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i LIKE it! thumbs ups. am I GOOD at it? thumbs in the other directions

16. first fandom you wrote for?

Kingdom Hearts before I ever touched any of the games. (like 17-18 years ago)

17. favorite fic you've written?

I feel like my most recent is always my favoritest 😭 uhhhhg

The Echo (current project)

Drochshúil (recent work)

18. what are your writing weaknesses?

I have no pacing control. I can't meet goals, OR i'll go full crazy and write 160k in 2 weeks. you have to watch out because that can happen to you too if you just go off your antipsych meds for a while

also filling in the stuff AROUND dialogue. so often i'll be editing a fic and just (sighs) dama (me) you (i) can't just have 8 lines in a row of dialogue. what are these people doing in between talking. and then dama (me) is like alright wise guy why don't you take a crack at it if you're so smart. and i do. but in the moment of writing i'm not super good at figuring out the in betweeeeeeens.

also I feel like ending scenes and such is really hard. also getting characters from point a to point b (locations) without doing a timeskip to "well here we are at point b!"

19. have you ever had a fic translated?

I had someone ask to do so with one of my metro fics, to repost on a Russian fanfic site; I wasn't particularly attached to the fic so I told them go ahead. but also I have no idea if it ever happened. heart hands. so maybe. there may have been another but I don't rember.

[hawkepockets]

Hey! I've never played (or, never for more than an hour and not enjoyed it haha) a MMORPG, but your GW2 posting has me very interested o: Do you think it's good for a shy beginner? Is there much single-person content or a good community for casual group play? Ty!

yeah i do think it’s beginner friendly !! granted i’ve been playing the thing for 10 years so i don’t know firsthand what the new player experience is like these days, but i do know the game has made a lot of adjustments over the years to accommodate new players, introducing mechanics more gradually and making things easier to navigate.

there’s no subscription, the base game is free, & there’s no content a casual player would encounter that necessitates getting in a voice chat with people if ur shy — although collaboration with other players will come up organically, as gw2 is built on an xp sharing system (helping another player take down an enemy rewards u both, so kill stealing isn’t possible) & the heart of the game is its open world group events, where strangers will gather to complete objectives or kill bosses, then scatter again to explore and follow their own interests. you definitely don’t have to type in chat ever, but you will probably find that u want to ! group content is like laser tag for forming low-stakes casual bonds with ppl fast

the main story takes place in easily soloable private instances u can do by yourself no question, though u always have the option to bring in a party of friends or join a guild and ask for help there <- highly recommend this for learning the ropes & finding casual group play opportunities !

the 1 caution i give ppl who ask about getting into gw2 is that the story writing gets really good after the base game, in the transition from living world season 2 (a mini dlc, more or less) into the first big expansion, “heart of thorns.” the story expansions (3 big expacs, 5 smaller dlc “seasons”) do add up in cost, $100 USD in total. that should be the ONLY thing you spend real money on in this game (cosmetics can all be got with in-game currency, crafting, or achievement grinds, and there’s no pay-to-win features), and you should definitely hold off until you’ve played the free base game & are sure you like it, but i think everyone should be warned about that in advance. the base game is good too, it was just written in 2012 and is a little bit vintage/unpolished/frankly jank in places. ack……. but i love her

i’ve tried other mmos and not cared for them, but guildwars is special to me and i rly do recommend it. if u try it out and want an oldie player to show u around, please don’t be nervous to dm me !! i’ve tagged along with new players before, i find it super fun :-D

[catscratching]

Tagged: Altitis Edition

Favorite | Seda Ballard This was actually a difficult choice, as I have two characters that will forever be near and dear to my heart.   But Seda is who I spend the most time thinking about and writing for, so she edges out to the front.

Oldest | Veriinya Irenellar Veri was born in 2007? 2008? She was my first… ‘actually roleplay in an MMO’ character.  I had stories written about previous characters, but never did ‘live’ RP with them.  She’s mostly retired these days, although I still write her in an AU setting with a friend.  (I love her to pieces, and she’ll always be very very special to me - and it was through Veri that I met @valdiis!  She was always intrigued by one of Val’s characters and wanted to know him better, but we never had the opportunity. :D)

Newest | Rucio Corcoran I needed an antagonistic character I could use as a foil and part of my XIV roleplay, so Rucio was born.  I had a number of sources of inspiration for him, and I’m not entirely cemented in who he is as a person.

Meanest | Rucio Ambitious, obsessive, amoral and cruel, Cio is one of those characters I have to be in the right headspace to write.  His casual derision and abuse doesn’t come easily, and I’ve got a long list of notes about the characters that inspired him to keep me on track. 

Softest | Anisai Swiftwater Ani is one of those ‘outwardly aloof, but a big softie inside’ types.  He also originated in another MMO, and it seemed natural to me to bring him to XIV.   He’s devoted his life to healing and supporting the people around him - which can sometimes lead to tunnel vision, obscuring larger social problems in the world around him.  

Most Aloof/Standoffish | Seriol Irenellar Veriinya’s father, Seriol is an academic researcher and mindhealer.  Before I quasi-retired him in 2015, he was working with priests of the Dead (who had direct contact with the spirit/souls of the departed) and his research revolved around the things you could do using the pure energy of those ghosts.  … He is not a terribly nice person, and I have considered bringing him into XIV as a second antagonist.

Dumbest (Affectionate) | Keialaar Irenellar Veriinya’s younger sister (I do have a habit of giving my characters connections, although this was the first time I wrote a nearly complete family), Kei isn’t actually dumb exactly, as I just don’t find that dynamic enjoyable, but she’s a very low WIS character.

Dumbest (Derogatory) | Keialaar See above.  She’s the living embodiment of ‘YOLO’ foolishness. :D

Smartest | Seriol Absolutely brilliant, he has very little patience for people that cannot keep up with his intellect.

Horniest | Seda Physical intimacy is one of the easiest way to feel connected - not just to a romantic partner, but to people in a more general sense.  Seda doesn’t conflate sex with love - she’s had enough physical encounters where love did not enter the equation to have a very firm understanding that they are separate.  But sex, even if it’s a solo activity, helps her relax, and now that she has a partner that she’s absolutely crazy about, intimacy with him makes her feel closer to him on an emotional level.

Character You’d Bang | … (Can I say Fakhri here?) - Probably Seda I think she’d understand that sometimes you just want to be naked in someone’s arms, feeling that connection, and sometimes you want to crawl into comfy PJs and just cuddle.  Her feelings wouldn’t be hurt by the latter, and given that she has many of the same emotional hangups I do, we’d understand one another.   (Or there would be horrible misunderstandings and we’d both be miserable. :D )

Also have you seen her freckles?  Goddess.     [She’s not a consolation prize, don’t get me wrong - I just adore Fakhri that much. :3 ]

Character You’d Be RL Besties With |  Seda or Veriinya Both ladies are generous, compassionate, and insightful.  They have their differences - Veri is very much Lawful Good and Seda is Chaotic all the way, but they’re definitely the type you can call at 2am because you’re lonely and can’t sleep, and either of them would show up with tubs of ice cream and horrible movies when you need a friend.

Tagging: @valdiis, have you done this yet?  Consider yourself tagged!  Also @briar-ffxiv

[zydrateacademy]

Current Activities in Gaming #225

Had to do some digging for this one. For the past two months I’ve been pretty active on Guild Wars 2. I’ve been active in blogging on MMO’s before, mostly WoW but these days there’s not a lot to talk about without spending a short novel contextualizing everything I’m working towards. One of my general goals is to get one of those flying mounts, but they made the process to be known as one of the most pain in the ass processes. One of the very first things you have to do is collect 21 items around a map that was specifically designed with that very flying mount in mind. You can ‘borrow’ world-placed ones in specific areas but they’re typically high up so you have to traverse some bullshit to even find one at all. Got that out of the way, but it took a couple of hours. And there’s like 80 more steps to go. Jesus. I originally came back to GW2 to roleplay but haven’t found any communities. I found a single RP guild. The initial meet and greet turned out to have been a judging party with some officers in the unseen background talking shit about my style before saying publicly “We’ve seen enough. Zydrate, do you even care about anyone else?” My main character is a fairly stoic, John Wick-esque figure and generally my RPing style (across many characters) is not the type to regurgitate their entire life stories to people they just met. One character I met was almost too quick to talk about the source of their scars through some Asuran torture. My character emoted in such a way that conveyed that this person was an absolute buzzkill and didn’t really inquire further. Logically, my character doesn’t want to peel back a layer of PTSD and be the cause of someone’s mental breakdown in a market square. In reality, players are just itching to drop a short novel about what their characters are all about. I’m not one of those players. Anyway that one guy who said “Okay I’ve seen enough” is also roleplaying a literal Angel. In a universe where that doesn’t exist. I looked up “Angel” on the guild wars wiki and there’s two results: A named NPC in the first game and a named cat in the second. Angels aren’t really a thing, and the character was very quick to point out he has nothing to do with Dwayna (the universe’s stand-in “goody two shoes, health and love for everyone” type God). Out of character I was like “then what the fuck, then?” In character, my main is dealing with enough of her own shit she doesn’t really care to spend time identifying this humanoid “creature” that someone invented because they have a fourteen year old’s imagination they never grew out of. Listen. My roleplaying style is more akin to what Dungeons and Dragons offers. Everyone meets and an inn, but nobody ever drops their entire baggage when first meeting. No, let’s go run a dungeon, slay some Dragonkind and once my character figures out that the people she’s hanging out with won’t just cut and run then she’ll actually open up a bit about herself. And that is a two way street, when she figures out the people around her aren’t full of shit then she might inquire about who they really are. Or better yet, show her through actions. That’s just the kind of roleplayer I am and it’s now something I’m going to have to make clear to guilds in the future. At least on GW2. Moving on. My MMO batteries soon need recharging and I’ve made some recent purchases including Fable 3 and Sifu. I’ll get Sifu out of the way first. I played about 45 minutes of it, and the first level. I suck at it, even at the lowest difficulty. As usual parrying is a pain in the ass. Every game that has it is like “press this button right before they hit you” but I can never really tell what “counts” as before I am hit. I usually end up hitting the button when the enemy’s arm moves but no, way too early. So I just end up taking the hit anyway. So I try to concentrate towards a weapon swing, and I miss anyway and take a hit. Meanwhile Sifu does not fuck around with mook chivalry, many enemies can and will gang up on you if the pathing allows it. So while I’m trying to concentrate on one guy’s arm movements, there’s still like four bitches with bamboo sticks ready to shove up my ass. So, Fable 3. A 2010 game. A few years ago during my last job I actually tried to buy the CD for it, only to find out that Microsoft had basically shuttered the whole franchise from their store and I long since lost the window that it was on Steam for. I googled and googled and the result was trying to make a Microsoft/Xbox Pass account but that didn’t work either. The game just kind of refused to load, and if memory serves it wouldn’t even install. I had even bought a controller to plug into my PC to use for it, to no avail. So I was about 70 bucks down, but I do think I successfully refunded the CD itself for the ~35 or so it cost. But a couple nights ago the mood struck me once again. Not sure why, maybe it was the discovery that Fable 4 is actually being worked on. There’s almost no information on it, just some teaser with landscapes. Might see it next year, apparently. Anyway it got me to googling again and found out that Amazon just sells Steam keys directly. So I drop 20 bucks and plugged it into Steam, and there it is. Just like that, easy. You DO have to jump through some hoops to get it to run on modern machines but it’s mostly just a matter of downloading some special .dll files and dragging it into the game and boom, the game loads. I played it for several hours. I had forgotten how hilarious the money-making snowballing can be. Since I have the meta knowledge of what you need to do to get the ‘best’ ending (you need ~6 million gold), the minute I was able to do the Blacksmithing job I stopped my youtube recording and spent like an hour on that, gained 300k gold, and bought a couple of the most expensive buildings available at the time. I then put the game in windowed mode to watch youtube or play one of my idle games, generated up enough money to do the same thing with even more businesses. With very little story progression off my Youtube recording, she’s currently making around 120k every five minutes, and after two quests she’s sitting on over two million gold. Long before she becomes queen and is stuck with the “dilemma”. I think she’ll do just fine. Everyone hates her because rent is so high but the in-game morality has her squarely in the middle because I keep taking the “nice” options in quests, mixed with the occasional execution. Why spare a bandit leader who’s been terrorizing and murdering people for years? Warrior’s promise? Fuck off, dude, I don’t know half the atrocities you probably committed. But it’s a lot of fun. Fable 3 still gets a lot of shit for being the “worst” one but to me it’s the most memorable. The leveling mechanic is a downgrade and the fact that the menues are made to be a bunch of rooms you have to walk around in instead of just giving me a simple goddamn menu is a huge step backwards in UI design and user friendliness. That’s about it. I hate the “pause” menu more than the leveling mechanic but ultimately it just takes some getting used to and functions the same. As long as I can change my weapons midfight if I have too, then whatever. Just takes a pointless extra amount of time. So far it’s still the game I loved back in the day. In the future I have my eyes on: Thief Simulator 2, Darkest Dungeon 2, Diablo 4. DD2 is available now but waiting on another payday for it. Also giving the modding community some time to “cook”, as with DD1 I liked to get a few QoL mods that made my gaming life a little easier. Maybe modders will add new characters and classes like last time as well, those are usually fun to play with. Diablo 4′s leveling curve, if the beta is anything to go by, looks a bit slower paced that D3′s so it seems like a game that might demand more of my time on a day to day basis than some of the other things on this post. Might absorb me quite a bit, but I hope to give it a little more breathing room and not rush the endgame as hard. If there really is much of one at all, yet. And Thief Simulator 2 is just more Thief Simulator which I loved, but never really beat because the Rich neighborhood got too hard, but still loved it before that.

[kingdomoftyto]

Howdy! I got a a gift card for the nintendo switch for christmas but don't know what to use it on. Would you recommend any games? I know you play a variety.

Oh! Sure thing! I'm flattered to even be considered for something like that lol

Considering I finished playing it only minutes ago, the first thing that comes to mind is the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, which probably needs no introduction, but just in case: they're part visual novel, part puzzle/logic games where you play as a defense lawyer solving elaborate murder mysteries. Very funny, feels like watching a goofy anime except you get to solve the mysteries yourself.

Next, here's some great indie titles I personally have downloaded on my Switch:

Undertale (& Deltarune chapters 1+2): undeniable masterpieces. If you haven't already played them you really should. They're short, heartfelt RPGs with memorable characters, challenging but fun bullet hell-style combat, and stories so good they've basically had an effect on the entire video game medium. I love them from the bottom of my heart.

Hades: another masterpiece you've surely already heard of, but worth recommending anyway. It's a punishingly hard roguelike where you repeatedly try to battle your way out of the underworld, but the story and characters--all drawn from Greek mythology--are exquisitely crafted and incredibly rewarding to uncover. (I haven't technically played this one myself but I've watched my partner put hundreds of hours into it--plus there's a sequel on the horizon!)

Ori and the Blind Forest (and sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps): incredibly fun, fast-paced, and beautifully animated Metroidvania where you play as an agile little light spirit trying to save your forest home. Story's very dialogue-light but epic and emotional; you may cry.

Crypt of the Necrodancer: unbelievably fun rhythm-based dungeon crawler where you fight your way through monsters and undead by moving and attacking to the beat. The story is charming, too, but the gameplay and music alone make this one a must-try. (Note: if you prefer, there's a Zelda spinoff called Cadance of Hyrule that's a crossover with this game. Same type of gameplay, but a little more forgiving, and also Zelda flavored. :3)

CrossCode: wildly underrated action RPG about a girl who wakes up mute and amnesiac inside an MMO world and has to uncover its secrets with the power of friendship and punching things with chakrams. I love these characters so hecking much and the combat in this game is really difficult but also incredibly satisfying to master. Also features some great puzzles and tricky platforming.

Petal Crash: a charming little arcade puzzler where you move colorful blocks to make chains and earn points/clear the board. There's a story mode where you can play through as different characters, and they're all super cute and funny. (iirc, the dialogue is all written by the creator of the webcomic Paranatural, and it shows!)

Some other random indie titles that come to mind:

LIMBO: a short, atmospheric horror platformer with some memorably dark, unsettling moments and pretty satisfying puzzles for such a short game. I first played this back in high school and for some reason it still sticks with me after all these years. It's also like $2 in the eShop right now, so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (I believe the game Inside is from the same studio, and I remember enjoying watching a playthrough of it years ago, but I haven't played that one myself.)

Stardew Valley: I've never played this one on console, but I currently have 225 hours logged for it on Steam lol. It's a farm sim, but it also has a pretty robust cast of townsfolk who are really fun to get to know, and plenty of other things to occupy your time as well. Mining, dungeon delving, artifact collecting, and a nice little story about sticking it to the evil corporate overlords and bringing your community together.

Terraria: ditto to Stardew Valley, also with about 200 hours in my Steam account. This one is a 2D adventure platformer with procedurally generated worlds that you explore for resources that you can build or craft into whatever you like: combat gear, homes for your NPC neighbors, forbidden magicks to summon alien horrors--you name it! Can be played kind of sandboxy like a 2D Minecraft, or there is a long series of challenging and interesting bosses to encounter if you feel like uncovering secrets!

Untitled Goose Game: short puzzle game where you play as a goose gently terrorizing a suburban neighborhood. You've seen the memes. It was popular for a reason though--very charming and fun!

Castle Crashers: a classic beat-em-up with humor as cartoony as its visual style. Play as colorful knights on a quest to retrieve four princesses from an evil necromancer. Leans a tad much on toilet humor and the combat can be a little repetitive, but overall very silly and slapstick and super fun to play with friends.

Wingspan: this one's a little out of left field but I just remembered this is on Switch! I have the physical board game this is based on, and I highly recommend that, so I imagine the digital version is worth a look, too. It's a card-based strategy game where you collect bird species to compete for the best sanctuary. Once you get the hang of it, you can play a whole game in 30-45 minutes. Also, the art's gorgeous and the developers are based in my home state!

Aaaand some other misc classics worth mentioning:

Katamari Damacy: roll a sticky ball around and pick up objects. Then pick up bigger objects. Bigger! BIGGER!

Portal & Portal 2: solve puzzles with portable wormholes and survive the attentions of a mad AI. Excellent puzzles and legendary characters and humor.

most old Final Fantasy titles are available for relatively cheap, including 7, 8, and 9! I'm a fan of all of them. :}

Okami: adding this one last minute because I didn't realize it had a Switch port!! INCREDIBLE action rpg where you play as a sun goddess in the form of a wolf, fighting epic monster battles and restoring peace to ancient Japan. Gorgeous, fun, iconic.

...

Uh, and that's all I can think of for now! I tried to include some lesser-known stuff as well as some classic gems, so hopefully something catches your eye! I'm a little surprised the list is so short, but when it comes down to it I'm actually pretty Basic when it comes to my taste in video games lol--largely Pokemon and Zelda outside of this list tbh.

Merry Christmas and have fun gaming, anon!!

[thatneilj]

Game of the Year 2020

Originally posted in January 2021

While 2020 has been a true nightmare for everyone, there were luckily were a few good things in it. First off, I’m back on the west coast. Second, I’ve been able to spend a lot more time streaming and playing TTRPGs. And third, there were some pretty cool games out this year despite all the delays! While a lot of things kept me from engaging with some of the biggest games this year, these 5 stood out as the best I played.

Honorables

Phantasy Star Online 2

I know PSO2 is a game originally released in 2012, but this year it FINALLY came state-side. Does it live up to the originals? No, not at all. How could it live up to one of my top 3 games of all time? Fact is, the move towards more MMO trapping in conjunction with the monetization model gets in the way of an otherwise super fun experience.

Shovel Knight: King of Cards

King of Cards is a really awesome game, but some of the other Shovel Knight games are just better. Really this is getting up here for the entire Treasure Trove package, which is possibly one of the best packages of the whole decade. The only thing in it that isn’t fantastic is the weird fighting game thing they tossed in there. But seriously, all the Shovel Knight games are really good.

XCOM: Chimera Squad

XCOM: Chimera Squad didn’t make the cut due to living in the shadow of its predecessor. While it made fun and interesting changes in the moment-to-moment combat encounters, particularly with the turn-order system, it also took away a key piece of what made the older game so engaging. Chimera Squad replaces the soldiers and emergent stories with specific characters that had too much development to fill in the blanks and not enough to make any satisfying arcs. Not to mention the basic plot of being a group of super cops using violence as the means of enforcement. Unfortunate timing aside, I can’t wait to see the tactical mechanics pushed forward into another full XCOM experience.

5. Ghostrunner

First-person platforming is extremely hard to get right. Until now, the Mirror’s Edge games might be the only ones that really nailed it, allowing the movement and conservation of momentum to flow into each other without getting bogged down in the precision type of difficulty 2D games excel at. Ghostrunner follows in these footsteps while using some combat mechanics to carve out its own identity. What they manage to create is an extremely fast-paced platforming game full of movement puzzle rooms, where many of the solutions are as freeform as the parkour inspirations. Then they slapped a cool as hell cyberpunk aesthetic on it!

4. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Blind Forest floored me in 2015 by marrying carefully-crafted 2D platforming and surprisingly emotional themes into a beautiful pathfinding (often called “metroidvania”) game. Now, 5 years later, the sequel builds on that by including an expanded combat system, NPCs with side-quests, and even more breathtaking visuals. The new boss fights are awesome, and some of the new powers grant exciting new ways to traverse. Almost everything in this game is a strict improvement.

Yet the storytelling this time around tries too hard to strike the same beats of the original and leaves off with a message that is much less impactful. At times the number of effects on the screen become overwhelming in ways the original never did. And one of the coolest things from the first game, the ability to create your own checkpoints, is completely gone and replaced with a standard automatic system. While it doesn’t quite live up to the magic of the original, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is still a fantastic experience that I highly recommend.

3. Visage

The first thing I am going to say about Visage is that I never want to play it ever again. Not because it is bad though. In fact, it is extremely good at what it sets out to do; scare the shit out of you. The reason this game is on my top 5 despite how much I don’t like playing horror games is that it does so much more than just set you off to explore in a creepy place. With puzzles and small details, it tells stories of this house and those that lived in it before you. And it tells stories about your character too, weaving together threads in a way that reminds me of what made games like Silent Hill 2 stand out so long ago.

While the game does have one chapter that feels particularly different from the rest of the game, each chapter manages to create a vibe that just reaches down into the pit of your stomach to make you scream. If you are even the slightest bit interested in horror games, this one is a real gem among them.

2. Risk of Rain 2

If you were to tell me that the little 2D action rogue-like from 2013 known as Risk of Rain would not just work but be incredible when translated into the 3D space, I would not have believed you. As your time-played each run increases so too does the difficulty through number of enemies, enemy types, and modifiers, while you build up your character into some broken monstrosity. This leads to some of the most exciting and tense experiences I had all year. Couple that with secrets to discover on each level, every character with drastically different approaches to combat, and tons of small challenges to complete, unlocking variant moves and more! Not to mention how the climax interacts with how you got there in such a cool and terrifying way.

Then you get to take all this and do it with up to 3 of your friends, adding to the chaos. I absolutely loved the time I spent with this game, and I continue to listen to the music from it. Seriously, this game has an incredible set of post-rock songs by Chris Christodoulou. Just do yourself a favor and go listen to The Rain Formerly Known as Purple, it is so good.

1. Hades

Supergiant Games have an extremely good track record through this decade, but they really hit it out of the park with Hades this year. They built an incredibly solid isometric action game at the base, with 6 weapon sets that are all fun to use, and then built a run-based upgrade system on top of it. Does it have the wild variance and broken combos of games like The Binding of Isaac? No, but it still has enough there to keep every run feeling unique and exciting, while giving players all the tools they need for steady improvement, as well as increased difficulty to really fine tune their experiences.

The thing that truly makes Hades stand out from the rest is how it engages with narrative, world building, and character development inside of this rogue-like framework. Every death is another chance to talk to Achilles and the other residents of the house, help Dusa clean up, and pet big cute Cerberus. Every run a chance to hear a song from Eurydice, have a chat with Sisyphus, or even escape the realm of the underworld. The way these characters have been fleshed out makes failed attempts rewarding in the same way that successful ones are and really keeps the drive alive, instead of leading to frustration. And the ways they use this narrative in game, each successful run driving towards that emotional climax, is masterful.

Treat yourself, and go pick game up.

[eldritchsurveys]

1146.

Do you have a large dog? If not, are you afraid of them? >> I don't have a dog at all but I'm not afraid of large ones

Has anyone ever told you that they loved you, and you didn’t say it back? >> all the time, because I don't think that's something one says unless they genuinely want to say it and not just because someone else said it first

Who is your favorite photographer? >> I'd never considered having one before but the other day I discovered the work of David Uzochukwu and my god every photo is just so stunning

Were you shy in high school? >> I don't think "shy" is the right word

Did the last guy/girl you kissed have any piercings? .

Do you actually love your parents? >> I do not

Do you know anyone autistic? >> I know about a gazillion autistic people including myself

Do you like your girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s parents? >> I definitely do not like my spouse's mother. gonna beat her with hammers (the father is alright)

Do you like Polaroid photography? >> sure

Who was the last family member of yours that died? .

Do you have any gay family members? .

Would you be upset if you caught your boyfriend looking at porn? >> I can't imagine being upset about this. that's the total opposite of how my value system works

What is your favorite type of cat? >> personality-wise, calico. appearance-wise, Abyssinian

Who of the opposite sex has seen you at your worst? .

Were you raised by someone other than your parents? >> was not

What’s the last chore you did? >> showered

What is your favorite jungle animal? >> oh man I don't even know

Is your father injured? .

Are you part Native American? >> I am not culturally Native American and frankly that's the only thing that matters

What are your pets’ names? . Have you ever worked two jobs? >> for a very short period of time when I was 16 and didn't know any better (and couldn't advocate for myself anyway)

What are the names of all the dogs you’ve ever owned? .

Would you ever get a face tattoo? >> I can't imagine anything I'd want on my face, is the thing

Who in life have you felt the strongest need to protect? >> well, myself, obviously

What is the cruelest thing a person has ever said to you? >> oh, there's been... there's been some things. I think it's best if I didn't dwell on them for the sake of a survey answer

Who have you most feared in your life? >> I was pretty afraid of my father, for sure

What is your strongest reason for your opinion on abortion? >> my feelings about bodily autonomy

What one natural thing would you most like to see? >> the sky at a Dark Sky Park since I live in a country where true darkness is something most of us have to travel and spend money to see

Do you like the game Tetris? >> meh

What’s the most rebellious thing you’ve ever done? .

Have you ever wanted to be a model? >> I wanted to be a Suicide Girl back in the day but that was it

Do you like your name how it’s spelled? >> sure

Who was your first online friend? >> no idea Your last ex: how did you two get together? >> through Xanga, actually Does your mom dye her hair? .

What’s the best kind of video game? (Adventure, shooting, etc) >> I enjoy narrative-heavy single-player RPGs with customisable player characters the most. and MMOs

Do you know anyone who has road rage? >> not anyone I've been in a car with

Have you ever had a controlling boyfriend/girlfriend? >> I have

Have you ever tried to break up anyone because YOU liked the guy/girl? >> haven't

Do you draw fanart of anything? >> I have

What was the last music video you watched? Did you like it? >> I don't remember anymore but I probably did like it

What’s a condition you have that you haven’t been officially diagnosed with? >> autism

Which one of your parents do you think is smarter? .

Have you ever supported anyone’s Kickstarter? If so, what was it? >> I supported the crowdfunding for Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire

What band has the power to make you cry by splitting up? >> I don't think I'm that invested in bands staying together anymore. like even if my favourite band broke up right now I'd be gutted but not to the point of tears

Would you feel funny if you kissed somebody of the same sex? >> lol. lmao Can grills be sexy on a guy? .

What’s your favorite comic book/graphic novel? >> Alan Moore's Promethea

Do you prefer original or sour Skittles? >> sour 1000%

Do you find it easy to pass the time or do you get really bored? >> I find it easy to pass time as long as I have things to do that I enjoy doing...

Have you ever been in a Catholic confessional? >> I don't think so Who was the last non-relative you rode in a vehicle with? >> Sparrow

What was the title of the last song you listened to? >> Nancy Boy Who is the lead singer of your favorite band? >> Manuel Gagneux

Do you expect to be married in the next 2 years? >> I certainly don't expect to be getting a divorce but I allow that stranger things have happened

Have you ever had an allergic reaction to an insect? >> I haven't Who IMed you on Facebook last? >> Lauren

Is there an item that you bought on a whim, but now consider it a crucial part of your life and you would or have purchased it again? >> this lil Squishable I got at the Love's gas station in Lansing, it just has such good vibes for me. like when I look at it I remember how much joy it sparked when I saw it in the store and how I was like "fuck it. I'm gettin a him" and now I have this cute lil alien orb in my bed. it truly is the little things lmao

What flags do you have in your room, if any? >> I have a lil rainbow Pride flag with a Baphomet on it :p

What was the last thing you ate? >> tortellini with andouille sausage & mushroom and some kind of cream sauce, and a slice of garlic texas toast

What kind of natural disaster is most common where you live? >> blizzards and related phenomena, but even those aren't that common anymore in these strange climate times

Do you or your parents rake your yard? .

If you’re not straight, who was the first person you came out to? >> oh I have no idea, I didn't make a big thing of it

What do you think of the ‘Healthy At Every Size’ movement/philosophy? >> I'm into it

Where did you meet the last person you swapped numbers with? .

Who was the last person to add you as a friend on Facebook? >> Adam from the Death Cafe

[siderealcity]

ARR is far from bad. ARR is doing a number of amazing things which I think fly under the radar for most people.

Long, rambling post, more under the cut.

First of all, ARR is trying to establish the setting, characters, and stakes for new players, while simultaneously presenting a story about an apocalypse that you narrowly averted to players who were present for 1.0. At first glance to a new player, the MSQ seems like a straightforward play on the generic fantasy adventurer trope. You arrive, new in town, and literally go to the tavern to get your quest. But if you're paying attention, there are numerous indications that you may have done this all before. It's kind of a huge risk for the developers, making the MSQ center around tying off the loose ends of the Dalamud story that relatively few people ever saw or ever will see. But they do it, and they manage to keep it from ever feeling as though you, the new player, are just secondary to a story about Louisoix, or the Alliance leaders, or the Archons. And it makes a very deliberate point of ending 2.0 on a cutscene of the world declaring that things have changed for the better because of what you've done.

Secondly, I think people don't grasp just how much more story-centered ARR is than pretty much any other MMO. Even having a singular main story is not the norm for the genre. But ARR takes it further: everything has a story. Class quests? When every other MMO out there has been removing them? Oh, we got class quests. Unlocking mounts? Little plot event with a cutscene, gated by the MSQ. You even name your chocobo. Crafting? Oh, every single type of crafting has a plot. Several. Several plots. And so do all the gathering activities. The glamour system? Has a quest, and an MSQ prerequisite. Hair stylist? Same deal. How do you use the auction house? Advance the MSQ. It's largely the genre convention at this point that after a while, those quest requirements are removed, so new players can "get to the real game" faster.

But this is the game. And that's why those speed bumps have been left in, even as they've made leveling faster and smoothed out the length of the 2.X MSQ. Because they need to retrain players familiar with how MMOs work to understand that the endgame is not the only game. Everything in FFXIV is the game. The old content remains valid. In most MMOs, the old dungeons just don't get run after an expansion launches. Old expansion areas die. Of course players rush to reach max level, that's the only point at which the game is still alive.

ARR is a weird and sometimes awkward adjustment for players because it is actively trying to teach you to stop playing the game in the way you've been trained to play MMOs.

And did I mention how much worldbuilding it's trying to do? Like, FFXIV is technically part of a franchise, but no two games in that franchise actually share... pretty much anything in terms of IP. There's chocobos, usually? And a guy named Cid. And everything else changes. It can't lean on players being familiar with anything. Not every FF game even has crystals in it. By the time you get to Heavensward, you have context. You've never been to Ishgard before, but you have met Ishgardians. You've fought dragons. You know what beast tribes are, and how they usually get treated. You know what primals and Ascians are. You've heard of Allag, and you know the kind of shit they got up to. You know what a Calamity is, and what the stakes might be if Thordan causes one. Nobody needs to explain to you why it's important that you get your blessing of light back, or why it might be a sign of something terrible that you can't hear Hydaelyn's voice anymore. Heavensward can afford to be laser-focused on a few characters and their personal struggles because we already set up everything else.

So, yeah, it doesn't have to be anybody's favorite part of the story by any stretch, but ARR is not bad. It is doing a lot of work, remarkably well, to make all the story that comes later feel that much better.

p.s. it's been said a hundred times but apparently always needs to be said again: you're free to think ARR is bad (If You Actually Played It) but omg don't go around presenting it like it's the be-all, end-all, undisputed, unbiased, objective truth.

I'm forever glad I played when it came out and didn't have to deal with that shit because I can't imagine what it's like to be told over and over 'the game starts bad but just keep going'.

If people hadn't absolutely loved ARR we wouldn't be here now.

[thebookpeddler]

My Journey Through Games, Books, and Escapism

Reading has been a huge part of me ever since I started last year. It has helped me cope with my anxiety and depression.

I was never an avid reader before, preferring videogames as a form of escapism. I choose my favored game, usually an MMORPG, and just run around the world crafted by its creators, taking in on the sceneries, hunting monsters, crafting items, not caring about its stories most of the time, and just being a part of that world, existing.

I hadn't realize it has become an unhealthy obsession of mine, playing for hours and hours on end, usually forgetting lunch and/or dinner. Choosing to play outside due to our home computer not having the best specs, and then spending around 3-5 hours overnight just playing these games.

When I was a kid I read quite a few books. Remember those Disney read-along books with cassette tapes? God I loved those. Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin were always on repeat almost every single day. I also had that one book about a Tikbalang (a Filipino mythical creature, with the torso of a human and the legs and head of a horse). I was a happy boy back then.

But it didn't last as me and my brothers became obsessed with gaming. From our then local arcade, to Dreamcast rental cafes, to PC cafes playing MMOS like MU Online and Ragnarok Online.

Since then I have been captivated by videogames. It had helped me deal with my everyday life. I always turned to them to escape life's problems.

One day my emotions got out of hand that I stopped playing games for a very long time. I was lost and did not know where to go or what to do. I tried recapturing that sense of wonder but I could not.

I am terrible at reading books. I usually read paragraphs multiple times on account of me unable to absorb information easily. I've had hard times imagining things happening in the books. In my first attempt at taking reading seriously, I did not last. And now my copy of A Game of Thrones is all soggy due to it absorbing rainwater. I did not take good care of such a good book.

Then I saw this one book on a store: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

The thief Kelsier has recruited the best allomancers from the underworld in order to stop the Lord Ruler from his reign of terror.

I witnessed how Vin, with the help of Kelsier, overcame her trauma imposed by her upbringing, how she relied on her team in defeating the Lord Ruler, as well as dealing with the elites of the Final Empire.

One of the things I really love about Mistborn, and Sanderson's books to an extent, is that the prose is so easy to follow. I realized that I have been picking the wrong types of books to start with.

And now I have a collection of books that I have finished and currently reading. From Pet Sematary by Stephen King, to The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. I even sneak in a few self-help books by Robert Greene once in a while.

But my chosen genre has always been fantasy. Much like videogames, I enjoy escaping in a different world through reading. But instead of getting too addicted to the point that It's started to become too unhealthy, books help me keep grounded in my reality. Books also helped me train my focus skill. I don't read paragraphs repeatedly as much as I used to.

Reading stories, in addition to working out, has changed my outlook in life. Since then, I have been less irritable and more forgiving of myself. I still do love videogames. It has, is, and will always be a part of me. But in books, they've helped me be aware and understand the place around me and my place in this world. It has a huge impact in my personal growth while still giving me that escapism that I crave.

[fluffyeddybear]

I just had a thought about guilds in MMOs wanna gush about them a bit along with one complaint. I might go on a tangent lol

I've always wanted to be a guild master and a very certain type of guild master. I've started my own guilds many times and I wanna run a very chill guild. What I mean is a lot of guilds I've seen take things way too seriously. Like...when I first got into Destiny 2, Aaron and I were looking for a guild to join and had to be interviewed, yes INTERVIEWED, for one we thought would be fun to join. The dude messaged us with some questions and I assumed we didn't get the spots because we never heard from him again. I've also seen people demand you be available at any time the guild leader wanted you to be and things like guild masters scolding you for missing guild activities or even kicking you out. And getting kicked out for not logging in for a certain amount of time, the lowest time being A DAY.

I hated seeing that shit because games are supposed to be fun. People have lives, jobs, and other games they want to play. My guild motto has always been "Come and go as you please". A friend of mine messaged me one day and said he was gonna dip out of my Granblue Fantasy guild for a while because a guild event was going and he wanted to be in a more active guild to participate. I told him it was fine and that he's always welcome to come back and I meant that for him and I mean that even for strangers. My GF guild was packed but not everyone was consistently active and that was fine. We had resources to spare (mainly because of Aaron and I) and I kept guild skills active in case anyone came online. If you wanna bounce for more activity (if we don't have enough people active) and come back for down time and resources, you're welcome to. That's what this space and the resources are for.

One time a random guild mate was online and caught me and Aaron and asked for help, so we went to help him with quests. It was fun and he thanked me as his guild leader and it felt really good. I felt like a competent guild master. That camaraderie is what I love about MMOs and to create an even more personal space within that is a dream. And it's not like I don't like intense gameplay, I do! I love playing games with friends and being in voice calls and things are getting wild. We have to call to each other for backup, ammo, energy, health, a revive, you name it. We have each other's backs and even if we fail, it was fun to team up and we can strategize to do better. It's why I like the responsibility of being a tank. Guarding and sometimes healing my teammates is a role I can fulfill.

I'm not gonna demand people be present for activities or else, this isn't your job and I'm not your boss. I'm not gonna kick people for being offline for a long time because I want you, even if I don't know you, to have a place to come back to. This is why I always try to start my own guild and gather my friends and people I like to join. I want that space not just for me, but people I like and it could grow to be a place that even strangers find comfort in. Sadly my Granblue Fantasy guild was deleted while I was away so all those resources are just gone and the people whose names I learned are now scattered across the skies. But there's plenty of opportunities to make more guilds.