#fun factor

[sorenblr]

What was it like when games had "Replay Value" and "Fun Factor"? Why are games today designed to have "'Neverending Play'" and "Salt Factor"?

Games have been pretty much dogshit since they stopped prioritizing "Fun Factor"...

But yeah, it just wasn't as viable to try and hold players in years-long compulsion loops before widespread online functionality and the design/business practices that this enabled: patching, microtransactions, GaaS/Gatcha structures etc. It's not that this wasn't always the desired outcome- the industry even in its nascency attempted to monetize "Neverending Play" with arcades and the design philosophies that formed around coin-based play- only the overhead cost was far greater and the potential for direct profit piddling compared to modern practices. Even MMOs required a relatively large investment in digital infrastructure that ensured only a few could achieve long-term sustainability- Gatcha games similarly come and go every quarter, but the buy-in is a fraction of whatever it took to get The Matrix Online off the ground.

"Replay Value" meanwhile found joint expression with "Neverending Play" in the Roguelike genre. This is critically one of the few pathways to commercial success for indies that lack access to massive digital infrastructures or lucrative IPs- a way of suggesting hundreds of hours of compulsive play (notice how often the phrase "gameplay loop" is deployed to describe specifically player compulsion cycles) with a relatively modest asset base. The same ethos of variety-within-scarcity underlines the popularity of deck-building mechanics and makes their inclusion attractive to developers forced to appease arbitrary ideas of hour-to-dollar value, to slip past the refund window on Steam etc.

Sorry if this was a more serious reply then was merited, but the gaming industry is just a constellation of profoundly evil business practices and the modern notion of the "forever game" (i.e. a single piece of software that extracts attention and capital from an audience in perpetuity) is one of its supreme expressions. It would be good if the earth opened her mouth and swallowed the entire Embracer Group executive suite tomorrow.

[gloriawriteshere]

Judge a Book by its Cover – #TuesdayBookBlog

Kelsea Jones is like a lot of girls at the University of Northern Minnesota. She has a boyfriend, she works at a coffee shop, and she’s on the swim team. But she’s not a girl. She’s a mermaid. #TuesdayBookBlog #Books

How often do you judge a book by its cover? Is it the first thing you’re drawing to, or is it the title that first grabs your attention? Here’s why I started Judge a Book by its Cover! Here are three indie book covers that grabbed my attention this week. Continue reading Judge a Book by its Cover – #TuesdayBookBlog

[cadere-art]

Commission for @sophia-sol of our understanding and depictions of Oviraptor through time.

[crabsnpersimmons]

"Do your best today! I'll be waiting here when you get home, starlight~💕"

had two busy days of work outside of my cave and the only thing that kept me going was the sight of my housewife/househusband Eclipse waiting for me at home

that is, the sketch of him waiting for me to finish drawing him 😂

starring @starriegalaxy's Eclipse from her Fear Factor AU/House Husband AU

[bacchuschucklefuck]

doing chibi is a good design exercise bc it forces u to think on shapes n essential details, essentially thumbnailing ur designs. its also a terrible design exercise bc it ends up looking cute no matter what

[nicollekidman]

Why are people mad at the barbie promo?

it's not a standard promotional cycle for a film that happens to involve mattel's famous toy. it is a massive brand push to revitalize a product for a new age, and the movie is the commercial. it is not normal to have promotion that includes collaborations with: airbnb, hair tools, many makeup companies, rollerskates, forever21, canned lemonade, ruggable, toothburshes, skincare, shoe lines, gap, pacsun, OPI etc etc etc............... like i'm going to go see the movie! it will in all likelihood be fun and enjoyable. but this rollout is explicitly mattel's first phase in what they hope is a HUGE endeavor to make "cinema" out of every one of their products, as a way to get more people to buy these products. regardless of how the barbie movie turns out, it is not actually good for anyone to have a failing film industry turn to self-cannibalizing commercial products for story. i hope everyone has a good time! i don't give a fuck if you want to buy a hot pink dress and go with your girlfriends and revel in your #womanhood or whatever. but the degree to which mattel has already had input in the actual movie + made people think that their massive push of product is some sort of cool innovative trendy Promotion (while having plans to do this to. 45 other producuts) is like. lol oh boy.

[cosmicdreamgrl]

rap line x mic drop performances for @epiphanytear

[just-null]

You okay pookie it been while😞

Leader is alive!! just dealing with matters that're keeping me busy!!

But enough about that, I recently saw the new ufotable post and i thank them so much for the crumbs of demon food they give us. Fingers crossed they keep it going and give us more

[original!]

i'll kiss anyone on the mouth if you can tell me the flowers they're holding and their meanings pLEASE

[hyolks]

idiot who doesnt realize how much theyre gonna have to draw cowboy hats: uhmmmm scifi western fma au

[chirrups]

omg!!! Dog au

I always head canoned jimmy to be a golden retriever and joel to be a tiny feral dogo

but they are clearly not here and I wonder what breed you drew them as and why you choose them to be that in the au

golden retriever was actually one of the breeds that i was considering in the brainstorming stages (along with some terrier breeds) but i eventually settled on the good old beagle for jimmy.

to me personally, beagle fits because they and their hound cousins are just a little more plucky and scrappy than "himbo-soft" golden retrievers are stereotyped as. jimmy is brash and foolhearted to an hilarious degree so i wanted to give him a more "goofy but still a hunting dog" feeling if that makes any sense at all.

also beagles are known for baying and i think it could function as a fun parallel symbol to the canary stuff he has going on.

and lastly, scott is a sheltie (and martyn and tango are medium-small sized breeds as well), so i wanted jimmy to fit in those size ranges and dynamics. he also just doesn't read big or small dog to me so medium size he is!

and good ole joel is a jack russel because that breed is terror on tiny legs. joel has a truly potent amount of small dog energy with the ferocity and gaul to back it up, so he gets the jack russ because those guys are as if a rabid animal and also 200 live grenades was packed into 10-pounds worth of dog.

it was a debate on whether to give grian, bdubs, or joel the jack russel terrier as they are all (just a little) napoleon-complex personalities to me but jack russel fit joel best design-wise and i ended up finding breeds that work with the other two better

[welcometogrouchland]

my Stephanie Brown hot take is that she should get mad bitches now that she's single in comics. Yes yes shipping BUT the one time she had sex she was punished by the narrative via teen pregnancy. I think she should be allowed to have as much sex as she wants with zero consequences. Could be a lot of sex, could be a little. Point is she should get to do it without getting narratively baby trapped this time. she should get them pregnant, actually.

[lukazade]

I had wanted to draw everyone, but thanks to the laryngitis I did NOT have the energy to draw for a while, so core four it is!

[riacte]

More from the False centric Actor AU :D thanks Mocha and Sasha for the ideas!

[crabsnpersimmons]

it's a "start lineart with the hand" kinda day

another busy day outside of my cave today. will i finish this by the end of today? probably not

[reksink]

Shelter

[beneathsilverstars]

anyway related to my "gullible" post i do think bonnie didn't really have a lot of friends / any good friends. i'm taking a watsonian approach to "some of the things bonnie does seem more like age 5-8 than 10-12", and a doylist approach to "everyone in this party grew up kinda lonely and feels disconnected from their peer group"