#genuinely one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences i've ever had

[seriouslyseravellan]

if i could just only play oblivion's shivering isles dlc over and over again for the rest of my life i would be content

[content-d3leted]

Undertale is actually the best game of all time. (Prepare yourself for some rambling lol)

Its characters are so unique and loveable, and the plot and the universe its in has so much depth, there's so many easter eggs throughout the game, all the different AUs are so creative, and the soundtrack is AMAZING-the songs are so incredibly intertwined with one another with all the motifs throughout the music, it is just an all-round immaculate franchise, and I adore it.

I can't quite remember how long my interest in it lasted, maybe 2 years? But I first discovered it in September 2019, by watching jacksepticye's playthrough he did in 2015, where I became completely hooked on it! I remember learning all the names of the songs in Undertale's soundtrack by heart in chronological order, and also drawing the characters for hours on end!! Genuinely one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

My favourite character is Papyrus (NYEH-HEH-HEH!!), with Mettaton coming in at a close 2nd place. But to be honest, every single one of the characters are brilliant!!

For about 4 years I've been trying to kill Sans (unsuccesfully), but I can almost get past the last stage by now, so thats progress at least..but tbh it was such a horrible feeling to murder everyone else, especially Papyrus, on the genocide route- but it had to be done I suppose.

Undertale means ALOT to me, especially since it helped me get through some super difficult times back when I was in school, due to really bad depression etc. It also helped me make an irl friend too (who is now one of my best friends)! So yeah, undertale truly means the world to me.

And deltarune is just the same, completely incredible!! The battle theme (Rude Buster) is one of the greatest game songs I've ever heard, and I often listen to it on repeat. I had a short second phase of undertale/deltarune a year after my first one, where I became obsessed with Sweet, Cap'n and K_K. They are such good characters aaaaa I love them!!! I can't wait for chapter 3 of deltarune to be released soon!!

But omg the undertale/deltarune soundtracks are so fun to play on instruments (especially piano for me), especially fallen down, home, your best friend, death by glamour...the list goes on lol.

Undertale also introduced me to my first ever gay people so I have Undyne, Alphys and Mettaton to thank for making me realise I was in the LGBT+ community!!

So in conclusion, Undertale is the best game. Yes.

Why are you reading this surely you have better things to do

[quirkle2]

i'm gonna sound old when i say this and it's such a non-issue but i actually think u can't get the genuine casual boardgame experience from an app on ur phone/tablet. bc none of them ever let u fuck up. part of the joy of games like chess, for me, is those moments where i make a stupid move and put my knight directly into their queen's line of sight. that makes it interesting, that makes it Your Game. in every chess app i've ever played, u Cannot make an illegal move or a move that will directly damage urself. and i think that's lame. i should be allowed to fuck up royally. that's part of the experience. making what u think is a 6292838373IQ move and then getting absolutely bodied by ur friend who looks at u like ur idiot is part of the charm and enjoyment of chess, as well as other games

my mom and i once wanted to play checkers, but both of us had a pretty hazy memory of how to play. we went with our guts and started playing and didnt realize until halfway through the game, when my dad walked in and said, "What the hell r u guys Doing," that we realized we had organized the checker peices like you would in a game in a chess. completely wrong. we both unanimously decided on the Wrong Rules and it was a completely bullshit game of checkers. but it was one of the most memorable games to me, one of the most fun, bc we were Allowed to fuck up in the first place. that was on a real checkerboard

obviously, no app would let u organize checker pieces like chess, but it's the principal of it. i wanna be able to make moves that are Fucking Stupid bc that's part of the fun; u get to laugh at urself afterward, and ur friends get to laugh w u. most people who play boardgames dont play them very often and are probably not gods at them. a lot of people i know only roughly, vaguely, remember how to play chess. u don't play chess casually to carefully follow the rules and try to get good at it. u play chess to laugh. when apps Manhandle me into moves that are good ideas and lame and boring,i am not laughing . let me be an idiot, cowards

[akatharton]

now that i've thought about it for a little bit, i think i can articulate why forsaken fell flat for me. major spoilers ahead, obviously.

i had a lot of issues with the way bowden characterized haytham, tbh. an advantage of writing in first person POV is that it allows you to really get into a character's head and dissect whatever it is that makes them tick, but haytham comes off like a disinterested bystander in his own life for much of this book. it's most apparent in the earlier parts--like, i really can't suspend my disbelief enough to buy that any child would be able to sit down and write a dispassionate play-by-play of their father's murder shortly after witnessing it. yes, haytham is emotionally closed-off even by 18th century british guy standards, but i didn't get the impression that bowden intentionally wrote him as a character who represses his emotions to avoid dealing with pain--honestly, he just seems kind of bored.

this is made worse by the fact that a lot of important character moments happen offscreen or are breezed through haphazardly. to give an example--around halfway through the book, haytham witnesses braddock's troops massacre a group of dutch civilians. this is presented as a major turning point for his character, as his disgust and horror at the experience prompt him to question his (up until that point) rather insouciant attitude towards violence. you would think that we, as the audience, would get to witness this scene and be privy to our protagonist's thoughts and reactions during what is ostensibly a very traumatic moment for him. yeah lol no. we only hear about it secondhand when haytham relays his falling-out with braddock to birch. but we do get around 50 pages of him chasing a bunch of mercenaries through the black forest in a plot thread that ends up leading nowhere and getting unceremoniously dropped.

to give bowden due credit, older haytham seems much more like a fully realized character than his younger self, though as a sad middle-aged man enjoyer i may be biased. i love how jaded and bitter he is, though it's frustrating how the story never really goes into why he no longer believes that any sort of detente between assassins and templars is possible. his reflections on his relationship with connor are probably the strongest part of the book, and some of their interactions--like the scene where he saves connor from execution--are, imo, better than what we got in the game. that said, i really cannot wrap my head around some of the retcons, with the most egregious being the scene in which haytham finds out about ziio's death from connor. in bowden's version, he already knows that washington murdered ziio and is faking his reaction for... gaslight girboss reasons, i guess? (side note: his dumb ass is not that good of an actor.) just a baffling authorial choice. that scene was hugely important for both characters and one of the few times in the game that we get to see haytham genuinely panicked and unguarded, but god forbid you ever include drama and emotional gravitas in your story, i guess? can't distract from the important stuff, like uh... *checks notes* haytham strangling a guy with his thighs and burning a bunch of coptic priests alive for chopping his valet's dick off.

[littlest-nightingale]

little! 13th Doctor because I've talked ab her as a caregiver but not as a little:

 • oh my god. she is a DISASTER

 • she goes to great lengths to hide her regression/not regress. like she is FIGHTING IT

 • about... 1-3 years old? she's little little

 • i genuinely don't think she had an entirely pleasant regression the entire time she was the doctor. i actually think she was that miserable. like maybe there were some regressions that were enjoyable but i think she was lonely and upset most of the time

 • she was absolutely desperate not to let the fam know. She didn't want them to think she was weak, and she definitely didn't want them to see her when she was so helpless.

 • part of it was definitely because this regeneration was a woman! lots of people started treating her differently when she regenerated into a woman, and part of that was that people thought she was weaker or dumber or more incompetent. So she definitely didn't want people to know she regressed! she didn't want to be viewed as more incompetent than people already seemed to view her as.

 • it was also because she was running from her issues. regression takes away what little filter she does have. if she was to regress and say something about the stress she was under, the fam would definitely start pushing her to talk about it, which she very much doesn't want to do!

 • finding out about the timeless child ordeal broke her. She had an entire childhood she couldn't remember because it was taken from her! and, because we know she could remember little glimpses of it, what if regression allowed her to remember. little bits and pieces. little glimpses into tecteuns experiments. maybe even the few times she was forced to regenerate.

 • after finding out, regression wasn't safe for her! memories she wasn't even supposed to have started slipping through the cracks, and unfortunately, her regression isn't entirely voluntary.

 • it didn't help that she spent 19 years in isolation immediately afterwards. she was stuck in that cell and she would regress and she would remember and there was nobody there to help her through it.

 • and even afterwards, she didn't open up about it. ever. She pushed through, she regenerated, and that was it.

 • in terms of regression gear, she has quite a lot. that doesn't mean she uses it.

 • 10, 11, and 12 were also regressors. 10 got a metric fuckton of regression gear and that collection has been modified and added on to with each new regeneration.

 • most of this is kept in a nursery/playroom originally made for 10, which she has asked the TARDIS to hide down the longest hallway she could generate (sometimes the TARDIS pushes the room forward. 13 doesn't take that well)

 • she keeps one stuffed animal in her room. one raggedy stuffed giraffe clara had gifted 11. it is hidden under her bed next to a teether and a box of stim toys

 • given her just. general autism. and how she is. she can get away with alot. she can have stim toys. she can stop talking. she can have cute onesie pajamas. you get the idea. so at least she has that.

 • but stepping away from the absolute misery, here's some happier ones:

 • i think there were positive regression triggers, even if she suppressed it. like at Yaz's grandma's wedding, when they were doing the henna tattoos (i believe that's what they were? im not too familiar with the culture, excuse me if i am wrong and feel free to correct me) as well as the fez, and getting her new clothes!

 • She has a tamagotchi! She is very good at taking care of it, despite it all. She also has a ds with Nintendogs, which was previously used by 11. it's modded so she can have more dogs than the game allows =]

 • she has matching bracelets with her giraffe plush!

 • Shes got a blanket with stars on it, sometimes she lays on top of it with her nightlight on because. sparkly

 • she draws on herself. yes she has paper yes she could draw on a more permanent surface but it's more fun to draw on herself

[masteri110]

Confession: I'm a gay trans man and my bf is perfect in almost every way, he loves and supports me, he makes me laugh, he comforts me when I'm sad, he's just amazing to be around. But he is also the most vanilla man I've ever met in my life. I don't think he has one kink if I'm being honest. Even the stuff I find pretty tame, like giving him head while he's playing a game, is completely off the table for him. He gets embarrassed when I ask him to call me a good boy, he overtly refuses to do any sort of degradation or anything (once asked him to call me a faggot while I was sucking him off and he was so turned off by it he got soft), the most I ever get is a light spank while we're in doggy. Our sex life is fine, if a little boring. He USED TO BE ok with me begging him to breed me but apparently it started making him nervous because he thought I actually wanted a kid and he's not ready yet. I've only ever told him about my tamest kinks, he doesn't know I'm into cnc or somno or puppy play or anything like that, because I'm afraid it would scare him off and I genuinely love him. But every fucking day I have to sneak off to our room and make myself cum to the thought of him interrupting me cleaning to fuck me or waking up with his dick already inside me. I watch him play games wishing I could be keeping his cock warm for him, I choke myself and pretend its him, I'm DESPERATE to be used like a fleshlight for him but he is just. Not. Into it. We've been together for three years and it's really just getting worse and worse as time goes on. I wanna grab him by the shoulders and shake him and tell him "I'M YOURS!!! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH ME TREAT ME LIKE A TOY I'M BEGGING YOU!!" But I know it wouldn't do anything.

That sounds like a rough spot to be in. On the one hand he's the love of your life and makes you happy but on the other he isn't satisfying you sexually and that can mean a lot to a person, sex is a big part of some people's lives and if it is something you need but aren't getting then that is a problem that needs fixing. I am personally a big old advocate for simply talking through whatever problems you're having in any relationship, so my first suggestion would be to sit him down and tell him all about what you want and how you feel when you aren't getting it. I would also see if he'll tell you why he is uncomfortable with it all, it could be some sort of trauma issue where it reminds him of a had past experience or it could just be something he is just not wired to do. Everyone is different and some people just don't get any enjoyment out of these kinks. (which is wild to me because they're so fun lol) if that doesn't work out and you still need to be satisfied sexually I would honestly ask about maybe opening up the relationship for sexual purposes, I don't know if that would be something you'd enjoy but my opinion on it is you only get one life (as far as we know) why would you want to live it settling for something you don't want? Live it up! These social expectations about relationships don't really mean anything, they are just constructs we made ourselves so we don't really need to follow them, unless of course it's something that harms someone without consent then that needs followed. But the point is everyone deserves to be happy, and if this is a problem that is making you unhappy then you should try and find a solution to it rather than bottle it up, you'll feel a lot better in the end despite whatever happens!

[visualtaehyun]

BL/QL Ask game : The Ugly, the Bad and the Worst

Thank you for tagging me @twig-tea 🙏 I read your post and the questions while going Ohhh interesting but when I actually tried to answer them myself, I realized that I'm usually pretty positive about the shows I watch or else I just move on from them. Most of the time, I don't fault characters or a whole show for being bad anyway, it's more the writing/script, directing choices, or editing that I tend to have gripes with.

So! Of the entire 22 original questions (by @clara-maybe-ontheroad), I'll only be answering a handful. This will also only be about Thai BLs because they make up the vast majority of QLs I've seen.

1 Worst soundtrack / weirdest song choice in a BL

My knee-jerk reaction was "Never Let Me Go country song NC" lmao but then I went to rewatch said scene and it barely stood out to me. So after re-thinking I'll have to nominate two shows: Dangerous Romance and Until We Meet Again, for basically the same reason.

Chimon's OST สายลม (Wind), which I actually fell in love with when it dropped because Chimon's voice was such a pleasant surprise, is being entirely overused in DR, to the point that I'm starting to tire of a song that I actually like. Honorable mention: The completely random and unnecessary stage performance of Perth and Chimon's ซบกันไปนานๆ (Sunset) in ep. 5. Was it not enough to have them sing and vibe to it in the car earlier in the same episode??

Similarly, UWMA's OST is either entirely by one guy or entirely one song but it sure was grating on me, my patience and my enjoyment of the show. P'New series are already hit or miss for me but that singer/song/OST had me so fed up.

5 Worst plot line

The first show I ever dropped was Star In My Mind which is ridiculous considering how short it is. But the entire premise of Kluen being unable to open his goddamn mouth frustrated me to no end. I did pick it back up again at a later point though, so I could watch Sky In Your Heart and indulge in the JoongDunk cuteness from there on out.

7 A show people love but you find bad

I'm sorry to say but- it's Vice Versa. It was one of the first Thai QLs I watched along with as it aired but ultimately I gotta say Oof. It has a fun premise, the cinematography is super nice, and it's genuinely sweet. But the amount of product placements was staggering! I also just didn't vibe with JimmySea's chemistry, they just gave too much Friend energy for me to find them believable as a couple. They're not the only ones or the only series where I didn't really find the spark but that's not a Them problem. That's a me 'Needing my fictional couples to be head over heels for each other for my acespec ass to see/experience the attraction and connection' problem lol

8 A show people find bad but you will defend

Cutie Pie! And I will die on this hill, @twig-tea 😂 It has everything I love: good production quality, good acting, tangible chemistry between the couples (see last question lol), complicated emotions, push-and-pull between the romantic leads, a dedicated cast and crew, a great OST, I'm certain I'm forgetting a lot of stuff but there's just so much I love about this show.

At its core, it's about two people who turned themselves into the versions they think they should be for each other, based on their upbringing, expectations placed upon them, status differences etc. and how they learn to be honest with themselves and each other.

I've re-watched this show a number of times, each with different levels of Thai proficiency, which made me consider that this show might've been such a hit in Thailand but not as much internationally because there's maybe a language and trope/culture barrier here? On my first-time watch, I knew no Thai and was largely unfamiliar with what tropes are common in Thai romances and such. At the time, the show didn't hit me very much, I struggled to make sense of that pivotal fight in episode 1, I enjoyed the singing, it was mostly just a nice romance. On my most recent re-watch a few months back, I had reached the point where I could follow a spoken conversation in Thai as long as there were translated subs to guide me along. And suddenly the full weight of episode 1 but especially the fight at the end, setting up the central conflict, hit me and I realized: Oh wow! This is good writing! Introduce your characters, their backgrounds, their goals, and the show's core conflict and that's how you hook viewers.

This has already gotten long enough but I wanna mention how much it means to me to have this show not just call for marriage equality repeatedly but also to have them shout it out to the world by having their mlm couple fully make out in what is arguably one of the busiest corners of Bangkok - Siam Square! More specifically it is the area with the fountains between Siam Paragon on one side and Siam Center on the other, and the skywalk (that connects the various malls in the area) as well as the central BTS station Siam both overlooking that space. It's also called Parc Paragon, there's frequently events there, and it is busy as all hell!! And they not only cleared it for filming a lengthy queer kiss scene but, in the show, the huge LED/ad screens are used to project pride colors, a call for equal rights, and a queer marriage proposal in plain view of the entire square!

If you've never been to Bangkok, I beg you to look up photos, via Google Street View or the IG location tag for Parc Paragon so you get an idea of what I'm talking about. 🙏 (this isn't the only busy prominent location they used btw but djdjhdjsdj let's not write a whole damn essay here)

10 A bad show that you kept watching because you were intrigued/fascinated

Dinosaur Love - I watched the first episode, excited for Tonnam and Pepper, and found it charming with its low budget, pink-filtered tropey-ness. Except I quickly realized that this show was Actually Bad. The framing and blocking were often a big question mark to me. The pink filter and the background music got annoying quickly. The acting was subpar. At some point in episode 2 I started questioning if they ever even did more than one take per scene. There was a panning shot involving a mirror where the crew is just fully visible in the reflection?? Suffice it to say that I dropped this show like a hot potato when episode 3 very suddenly and very graphically had a side character self-harm. Squicked me out like nothing before, moving on!

11 A bad show that you kept watching because you were horny

I mentioned this already but I'm on the aro/ace-spectrum (...somewhere, don't ask me specifics lol) so I don't really watch shows for horny or eyecandy reasons. If I don't vibe with the characters or dynamics then I won't even perceive them as sexy, to be honest.

12 A bad show that you kept watching because of that one character

Why R U (the og Thai one), I guess? Everyone who's seen it probably knows that the production and filming suffered because of Covid so I wouldn't hesitate to call this show bad on that basis. I set out to watch it because I wanted to see more of Zee Pruk's acting, in another role, after having seen Cutie Pie. And Fighter ended up being most of the reason I stuck around till the end. The nuanced struggle with his own sexuality was so well-portrayed. Tutor is a very memorable character as well! And I'm entirely 🥰 about Hwa, she just perfectly fits this character archetype that I will always, without fail, completely adore.

21 The show that disappointed you the most

Most of the time, I either don't have big expectations or I let go of them quickly enough once I get a vibe for where a given show is going. The closest thing to 'disappointment' would then probably be all the shows that I kept seeing being recommended and hyped but that didn't leave a lasting impression on me after watching, like KinnPorsche, Love Mechanics, Manner of Death. None of these are bad OR disappointing and there's things I genuinely enjoyed and liked in them but ultimately I just didn't Get why they're so popular. I'm sure part of it is to do with me not having been around to follow along on a week-to-week basis but watching them long after they were done airing, basically in a vacuum. But alas!

I don't know how you managed to do all 22 questions, Twig Tea, when this fraction has already taken me like five hours 💀 Passing this time-eating curse on then to @airenyah @cangse-sanren/@zeesqueere @sadwetcatray @sorry-bonebag @telomeke @thegalwhorants @pharawee I'm sure this tag is making the rounds so some (if not all) of y'all have probably done this already. If anyone I didn't tag reads this and wants to play, feel free to tag me in it, I do enjoy reading hot takes and impassioned essays lol

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 05/02/2024

Epic Rap Battles of History: Funny vs. Funnier

Season 5 Featured on: Rips From Around The Way 7 (Hidden Track)

Ripped by DonnieTheGuy Visuals by moralem, Blookerstein, PsychLantern, Myeauxyoozi

Requested by crickep! (Discord)

Yknow, for as much as I like to go on and on about Season 2 being my favorite period of the channel's life - it may honestly just be due to my own personal investment being at its highest at that point. Its a herculean, damn near impossible task nowadays to actually try and critically evaluate a season of SiIvaGunner in retrospect, and most of what I go off of obviously just comes from my own experiences and memories. It goes to reason, then, that Season 5 is my least favorite season of the channel not necessarily due to any fault of its own, but just due to my own personal investment in the channel being rather low at the time. I say that, because with every rip I cover from the Season - now including Epic Rap Battles of History: Funny vs. Funnier - I'm baffled as to why I'd ever consider the season anything less than peak.

When I have that discussion with other people (or just with the voices in my head), the reasons tend to primarily boil down to a lack of lore developments made during the year. Yet as I talked about way back in Knowledge of the Depths, even that feels like doing the Season a disservice, given just how enjoyable and, in a way, lore-crucial the audio dramas made during Season 4 Episode 2 and Season 5 wound up becoming. Which again makes me point toward my own lack of attentiveness toward the Season as the one to blame: because how else could I have missed out on how genuinely engaging and interesting the lore regarding Lady, Yankin', Masked Wolf and Astronaut in the Ocean was? And as the cherry on top - how could I have missed just how perfect of an ending to it all Epic Rap Battles of History: Funny vs. Funnier wound up being?

I've dissected and talked about Masked Wolf before in Aquarium in the Ocean and Snow halocean, as the figment who best fits the role of a true anti-hero within SiIvaGunner - an agent of chaos whose rips only occasionally bother to actually sound good, yet one we wound up loving despite (or because of!) it all. Yet as Season 5 began to truly ramp up, his role seemed to change from agent of chaos to necessary evil - as the only remaining figment capable of stopping the reign of hell that Lady's "Yankover" was subjecting us all to. No doubt SiIva has had its contentious, long-lasting takeovers before (Harlem Shakeover and Totally Shaaking Out Right Now, anyone?), yet nothing truly compared to the neverending downpour of hellfire cast upon us by one particularly crass rapper singing about her genitalia. And for once, it seemed as if the SiIvaGunner team agreed - Lady became, for all intents and purposes, the actual villain of Season 5, with her figment form reimagined as a full-on demon in need of imprisonment. And small nuggets of lore were being handed out week by week (nuggets that I, again, unfortunately glazed over back in the day), Lady's defeat wound up happening at the hands of HoBART, everyone's favorite mixer from the King for Another Day Tournament. Yet to me, Epic Rap Battles of History: Funny vs. Funnier still sits at the most pure, befitting end to her reign - a battle between the Season's fallen angel and its lawless demon, set to the tune of a game whose entire hype cycle practically enveloped Season 5 in its entirety.

Back in Satinpanties Symphony, I mused over how Friday Night Funkin became a mainstay feature on SiIvaGunner almost overnight, and how it feels as if the two projects share a lot of DNA that make them a perfect fit for one another, in how they handle the idea of legacy. What better game, then, could there be to depict the encounter between these two legends that defined the season, than with the game that defined the year - coincidentally, one entirely focused on duels between rappers. That's not to imply that Epic Rap Battles of History: Funny vs. Funnier isn't an absolute banger on its own - the melodic core of Ugh, paired with the implementation of both Astronaut in the Ocean and Yankin's backings into the back-and-fourth, creates a fantastic re-imagining of the song that's both endlessly relistenable and incredibly charming with the custom visuals. Yet its the same point I made in Take You To The Desert - with all that context in mind of all that led up to this battle, the knowledge of how much the community suffered under the thumb of both rappers yet came to understand one for his harmless-if-strange tendencies yet came to loathe the other...Epic Rap Battles of History: Funny vs. Funnier becomes something genuinely legendary. Paired with so many small flourishes added on top, such as the original track's "Ugh" sample being replaced with Masked Wolf's opening "Astro", the reference to Lady's attempted Thanksgiving resurrection ritual in Twerkey (seriously), down to Lady being positioned as the player character to truly sell home how dominant she was during her reign...It feels like yet another one of those, for lack of another word, Perfect, rips.

The cherry on top of it all though is, of course, the ending. Despite the seemingly even back-and-forth in the battle, Lady is suddenly dragged back into the pits of hell, as Masked Wolf leaves her with his parting words.

I believe in G-O-D, don't believe in T-H-O-T.

[vidreview]

VIDEO ESSAY ROUNDUP #5

[originally posted march 30th 2024]

it's been a minute since i've done one of these, for a whole host of reasons. the biggest one is that i just haven't been watching very much youtube lately, on account of spending my time making youtube instead. in February i released a scripted essay about the German time travel murder mystery show DARK, while in March i posted an unscripted conversation piece about all the movies i own but haven't watched. i've got a lot more planned for this year, but we're here to talk about other people's essays, not mine. so let's do that!

"Yellow Paint" by Caleb Gamman.

i've talked about Caleb Gamman on this blog before, and no doubt i will continue to do so. he's a fantastic and criminally underrated essayist whose materialist approach to media analysis is a model for the kind of thing anyone making video essays ought to aspire to. nominally about the discourse over yellow paint signposting interactible objects in modern AAA video games, this essay is a disgusted and exhausted act of passive aggression (which turns into regular aggression by the end) against the ways social media and corporate greed have engendered an atmosphere of deliberate ignorance and illiteracy towards games, traditional media, news, politics, everything. it's an entertaining and vindicating watch, full of great points argued with genuine conviction.

"PS1 STORIES - 3D SHOOTING MAKER" by Blue Bidya Game.

this one i found through a friend posting about it. we're looking at a review of a very specific PS1 "RPG Maker" spinoff dedicated to 3D rail shooters a la Star Fox --which is an instant sell for me, a long-suffering Star Fox enjoyer. but it's just as much an in-depth history of the Maker franchise as a whole, which is a lot deeper and more interesting than i ever could've imagined. a lot of research went into this, a task i can only imagine was made incredibly difficult by the language barrier. it's a great little video that packs a lot of charm into its 31 minute runtime, but what i find even more remarkable is Blue Bidya Game's mission statement: "I do sentimental videos on every game in the PS1 library alphanumerically and region-free until I die. Let's get weird and look through low graphical detail windows together. What do you think is out there? What could be just past those blocky hills?" at time of writing, there are 36 videos on Blue Bidya Game's channel, the vast majority of which are below 2000 views. if the quality of this single essay is even remotely indicative of the rest of his catalogue, then this might qualify as one of the most exciting & slept-on works of historical games journalism out there. if you were a fan of Tim Rogers' "Let's Mosey: A Slow Translation Of Final Fantasy VII" series, i think you may have found your new favorite youtube channel. you're welcome

"VR's Greatest Hope, We Thought - Half Life: Alyx Four Years Later" by Brother Burn.

there was a time when i believed wholeheartedly that VR was my beat. i futzed around with the Oculus DK2 at the University of Oklahoma tech lab in, what, 2014? and had my mind blown by the experience of riding a virtual roller coaster. in 2016 my roommate and i went halfsies on an HTC Vive, which arrived on our doorstep the very day that Donald Trump won the presidential election. more on-the-nose symbolism you couldn't possibly ask for-- that is, assuming VR software development & investment kept up its then-rapid pace long enough to support total quadrennial escapism, which it absolutely did not. don't get me wrong, i found a number of titles to love; i made a video about perennial VR classic Beat Saber in 2018, but was plenty charmed by the likes of Arizona Sunshine, The Gallery, Vanishing Realms, Zombie Training Simulator, and especially the fast-paced climbing game To The Top, whose only weakness for me was the limited number of tracks in its (admittedly good) OST with no ability to easily import your own tracks instead. yet for as much as i liked these games, vanishingly little about them was so far beyond what was offered by the tech demos present in Valve's VR pack-in The Lab that you couldn't get an approximately similar experience by just playing that instead. alas, the horizon of possibility for VR games hit something of a ceiling once all the most obvious ludic experiences had been more or less perfected.

anyway, this video by Brother Burn is at least in part about that. i never played Half Life: Alyx, but it certainly seemed positioned to be "VR's Greatest Hope" at the time and so i was naturally drawn in by this essay's title. what it confirmed for me is that i'm glad Alyx exists, but don't feel an especial need to play it. he talks at length about the stealth level "Jeff", which sounds cool as hell and is something i could never under any circumstances subject myself to. i cannot handle horror in VR. there's a section of Arizona Sunshine set in an abandoned mine that i had to psych myself up to finish for three weeks. so it's good, in that respect, to get a breezey overview of Alyx from someone who isn't a Half Life superfan (like me), who gets motion sick in VR easily (also like me), and who clearly came up during a very specific era of youtube (ditto). Brother Burn's style is a time-capsule from 2017 in all the best ways. post-Game Grumps, pre-Breadtube, high effort editing with a lightly self-aggrandizing sense of humor, lives maybe two or three doors down from Errant Signal; i dunno what to say except i find his work charming. that he has less than 2000 subscribers at time of writing is as unfortunate as it is unsurprising.

"remember fingerboards?" by Jeffiot.

this may quietly turn out to be one of my favorite video essays of the year. a history of skateboarding with a history of finger-skateboarding along with a personal history of both into a genuine loveletter to what is objectively a very silly activity? oh yes, thank you very much, i'll take two. the section where he first tries fingerboarding is so surprising and charming, and everything that follows is like… i dunno, freeing? there's something about this video that feels like a substantially relieved exhale, as it's the first really niche thing Jeffiot's done since the astronomical success of his Skull Trumpet essay. the scariest part of being Suddenly Popular after such a long time being totally invisible is the looming specter of What Next. the temptation must've been there to just keep on doing videos investigating the origins of Weird Internet Ephemera forever, since that clearly resonated with a lot of people. instead, here he is doing something totally unrelated, in a realm that none of his new subscribers are likely to be interested in --a supposition at least momentarily supported by the fact that this video only has 14,000 views after a single day (compared to the 100k+ views his last few hit). that number will surely go up, but for the moment i think it's illustrative of the fact that every channel's subscriber count actually contains at least two, probably more, discrete pools of audience. 155,000 subscribers is impressive and substantial, but how many of those people are there for Jeffiot, and how many are there for More Skull Trumpet? all things being equal (which they very much are not), i see that 14k viewership number as a soft indication of Jeffiot's dependable long-term viewers, the people who'll follow him down whatever blind alley he wanders through.

i plugged Jeffiot in the previous roundup, with a lot of time spent analyzing the phenomenon of running a small channel that suddenly gets huge because of a single viral hit. when i wrote that post in january of this year, he'd just exceeded 50,000 subscribers after having only 5,000 a few weeks prior. now, two months later, he's got over 155,000 subscribers. this makes Jeffiot's channel a really useful case study in how one translates good luck into good fortune. the most notable development in my opinion is that quite a lot of Jeffiot's back catalogue has seen an immense increase in viewership as well, something that simply does not happen unless there's a palpable and immediate and consistent qualitative energy shared between the old stuff and The Thing That Went Viral. when i say that the job of a video essayist toiling in sub-5k-views obscurity is to lay the groundwork for getting lucky, this is exactly what i mean. Jeffiot's stuff is high-effort, surprising, and thoroughly entertaining across the board, unique in subject matter yet somehow broadly approachable (that he's clearly very influenced by the work of Tim Rogers over at Action Button is, i'm sure, just a coincidence). i really hope that Jeffiot doesn't take the relatively low viewership of this fingerboard essay as a Failure and vow to stay away from such seemingly off-brand subject matter in the future. it's not a failure (i mean, god, i'd kill for a video of mine to even break 5k in a single day at this point), but rather an indication of confidence and direction. the best artists and creators will walk their path whether you follow them or not. there's no being true to what compels you which also permits universal success, and any attempt to the contrary is a great way to strangle your soul to death. the successes float you on from the sinkers. views and subscribers don't have a linear relationship with monetary success on youtube (unless you rely exclusively on ad revenue, at which point you're already fucked and should probably check a calendar to see if it's still 2015), yet it's so easy to get spooked by them because youtube wants us to be obsessed with analytics. somehow, i think Jeffiot's smart enough to avoid such pitfalls.

"The Mass Extinction Debates: A Science Communication Odyssey" by Oliver Lugg.

this one was suggested to me through my askbox. what strikes me most about this video is how it spends 45 minutes building up the context leading up to the debates about what actually caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, so that you understand what they really represented beyond a simple who's right/who's wrong. i had no idea this was such a recent thing-- 1996, man. that's so in my lifetime. i've always thought the asteroid theory was just uncontroversially true, it never occurred to me that there would have been a combative dogma against it in the scientific community. this is just a good, fun, enjoyable and educational video essay.

"Everyone But Me Is Wrong About The Cornetto Trilogy" by Innuendo Studios.

this is an essay refuting the semi-popular assertion that the Cornetto Trilogy (Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End) are about stunted manchildren being forced by circumstance to finally grow up. instead, Ian Danskin argues, these films are about stunted manchildren who refuse to change until circumstances beyond their control forceably change the entire rest of the world in a way that allows them to never have to grow up. this is one of those essays that's clearly been on the backburner for a long time, delivered with a real sense of frustration and desire to correct the record on something that seems, to Danskin, transparently obvious.

i liked this essay a lot because (to get a bit inside baseball) i'm dedicated to finally producing my extremely-long-in-the-works essay titled Everyone Is Wrong About LOST, about how everyone is wrong about the tv show LOST, by the end of this year. a big question for me in writing that essay has been what tone to strike, how much indignance i should show, where the line between funny and annoying lies. this essay did a lot to clarify that question for me, which is only that much more edifying because Ian Danskin has been at this since 2014. his original essay, This Is Phil Fish, was a big inspiration for me when i first started thinking i might want to try my hand at this gig, and his work ever since has remained some of the most consistently good and clear argumentative writing on the platform. any time he posts a new essay is a moment of quiet celebration for me, especially on the rare occasion he does traditional media analysis like this instead of the equally excellent but generally dry rhetorical analysis he's been doing with the Alt-Right Playbook for the last 6 years. it feels somehow poetic to once again have the path forward in my work clarified by a creator who inspired me an entire gender ago, like somehow despite all that's changed i'm still being true to my WAIT HOLD ON WHAT

well i guess i'd better hurry up and make this fucking LOST video, huh?

<- ROUNDUP #4 | ROUNDUP #6 ->

[blubushie]

That part in Learnin the Blu's where Mick and Jesse sing "Tie me kangaroo down, sport" is genuinely one of the most... domestic? Sweet? Incredibly warming? Moments I've ever read in fanfiction. It's perfect. The poker game, the silly bets, the sleeping, the waking up, the singing together after it all. I'm not sure how to describe it, I just know that when I read it, it instantly brought a goofy smile to my face. Had to put my phone down, and just smile for a bit, before getting back to reading.

I'm an absolute sucker, I am, for cheesy corny bits like that. And with the added context of which characters are doing that, it makes it even better. It's so... Man

It's one of those "Oh my god I fucking love humanity" moments for me

It's definitely something I'll copy and paste to a document, just so I can go back and read it every once in a while.

Really enjoying the story as well, I'm partway through chap 10 currently

You legitimately have no idea how happy this made me to read! Domestic fluff is probably the thing I enjoy writing most (probably because I don't experience it, sorry Mundy, mate, I'm living through you) and I'd glad to hear it's enjoyable to read!

Domestic fluff continues in chapter 11 but there's some action coming in chapter 12! I just hope it ends up coming out okay because god knows I can't write action scenes lmao

[melloggd]

Review: Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure

xeen • SEGA • 2012 • Nintendo 3DS Read it on Backloggd: (x)

This was one of the most pleasantly surprising experiences I've ever had finding, buying, playing then beating a game! I went in COMPLETELY unspoiled aside from having played the 3DS Demo and knowing it was sound directed by my beloved Tomoya Ohtani: both of these things left great impressions on me, but I don't think either could've prepared me for the game as a whole.

You can see right from the boxart what this game is about: A story-driven Rhythm game with an immense sense of style and personality. It taps into the energy that games like Professor Layton save for the very end, to instead use for the entire game's runtime.

With every new game I play, pacing ends up being a make-or-break aspect that decides whether or not I finish a game. It was so refreshing to not only play a game with absolutely top-notch pacing, but also one with a genuinely fun story to follow. What I'm getting at is: Just on a game-feel level, these kinds of games don't come often.

And I haven't even discussed the gameplay, which is both where the game shines and falters in the most charming ways possible. Despite being a mostly outsourced game, it channels the feeling of Y2K SEGA through and through: Ambition over polish, emotion over consistency, and a full dedication to whatever silly premise the game is running with. Rhythm games are usually mixed for me, I of course get dopamine from hitting actions to notes but I've always felt like something was missing from the experience. With this, I know now what that something is: Variety and story context both add immensely to the vibe of each Minigame. Are there a few stinkers? For sure, for sure. Mostly the ones using Motion controls, but some of the traditionally-controlled games also suffer from being a bit too ambitious in difficulty. But its hard to care when they're almost always wrapped in a memorable, unique package.

In that way Rhythm Thief is a game better than an analysis of all its aspects could ever tell you. Despite its flaws, its an experience that you can't help but smile through. Raphael, Marie, Charlie, Inspector Vergier and all the side characters are stuck in my head forever now. It shares that in common with the SEGA classics of yore like NiGHTS, Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon, Space Channel 5, Sonic Adventure and Monkey Ball: Weird design choices stop impacting your enjoyment when the confidence and heart on display is just that strong.

Maybe I'm biased toward SEGA's particular brand of jank and an appreciation of over-the-top stories, but Rhythm Thief made me smile in a very earnest, personal way, that very few games have.

That's gotta mean something, right?

[Play time: 20 hours] [Key word: Birthday]

[licorishh]

I finished Black Ops 2 yesterday and I have some... thoughts 😭. Fair warning, I kinda put it through the ringer and bash it a bit because I had a less than enjoyable experience so if you absolutely love it then... yahoo for you, I guess. You are not my target audience per se but you are welcome to educate me if you feel that I have wildly misinterpreted the way this game works.

There is genuinely nothing I can say about this game other than the fact that it's the first Call of Duty game I've ever played that I actively dislike, which sucks, because it's one of my favorite franchises and y'all frickin' know by now I'm of the opinion the original Modern Warfare games are three of if not the best video games ever made.

First of all, BO2 is so freaking glitchy??? Genuinely unplayable sometimes. Models spawn and despawn at will, textures flat-out disappear (in one of the first missions when I pulled Woods out of the train car thing his arm suddenly turned black and it just. Never got fixed for the remainder of the mission), voice lines don't trigger or they trigger multiple times (that happened three times in the part where Woods shoots Mason thinking he's Menendez; completely ruined the immersion), the way the voice lines are censored with the graphic content turned off is absolutely ridiculous and causes whole entire sentences and sometimes even whole pieces to be cut out when there’s only a word or two needing to be censored; it's insane. Did they even test this game before release?? WHO QA'D THIS?????? And I played the whole thing on an Xbox Series X we got like three months ago so don't frickin' tell me it’s my system. 😭🙏

This is a VERY common complaint, but the AI in this game is abysmally bad. It's unspeakably bad in the strike force missions but even in the base campaign I might as well have had no teammates at all.

He also has, like, no reason to even be considered a threat up until the VERY END OF THE GAME when he finally launches the attack. Up until that time we didn't see him do literally anything worth the game making him out to be this terrifying Makarov-esque adversary. Why should I even care??? And he says the stupidest cheesiest most Dreamworks-villain junk and he's just so fundamentally NOT dangerous that it's almost awkward to watch.

I was hoping Menendez would be another cool villain to get invested in, but... goodness sakes he was not. He's boring and flat as freak and the motivation they gave him for doing all these things is wildly underwhelming and makes no sense at all. I get it, dude. Your sister died (accidentally, I might add) and you are apparently so creepily obsessed with her and so unable to live without her that you... become a supervillain with a master plan to overthrow the major powers of the world by launching a cyber attack......???????? Like???????? Where is this coming from????????????????

(To clarify, I'm talking about the bit be

David and Harper are... fine, I guess? They just didn't really jump out at me like at all. Salazar's whole character just annoyed me and made me roll my eyes. It didn't feel like a betrayal; just a halfhearted attempt to shoehorn in some shock value. That and the whole bit with Menendez taking over the ship was just... so dumb. There was no lead-up to it and yet somehow I completely saw it coming.

It also felt like the exposition in this game was crazy. The whole time it felt like "Menendez is bad! Menendez is soooo bad! He's so so so so sooooooooo bad! Trust me bro he's like AWFUL" but then he just. Never... actually does anything. Until the very frickin' end of the game. That and the characters frickin' kept narrating everything that was obviously happening but didn't explain literally any of the parts I had trouble keeping up with.

Smaller nitpicks but really?? A THIRD voice actor for Hudson??? And this one just sucked. Didn't sound like Hudson at all so it made me feel practically nothing when the guy got capped. It didn't remotely feel like the same Hudson from BO1 and Cold War. Not at all. That and all the ridiculous scenes with fast switching between camera angles and slow-mo. It felt so frickin' cheesy in a dadgum Call of Duty game. Our lives are supposedly on the line with a supposedly reaaaally really bad (<- like really really bad trust me guys 🙏) bad guy right outside the door and you're gonna do a 2002 quick-zoom on Salazar as he pops the other two soldiers in the room. IT'S JUST SO UNNECESSARY I'M SORRY 😭😭😭

Don't even get me started on the ending when you either capture or kill Menendez. It's over so quickly, he's literally JUST STANDING THERE WAITING TO BE CAUGHT, and no matter which option you pick, THE GAME INSINUATES THAT CORDIS DIE IS GONNA KEEP GOING ANYWAY SO IT DOESN'T EVEN FREAKING MATTER. If you kill him he becomes by his own admission a martyr and inspiration for Cordis Die, and if you capture him, he frickin' says "Yeah lol I'll escape again (<- JUST LIKE HE ALREADY DID EARLIER IN THE GAME WHICH THEY LITERALLY EVEN BOTHERED TO POINT OUT BECAUSE HARPER REMINDS DAVID THAT CAPTURING HIM DIDN'T WORK LAST TIME) so I'll see you in a year" SO ALL OF THE EVENTS OF THE GAME JUST ACCOMPLISH FLAT-OUT NOTHING. NOTHING IS ACHIEVED IN THIS GAME. LITERALLY NOTHING.

On TOP of all of THAT, CHLOE SERVES NO PURPOSE. IN THE BAD ENDING MENENDEZ DOESN'T EVEN NEED HER BECAUSE HE LAUNCHES THE BIG BIG BIG BAD ATTACK SO THE WHOLE DEAL ABOUT BRINGING HER BACK AND SALAZAR SUBSEQUENTLY KILLING HER JUST MEANS GENUINELY NOTHING.

This game was so maddeningly frustrating I cannot quite even. Normally I'm either neutral with a positive lean or I really like COD games (World at War is the only other game I've been more "meh" on but that one at least had a very sensible story and felt like a Good Game). Black Ops 2 is just... bad. It genuinely astounds me that this one is most people's FAVORITE. WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE LOVE ABOUT THIS GAME SO MUCH IT'S COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE AND NOTHING MAKES SENSE AND IT'S OVERDRAMATIZED TO SUCH A LAUGHABLE DEGREE THAT I FEEL LIKE I'M PLAYING A ROBLOX SHOOTER I CAN'T EVEN FHRJSJDHDHD

Maybe I missed something. I don’t know, but I played it with my dad and he feels the same way. He was nicer about it because he likes to pretend like bad things aren't as bad as they are but he definitely was confused by many of the choices made for the story and was frustrated by the blandness of Menendez' character.

It's unfortunate because I really liked what Treyarch did with Black Ops 1 and Cold War. They really popped off with those and then just royally flunked with this one. I don't know what happened. Even the models look like they were straight-up made by a different studio. It feels completely out of place with the rest of the Call of Duty games. There's zero flow or synergy or connection beyond some nostalgia bait with Woods and the couple of times Mason gets to do something (Alex, not David).

It feels like a Titanfall fan-game reject at its core. Maybe that's harsh or whatever but like honestly. Just. Eugh.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Yay time for more random stuff.

I ended up liking Lies as a Starting Point more than I expected, which is kinda surprising considering how rough the translation is. Like some of the errors in it feel like a real person made them and not just machine translation, but this was not proofread by anyone who speaks English anywhere near fluently. What I was able to get out of the story through the mess of the translation was enjoyable enough, with three smaller stories about people lying to each other in their relationships and the effects ot that, but then the way they're all tied together by the framing story of the main central character is pretty satisfying, and it ends up being about a bit more than just what it seems on the surface at first. Not the best story I've ever read, or even a contender for the best so far this year, but I liked it enough that I feel like it deserves a proper translation.

And then for something completely different my preliminary thoughts on Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It's fine, I guess? I don't love it. I've finished the first two worlds and probably have enough momentum to finish the main game, but even if I do make it through that I can guarantee I won't be doing all the optional stuff like I have with some previous Mario games. I'm not really into the way with some of their more recent big games Nintendo has gone beyond their traditional high level of polish all the way into smoothing off so many edges from things that it starts making it feel less good and be less interesting to me. I kind of had the same problem with Kirby and the Forgotten Land too, although at least with that one I genuinely thought it was great until some point in the middle (and then by the end only pretty good).

I feel like instead of splitting them into 2D and 3D you could divide the Mario games based on how they're structured into the ones that are like SMB3 and the ones that are like Mario 64. Even as someone who played SMB3 when it was new I always thought it was kinda overrated, and I've generally tended to like that style of games less, but my favorite of those is still Super Mario World. I don't think I've played a SMB3-style Mario game or 2D Mario game in general that I've liked more than that.

On the other hand the 3D Mario 64-style games are still doing things I love and continue to be lots of fun for me. Odyssey was excellent, and so was Bowser's Fury (but I absolutely couldn't stand 3D World on the same cartridge, which is a SMB3-style 3D game and probably the Mario game I've disliked the most out of all the ones I've tried over the years).

I dunno. Everyone keeps going on about how great Wonder is and how creative the levels are with how much weird stuff they experiment with, and I can kinda see it, but it's just not really doing it for me. I think maybe it feels too much like a tightly constrained theme park ride or something? Maybe I'm just not into this style of game anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

probably doesn't help that I've never liked bowser jr. either

[kpagrandtour]

The conclusion of the American Grand Tour (3-16-23)

Davis Wooten

This trip was truly an amazing experience that I am so thankful for. Me and my class got to embark on the long anticipated journey to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia this year as a supplication for the Europe trip that we would have taken as juniors, had covid not intervened. However, as appealing as Europe may have sounded, this trip quite possibly could have been just as enjoyable, if not more for me personally.

The first city we stayed in was Boston Massachusetts. The day began with us visiting the freedom trial and learning more about the American Revolution on a more personal level, since we were able to go and see places and artifacts that many of the American Patriots valued and utilized, just as we do today. That night we also visited the JFK museum which was very interesting as well, because much of the history was more recent and relevant to us in today's age. Our second day in Boston took us to the battle sight of bunker hill, as well as well as the U.S Constitution, which was a famous boat in the old American Revolutionaries navy. This was a lot of fun because it allowed everyone there to see things as the patriots back then did from the perspective of an old ship deck, or through the lens of a window down below. Boston was in my opinion, the prettiest city, with it's blend of modern and historic architecture mixed with a more substantial sense of open air from the docks and other areas, that you just don't get in New York or Philly.

While Boston may have been the most aesthetically pleasing city we went to, no amount of enjoyment throughout the trip could compare to the first day that we had in New York City. Having the opportunity to explore Central Park and the streets around it was something no one should ever take for granted. There was so much to see and do, and no two corners of streets were the same. Outside of getting to explore the city and Central Park, we were allowed the opportunity to explore radio city music hall, which was also a blast. We had a phenomenal tour guide who made it all the more interesting as well, so even if you aren't a music fan, this tour would surely surpass your expectations and make you want to change your mind. That night in New York we also were given the opportunity to see a broadway play, which was one of the most entertaining and genuinely fulfilling experiences that I've ever had on a trip. It's not everyday that one gets to see a broadway play, and this did not disappoint whatsoever. The second day was also enjoyable because we got to see Ellis Island and the statue of liberty. These were both things that we had previously learned about in history, so it was neat to see it in person. New York was jam packed with fun and fulfilling things that definitely gave me more memories than I could fit on this page.

Lastly, we got to go to Philly. This was an exciting part of the trip as well for a multitude of reasons. The first reason being that we were given the opportunity to go to a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game. This was a particular interesting and enjoyable event for me to get to experience because for one, I had never been to a hockey game before (much less an NHL one), and two, I had never had any particular interest in the sport. I was also not too sure on what the rules of the game were, but thanks to Dr. DePoe and Mr. West, I got a pretty good list of what was happening and could follow along. After seeing this game, I was pleasantly surprised as to how enjoyable it actually was. The next day, we got to go to the national constitution center and the Eastern state penitentiary. Both of these were very interesting aspects of the trip and they only added on to the fun.

Overall this was one of the best trips that I have ever been on. What made it so enjoyable was the fact that we were able to balance out the historical and educational aspects of the trip, with that of the more entertaining ones such as the Flyers game or the Broadway play. Thank you to all of the staff who worked so hard to give us this trip and the memories that were made that will stay with us for a life time. I know I speak on all of the students in my class when I say that y'all are huge influences in our lives and we appreciate everything y'all have done and will continue to do!

[takaraphoenix]

5, 6, and 9 for the ask game

Thanks for playing! :)

5. Do you have a favorite character “type?” What do your favorite characters have in common?

"He's snarky and sassy but oh he only uses it to hide his pain because he's canonically gone through Some Real Traumatic Shit". Gets me absolutely every single time. Kuroba Kaito, Spike, Jace Herondale, Tony Stark, Jack Frost. I'm aware of the theme.

6. What is a fandom you’re in that you’re embarrassed by, if any?

Kay since I already answered the PJO fandom, mmmh... Let's take one of the past.

I used to be in the V0ltron fandom, shipping K/ance and I can tell you, there's a special kind of embarrassment in sharing a ship with the local antis.

You know how the worst people in a fandom usually unite behind one character/ship (the ship usually featuring the character), so this character/ship just... generally get a stale aftertaste because they remind you of the bad people who go around harassing and bullying others in the fandom? Most fandoms nowadays have those.

And it was just a very, very different and new kind of embarrassing to genuinely love this ship that is also loved by the worst people in the fandom, because when interacting with fics/fanart, you always gotta wonder "oh no is this A Nice Person, or do they too anonymously send hate and death threats to shippers of Other Ships?".

9. Worst fandom experience?

Oh, Teen Wolf for sure!

I remember being delighted that even years after the fact, there's still a moderately active fandom on tumblr! So when I rewatched the show, I decided to spam some commentary along the way.

Made me run into the most unpleasant people (a certain defense squad that shall not be named so I shall not gain their attention again because I could do without that).

It also earned me my first death threats and rape threats - and those, I kid you not, for saying "hey, this ship that is literally canon isn't so bad to watch!", I didn't even claim it had become my OTP I simply dared to state that it was more enjoyable during this rewatch than it had been during others. A canon ship. A ship that is literally canon and you have to sit through watching anyway. But that statement really got me a lot of hate-mail that lasted a while and I'd like to say that active Stalia shippers are genuinely braver than any US marine, I mean hot damn that was a bizarre experience.

It's not all bad, the Sterek fandom remains beautiful and amazing, but holy shit I had not expected all of that and it really might be the worst fandom experience I've ever had, crossing paths with those other sub-fandoms.

Fandom Ask Game

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

How would you rank telltale's other games (not including twdg)?

Of the ones I've played, from best to worst imo:

1. Tales from the Borderlands. Listen, I've never picked up a Borderlands game, never had any real interest.... but I love this game. While twdg is my favorite from Telltale, I genuinely believe this game is the best thing they ever put out and I will be forever pissed that this didn't get a sequel. Great characters that actually grow and develop relationships with one another, antagonists that are enjoyable and hateable [in a good way], great story, great writing, choices that matter.... overall amazing game. If you haven't played it, go get yourself a copy. Do it, do it now, play it and have fun.

2&3. Batman s1 & s2. I believe s2 is the better of the two, but s1 is still one of the best from Telltale. I'm not a big Batman gal, I don't really get into the DC world, but like with tftb, I adore this game anyway despite not being super familiar with the source material. Anyone who has watched my streams of s2 in particular knows how emotional it makes me. I just.... Bruce and John Doe's relationship throughout the season just gets to me, it's so well done and heartbreaking. Also, I love Bruce as a playable protagonist, he's fucking great.

4. Game of Thrones. Yes, really, I'm putting it this high. I'm actually shocked that I enjoyed this game as much as I did because again, I didn't watch the show, didn't read the books, not a fan of the source material. I went into this blind. While it has a slower start where I felt like I had to force myself to really pay attention otherwise I would get lost, once I had a grasp of the characters and the four storylines, I could relax and get immersed and enjoy the experience... well, "enjoy" is a loose term, I suppose. Also, it has a certain choice later in the season that actually haunts me. I still think about it to this day. Like... I had to pause the game, I had to breathe, I had to cry to chat during the stream I was doing, it hurt me deeply and I haven't let it go. Holy shit.

5. The Wolf Among Us. I love this game. Bigby is one of my favorite playable protagonists in any Telltale game. I love the aesthetic of it all, I love the character designs despite a lot of the characters not actually being favorites of mine. I love a good murder mystery. It has an amazing soundtrack. I do feel like this game is held back a bit by some of the side characters, and the reveal of who the big bad really was is.... ehhh, could've been better. Still totally worth playing, though.

6. Minecraft Story Mode. Uuuuggggghhhhh...... and we have a huge drop off. I can't with this game. It's awful. It's boring, it's slow, the characters have one-note personalities, the plot is dumb, Jesse isn't allowed to have a character because they gotta be vague so you can project yourself on them which I don't love, it's riddled with fake choices that don't matter, it feels passionless, and there didn't need to be eight episodes. Oh, and it has one of the most botched death scenes I have ever experienced in a game. Like... I have little to nothing positive to say about mcsm. It feels nothing like a Telltale game, it feels a knock-off but it's not and I hate it. There was one choice that I kinda liked, the one where you gotta decide which armor to wear but whoever's armor you take, they're left defenseless which results in them getting killed. I like that you have six Jesse's to choose from in terms of looks.... um.... Lukas was okay? The murder mystery episode with all the dumb youtuber cameos was probably the best episode of the eight. Again, I streamed this game... ask anyone who was there how miserable I was the entire time. It still pisses me off that THIS got a sequel but Tales from the Borderlands, Game of Thrones, and Wolf Among us didn't. It infuriates me that it made more money that those better games. I just.... UGH.

7. Guardian's of the Galaxy. The only reason this one is below mcsm is because I literally couldn't finish it. Not because it was so terrible... no, I physically couldn't finish it because it was a broke mess. I kept getting stuck and soft-locked, I had to back out of episodes and then go back to pick certain choices because some choices just don't work and break the game. Another one I streamed, and once we hit what...? the end of ep3, I believe? we got stuck and I gave up and just read from the wiki of what happens at the end of the episode, and then just moved on to ep4..... only to have it fucking break halfway through ep4 with no way to continue other than to restart the episode from the beginning and pick different choices that wouldn't break everything and I just..... I couldn't do it. I read from the wiki for the rest of the game.... it was ridiculous. I can't believe Telltale actually released something so broken. And it wasn't just my copy, a lot of people had the same issues I did. For as much as I fucking hate mcsm, at the very least I was able to finish it.

Those are the ones I've played. And no, I haven't played mcsm s2 because I can't get my hands on a copy and I'm not willing to watch a playthrough. I never want to touch that game ever again. I would rather play Life is Strange: Before the Storm than mcsm and that's probably the biggest insult I could give it. Ugh.

But yeah, the other games are great, highly recommend.