#honestly i think they could still do paywall stuff but it would need to start with new series and be done VERY slowly

[inkfromalily]

Let's goooooo

Summary:

- Not pay walling content anymore, just an early release on their site for subscribers

- Patreon subscribers get a free subscription

- They're sorry for p much, everything about the last video and how they handled it

[yooniesim]

ok unfortunately for yall the dash made me have a thought so now I gotta ramble lol

but ya know. maybe it's bc I've had so much time away from here and all the bitching (/affectionate) but over the past couple years, I get less angry about this shit and more solution-minded. and I don't mean for the community as a whole (that's impossible lol) but in a sort of... personal circle/responsibility type of way. like what we can do among ourselves without the confrontation aspect bc, just being honest- from my perspective & experience, the anger and the bitching doesn't really accomplish shit. not to say it ain't justified, & it's important to raise awareness for sure, but i swear me & a lot of others that have been talking about this for a long time have just been barking in circles without anything budging one way or another. which leads to burnout/emotional exhaustion not just for the ppl in question but for followers/mutuals/friends. I spent far too long and waaaay too much mental energy thinking that being the loudest and the boldest would get something to change. but the scammers keep scamming and the shit just keeps going. and sure it's fun as hell to shoot the shit and pick and bitch and laugh with your mutuals. baby yall know I love a good simblr circlejerk. but ya know, when you sit down and think about it it's a lil depressing. and the ppl you're talking to/around are already Aware and eventually the anger wears off and they're just tired of hearing about it. you're preaching to the choir and everyone is just pissed and tired with no clear goal to work towards.

Part of that exhaustion is why i made @alwaysfreecc as a positive way to boost always free creators, without focusing on the paywallers. as well as always supporting alternate ways of getting paywalled cc. but I think it takes a lil more than just that. I think, like the post I just reblogged was saying, people need to learn how to make their own content too. I know there's a learning curve, but so many things paywallers make are outright easy to do yourself. Some aren't- there are paywall creators that put great effort into their content and make it worth your money- but a lot of them are. And that isn't to say you should make everything yourself, there's nothing wrong with supporting creators that make content you find interesting or wouldn't want to do yourself, but it can be really rewarding to learn how to make simple edits and recolors on your own. And, image editing and 3d modeling skills can also benefit you elsewhere in life! Whether professionally or when modding other games. Knowing how to make cc in sims helped me figure out how to make certain things for skyrim and fallout, for example. Hell, it's just plain FUN to figure out and do, and I think the community could always use more of that.

Also, sometimes it's freeing to just, stop using certain creators' content. Like, i used to be bitching yet downloading stuff off dhm and shit, out of spite mostly cos half the stuff I didn't even like. But since I cleared out a lot of paywallers' stuff, besides a few I think are worth it/doing things honestly, it just feels better. I don't even think about those mfs anymore until I see something about them on my dash and then I can barely remember who they are lol. You don't realize how much you really don't NEED any of that shit & how you were kinda just downloading it to be downloading it, until you toss it. AND it feels great to have mostly always free creators' content & support them. Liiike i feel proud of ppl i saw get started and are STILL FREE and making awesome stuff, it's exciting! even when I'm not playing the game, I see their posts and be like "dang I need to grab that when I update" or "man they've gotten so much better in so little time" or "wow I never thought of that idea/seen that before". Bc always free peeps get to be so damn creative bc they don't have deadlines or turning off their paying audience to worry about. Like it's so cool and positive and I love that.

idk, just. based on what I've experienced here, i feel like it's kinda time to focus less on what the assholes are doing now (aka the same exact thing they've been doing for years) and more on what to do to make our own personal experiences better. which I know a lot of us are doing! I just wish I personally had done it earlier lol so maybe someone else needs to hear that too. like toss these dummies to the curb and replace them is what I'm sayin. If not in the whole community but just your personal circle. raise awareness as needed sure but don't let em take any more of your energy. cos if you are petty like me (😂) it'll hurt em way more to cast em out than yell at em. all the ppl that have bitched at me yet still have my cc in their folders come to mind lmfao, cos personally that gives me more satisfaction than anything else so I know it's probably the same for the scammers! Like a "you hate me but you can't bear to not use my shit huh 😏" type of deal. Don't give em that sick pleasure! (/projecting) Just focus on you and yours and make some sick ass content for yourself, then share it to me thx 💅

[brainewrought]

When CollegeHumor made dropout it was a different pitch entirely. They said, hey, we have this new subscription service where you can catch longer form content that we are starting to make (I think the only show directly taken from stuff they'd already posted on youtube was Um, Actually and breaking news, so mostly all new stuff we'd never seen) and we're launching a cool actual play dnd. They were going to keep posting their short form sketches on youtube and eventually post a few of the Um, Actuallys and Breaking Newses on youtube but just later and not all of them. But it was clear that Dropout was extra not the only way to watch collegehumor.

I don't remember if the backlash was really all that different honestly because I was a much more casual fan of them at the time but from my understanding, they never presented Dropout as the new home of CollegeHumor content, it was the new stuff. And after their parent company gave up on them and Sam Reisch took over as CEO, that was when it kind of had to become the new home because they no longer had money to produce anything for just youtube but Dimension 20 had popped off by then so they made it.

It also doesn't help that Watcher is built upon the backs of about 3 (now 4, with Andrew's return) personalities. The scale is smaller, there can only be so many shows and so much growth because there's only three of them. Dropout was built around a much bigger cast and supported by a large pilot season the first year it existed. There were a bunch of new shows to try that had never existed on youtube so it didn't feel like a takeaway it felt like a new thing that you could pay for if you wanted. I was never under the impression that watcher was taking down their old stuff and frankly I think anyone who was maybe needs to breathe a little deeper next time, but that still doesnt mean putting continuations of those beloved series behind a paywall isn't still a bad idea and taking something from loyal fans.

My takeaway from when I saw the dropout release trailer vs the watcher.tv release trailer is that Dropout was presented as a pseudo patreon, a we wanna make longer shit but we can't do that on youtube so come support us here if you can. Watcher.TV was presented as the equivalent of "you like this? Well, you gotta pay for it now, and remember how we have a patreon? Well we dont, so we're not gonna mention it at all in our launch"

I think if Watcher hadn't hyped it up as much and if they had either not had a patreon or expressed that this would essentially become their new patreon, everything would have gone over better. It also doesnt help that the economic climate of now vs 2018 (?) is very different, not to mention the average viewership I think did skew ever so slightly older for CollegeHumor than Watcher's ever has. (NOT A TON, I THINK JUST A LITTLE BIT LIKE 15-30 VS 18-30, RELAX)

All in all, I think with their apology they've handled their mistake pretty well and I think posting all their content a month later instead of just like, maybe older series that people already know and love, is a generous offer and probably one theyre making as a peace offering. Even dropout doesn't do that. But if they want to survive long term as a company, they need to hire or at least feature more on-camera personalities to lessen the load because they're gonna need a lot more content.

Can I ask and this is a genuine question like I just want to understand, why do people take issue with watcher using their own platform for their content but as far as I know no one really takes issue with dropout and college humour employing the same model?

They're both channels that are really popular on here so hoping someone has an answer.

[mack3030]

So now we’re blocking people who only sub for a month...okay then...

So I want to make y’all aware of a post made by Pandorasims4cc on her patreon in November of last year, because I feel this meltdown is honestly worth examining.  Now before we go any further, I would like to make a few things clear:  1) REGARDLESS of how this creator acts, NOBODY deserves death threats, personal attacks/hate, or other nonsense. If you treat this creator this way, you are worse than they are. Point. Blank. Period.  2) This creator says they give away lots of stuff for “free”, and I will give them credit, unlike a lot of creators they are more “generous” with their free stuff than a lot of them are. Many creators claim they give stuff out for free, but in the end it’s less than 10 sets or poses or items, while the rest is locked behind a paywall. This creator DOES give out quite a few sets for free. But this does not excuse the paywalling, and the behavior in this post. 

3) I’m also in no way saying that creating CC for the sims 4 isn’t hard and creators don’t deserve to get paid, but the way they go about getting paid by treating the community like cash cows needs to stop. 

Okay, with that said, let’s take a look at this. Basically, she’s saying that if ANYONE joins her patreon only for a month and unsubs early, she will instantly be BLOCKING them on patreon. Because apparently if you can only afford to pay for one month of her patreon, you are instantly a thief and (in her own words)...a “pathetic little pawn”.

So, if I sub to her for a month just because I like her content, and unsub a few days early because I’m a teacher and my mind is so full of student concerns, COVID-19 plans, and all of the other adult things and I KNOW I’m gonna forget to unsub on the last day of the month, I am AUTOMATICALLY blocked from her patreon and labeled a thief, even though I didn’t steal from her.

 (And by the way, there’s plenty of people that can attest that many times when you get blocked from one paywall creator’s patreon, others start to block you too...almost as if they talk to each other and share your personal information like your patreon name and email.....odd.)  Now there are some who will say “Oh, well that’s just because people ruin it by stealing her content.” But to that I say... “If she didn’t have her content paywalled in the first place...this wouldn’t be as much of a problem to begin with.”  Plus, if she’s already so generous she’s willing to give out packs for free, why doesn’t she just...you know, do early access and then release her content? It literally makes no sense. She can cut down on piracy, and have people enjoy her work while getting paid for it. Problem solved. No need for a tantrum. She even said in her post she “never said i will keep the poses locked”, okay then, do it the right way and do early access. Let people have a date that they know they can get your content for free. Make it abundantly clear instead of making your patreon look very much like a paywall.  You see, this is a common problem. For example, I’ve seen a lot of people in the pirate chats that I lurk mention certain creators (winner9 comes to mind) who are very unclear and wishy-washy when it comes to if they are truly 100% following the early access guidelines or not. I’ve seen things like “Oh they say they’re early access but it’s been 2 months and they still haven’t released that set” or “they gave this set out to their patrons around christmas and never released it”.  I hate to say it, but with many pirates, if you are not clear and transparent about your early access policy and when things are released, it’s less work for some of them to just assume you’re not following EA’s terms and just steal. My pals over at Dollhouse Mafia try to check, but again, when people make it difficult to tell it can be a little hard and mistakes do get made. 

And last, as to the “owning your work” comment, which I find quite hilarious. No, pirates don’t think they own your work. But they also don’t think you own your work either. Because if you’re using sims 4 assets of any kind for your CC, regardless of what you make (poses, builds, etc) or you make your content FOR the sims 4, it’s not your content anymore. It’s a derivative work. It requires EA’s game and assets to work, thus falling under their guidelines.  If you want to maintain 100% control over your own copyright, then don’t make stuff for the sims 4. Make your own 3D model of a human and make poses for it and sell it elsewhere online under your own copyright. But once you make it for this game, the terms EA set forth apply. 

So m’dear, if you want my advice....just do early access. If you’re willing to be that generous, just make it easier on yourself and make it absolutely clear where you stand. Then the people who still steal from you really are nasty, because they’re stealing something that’s going to be free. 

(P.S ---- Personally I’d lower the price of your request tier because for 45 American dollars I could get access to breezemotor’s highest tier, and leosims’ highest tier. That’s a ton more content than ONE set of poses if I were interested in paying for paywalls... Also you know, not every country can afford $45 due to conversion rates.  --EXCHANGE RATES AS OF 2/19/21-- $45 in American dollars equals:

57 Canadian dollars  245 Brazilian reais    2,179 Philippine pesos 657 South African rands  911 Mexican pesos 3,319 Russian roubles ) 

[kuriquinn]

just because it ain’t broke, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be improved

I feel like a few things need to be qualified about the feedback culture discourse if it’s going to stay civil.

Feedback advocates ARE NOT demanding every single consumer leave feedback on every single piece of art or story every time they log on to the internet.

Consumer advocates ARE NOT suggesting that fanartists and fanwriters are not entitled to feedback ever.

Let’s not go putting words in each other’s mouths, that way inevitably leads to lurking trolls deciding to become keyboard warrior anons.  

Feedback discourse is not meant to shame anyone, consumer or writer, it’s to open a discussion about how the general culture could be changed for the better.

That said, fandom in general is in need of a change in how consumers and creators interact with one another. 

One of the main arguments I have seen in the past few days is that passively consuming fandom works (with the occasional outlying consumer occasionally or always leaving feedback) has always been the norm, is currently the norm and will always be the norm.***

Which to me boils down to, “we’ve always done it this way, why change it?”

(I doubt I need to give all the historical examples of where that kind of thinking has gotten us, or how it’s been challenged.)

Just because it’s normal practice now and everyone does it this way and supposedly always has done it this way, doesn’t mean we can’t strive for something better. Fandom creators and consumers are in a symbiotic relationship—without the consumer, we have no one to share our work with but ourselves and maybe a few close friends; without the creator, consumers don’t get access to new content related to their interests (or at least have diminished access). 

We need each other.

If tomorrow some law is passed that basically bans all fan created content from the web and some major purge happens just deleting everything that doesn’t belong or isn’t endorsed by the actual creator, what happens to the fandom? I can tell you right now, creators will keep creating—we just won’t be able to share it with anyone but our closest, real-life friends. And consumers might keep consuming fan-created content, but it will be in a much smaller capacity. 

Neither side wants this.

So why not discuss ways to make the fandom experience better for both sides here? Including listening to the parties in the relationship who are basically explaining something that is discouraging/damaging to them?

It’s a pretty simple equation: 

creators produce/share free content --> consumers enjoy free content--> consumers provide feedback--> encouraged creators produce/share more free content, continually improving over time-->consumers continue to enjoy free content

VS

creators produce/share free content -->consumers enjoy free content without providing any indication they care about the content-->creators still produce free content but at lower frequency/quality over time (months, years, etc.)-->consumers continue to enjoy free content without providing any indication they care about the content -->creators still produce content but not longer share their work or start putting their work behind a paywall--> consumers complain that so many favorite creators now want money for their creations

Obviously, this is a generalization and doesn’t speak to every single creator and consumer’s behavior, but as both a creator and a consumer, this has been my experience more often than not. 

Now, I know not every single person is going to provide feedback on every single piece of art or writing they encounter. But right now, the average fandom consumer defaults to the following behavior:

Consume fanfic/fanart + [leave likes/kudos] + move on to next

(At the moment, even the kudos is entirely optional, since a majority of consumers don’t even bother with that. )

We need to change this default behavior to:

Consume fanfic/fanart + did I like it? = No? + move on to the next

Consume fanfic/fanart + Did I like it? =Yes? + reblog/share [and/or leave a comment]

(I’d make a flowchart, but I’m doing this on my phone, so...kinda hard.)

It takes the same amount of energy to reblog/share a fanwork as it does to leave kudos/likes. So if you like something but don’t have the energy/confidence/interest to comment, the least that can be done is boost the signal and pay it forward.

We need to normalize this behavior instead of passive, entitled consumption.

Again, this is NOT a call to FORCE people to leave feedback.

It’s more like when you’re a kid and your parents teach your to say “please” and “thank you”. Obviously, their goal is that as you get older, you will automatically say those things in the appropriate contexts, such as when you would like something or are expressing gratitude.

Does that mean everyone in the world uses “please” and “thank you” when interacting with others? Not at all. We’ve all run into some real dickheads that are downright rude for the sake of being rude, as well as people who are unintentionally rude because they don’t think it’s worth their time to be polite. Would the world be a better place if everyone did use “please” and “thank you”? I like to think so.

The reason we’re talking about feedback culture now is because we want a better future in the fandom. We want a better situation than what we have right now.

And honestly, if we can have people start treating fan writers and artists better here at the unofficial level that is fandom, think of how that kind of change and discourse could change the way art and literature is viewed in the world at large? Because right now, we live in a society where funding for the arts is more often passed over for funding sports, business, military, etc. The only sectors of society that are treated worse than artists and writers are the teachers, nurses and retail workers (and don’t even get me started on the trend of female-dominated sectors of the economy rating lower than predominantly male-dominated ones!)

Personally, I think a lot of these disagreements could be mitigated by an update to Ao3’s feedback system.

Kudos is like a checkmark on a list. “Yep, read that...Yep, read that.” 

The only time I don’t leave kudos on something is if I didn’t finish reading it. And yes, that is my personal experience, but we’re human beings and we tend to frame the actions of others based on our own practices.

The kudos feature should be replaced with a new system either emojis (think Facebook) or canned comments (pre-written responses generated by a simple keystroke). For the simple fact that these can better convey the emotions of the consumer than a faceless kudo.

Having started using an emoji based system last year, I can tell you from experience that every week or two, I have someone comment to me how much they like being able to use an emoji to get their words across because they’re not good with words / their first language isn’t the same as mine / they’re still processing what they’ve read and can’t formulate a response yet/ etc.

TL;DR: The purpose of discourse related to feedback culture is to try to normalize leaving feedback on fanworks, instead of passively consuming—not forcing people to leave feedback.

_______________________________________________________________

***It has NOT always been this way. I have been part of several fandoms in my time— Lord of the Rings, Gundam Wing, Beyblade, Harry Potter, Inuyasha, Supernatural, Rurouni Kenshin, Doctor Who, Naruto, Batman/DCU, to name a few. And twenty years ago, people left way more feedback than they do today. Even on the really terrible stuff (and I say this as someone whose first fanfics were exclusively dedicated to horrible Mary Sue OC self-inserts), if you posted a chapter of something, within the next day you had a half dozen comments—more if you were writing a one-shot/completed fic. Ten years later, I noticed feedback started to be almost half of that; now it’s even less. The content hasn’t changed; the quality of writers hasn’t changed. However, the mindset of the consumer has definitely changed.

[choices-binglebonkus]

Opinion post: best and worst LI’s from each series

I was pretty bored, decided I’d make a list of who I think are the best and worst LI’s in each series and why.  If you’ve got some time to spare, please be sure to post your opinions too, I’m rather curious as to see how the fandom thinks.

Note: Since Nathan and Paolo are antagonists/pseudo-love interests, and you CANNOT end the game in a relationship with them, I’m not going to be counting them on this list.

The Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior

Best: Honestly? All of the love interests were a little bland for my tastes in this series, but if I had to pick one, it would be Becca.  She started out as a spoiled bully from a rich family and ended the series a humbler, kinder woman who learned to work for what she want, respect those around her, and she even got into the law school of her dreams.  Now that’s dedication!

Worst: Without a doubt, I think Kaitlyn Liao is the worst love interest in this series.  When the series started out, I actually thought she was great.  I didn’t want to romance her (or anyone else but I had to *eyeroll*) but she was my best friend.  But then I began to realize how detestable she was as a character.  She turned on MC after she accidentally came out to her parents, she turned on EVERYONE when she joined the Gutter Kittens, and only when her circus tent came crashing down did this sad clown emerge and ask for help cleaning up the remnants of the big top.  She’s immature, rude, she goes off on people for doing things she doesn’t want (Annisa talking to Natasha, MC writing an unbiased article about the Loose Pins and their strong performance, etc.), and worst of all, she’s a criminal.  

A LEGIT criminal.  Not on the level of the Alphas, but she’s committed her share of crimes, including underage drinking, breaking and entering on multiple accounts (when she broke into the observatory in TF book 4, investigating the studio’s security room in TJ, and breaking into the old dorm in The Senior), trespassing which basically goes hand-in-hand with the last crime, vandalism (when she broke a $500 bottle of whiskey in a bar in The Senior), and fleeing the scene of a crime (when she broke the whiskey).  The other characters have also committed some of these crimes, but I’m mainly gunning for Kaitlyn because she’s a repeat-offender, not to mention she’s committed more crimes than any of the other love interests.  Just...why did her character go totally south after book 3?!

The Crown & The Flame

Best: Raydan.  He’s loyal, incredibly strategic and knowledgeable, can hold his own in a fight, and he’s charismatic as hell.  Playing as Raydan was incredibly fun and I loved seeing what sorts of mischief he got up to on his adventures.  Plus, his romance scenes were incredible.  My favorites were the flower scene in book one and the tent scene in book two.

Worst: Shockingly, Dominic for several reasons.  He’s Kenna’s best friend and he’s held that title since their childhood, but I can only see him as her best friend.  The romance scenes between Dom and Kenna felt a little...I dunno, forced?  There’s not really any other way to say it.  I married Dom in one playthrough and I regretted it so much.  When Kenna and Dom get married, they become the most boring heterosexual couple in the game...honestly!  I also found Dominic just a very boring character in general, which is pretty shocking considering A. He’s a frickin’ fire mage and B. He’s in TC&TF, one of the best damn series in the game.  Whenever I saw the words “You are now playing as Dominic Hunter”, I wanted nothing more than to see “You are now playing as Kenna Rys” because I was so bored with his character.

Most Wanted

Best: ...I honestly don’t know! It’s been so long that I don’t even remember any love interests in the game.

Worst: Same here!

Rules of Engagement

Best: It’s a tie between Dean and Mira.  Dean was an incredibly down-to-earth character who started off as MC’s faithful companion and eventually fell in love with her.  Friendly and never afraid to lend her an ear, Dean made sure MC was faring well during tough times and took her out on dates/hangouts whenever she needed a pick-me-up even though his job as a Bartender *probably* didn’t pay that well.  During their marriage, Dean took on two roles, as not only did he agree to be her husband, he remained MC’s best friend as well.

Mira was also a really good love interest.  Even though she was paywalled to hell, she was a genuinely sweet character.  I got the wrong impression of her at first, thinking she was just a snooty chef brought to the kitchen to cause trouble for Party Girl Sister, but oh man.  Mira was fantastic.  When Party Girl Sister was in the middle of her pregnancy scare, Mira got involved and frequently checked in on her to make sure she was okay.  She helped her unwind and relax when the stress got to her, offered her advice from when she was pregnant with her son, and was overall an unexpected friend that Party Girl Sister needed.  When the time came to pick a love interest for PGS, I didn’t hesitate to pick Mira, who was truly her loving angel, and I don’t think I made the wrong choice in that at all.

Worst: I’m going to get plenty of hate from this I’m sure, but William and Leo.  They’re both incredibly rich and famous men who don’t even seem realistic, yet they fall for a completely ordinary girl.  William annoyed me on the first date when he saw my (non diamond!) outfit and had the audacity to say “Oh...” with a shocked look on his face.  I mean...”oh”? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?  But also, William was just kinda boring.  It seemed like he was using his money to compensate for how boring his personality was.

Leo is quite the opposite of William personality-wise, but I can’t say I liked his whole bad boy/rebel/”let’s do illegal stuff because in the end it’s fun” shtick.  Like William, Leo also seems largely unrealistic and rather unrelatable, which I think is a pretty big problem if you’re trying to resonate with the readers.

Endless Summer

Best: Jake and Quinn are a pretty tough choice, so I can’t say for sure which one I prefer.  They’re both attractive and both are rather different personality-wise.  Jake is brave, but at the start of the book he only really cares for himself.  As the story goes on, he starts to care about the other characters as it becomes apparent they’re all stuck on the island.  While Jake is a good guy, his nick-names got very, very old after three books.  Additionally, he’s one of the overused cynical/loner/sarcastic male love interest archetypes, but I’ll give him a pass this time because he was the first of his kind, plus he had a pretty good reason to be as cynical as he was.

Quinn is super cute and is probably one of the sweetest LI’s in the game.  She’s friendly and compassionate from the start, and knowing that she has an illness that will one day result in her death, she has become brave and willing to live her life to its fullest.  Her romance scenes were also amazing.  My personal favorite is the sex scene in the kitchen when she and MC make cupcakes together.  However, one thing I fault the writers for with Quinn’s writing is that she’s frequently portrayed as the damsel in distress.  You have to protect her from the Sabertooth, save her when she almost drowns, save her again when the Vaanti attack the hotel, save her AGAIN when she nearly dies from Rotterdam’s Syndrome, save her again when she and the group are held at gunpoint in the MASADA complex...the list goes ON!

Worst: Sean. Sean is an incredibly kindhearted character who cares about his friends to the point of not eating food until everyone else has eaten.  He’s selfless, brave, and an overall friendly guy.  However, that is his fault. I know it’s odd to be faulting such a great dude for being one of the sweetest guys in the game, but the only problem I have with him is that he’s a cookie-cutter clone of Chris, Caleb, Griffin, basically any strong, benevolent male character in the Choices series.  For the most part, they’re largely identical in personality, and that takes away from their originality.  I still love Sean.  Saying he’s the worst just means I think he’s the worst of any of the amazing LI’s in ES, but he’s still a really great guy.

#LoveHacks

Best: I really can’t pick any of them.

Worst: I’d honestly have to say all of them.  They’re either A. Wishy-washy B. Boring C. Introduced way too late in the game and their development is either non-existent or way too rushed.  Hell, I forgot Mark Collins even existed until I stumbled across his page on the wikia.

The Haunting of Braidwood Manor

Best: Eleanor by default.  She’s paywalled and you have to pay diamonds to keep her alive at the end, but she’s pretty, she’s sweet, she cares for her younger siblings enough to live(?) with a dark secret that’s left her traumatized, and we get to spend lots of time with her in the book.

Worst: Victor.  We barely even get to know this guy!  There’s almost nothing about him on the wikia pages either simply because he’s almost never in the story without diamonds and we barely even got to know him.  

The Royal Romance

Best: Even though I didn’t marry her at the end (I still had some flings with her though), Hana.  Hana is incredibly sweet, she’s really pretty, and she’s got overbearing parents which, in my case, makes her a really relatable character.  She does anything she can to please her parents/friends and she quickly becomes a very loyal friend (or lover) to MC as she finds her way as the newest noble in Cordonia.

Worst: Drake.  Oh, Drake, have I got a bone to pick with you.  Not only is he one of the many, MANY cynical/loner/sarcastic male LI archetypes, the story could have gone on without him, rendering him pretty useless.  I cannot think of a single non-romance scene where I thought: “Oh man, Drake is a really necessary character!”  Not to mention, Drake is picky as hell.  He gets to live in the palace for free, gets to eat food and hang out with Liam, but he whines about not wanting to become like those gosh darn nobles, and he whines about the food being “too fancy” or whatever when there are people starving in other parts of the world.  I would understand you not eating food if you’re allergic or can’t stomach it, but really, Drake? Because it’s too fancy?! Come on!

Hero

Best: I have to say, none of these love interests were up to par. The book is great, the LI’s are lacking.

Worst: All of them.  They’re not too bad per se, but man...they’re just so lackluster! Grayson is boring, Kenji is cocky, and Eva got on my nerves a lot.

High School Story

Best: Emma without a doubt.  She’s pretty, she’s very sweet to her friends and MC, and she’s a shy character who’s surprisingly well-written.  Though I didn’t choose to romance her, I still think she’s definitely the best love interest in this series because not only is she an amazing friend, but in other playthroughs I’ve watched, she’s a very loving girlfriend to the main character.

Worst: Probably a tie between Caleb and Maria.  Caleb, like I mentioned earlier, is pretty much the same as Chris, Sean, and Griffin, which makes him rather dull.  Maria isn’t too bad, but she could get very intense at times, and that gave me a really negative first impression of her that never truly went away.

It Lives in the Woods

Best: Andy. Frickin’. Kang.  He’s strong, rough and tumble, and really brave, but he’s also soft and gentle with the MC if they romance him.  He’s the first trans representation in Choices, and I personally think Pixelberry did a really good job with him.  I really felt for him when he and Tom were being discriminated against on the basketball team because they were both Asian, and because Andy was also short and transgender.  Yet, even after all this, Andy doesn’t quit the team and doesn’t give up his dreams, and if he survives the final game with Mr. Red/Jane, he becomes the basketball captain and eventually goes on to play for a college team.  Way to go, King Kang!

Worst: I don’t think I can really say any of them are the worst because all four of the other love interests in this series are pretty great.

Home for the Holidays

Best: None of them.  NONE.

Worst: ALL OF THEM! This book was abysmal, and one reason it was so hated is because the love interests were awful.  Nick was unnecessarily cruel, Wyatt was so happy it was creepy, and Holly was really boring.  

Red Carpet Diaries

Best: Oh dear.  Same case as HFTH, none of them.

Worst: I can’t choose just one, so...I guess all of them.  Matt was forced upon the player, Victoria is one of those mean girls/divas that has a complete 180 in her personality at some point, Teja and Seth were absolute morons for the entirety of book two, and Addison and Hunt were purely a fanservice for people who played Hollywood U (which is a good game, but if you ask me, Addi and Hunt should’ve never become LI’s for this series).

Perfect Match

Best: I really don’t even know with this one, you guys.  I was never a fan of this series (oof, I can feel the hate I’m getting from that sentence right now) and the LI’s all seemed really unimpressive.

Worst: Hayden.  While I really dislike Damien and think he’s undoubtedly the most overrated love interest in the entire game, I’ve got to say Hayden is the worst.  You get to customize their gender, appearance, and eventually their name, and while they’re a robot with sentience and human feelings, this just makes them seem LESS human.  Not to mention, they stupidly left the group on multiple occasions and went on walks alone to brood and be edgy, which eventually led to Harley infiltrating and causing our already feeble plans to fail yet again.  Lastly...Hayden is one of the love interests that repeatedly gets crammed down the player’s throat whether they like it or not.

Bloodbound

Best: Jax is a great love interest, but since he’s one of those overused cynical/loner/sarcastic archetypes, I’m going to have to say Lily is the best in this series.  She’s tragically underrated, quirky, goofy, and she’s a GAMER with GLASSES, which is totally my weak spot.  Lily is just the cutest thing, I swear.  And since I love Jax and Lily almost equally, I went NUTS when I was offered a diamond threesome scene with them.  That day was a huge win.

Worst: Even though he’s not too bad as a character, Adrian.  You don’t get to customize his name or gender, but you still get to customize his appearance, which I really don’t like in love interests because it makes them seem like interchangeable parts.  

Veil of Secrets

Best: Kate.  She’s paywalled unfortunately, and she only becomes a love interest at the very end of the book, but she’s very beautiful and sweet.  You have to spend the entire story saving her, but fortunately, she isn’t forced upon you romantically like some of the other love interests are in the game.  It’s really unfortunate that she became a love interest so late in the game.

Worst: Probably Naomi, only because she was boring.  Otherwise, she’s not too bad.

America’s Most Eligible

Best: None of them.

Worst: All of them because they’re really bland compared to some of the other love interests Pixelberry has given us.

Desire & Decorum

Best: Hamid.  He’s sweet, gentle, he’s good with kids, and he’s really attractive as well.  Overall, though, I think all the love interests in this series are pretty boring, but Hamid is slightly less boring than the others.

Worst: Sinclaire.  I originally hated his guts, but he’s not that bad to be honest.  He’s one of the cynical/loner/sarcastic male archetypes, and while not as extreme as some of the others, he’s still a part of the archetype.  He’s grown on me, I will admit, but only as a friend, nothing more.

Across the Void

Best: None of them.

Worst: All of them.  The whole book is a mess, and that trickles down to the love interests.  Minimal character development, forgettable love interests (I forgot Meridian and Titania even existed at some points in the book), Kepler freaks me out, Sol was a dick at certain points, Zekei is more of Eos’s love interest than MC’s, it’s a whole thing.  The siblings’ love interests aren’t any better.  Eos has Lyra who isn’t too bad, but damn is she boring.  He also has Deimos and Oberon who came in out of literal nowhere, same thing with Pax’s love interest, Zaniah, and she turns out to be a freaking villain that you have to pay diamonds to redeem.  Lastly, we have Holmes...who’s really annoying to me.  Sigh.

Big Sky Country

NOTE: I feel the need to tell you beforehand that I wanted to remain single for this series, but they force you into kissing someone in the last chapter whether you like it or not, so I picked the lesser of the evils.

Best: Juliette Mendoza, and I’m ONLY picking her because she’s absolutely beautiful.

Worst: Sawyer and Dallas.  Sawyer because he’s forced, Dallas because he’s yet another one of the cynical/loner/sarcastic male archetypes.  Urgh.

The Elementalists

Best: I don’t care for any of them.

Worst: Beckett, but before you murder me, it’s only because A. He redeemed himself in like one chapter which is incredibly lazy writing on Pixelberry’s part, and B. He and Griffin (who I rather like, actually) get lots of diamond scenes while love interests like Aster are getting sidelined.

High School Story: Class Act

Best: Skye, but I wouldn’t romance her simply because she’s more of a friend than anything.  She’s incredibly sweet and she’s the polar opposite of her shitty family, and having a storyline about Skye and the abuse she gets from her family would actually be really interesting.  I’d love to see her family get their comeuppance and Skye end up living a better life, because that’s what she deserves.

Worst: I legitimately could not choose who I hate more.  Rory and Ajay are both on my shit list.  Rory is one of the most forced love interests in the entire frickin’ game, and is a complete Mary Sue.  I’m not just saying that either.  Rory is attractive, talented, popular, and lots of people have crushes on them (Erin says in one of the first chapters of HSSCA book one that their last play got a good turnout because 1/3 of the audience had crushes on Rory), and is *supposedly* completely oblivious to how many people like them, which would be kiiiiinda hard to miss, especially with Natalie and Clint.  

But otherwise, Rory has almost zero personality.  They’re friendly, but most love interests have that trait.  They also have a mother with cancer and participates in a play to fund treatment for her, but that’s about as complex as Rory gets.  The worst part about them is that they’re constantly getting shoved down our throats.  The game and characters constantly imply MC has a crush on Rory whether we like it or not, and MC ceases to function during rehearsal when they realize Rory is going to ask them to homecoming.  For Pete’s sake, we join the damn play just to get closer to Rory.  And for people who don’t give a fuck about Rory, like me, that makes the book remarkably frustrating.

And we also have Ajay, who I hate about as much as Rory.  From the start, he was rude, condescending, and snarky.  But then when Rory tells everyone their mother has cancer, Ajay says “yeah man, I’ve been super harsh because I want this to go perfect, blah blah” which, to me, is a TOTAL cop out.  Even if the play didn’t go perfect, the audience would have already paid for their admission and donated beforehand.  I didn’t excuse Ajay’s dickish behavior throughout the book, especially when he never apologized for siding against MC after the whole theater cube fiasco, even when there was zero concrete evidence against them.  Annoying, rude, never apologized for making an accusation that turned out to be untrue, and...god, every time he speaks, my mind reads his words in Brainy Smurf’s annoying, nasally voice.

It Lives Beneath

Best: Tom.  What can I say except Tomoichi “Tom” Sato?  Ever since ILITW, he's been a good friend to Andy since they were toddlers, helped him throughout life with his friendship, prevented Andy from committing suicide at one point, and was friendly throughout the first book.  In this series, he's a love interest, and is one of the few love interests who isn't drawn with a super-duper fit body (thus making him a little more realistic).  And his sex scenes are wild, dude.  I mean, in a PHOTO BOOTH at a festival full of people?!

He's loyal, goofy, and he's realistic because he's awkward and flustered if MC flirts with him.  Be honest, if an attractive stranger starting forwardly flirting with you within not even a day of meeting you, wouldn't you be pretty awkward and stuttery?  Also, Tom is cute, he appears to have a friendly/romantic chemistry with MC, and all the scenes with him and MC are well-written and pleasant to read.   

Worst: Out of fear of being personally attacked again (I even got one or two death threats), I will not be going too in-depth about why Imogen is the worst love interest of this series.  All I’ll say is that, for the majority of the book, she was an extreme weak link and I feel like she redeemed herself too late.

A Courtesan of Rome

Best: Syphax.  He’s really gorgeous, and he takes the fall for MC when she sloppily murders a Roman authority.  That’s some serious selflessness, and I really admire Syphax for that, but he is a bit forced on the player in the first part of the book.

Worst: Marc Antony.  He really gives me the creeps.

The Heist: Monaco

Best: Eris.  She’s sassy, spunky, but she’s got a soft spot for MC and is actually really sweet.  She’s absolutely beautiful and I didn’t have a hard time choosing her as my love interest.  Though...if Sonia turns out to be a love interest, I might have a problem later.

Worst: Probably Fabien because, yet again (I’m sorry, okay!), he’s a cynical/loner/sarcastic male love interest archetype.  But he’s really not a bad dude, I like him.  He’s just the worst out of this bunch.

Ride or Die: A Bad Boy Romance

Best: One word: none.

Worst: All of them! They’re all criminals, and they’re not noble criminals who screw over corrupt people like MC and their crew in TH:M, they’re legit criminals who endanger other people’s lives for fun.

So, what do you guys think? Who are your best/worst LI’s for each series? Don’t hesitate to reblog and ring in with your opinions, because like I said before, I’m really curious to see how the rest of the fandom thinks.

[justanotherdumpingground]

Chapter Reviews: March 5-9, 2019 + Thoughts on Upcoming Books

High School Story: Class Act Chapter 4:

Okay, so the bake sale went mostly well, and it's fun to sway Michael to vote for the twin, even though he originally supported Morgan. There are better candidates to vote for, boy. Still miffed that there's no substance to Cliff and Graham's romance together besides cutesy side stuff.

From what I've seen with Ajay's parents arguing, I think there will be a subplot that shows how arguing couples damage their children. While I applaud Picelberry's attempt to tackle this issue, I'm worried that it will be mishandled. The child abuse subplot involving Skye still needs a satisfying conclusion because the progress I've seen so far is Skye having Brenda as a parental substitute. I need to delve more into her home life and see to it that her story gets a satisfying conclusion.

Disappointed but not surprised that I have to pay diamonds just to learn about Ajay's home life. Look, I get that he's polarizing, but that doesn't excuse vital elements of his character being paywalled. Honestly, it's extremely stupid to pay diamonds just to learn more about a character, especially a love interest. I get that Pixelberry's a company, but in a game titled Choices, all plot and character arcs are supposed to be free to view, with premium options hiding mature content and other trivial things. Not doing so reeks of dishonesty.

The Heist: Monaco Chapter 14:

Dang, this is it, huh? It's like time flies by despite the incredible journey. I'm stoked and anxious at the same time for the journey ahead, now that the crown jewels are in my possession. It's super satisfying to see my crew trusting me despite my lack of premium options for most of them. I love seeing them bond together and having one another's backs during the heist.

So glad I picked the premium options to free Whisper and steal Ulrich's tools. I knew they'll come in handy for Sybil as well as me. And it was a relief I checked the blueprints and found the RGB clue on what to do to entee the vault. It indicates the color of the text I have to pick, and I sometimes thought I picked the wrong option whenever Sybil looks agitated.

It's satisfying to see Ansel locked in the car with Fabien driving him away. Good riddance to that smug snake.

Handcuffed by Sonia? This is gonna be good, especially since I like her enough to consider her a main love interest for my MC. I just hope her trust in me is enough.

Desire & Decorum Chapter 11:

After seeing another part of Briar's indecisiveness over who she'll pursue, I just wish she would make up her mind, because the setting up a character with someone reeks of lack of free will on the side characters' part and a blatant cash grab.

It's great to see my friends following me to Bath and look out after me. I appreciate them jumping at the call, but I also want them to work with me on the investigation freely instead of paywalling them. Also miffed that there's not much political intrigue and no incorporation of industrialization.

Not a surprise Duke Richards and Gideon are plotting to overthrow the Prince Regent, but I don't want the showdown against them to be anticlimactic. After all, the clues I've gathered so far should've had an edge in piecing together his ultimate motives and even gain bonuses along the way.

America's Most Eligible Chapter 8:

I still don't trust Ivy and consider her as much of a snake as Vince and Slater. She and Slater may not be on the same team, but that doesn't mean I fully embrace her. I admit that her plan sounds like an opportunity to discredit Slater for cheating, allowing me to act devious.

Can I say that the athletic outfit suits my MC well? Because he's a flirt, he should have no problems wearing enticing clothing that turns people's heads towards him. I think it would suit him more if the outfit's more revealing.

It baffles me that I have to pay diamonds to set other couples up. I know this practice exists since Choices's founding, but it still reeks of characters having no free will. I like Eden and Kiana together, but paying diamonds to ensure that reeks of greed and lack of logic.

At first, I'm not sure whether to win or not, but I ended up losing just to see more of Ivy's plan. Apparently, the winner gets to go on a date together. That made me think my MC would seduce Slater a bit, only for me to watch on YouTube that they get discredited if they won, and Derek and Kiana won anyway. It seemed that I dodged a bullet by not getting involved with Slater.

Open Heart Chapter 4:

This is an emotional chapter, and I love it. I get to see Ethan putting his energy on his patients, whom he genuinely care for, and seeing him sad at Dolores's death was heartbreaking. Even more so when her baby's revealed to be named after him. Since Dolores has sisters, this means baby Ethan will be raised by his aunts. I get that there are players who want the baby raised by Ethan himself, but if there are other family members willing to raise the child, then I say let them. Nevertheless, I hope this means he'll be more like Professor Enrique Vasquez through the use of tough love and nothing like Nick Peralta, whom I despise for being an ungrateful, disrespectful guest as well as a horrible boss.

After seeing people wanting Rafael Aveiro to be a love interest along with Kyra Santana and Sienna Trinh, I'd say nah. I'm more interested to see how my MC grows as a doctor than lust over any other characters. I like those three, but I think Ethan, Bryce, and Jackie are enough for me. Regarding people wanting Sienna as love interest, what if her boyfriend is really one of the nicest characters in the story and eventually dies in the hospital regardless?

As for Aurora, man, I'm shocked and horrified at her dismissal of Dolores's condition as smoke inhalation just because she wants a more interesting patient. I get that she wants to prove her worth as a doctor in her own right, but because she's a doctor whose job is to ensure the wellbeing of all patients regardless of condition, she has no right to be picky at which patients to treat.

Moreover, I'm even more disappointed at the writers for writing this. They could've used this opportunity to explore her even more, especially since the first three chapters show her chafing at living under her aunt's shadow, caring for Annie, being unable to treat her because she was summoned to her aunt's office, and giving some diagnosis on a patient. Pixelberry should've picked up from this and build her as a character who yearns to prove her worth by doing her job properly, not make her into someone people might as well continue to hate like handing Dolores to MC for having an "uninteresting" condition. This reminds me of the situation with Xanthe, but with differences. Xanthe's a courtesan who fits best as a love to hate character like Madeleine from TRR, built as a conniving strategist who has her political agendas that go beyond being merely mean and catty. As for Aurora, her appearances at the first three chapters shows that she didn't do anything remotely wrong aside from being aloof. It was this chapter that shows a crack in Pixelberry, who assumes the audience must continue to hate her even though she started as a mere rival with complex motivations. If Pixelberry's intention to bring Aurora down is to merely cater to their target audience with no regard to the unfortunate implications they've created, then they've succeeded. Now they just have to face the consequences.

Ride or Die Chapter 8:

Well, that confrontation with the dad is as heated as I thought. I understand that he doesn't want her daughter hanging out with criminals, but I think he's too overprotective of her daughter, such as keeping her sheltered even though she's now eighteen. That doesn't mean she should hang out with the MPC, but she should be taught to act with discernment and wisdom. In fact, I hate that the narrative wants me

As for Jason, I told the dad that he recruited MC as an informant, so now they're at odds with each other. That complicates the case with the MPC and the Brotherhood. It could be possible Jason or one of the detectives (the one with Russell Thibbs's model, to be exact). I'm leaning towards the latter.

I swear, Teppei Kaneko is dumb. His last meeting with the Brotherhood ended with him getting injured, and now he's going back to confront them again. Bah. Anyway, I rejected a tattoo (my MC's most like going to wear that sweater for the rest of the story) and ended up staying put (I would've spent diamonds to go with Mona to learn about the Brotherhood if the story is remotely any good, which it isn't).

Across the Void's return:

While a part of me is glad this story will progress to the end, I'm not super excited. There's too much focus on Pax and Eos in the first 13 chapters despite how annoying they are and how little they contribute to the story. Doing so keeps the story from exploring the setting, the plot from capturing my interest, and other important characters from developing properly. So far, Kepler's the only character we get to know, and we get to explore part of the setting through her, but I still want more than that. Other characters have potential, namely Lyra (because she's Senator Tauri) and Sol (because of his vast knowledge of various cultures).

The Elememtalist's return:

I'm pumped for this, though I'm also concerned that the quality will be worse, since the time gap between the first and second book is relatively short. I love how badass Shreya looks (Conjuring fire with just one finger instead of two hands? Awesome!), and I wish this second book will shed more light on the characters, explore the dynamics between the different races, and make Discount Dorian Pavus an interesting villain. Raife Highmore's a forgettable villain. By the way, why does the cover depict Beckett as kinda ugly? Maybe because of how thick his eyebrows are and the way he frowns.

New books and gender options:

I'm surprised and glad Nightbound and Passport to Romance will have the option to pick the protagonist's gender. That sounds like a long time coming, especially for Nightbound, which is a spinoff of Bloodbound. I like Bloodbound in some ways, but I'll always be irked at the inability to pick the protagonist's gender and the flimsy reason behind it. I get that Pixelberry thinks it will be a failure because of how clichéd it looks, hence why there's no option, but they've also released light-hearted stories with gender options. The funny thing about Nightbound is that I thought we'll have a co-protagonists system like TC&TF and MW. The man and woman fighting side by side gave me that impression.

I'm not super excited for Passport to Romance, even though it involves traveling and I get to pick the protagonist's gender. It would've been better if it's mainly an adventure book with romance kept to the sidelines. That way, one love interest won't hog the spotlight while offering little to no substance along the way.

Wishful Thinking being genderlocked and a romcom sounds like a disappointment, especially since it reminds me too much of #LoveHacks, which I dislike. Maybe it will surprise me, though.

After seeing the Q&A on Choices's subreddit, I saw a mention of a dark take on fairy tales, which captures my interest because I'd take a dark, gritty, and thought-provoking story any day. I also love the idea of a book where I rise to the top as some sort of "mean girl" for the sake of playing a conniving character who manipulates her way to the top, but I also want the protagonist to be a 3-dimensional character in her own right, and it would be cool if a worse outside threat is used as an opportunity to gain good publicity. Please make them happen someday.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles about Cross Tag Battle

So I already did an Under Night In-Birth Rambling a few months, and I don’t feel like retreading that game again for the sake of another half-baked Rambling like the Persona 4 Arena one. No, I’ll talk a bit more about Under Night In-Birth and it’s Light Novel elements another day when I actually have the drive to do so. Instead, I’ll  jump straight into talking about about Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, namely, expanding on my initial thoughts of it. 

I had a chance to play the beta of the game when it was available, had a lot of fun playing it, and left it feeling confident this game could sell well, but a bit uneasy as well. 

But first before I get to explaining that...

The DLC Issue

It wouldn’t be my Rambling unless I got out of the elephants in the room straight away, now would it? 

So... that DLC, huh?

I’m not gonna’ bother defending this, but I’ll say this much in its defense. The season pass and the game is about 70 US dollars all together. That’s 50 bucks for the game 1 dollar for every extra character. That’s not a bad deal on paper. Let’s be real here, Dragon Ball FighterZ has more expensive DLC than this and much more expensive season pass combo pack, Blazblue Central Fiction had more expensive DLC than this, and several other fighting games have done worse practices. Dead of Alive has cosmetics that total up to hundred of dollars. From what I’ve seen and played Street Fighter 5 has a handful of costumes can only be purchased with cash rather than the in game fight money, among a few other practices I’m not cool with. And we can probably go on and on about EA’s DLC practices. Worse has been done, and if an extra 20 buck for 20 more characters on an already decent rooster seems bad to you, then... well I think you haven’t been playing fighting games that long to not see this coming.

However, that’s on paper. In context, this is just flat out shady and I’d even say exploitative.

I’m not going to pretend that what Arc System Works is doing is okay. Let’s be real here, a lot of the assets we’re seeing are being ripped and reused from each character’s respective game save for some new animations, the gameplay itself is very simplified, and the fact that they announced such a large amount of DLC before the game was even released is already shady business. I hate it when companies do that, and Arc System Works shouldn’t get a pass for it either. 

Not to mention the fact that a portion of their EVO line up is DLC characters. That just kills me a little. I’ll admit that I have a negative opinion of the FGC and competitive fighting game community as a whole, and I’ve already talked about my opinion of EVO in the past, but I really don’t think this game deserves to be in the EVO line up when it only has a little over half its full cast in the game for competitive play, with about a fifth of that cast being DLC. That means you need to shell out at least 6 extra dollars just to have an idea of certain match ups and playstyles, or worse, play your main. That’s no where near fair on a competitive level, that’s a scam and I hope someone more familiar with the competitive side of the fighting game community calls Arc System Works out on it. If your main is locked behind a paywall then you have a right to be angry and even go as far as to boycott this game for this kind of practice. 

I’m not happy with the idea of paying to just to play as Orie and Naoto, but as I’ve said, worse has been done in the gaming world. If you aren’t buying this game for the reasons I mentioned, then I respect you’re opinion. However, I’ll also ask you to at least try and get this game on sale otherwise, as there is a good fighting game here, just one that needs to shake off a bad first impression. 

Ah, and speaking of the game...

This Game is Simple

Like I said, I took some time to play the Beta, and I have to say this game is a little too simple for my liking. Not that I’m some genius fighting game player that could tell you all the frame data and hitbox nonsense, but I feel like I’m grasping this game’s controls a little too fast for someone of my skill level. 

Let me explain. 

In the majority of fighting games I play I usually maintain a 10%-20% win rate, so I usually win 1 out of 10 matches. For a casual fighting game player that’s not bad considering I’m usually fighting competitive players, but with Cross Tag Battle I left the beta with a 50% win rate. That’s... quite a jump, but I don’t think that’s due to my skill, but how simple it is for someone that’s familiar with fighting game mechanics to understand the system. Now I’m also keeping in mind that everyone was learning the ins and outs of this game along with me during the beta, but this still.

This simplicity isn’t a bad thing. It works in the game’s favor and makes it much easier to grasp how all these characters works, which is needed for a tag-team style game, but it is something that makes me wonder how long this game will be popular. This game has two auto combos, for every character, and all the characters that aren’t from RWBY have a diluted moveset of their original game. It feels like you know everything about a character in about an hour of practice.

I had similar feelings about Dragonball FighterZ, all the character felt too similar to each other outside of some special moves. Cross Tag isn’t as simple and not all characters feel the same, but one of the big appeals of a fighting game is being about to learn a character for months and still find new techniques and strategies with them. Cross Tag Battle doesn’t feel like a game I’ll be able to do that in.

 Again, that’s not a bad thing, but it’s just something that has me wondering about the direction fighting games are taking... or maybe this is just a product of team-based fighters. That simplicity might be needed for the sake of everything meshing well. I mean, if Ragna could do all his rushdown stuff and have an assist to reset combos he’d be a nightmare to fight against. And Nu... don’t get me started on Nu.

 But then again, Skullgirls has a good balance of complexity, and the potential for 3-on-3 combat. All their characters feel and play in very unique ways too, so maybe my worries are founded in some ways...

But speaking of...

How Characters Play/Feel

Like I said, this game is very simple. These characters only play slightly like their original games. I've only played with a few people, namely my mains, but Yosuke doesn’t feel like the Yosuke P4A with his 48 mix-up tools, Linne and Hyde feel like themselves, but with less combo options than in their original game. Sadly, none of my Blazblue mains are in the current roster, so I can’t say much about them, but Ragna feels like a watered down version of himself at the very least. I think that goes for most of the cast. They all feel very watered down. This isn’t bad, it’s just different, and I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. 

I’m excited to know I’ll have Orie and eventually Izayoi in the game to play with, but I’ve seen gameplay of Orie, and she doesn’t play the way I play her in UNIEST. I get the feeling a lot of people are going to be playing around with the cast for the wrong reasons.

That said though...

The RWBY Characters

The RWBY characters play the best too me, but that should be obvious. They were made with this game in mind from the ground up. As such their combo animations are smoother than the rest of the cast, their sprites are a little nicer, and I can really see a lot of love went into make them feel and play like how they are in the show. The references and callbacks are great as someone that’s a fan of show, and I honestly think their voice acting improved a little in this game... then again, I’ve been hearing their voices for a few years now so I might just be a bit numb to how they’re directed in their series, but I’m surprised how well they mesh with the overall cast. I can see the shipping possibilities and fanfics already. I’m definitely going to have Blake in one of my presets when the game comes out, probably pair her up with Linne or Hyde.

Speaking of voice acting...

The English Dub

Thank God we have a dub again. It’s great to hear Patrick Seitz as Ragna again, and the rest of the cast as well. The Under Night In-Birh cast sounds great too, my favorites being Linne and Gordeau. Seriously, the UNIEST cast sounds great and their voice actors really capture their character well from what I’ve heard so far. It really makes me wish we got a dub for that game so those overlong light novel portions didn’t feel as long. 

I did little blurbs about voice actors when Elsword and Persona 5 voice actors were announced, and I’ll definitely do the same kind of blurb for Under Night In-Birth once all the voice actors are known. This game gives me hope that the next Guilty Gear will have a dub and then I can finally care about the story again.

But moving on...

The Roster (AKA Allen Gloats About Being Right)

So we know the full rooster of the game thanks to data miners (the buzzkills), and it looks like I can safely, confidently, and haughtily state that I was right with a few of my calls when I made my speculations. For the sake of maximum gloating I’ll give you all the breakdown from my Rambling on the matter.

Charge Characters

Mitsuru 

Kagura

Vatista 

Puppet Characters 

Carl

Relius 

Chaos 

Ken

Required By Popularity

Tsubaki

Adachi

Yuzuriha

Required by Tier List

Izanami

Margret/Elizabeth

Seth/Merkava

ArcSys’s Persona OCs

Labrys

Sho

Looking back, I wish I stated Nine instead of Izanami, but Izanamis were kicking my ass by the time I wrote up my speculation and I was very salty about that. I also wish I added Mika into my curve ball list instead of my wishlist, but... well, I can’t predict everything. Speaking of that wishlist, a few people made it like Izayoi, Hakumen, and Akihiko, but that was my personal wishlist and not a speculation, so I won’t count those.

Anyway, I got 5/14 right. I’d consider that pretty good for pure speculation.

My Hopes

I’m just gonna’ list these down, as now we’re getting into my unorganized thoughts.

A simple, fanservice-y story mode. Like I originally said, this game is Arc System Works fanservice incarnate. Frankly, trying to tell a serious story with all these properties, while possible, will just be a giant mess, especially trying to deal with all the quantum mechanical, timeline jumping, dimension hopping nonsense of Blazblue, so I really hope this story will be more like Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s Subspace Emissary where the story is simple and more fanservice for fans of all these series and just see everyone interacting with some fights in between. From what we’ve seen of certain cutscenes CGs being released this just might be the case.

Free DLC. I already bought the Season Pass because I’m a degenerate, but I really hope this game does what Skullgirls did and have all their character packs free on at least the first day of their releases. I have major issues with this kind of business practice and completely understand if you guys don’t buy this game because of it. I’m hoping Arc System Works will realize this and make all the packs be free for at least their day-one release to try and dowse the flames a little. And hey, the first pack and the rest of the RWBY team is free for the first while, so I think that’s exactly what their doing.

...

...

... 

I’m gonna’ feel like a chump for waste twenty buck if that’s the case, but hey, I do like the series.

A Good Single Player Experience. I know it’s a fighting game and all, but I hope it’ll have something that’ll make this game fun three years from now when the online community is dead. Something BBCP’s Abyss Mode (because CF’s is garbage) or Persona 4 Arena Ultimax’s Golden Arena Mode. Something like that. I doubt that’ll happen, but it’s a hope for a reason.

Overall, despite my mixed feelings, I hope the best for this game. And as we count down to the final days before release, I hope you all enjoy this game as much as I will.

Unless you roll out with Team UNGA. If you do, then fuck you, fuck your family, fuck your house cat, and everything you stand for.

[vampgirl]

SO disappointed in the botw trailer honestly. The sky stuff is cool, I will give them this. Do not know what I even expected after they decided to put Skyward Sword on the switch, they might even play into that lore in this game.

But adding sky islands does nothing to the og map!!! Why would they keep the same map for this if you’re going to be in the sky?? I don’t feel like the two compare at all. Why on earth would I fuck around on a map I’ve already spent hundreds of hours on if there’s sky land above me? And what point will there even be to go down in the first place? Unless the sky area is just for a more dungeon/shriney experience, but that would mean that once you’re done there there’s almost no reason to stay.

Anyways what I wanted was underground + underwater exploration. I want this to be a changed hyrule, at least a few years on from the last game. Enough time has passed that the effort Zelda’s been putting into rebuilding has really started to blossom. There’s new towns and villages, and the existing ones from the old game have been expanded upon, with more/bigger shops, new npcs, etc. Maybe now that the calamity’s been defeated new species of plants and animals have sprung up or come back to land now that there isn’t a massive evil pig cloud fucking shit up.

And THEN you add whatever happens with the castle into mix. I’m totally fine with it going into the sky, works perfectly with my plan. Maybe the game starts you off on the ground, you’re free to roam and explore as you please. Doing side quests and stuff. Hopefully they expand on the side quests and add side-quest lines. But at some point you go have to go visit Zelda at the castle, she found something mysterious, blah blah falling blah blah ganon blah blah.

Whatever the two of you find causes the castle to rise up into the sky, taking huge chunks of hyrule up with it. These chunks left behind fill with water or expose massive caves and tunnels (maybe even exposing a city). The new cities now have pieces missing, important landmarks from the first game have now been changed, and falling chunks of land have further marred the landscape.

You now have the ability to swim underwater. Maybe it’s available from the start, but now you have somewhere to GO. Traverse through caves and tunnels that are partially filled with water. You can upgrade your air capacity as well as stamina, making it harder for things like climbing to get too easy and therefore boring quite as fast. There’s dungeons, new enemies, new shrines. SUNKEN shrines. New underground and underwater biomes. Villages and cities underground, maybe another sheikah village, the only place they felt they could be safe or study in piece or whatever, gorons obv are perfect here, and another zora village where they’re more inspired by deep deep sea creatures. Axolotl zora anyone? Some kind of hugeass cavern with a settlement of Bat-Rito. Like the possibilities are fucking endless.

And I still think the sky is a good idea! The same stuff can all be applied there, but I feel like it’s on a way smaller and more limited scale. Adding in the sky land stuff or whatever ADDS to the world but it doesn’t change it, and if they don’t find a way to change it (drastically) then what point is there for players to go back down? I know people with over 600 hours on that game. And while that isn’t the norm, at the end of the day exploring the world for the very first time was what made the first game. The awe and wonder of simply discovering something, like literally who needs crack. You know who doesn’t? The me from 2019 who played botw for the first time.

Oh and also let us play as Zelda like obviously. Fucking obviously Nintendo you stupid ass baby company. Zelda is stuck on the ground trying to figure things out while link does sky adventures. Obviously she wouldn’t have planned for this playing as her starts you out with little to nothing, putting you in a similar position to the main game. Give her the sheikah slate this time but with her big girl brain she tweaks it or something idfk. She can use magic. You can switch between the two at will and in order to progress on each side you need to unlock stuff for each other, and when you beat it you can play either one at will like this is so simple.

And yes I know that if tiny brained little money grubbing mr nintendos decide to let us play as Zelda it will be locked behind a dlc paywall but this is MY dream botw 2. Anyways wish I knew how to put a link in this for continued reading or whatever on mobile sorry it’s so long ^-^ if you read this far then wow... wow but also talk to me about it <33333 thanks for coming 2 my Ted talk

[justanotherdumpingground]

Chapter Reviews: May 14-18, 2019

Across the Void Chapter 22:

The fighting sequence was pretty intense. I bought the reflective armor just in case anything goes wrong. Turns out a lot of things go wrong if I don't pay diamonds, primarily on Holmes, Zaniah, and Oberon. I may not be attached to them in any way, but it's really idiotic to have to spend diamonds to save characters's lives when strategic choices would be a better option.

That was an anticlimactic ending. I expected a long scene showing the consequences of my decision to hand the astral charges to the Vanguard and Jura, but nope. All I saw is everything fading to black while my MC and Sol just stood there as the Vanguard and Jura receive the astral charges. This is just...

Honestly, never in my have I felt cheated from something I promised than this story. The first half of the story is sluggish, I barely know about the setting aside from Lektra and Matara, the Vanguard vs. Jura conflict is never fully explained, and the characters are largely underdeveloped. Kepler gets the most development, but that's not saying much. Not to mention that having to pamper a bunch of mostly worthless passengers doesn't immerse me into the story. There's so much wasted potential that could fit in a blog post that I won't bother cramming in here. Unless Pixelberry doesn't add proper epilogue scenes for the final choice and the characters who can live or die, I'm never touching ATV again. And if PB sventually does that, chances are still extremely low. The damage had already been done.

High School Story: Class Act Chapter 14:

No surprise Rory won against Lorenzo, and I'm relieved the latter took his defeat well. Still rather salty that he and Amber were never punished for endangering the kitten, but I'm mostly relieved that the election drama is over. It's boring me to no end.

Aiden making a wood pun was so funny I wish I could replay the chapter just to get a screenshot of it. Clearly old MC's dad has influenced him. I swear, it's always a delight to see my old MC and Aiden together.

Speaking of delight, I'm so glad my new MC gets to be official with Skye. Honestly, this book would've gotten worse if it wasn't for her. Not only did she express her concerns about the election drama tearing her friends apart, but she also urged Rory and the twin to cooperate for once. Pity I didn't spend my diamonds on her for most of the time, but I will if I replay Class Act.

Wishful Thinking Chapter 6:

I'm so glad I adopted the cat and puppy. Reading their thoughts is funny, especially the part where Jaime fed the puppy peanut butter whenever the MC's away. Even the cat wanting to be pampered is adorable. So glad I got to adopt those two.

Does anyone think Charlie is up to no good? Sure he seems like a charming person, but he seems to have an agenda, and I want to investigate him further. I hope Anna will be fine.

I freaked out at Mira Banerji's model recycled for a lawyer, along with her outfit. What kind of lawyer wears an apron? Why didn't PB just have Mira make a cameo appearance preparing food for the gala guests?

For love interest, it's a toss-up between Jaime and Anna for me. I'm not invested in the romance aspect, so I'll take my time.

Power outages are a nuisance, and the one in the studio is no exception. But do the ones here have to freak out so much that it comes across as slightly melodramatic?

Passport to Romance Chapter 10:

Great, Ahmed just screwed himself up by staying up late. To be honest, his coach was right to scold him for such irresponsible behavior. He really should've returned to the hotel early in the previous chapter.

Oh hi, Julian Castillo! I miss seeing you in High School Story.

Kinda glad Marisa saved Ahmed's game by giving him the food he desperately needs. He should've eaten a light snack first, I think.

I got the soccer terms from Elliot mostly right, though it's a mix of guesses and my own knowledge. I'm no soccer fan, even though it's popular from where I'm from. Still no fan of Elliot using it to act condescending towards MC. It doesn't help matters that he didn't bother inviting Marisa and Sumire to his private box, just the MC. Hmph!

Honestly, how dumb is this MC? They're always late to stuff, they're clueless on what they're blogging about, they couldn't bother looking up their friends's names unless told to, they invaded someone's privacy, and they dragged their friends into countless fiascos. What was Yvette thinking when she hired them in the first place? And now they missed the flight due to carelessness. I swear, this story's nagging me.

I even read someone commenting that livestreaming a soccer match is copyright infringement, which makes it really stupid of MC and might spell doom to the magazine as well as the vlog.

Nightbound Chapter 5:

The fight scene was okay, and I think Cal having visible body hair is a nice break from the clean shaven chests found in all other male characters. I think it's part of being a werewolf. And it's great of the MC to tackle the cheater trying to make Cal lose.

During the meeting with the werewolves, I chose to accept Octavia's challenge, and I managed to impress her. I wish this scene is free instead of paywalled. That would've given some means to persuade the pack in case it comes in handy.

Speaking of the pack, can these people realize that the MC is innocent of Kristof's death? He was the one who wanted a bloodwraith as a trophy, and the one that got summoned killed him. In other words, he brought this on himself. I hope Octavia can be persuaded to calm these people down.

Open Heart Chapter 14:

Dang, this is another intense chapter, and I like it as well! First of all, Landry deserves to be kicked out of Edenbrook. How dare he act like he has the higher moral ground by saying it's the right thing to inform even though he sabotaged MC's pager, delaying their ability to treat patients. I know he's a suspect, but to see him stoop that low just to get to the top spot and impress Ethan pisses me off.

The subway train derailment accident was so tense thant I though I'll accidentally kill patients if I give them the wrong tags. I gave a red tag on a patient in a vegetative state, and Ines said there's nothing that can be done for him, which left me scared that I'll mess up. On a brighter note, helping Aurora focus on treating patients when she was overwhelmed felt good. Sure, she was cold and aloof towards others, but in a situation with so many injured patients, it's imperative to toss away old grudges and focus on the bigger picture. Besides, Aurora deserves my sympathy for having to deal with sycophants trying to exploit her aunt's status as chief of medicine. Not to mention she's good with patients, apart from the incident with Dolores, which turned out to be a crafty ploy to put MC at the top of the list.

Rafael just earned my respect. On one hand, I was scared upon seeing him severely injured after rescuing a little girl. On the other hand, I admire his courage as a paramedic willing to rescue others and ensure their safety, even at great risk of his own life. It was a no brainer for me to pick the premium option to operate on him. He deserves a speedy recovery.

Speaking of no-brainers, that premium option to accompany Sienna as she breaks up with Wayne was super sweet and satisfying. I was pissed off at him dismissing the subway train accident in favor of dinner time with Sienna, then had the gall to assume she dumps her responsibilities on others. I even called him by the barrage of expletives.

Man, I'm worried for my MC now that he confessed to giving Mrs. Martinez thd medication. I know his career will be saved, most likely with Ethan's intervention, but situations like this aren't meant to be taken lightly, and I respect Harper's stance on this issue. On another note, I wanna comfort Aurora after her aunt said she's disappointed in her. She did her best in treating the patients, especially since I helped her regain her composure.

Bloodbound Chapter 1:

Finally Book 2's out! I miss playing Bloodbound that I replayed Book 1 and spent diamonds on Kamilah and the portrait fragments. I managed to complete Book 1 before starting Book 2, so I feel ready for this.

The MC's dream with Nicole Anderson's ghost, a mysterious woman in white, and a bleeding tree gives me the creeps. My guess is that this figure is the First Vampire or one of the vampires created by her, just like Gaius Augustine. That makes her an important figure in the story, especially for lore and the storyline. I'm already excited.

Something doesn't feel right with Jax's assistant Nikhil. He claimed to be turned during the early 19th Century and went into hiding until his discovery, even though the clan system was established during the 1920s. Not helping matters is the disappearance of a dozen humans in Central Park. Scholar Jameson and Gaius Augustine are the prime suspects, but Nikhil shouldn't be ruled out, especially considering his resemblance to the woman in white.

Speaking of my MC and the love interests, I'm so glad to see them again. I'm proud of Lily for creating an app allowing vampires to connect together. This better come in handy for everyone in case things go south. Even better, the Shadow Den looks nice and spiffy from much-needed funds. My only insecurity is that I have to see Priya and The Baron again. As anyone knows, I have nothing but contempt for those two, though Lester's not far behind.

That scene with the hooded guy attacking and kidnapping the MC got me worried for her well-being. Nevertheless, I can't wait for more.