#hope this one posts I've been having technical difficulties

[2readiscworld]

[femmequixotic]

Hello #Femmequixotic, I am a huge fan of your fics, and I've recently finished the 4th part of your Tales from the Special Branch.

Firstly, I'd like to express my admiration and love for your writing and creativity, and after reading your last post here, I hope you currently find yourself in a better place.

Now, I confess that I came here to see when you had last spoken about your work, and was incredibly excited to see that you were working on it, only to see that it has been over a year since.

I understand how life can be unpredictable, and no-one will be upset (although certainly sad) about you abandoning the series, but I came here to simply thank you for your work, and ask if there is any chance of an update (that being new chapters or the definite end to the series).

Regards,

V.

Hi, friend,

I just logged in after a significant amount of time away and saw this and some other lovely messages of support for me from various people. Thank you all so much for your kind words.

To provide an update on why I once again disappeared....well. Life is curiously, frustratingly exasperating sometimes. Just as I got back into writing last year, I started to have some health difficulties that I had to deal with. Long story short, I was rediagnosed with cancer in the spring of 2023. This recent tumor wasn't operable due to its placement, and technically was considered metastatic, so over the past year, I have been going through a very long process of two different types of radiation treatment plus five months of chemotherapy. I still have a very long stretch of immunotherapy ahead of me, and while the tumor seems to have melted away, we're not entirely certain the cancer is gone based on some symptoms I continue to have. My oncology team is awesome, though, and they're doing everything they can to help me.

I'm better than I was a year ago--or even six months ago--so that's positive, and my brain is finally starting to return back to normal from some of the fatigue and fog from treatment and from being ill. I'd like to go back to writing, and I'm feeling more creative as my strength builds back up. I don't want to promise anything, since the last time I did, life decided to immediately throw me a curveball, and to be honest, I'm still wicked tired on my good days, but I hope to complete the story within the next year. That's my plan, at least, so fingers crossed? I've always said I didn't want to abandon it at any point, and I'm determined to keep that promise to you all--and to myself.

So, yeah. That's what's been happening. I'm still here, I'm still fighting, and I'm still writing. Just super slowly, lol.

[booksandchainmail]

Goals for the rest of the year (fall resolutions?):

Online:

Finish watching and liveblogging Oniisama e

Finish reading and liveblogging my volume of Anne Lister's diaries

Get my tumblr drafts down to <100: they're currently at 176. A bunch of those are reblogs I want to add commentary to, so either add it, skip the commentary, or don't reblog it at all. There's also a few liveblog related posts in progress, which should be clear-out-able. The one added difficulty is I have some number of drafts from ~2018 that I no longer stand by and so will not post, but want to keep for memories

Food (aka expanding my vegetable repertoire, preferably in ways that don't involve making a side dish of vegetables):

Continue spinach: this has been an unexpected success mixed into things, find more of those things

Try peas, presumably starting with adding them to pasta. I've had mixed experiences in the past, but trending upwards, and my partner likes them. I am cautiously optimistic.

Cauliflower? It's good roasted. Need more recipes than just putting misc spices on top.

Social (I need to do more in person things. I have a houseguest now, and more planned at two times this fall, but I need to get local connections and not rely on travel):

See [group of people I am friendly acquaintances with] at least twice. Logistics is probably the main issue here, and that I am always the one who reaches out, while I am also very bad at reaching out. Growth mindset! There is a newly local person in this group I want to see! Also the extant ones are good!

Hang out with [person I've recently hung out with] moreso. I am hopeful that this is going from a "once a year we do a shared activity and then say we should meet up more" type of friendship into one where we actually meet up.

Try a bookclub or something through meetup. I technically already tried this a few weeks ago, and that bookclub sucked, but I don't want to give up on the concept prematurely

Reading (I've already met my general number read goal, as well as my summer reading bingo cards):

Read 10 nonfiction books (goal for entire year). This is currently already at 9, and I have 2 more in progress. Very manageable.

Finish reading a very indulgent selfpublished series I'm midway through. This will also not be a difficult goal

Get the stacks of books on my windowsills/tables down to 15. When I get new books I stack them rather than shelving them so I don't forget to read them, and they've been piling up. I need to read them down sufficiently before I am again exposed to used book stalls. I've already made some headway here, mainly by tidying away the ones that I had already read, so currently there are ~25 books in stacks.

[mischiefmanifold]

I have ASPD and I suspect I have ASP too, but I’m not sure because they share a lot of traits. From my understanding, people with ASPD can't feel their emotions because of emotional repression due to trauma, while ASP people can’t feel their emotions because they struggle to understand how emotions work in general? (they feel their emotions more physically than mentally)

I'm not sure what ASP means—my first thought was autism, which would relate to the conversations I've been having lately. If it means something else, please let me know! For now, I'll respond as if you're referring to autism :)

ASPD and autism don't share nearly as many traits as many people think (despite their histories being intertwined with the past diagnosis of "autistic psychopathy"), but due to similar outward presentations they can get mixed up and even misdiagnosed (especially in late-diagnosed adult autistic men).

For example, while physically violent acts committed by autistic people and antisocial people are often quite similar, their root causes are different. In autism, violence is often a result of overstimulation and meltdowns. In ASPD, violence is often caused by a desire for stimulation (to "feel something," usually a thrill or control) or as a way to "punish" people (for what is often individualized, but has to do with our unorthodox morality systems and ideals).

When we're talking about emotions, it's important to acknowledge that "lacking emotions/emotionality" is not technically accurate. It is my understanding that most people with ASPD (specifically trauma-based ASPD) are taught to suppress their emotions in their early childhoods, which can look like a lack of emotion from the outside. Additionally, alexithymia (difficulty or inability to identify one's emotions) has been shown to be linked to personality disorders as well as autism, which may contribute to this idea. With autism, I believe alexithymia is a big part of the reason many autistic people struggle with emotions; I do also think that autistic people often feel/experience emotions differently than non-autistic people like you said (maybe not necessarily physically but in a different way).

I hope this was helpful and I apologize for rambling a bit (haha)

Please keep in mind that I cannot speak for everyone who has autism or ASPD, and that my posts are based in my own experiences as well as my understanding of the research available for these disorders. Relating with my experiences does not necessarily mean that you have the same disorders I do!

[amateur-ornithology]

aaaaand of course Tumblr stopped me one post before the end, classic

Anyway! That was a great episode – it's especially good to have some new characters to chew on, and boy have I been chewing.

Willow is, put bluntly, a delight. She's sweet and considerate without feeling even remotely one-note about it, and the temper she keeps a very firm lid on adds a fantastic extra dimension to her. The hopeful tone her story takes is a really nice touch, too – at the end of the day, despite having cheated in class and wrecked half the school, she gets moved from the subject she hated and only took because her parents wanted it to one she's really good at and enjoys. It's good to see the spooky magic academy with the authoritarian teachers can still make good decisions for its students, you know?

(Also, how wonderful is it that Luz, apparently having no friends at all in her own world, manages to become fast friends with the first actual peer character she talks to within a matter of minutes? I'm on my way to her school with my "Luz Noceda can make friends you guys are just mean" presentation.)

Gus doesn't get a lot of focus this episode, other than that he's nice and likes humans. There's a lot of potential in that setup, though, and I'm excited to see where we go with him.

And Amity... boy, I've already said a lot about Amity, and yet apparently I can always find more. From her brief shot in the intro I was expecting someone haughty and aloof, but instead from the moment she opens her mouth she's a smug jerk in a thoroughly enjoyable way. I've already talked at length about the ways I find her unpleasantly relatable, but I'll just say that I get much the same feeling from her as I often do from Luz, that she's a character being written by people who have a lot of experience being like that. There's a wonderful depth to her that I can't wait to see brought into the light – and even before that happens, she's still incredibly fun to have around as an unrepentant arsehole.

Plot-wise, too, it's been really good to see Luz and Eda finally bond. I'm hoping Luz can actually start learning some magic soon – I get that groundwork needs to be laid, but we are now two for two on episodes where Luz goes "teach me magic please" and Eda says "HOW ABOUT THIS OTHER THING" so it'd be nice to shake that up.

Also, I just want to say it's a really nice touch that they changed Willow's clothes in the end credits – I love little intro/outro changes like that, so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for more!

Thanks so much for coming by and hanging around, everyone, and apologies for the technical difficulties! I'll catch you all soon for the next episode!

[karizard-ao3]

https://www.tumblr.com/karizard-ao3/762143949894959104/its-christmas-time-new-chapter-is-out-now-read?source=share

This chapter was sooo sweet! Armin worrying about his pregnant wife warms my heart🥺. And Mikasa’s text marriage to Eren, and how he felt that he had already gotten his gift 😣 pulling on my dear heart strings.  

Also mason is so sassy or maybe I’m just focusing too much on his antics, but he’s soo funny lol.

 Mikasa putting adri and masons picture in her locket!! That was soooo sweet, and just really shows what kind of person Mikasa is. She’s better than me cause with Adris attitude I wouldn’t have been able to deal with her for 5 minutes 😭. But maybe that’s because I’m not a really patient person.

 I really hope the Yeager women come around soon ( although I saw you say somewhere that adris the last one to shift her feelings) and it already seems like Carla’s softening up! Kinda. 

I get how adri feels about feeling like her moms being “replaced” as a step-daughter my self I have some pretty crazy story’s about how I used to act towards my stepmom.  I hope what zeke said to her sticks, but knowing toddlers I give it 10 minutes until Mikasa’s name gets mentioned again and she freaks out lol.

 Anyway Amazing chapter from an amazing person as always!

ps. I wanted to write this on ao3 but I was glitching SO HARD.

Okay, so ao3 wasn't being weird for just me! Last night and this morning it kept timing out while I was trying to prepare the chapters last night and then post this morning. I ended up trying it on my phone and luckily it worked because I did not want to have to try to get the word out to everyone that the chapter would be delayed due to technical difficulties.

Mikasa truly is a saint when it comes to Adri, but also I think she just understands that Adri is a little kid and has no filter and doesn't really get a lot of what goes on around her.

And you're right that Adri would totally listen spellbound to Zeke just to turn around and go back to her same old war against Mikasa, but I think she might internalize the message a bit. I've noticed little kids will hear something, never talk about it, but then bring it up out of nowhere several months later. Like, they need all those weeks to process it and put it together first. So even if it has no immediate effect, I think it started some things turning for her. We'll just have to wait and seeee.

Mason cracks me up. He's got to involve himself in everything.

[miradanii]

MTMTE/LOST LIGHT First Time Read

Short time text text because it's 4am. I had to finish it...The Lost Light was short and I had 4 chapters left. Had heat exhaustion twice in one week, lack of sleep for days but I couldn't help but finish just so I can go back and reread parts I didn't understand/have an excuse to finally look up this comic without massive spoilers.

I had never read a lot of long ass comics. But wow have I just had a wild ride. I think it took maybe two and half months to read this? Maybe more. One of the few things I had difficulty with reading but pushed through because how captivated I was with the story and its insane cast of characters. I have tons of new favorites I will now create powerpoint slides to present to my friends now on how much I've enjoyed my time with them.

I am so thankful for the internet due to these comics being out of print. And my past self just happening to own volume 1 of Dark Cybertron and never donating it despite not fully understanding what it was until this year. I hope these comics get reprinted one day but I guess for now I'll hunt down copies because I think I want to do these comics a service by having physical copies...

Anyways I 100% recommend this series as a first time reader for reading any Transformers comics. It was pretty difficult at first but I got the hang of it for a while. Not sure it helped that I was already familiar with a lot of the characters already like Rodimus, Megatron, ect. ect. ect.

Here's a link to a reddit post about the order for reading MTMTE/Lost Light. Though, when you come to Dark Cybertron it comes it two volumes so you don't have to switch between MTMTE and RID issues. Like I said I have the physical copy for Volume 1 of Dark Cybertron but mistakenly went back to reading MTMTE and had not realized the issues were alternating.

The reddit post mentions it but I was dumb and didn't fully read it. I just kinda kept going to the next page with a jarring lack of information thinking a lot of stuff was happening off screen.

Immediate ending spoiler nonsense thoughts down below:

Yeah the ending note made me tear up. I am in the mist of consuming a lot of Transformers Media before Transformers One comes out...I had decided to read MTMTE because I think I wanted something that I felt when I watched Transformers Prime. More detail in the characters. I think I flipped when I found out Ratchet who I've seen 3 iterations of on tv has a love interest. Megatron and Optimus have like....just...yeah it's gay. Unhinge divorced but never married gay interactions, then there's more gay, then idk I just started learning more and more about it all from just doing research all for a powerpoint party I hosted and because it was my birthday I was able to go up to 45 minutes due to birthday privileges.

Like I can go from liking Megop to MiniMegs? Is that the ship name? Idk it's almost 5am. But it's not even about pairings at this point, I'm going on an insane fucking adventure. I'm reading this shit in a King's Hawaiian parking lot now being part of my core memory. Actually that part does have a pairing. I'm seeing this:

I went through emotional toil in a restaurant parking lot with my friends to see and not understand the shock I'm having after I get out of the car.

I understand the flowers. That's a fuck ton.

I technically got spoiled about who Rung actually was but it had been so long I actually was STILL shocked when I found out at around 3am. Though...I didn't know he fucking died. Guys he fucking died. I think he came back or its one of his children idk man he fucking died and there's a character with a very similar color palette to him in Cyberverse.

On a random note I guess they weren't that close but Im surprised there wasn't a conversation between Nautica and Chromedome about forgetting Skids in a sense of grief. And it just kinda happened to her...Though I am glad she was still prioritizing Velocity.

Okay so Terminus just dies off screen and Megatron never finds out that he gave him the wrong location?? Damn. But I guess it was no hard feelings when he reunited with the Lost Light so that's all fine and dandy.

This is the one of the few stories where I am proud bullshit with no further explanation reunites tragic lovers. This series lets me live. I mean there was a very simple explanation why Tailgate didn't fade away from Cyclonus' arms but when that moment happened I was like yeah fuck it let them be happy. Of course Kaput was gonna go Kaput but rip can't believe it had to get Tailgate involved.

Ah Anode and Lug were cute! I think it took me a bit to warm up to them but I think I start to like characters when they start having fun dynamics with the rest of the cast. Anode and Swerve pranking each other on the shrinking ship with all hell breaking loose with the rest of the Rod Squad is just...yeah that whole chapter was paced so well.

Okay Whirl didn't just win me over, he snatched my heart and made a clock out of it with his lil pincers. I love this fella. He's such a homie. Top 10 in my list of characters with best character growth.

Okay okay...so the ending right...I knew Ratchet died in the end. Or a portion of the end. But it still caught me off guard. Not to mention I thought Tailgate had died in the end too. I mean it was technically true. But still...ouch. I saw the panel with the Rodimus Star and thought it was so dumb. Had no idea that it was so much more impactful than I thought. Legit before knowing the context I thought Rodimus didn't want to give his most inner energon and gave a Rodimus Star instead. Oops.

I've seen panels of Minimus and Megatron interact and had no idea that it was from the final issue.

5:31am

This series has given me a small portion of joy I couldn't feel for the past few months without it. A boost in creativity and expanding a range of wow that's a lot of fucking insane shit that can happen and still be fun huh?

[ultraviolet-psyche]

I think one of the most fascinating things about being a creative is how the passage of time, and the advancement of your technical and creative abilities, can shape the way you perceive your older works.

Screams and Sighs, a Kuzusouda slow-burn longfic I wrote back in 2017-2018, has always been my most well-known fanfiction. Back when I wrote it, I thought it was amazing. Nowadays, when I go back and read it, I can't help but cringe. It feels like no matter which passage I read, there's always something that jumps out at me as an inherent flaw of my writing style or my interpretations of the characters. It sucks, and sometimes I wish I could've written SAS during a time where my writing ability was better, but I recognise that writing that fic has helped me get to where I am today.

Nowadays, there's one question that I often ask myself: if I were to start rewriting SAS right now, what specific things would I do to improve its quality? What would my writing style for the fic look like? How would I change how I wrote Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and all the other characters featured in the fic? What would be a better way to incorporate and utilise the fic's central themes, those being the true meanings of strength and weakness, and the difficulties of being a gay couple in a killing game?

As I said in another post, I don't actually plan on rewriting SAS anytime soon, as it's a massive undertaking that I'm not quite prepared for. However, what I could do instead is write new oneshots and drabbles that put a new spin on some of the themes and/or plot points of SAS. Hell, this is pretty much what I've already done with my double drabble I posted not too long ago, 'fake utopia'. It doesn't quite fit into the SAS continuity (though I guess it could if you really want it to), but it does have the same vibes, themes and setting as SAS. I hope to continue writing stuff in this vein, along with the more lighthearted, non-despair Kuzusouda fics I've been focusing on recently.

Ultimately, if you're a creative, and you can look back on your older works and identify their shortcomings, like me with SAS and my other older fanfiction, you're on the right track. You're improving as a creative, even if you might not have noticed it before. You should be proud of yourself! 💜

[fluffs-arts]

I've seen you post with art of your characters from a 1-on-1 DnD game you run for your husband. May I ask how you do it? I'd like to try it with my partner. Thank you in advance <3

Theres a few sources I read up on before we started. We technically haven't started this one yet but we've been doing the rp for lore. Rn were running through Lost Mine of Phandelver since hes brand new to dnd.

Best thing I've found is making a sidekick for him. They have special rulings and classes. Ill link the article below. For his sorcerer, I made a warrior sidekick (basically just a tank type). It helps make up where his pc is lacking like a normal party would.

Then you definitely have to scale the encounters down. You can still get really cool encounter that feel like they have an impact. For example in LMoP (spoilers ahead)

The first encounter is a goblin ambush. Originally theres 4 goblins attacking them. 2 sticking back to shoot and 2 melee. Instead I knocked it down to just two; one shooting, one melee. Then I test ran it with his pc and the sidekick. Theres a site ill also link below where you can calculate the difficulty based on amount of party members, the CR of the enemies, and the amount of enemies. Heavillllyy suggest testing it physically and/or testing it with the site. If things end up going sideways then, thats just a part of dnd in my eyes. We figure it out from there lol.

Avoiding combat entirely is also always a great option. Encourage them to think out of the box, maybe sneak around, negotiate, bribery. Having that work around can really help with the tricky combat scaling.

Im pretty scatterbrained with this lol, but another thing is, if you dont have anything planned, the pacings slowing down, or either of your attentions just arent there, you can stop at any point! Theres no obligation to run for the 2-5 hours like a fully party session. You can pick back up whenever you and your partner want!! So if yall derail and you arent planned for it, you can always take a break and pick back up whenever youre both ready. Your partner has a tough decision and needs some time to think it over? They can take a break and pick it back up when yall are ready! Its really nice for us since were both neurospicy and stuff like that happens all the time.

Anyway thats all i can think of right now :) i hope that helped!!!

Links:

Encounter calculator

These guys have a lot of good articles

Sidekick rules

Also a lot of good articles from them

Combat tips

[aspenscore]

Channel Update - June 20, 2024

Hey y'all! Just wanted to give you a quick update on what's coming up in the next month or so, and give you a bit of info about what's going on behind the scenes. TL;DR at the end.

First off, I'm really hoping to have AuDHD episode 5 out sometime tomorrow, although I can't make any guarantees for reasons I'll clarify below. For those wondering, I usually aim to post on Fridays (but that is much more of a guideline than a rule), and I definitely won't be able to always put out one video per week (although that is generally my goal).

Secondly, the reason I definitely won't be keeping up with that goal this month and likely throughout the summer is because I'm moving! This is a really exciting time for me, but unfortunately it's also a very busy time, so my ability to log onto the server and to edit videos is pretty limited right now. On top of that, my wifi situation is going to be pretty spotty for at least the next two weeks, which not only prevents me from being able to upload, but also prevents me from logging on to even record anything in the first place, so unfortunately I'm gonna be lagging a bit behind with my progress on some of the projects and events I've been working on. This does not mean I'm not going to do them, it just means that it's likely going to be a trend for the duration of the AuDHD SMP that I will be uploading content from a previous month during the current month (ie. I'll be uploading June content in July, which'll end up pushing July content into August, and so on).

The good news is: I have some miscellaneous old footage that I've been wanting to edit and upload for a long while, but I haven't had the chance to do it while keeping up with AuDHD. My plan is to try and get some of that footage edited while I'm without wifi, so I'll have some bonus content to reward you with for your patience when I finally return with a proper upload schedule!

Finally, I wanted to address Love Life. No, I haven't forgotten about it, and yes, it is my intent to continue that series if and when it ever becomes possible to do so. However, it is currently on an indefinite hiatus due to a combination of technical difficulties and scheduling issues, and I don't know when we'll be able to record the rest of our sessions. Currently, we are still planning to finish out the season, we just don't know when that will be. If it ends up being the case that we are unable to continue, I plan to at least post some kind of final video to offer closure on the series, so you won't be left hanging.

Thank you all for your continued patience and support, and I look forward to being settled in my new place so I can get back to bringing you all new videos!

TL;DR: The next month or so is going to be very busy for me, so I won't be uploading as frequently, which also means that my monthly themed content is unlikely to align with the month I end up posting it in. Love Life SMP is currently on an indefinite hiatus, but I wanted to let you know that am not abandoning it. Thank you all so much for your patience and support!

[gigakoops]

I'm seeing articles talking about Bobby Kotick talking about reviving Guitar Hero using AI, and everything about this upsets my rhythm-game-loving ass. For one I don't want to be tempted to buy another Activision game ever again. But then, if they start using AI to do stuff like note charts, it's not going to go very well and it's going to be awful to play.

So if you've seen my username anywhere else, it's likely been in the Clone Hero/Rock Band communities. I make custom note charts, and have been charting since 2011, when I worked on the Rock Band Network. So I know the in's and out's of what goes into a note chart. There's a lot of nuance that goes into these things, and when making a chart I always notice new details, even with songs I've heard hundreds of times. I don't trust an algorithm to notice such things.

I'm also left thinking about CAT, a program used at C3 (a big ol' hub for Rock Band customs that I've pretty much cut ties with at this point) to generate lower difficulties and such. And let me tell you, the results there are subpar at best. You can instantly tell how mechanical it all feels, as if there was no thought put into the note orders, or even the actual rules to how these lower difficulties work. And that's an algorithm that uses existing Expert charts as a basis!

AI-generated Expert charts would be a fucking nightmare. Instead of charts that flow well with the music, and account for all the little details in actual instrument lines, you'll get some clunky thing that technically works, but doesn't feel "right" with the music. Like, imagine playing a song, and while the notes are technically on-beat, it feels like the chords are charted in a way that feels unnatural, and there's a lack of polish when it comes to little licks and such. That's how I imagine an AI chart feeling, and it'd be downright dreadful.

There's also the thought of "What if they use existing charts to train the AI," which leaves two possible outcomes, neither of which are great. The lesser-bad one would be them using old Guitar Hero charts to train the AI. The GH series in general is pretty all over the place with chart quality, leaning oftentimes towards "overcharted" due to charting power chords as three-note chords, and sometimes just charting notes that aren't there for the sake of challenge. That's also the style of the series post-Harmonix, is to be really challenging. But also, I don't see that as being a good basis to train an AI to make charts by today's standards.

Which leads to my biggest fear: using custom charts (mostly Clone Hero charts most likely) to train this AI. And let me tell you right now, I don't consent to this. No way in Hell do I think it's an ethical thing to do to train an AI using potentially hundreds of other peoples' charts. Charting itself is an artform, and I think it'd be horrendous to just steal other peoples' styles so that you can save time on your cash-in revival.

This was originally going to be just the first paragraph, but then I decided to elaborate further until it became, well, all this. Still, I really hope that if they decide to revive Guitar Hero, that they actually hire people to make charts, because the idea of an AI seeing a Skrillex overchart, then ripping off that style for an Alter Bridge song or some shit is going to keep me up at night.

[danceswithdarkspawn]

You've got me interested in Dragon Age with all the content you post or reblog, but I've been a bit curious about the actual gameplay itself. Can you tell me about some of your favorite portions from the game series?

First of all I'm flattered you decided to come to me, the backwater dumbass that lives in a ramshackle hut and yells at the sky about this godforsaken franchise. There are probably far better people to ask this question. I hope you are okay. Second, I meant to get around to answering this a few days ago, I Forgor. Third, buckle up, it's Dinosaur Post all over again but extremely long.

I'm going to split this up into the actual, technical gameplay bits and the other stuff because both of these play a role in why I like or dislike certain aspects of all three games. Also, I will be including some things I don't like or didn't work for me, but that's a small portion. I'll label each part so you can skip to whichever section.

To preface: Dragon Age: Origins was THE game (along with Skyrim) that got me away from MMOs and into single-player RPG games. DAO will always be special to me because of that and thus I have some bias towards it. Because I can't do anything in short-form, this is long as hell, and contains my thoughts on each game.

Before we begin: GIANT DISCLAIMER that these are my opinions, not fact. I love these games despite their many flaws, and if I didn't want them to be better, I would not be critical of them.

I will not be going over any of the DLCs because frankly there are a lot of them, but in my opinion, all the DLCs for all the games are excellent additions to the base games they belong to.

The Technical Gameplay Stuff

General:

All of the combat in Dragon Age plays out something like this: You have your party of up to 4 consisting of your Player Character (PC) and three other companions who you recruit at different points in the story. You can choose to fill out your party (meaning you have the max of 4) or you can go solo, bring only one companion, etc. You control one character at a time while the game controls the rest, but you can freely swap between characters, pause mid-combat, move your camera around the battle, and give direct commands to individual party members that will execute when unpaused. Combat is persistent, not turn-based, and will only end if all enemies are killed or the player gets far enough away to disengage battle.

Each game also has their own 'tactics' system that dictates what other members of your party do in certain situations when not controlled by you

Dragon Age has a condensed classical RPG class setup consisting of Warriors, Mages and Rogues. There are subclasses of these (known as Specializations, which unlock stat bonuses, new skills and passives). Each class has unique advantages that encourage you to have at least one of each in your party. This is especially true of Inquisition with obstacles which can only be cleared by certain classes.

Furthermore, Origins was a little more flexible in its class choices because a: weapons and armor were not restricted by class, but by stat investments and b: warriors have access to all weapon talents (two-handed, sword and shield, dual wield and bow) while rogues only have talents for dual wield and bow.

Following Origins, weapons and armor types are restricted by class.

Dragon Age: Origins/Awakening:

DAO's combat is fairly slow and a bit clunky and perhaps dated, but I think that's the charm of it. As far as how interactive the combat is, DAO is the least interactive of the three games. That does not mean you can let the battles play out on their own, especially if you're playing harder difficulties. You will still need to do some tactical positioning, switching characters, using items, etc. But DAO does not require you to hold down a button to perform basic attacks on your controlled character. You simply select your target and start attacking it, and activate skills as you see fit. What i mean by 'least interactive' is that, compared to the other two games, you'll be doing less actions per minute most of the time.

For me, the typical combat gameplay loop for Origins is something like this:

combat starts, pause game, move party as necessary, unpause

mage controller AOE paralyze largest cluster and/or stunlock the most dangerous enemy

warriors to largest cluster > tank AOE taunt, melee DPS AOE/Stun

ranged DPS target ranged enemies; intercept with warriors/melee characters as necessary; dual wield rogues with max stealth can also be sent to kill enemies in the back, or flank at largest cluster and AOE/stun spam

pause to adjust as necessary (heal, use items, reapply crowd control)

Your options early in the game will be limited, as AOE taunt and mass paralyze require a few levelups and stat investments to unlock. In the early game, you'll be using single-target stuns, knockbacks, etc to keep the battle under control. Luckily, each class has access to a stun early on. The Mabari hound is also great to bring along for an early-game AOE stun if you're struggling.

You'll need to carefully choose which skill trees you want to invest in, particularly for your primary tank and a controller-oriented mage (highly recommend for the utility), because there isn't an easy way to reset skills.

Also, many mage skills have Friendly Fire, particularly with AOE damaging abilities. Be cautious with these.

The tactics system in Origins/Awakening is, in my opinion, the best in the series. It's very in-depth, you can have multiple loadouts and change them as needed, iirc you can switch them on the fly through the menu, and generally make your life easier, especially if you just want to stick to controlling one or two characters.

These settings operate largely on a 'if X condition, then Y' set of logic. For example, when setting tactics for a two-handed warrior, you can have, "If surrounded by X number of enemies, use AOE ability,' or 'If Controlled Character is targeted by EnemyClass/DamageType, do X Action.' On harder difficulties, I wouldn't solely rely on tactics but it is very, very useful.

Origins also had craftable and placable traps, flasks and poisons that largely got baked into skills or potion crafting in the other two games, which is neat and fun because you could do stupid shit like this to oneshot a fucking dragon. Also Muh Roleplay.

TLDR: I like Origin's combat loop because of how simple, but effective it is. It's influenced by DnD-type strategy and is complex enough that I have to think about what I'm doing, I can't just bumrush through, but not so difficult that it feels impossible or unfun.

Dragon Age 2:

DA2's combat departs from Origins somewhat; you still don't have to hold down an attack button for basic attacks, but the combat, in my opinion, feels much faster paced, more akin to an ARPG. In comparison to DAO, I am constantly pausing the fight to move targets or use my next ability. There are also far more enemies per fight than Origins, as they come in waves instead of all at once. They typically have lower health, but their numbers combined with the amount of waves can make some fights challenging and a slog. There are, however, a plethora of AOE abilities to assist with this.

I'm not sure about the complexity of DA2's tactics as I don't use it that much and just opt for intense micromanagement during combat, but from memory it does also have some depth. DA2's difficulty scaling is, in my opinion, pretty steep compared to Origins and I prefer for play it at the normal setting. Personally I have the most fun playing as a rogue and flipping around stabbing people and kicking them in the face. Overall, fun, flashy.

Typical loop for combat is something like:

Miasmic Flask largest group > AOE the shit out of that group > Warrior Taunt > heal > repeat

Mostly though, it's a loooot of pausing and unpausing for me personally.

Dragon Age: Inquisition:

Somewhere in the middle of DAO and DA2 with a few extra bells. You can jump now! On keyboard the jump button is spacebar, which happens to be the button that pauses the game in the previous two games. I'll let you imagine how that goes mid-fight. Anyway, the combat for DAI is fairly interactive and now requires you to hold down a button to perform your basic attacks. The game is much more open-world ala Skyrim with different contained regions you can travel to. I hate to say it, but combat outside of boss battles in Inquisition is somewhat boring. It's very pretty thanks to the Frostbite engine, but that's about it.

Additionally, you no longer heal out of combat. Your healing options are also limited. You start the game with a fixed amount of health potions that are shared across your entire party. The potion-sharing is similar to DA2, but there was no max potion cap on DA2. You are limited, always, periodt. You can expand this number through crafting upgrades, as well as healing effectiveness. There are also potions that heal over time with an upgrade that heals in an area around the user, and a grenade that heals in the target area. (idk man don't ask)

There are some skills/ultimates/weapon abilities that give some healing or shielding, but combat is made artificially harder because of this change. In longer missions, there are typically one or more supply caches where you can resupply, however (unless you turn that off in Trials). I'm not saying this is a bad thing, just trying to be thorough. This only becomes a pain in the ass for long fights like bosses or high dragons.

There is a learning curve to Inquisition's combat, which the prologue tests you on (Pride Demon my beloathed). While initially challenging, there is a point at which combat outside of boss battles/high dragons feels trivialized, even on Nightmare. The DLCs, however, bring some punch back to combat and are actually difficult, which is nice. If playing on Nightmare, it is much harder to brute-force your way through, especially if doing it for the first time without the special schematics you obtain from them. I was literally shooketh when I took my endgame Nightmare build through Trespasser the first time and got clapped. (Just to be clear, this is a good thing. I like a little difficulty in my combat, so I play on Nightmare to suffer, but you don't have to.)

Hands down the absolute worst thing about Inquisition's combat, especially if running on Nightmare like I do, is the tactics system. It is hot fucking garbage for Nightmare. It is so far condensed from Origin's tactics that it's laughable. I had to google optimal tactics settings for Nightmare because some DPS character would inevitably stand where the tank was standing and eat an entire dragon's breath and die regularly, no matter how much I micromanaged.

I do, however, very much like most of the skills/specializations in Inquisition, especially for Warriors. Compared to the previous two titles, it is FAR easier to keep everything's attention on the tank and not your squishes (even more so if you have Trespasser DLC). Also, performing cross-class combos feels much more satisfying (and is far easier right out the gate) on Inquisition comparatively. There's nothing like freezing an enemy and having your 2-hander warrior cleave into them for a chunky combo. Big number make brain go unga bunga.

Additionally, it also doesn't take much skillpoint investment to get a decent handle on fights. This is especially true if you have the Trespasser DLC, which adds new upgrades to active abilities. Two taunts can be acquired pretty early (three with Trespasser) and all are relatively low cooldown. Also! If you fucked up your build (or want to respec for something specific/try something new) you can easily reset your points to reinvest them! Keep in mind you can't change your specialization once you've unlocked it though.

The Story Gameplay Stuff

In my opinion, the thing that makes the Dragon Age franchise great is the characters and the relationships experienced with them. The games are as much about their stories as they are about the conflict that brings the characters together. This is the type of thing that makes me stick with this franchise; the characters really make it for me. The characters are well-written, feel unique, and have their own strengths and flaws that make them grounded. There are characters I don't enjoy, but I appreciate them because, again, they are well-written.

DAO and DA2 is very much the flavor of RPG where your choices matter, and this includes both what you choose in the story and with individual characters. You can befriend said characters or you can let your rapport with them get so low that their disposition toward you can change, and they might even leave your party. There are some companions whose dispositions you can change. Known as softening or hardening, this can sway a character's decisions and make them more likely to go along with certain player-made choices.

DA2's Friendship/Rivalry system, in my opinion, a nice middle-ground approval system. Your decisions/interactions will garner approval or rivalry, changing your companion's disposition toward you, but a high-rivalry companion won't abandon you simply for having high rivalry. Rather, the companion will still go along with what your decisions, but there will always be underlying tension. You're also not locked out of romance simply because of high rivalry levels. Honestly, I enjoy some rivalmances more than a high friendship romance, but either way, the system gives you more ways to freely play your character and interact with the cast of companions. Companions in DA2 may leave/become unavailable because of decisions made in the story, but not for approval, which I think is nice.

DAI is also a game about decisions, but doesn't do it as well as DAO or DA2. The first two games do a good job of "show, don't tell" with your impact on the game. Inquisition does a lot more Telling than Showing, which I think is a shame for an RPG with its premise. Regardless, DAI's approval system is back to an Origins-esque style, but your total approval with individual characters is hidden from you. Furthermore, companions will approve or disapprove of major decisions you make regardless if you bring them with you or not (which feels much more realistic to me).

While I feel that Inquisition squandered a lot of the potential it had with its main conflict, it handles its characters, their relationships with the player and other characters very well. In fact, a lot of the Show part of "show don't tell" in Inquisition is displayed through your companions, either literally by changing their tarot cards or their reactions/interactions to you and other characters. As I said before, the characters are what makes the franchise for me, and Inquisition, for all its faults, does its characters exceptionally well. Their backgrounds, motivations and personalities are diverse and complex, and is what makes Inquisition replayable for me.

Each game also features its own protagonist/player character, which is probably my favoritest thing about Origins, specifically. A lot of the replayability for Origins is playing through each origin and/or class combination. Aside from simply adding more ways to roleplay, which is always welcome in my book, each one gives different perceptions to the game's conflict with some interactions specific to your chosen origin. If playing DAO, I highly recommend working your way through each origin.

DA2 technically only has one origin, Hawke. While I personally see Hawke as a more defined character compared to the Warden and Inquisitor, Hawke is still a malleable character, and of course, headcanons are free and cool to have. Anyway, you can play Hawke as any class, and I'd recommend to play through the game at minimum as a rougue/warrior and mage. Given the subject matter of the game, this gives you a different look at the game's conflict.

Inquisition offers more race options once again, but forgoes an origin prologue like DAO. While there is some depth to Inquisition's origins, they're not as complex as DAO's. However, this does lend the player some flexibility to fill in the gaps, if they choose. Why use a canon backstory when you can make your own? That's the fun of RPGs, no? I'd still recommend playing through one or two of the origins, while not quite as impactful as the previous titles, some things change depending on which Inquisitor you choose.

But Dances, what about the other stuff you like?

Maps:

DAO and DA2 have a level/dungeon system (idk what else to call it) that are self-contained areas/sub-areas that you explore. Each area is initially concealed by Fog-of-War and some of these areas can be quite large and (especially in DAO) lead to secrets/loot/sidequests etc, which encourages thorough exploration. This is less so in DA2 because of how many assets and areas are reused, but still shows up from time to time. DAI uses open-world maps that allow you to explore huge areas in different locales across Ferelden and Orlais. Kind of like in the spirit of Skyrim, except the maps don't feel "lived in" if that makes sense. A lot of them are big and open with not enough in between for my tastes. DAI encourages the player to explore each of these maps through quests, completionist objectives, minigames and more. These areas are beautiful and I appreciate them for what they are, I just wish they were a little more robust. If doing exclusively the main story, there's a lot you can miss in DAI and that's honestly a shame.

Sound Design/OST:

Ok so this isn't technically gameplay but I didn't know where else to put it. But the music completes the atmosphere for me. I typically do not play anything with the music on; typically I'm listening to a podcast or something in the background when I play. I don't do that with Dragon Age. I want to be immersed in it and the background music etc. plays a good part in that. DAO and DA2 use what I'd describe as dark fantasy music that's more atmospheric in nature. It's very simple with few instruments/vocals, but effective for what it does. DAO's main menu music and I Am The One are good examples of this.

DAI's OST is done by Trevor Morris and is much more orchestral incorporating many different instruments. Morris' work for this game did some heavy fucking lifting because it's honestly incredible. Always a high-fantasty feel, but each track perfectly captures the tone of its setting and immerses me into it. Whether its the subtle background music drifting through Halamshiral, or eerie chords plaything through the Fade, or you just got to the end of Trespasser and time is running out for your Inquisitor, it is a crime to play without music. In my opinion. Don't come for me. Please listen to Morris' work I beg you. He gave Dragon Age the grandiose music it deserves.

Lore:

LORE! I love lore. Dragon Age's lore is somewhat nebulous and has unfortunately been subject to retcons and a few questionable decisions. However, the depth of the lore is something I really, really appreciate. While somewhat frustrating, said retcons and inconsistencies, along with some areas that are more ambiguous in nature, allows speculation and gives me PLENTY to think about if I really, really wanted to. Also, because the lore is so sprawling I learn new shit all the time. It's fucking unreal. I will rarely go a playthrough without learning (or relearning) something new.

The only downside is that a lot of the fine print of the lore is hidden in codex entries, which can get easily passed up if you're the type of person to not pay attention to things like item descriptions, for example. If you're familiar with how Dark Souls tucks a lot of lore into item descriptions, it's kind of like that. Some codecies will be displayed on-screen when you acquire them which you then have to close out of, but many just get relegated to a 'Codex Acquired/Updated' notification somewhere on the side of your screen.

Additionally, for Inquisition specifically, some deeper context and nuance is lost because of two books published before Inquisition's launch. While forgoing these books doesn't make Inquisition's story incomprehensible, knowing the events in these books might change your perception of major events and give further insight to some of the characters.

Final Thoughts:

absolutely none. I just delivered an essay upon thine lap. head empty. I like this franchise a lot if you'd like something really really specific please hit me up.

Bonus:

[dreamingdarklyblog]

Here's The Deal

Fuck it. Here we go.

So as many of you know, I've had some serious long term health issues. I can never remember how specific I've been in the past, especially since it varies from place to place what I've bothered to clarify and such. The short version is that I've been dealing with cancer since I was in 8th grade. Numerous surgeries, yada yada yada.

I don't feel like a whole list of details and specifics are needed here (and you probably don't want to hear it anyway), but I'll say that it's a crazy rare form and the usual markers of staging and survival rates and such are meaningless.

So for twenty odd years I've been getting bits of me cut out, and then learning to cope with the aftermath.

Why am I explaining/re-explaining this?

Well as many of you also know, I've been having health issues since this summer. One of those things that's been unexplained was chronic hip pain and difficulty walking. After a lot of back and forth and arguing (the balancing act of pushing doctors to actually take symptoms seriously, without pushing so hard that they dismiss you as a hypochondriac is exhausting) I finally got an x-ray booked last month. The X-ray showed something weird, and my doctor agreed to schedule a CT for several months from now. I did an end run around him and showed the x-ray to an oncologist who's treated me in the past, who agreed waiting a few months was a bad idea and got me in a CT much sooner, two days ago in fact.

Yesterday I he called me and I got the results (Always a great sign when a doctor calls you 20 hours after a test with the results, right?). It's essentially confirmed that my cancer has returned and I'm going to need surgery. (Technically it's not confirmed till I get a biopsy result, but it's "confirmed" enough that they are just starting scheduling for radiation and surgery now without waiting)

The good news is that the rest of the scan is clear. It's just the one metastasis, and it's not attacking anything vital.

The bad news is that something doesn't need to be vital for it to be extremely inconvenient to lose. Best case scenario seems to be I come out of this with reconstructive surgery and a LOT of physio and rehab. Worst case is probably losing the use of a leg or two.

What does that mean for my work here?

At the moment, nothing really. I'm starting work on December, and hope to get everything caught up before Christmas =). As treatment starts, it might start to interfere. It really depends on a lot of factors that I just don't have any information about yet. So I will keep you posted when I know more.

So anyway, this is just me trying to keep you informed since I feel like I owe you some information given that you send me money ;)

*edit* Some people seem unsure if they are "allowed" to ask questions. By all means feel free, as with anything else you can ask whatever you want. I might not give an answer if it's too personal, but I promise I won't be offended. ;)

[kelmcdonald]

Indiginerds is Crowdfunding Now

Hey folks! First things first, Indiginerds is currently crowdfunding. It has made goal but we really want to get it to the 35k stretch goal as soon as possible. When we hit that, Iron Circus will be able to donate copies to indigenous libraries and schools. It will help indigenous kids see themselves in stories and it gets the indigenous artists in the book a raise. November is National Native American Heritage Month, so it's the perfect time to back something like Indiginerds.

November is pretty quiet otherwise. Alina will be a guest on Geekshow for a crowdfund end countdown on November 16th. And I'm going to do my usual streaming. 

I'm still gonna be answering readers questions in comic form so, if you have one post it here!

Watching Wolf Guy last month turned out to be a bust because of technically difficulties. The full moon movie watch parties have been tending toward horror lately. So for a change of pace, next one will be a comedy. On November 27th at 5pm PST, please join me and some other fine folks while we watch Teen Wolf the movie (not the MTV tv show). Click if you want to join.

I'll also be doing my usual streaming

As always I'll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:

Tuesday 8pm-10pm PST

Wednesday 6pm-10pm PST (changed the time)

Thursday 6pm-9pm PST (during the Iron Circus Geekshow)

Stop by!

The big thing from last month is I started answering reader question. Here's a look at it. 

As long as it's not a spoiler I'll answer. So post any questions you got here

This month I'm gonna try to finish Blue Moon's script. My work load from Seven Seas is kinda light, so gonna focus on getting that out the door so Meredith can start drawing it. That and get ahead on The City Between.

After Blue Moon is done, I'm gonna write the next City Between story. It's called Glass Diamonds and will be about Rebecca and her next client. Shards of Reflection is about half way done, so I need to make sure Glass Diamonds is ready to go sooner rather than later. I've been fiddling with some concept art for it.

Once those two things are off my plate, I'll finish up the art for my werewolf videogame and get back to You are the Chosen One. 

While doing all that, I need to sit down and build a crowdfund for Murky Water. I've been putting it off because there was a paper shortage. So the cost of printing had shot up. I was hoping to wait it out and I think things have settled down. Obviously they are still higher than last time I printed a book because of inflation, but it's as cheap as it's gonna get. 

I was also waiting a bit because I wanted to see how the crowdfunding landscape shakes out. About two years ago I wrote about Kickstarter saying they would try out block chain. At the time I said I wasn't gonna use them and was looking into Indiegogo and Zoop. Since then, Crowdfundr and Backerkit got into the crowdfunding landscape and Kickstarter has walked back blockchain (sorta). 

The problem almost all the non-kickstarter crowdfunds are having is no one browses their websites to find crowdfunds. It means all your crowdfunding success depends on the fanbase you already have and spreading the word on social media. But social media is currently falling apart. Part of my duties at Iron Circus is making the schedule for all the crowdfunds. So I've seen first had as social media referrals become smaller and smaller. Which makes crowdfunding harder than ever, especially if people aren't browsing the site in general.

I was considering using Backerkit which is what Iron Circus has been using lately. But I won't recommend them to the average creator. Backerkit gets around the no browsing problem by having a robust advertising service. Which seemed promising at first, but myself and several smaller comic artists quickly learned the Backerkit will only run those ads IF you've already hit goal. So all their promo help is designed around you already being super successful. Like after the first day, Backerkit turned off ads for Indiginerds and didn't turn them back on until after it hit goal. So while they are good for Iron Circus, who's projects usually fund in a day or two, they would be pretty useless for me. My projects usually fund in the last week if not that last few days. 

Also, since I've built several backerkit pages for Iron Circus, I know that I find their back end UI obtuse. I lose a lot of time trying to find stuff when I build those pages. But if their ads had been more useful, I would have sucked it up. 

As for Kickstarter's end of things. I said the sorta walked back using the blockchain. Basically, the guy who pushed for it was forces to leave. I forget if he was outright fired or if he left on his own. But either way, after that Kickstarter said they were still open to maybe using blockchain in the future but wouldn't put any resources into it until a benefit is proven. And since their blockchain plans were mostly all buzzword gibberish before, that means they won't be using it anytime soon. I'm still annoyed they won't swear it off, but that seems the best they are gonna do. So whole crowdfund landscape in my mind is:

But with social media falling apart and none of the crowdfunding sites having a lot of browsing going on, I'm like 90% I'm gonna have to go back to Kickstarter. It's really frustrating. 

I also got to figure out what to do about international shipping which is it's own mess. The post office has been gutted so badly that international shipping has gotten wildly out of had. Like sending one of The City Between books to Europe now costs like $25. It's ridiculous. So before this crowdfund happens, I need to figure out what I'm doing on that end. 

Anyway, thanks everyone for your support as usual! Especially those who back my patreon. Shit is rough out there for indie artists right now.

[steampunkenglish]

I Missed Last Friday, Sorry

What Happened Last Week

You may have noticed my absence on this forum last week (all five or six of you who follow me regularly--by the way, thank you). I hit that portion of the semester known by all as finals. Last week, I was finishing my grading so that this week, finals week, I could focus on test proctoring, answering last-minute emails of drama, and planning for next term. This Friday, I'm waiting on one last student to complete a final (technical difficulties) so that I can post grades for my last class. Once that's done, I can relax a little (or so I tell myself).

I was also recovering from JordanCon, which was beyond fantastic! I had a wonderful time and sold books at the Falstaff table (as usual). I got to room with Tamsin Silver, who is just the best roomie ever. It's always good to get to know people who love history and historical figures as much as you do.

I got to hang out with so many people I love that weekend that it's hard to name everyone. If you haven't come to JordanCon in Atlanta yet, you should give it a try. It's a small con and there are a lot of writers and small publishers who attend. This makes it a great place to network and just meet people. Even if you only go to a few of the sessions or workshops, the con is worth it because of that. I kind of consider it my genesis con because that's where I met my publisher.

What I Plan to Do on Summer Break

I'm not getting a huge summer break. I'll get about a week where I can take a few days off from the day job (not enough hours this time--do not get me started on how I feel about using vacation hours for summer break when there are no students on campus anyway). Still, I do have some plans during this time of no students and no classes:

I am going to work in earnest on the second Kate and Shadow novel, which still is untitled (maybe #supersecretsecondkateandshadownovel?). I am getting a grip on the real evil in this novel and it's going to make things difficult for our heroine. I've been flailing around trying to figure out how this will work, but I think I've got it, so we'll see.

I will be at the Georgia Renaissance Festival May 20 and 21 with a bunch of other authors (some Falstaff, some not) to sell books. There will be hardcovers as well as paperbacks of Children of Menlo Park. There may also be copies of a certain anthology I have a story in at my table if it releases in time (I'm hoping).

I'm going to help my dad plant our annual vegetable/flower garden in the front yard. It's going to be bigger than ever this year. There will be photographs, and you all will have to just endure that. I'm also going to help him finish laying gravel under the back porch. And yes, my dad is 83 but can still outwork you and me and three other people.

I plan to take lots of walks and possibly a day trip somewhere fun. We shall see.

The rest of the summer is looking to be interesting and full. Stay tuned!

#childrenofmenlopark #writinglife #dayjob #summerbreak #georgiarenaissancefestival #jordancon

[4ragon]

Eh fuck it, since we don't know how long Twitter is going to last, I'm going to start randomly posting my thoughts on random ass video games here. Here's all the shit I've been playing a bunch recently.

Portal Reloaded: I legit don't know if this is an official Portal dlc or just a mod, but it's free, and it's so much fun. Do you like Portal? Do you want Portal Hard Mode (TM TM TM)? Get this funky little game. It's not quite as funny as the OG, but man are the puzzles Tough.

Divinity Original Sin II: Have I played Divinity 1? No. But I am having a ton of fun with this thing. I was not expecting to enjoy myself so much, especially considering my hatred of games with the fucking hotbars, or whatever that little UI thing is at the bottom. At the very least, it's turn based and not real time so I don't find it nearly as obnoxious. I've also been A) doing Multiplayer, and B) using a mod so that I can take all 6 of the named characters with me, which unfortunately does have the tradeoff of making the game a little too easy at times. Also, since you're not suppose to be able to have all of the characters in one playthrough certain characters just straight up will not speak to each other? Which is kind of disappointing. Come on, guys, it's a 60 hour game at minimum, it doesn't have the kind of replayability you think it does.

Professor Layton and the Last Spector: Oh, so THAT'S why plvsaa is like that. I was not expecting to adore these characters as much as I thought I would, but they are just so much fun. I haven't technically been playing, since I'm watching my friend's playthough on twitch, but the puzzle difficulty range is so wild to me. Anything from "What color is the umbrella" to "do some fucking AP Geometry fucko," which I feel like I'd find a bit frustrating, though I guess the worst of it is optional.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (Not Finished): Can't give my final opinions here, but at minimum, the 3D graphics are a huge downgrade. I hate when visual novels decide to switch to 3D graphics. It's never going to be as charming as the sprites! Story-wise, I'm still deeply invested, and theorizing to hell and back is so much fun now that I'm getting into the swing of How Layton Games Do.

Zero Escape 999: Guys. This game drove me absolutely bonkers. I'll love any murder mystery visual novel put in front of me of course, but something about this game... Admittedly, it took me a few hours to get invested. I found the amount of talking a bit exhausting, especially when SO MUCH of it was dedicated to things like "Let's walk through this whole room trying doors, talk about it, and then start trying new doors." Like I don't need to know the logistics of "we're locked in a boat." I don't need to know where everyone is at all times. But once I went through one full playthrough, and could skip a lot of those boring logistical issues, I got SO into trying to figure out what was really happening. They really did give us the exact right amount of information to start figuring out what the Actual Plot was.

Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward (Not Finished): I'm enjoying myself so much, but somehow, everything kind of feels like a downgrade? The 3D graphics (especially the lip flaps) suck ass, and there's so much stuff that feels like it's pulled from Danganronpa. Guys, I liked Danganronpa. I liked Zero Escape because it WASN'T Danganronpa. I don't know, I've hit my first real ending, so I'm hoping that it's just still waiting to impress me, but the main conflict just feels less personal this time around.

Dragon Age: Origins: I love playing watching my roommate play this game and then letting me make all of the narrative decisions. I just. I hate the gameplay, but the story is fun as heck. There are some weird writing choices, clearly, but the characters are fun to talk to and that's all that matters. It doesn't give me as strong found family vibes as other RPGs, but I still love them anyway.

Disco Elysium: You all know my thoughts on Disco Elysium. I love you Kim. Mostly, I'm just wondering what the fate of a potential sequel is going to be. I both want it and don't, but at the end of the day, if the original creators aren't able to wrest control from that game studio, I just worry the heart isn't going to be in the next one.