#i had to remake this post because it got content flagged

[hsusejrmt]

CAN YOU FUCKING STOP

@staff Are you seriously just been showing me ads like this nonstop because i'm mexican??

[steampaul]

i've started a little series of weekly posts documenting every MoC i made (digitally) over the last few years:

Week 6: the first half of 2020 (and a bonus)

some Cyberpunk-y stuff, more youtubers, revisiting that robot dog, a really cool movie, some contest and some of my first digital MoCs rendered

i made these hover-vehicles IRL building with my little Sister and her LEGO. I don't like LEGO friends because i hate how minidolls look like polly pockets, but i think the more patel colours of those sets are really pleasant

"der Weltall. UnENTliche weiten..."

there's a german Youtuber called "Coldmirror". she was one of the first youtubers in germany and she made some pretty funny animations, including StarStarSpace, a kind of parody of Star Trek, Star Wars and some other sci-fi stuff.

Adam Savage made a Rickshaw to be pulled by boston dynamics' Spot. I saw that build, remembered the minifigure scale Spot i built in the year before and added his rickshaw. i made two versions. the simpler one i made after seeing the teaser on twitter and the more complex one i made after watching the build-video.

i posted the simpler version on reddit, which got the attention of Adam savage's team and later of adam savage. they contacted me and i mailed them the instructions of the simpler version, felt bad for the inaccuracies of the build, built the more complex version and also mailed them its instructions.

Adam later build the simpler version on a stream that i sadly missed, but i was really happy that a maker i admire liked my MoC.

Fanart for TomSka and Friends' CONTENT table. i still kinda like it, even though i thought it would be hilarious to make their legs skin-coloured.

this was actually featured in the "trial by trolley" video they made in feburary 2020.

Newelementary did a contest featuring the then new Green Lantern Part from the first series the DC collectible minifigures.

i built these two ships with the part as engine details, the W45-P Stinger and the 0G-L13 Leapfrog. i submitted them both and for some reason the people from Newelementary switched up the names of the works.

anyway, i did not win.

just a digital version of the Old Factory i posted back in week 2.

i tried imitating some more logo-like stuff.

i don't think arstotzkan Flag turned out really good, but i really like the way the Blood Machines Title looks.

speaking of Blood Machines, i had recently watched this really cool movie and had to make some sort of MoC inspired by the really cool ship designs found in that movie. i first tried to make something more Minifigure scale, got overwhelmed, and just made the mIcro scale

the Star Wars Helmet series also started that year. i rebuild the Boba Fett helemt and modified it it to represent Jango Fett and the Mandalorians found in the Mandalorian battle pack that also came out that year.

i don't really remember why, but i tried remaking set 7310 Mono-jet from Life on Mars as a more modern set. i made a colour-accurate version and a version that actually can be built IRL.

i had the fun idea to remake some Lego city-style Vehicles as cyberpunk-y hovercars. i tried making some different styles of 0-G-generators/repulsor lifts to make the vehicles feel like they've been built by different manufacturers.

also, Stud.io had a weird bug/feature where you had a coloured gradiend as a background if you put a part on the ground that is out of frame and have the rest of the build "hover" over the ground.

another Contest, this time for Lego Ideas. they had a Star Wars x Christmas thing, so i had the (kind of uncreative) idea to make a gingerbread TIE fighter, based off the Imperial TIE fighter set from 2018 and the little polybag from the same year.

this also did not win.

Bonus: some of my first digital MoCs i made.

i found them again.

the Dalek Emperor from NewWho. this was basically the first MoC i ever made on a PC, back when LDD still worked on my laptop.

i had to tweak the colours a lot when i rendered this one, because the way they were represented in LDD was very different to the way they look in stud.io or even real life.

i struggled quite a bit with redoing this one in stud.io because it handles flexible a lot different than LDD. that is also one of the reasons why i never finished this MoC.

i think i'll have to split this year again, but hopefully only in two parts. i dislike that 30 image limit for tumblr Posts.

first week last week next week

[nefoe-dd]

SO SMT AU AM I RIGHT GAMERS

I mentioned this in the tags of another post and joked about it in Discord but my brain went brrrr during my last class of the day and now I lowkey have a full plot starting to form lol.

Keep in mind the only Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve played myself is the Nocturne remake, plus I only really remember bits of the plot of 4 and whatever we’ve been given so far of 5 so I’m not super well versed in the series.

Also I’ll add this to the tags too but DSMP Spoilers specifically for the contents of Techno’s Will exist in this post, because that is where the idea for this came from. A lot of other JRPGs have similar plotlines but I specifically thought of SMT because its kind of a meme specifically for that at this point how the plot always seems to have the same type ending bosses. 

Also some spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV

ANYWAYS

Now Presenting: An AU where Techno’s Limbo is an SMT Game lol

(Under a ‘Read More’ because it got way ahead of me)

An Introduction to Relevant SMT terminology:

Demons: Makes up a large majority of the characters in the game. They are the enemies that you face in combat, and its possible to recruit them to your team through various means. Some demons exist in the overworld though, and can be talked to normally, they’re chill most of the time, unless you do something to tick them off. ‘Demon’ is not taken literally by the Christian definition, they are based off of various figures in folklore and religion around the world, some are even based on Gods and Angels.

Law vs Chaos: Many SMT games have multiple endings based on these two alignments, along with the neutral alignment. It is usually decided by some important decisions the player makes throughout the game. I’m most aware of the SMT 4 ending, in which the route you are on decides the final dungeon, the character you team with for the ending, and the final boss (its either Satan or the in-game version of God). It’s based off of the traditional interpretation of these two, where Law represents the importance of authority, and Chaos represents the importance of freedom. 

Another note is that a lot of SMT games take place in a post-apocalyptic world of some kind, which, spoiler, is the case here.

General Plot Details and Worldbuilding:

- Techno dies in the prison. The stasis chamber fails and Quackity succeeds in killing him. Permanently. 

- Despite dying, he wakes up again in the main prison cell, but things are different. The lava isn’t blocking the entrance anymore, (in fact there isn’t any lava at all), and he’s alone. Upon peering outside the main cell, he notices a bit of sky peeking through the prison ceiling, like it had been broken into. 

- The drop down to the bottom floor is long, but he’s dead, so he just shrugs and jumps down so he can see what’s going on. Turns out there are several holes in this part of the prison, in fact there are multiple on the ground, likely where the lava had escaped from. (Obviously Minecraft lava specifically doesn’t work like that, I’m pretty sure in the DreamSMP the bottom is all source blocks, but just ignore that bit). 

- He exits from the back wall of the prison, and everything there so far looks normal, except for the fact that there appears to be less trees than normal. Of the trees that are still there, many of them were cut down and never collected, and some appear to have fallen over due to some damage.

- Techno goes around the prison to the front, and that’s when he notices some things that are very wrong. Various parts of the prison, not just the main cell, are also sitting destroyed. Many cracks, scuff marks and full-on chunks are missing on the walls. The usual entrance which houses the nether portal is hardly still standing, and he can see straight into the main lobby where the portal would lead into once you were let through. 

- The surrounding areas are not much better. Tommy’s outpost is toppled over in the distance, only the base and bottom floor are left standing. The tents near the beach are collapsed and destroyed, the only remnants of one of them is a small piece of fabric ripped from the main bit and laying on the ground. Skeppy and Badboyhalo’s mansion is crumbling where it stands, half of the back wall and ceiling are gone. And that’s only what’s visible from here. 

- The rest of the server is also in various states of destruction, the spawn walls are hardly left standing, the main nether portal area is covered in potholes, none of the portals are active. The prime path is rotted and broken in most areas, the buildings along it are not faring much better than the ones he’d seen before. And the further he gets away from the prison, the more the plants themselves appear to be dead or dying. 

- L’manburg’s crater looks much the same as it once did right after its destruction, albeit with more debris at the bottom which had fallen from the sides as they slowly eroded. The flag at the bottom is torn up and discoloured, honestly its hardly recognizable. The nature that had finally begun to reclaim the land has slowly been dying instead over time, and the bridge overtop has completely collapsed. The only thing still standing, is the ever present obsidian grid that looms over it in the sky. He supposes that whatever disaster had caused this wasn’t able to reach that high up, or that it was at least in part done by someone that liked the way it looked. Not that there seems to be a need for the reminder anymore. 

- Something something, he finds out DreamXD is here, and that he might have had something to do with how this world looks. And as much as it shouldn’t matter in the afterlife, he did promise Phil he would be killing God sooooo he goes on a mission to do just that. He can do pretty much anything now that he really doesn’t have to worry about dying, so why not. He has no reason to care about some God, especially when they’re the only ones left.

- Some DSMP people hang around the world and are represented by certain demons, the mostly chill ones that kinda just hang around in the apocalyptic scenery. They don’t recognize him, it isn’t really the people he knows after all, but they are willing to talk to him since they can tell he isn’t human either. He learns little bits of what happened through them, and learns where DreamXD resides, that being one of the strongholds that’s a bit further out. 

- Unfortunately, due to the portals being inactive, and his inability to break anything efficiently, or even at all, he has to travel using the overworld. Along the way he manages to speak to some others, this allows him to better locate where the God is, although it doesn’t seem to be hiding out. He even sees it sometimes flying around, which he uses to follow where its hiding. 

- Some of the random demons he runs into recognize that he’s not supposed to be here (according to them at least), so he has to fight his way through them. Luckily, many of the friendly demons that he talks to end up tagging along in order to help, thus making up a team he can use to get through them instead.

 - There’s probably a demon that seems to resemble Phil somewhere, living alone (alone for so so long) away from everyone in an arctic house perhaps. If I wanted to really up the angst, the demon takes a liking to Techno right away, which is partly how Techno is able to tell its him so quickly. The more they talk, the more Techno realizes how lonely the Phil he knows must be without him there, how upset he’d be once he reads the will and finds out what happened to him. Thus he’s more motivated to, you know, fight God, in an attempt to figure out what the hell happened. (DXD is the only entity existing here that also exists where he’s from, he can guess pretty easily that maybe, just maybe, they are one and the same). Thus, he is given a choice that he knows he will have to make in the future. 

- Eventually he manages to find the stronghold and comes face to face with DreamXD himself. DreamXD is just kinda chillin there, they fight, through DreamXD doesn’t seem to be putting in too much effort, almost like it does not want to win. 

- Techno wins (duh), and he is left with a choice, a choice to finish the job, or spare the god and allow it to go free. And, well, he feels that he doesn’t really have the right to decide whether it lives or dies, and while its possible that DreamXD caused whatever disaster created the current state of the world, but he doesn’t know that for sure. DreamXD has done nothing this whole time he’s been here, and its done nothing to him or his companions.

- He chooses to leave it alone, and DreamXD seems to know that it was always going to end that way. 

- DreamXD disappears, and Techno wakes up in the cell again post-revival, the prison and the world around it is the same as he remembers

(I don’t remember the exact real-world to limbo time difference but I imagine that it felt like, a day, maybe half that, while irl it was only a few minutes to an hour.)

Some other notes/details:

- The other possible ending would have resulted in Techno killing DreamXD and being given ANOTHER choice to take its power over the world, or just leave and stay there forever. Basically DreamXD’s existence is vital to the power of the revival book, and it’s death would have resulted in Dream not being successful in his revival attempts. Obviously we have no idea how the powers actually work yet, but I just came up with an explanation because I thought it would be interesting. You can decide on your own which of these endings fall into Law, Chaos or Neutral because uh, its complicated given the scenario. You can also decide if letting DreamXD live even fits into his character! Idk! But its not like DreamXD’s being oppressive by any means, not that there’s anyone to oppress here anyways. That’s my logic anyways.

- I don’t know what demons would represent specific people, I’d like to use one of the Angels for Phil but the Demons based on Angels usually have an important role in the plot that is in line with the Law alignment and like, protecting god or whatever, so no. There are a couple bird ones but idk if they fit the vibe, idk it could work, I’d have to look at a list if I want to go into this further.

- I kinda want Eret to be an Inugami because it’s body does that thing that ferret’s do when they’re all stretched out :) The only reason I’m hesitant is because Inugami is a dog, and Goose deserves representation.

- The reason I imagined for why Techno can’t break anything is because the mining fatigue lasted throughout this because he died with it, it’d get in the way of fighting too but at least it isn’t weakness, and he’s not alone either.

Uhhhhh that’s it for now I think!

(will potentially add to this if I figure something else out in the future)

[paramedictk-archive]

it’s hard to put into words how much skam france has disappointed me this year but s6 is finally over and i felt like i needed to kind of... say goodbye to this shitshow and get a few things off my chest.

s3 will always hold a special place in my heart, it came into my life when i really needed it and honestly, it was their only genuinely good season from start to finish. i will always be grateful for s3 and for eliott and lucas and for all those little moments we got to see with the grew in that season as well as in s4 and s5, when they actually acted like teenagers, when they were there for each other, when actions had consequences, when subplots weren’t abandoned just after 2 clips and when they used this show to educate teenagers and give them hope... those very few moments that actually made me feel like i was watching a skam remake.

it’s hard to make peace with the fact that this remake gave us so many good moments but also managed to completely ruin this entire experience for most of us this year. i think if skam france was genuinely, consistently trash from s1 to s6 i wouldn’t be half as angry as i am right now. but truth is, it wasn’t all bad. that’s the worst thing. we’ve seen they can do better, they just chose to be lazy and use the popularity s3 gave them to churn out mediocre and half assed plots time and time again because they knew they had devoted fans who would defend them no matter what.

when s3 was airing i actually felt like they listened to us sometimes and cared about us but something changed after s4. it no longer mattered what we wanted to see or what we thought about a scene, we were simply told what we should be feeling. and that’s a huge red flag. i don’t have to be a scriptwriter or a director to know that good storytelling isn’t about throwing excuses and explanations (and then damage control pictures) at your audience. it’s about them engaging with the content you put out and bringing their own perspective to it. otherwise, what’s the point?

and you know, this isn’t even about what’s ooc and what isn’t. it’s about the people who were supposed to finally get their representation but instead ended up being too triggered by the show to continue watching it. it’s about muslim, deaf/hoh people, people dealing with addictions or self harm or eating disorders speaking out only to be silenced by david and his fans just because their opinions weren’t always supportive and positive. it’s about us saying that they should have never used sexual or domestic abuse for shock value and then being told to shut up because a few pacifists in this fandom seem to think we’re ruining the show for them this way. it’s about david and niels flat out lying to us and promising so many things in order to get us to watch s6. it’s about being disrespected by the creators of your favourite tv show so badly that you end up having to distance yourself from it and the fandom. you obviously can’t please everyone, but the least you can do is listen to the people whose stories you’re trying to tell.

i obviously can’t tell any of this to david even though i wish i could. not because i want to rub it in or prove that i’m right, i just simply want him to know how much his childishness hurt the very people who once fought so hard to get his show renewed for him. i can’t tell him any of this because he would never read my messages since i’m not one of his certified bootlickers singing his praises all the time. because he blocked one of my insta accounts last week for a comment i posted under one of his pictures during s5. because that’s the kind of person he is. someone who would rather hide and ignore constructive criticism and let his little fans fight his battles for him. someone who stayed quiet for weeks while said fans kept sending death threats to people. and yes, you could say he’s not responsible for other people’s actions and that’s true in a way. but when you create such an unhealthy and hostile environment within your own fandom by playing favourites and silencing anyone who has a different opinion than what is considered acceptable, you do encourage that kind of behaviour.

despite all this, i still stayed and tried to put up with all the bad writing because i cared about the grew that much, maybe even more than niels himself, it seems. i don’t have a reason to stay now. the concept of having female showrunners sounds good, sure, but i know francestvslash and i know skam france. it’s the good old bait-and-switch. during the last two seasons, they kept baiting marginalized communities to earn woke points but a season that was supposed to be about arthur’s deafness entirely got turned into some cheating fest and lola’s season was pure misery porn with wlw rep thrown in there as bait. 

david and niels leaving won’t solve this problem. francetvslash needs a reality check too. they used us to renew the show and then turned around and called us obsessive. they blocked my comments under the live because i asked them why wasn’t the sexual assault plot mentioned again. they joked about addictions. they don’t care, okay? not about us, not about giving people representation. the only thing they care about is money. so them suddenly hiring female directors and writers after they saw us complaining about the way this show treats women? bait. the same kind of bait niels and david used when they tried to throw all kinds of rep in s6 because they knew lgbt people want to see themselves represented so badly that they would watch it no matter what. i would love to be proven wrong, obviously. i want to believe the new showrunners have nothing but good intentions but their hands will obviously be tied by francetvslash to some extent. and i’m done being used by them and then being forced to settle for the bare minimum.

all in all, both s5 and s6 fell flat and were extremely disappointing. skamfr under david and niels will always remain a one hit wonder, nothing else. it’s a good thing they are leaving now because at least characters like max or sekou have the chance to be treated with respect by the new writers and directors. and i’m happy for all of you who decided to stay... i wish you guys the best. i honestly hope you guys will get the stories and the representation you’re looking for. i really do. i want to be proven wrong about francetvslash and the showrunners... but i don’t have the energy to dedicate so much of my life to this show again, not after them breaking my heart so many times. 

and i guess i’m a petty person. the grew deserved great stories too, not just lamif. arthur deserved a great season, deaf/hoh people deserved to see themselves represented, instead they were forced to watch niels disrespect noée and camille and then act like they never existed in s6. and after everything wlw have done for this show, we deserved a great season too, not to be baited like this. maya was in 18 clips out of 83 (!!!!). if niels and david didn’t want to give the grew a chance to have a good send-off, then i’m not giving this show a chance again. why would i?

anyway. i’ll stick to rewatching s3 every now and again. and i will miss the way the grew made me feel. thanks for all the good memories and let’s hope we’ll forget the bad ones soon. this is what we’ve come to.

alt er love and all that crap i guess.

[skamamoroma]

What do you think of season 5 so far? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Sending lots of love to you meg for always being a light in the Skam fandom

Ah thank you, love! ❤️ that’s so kind of you

Oh I love it. So far! (Always cautious hahaha)

I am so damn impressed, honestly. So far, I really don’t have anything negative to say, not that I focus on that anyway. I don’t have any concerns. I am just 100% with Arthur, really really enjoying every moment and if they continue how they’re going, this season has the potential to be one of my favourites from the Skam universe

I mean, everything is great so far. They’ve really thought about the topic and the story. You can tell they’ve researched well and are taking the topic seriously. I’ve read multiple lovely posts by HoH or D/deaf folks who are impressed and happy with how the topic is being handled and that’s so very important. I learned BSL for a long time to help me communicate for a specific role I had and I have experience with the Deaf community and it was a total joy in my life so I love that there is so much respect here

Arthur is an interesting dude. He’s a bit of an enigma! He’s sweet and funny and silly and yet also sassy and bold and a little rebellious. He’s snappy and can lean towards anger sometimes. He’s a truly great friend and loves people hard, plus he’s nerdy as hell. He’s sarcastic too and I am always soft for sarcastic souls. I wasn’t initially sure about Arthur as a choice for s5 despite thinking it was genius to choose an original character but I am absolutely thrilled they chose him because he’s a great mix and he’s interesting!!

There’s intrigue. Skam needs mystery and a little drama. It needs the audience to be curious and involved and wanting to know more about the main. There’s plenty of that: with Arthur’s dad, with his hearing loss, with the new folks he saw at the swimming pool, with how his friends will react to stuff, with Alexia, with his future dreams...

The acting is stellar. So far, Robin is impressing the heck out of me. He’s moving and made me tear up but he also unsettles me and then two seconds later I’m wanting to squish him he’s so cute...! Perfect as a main Skam character!!

The cinematography and the quality is clearly incredible. It looks like they have more money and a lot of the camera work seems so considered in a way it hasn’t before (to the same degree anyway). There are some folks who aren’t keen on Skam France’s more cinematic style but I’m a fan (I like how all the remakes bring their own style) and this season seems so polished so far. Those shots with Arthur in the snow, for example, were just so so beautifully done, and the swimming pool scene. Plus, clips are coming regularly!!! It feels kinda like wtfock... I don’t feel starved for content because stuff is so regular!

The music is improved too! We had an actual SONG 😂 in Skam France! Hahaha. They clearly have a little more money.

The new characters of Arthur’s mamma and dad are great and they fit well. There are more new characters to experience but if they are introduced as seamlessly then they’ll be fab. I love that they created such dynamic socials for them and that they clearly come as a pair. It’s going to be cool getting to know them!

The social media for Skam France, I always enjoyed. Yeah some of it wasn’t ideal like the 5000 shots of Eliott and Lucas from one day where they didn’t change their clothes 😂 but I found the Eliott stuff to be so fun and immersive from s3 and it’s clear they appreciate the social stuff and have fun with it and it seems they’ve stepped up their game! It’s even added to the show aka the insta story the other day which Skam France never used to do

There are some truly GORGEOUS details. They’ve taken the time and passion they have about these characters and added those Skam-esque details which are, for me, so important. Like Arthur’s calendar where he’s clearly crossing off the days he can’t hear (it hasn’t even been mentioned in the show but they keep making a point of showing it), the stuff in Eliott/Lucas’ apartment which is even furthering their story despite them being background characters, Alexia’s room with the little pride flags and her lovely creative personality...

And lastly, the relationships and group dynamics. With any season, there’s always that frustration the audience have when the show runner has to try to develop or introduce stuff for other characters while telling the story of the main. Some remakes/seasons have done it very well (I felt Wtfock s3 really did that quite well) and some hardly do it at all (skam it tend not to do it much as their POV is so strong) and some make a point of doing it (Druck) etc. Skam Fr always had a few issues in the past especially during Lucas’ season where it didn’t flow as nicely as it could have (some moments did aka Manon and Lucas on the sofa when they cried together) but some were so shoehorned sadly. This season, those group moments and the time given to other characters hasn’t felt forced. They’ve used screen time to add in hints and moments rather than dedicating huge clips to stuff (which may change but I’m talking so far). Audiences are intelligent. We’ve picked up on Daphne’s behaviour, we got info about Eliott in a really organic way which involved Arthur, we see Lucas in his newfound confidence and relationship through socials and as were spending time in his new home, we’ve got background of Imane and Sofiane showing they’re good but also adding in Imane’s future intentions etc! All of that was done withou really taking any significant time of focus away from Arthur.

Not to mention the group dynamic feels tighter and more meaningful. Early on, I had such an issue with the Skam France boys as a group. I mean, after Skam It and my love for those boys, I felt they had so much to work with and during Lucas’ season I struggled with them all... but over time I think they’ve got to grips with who they are and how they connect and I genuinely believe their friendship now. I see their different dynamics within the group, I understand why they’re close, we’ve seen them learn and develop... they feel cohesive and warm. Eliott is now included which is a so lovely and he adds something different too... and then we have Alexia more prominent who, as a remake of Chris, had the potential to be the comic relief but I’m so so happy she isn’t and she is being treated with love and care and given depth.

I’ve made posts about this but because of the history and shared experiences between the characters, they really do feel much stronger and I have a real sense that I know them... so you come to this season already feeling you know how they’d react and what they’d think and you know they’ve got new perspectives due to their own experiences... and Skam Fr appears to be running with that and not taking them backwards which I am SO PLEASED about.

Plus, that glorious POV shift always changes a few things and because of it we see a few really interesting things. We see Alexia in a new light, we see how important Lucas is to Arthur, we feel fond of Basile because of his love for Arthur, we see why Arthur always had that sunshine response to his friends and their successes - because they’re his safe space and his source of peace and happiness and brightness. We saw that all over his face in the warehouse when he was being cuddled by them.

All in all. I’m a little stunned at how great it is so far. I’m remaining cautious because who knows but I am giddy that this is a new and original season and so far looks like it’s working so damn well. I love it a lot and I think the over-riding feeling is the love that the show has for the format, the characters, the actors and the stories... I have a feeling this is David’s influence. He gives a shit. He cares. It really shows ❤️

[lastoneout]

So I keep telling myself I’m not gonna talk about this anymore but it’s late and I’m salty and I figure this would be a good learning opportunity for everyone anyway so whatever. 

I keep seeing people commenting on how the Delpad Week prompt list getting stolen and vandalized doesn’t count as art theft because I guess technically I didn’t “draw” anything while making it. And I feel like this is coming down to people just not understanding the work that goes into graphic design? (I mean I assume some of it is just people wanting to make excuses for doing something horrible but w/e I had my panic attacks I’m over it.) So since we do live in an age where people still devalue graphic design and other computer-based art forms I thought would break down all of the steps that I took when designing the prompt list, as well as the icons and banners for Delpad Week. 

(And as a quick disclaimer there were probably easier ways to do some of the things I’m gonna list but I am still learning and I had never really used Clip Studio Paint before. I am an amateur, be patient with me.)

Step One - Picking Fonts!

Now this one might have come down to me just being picky, but I had a pretty clear idea in my head of what I wanted the “logo” to look like so after opening Clip and determining that NONE of the default fonts came anywhere close to what I was looking for I went to dafont.com and spent like...god I want to say close to an hour browsing the free fonts until I found a 5-10 options I liked.

I then had to extract and install all of the files onto my pc and make sure they worked, which is easy, but still took time.

Then I typed out what I wanted the logo to say using all of the different fonts to see what they looked like and what they looked like next to each other. See it’s a good idea to compliment fancy serif fonts with simple sans serif ones so I needed to pick a fancy one for the “Delpad Week” text and then a simple one for the prompts and dates and such.

Step Two - COLORS!

After I picked the two fonts I wanted to use I had to pick out the colors for the poster and the text. I took the colors for the “Delpad Week” logo itself from a pic of the Sun Chaser/Cloud Slayer I found, both the usual red and then the darker shadow. Which, once again, there HAS to be an easier way to do this but I typed the words out twice in both colors and painstakingly layered them over each other in just the right way to get the “drop shadow” effect I wanted. 

Then I picked a nice light black for the rest of the text that I think I took from the line art on a screen cap I found? Either way it looked better than true black. And took time to find.

And of course I needed to find a good blue for the background which took a bit cuz it needed to match everything else.

Step Three - Sizing! 

I had to look up all of the different recommended photo dimensions for tumblr and twitter icons, headers, posts, ect to make sure the damn things wouldn’t look wonky once I uploaded them.

Oh and since Clip is weird I did actually have to do that typing/layering thing on EACH NEW PICTURE I made. Which making sure they all looked the same sure was FUCKING HARD and took hours!

And my friend took the time to make the transparent Della and LP for the banners and I had to resize and center them on each pic. And I had to find and size/position the clouds and transparent Sun Chaser/Cloud Slayer too. 

Step 4 - Putting It All Together!

Imo this one is the hardest since Clip doesn’t have alignment tools and even if it did sometimes due to fonts and art and such being the way they are true center doesn’t actually LOOK centered to the human eye so there’s a lot of fiddling around with the text and pics to make it look as close as possible to center which starts to kinda numb your mind after a while. Lots of taking breaks and coming back to it to make sure it looked okay.

And of course typing all of the prompts out and making sure the fonts actually do look okay and everything is spelled right and spaced correctly. I have dyslexia, I double check spelling, sue me.

So once you finally think that everything looks okay you get to go upload it to different sites to make sure the icons and such don’t look blurry or get cropped weird and then inevitably go back and move everything around again or in some cases remake them entirely(the deviantART icon took like two re-makes to get right) when they do. Shit takes time, yo.

That might not seem like a lot but let me stress that I made the prompt list poster, the tumblr icon and banner, the twitter icon and banner, the deviantART club icon, and the other banners for things like updates and such. Which all and all took the better part of TWO FUCKING DAYS. 

And that’s not even mentioning the time it took to find a good tumblr theme and set it up and put together the DA club and the twitter account, as well as documenting all of the prompt suggestions and making sure I picked ones that were vague enough to allow for creativity as well as represented what everyone wanted, plus deciding on/writing out all of the rules including the ones for different sites. All of which, aside from some help here and there from friends, I did by myself. For free.

I’m not complaining. I am having a blast running Delpad Week, and making all of this was frustrating but fun. I love graphic design, I wanted to do my best, hell I even got input from my godfather who is a graphic designer on some of the banners just to make sure everything was as high a quality as it could be. And you know what? I was really, really proud of that prompt list. I have been stuck at home disabled for about a year now in awful pain most of the time and only just getting back into drawing and graphic design and I was super happy with how everything came out. I wanted people to see it, I wanted to give Delpad fans a beautiful blog and prompt list to look at after everything we have been through. And not to toot my own horn but I think I delivered. 

So considering all of that you can see why having someone steal the banner, deface it with horrible and triggering content was so horribly upsetting to me. Aside from how defacing something a queer woman worked hard on with words like “burning a pride flag” is abhorrent and drove me to tears and panic attacks, how would you guys feel if someone took something you worked on for two days and shat all over it for a cheap joke? Especially when the only thing you did wrong was want to give a good, cute ship some attention. 

Graphic Design is an art. Taking someone’s unique design, vandalizing it, and then reposting it IS ART THEFT. Just because it took you 10 minutes to open the pic up, color over the original text and use a crappy font to add in your own prompts doesn’t mean making the thing in the first place was that easy. (And again, I’m not complaining about the time and the work. I’m having fun. I love graphic design. If I didn’t want to do this I wouldn’t have.)

But anyway, like I said, I’m trying to not let it bother me anymore. People have apologized and that’s good. But hopefully this breakdown can help you guys appreciate the work that goes into graphic design and be a bit more courteous to the people who do that work, especially for free. 

[lunapixu]

Pixu Ponders: My Favourite Games of the Decade

As the 2010s come to a close, I wanted to take a look back on my gaming experiences of the past ten years. I wish to look back on the games that I believe shaped my teen and young adult years, games that defined this decade for me, and all my treasured memories with them.

As we go into this, please bear in mind that these are my opinions. If you don’t like what you see, cool.

Furthermore, just because of long this darn post is, I’ve had to keep my list pretty short. If there’s a specific game you think I’ve missed, it’s because I had to cut it out.

Among the games cut from the list are: * Portal 2 * Super Mario Odyssey * Undertale * A Hat in Time * Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild * Stardew Valley * Monster Hunter (3U and World) (If you wish for me to write up about these games like the list below, shoot me an ask.)

The Binding of Isaac (2011 and 2014) (Franchise)

To me, the Binding of Isaac is a trend-defining indie game that, along with a couple other entries on this list, I believe contributed to the indie game boom.

The Binding of Isaac, created by Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen, depicts a young boy trying to escape his mother (and his inner torment) by delving into his basement and slaying countless monsters with his tears. Amongst many things, The Binding of Isaac stands out due to its simplistic art, unusual fleshy monsters, frequent depictions of... excrement, and a variety of other unsavoury material.

In spite of the crass material and immature nature its contents carry, The Binding of Isaac is a surprisingly deep and heavily replayable game. Many Roguelites that have sprung this decade like to say “No run is the same” but nowhere is this more clear than in the game that kickstarted the modern Roguelite trend. Within the game, Isaac can collect a wide variety of items that can help better slay monsters or navigate the labyrinthine levels of his basement. Isaac can pick up an item that allows him to shoot a large laser of blood, he could obtain a knife to throw at enemies, he can pick up an item that suspends his tears in midair and then release in a volley of bullets Kylo Ren style. When this game says “No run is the same”, it means it.

On Steam, I have over 250 hours on the game’s 2014 remake (Binding of Isaac Rebirth). I have approx. 300 of the 413 achievements the game has to offer. To say that I love and play the heck out of this game is an understatement. And it’s not even my most played game on Steam.

Hollow Knight (2017)

Hollow Knight was a surprise favourite of mine. Being a big fan of metroidvania games, I knew I was going to like this funky little bug game. After all, the game seemed fun and was going to be something of a hybrid between Metroid-style exploration and progression but a Dark Souls health system and storytelling. What’s not to like?

I will be real here, the first two areas of the game weren’t all that amazing. Though there were pleasant sights, neat characters, and simple but kinda fun gameplay, I couldn’t help but feel like wanting... more. Something more captivating. Perhaps something more amazing might await me if I push on through. A hurdle that I needed to overcome. Would it actually happen or will this fun but unimpressive saunter through the world of insects be all there is? And boy were my instincts right.

I will not go into the specifics but the game’s appeal and charm finally clicked for me after a few hours in. It was a combination of taking on two very specific bosses and entering a specific area of the game that instantly made me fall in love. I was enamoured. What had simply been me crossing a game off my bucket list had turned into an adventure I was whole-heartedly engaged in. This game’s adventure was now my own. It was an adventure that I hadn’t been quite as engaged with as... Kingdom Hearts, honestly. And if my posts on here are any indication, that’s quite the feat.

Hollow Knight’s usage of atmosphere, clever writing and worldbuilding, and simple but challenging gameplay are something of a brilliant recipe. I was fascinated by every single snippet of dialogue, smiling as my little insect buddy clashed with perilous foes, wowed by some of the levels, and charmed by every character who I happened to stumble upon.

Though I only played it so recently (Spring 2019 for reference), I can very confidently put it as one of my favourite games of all-time. A list shared by greats such as The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Cave Story, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Super Mario Galaxy.

Terraria (2011)

Ah, Terraria... The “2D Minecraft”, the “Minecraft but not as good”, the “Starbound but not in space”.

Terraria, as you may know, is a 2D action-platformer sandbox. It’s a game that drops you into a large (but not unlimited) world and says “You’re gonna need to gear up, bucko.” So, you tear down some trees and dig up the land a bit in a bid to gather some resources. After all, this is a sandbox! It’s mine, mine~ Mine for the taking~ It’s mine, boys. Mine me that gold! *ahem* Seems I got a little carried away. Anyways...

Within the first few minutes, the sun starts to set on Terraria’s world and you’re being mauled apart by zombies. That is unless you built a house and hunkered down for the night to avoid the ghouls that intend to ruin your night. Seem familiar? Well, it should. And it’s why people drum up the comparisons above, flag it as just another sandbox game, and leave.

This, I believe, is not really a fair look at Terraria. Yes, you mine blocks. Yes, you fight monsters at night to survive. But that’s it. Those are the only substantial comparisons to be made. Terraria, as I described earlier, is an action-platformer. To me, Terraria’s sandbox nature and simplistic Minecraft-esque survival come secondary to what I consider to be the meat of the game. The exploration, the combat system, and the shenanigans.

Within the game are several set pieces to explore and countless bosses to fight. Players are expected to plunge headfirst into the rotting landscape of the Corruption (or the more eldritch and bloodied Crimson), delve into the skeleton-filled Dungeon, brave the perilous Jungle, and even venture into Hell itself. In exploring and slaying the many powerful foes that await the player, one can go beyond just “I swing my Iron Sword at a Zombie. Yaaaaaay... =_=“ and into extreme levels of zaniness. Wanna beat up Martians with a lightsaber? I don’t recommend it but you can. Wanna kill a giant robot worm of doom with a minigun? You bet your butt you can.

Minecraft (2009, 1.0 release in 2011)

To say Minecraft didn’t define the 2010s would be a blatant lie. As the #1 best-selling game, a spot hotly contested with Tetris, it’s hard to deny the influence and critical success of this simple voxel-based sandbox game.

What is it that makes Minecraft such a perfect and fantastic game? To me, it’s all in the simplicity of it all. The lack of goal, the blank slate of a world you’re given, and the openness and accessibility of the game. Minecraft expects you to take whatever inspiration and ideas you may have and construct them in this blocky world.

Wanna build a plane? Wanna build a sweet mansion? A bit too normal for you? How about a working computer? What about recreating settings from your favourite games? In Minecraft, you can do just that. And let’s not even forget about the enormous modding community this game has. Automation, adventure, aesthetic, graphical enhancements, quality of life. Mods have everything and more!

Above all else, Minecraft helps to connect. With its huge player base and countless public servers, you’re bound to find a community that will welcome you and treat you right. Minecraft is best played in multiplayer, in my honest opinion. Explore caves with friends, collaborating on build projects, or just plain old chatting and hanging with folks.

For me personally, Minecraft is an invaluable game. Through it, I met countless people, made many friends (several of which I consider my best friends), I even found love through it. Minecraft came to me at a time I needed it most. As a late teen, I was at one of the lowest points in my life. The game allowed me to express myself and work past what issues I had developed over the years. In finding friends and a way to express, Minecraft helped shape me into a much better person. Were it not for this game and the folks I met through it, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

[nancydrew65]

SKAM NL Season 2 Episode 9 Thoughts

Well, this episode happened. I was less angry than disappointed in how they handled several scenes. I enjoyed the last clip and the second clip, but beyond that... not so much. Now, I don’t know how you guys felt about this episode, if it was similar to my reaction or different. I would really like to know.

Filming Without Permission

OK, I have to confess that at this point in time, I am very disappointed in SKAM NL. For a variety of reasons, the first of which I shall explore in this clip.

Now, I thought overall the scene was filmed very well and I thought the acting was fantastic. That is not my issue, here. My issue is that this scene felt a lot like SKAM France Season 1 and 2 felt: copy and pasted. This scene played out almost exactly like the scene in OG, like even a lot of the dialogue was the same. And that would not be a terrible thing if this was SKAM France or SKAM Austin where the sexual assault storyline was very similar to OG’s. However, there is a difference between getting photographed naked (Noora) and being sexually assaulted while filmed (Liv). I tend to think the latter is a more grave matter. Throughout the scene, Liv kept asking Morris to delete the video. I was like, “Screw deleting the video! Get him to admit to the sexual assault and then take him to court! The video on his phone will help convict him!” I am honestly so surprised by they way they filmed this scene. Morris should be going to jail! SKAM NL, you can’t just drastically change one aspect of the storyline (like making Liv actually be sexually assaulted) and then not change the rest of the scenes correspondingly. The choice to play this scene this way is frankly astonishing to me. And makes me very disappointed in SKAM NL.

Negative Energy

Liv bought a plant! She struggles to take it home because it is so big! That was a cute montage.

Jayden and Ralph tease her about the plant before all three engage in a pillow fight. Very satisfying.

Then Liv gets the dreaded text from Morris which implies he lied to Noah about what happened that night. If I hadn’t already seen the next clip, I would be praying for Noah to react in a more understanding way. But… oh, well.

Yes or No

I love how the girls are theorizing that Morris didn’t actually tell Noah. They are so sweet.

Aw, Engel is offering food to Liv. She is probably noticing that Liv isn’t eating much. How the tables have turned. The pupil has become the teacher.

Then Noah storms up and this awful scene happens. I really wish they had had him react differently, but after the cruel awakening with SKAM Austin, I realized I can no longer hope for such a miracle. A lot of people were warning against turning against Noah, saying Liv didn’t get to explain (which is fair) and he doesn’t know the full story (also fair). But honestly? I am tired of people being willing to give guys the benefit of the doubt when the people who are more impacted and hurt by the situation are women. Noah’s not totally ~ canceled. Liv wasn’t able to explain (she did say she didn’t know whether she slept with his brother which is such a red flag) and from the texts SKAM NL has released, it seems as though she didn’t tell him over text, either. It was at this point that I could never forgive William because he knew the whole story (that his girlfriend might have been sexually assaulted) and he still treated Noora like shit. That hasn’t happened so far with Noah, so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but just a sliver.

Also, despite how much I hate this scene, I have to say the way SKAM NL edited it was superb. Possibly, the best version of this scene. Visually, anyways. Content wise, not so much.

I love how the girls run to Liv and hug her. After Noah throws her to the ground (!) I repeat, THROWS her to the ground.

No Worries

Liv is cleaning out her room when she comes across a photo of herself taking a selfie. In the photo, she looks extremely skinny. Ah, here’s the reveal that Liv herself struggled with an eating disorder. She throws the photo in the trash.

She also gets a call from the record company, asking to schedule a meeting. She asks if she can call them back and they say yes. Oh, please let her be able to make the meeting, please!!!!!

Liv finds the note Noah gave to her at the end of Season 1. And does it contain a message asking her to go on a date with him? No. It reads: “Unconditional, With no one holding you back, And away we go.” Ever the poet, Noah. Please don’t disappoint me.

This prompts Liv to message Marie, the woman from the party, to find out what truly happened.

Only Left For A Moment

So, this scene plays out almost the same as OG. The only real difference is that Morris is messed up because his dad got remarried very soon after his parents divorced. OK, not the same as having a mother addicted to drugs. So, I don’t cut him any slack. Especially since what he did was worse than what Niko did.

Apparently, Marie went to the bathroom for just a minute and that was when Morris must have filmed Liv and sexually assaulted her.

God, we don’t even get the line where Noora says she reported Niko. Come on! What happened to Liv needs to be reported. SKAM NL is killing me here. And not in a good way. This isn’t how sexual assault and its aftermath and the consequences for assaulters should be portrayed. I am very pissed off at the show right now.

I Want You to Think of Yourself As Beautiful

I loved this scene. Liv finds Engel waiting for her outside her apartment. Engel starts making tacos for Liv.

At some point, she finds the photo of Liv that was thrown out. She remarks that she looked beautiful then. Liv reprimands Engel, telling her that she was unhealthy back then and one should not consider that beautiful. This was such a great message to put forward. And this scene was more explicit in saying Liv had an eating disorder.

Liv tells Engel that she is beautiful. Engel comments that Liv is not eating that well now, herself. And Liv remarks that she knows, that she is trying to change.

Engel tells Liv she needs someone to look out for her now and then. She can’t do everything by herself. Engel and Liv hug and ugh, I love their friendship.

Liv goes sit on the table and gets a notification. It is a post Noah made about having a going away party for himself. So, we’re going down this path. Great. Not really. That was meant to be sarcastic.

General Thoughts

I really don’t know how to feel about this show right now. SKAM NL was one of my favorite remakes, but how they handled the sexual assault storyline this past episode really makes me question that standing. I hope Noah doesn’t react badly when Liv tells him the truth and I hope they rectify the mistakes they made this episode. REPORT MORRIS!!!!!! Please. 

[proheromidoriyashouto]

Quirkless Hero!Deku and Artist/Youtuber!Shouto AU expansion

Shouto was expelled from the Hero Course by Aizawa after the Sports Festival for his refusal to use all his might (neglecting half his quirk) when the chips are down. Shouto went to General Studies and after some serious introspection post-Hosu (he was dragged along by Ende*vore to do grunt work as punishment and happened to come across Tenya and an Idaten intern he didn't know facing off against Stain) began to find solace in art and writing classes and decided to take his life into his own hands.

Shouto started a gaming channel because Ochako- while introducing him to Super Smash Bros Ultimate- noted that he has a nice voice and he likes the story-telling capabilities of games, so why not? What does he have to lose? His striking appearance and slight fame will surely garner him a boost in viewership early on, and they do.

He initially has to run the channel from Tenya's home since Ende*vore would never allow it. He starts off playing multiplayer games because those are what his friends introduce him to so they can play together, but he inevitably shifts toward single-player games that devote quite a lot of time into compelling story campaigns and exploration. His first delves are into Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, the Fallout series, Portal 1 & 2, the Witcher series, and the Last of Us since these are the most prominent games at the time (remakes of games in 22XX tend to release in the same year and order the originals did to get the most playtime out of fans). He’s not good at it to start. He reads from a script and he’s stiff and uncomfortable in front of the camera. He thought he was desensitized to that given his time in the limelight thanks to his name but there’s something about talking to a small webcam that feels, well, silly, and... intense. Personal. It’s a serious detractor, and the comments he receives about it are almost enough to shut down the channel for good. His friends’ support gets him through though and he starts to develop a considerable following.

Before he realizes, he’s spending all his free time playing games with purpose, creating new videos on a nearly daily basis, brainstorming how to structure  theory and lore episodes, and worrying about how his uploads are perceived. He runs charity live streams, plays fan-picked hero games, scours every last hint of lore from side-quests, get those sweet sweet completionist Platinum trophies that only like 1% of players get for every game.

Ende*vore cuts him off from his money, and inheritance. Shouto tentatively starts support pages and is surprised by the number of people willing to shell out for him. He starts to really feel the burn-out as he struggles to create more video content for awards before Momo suggests making things. Real, physical things for awards that will give him a break for the grind, and that he can use to improve his art skills. He smacks himself when he realizes that he can also use art as a way of re-connecting with his mother.

Visits at the hospital become days spent drawing, painting, sculpting, and knitting. His mother shocks him in a display of lace-making and he feels a pang of grief when he learns that it was a tradition in her family that she hadn’t been able to pass down to him. She’d taught Fuyumi and Touya a bit but Ende*vore found out and put a stop to it, saying that his legacy was the only one they needed to concern themselves with. She was too afraid of the harm her husband would bring upon the children if she tried again with Natsuo and Shouto. After hearing that there’s nothing more Shouto wants to learn (lace-crafts are his awards for months, and then on occasion for years to come).

His channel, SpicyHeathenGaming, steadily grows over the years and once he graduates from U.A., he devotes himself entirely to running it. By the time he has the formal encounter with Deku, he has millions of subscribers and has become quite comfortable in the public persona he’d crafted (it’s easy to slip into given his natural penchant for straight-man-esque dry humor). He’s almost 25, successful in a precarious field, and... happy. Genuinely at peace. There are days when he misses the rush of a fight, the satisfaction of post-rescue, and on bad days, he thinks of all the people he never saved. He schedules an appointment with his therapist and moves on.

Deku is the one to note that the Day They Met wasn’t at the construction site as he thought, but during the battle of Stain vs Team Idaten Round 2 (and U.A. Students) as the media has labelled it. Shouto is shocked but not for long. The similarities to his then-Idaten costume are prevalent in Deku’s short white mask, midnight leg guards, and heavy black soles but the rest is substantially changed. He’s vaguely reminiscent of a teal/aqua All Might- especially with his cowl on- rather than the Ingenium line now.

He’d become infamous for becoming a hero “the old fashioned way“ through interning and shadowing directly with Pros for years, foregoing hero-high school altogether.

While none of the schools outright forbid quirkless students from applying, Deku had said in his debut press conference, despite passing Ketsubutsu, Shiketsu, and U.A.’s entrance exams, I was denied admittance. They all said something to the effect of ‘I had a “weak constitution”’, ‘my “supposed passion” had been deemed insufficient hot air,’ and ‘my “heroic spirit” wouldn’t be enough to match the rigor of a top-rated hero-course’s training.’ A good friend of mine, Tenya Iida, had been at the same U.A. entrance exam as myself and after learning about my struggles put in a word for me with his family. I didn’t ask for a handout, but when the legitimate options are not truly available to you, what choice even is there? I wasn’t going to turn down the one chance I had left. Team Idaten was good to me and I wouldn’t be the man I’ve become if not for them. In all honesty, Deku shrugged, an almost apologetic look on his face, almost. I was starting to fall into a pretty dark place. I might have become a villain.

Deku had faced ire from Pros, alumni and non-alumni from the schools alike for those remarks, and public opinion had been torn between disdain for slandering the institutions of hero education or support for him having become a hero despite all the odds against him- a true, old-school origin story. All Might had surprised many by showing Deku support, and many U.A.-borne Pros had followed in his example. Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu had not been nearly as kind, with few exceptions. Deku’s rivalries with Dynamic Blitz (one-sided feud in reality), Magnitude, Cloudburst, and Sideburn Tress were almost as well-known as All Might and Endeavor back when they were heroes.

Deku was a world-wide icon for the roughly 2 billion quirkless people in existence, only one of a hand-full of quirkless Pros throughout the world since the dawn of quirks, and the first ever in Japan’s history. He was leagues above Shouto. Shouldn’t have paid him any more mind than any other civilian he’d saved. If not for Shouto’s disastrous inability to handle situations like anything resembling a normal person. He’d seen a strong, handsome, trend-setting, status-quo defying, internationally known hero up close in person, who not only recognized him for his channel but his private art blog and shop, reaching toward his evidently panicking self and had activated his right side as though it was the neglected half, and frozen their hands together.

He’d made a fucking fool of himself... but still... wound up with a number in his pocket and a wink emoji. He never got such lascivious flirting sent his way. Curses, that wink emoji. Not with his scar and eye-straining coloration and lack of proper skin and hair care. No way. What if Deku winked at him in real life? In public? Scandalous. What was he going to do?

Fuyumi. Tenya, help me.

Um, sure?

With what?

...kill me.

-Shou-!

W-why would you-!!

Please, just, vaporize me right now, I’m staring at the moon just take me by surprise, I’m begging you. Actually call Aoyama I have money.

Little brother! What’s brought this on?

That’s not an explanation! If you need help-

I... I have a date.

(Shouto is verrrr out of practice with his powers and dating and is a complete disaster gay. Izuku’s kinda suave and you can thank Tensei’s Big Brother Influence for that. Izuku saved Eri and Kouta okay I promise I have an explanation. All Might was a dick and never found Izuku to apologize. Izuku’s kinda bitter about it but he’s living his best life so :///////. OFA? Never met her. Mirio would be OFA’s 9th in this AU after losing Permeation. Will expand into a proper fic and post to AO3 when its done- I already have too many AUs at once going on.

Population estimates put humans stabilizing at about 11 billion in the 2200s - BNHA was already in modern day when quirks came and its been 200 years since then as per canon- and 20% of the population is slightly more than 2 billion. 2 billion quirkless people.

Dynamic Blitz is that motherfucker. You know who Magnitude and Cloudburst are~. Three guess as to Sideburn Tress’ identity. He wasn’t outwardly hostile but something about him set off red-flags for me. Also strikes me as having a lot of school pride.)

[brothermouzongaming]

Your favorite pub/dev is shady

I spend a lot of time dragging Publishers like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, and others. As warranted and deserved as it is, we can’t become too dreamy-eyed even in the cases of our favorite faces in gaming. So with this post, I wanted to take a rock to the stained glass windows of your favorite companies and some of mine. In the words of Run the Jewels “Kill your masters”.

Bethesda

Creation Club is one of the biggest issues beyond the more notorious faults of the infamous Bethesda. Creation Club is paid mods. I don’t care what Pete Hines says, when you pay money to modify the game it’s paid fucking mods dude. This is a direct encroachment on one of the best and most pure aspects of PC gaming. Modding turns games into different experiencing, fixes the bugs that a lot of their games ship with and never get fixed because it’s “part of the charm” or “just works”. Which brings me to my next point: Bethesda is the only studio in gaming that gets away with this every single time. Ubisoft put out AC Unity and was grilled for months after release about facial texture issues and whatnot. Everyone gets railed while Bethesda gets a pass every time. Also, can we talk about how one year ago from this E3 Bethesda was waving the single player flag as high and hard as they can? Only to bring out Fallout76 and it’s an online shared world game. I have no problem with doing things differently or moving in a different direction for a non-main title game. Perhaps maybe you should’ve held off on this for another year or two? Made it less of a surprise? I think a lot of fans will come around to this title but the sharp pivot is understandably jarring and Bethesda maybe should’ve anticipated that.  Alongside the mighty shitty practice of pre-ordering for a beta code....what the fuck kind of “money now” bullshit is that. That literally defeats the purpose of a beta for a lot of people. Getting to test out this wildly different experience is important to people that care about the franchise but just aren’t willing to pay for something they aren’t sure they’re going to enjoy. A reasoning that is perfectly understandable in my opinion. I love Bethesda but holy god do they get away with murder without so much as a strange look from the majority of people. 

Microsoft

I’ll get the obvious issue of console exclusives out of the way. This is straight up disgraceful the way they do the loyal fans of Xbox. Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2, Forza Motorsport 7, Halo Wars 2, and Cuphead. Remove Cuphead from that list and it’s a little pathetic especially considering some big name exclusives they had for the 360 (Saints Row, DoA4, Fable 2, Lost Odyssey, N3). The Xbox One’s initial reveal and release state were woefully tone deaf. A sad attempt to pander to gimmicks that shouldn’t be the focus of a console: motion sensors and television streamlining. Yes, they eventually corrected that mistake but to even consider such a poor decision was clearly a poor attempt to reach everyone but gamers. This entire generation was a bit of a misstep, unfortunately, outside of the impressively powerful Xbox One X there is next to nothing for Microsoft to actually boast about outside of the new console benchmark. What games have they contributed to their fanbase and loyal customers? This aspect isn’t so much shady as it is dumb. From the release of the One X with no games. To the games they backed so fervently only for them to flop hard. It’s clear they’re working on it given the recent studio acquisitions and the shift in focus some studios are going to be making. Why they had to forsake an entire generation for this to happen is simply beyond me. 

Nintendo

Between their online service and the interesting terms/ conditions of said service. The shitty pre-orders they offer for said internet service which is one of the most insane requests of a company I’ve ever heard of. Can we talk about the vice grip on their content/IPs? Ever notice you don’t see much Nintendo content on YouTube? Seriously look up anything Nintendo and the new games many videos don’t feature unique gameplay. I’m not saying there aren’t any videos but it’s known that Nintendo can and will take down any video they see fit. Yes, it’s well within their rights as a company to do so. However, when Nintendo is doing it to fans, people who are trying to celebrate and appreciate what they’ve done, it comes across as wildly ungrateful. Especially when ya know, they wouldn’t be anything without the wildly enthusiastic customer base. Prime example: a YouTuber recreated the Bomb-omb Battlefield stage in Unity. It was nostalgic, beautiful, and kind of funny. What did Nintendo do? They order a DMC Takedown on the video. A harmless recreation video this wasn’t even any kind of playable game and wasn’t going to be. What was the point of this? Who benefits? They could’ve capitalized and got to work on a remake, tell me that wouldn’t sell. Instead, they insist on hurting fans for what boils down to free advertisement. I think Nintendo is so focused on being Nintendo that they’ve lost what it means to be...Nintendo. If that makes sense.

Sony

Sony has been hacked so many times I genuinely think Paul Blart runs their cyber security department. Sony needs to get their shit together in this area of their service ya know the cornerstone of the console in the modern era. Alongside that, Sony is very pressed on keeping their system and IP, and everything about it very isolated. Xbox and Nintendo are down for cross-play and Sony is sitting in the corner arms crossed not wanting to join in. When they know damn well that’s where all this is going anyway. Not to mention their strange aversion to modding on titles that lead to strangled communities in games like Skyrim and Fallout4. I’ve also already talked about PSNow v GamePass and how much better GamePass is despite it coming out years after PSNow. Yes this section is short but the problems are very big and potentially damaging to Sony and their reputation. They need to get on the ball or find themselves in Microsoft’s position come the next generation. 

Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar and 2k)

TTI as a publisher is deceptively devious. They lay low and in the background unlike EA making sure everyone knows when a subsidiary works on a game that it’s also theirs. Take-Two owns two very prominent developers in the industry (2k and Rockstar) and they know it because at every turn they are monetizing them. GTA 5 is amazing, GTA online is a pay to win crapshoot. Planes costing an upwards of 20 to 40 real-world dollars. The in-game currency is difficult to earn in massive quantities required to pay such exuberant price tags. The shark cards were so well implemented it made GTA the most lucrative entertainment franchise of all time. They were so successful that games like NBA 2k and Red Dead Redemption 2 will feature them. Games that do not need them at all and only make the games a lifeless money hole. RDD2 isn’t out but the publisher already stated that monetization was going to be a focus on their games from here on out. 

[robotclownindulgence]

Some more red flags:

untagged graphic pictures of injuries to guilt trip into sharing/donating. if you see posts with this kind of content i would recommend reverse searching the pictures and checking the original source to see if the fundraiser they are from is actually the same as the one that is shared on here

pictures of injured animals are often used for the same purpose

the post comes from a blog that is fairly new without any other original posts or tags

in some cases, if a donation posts starts with something like "i had to remake this post because my other blog got deleted" it could mean that their other blog was reported as a scam and thus got terminated

if a post with thousands of notes doesn't have any comments it's likely because they are deleting responses of people calling out their scam

if the op calls themselves a "family friend" and the name on the pp/gfm has nothing to do with the person the post is allegedly about, then the souces were most likely stolen from real people in need and only the payment information was changed

Just a heads, up there seem to be a lot of donation scams floating around lately, a lot of them sending copy pasted asks to multiple bogs, directly asking them to donate. So if you get a message about a fundraiser that seems suspicious, i'd recommend checking the blog it came from, searching for the url in case someone has already discovered they're a scam and typing the name of the recipient into google. If it is a scam, the same name will likely be connected to multiple fake fundraisers. I know this sounds harsh but be especially wary of posts that include an abundance of pictures of official looking documents and people in hospital beds, as they are often stolen from actual fundraisers on other sites. Please stay safe

[entergamingxp]

DualShockers’ Favorite Games of 2019 — Iyane’s Top 10

December 31, 2019 12:00 PM EST

2019 had a lot of cool mecha related games, but a lot of other great games from other genres too. Here are my top 10 from this year.

As 2019 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2019 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2019 releases — can be considered.

I assume anyone who clicked on this wishes to read me talking about myself and my Unneeded Opinions (one of my favorite sentences of 2019), so I’ll do just that. 2019 was another year that went by in a flash. I’ve reached my first anniversary writing on DualShockers in September, and I’ve been pretty busy overall. As such, there are multiple games on this list I actually didn’t finish yet.

There are many games released in 2019 that I was really hyped about but didn’t have the time to try out yet either, and I’d like to start by listing some of them:

We first have games I’d consider mainstream, such as Devil May Cry 5, Judgment (I actually bought it in Japanese) Astral Chain. Then you’ve got more niche things, like Daemon X Machina (I’m waiting just in case a PC port gets announced), the Grandia remasters, SaGa Scarlet Grace, and Friends of Mineral Town Remake.

Lastly, we’ve got some visual novel games: Berubara Gakuen, Gnosia (Japanese outlets hyped up this game in a similar fashion that what happened with Disco Elysium in the US and Europe), Ciconia Phase 1 (the thing I was actually hyped for the most in 2019), Eve Rebirth Terror (idem), and the Yu-No remake.

I’m on a quest to play everything that Hiroyuki Kanno wrote after getting my mind blown by Eve Burst Error. Yu-No is one of these things, but the character design in the remake is bland as hell. Ryou Nagi is a great artist, and you can see that with Heavy Object or Ar Tonelico, but for some reason, everything remake-related he touches turn into the blandest thing ever. The same thing happened for the newest Langrisser I&II remake; it’s like some huge conspiracy. As such, I’ll probably grab the Yu-No remake in Japanese, as that version includes a port of the original.

Anyway, that was just a small intro to show my tastes and what to expect in this ranking. Here are the games I’ve enjoyed the most in 2019, and note that it’s not only games released in 2019. Also, note that the top 5 are all pretty much my top 1.

10. Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Masterpiece 1995-2001

I suck at Virtual-On. But I love it, especially Oratorio Tangram, and being able to play it remastered on PS4 is nice. The only thing these ports of the three Virtual-On games sadly lack is local multiplayer split-screen. Virtual-On is the originator of Gundam Vs like games and all the anime 3D arena battlers of varying quality releasing each year, and it’s the best one there is.

Other games I considered for this position were Destiny Connect, Shenmue 3 (which I didn’t play myself and watched an online friend’s playthrough), and Zanki Zero (I was supposed to review that but ended up never finding the time to finish said review). I picked Virtual-On because it didn’t require me to write 2000 words to explain my mixed feelings about it.

9. Space Engineers

According to Steam, I’ve played 47 hours of Space Engineers with my online friends. I’m pretty sure at least 20 hours of that was us trying to figure out how the game works and being annoyed and how counter-intuitive many elements are. This includes reading wikis and only to realize it’s outdated info, looking for Uranium only to realize you can’t find any on planets, or trying to design vehicles, copying blueprints and recreating them block by block. And a lot of other dumb stuff.

Besides all these frustrations, Space Engineers is my favorite multiplayer game I’ve tried out this year and I’ve made some great memories with it, as an online friend streamed some of our adventures too. I’ve tried making the Senegalese flag with wind turbines (too long to explain): we managed a trip to a moon and putting the Algerian flag on it (a French joke too long to explain) and we did a MASK opening sequence parody with a vehicle parade.

8. Ocarina of Time Randomizer Version 5.0

I actually put this on my list last year as well, but seeing that the game’s meta has changed since then, this is fine. Again, I don’t have the time to play this myself and enjoy watching races instead, This year, ZeldaSpeedRuns held the OoT Randomizer Season 2 tournament, which ended in June with the victory of Marco against WTHH.

Now, the Season 3 tournament bracket matches just started in early December, with the version 5.0 0f the mod, changing the meta. We’ve already got a surprising upset, with first tournament winner and 2nd qualifier ATZ losing against 31 qualifier Killerapp23. Getting into detail would take too long and be incomprehensible if you’re not already into OoT rando, so I’m just gonna say this is the most interesting esports thing to watch ever. And like I said last year, it’s incredibly fun.

7. Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom

Wing Commander IV is one of the many games I’ve played in my childhood which left me with a huge impression. Along with things like Shenmue 1 & 2, this is one of the games I used to regularly quote until my high school years or so. I’ve finally got the time to rediscover the game this year. I didn’t end up replaying it myself though and watched a full playthrough of it. It was really interesting; I remembered many iconic scenes from the game and some characters, but I had no idea what the overall story was about anymore.

It’s surprising how anime space opera the story is, and I wouldn’t be surprised if something Japanese inspired the story. It all comes to Japan. This also made me realize, in a sense, that Wing Commander IV is pretty much one of the first visual novels I played and what made me enjoy well-written stories and choices. This is also what made me both love and hate draconian choices, multiple routes and characters’ deaths. I hate not being able to save characters.

6. Romancing SaGa 3 Remaster

Back in my childhood I tried playing Romancing SaGa 3, as it was among the various SNES roms I had at disposal. I quickly realized that it’s completely different than most RPGs and unlike many games in Japanese such as Super Robot Wars 4: I couldn’t trial and error my way through.

Around 18 years later, Romancing SaGa 2 Remaster comes out in 2017; it’s awesome, and a masterpiece. And then in 2019, Romancing SaGa 3 Remaster is finally out and it’s even more awesome. I’m currently in the final area of the game after playing as Sarah, because she has a fluffy afro ponytail. I just wish the game had a turbo button.

Tie-in 6. Persona 5 Royal

This is a tie-in as that’s an enhanced version of a really recent game, which was my 2016 favorite. I purposely played through Persona 5 only once, only maxing the coops and not doing much of the other side content, in case such an enhanced version ever released.

Even then, and even considering how much of a masterpiece that Persona 5 is, clearing such a long game again is annoying. Most of the new scenes I’ve seen so far, most notably Kasumi’s and Takuto’s scenes, are all incredibly nice though. The renewed dungeons and bosses’ designs are fun, and Joker is even more Lupin The Third-like with the wire hook, but there’s nothing groundbreaking either. I’m far from reaching the new part at the original’s ending, as I’m just about to reach the Hawaii part. Hopefully, it’ll be a nice ride.

The five games below are all my actual number one.

5. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

I’ve been waiting for 13 Sentinels since when it got announced in 2015. I could even say since 2013, as I hoped a game related to the Vanillaware Happy New Year 2013 Geroge Kamitani artwork above would come out someday. I had incredibly high expectations for it and none of it were betrayed as of now.

It’s awesome. It’s fully-voiced. It’s got giant robots. It’s the most beautiful (2D) game since forever. It’s like if an old Japanese adventure game got made with current technology. It’s a shame the game bombed in Japan. If you’re interested, I’ve written more about the game, and I’m recording myself translating the game as I’m playing through it.

4. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is amazing on all points. I’ve rarely had so much fun walking around and exploring a city in a game. I think what makes the game the most amazing is how it’s pretty much the culmination of the Ys series since it switched to the party system, and as if one of the first versions of the first Ys games were transposed to 3D. The verticality of the environments is used so well you can still feel lost despite having a map. Falcom might pretty much be one of the smallest, penniless studios in Japan despite its longevity; they still make the best action RPGs ever. What I’ve seen of the story so far is particularly amazing too, and Toshihiro Kondo is a good writer along with being a good company president.

I’m currently taking a break from the game after reaching what I guess is around 1/3 of it. I was so hyped I had to play it at launch, but I want to do all the other Ys games I didn’t do yet first, even if it’s absolutely not necessary to understand the story. I like being able to understand every single reference in a series like this. I’m the kind of person who wishes to know exactly how many times Kazuya and Heihachi threw each other out of a volcano/mountain.

3. Super Robot Wars T

I didn’t play Super Robot Wars V nor SRW X as they initially didn’t release on Switch. If we don’t count SRW OG Moon Dwellers, which was on my top ten 2018 list, SRW T is my first SRW game since the SRW Z3 finale on PS3 in April 2015. It’s pretty great, be it the story, its cast list, or the animations. Everything about it is nice. Having things like Cowboy Bebop, Gunbuster, Rayearth, Gun x Sword, and Captain Harlock together feels incredible. It’s extremely sad that Captain Harlock’s seiyuu Makio Inoue passed away right after he finally got in SRW.

A new OG anime directed by Obari and a new OG game would be nice. I’m happy the series seemingly won’t get a new game in 2020, so the development teams can take their time.

2. Fire Emblem Fuukasetsugetsu / Three Houses

This game has my favorite cast of characters in a Fire Emblem game, along with Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu/Genealogy of the Holy War, and I could write a 1000 word article on every single character on this picture (if I was paid adequately for it). This is only one of the many reasons why I like this game. In a nutshell, I’d say I love the fact that I find it very innovative and yet similar to the other Fire Emblem games I’ve played and liked so far, and how it’s true for every aspect of the game.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

1. Project Sakura Wars/ Shin Sakura Taisen

This opening sequence has over 1.7 million views, and half of these are all me. While I’m not done with Shin Sakura Taisen yet, I fail to imagine how the game could even disappoint me so far, seeing how amazing it is. Before the game launched, I wasn’t concerned about the battle system change, but whether the new cast would be interesting or not. If there was a world Guinness record for most baseless worry of 2019, this would get it. This game got everything that makes Sakura Taisen so awesome. The strong female characters, the cool mecha, the great worldbuilding, the comedy. It’s a great new start in the series and I hope we’ll get more. I shared a few impressions on the game and just like 13 Sentinels, I’m recording myself playing the game, translating at the same time.

That’s it for my top ten.

If you’re wondering about my expectations for 2020, the game I’m looking forward to the most so far is the Seiken Densetsu 3 remake: Trials of Mana. Then we also have things like FF7R, Rune Factory 5, Space Channel 5 VR, Brigandine…I’m also eager to see KOF XV even if I won’t play it. Lastly, 2020 will also mark the tenth anniversary of the Pretty Series franchise. The Pretty Rhythm anime seasons and its King of Prism sequels were my favorite anime of the decade, so I’m looking forward to what Avex and Takara Tomy have in store for the anniversary, and if we might get some games other than arcade games out of it.

I’m planning to stay on DualShockers and keep writing about Japanese games in the new year. I don’t have the time nor the paycheck to cover every single news as fast as possible, but I always try to bring to the table as much info as I can, along with relevant translations and observations. Hoping you’ll keep reading us in 2020.

Check out the rest of the DualShockers staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 23: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2019 December 25: Lou Contaldi, Editor-in-Chief // Logan Moore, Managing Editor December 26: Tomas Franzese, News Editor // Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor  December 27: Mike Long, Community Manager // Scott White, Staff Writer December 28: Chris Compendio, Contributor // Mario Rivera, Video Manager // Kris Cornelisse, Staff Writer December 29: Scott Meaney, Community Director // Allisa James, Senior Staff Writer // Ben Bayliss, Senior Staff Writer December 30: Cameron Hawkins, Staff Writer // David Gill, Senior Staff Writer // Portia Lightfoot, Contributor December 31: Iyane Agossah, Senior Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Senior Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Contributor January 1: Ricky Frech, Senior Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer

December 31, 2019 12:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-iyanes-top-10/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-iyanes-top-10

[therushingwanderer]

I've found an article the other day on Mary Sue, commenting about post-nsfw purge tumblr, and it had this very interesting observation: that a lot of the content reblogged/posted was mostly memes and political rants. I've also noticed that posts with cute pets and pretty landscapes still gets a lot of traction. But aside from that, even fandom-related blogs/posts are losing strenght in this platform, UNLESS it's something extremely popular/trending, like the Dororo remake a couple of months ago, or that new show with David Tennant called Good Omens (which I haven't watched yet, because I only have cable and once-or-twice-a-week access to my sis' netflix account).

Heck I even tried to make a secondary blog for just my drawings, since my main blog got so random due to constantly rebblogging (and let's face it, people wouldn't reblog stuff so often if it was possible to search for specific posts on the "likes" section, because I know I wouldn't), but weirdly enough the rare actual, non-porn bots followers I get these days are all for my main blog.

Oh and don't even get me started on the nsfw ban...I've always considered myself a mostly sfw artist, but I got flagged 5 or 6 times in the past since this whole nsfw purge thing. For what? Shirtless men and Frieza from Dragon Ball! Non-explicit nudity (which is something I draw occasionally) and the likes, or anything random, really, depending on how crazy are the algorithms are "feeling" that day, aren't safe either, and sometimes you can't even appeal to it.

All I know is that, I already have an instagram account in case the worst happens...I'm not a huge fan of it, but depending on how deep the shit sinks around here in the future, I might even have to deactivate my blogs in the future.

Why tumblr sucks

I keep deleting and redownloading tumblr and it’s getting so annoying. Every since the ban of anything even MODERATELY “offensive” (like female presenting nipples, WHAT?!” Tumblr has been like a ghost town. All my favorite blogs have left and deleted their accounts and I can’t find them anywhere, all people do is REBLOG posts and never come up with their OWN original content, and it’s really annoying. There’s like only a select amount of blogs that are getting notes and reblogs and the content isn’t original and just tired and reused. Another reason why people hate tumblr so much is the lack of diversity, I know I know we all HATE to bring up the race thing but like...where is the black representation, matter of fact where are the PEOPLE OF COLOR?? I never see pictures or artwork that showcases them, all the “self care” “inspiration” and “fashion” blogs are all just waify white girls and boys, not to mention the “emo” “depressed” and angry blogs that always feature white eboys smoking cigarettes, and pale girls in binkinis licking knives and other dumb “metaphorical” photos. Like I get it because I used to love stuff like that back in 2015-2016 but now it’s just tired out. In general no one is on tumblr anymore because, frankly, it’s BORING!! Like it is SO hard for smaller blogs to get recognition and appreciation for their content if they have a small following and weren’t already a hot topic BEFORE the stupid ban. PSA: NO ONE WANTS TO LOOK AT VAGUE LINES OF POETRY THATS IN FRONT OF A PICTURE OF A FOGGY FOREST OR A DYING FLOWER. It’s always the same damn thing, and people are sick of it. Tumblr used to be so great, and now.. it’s hardly even a SHELL of what it could be. So many amazing creators have just VANISHED and we can’t find them. Even the MEME blogs on here suck, like this app is a whole cringefest!!! And I freaking used to LOVE tumblr!! Like why is no one talking about this?? Are you satisfied just reblogging the same bland, non “offensive” or “controversial” vanilla content? Because I sure as hell am not. You will never, I REPEAT: NEVER catch me committing that type of clownery. Because that’s what it is!! ClOWNERY 🤡 The school shooter appreciation blogs, the literal JUSTIFICATION of racist white men is STILL HERE, and ARTWORK is banned?? Are you kidding me??? It’s like tumblr decided to do a spring cleaning but only got partly through it, and threw away the crucial parts of this app while leaving the rest untouched. So this is me trying to raise awareness because no one else will. This isn’t for clout or anything like thag because I’m a shitty creator, matter of fact I’m BARELY a creator, BUT I know real Art real TALENT when I see it, and it sure as hell isnt here. It’s left the building. GONE. Tumblr really needs to step back and re-evaluate their decisions because this app is going downhill and it has so much POTENTIAL. Ok, this was my rant, I hope you guys gained some more insight on this situation and I’m encouraging everyone to MAKE THEIR VOICE HEARD. Speak UP!! Even as I’m writing this I know I’m going to have to throw down a BUTT LOAD of hashtags since that’s literally the only way to BARELY get recognized on here. Thank you, ♥️