#i know enough about stanley parable that i will play it eventually but not now. i still remember too many things from old youtube vids

[captorcorp]

anyway if anyone has recommendations for fun games that either include fourth wall breaking AIs or fun interface screws lmk :p just finished 'there is no game' and love these tropes

[vellichorom]

how did rosemary forgive the thierry? do they have any long lasting trauma for it? how did thierry then act towards rosemary after figuring out they're real?

addressing the last question first ~

so the thing is- rosemary was FINALLY recognized as a real person / " the true player " if you will, during --i think you can guess-- the game's " Not Stanley Ending. "

( which is less an official ending to their parable & was just. something that happened to them. but the discussion of " what was a legitimate, meant-to-happen game ending for them " vs " what was just an impromptu, horrible event " will have to wait another time )

so upon rosemary disobediently pulling the phone cord from the wall during what was Supposed to lead to the " Apartment Ending ", thierry acted as you'd expect from canon; thinking ( dumbly ) that " stanley " was only JUST usurped by this player figure, & gradually getting all the more frustrated that things weren't going back to normal quick enough, nor the way that he wanted.

however.

cut to them having exhausted all attempts at trying to set things right, escalating to thierry having a pissfit & trying to wholly trash the game. as both him & rosemary stand in the rubble of the office, with him mourning his story, thierry snaps & attempts to remove this " pesky player " manually through the code of the game.

that's when he'd realize that rosemary, real person she was, had been there ALL along. that there was absolutely NO trace of stanley in the game anymore, none that he could find, anyway - & there HADN'T been since he first LAUNCHED the game.

meaning, of course, that this very Real, very Human person who was REALLY just supposed to be behind a screen, playing his game, had been subjected to every bit of venom he'd ever thrown at- what he thought was just an AI. " stanley. " said venom including, violent deaths. hands-on ones, primarily.

& though i've said he's the desensitized sort that wouldn't really be affected by such a thing USUALLY, the moment that realization sunk in- the thought that he was truly a Murderer, & a monster overall?

the man had never known such agony before.

killing the AI was never supposed to mean anything or hold any real consequence, but killing a HUMAN BEING is a different story- & he'd done it EXCITEDLY, COUNTLESS times, MERCILESSLY, HANDS-ON where he couldn't avoid accountability. now, where death had never meant anything to him before, it now meant EVERYTHING.

the game would reload, leaving rosemary enitirely alone in the office as thierry disappeared. to " process the new information. " ( have a violent meltdown & thrust himself into heavy denial )

took a full reset of the game or two for him to come back. & when he DID, things were. awkward, to say the least. after all, how do you come back from THAT. how could he face her now, knowing the weight of her existence in the office? feeling the weight of his own crimes?

but somehow... they got along. they moved on, past it. rosemary was treated less like thierry's puppet & more like a genuine person. thierry walked on eggshells & attempted to use his every breath to redeem himself & apologize. somehow, things gradually began to improve from there.

eventually, they'd come to be on good terms. eventually, they'd become friends. eventually, they'd pine for each other. eventually, they'd date, & even get married at some point, years after the fact.

despite said years still being filled with bloodshed... but it's LONG since been a real crime to them, now it's their fun game. it's what they do on their date nights. it's what they do to relax. for recreation. now they BOTH enjoy it. it's horrible- but they've made it work.

but thierry comes to Forget about the fact that it wasn't ALWAYS the fun & games they've since made it out to be.

rosemary doesn't.

& rosemary doesn't forgive him for it.

[cola-canine]

So, after about a month or so I've finally finished the System Shock Remake and it's amazing! As someone that couldn't handle the original game, Nightdive's remake makes System Shock a lot more approachable.

I've talked about what I really liked about this game already but it kept delivering for every level I went into. I love exploring every nook and cranny for stuff and System Shock has so much to offer. I pretty much cleared every area (minus the Beta Groves because they were completely covered in radiation and I didn't have enough supplies to negate that) of enemies, items, and cameras during my regular exploration - it's just that well laid out. Some people may not like the maze-like structure to some of these maps but it was a lot of fun to just learn the layout of each level and know how to shortcut things when they eventually go to hell.

As mentioned before (I believe, anyways) the game offers alternate ammo for most of your weapons and rarely do games get it right. Some games will offer you an abundance of alternate ammo types and poorly teach you the benefits of using them; that, or the ammo types barely have much of an effect when they are explained to you. System Shock doesn't have that issue: it's simple, effective, and isn't bogged down by ten other variants - just simple regular and piercing. Regular is good for organics and mutants, piercing is good for robots and cyborgs; short, sweet, and to the point.

I found myself constantly swapping between what was available and what was most effective as everything is in limited supply. It made supply management a very active part of System Shock and I really like that. I felt strained but never constantly deprived of med-packs or batteries throughout my time which added to the stress of entering combat situations. Sacrifices have to be made, especially with your limited inventory space. Difficult for me because I'm such a hoarder in games like these.

Everything was just so fine-tuned, atmospheric, and a joy to play. In terms of similarities, it's more close to Prey than Deus Ex. I definitely will be replaying this in the future but as for now I think I wanna move on to a couple shorter games like Ty the Tasmanian Devil and, finally, the Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.

[fates-theysband]

YOU SHIP WITH THE TSP SETTINGS PERSON???? THATS SO COOL AND RAD AND I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SHIP !!! /nf ofc

Narrator is my dad and Stanley is my buddy !! I love the Settings Person and I considered f/oing them (in a platonic way) but I know so little of their lore honestly, like the only thing I know is that they were Stanley’s coworker and they got fired?? and that’s like. it

But I absolutely loved Settings Person and I was so sad when they stopped showing up when I booted up the game. I haven’t played the epilogue yet (I’m so scared. I have a feeling it’s going to make me cry. Hasn’t this game made me sob enough 😭) but I know that they show up in it and I’m so excited to see them again!!! I was trying to avoid spoilers for the epilogue but I do know a few vague things about it and apparently Settings Person has beef with Narrator or something?? Yesss go off roast my dumbass dad <33

I’ve played pretty much the entirety of Ultra Deluxe except for the epilogue. I’m such a completionist with TSP so I wanna make sure I’ve done every ending and found every secret and everything before I play the epilogue, and I’m also trying to emotionally prepare myself for the trauma it will inevitably bring HJSHSJS

I’m sorry for this essay in your inbox, I got excited HKSHSJSHS I would love to hear about your ship with Settings Person they’re so cool !!!!

anon i am hugging you so much!!!!!! also the narrator is my friend (whose nerves i am constantly on) and i kin stanley so [predator handshake]

ANYWAY i dont blame you for not knowing much about their backstory it was revealed in a stream davey wreden did with his brother. so the reason they kept asking for pencils is because that was their entire job (that's why their desk has a pencil sharpener and nothing else) but everyone was forbidden from giving them pencils (there's also a peer review of them that someone datamined...it's really mean and implies that part of why they were chosen as the subject for this experiment was because they thought for themself instead of just keeping their head down and doing what they were told) until eventually one day the stress was so great that they just...transcended their mortal form and became a settings menu.

as for my ship with them, i have two main timelines: a reverse-isekai au where i figure out some way to free them from the void outside the parable...which in turn brings them to my real-world apartment so now we have that challenge to navigate (but it's very much the start of a healing journey for poor 432), and one set within the game where i'm another of stanley's former coworkers who was kind to 432 and was thus fired because the boss didn't want me mucking up his experiment, but the narrator erasing the rest of stanley's coworkers somehow pulls me back into the parable. stanley and the narrator can't seem to see or hear me but 432 can and communicates with me through the office monitors. office romance finally being made possible because we've technically already been doomed by the narrative <3

[randomclam24]

Realistically, we're living in a society where the only expectations are set by faggots who see themselves vicariously in everyone else, creating mountains out of every molehill. For those who aren't, that still takes absolute precedence over all else.

Update

I just played Minecraft starting a new location where I had already done the initial mining to make an enchantment table for diamond tools

Maybe it's because Minecraft is like a dying horse that just keeps getting up again, but even after just going through the motions to get enough clay for a brick house, I actually thought about building one and then surveyed the surrounding area and how it all felt the same. The way I thought about it seemed an awful lot like the quote from Mary in Silent Hill 2, I don't want any damn flowers!, like building a house is just a meaningless gesture at that point. I wanted to record that because it turns out if you read up on it that this is the scene that causes James to commit suicide in the ending if you dwell for too long.

Update

After what the recommended tab showed me - let's see if you can get rid of that. And if it can't be removed for viewers, I might be unable to stay here.

We're living in an alternate reality in the sense that the predisposed perception of those onlooking precedes essence

I wish I knew *anything* that was actually constructive to this role, but there's just too much crap

It's like I wake up every day having to conclude, want to try again in another couple of generations? There won't *be* another generation! It will only get worse

Every attempt to return to Silent Hill 3 is directly incepted with more sexual deviance in the banner slot on the given website, no matter where it is. I take that as sexual harassment.

What is it? Is it because I already did that with trying to return to Silent Hill 3 in the first place?

Look, I get it. This is the kind of rut the establishment wanted me to go into a rant over to validate Aztrosist in a way that goes hand-in-hand - exactly.

Go *fuck* yourself

What am I supposed to do? Become a beggar?

My efforts may as well have been going on for thousands of generations: they won't listen.

Who even exists, even historically, who knows how to do this?

Update

I get the feeling that, no matter what happens, leftists will always have the mentality, which prevails in society, like "Communism has never been tried."

That's kind of why I think, should we just wait until some later time, when things have played out more?

If we're to be realistic, there isn't a count that isn't going to come down to the fact that small-minded people project. No, in fact, that's all the society itself came down to.

Letting these people have their oppression narrative lets them build themselves up as the underdogs. We should just be blueballing entirely instead.

Update

I think the worst thing you can allow a normie to do is act normal. That is, in the first place, the habitat in which they take their effect. Do something to where they can't call you out, but it sets them off.

It's from there on that everything they say will just be a landfill going of projecting. That doesn't mean you have to call them out on everything, but once that flow is ongoing, eventually they'll say something so dumb, it won't take a cult of personality to call them out.

I'm actually just sick of seeing these people in their intended state.

Update

Now that scenario hits me more than ever, and I will make the reference. The Stanley Parable take-over-the-facility-for-yourself scenario, where the narrator responds with "you don't have the power you think you do", because when you think about it, that would be justice. Our heads get filled up with all this nonsense like one day it's going to get resolved. Why not do it?

I don't like myself that damn much. Really, do I care about what I just said in the last paragraph that much?

It's possible what I really feel is more like a case of stable vice in an animal.

Update

Should I post it? Sure. Who am I kidding. Everyone's a faggot. Otherwise someone would have *done* something by now.

Update

I don't want to be the one to break the news, but this psychological gaming study yields these results. You do realize that the politics of the West is not separable from the psychology of the peoples themselves as the "rigged system"?

You were born in absolute fucking garbage.

Update

I'll try drinking myself to death, starting mainly after dinner.

*Fuck* you man shit you're a piece of fuck

Update

I would use my words, but I would be safer drinking myself to death than to go *that* way. I don't think it's very likely I won't get disappeared.

Update after dinner

I don't want to relive any part of my life. I was born in 1995.

Update

This life is a mortal enchainment

Say, just "live" your "life"

I don't even like you fuckboys

Not enough content out there

Update

Real life doesn't have any value. We should all just die.

Update

Going to offy kill myself

Bye nee

Donkey Kong Country 3 - Game Over [Restored] - YouTube

Change tha world - my final message

nig(s)

Update

"Change tha world" was all a grift

Update

Change tha world

My final grift

Goodbye

Update

Credits

Beach Theme (Fun At The Beach) - New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - YouTube

Update

*phones up UN*

"I hate the antichrist!"

UN officer: *spits coffee*

"Now who could that possibly be?"

UN officer: "Whazzat?"

*based department*

*drops the mic*

*mic starts making a horrific hissing noise*

Update

Donkey Kong Country 3 - Cavern Caprice [Restored] - YouTube

Update

The most drunk I got was with my cousin, where we ended up sharing a single jacket in the cold to Taco Bell and back just to find out the hard way it's been closed for the night - then he runs off near the end

I wish I could be this simple

Have you ever heard of Garfielf

[greentrickster]

Aaaaaand of course my insane, AU-spawning brain had to go, “Hey, hey you know what would be fun? Temporary Ace Attorney & The Stanley Parable universe swap!” Like, Miles and Phoenix temporarily swap places with the Narrator and Stanley - our favorite lawyer boys are now stuck in the office as narrator (Edgeworth) and protagonist (Phoenix), and Stanley and the Narrator are over in the AA universe (confused, horribly confused, neither of them are in any way prepared for this).

I just really like the idea of Phoenix being pretty gung-ho about exploring the office, meanwhile Edgeworth is desperately sorting through the Narrator’s scripts and papers trying to figure out what’s going on and also keep Phoenix from winding up in any of the more... unpleasant endings.

“Hey, Edgeworth, I’m gonna see what the red button does!”

“Wright, DO NOT, if you do I have to blow up the whole facility with you in it!”

“...change of plans, I will not be pushing the button.”

Though, gotta admit... after everything he’s been through, I can’t help but feel that the Zending would pose an unusual problem for the two of them, just because I genuinely don’t think that would be enough to kill Phoenix. They get to it because Edgeworth doesn’t catch that it’s a bad ending until they’ve already been in the zen room for a good hour enjoying the light show, only for them to discover the only way out. That’s probably the point where Edgeworth starts figuring out how to control the office better and how to manually reset. (They both remember resets in this.)

Being the opinionated fanboy he is, I also think that Edgeworth would take one look at the Narrator’s scripts and reach for a red pen, then eventually decide that he and Phoenix can do better. They’re in the office for at least two weeks, and they make at least half a dozen new endings in this time.

(Also, I feel I should specify, Edgeworth and Phoenix aren’t really better writers than the Narrator, because neither of them have much experience with it, they just had a bunch of fun collabing on things they thought would make good endings to the scenario or which would just be fun to add to the office. Which is why there’s a broken broom handle in the broom closet now that you can use to play samurai with.)

Meanwhile Stanley and the Narrator are just... so confused, especially the Narrator. They’re also why this happened, it was supposed to be a special crossover event, what the heck-??? And, because they’re currently in AA, the two of them help solve at least one murder while they’re there, through a combination of the Narrator’s genre-savvyness and Stanley’s willingness to poke his nose absolutely anywhere he can get it.

Returning home is a relief to Phoenix and Edgeworth, a mild disappointment to Stanley, and an outrage to the Narrator because someone?!?? Has been editing his scripts!?!??? How dare?!????!??!?!?!!?! His scripts are brilliant, genius, his story has no flaws that need such base language (though keep in mind this is Edgeworth who was doing it, he wasn’t ‘base’ so much as ‘exactly as eloquent as the Narrator, but he was typical levels of Edgeworth-in-court mean and the Narrator is Extremely Offended(tm)’). Also, what are all these new endings??? The Climbing the Roof ending? The Cafeteria ending? The- good heavens, the Samurai ending??? What does that have to do with-? The Romantic Date ending-?!?!??!??!?

Stanley listened exactly long enough to hear that there are new endings and also he can apparently get to the roof, he is now a man with a bucket and a mission, he can listen to the Narrator’s hysterics later.

[thejuniperparable]

Stanley and the Narrator with a reader who can pick locks

Stanley

Since the two of you were stuck in the parable, you've quickly become close friends. And partners in crime.

The first time you tried to pick the lock on a door was in the two doors room. To both your and Stanley's shock (and the Narrator's chagrin), the door easily opened. This incident opened many new possibilities for mischief.

"All of their coworkers were- oh my god. Where did you two run off to this time!?" You and Stanley stifle your giggles, hiding in one of the previously locked offices. After an hour of fruitless searching, the Narrator drags you two out by forcing a reset.

All No offense to the Narrator, but this was certainly the most entertainment the two of you had in a long time. The disembodied voice's irritation only grows and grows, and it eventually takes away both your ability to pick locks and whatever tools you used

...but not before you teach Stanley how to pick a lock too.

The Narrator

Oh. My god. You are going to make him tear his (metaphorical) hair out. While the Narrator is normally very snarky and sarcastic, your antics are pushing it up to an 11.

"You know what the problem is? The problem is that you like doors too much!" the Narrator exclaims one run, watching you poke around a once inaccessible office. "Now, I don't know where you picked up this insufferable trick, but I've devised a solution!"

Following these words, the game abruptly resets. When you move to leave office 427, the door has (unsurprisingly) vanished. "HAH! I'd like to see you break your way through solid wall," the Narrator jeers, sounding very, very smug

You simply shrug, sitting back in front of the computer. A few minutes later, the Narrator quickly grows bored of watching you play solitaire. "Alright, I've had enough of this. I'm putting the doors back."

After another reset, the office is now back to normal. "There. Now you can continue doing whatever it is you love so much about doors. Just... try to follow my story every once in a while. Please?"

[kiss-my-freckle]

There isn’t a single bit of evidence to support our Red having lost his family. Not to an actual death. All dialogues and scenes suggest that he has a grown daughter, still living. THAT is exactly what the imposter reveal did - it removed every bit of evidence that our Red lost his family to an actual death.

1x4: The farmer parable wasn't specific to our Red. Nowhere did he state this coming from his own personal experience

Red: A farmer comes home one day to find that everything that gives meaning to his life is gone. Crops are burned, animals slaughtered, bodies and broken pieces of his life strewn about. Everything that he loved, taken from him. His children. One can only imagine the pit of despair, the hours of Job-like lamentations, the burden of existence. He makes a promise to himself in those dark hours. A life’s work erupts from his knotted mind. Years go by. His suffering becomes complicated. One day he stops. The farmer who is no longer a farmer sees the wreckage he’s left in his wake. It is now he who burns. It is he who slaughters. And he knows, in his heart, he must pay. Doesn’t he, Stanley?

1x7: In Frederick Barnes, we were taken to the house that belonged to Raymond and Carla Reddington. There's nothing to support this house belonging to our Red.

Red: Strange. I remember it being bigger. Luli: I don’t understand. Of all the places Marigot, Doha, Florence, Seychelles why this place? Red: I raised my family in this house. Luli: It’s lovely. Red: No, it’s not, but it used to be. Dembe: Time to go. Red: Did you prepare everything the way I asked? Luli: This place must hold a lot of memories for you. Red: I spend every day trying to “forget what happened” here. This should help.

In fact, a few moments earlier, he compared himself to Frederick Barnes. A man who has a child, still living.

Red: Every cause has more than one effect. Say what you will about Frederick, but someone who’s willing to burn the world down to protect the one person they care about – That’s a man I understand.

Considering our Red is an imposter Reddington, and there isn't a single bit of evidence showing us whether or not Luli believed him to be the real Raymond Reddington, our Red could've been speaking to her as the real Raymond Reddington when he said, "I raised my family in this house."

1x13: In The Cyprus Agency, Diane Fowler spoke to our Red, not knowing that he's an imposter. Given this, the family Fowler was referring to, was the family of the real Raymond Reddington.

Diane: I know the truth, Red. About that night - about what happened to your family. Do you want to know the truth? Red: More than anything in the world. But if you know the truth, Diane, then somebody else does too.

And our Red's response to Fowler contradicted his response to Luli in Frederick Barnes. You can have one, but you can’t have both. Either he wants to forget what happened there or he wants to know what happened there. Considering his answer would need to align with the real Raymond Reddington because Fowler believed she was speaking to the real Raymond Reddington, our Red was at the Tacoma Park house, which means our Red would be that "somebody."

1x14: In Madeline Pratt, Red's story didn't specify who the blood belonged to - whether it his own family, his extended family, or someone else's family. It also doesn't specify whether or not they actually died.

Red: I ran out of gas. I was so excited to get home, I didn’t even bother to look. My head was just - I ran out of gas. It was Christmas Eve. I pulled off to the side of the road. Seemed like it’d been snowing for days. No traffic. No cars to come help. Just me and a car full of gifts. It was more than 20 years ago. I must have walked four miles. Five, maybe. It was so still. Just cold and white. The whole time, all I could think about, was them in our house. The warm light in the windows, the smoke from the chimney. The sound of my daughter at the piano. The smell of the tree and the fire, oyster stew on the stove. I was so upset to think that I’d ruined Christmas for them, being late, leaving the gifts in the car. But the closer I got, the more I realized how funny the whole thing was, how much they’d love the story - daddy running out of gas. How every Christmas - they’d get such joy from telling that story at my expense. And then finally - I got there. I walked - I walked through the door. And there was just blood. All I saw was blood. All there was - was blood. I can - I can still smell the nape of her neck, feel her little fingers on my cheek, her whisper in my ear. That’s why I didn’t show up in Florence. It’s why I haven’t shown up in a lot of places over the years.

1x16: In Mako Tanida, there's no proof that Red knew of Audrey's pregnancy, so he was comparing his loss to that of Ressler losing his girlfriend.

Red: Donald, I understand how you feel. Beneath the iron-and-rust exterior beats the heart of a man swimming in immeasurable grief. I am truly sorry about Audrey. There are few that understand love and loss more than I.

Red: Let me tell you something that someone much wiser than I told me at a similar point in my life. Go home. Turn back from this and go home. It may seem like the hardest thing in the world, but it is profoundly easier than what you’re contemplating.

Red: Donald, I want you to know that I do understand how you feel. There is nothing that can take the pain away. But eventually, you will find a way to live with it. There will be nightmares. And every day, when you wake up, it will be the first thing you think about. Until one day - it will be the second thing.

2x7: In The Scimitar, our Red told Zoe that he has a daughter. Form shows only one daughter, and she's still living. Red had no reason to lie to Zoë. Telling her that his family or even his daughter is deceased wouldn't reveal his or his daughter's born identity.

Zoë: Do you have kids, Kenneth? Red: I do, a daughter. Zoë: The two of you close? Red: It’s complicated. Zoë: She doesn’t like anchovies? Red: You know, I don’t know about that. I wish it were that simple.

2x9: In Luther Braxton, our Red admitted to having lost a family, but "lost" doesn't specify that he lost them to an actual death.

Red: It may be hard for you to imagine, but I once had a relatively normal life. Bills to pay, playdates, family, some friends, people to care about. Lost all that. Liz: Lost how? Red: In Mexico, there are these fish that have colonized the freshwater caves along Sierra del Abra.They were lost. They found themselves living in complete darkness. But they didn’t die. Instead, they thrived. They adapted. They lost their pigmentation, their sight, eventually even their eyes. With survival, they became hideous. I’ve rarely thought about what I once was. But I wonder - if a ray of light were to make it into the cave, would I be able to see it? Or feel it? Would I gravitate to its warmth? And if I did, would I become less hideous?

In fact, his response to Liz basically states that they lost him because he himself became lost in the darkness.  

3x9: In The Director, our Red only spoke to the loss of his mother and "the others." No specification here with regard to losing his own family (wife and children) to an actual death.

Red: There are foundational elements in our lives. People that form the brick and mortar of who we are. People that are so deeply imbedded that we take their existence for granted until suddenly, they’re not there. And we collapse into rubble. I’ve stood over the open grave of someone I’ve loved too often. Once for my mother. And then the others. I needed to recall this feeling because I’d be staring at another body right now if not for you, Aram. It wasn’t weakness that prevented you from watching your friend die today. It was hope, and thank heavens you were in a hopeful mood. You saved Elizabeth. I’m forever in your debt.

3x14: In Lady Ambrosia, our Red told Vasilia Patinka that he doubts he'd have recovered from the kind of loss - or perceived loss that she has.

Red: What you endured, most people never recover from. I doubt I would have. But you’ve turned it into a calling. Nikolai would be proud.

3x20: The Artax Network gave us something interesting. Dom compared his loss of Katarina to Red's loss of Elizabeth. The only exception being the blame Dom feels our Red holds for their deaths. Even more interesting, considering Dom felt tortured by Red playing in young Katarina's glitter. If Dom felt Red responsible for his daughter's death, that man would not allow him to play around in her childhood. And don't get me started on Dom not being able to defend himself against Red. If Red truly felt he was invading something he wasn't supposed to be, he'd have respected Dom enough to apologize and put it away. But he continued ... again, while wearing the man's coat.

Dom: Stop - torturing me. Red: That was never my intention. Dom: Then what are you doing out here? These boxes are all I have - all I have left of my daughter. Red: I’m sorry, Dom. I understand. Dom: No, you don’t. You don’t understand. You think because Masha’s dead, now you - you can understand me? You can - you can share my misery? Red: I feel bereft, just like you. Dom: No, not just like me. She’s gone because of choices you made for both of them. First Katarina and then Masha. As far as I’m concerned, you killed my entire family! No, you’re not like me.

I don’t care what anyone believes, there’s no way in hell a co-worker or handler of Katarina’s or Dom’s would be disrespectful enough to go through a deceased Katarina’s things as if he has the right. And not just Katarina’s things, but Dom’s entire house. Our Red went into Dom’s garage and messed around with his tools just to fix the piano. Was shown coming down the stairs from Dom’s second story when Aram knocked on the door. What’s upstairs in most homes, but bedrooms. 

4x1: In Esteban, Alexander Kirk believed he was speaking to the real Raymond Reddington.

Red: Elizabeth, are you okay? Kirk: Of course she is. Unlike you, I would never hurt my own daughter.

4x2: In Mato, Mr. Kaplan spoke of our Red putting a baby Liz in her arms and asked to keep her safe. There's absolutely no reason why a co-worker or handler of Katarna's or Dom's would need to do this. And don't get me started on a four-year-old being considered "a baby." Mr. Kaplan was specific enough in this statement to compare "baby" Liz to "baby" Agnes.

Kate: I’m not sorry for what I did. I betrayed you for the same reason I just betrayed Nikos - to keep Elizabeth safe, just like you asked me to all those years ago when you first put her in my arms as a baby girl. Only now, she has a baby girl of her own, and your existence in their lives puts them in constant danger.

That's in addition to the fact that there's absolutely no reason his existence in Liz's life would put her or Agnes in danger if he were simply a co-worker or handler of Katarina's or Dom's. Liz's father is dead. If her mother were truly dead, then there's absolutely no danger whatsoever. He's simply a man who knew her parents.

1x7: Bubble Girl

There's no given proof telling us that the young child playing with bubbles is our Red's daughter, nor is there proof to show that she's deceased.

1x16: Ballerina Girl

We can't be sure what the dancer knows of our Red being an imposter. Because of this, there's no proof revealing Ballerina girl to be our Red's daughter.

Dancer: He’s one of our biggest donors. Never comes to any other performance. Same show on the same day every year. They say his daughter was in the show years ago.

2x5: The Front 8mm film

There's no given proof telling us that this film is of our Red's family, nor is there proof to show that the two in the film are deceased.

2x14 -

Red's "last word."

Red: Lizzy.

2x19 -

Once awake after nearly dying, Elizabeth's name was the first word out of his mouth.

Dembe: The doctor says you did well. Red: Elizabeth? Dembe: She’s fine.

4x15 -

Again, while Red was dying, it's Elizabeth's name.

Lou Lou: Who’s Elizabeth? After I got some of those pills in you, you came to. Well, sort of. Kept saying her name. Elizabeth. Someone who’d miss you if you died? Red: I don’t know. Maybe.

5x4 -

This line of dialogue wouldn't come from a man who hasn't a single living child.

Red: Given the same circumstances, I’d like to think I’d be as brave as her. I know I’d want to be.

2x4-

And finally, this bit of dialogue from Naomi. She spoke as if our Red working with Liz would be something rather difficult to do with her use of "pulled that off."

Naomi: Are the - Are the two of you - what, working together? I don’t even want to know how you pulled that off.

If our Red were simply a co-worker or handler of Katarina's or Dom's, there'd be absolutely no way to prove the two have any connection at all. Adding in the basic fact that a co-worker or handler of Katarina's or Dom's wouldn't be connected to our Lizzy, he'd be connected to her mother and grandfather. That is NOT an actual connection to our Liz.  

And our Red is most certainly NOT seeking answers of his own. His most recent to Liz in 5x9 shows that.

Liz: I need you to promise me something. Red: Of course. Liz: The Blacklist. I need you to promise me you’ll keep working on it with the Task Force. Red: Doesn’t work without you. Liz: It has to. Red: I think we’ve done enough.

"I think we've done enough."

Because he's not seeking answers for himself, he's seeking answers for Liz. He turned himself in for Liz. That's why it "Doesn’t work without you."

[kjammofficial]

OP from FB

So apart from watching youtube videos and sharing some reshared content on facebook, I haven't actually been socially active lately.

My messenger is blowing up and I haven't responded to a lot of messages. So, it's not that I'm not replying to you. I'm not replying to EVERYONE. Apart from asking some recommendations and replying to some pages who I need to get in touch with since I have a transaction with them. Other than that, anything else that's personal has just been lying around in my inbox.

Anyway, I've been pretty much out for the count, especially after what happened last time. I'm still pretty bummed out by it so I'm trying my best not to pass on my shit to anybody else. This is definitely going to be a looong ass extensive posts. Coz' here' what I thought, instead of making multiple posts about my shit, I'll just sum it up into one big pile of shit, right?!

First off, if you're selling something, right. Like, you're not a store, but a person just trying to make a living, selling your services, be sure to know how to treat people right. I was speaking with someone about getting some shit done and since I'm not familiar with the process, I had to ask, right? This mofo started laughing and proceed to tell me that I... "should come back and talk to him when I know what I was talking about." In this particular case, pricing. Holy shit the nerve of this dude. Okay, so I lost some money recently, that ain't no secret. But the audacity of this person, telling me, as if I ain't got nothing to pay for the shit I'm asking. You sir just lost 1 good possible customer. You seem to be doing well on your own anyway, but FUCK YOU anyway for looking down on me. I'm not a rich guy, but I know how to work around my finances and I CAN BUY SHIT THAT COSTS WAY MORE THAN WHAT YOU THINK, FUCKER! So yeah, I'll gladly tell more about this via PM if you're interested to know what this is so you too can avoid the person. The lesson here is, don't talk shit to potential customers. Whether you know or just think that they could probably afford shit or not, never straight up laugh at your customer. NEVER!

Alright, so that's enough screen time for that fucker. Next, sooooo.... I forgot what's supposed to be next. I think I was gonna write something about what happened. Oh, right. So, I recently lost my entire paycheck due to some issues around the house, right. This one's a bit too personal and even on private messages, I won't go into details about it. But, here's the thing that's annoying. You know how you prepare for your shit, and even though you're not good at planning. You desperately try to plan things out, just to make sure that you won't astronomically fuck things over by yourself, since you know how much you can get screwed over by your own. Right?! Well, la-dee-daah, look who screwed me over. Someone who didn't prepare for their own shit and now, for some reason, I had to deal with it. What did it cost me? 2 months worth of planning go poof, and 1 month of unpaid debt (cash loan). So, I'm still figuring out how to get back from that. I seem to have enough time until when my next paycheck comes, I haven't planned it yet though. Who knows what the fuck might screw me over by that time. I'll just have to sit it out and improvise.

Partially ditched my (closest) friends again, over a video game dispute. I mean, shiiiiiit I loooove me my video games. I can even say to some extent, it's all I have, next to them. And they just keep pissing me off for some stupid reasons. Like, yeah it was pretty dumb to be mad about it, but in my point of view, I was pretty certain they were aware. Like they were aware of how I am with games and probably not with any other games, but this game in particular. I'm not gonna state what game it is just for... whatever. I just don't understand... Okay so here's the thing, whenever I go dark, they eventually come to a point and ask "what's going on? Tell us what's wrong." So after you tell them what's wrong, you get that security that, these set of people are aware, they know how they should deal with your BS. Right?! Then here comes me throwing shade, and they just give up instantly. Like, I don't understand the point of me explaining to them what's wrong with me if they immediately, instantaneously give up, right?1 Like what's the point of telling a story, if after saying the lesson the reader just goes "let's do it again." I hate to say it but, while it is true that most of the time that we have "the talk" is between alcohol, but I gotta admit... it's sad when they just seem to pretend to listen. It's stupid how it started from video game dispute to not listening, right? Like I'm some kind of moody s/o or something. But that's how I feel, I mean, that's the best that I could explain how it feels. So, Idk, I'm not exactly writing this other than for my own pleasure so, eh... Not my problem if you can't translate.

Also, I've been unfollowing news outlets and skipping anything I scroll past that's political or covid related. I've actually been doing it ever since like April, but this time I'm almost hard committing to not getting involved. I mean, sometimes I get into flame wars in the comment section just for the heck of it. But I try to go into flame wars that I know I'm certain to win haha. Like, fr tho. I don't wanna get burned too much. But then again, I still also do my best to stay away from anything related at all.

As I'm writing this I actually paused a game I recently received as a gift. NieR:Automata™. I've been wanting to play this for a while now, especially when I found out that this is basically a bigger story-centered version of Stanley Parable did. I was like "oh shit, I gotta play this game." I'm not sure if I have been spoiled already when I saw reviews before, but hopefully, my description of the game here, doesn't ruin it for those who haven't played it yet too. Also, you have some dedication reading this post if you've made it this far. If you did, do send game recommendations. I like the ones that have an absurd number of multiple endings. I blame Stanley Parable for this, but I just really fancy the idea. Or at least a confusing one, like Control. I haven't played it yet but it's been out for a while. I know I wanted to play it since it was teased, but I never got the chance to grab the game yet, when it recently dropped in Steam. I was indeed spoiled about something about the ending, so, probably after NieR, my lists are as follows. (I'm not gonna make a bulleted list coz it'll be easily seen when anyone clicked "see more" and people be like "meh, just a bunch of lame gaming posts") So my lists is, for big title, I'm waiting for WD: Legion and CyberPunk 2077. Then comes Detroit become human, Control, Beyond: Two Souls. I have a bunch in mind that I wanna play but these are my focus for now. That's after I finished NieR.

Well, you've made it. You somehow read through this entire thing. I gotta say, I  actually had a lot of negative shit to posts. But I think my YouTube-ing, actually helped. I have been watching Smosh Pit. Holy guacamole Smosh is hella different than when I was first watching it back in 2010-2012. Anthony has long since left, and Ian has just been awkward to watch, sometimes. He looks like "when the boss tries to look quirky like the employees" whenever he's in a video, lol. But him and Anthony did establish the whole thing up, he probably got stuck to it after Anthony left. Since, you can't really just leave your legacy to a bunch of other people, right? Anyway, idk why I'm talking about that so.... You know the unfortunate thing is, after all this, nobody still really cares. Doesn't matter how much effort I put into socializing with people. After everything that I've gone through, once it's all said and done. At the end of the day, all I really have is myself. I think I've come to a point now that I've been doing self-love too much, that I've taken myself for granted. So, I'm just like "whatever" now. Nothing matters, we're all shitty people, we're all just a bunch of gas moving around, we're all gonna die, nobody's gonna know us as soon as 5 years after we died.

This is probably the only time I'm gonna say this on facebook or any of my other socials as I'm gonna try to hide it. I'm gonna do my own vlogging again. BUUUT it's not gonna be on anything that can be monetized. It's gonna be just my personal vlogs. I'll have it in my tumblr, what's my tumblr, that's for you to figure out. I've missed vlogging, and not the modern fancy ass vlogging that you see in YouTube. The vlogging I grew up with is literally just a video-blog/vlog, like a diary. So you take a video and you keep it somewhere. I didn't wanna upload it actually, I was gonna have it as a keepsake. But just for the heck of it, I'll put it in the internet so it's there forever. Unless tumblr gets taken down or do a friendster/myspace. So, yeah, I haven't posted anything yet, nor had taken a video. But as soon as I started rolling, I'll post it there and it'll just be a memory of me.

So yeah guys. Idk why you're reading this but thanks for your time anyway. Ya'll have a good one. I still don't feel like socializing but for my sanity's sake, I'll try to get back into responding into your messages. It's probably good for me too (I think). Byyeeeeeeeeeee~

Fin

[the-east-hunter]

The Boss Game

I jsut wanted to cover my thoughts of this game for @sarcastic-pasta-games but I didn’t want to be restricted by character count in an ask. I know that means you might now see this, but this has to be said - spoilers if you haven’t played the game btw!

My lord. that game was beautiful. I’m sorry I didn’t record my reaction, I stopped after an hour and a half, because I Was too impatient to take the time to record it. Thats how much I loved it. I just had to binge play it all at once. I coulnd’t help myself. I adored this game. But let me give you an idea of what it was like.

 Let me describe for you my glee and the instant smile that broke out when the door was torn down. My delight at the ever growing bathroom. The piece of toast! How I laughed out loud and leaned back in my chair, clapping my hands together in positive happiness when the Stanley Parable section began - Not This country SHARON!. how could I not love this cute and charming game with it’s beautiful music. I know that the whole shut the game thing is done often in games, but when I was fighting Sean and it happened I stared at the screen in shock for a genuine moment, not fully understanding what had just happened. 

Everything about this was beautiful. From the music to the art to the sprite work. And you little things made me fall more and more in love with it. it was only a handful of hours of playtime but I was so happy throughout the entire course of the journey. Let me confess something to you - I actually don’t watch much JSE. I love the guy to death, and I do art for him and everything and love being part of his community and the youtuber community, but all in all I don’t watch lots of his stuff, I’m an absentminded person who forget to check to see what’s been uploaded today. So I’m not in on all the inside jokes - but i still loved this. Because this was so clearly made with so much love and with happiness and joy in mind. It was a labor of love. And that love came through the game to me. 

who wrote those lines? Was it one person? Or was it all of you? As soon as I typed in my name at the beginning of the game I knew it would come up eventually, I think it was used for some gag mid game? And after the finale happened and it didn’t come up I thought that was it. Then the screen went black and in a text box my name appeared. my heart strings tugged. The pulled at those words, those kind words that whether they were or not felt so well meant and honest. Like even though you couldn’t possibly know me or who I am you genuinely wanted me to know those things. My emotions welled up so much that I cried. So many days I walk around feeling as though there’s an empty space in my chest - today that spot felt full and overflowing. How you did that I don’t know, but I can never thank you enough for that. 

I needed that so bad

I needed this game and I didn’t know it until the opening music hit my ears and the beauty of it brought tears to my eyes. 

I hope everyone involved in this masterpiece knows how much I love them and how much their hard work touched me and effected me.

Thank you

[alexschurick-blog]

When it comes to psychological experiments the period spanning the 40 years or so after the end of World War II was nothing short of scary.

Scientists were physically administering electric shocks to people with sometimes, high doses of electricity, putting others (often children) through severe mental and physical trauma and abusing animals to an extent that doesn’t even bare thinking about for a compassionate human being.

We also had the authorities at Harvard turning a blind eye to experiments with LSD in a basement conducted by students trying to make contact with God, and subjecting a man by the name of Ted Kaczynski to 3-years of humiliation and anguish in the name of science.

In case you don’t know, Kaczynski later went on to be the Unabomber and killed 3-people. You can decide whether the authorities at Harvard deserve any culpability in regard to his later actions.

It’s almost unfathomable now to think of any of the following experiments being sanctioned.

However, that doesn’t mean that the ones already conducted don’t offer an amazing insight into the human psyche.

So, prepare to be appalled, as well as fascinated by what is to follow.

7 Dreadful Psychological Experiments

1. The Stanford Prison Psychological Experiment

This notorious experiment has spawned books and even movies such were the shocking results and conclusions.

In 1971, Psychologist Philip Zimbardo constructed a fake prison under (ironically) the Stanford psyche department and kitted it out with survey cameras so all the action could be filmed.

He recruited 24 undergraduates to either play the part of an inmate, or that of a prison guard.

Whereas the prisoners were kept in their cells 24/7 the guards were rotated on 8-hour shifts.

The guards were instructed to be strict and not to tolerate any ‘trouble makers’ or disobedience.

It didn’t take them long to follow their instructions, when on day 2 the prisoners rebelled and blockaded their cells.

The 2-week experiment lasted a mere 6-days when the ‘prisoners’ were pulled out with Zimbardo starting to fear for, not just their safety, but their lives.

Less than a week was all it took for the guards to resort to shocking tactics of sexual humiliation as well as psychological and physical abuse.

Some prisoners were already showing signs of learned helplessness and depression.

The Take Away

As human beings we all have the capacity to act in appalling ways under extreme circumstances.

In 1939 there were almost 70 million Germans on this planet, do you really think that more than a tiny minority were anti-Semitic or wanted to rule the world?

These students weren’t unusual and if you’d been one of them you would have almost certainly acted in a similar manner – even though you probably think you wouldn’t.

  2. Stanley Milgram’s Shocking Experiment

Milgram’s is possible the most famous psychological experiment of all time and almost as concerning as the Stanford experiment.

He hypothesized that the followers and enablers of Adolf Eichmann one of the most instrumental Nazis when it came to organizing the Holocaust, may be no more than normal people submitting to authority.

Milgram told his pairs of subjects that he was conducting an experiment on memory and then assigned one of the pair as the teacher and one the pupil or learner.

Unbeknown to the person who was assigned to be the teacher in each experiment (it was done through a rigged ballot), the other person was really an actor aware of the real purpose of the experiment.

The teacher and student were split into separate rooms and the teacher was then instructed to apply an electric shock to the other person every time they got a question wrong.

The severity of the ‘shocks’ were increased incrementally and the participants could even hear the other person screaming in pain.

Yet by and large they kept applying the shocks to such a level that there would have been a lot of explaining to do with dead bodies and severely damaged people if they had been real.

Some resisted at first and said they didn’t like administering the pain, but continued to do so when told by the man in a white coat it was all part of the experiment.

The Take Away

Not only are we all capable of inflicting pain upon others, we are also massively influenced by authority figures and under such ‘perfect storm’ situations all rational behavior evaporates.

If a person in authority (or even perceived authority)  delivers a message over and over again from a position of power, eventually we start to believe it,

In the meantime I’m off to buy a white coat.

The Good Samaritan Experiment

Over 40 Princeton students were recruited to supposedly deliver a talk on another part of campus in the early 1970’s.

When getting their instructions they were then primed with one of three statements designed to elicit mild, moderate and severe urgency in terms of how quickly they needed to get to the venue and start their talk.

On their route the experimenters had positioned a man doubled up in pain, coughing uncontrollably and obviously in a lot of distress and in need of help.

They wanted to see what effect the urgency of the instructions had on the students likelihood of stopping to help.

Less than 50% of students stopped at all and a mere 10% of those who were told their talk had to start quickly and people were waiting for them.

Some literally even stepped over the man and didn’t stop.

The irony was that these were Seminary students and half were told they were giving talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The Take Away

Many of us will help others, but the likelihood of us doing so is dependent on so many factors, not least of which is, are we in a hurry or not?

4. The One Marshmallow Or Two Experiment?

Another famous Stanford experiment from the 1960’s led by Walter Mischel involved testing the ability of children to resist short-term pleasure for longer-term gain.

4-year-old children were placed in a room one at a time with a bowl of marshmallows and not a fat lot else to focus their attention on.

They were then told that they could either eat one marshmallow now, or they could have two when the experimenter returned in 15 minutes time.

The majority of children opted for the latter option, but then caved in when left alone to their own devices.

You may think that wasn’t very surprising, after all most kids like shoveling sweet shit into their mouths and self control isn’t usually a word adopted to describe 4-year-olds.

However, the real genius of the experiment was the follow up and tracking of the participants.

The kids who resisted were far less likely to have issues with drink and/or drugs later on in life and overall were far more successful than the kids who gave into temptation.

The Take Away

Maybe teaching kids self control should be higher up our collective agendas?

5. The Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes Experiment

The day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, teacher Jane Elliott decided that she wanted to help her third-grade students understand the consequences of being a minority in a Society rife with racism, fear and hatred.

With their permission (although being given permission by an 8-year-old for such an experiment is dubious at best) she split the group into those with blue eyes and those with not.

She declared that blue-eyed people were superior and treated that group accordingly by being more relaxed about discipline with them, giving them longer recess times and paying them more attention.

The other children were ordered to sit at the back of the class and were treated harshly and with contempt.

The most staggering part of this ad lib experiment was the fact that as soon as the end of just the first day massive changes had already taken place.

The blue-eyed children who had been previously struggling started to perform better and similarly the smarter brown-eyed kids were all of a sudden struggling.

Not only that, but the blue-eyed kids soon started to taunt the others and gloat.

Elliott was wise enough to flip the exercise after the first day to give both sides the opportunity to understand what it feels like to be treated in such a manner.

An important finding in an experiment that has been replicated many times with the same results, was that the dark-eyed kids didn’t taunt their fellow students to the extent that they had been taunted.

The Take Away

It seems that for the most part we find it difficult (although of course by no means impossible) to truly empathize with minorities.

Unless that is, we too have been treated poorly because we belonged to a minority group first.

Some people have never been treated poorly by minorities because they were/are too powerful.

6. The Bystander Effect Experiment

In 1964 Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York in full view of an undetermined number of people, but in all probability well over 20, but probably less than the 38 reported at the time.

Her assailant, Winston Moseley didn’t even kill her quickly.

After stabbing her once and somebody shouting at him to ‘leave her alone‘ he ran back to his car, only to return shortly after to stab her multiple times as she lay on the ground bleeding.

The media were up in arms at how many people had failed to do anything and it sparked a storm that has never quite abated.

The Bystander Effect is the belief that the more people who witness a scene such as the one above, the less any one individual is likely to do anything about it.

Psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane decided to test this theory 4 years after the event.

This time however they used the ruse of somebody having a life-threatening seizure and as per the Milgram experiment the study group could not see the person in trouble only hear them.

The results were startling similar to what happened with Kitty Genovese.

The more people who were aware of the person needing help, the less likely anybody was to offer it.

The Take Away

On an early Coach The Life Coach course I was looking for volunteers for a couple of processes I wanted to teach.

I sent out a blanket e-mail asking people to step forward.

Nobody did.

What I should have done was e-mail people individually and ask them if they’d care to help out.

So if you ever find yourself in medical difficulty surrounded by strangers, don’t cry for help in general.

Instead point at one person and say, “You there, I think I’m about to shuffle off this mortal coil, could you possibly arrange for an ambulance my good fellow” Or something like that.

7. The Robbers Cave Experiment

In the summer of 1954 two buses picked up two groups of eleven 12-year-old boys and took them to Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma.

None of the boys knew any of the others in their group and neither group knew of the existence of the other, at least for the first week.

After the first week social psychologist Muzafer Sherif arranged for the boys to meet one another and for a competitive element to be introduced.

Already the boys had created distinct group cultures culminating in giving themselves the names of ‘The Rattlers’ and ‘The Eagles’.

However, this was taken to a whole new level when it was announced there would be a series of competitions including a baseball game.

The Rattlers took over the field immediately even planting a flag to demonstrate that they now owned the field even before the game had gotten underway.

From thereon in things deteriorated rapidly from name calling and verbal abuse to ransacking of the ‘oppositions’ living quarters and stealing of property.

Like The Stanford Prison Experiment the organizers soon had to step in to avoid the very real chance of physical violence.

During a 2-day cooling off period the boys were asked questions about one another and even though only 2-weeks earlier they had never met any people in their group they still viewed them far more favorably.

The Take Away

From an ethical stand point like a number of these experiments it leaves a lot to be desired. All the participants were white and all boys aged 12, so it’s hardly representative.

However, we see this kind of behavior all the time and at almost every level.

A certain unnamed President has crushed it!

He has taken the ‘us and them’ model to a whole new level.

But do you know why, and maybe more importantly, how, he has done that?

Because he can, and because too many people have allowed him to.

And (for the most part) they are not bad people – they have just been conned by a second-rate car sales person who understands cognitive biases.

So what’s your take?

I’d love to hear on the comments.

The post 7 Dreadful Psychological Experiments (and why science may have benefited from them) appeared first on A Daring Adventure.

[thesoundofplunder-blog]

The Model Player Part 5: Don’t Metagame

There are mountains of resources out there that help you become a better GM, but I’m not convinced that there are enough telling you how to be a better player.  Some of this stuff I only learned once I started running my own games, so I’m passing it on in the hopes that someone else will benefit from my (debatable) wisdom.  Without further ado, here is part 5 of The Model Player.

Tip 5: Don’t Metagame

This one can be tough. There are many examples of metagaming, some easier to avoid than others.  But they usually center around using your real world knowledge to affect your in-character choices.

Monster Abilities

A classic example is monster weaknesses.  Let’s imagine that you’re playing a farm boy out on his first adventure.  This is your first jaunt beyond the town of Quaintsville, and you head out into a world of adventure.  Whilst delving into a tomb for treasure, you encounter an ooze blocking your path.  You take out your bow and fire a poison arrow at the ooze, but the ooze appears unaffected by the poison!

If you’re familiar with the creature types in Dungeons and Dragons, you’ll know that oozes are immune to poison.  As a player, it’s hard to ignore this knowledge, because to do so would mean wasting in game resources when you know they will not be useful.  It’s reasonable that your character might question whether the poison would affect the ooze, but how about mind controlling effects on a golem?  Or knowing that a treant is immune to critical hits?  Using your meta knowledge of the game assumes that your only goal is to win.  It can be especially frustrating in a group with mixed levels of experience.  Some of the joy of playing is to learn these things through action - the first time you cast lightning bolt at a demon only for it to laugh, unharmed by your pitiful attack, it makes a lasting impression.  You will probably remember that moment for a long time.

Where the more experienced players are constantly providing this knowledge to the newer players, they rob them of this experience.

All in all, though, knowing monster weaknesses is a relatively small problem.  You can’t just consciously forget what you know, so your actions will be influenced by that knowledge whatever you do.  This is really a problem for the GM to provide challenges that are suitably taxing on the party in terms of resource management.  For a very good counter-argument to this form of meta gaming, read the Angry GM’s blog post about it.

GM Tendencies

Certain GMs have certain preferences on how they run their game.  Maybe Bob the GM has just finished painting a new Mindflayer miniature.  It’s natural to suspect that Bob is going to use it in his game at some stage, but don’t spend the entirety of the next session cross-examining every NPC you meet for signs of mental domination.  Either you’re right (in which case you potentially spoiled the dramatic surprise later) or you’re wrong (in which case you wasted time). Either way, letting your knowledge of the GM can ruin the flow of the game for you, your fellow players, and the GM who has so painstakingly prepared the game for you.

Anarchy

Sometimes this one is unintentional, but I’ve known players do this deliberately.  Most often it happens at the start of the adventure.  Imagine your first session with a new group - you’ve all created your characters and the GM has given you the initial plot hook.  A band of goblins have kidnapped the blacksmith’s daughter.  They were last seen heading north out of the village towards the mountains.

The GM is probably telling you to go north.  Go find those goblins and rescue the blacksmith’s daughter.  There will be adventure, and there is probably more to this band of pesky goblins than meets the eye.

But some players don’t like to be railroaded.  Some players will do things to test the boundaries of this world.

“I go south,” says one player.

“I shoot the blacksmith,” says another.

“I stay at the inn and drink myself into a stupor,” says the third.

If you’ve ever played The Stanley Parable, you’ll recognise this behaviour.  In that game, a voice continuously narrates the players actions before they happen.  “Stanley came to two doorways, and walked through the left one.”  Everyone I know who has played this game then proceeds through the right hand door, because people don’t like being told what to do.

This is just as much a problem for the GM to solve as for the players - one of the most common tips GMs are given is “don’t over-prepare”.  But some GMs are better at it than others, and poking and prodding at the edges of the game to look for cracks is likely to make the poor GM want to throw in the towel and never run another game.

Significant / Insignificant

This one is tough.  Sometimes a GM will say something innocuous, like “there are a stack of papers on the desk”.  Immediately the party stops what they were doing and starts reading through the stack of papers.  They assume what the GM said had to be significant.  This is called Chekhov’s Gun - the idea that everything the GM mentions is there for a reason.  This leaves the GM with a dilemma on how to respond.  Consider two responses the GM could make:

“You look through the papers but find nothing significant.”

“You look through the papers and find shipping manifests for various goods coming to the inn.  They date back a few months.  Each one is signed by the innkeep.”

The first response is essentially the GM stating that these papers are unimportant.  This breaks the immersion just a little, because players do not feel there are an infinite number of choices available to them.  These papers are unimportant.  There is nothing to be had from them.

Equally, the latter now makes the players assume the papers MUST be important, because otherwise the GM wouldn’t have described them in such detail.  The party looks through the manifests for the rest of the session, eventually stowing them in a bag and carrying them for the rest of the adventure.

How about the opposite problem - if a GM doesn’t describe something, it mustn’t be important.  Let’s say the group are investigating a disappearance.  They look through the victim’s office, and the GM describes the most obvious features: a desk, a chair, a window, a bookshelf and a patterned rug.  What he does NOT describe are the spots of blood on the rug, because they are difficult to see, hidden as they are by the pattern.  The players should be looking for clues, which hopefully should lead them to the blood spots providing one player says the magic words “I examine the rug more closely”.  But nobody does.  Later the players learn that they missed that clue and someone complains loudly: “you never said there was blood on the rug!”

See the problem?  Really it’s a problem for the GM again, because there should not be only one clue vital to the progression of the story.  If the players miss the clue you left, have it crop up elsewhere.  Maybe they investigate the bookcase.  Have the blood spots there instead and adjust the story accordingly.

But while it may be a problem for GMs, players can help by just immersing themselves into the character.  Does your character walk into the room and just stand there?  No.  They hunt for clues.  And don’t just say.  “I hunt for clues.”  You should be able to describe your actions, not just your intentions.  You sit down at the desk and open the drawers, examining the contents.  You look on the underside of the desk for hidden compartments.  You examine the window frame for damage.  You examine the rug for blood . . . by gods, there’s blood on the rug!

In Summary

Play as your character.  Think about what your character would do.  What would they know?  Act on the information they have.  If your character can see something in game, ask the GM for more information.  Imagine that an audience is watching you and they don’t have access to the same information you have.  Play along with the make-believe.

That’s All Folks

You’re not finished yet, sonny Jim!  Keep your eyes peeled for more player tips.  If you missed it, you can read part 4 here.

[thesrhughes]

Video Games for Writers

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Video Games for Writers

Hello, imaginary friends, and welcome to my process blog.  Today, I’m going to write, believe it or not, about some good video games for writers to play.  Besides reading, obviously, video games are my primary source of entertainment.  This isn’t to speak ill of television or film, but to speak well of the VG media.  Video games are involving, challenging, entertaining, increasingly mature, and more daring than ever.  The better ones involve fully realized characters, involved (if sometimes needlessly complicated) plots, and an amazing sense of pace.  The best of them can even teach us something about the creative process–structure, story, and keeping the attention of the generally inattentive.

(As usual, I will throw in a writing prompt at the end.)

Without further ado, I will present my admittedly biased list of games that writers should play.

Alan Wake

Alan Wake makes the list in part because the main character is a writer, and because writing (and the creative process in general) is a key element of the plot.  Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything.

Alan Wake also makes the list because it shows how media can be flexible, experimental, and still engaging and fun.  Alan Wake is a video game presented as a TV-esque episodic, the plot of which centers around a novel (and the creative process that produced said novel).  The game contains elements of all three media…and it doesn’t stop there!  It also plays with mixing and melding different genres. Mystery, horror, thriller, and action genres are all twined together throughout the gameplay and story.  The game is a wonderful example of story over structure.  It doesn’t care to adhere to any specific genre, any specific medium, any specific tropes or expectations–it mixes and matches with reckless abandon, and it’s a game that’s all the stronger for it.

A writer can take a lot away from that.  Alan Wake may primarily be an action/horror game, but it uses motifs and tropes from action/comedies, mystery thrillers, even buddy-cop movies.  It doesn’t force its story (or gameplay) into a media- or genre-specific toolbox, it just keeps opening more toolboxes.  You can do the same thing!  Write a Lovecraftian action-western!  If you run into a dead-end, open the pulp-noir toolbox and fish something out.  Another dead-end?  Open the buddy-cop toolbox.

Alan Wake also makes another important point: you can only pull all of this off if it’s still fun, if it’s still internally-consistent, and if you can keep your audience’s attention.  It does all of that, by the way.  It’s fun as hell.  I recommend playing it not only for its willingness to open all the toolboxes, but also because it’s a roaring good time.

The Stanley Parable

Sometimes, your characters will surprise you.  So it goes in The Stanley Parable, a fun little playable-essay on video game design, narrative structure, and the wild unpredictability of characters.

In The Stanley Parable, you play the role of Stanley.  Your time in the game is narrated by an exacting, well, narrator.  The narrator is trying to tell a story.  Unfortunately, you’re just as likely to work against the story as you are to work with it.  Since you’re the player, after all, you get to make the choices.

I think this is a remarkable game for several reasons.  First: it’s funny as hell.  Second: it’s a real hoot to play through.  Third: it captures, very well, the struggle a narrator can have with their characters.

As writers, we develop characters to be people.  We want them to be complex, to have depth and consciousness, to have contradictions and flaws.  We want them to be as human as possible.  And if we’ve done our job well, they will occasionally surprise us.  I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve written up an outline only to realize, halfway through, that one (or more) characters would never ever follow through with it.  They go ahead and do what makes sense for them and I’m left to scrap the outline and start again.  It’s very frustrating.

A very similar relationship evolves between Stanley and The Narrator.  As Stanley, you are the character.  Yes, you could do everything the narrator tells you to do.  It’s quite easy that way, actually.  But, ultimately, it feels sparse, boring, uninvolved.  You go through the motions without real meaning, rolling your eyes half the way, and the ending becomes a kind of mockery.

I won’t give away more.  It’s a playable and replayable game and I hope you give it a spin.

The lesson is this: well-designed characters will surprise you.  Don’t try to hammer them back into shape.  The more you try to force characters to fit your outline, the less human they will seem.  If you deprive your characters of agency, they become boring.  Readers want human characters.  Characters who make their own decisions (or seem to, at least).  Realistic characters with agency and contradictions and a sense of self!  So don’t fight them too much, or the whole thing will break down…

Spec Ops: The Line

In an action game, you expect to kill people.  You expect firefights and explosions and huge set pieces.  Fierce enemies, intense action sequences, and high-octane plot lines.  What you don’t expect?  Moral consequence.  Judgment.  Guilt.  Intellectual and emotional confusion.

Spec Ops: The Line is an action game that hates action games.  It’s a game that changed the way I thought about war.  And it’s a done-and-done-again adaptation of Heart of Darkness.

My experience with Spec Ops: The Line is lengthy and complicated.  It shocked me into doing research on veterans’ affairs, moral injury, PTSD, and the alarming ways in which we, as a nation, discard our returning soldiers.  It sounds shallow and awful and trite, but this game drove me to interview veterans, to read essays and forum posts, and to pore through articles and books.

It started when I shot a civilian in the middle of a heated, three-way firefight.  She was running through a maze of alleys and Walker (the POV character the player controls) had been harried from all sides by assailants.  I turned a corner, saw a figure charging at me, and reacted.  Then I watched as a woman screamed in pain, dropped to the ground, and died while clutching the wound in her stomach.  Before I had time to come to terms with what I’d done, someone else was already shooting at me.  I had to keep moving.

Things got worse from there.

But I won’t make this article about my The Line experience.  That could be an article in and of itself.  The point I want to make is this: this game changed my emotional response to the world around me.  I’d read Heart of Darkness and seen Apocalypse Now, but it was Spec Ops: The Line that dug its claws into my heart and tore it up.

Are you worried that you’re writing a story that’s been done before?  Don’t be.  Heart of Darkness has been adapted into at least two different films.  Its plot has been mirrored and paralleled in countless novels and novella.  There are callbacks to Heart of Darkness littered all through our media.  I’ve experienced plenty of them.  But this one hit me like a Mack truck.  So if you’re working on a project, and you’re worried it’s been done before…stop worrying.  You never know.  Yours might just be the one that changes someone’s life.

Metro 2033/Metro Last Light

Setting.  Setting is very important.  We’ll have a process blog entry on that point, soon enough.  But setting is also very difficult in storied sci-fi/fantasy settings–it has to be delivered without too much exposition.  Readers don’t want history lessons.  They don’t want long explanations.  They want more story.

The games (based on the Metro 2033 series of novels, which I own but have not read yet) do an incredible job with setting.  At one point in Last Light, an old, gray-haired man is doing shadow-puppets for a group of children.  As the show went on, the children stopped recognizing the animals.  Many of them were extinct.  The old man became exasperated, trying to explain beauty to people who had never seen it.  Eventually, he gives up and tells them to go home and come back the next day.

Most of the setting and world-detail of these games is provided by such events.  A slew of graffiti on a subway wall, a group of children chasing rats with sharp sticks.  A corpse found in the sewer with a hole in its head, an old gun clutched in its rotting hands.  A family who tries to kill you…and when you kill them, first, you find a chopped up corpse in their fridge.

You don’t really need to know the ‘how’ or ‘why’ of these things.  The ‘what’ is enough.  Nobody moans a history at you, nobody drunkenly recounts the long tale of the apocalypse.  Nobody needs to.  The tale is there to be seen.  And if there are strange creatures, unholy mutants, and desperate ghosts in the subway tunnels?  Of course there are.  The world has made it clear that this is not mankind’s kingdom any more.

Play this game because it does the best job of expressing setting and history of any game I’ve ever played.

Life is Strange

Life is Strange is one of the most heart-wrenching, emotional games I have ever played, and I have played a lot of games.

The main character of Life is Strange gets a special power: she can reverse time.  But while most games outfit you with an ability to go tangle with great forces and perform amazing feats, Life is Strange just puts you in the shoes of a teenage girl trying to navigate life.  The reverse-time ability doesn’t let you fight monsters, it just lets you make different decisions.  When you see a police officer harassing a young woman, what do you do?  (1) take a photo as evidence?, (2) intervene directly?, (3) ignore it?, (4) do any of the above, but then backtrack and investigate what really happened?  Each choice leads to a very different set of consequences, and reverse-time powers or not, you’ll have to choose one of them sooner or later.

There’s a lot to learn and unpack from Life is Strange.  There’s the fashion in which the player can rough-draft and brainstorm their decisions.  Or the way it uses magic realism and supernatural sci-fi to tell a deeply intimate story.  It does an excellent job of making small things seem huge and of creating a real, living world that these things happen in.  Life is Strange is, in my biased opinion, the most necessary game on this list.

But the most powerful lessons it has to offer are about character and consequence.  The entire game is character driven, a mess of people with tangled motivations and relationships, each of them complex and flawed and hurting and a little bit beautiful.  It’s a great lesson in giving depth and humanity to even the seemingly background characters.

It’s a greater lesson in the nature and gravity of consequence.  Super powered or not, Maxine Caulfield is still just a semi-normal person trying to navigate a semi-normal life.  And that’s what gives the game its emotional power.  Despite the seemingly magical abilities, we can’t foresee or prevent our actions from having consequence, sometimes to extreme effect.  We can’t be heroes, we can only do our best.  So it goes with a character in a story: their actions should have consequence.  Great consequence, unforeseen consequence, heartbreaking or affirming consequence.  Their actions, however small, make ripples in the world.

If you want to know more, play the game.

Writing Prompt

Write a story outline framed entirely as character choices.  Try a flow chart!  Open with a situation (“Zumi runs down a hallway until she reaches an intersection,” for instance) and then branch through the outline by following the protagonist’s choices.  (If she turns left, what happens?  If she turns right?  When the thing chasing her catches up, what if she fights?  What if she runs?  Etc.)  What happens to the story/outline when protagonist choice is the most important factor?