#i spent nearly 100 dollars on this game

[shappoxs]

I openly accept any corrections, especially from actual Lucanis fans or demisexuals. If you disagree with anything I say this point onwards, please tell me!

The way Lucanis went from "bisexual disaster " to "panromantic demisexual" after the game came out feels weird (Both are direct quotes about Lucanis from Mary Kirby). Before I get into this I'd like to clarify, neither is a problem, Lucanis being demisexual in a vacuum is not what I take issue with.

But it feels like another excuse. Being demisexual means something it's not just another word for inexperienced or hesitant. If Lucanis is demisexual why does he fall for Neve or Rook nearly just as fast as any other companion does and why does he never acknowledge that?

There are many hints that he's never dated before (not sure if it's ever outrught stated), and again, he is shown to be hesitant... but nothing uniquely in the direction of demisexuality.

This game clearly isn't afraid of using real terms (it has an entire codex going over different non-binary labels), so why is this where they draw the line? Why does Lucanis never acknowledge the fact that he requires a deep connection before he feels certain things?

I've seen people call Krem from DA:I bad trans representation because he's never called transgender, which I respectfully disagree with. Still, Krem is explicitly trans and then Lucanis's demisexual coding is just... pulling away before you can kiss? It doesn't help that the scene happens after something that would definitely explain why Lucanis would need to clear his head.

That's also paired with the fact we do get told constantly that he's traumatised and he mentions having little faith in people prior to his romance (at least with Neve). This isn't to say he can't be demisexual, not at all, but there's always an explanation for his behaviour that people would think of before demisexuality and there's no effort put in to otherwise lead us to it.

For a game that is on the nose about everything, I find it hard to give them the benefit of the doubt that this was the one thing they handled with subtlety.

Best case scenario, Mark Kirby was just trying to... I don't know, set up expectations to defy them? Worst case scenario, this is just another case of someone from Bioware lying to us about this damn game.

[splatanastamprr]

Been thinking about this a while so as the Shattering Spirits are being rolled back soon here are my thoughts on the Sky Economy. a VERY long post.

Event Spacing (1)

I joined right after Season of Prophecy ended, Season of Dreams was to start in about 3~ weeks? not sure since it was a long while ago.

Later seasons I notice rather than getting up to a month of season downtime, we now get as little as less than a week to break between seasons. Season gaps became slim. Hardly time for off season daily candle quests that make racking up normal candles easier.

On top of this, “Days Of —“ Events became more and more prominent, being mashed on top of Travelling spirits and new off season cosmetics that cost white candles. There’s no room to breathe, its almost a punishment to players who’ve taken breaks from the game after burning out from having to candle run consistently just for new items. Cosmetics that they miss out on get price hikes from their original value in reruns with the new ticket system. It’s a cycle of fomo and it’s what’s killing the playerbase in the first place.

The lack of spacing seems pretentious in a way, since nearly with every update, a new game breaking bug is rolled out, makes it feel ironic since season down gaps have been cut for seemingly no reason.

Ticketing (2)

A while ago TGC added the ticket system denoting inflation in the sky economy, it was made to remedy the fact people can’t keep affording everything with candles.

Yes it did help somewhat, as the tickets are very easy to collect, but with 3 new ftp cosmetics that are bought with these tickets and some things costing up to a weeks worth of tickets it’s easy to have to skip these items because some people just don’t want to do more daily searching on top of the already daily quests from the questgiver.

Returning items not only are insanely expensive but additionally do not equate the energy spent grinding in their original release (The Days of Sunlight towels from last year have no right being that expensive whatsoever.)

Candles (3)

Early 2021, around March the Daily Light “Chevron” was rolled out as a way to farm light without feeling the pressure to grind insanely hard daily (since very many people were asking for a way to get candles more leisurely, since candle running was very time consuming)

It became redundant as the prices for candle items was driven up very far. Not to be so “back in my day” but genuinely the need to candle run extensively in the way we do now wasn’t as big as it is now.

This is funny. Because now I see people asking for the same thing. A faster, less grindy way to candle run.

the first in game event I participated in was the first Days of Bloom, the cherry blossom cape was 70 candles (which to me was VERY expensive at the time). The following year’s wisteria cape cost 105, then the next tulip cape cost 110. The first price driveup was already kind of nuts to me (is the cape really worth a 35 candle mark up to the first one?) It’s hard to even prepare with the aforementioned small event gaps, it’s punishing to newer players and players who’ve skipped events out of burnout without any time to prepare for candles unless you pay real money to get candles quickly.

Assuming an average person clears their chevrons daily (15-17 candles) and heart trades with their friends (-3 for every person traded with) it’s hard to afford everything that comes your way. Travelling spirit prices are near doubling what they used to, items now costing over 100 candles with the inclusion of the batshit expensive nesting shop it really burns people out knowing you can’t afford everything you want in a game you already grind daily in. It’s demanding.

IAP items (4)

Do I even have to talk about this. The Sunlight Chunky sandals cost more than you can buy actual sandals. Why are in game cosmetics costing up to $25 USD. Huh. I could buy a whole meal for that.

Cute little items cost only a dollar before but now they’re like $3 and its kind of bonkers to me. I have to pay $3 whole dollars for a tiny jellyfish on my shoulder. is this not crazy. im not crazy right? dont wanna get deep into this but jesus my wallet

So why do I care so much? (5)

Sky is a game I hold near and dear to my heart. But I notice people including myself have stopped playing for the same, very painful reason. The fact that Sky is very buggy with little to no compensation to players as well as the Economy being so. So very bad. as well as the shithole that was shattering (the hype for that season was so crazy because yay lore!!! no actually Fuck you crab stunlock 100000)

I know people will be “Well you don’t HAVE to buy — item”, but the game’s userbase is driven completely on grinding for new cosmetics. The active playerbase is driven on just candlerunning. The lore is interesting but there’s hardly anything in game to go off of, there’s little to no curiosity for what the game is and it’s story because it gets more and more arbitrary as TGC refuses to talk about it in game. (Jenova Chen saying that games are not an effective storytelling format really pisses me off sorry)

The cycle of fomo that is essentially required to keep the playerbase going just makes me feel like this game is made on popsicle sticks and prayers (thanks aspen for this line). I can’t find myself to love sky in the same way I used to as a moth.

anyways this is really messy. Sorry. but like damn this is kind of a sad thing to me. made this post because a rant on yt got misogynistic in the middle out of nowhere so i wanted to give my own take minus the misogyny

[reallyromealone]

Hi can you do a long story about the Miya twins taking care of their brother (age 5) he's mad at them because they were late to picking him up and them trying to make it up to him

Title: forgotten

Fandom: haikyuu

Characters: Atsumu Miya, Osamu miya

Warnings: male reader, fluff, child reader, slight hurt to comfort

☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️🐟☁️

The twins were rushing, they knew they fucked up as they went to the preschool at nearly an hour late where their five year old brother stood with a seething glare "where were you two!" (Name) barked angrily as he crossed his arms "I been here forever with Mrs. (Teacher)!" The twins sighed as they knew this wasn't going to be easy, food wouldn't make him not angry this time.

"Sixth time this month!" The little one wouldn't let them hold him, only holding on to Osamu's finger "sorry bud, practice delayed!" They wasn't a good enough answer as (name) looked at Atsumu with puffed up cheeks and glared "bad reason!" He grumbled out, the two signing as (name) grumbled.

They knew they needed to do something bigger to make this up to the little one who was fed up with his brothers.

(Name) had to begin wondering if his brothers even cared at all.... Always forgetting him like this.

The twins noticed how upset the youngest was, the two feeling shitty for forgetting him.

So they did the most logical thing.

Spent 100 dollars each at an arcade with him, snacks games and toys formthe rest of the day "woo! Get it!" Atsumu said as Osamu held (name) up so he could play "win those ticket's!"

The twins held the prizes they won, the two using their coordination to their advantage as (name) ate a riceball from a convenience store they passed.

"You know we love you right?" Osamu asked the tyke, both crouching down to his level when they got home and (name) looked down and didn't answer "hey, none of that's Atsumu said to the boy seriously "you're our baby brother, we love you brat"

"Don't call me a brat!" (Name) fired back and Atsumu grinned in an annoying big brother "then stop acting like it!"

"Dummy!"

"Shorty!"

Aaaaand things were back to normal.

[winterpinetrees]

(Some of) the people trying to take over the world

Overthrowing a government is always dangerous, no matter how many decades you’ve spent preparing for it. What better way to prepare yourself and your family for possible death than with a game of monopoly stolen from the Human World? They are normally much better behaved than this. It’s just this family assumes that madness is the core mechanic of monopoly. (It would be too boring otherwise, right?) The coup was successful, for the record. These losers are the first family of an entire elf world. Now they’re going for the human one.

The woman in the back, wearing the crown, is soon-to-be Apex Ishtar Mercuralis. She should be taller, and built like a truck, but a meme format is a meme format. She is throwing monopoly dollars onto her second in command, Ryn Stormson Mercuralis. She is a noblewoman from the second most important genus, and he is a commonborn sailor turned advisor. They have one son, Fen Mercuralis, who is the noble elf equivalent of seven years old. He’s holding the microphone.

The biological father of the other two children is in the cardboard jail. He’s Arjuna Mercuralis, and they’re a former assassin and current stay at home parent. His two kids with Ishtar are Suen Mercuralis (female, ten, facing away from the camera) and Chandra Mercuralis (male, eight, lying on the floor). Lastly, the old white guy is Ryn’s seneschal, Callum. He’s about 60. Seneschals are elite human servants of the nobility who are part secretary and part emotional support. Callum has served Ryn for nearly 40 years now, and will be retiring soon. Ishtar also has a seneschal, but she doesn’t view hers as a person in the same way. Ryn’s closer relationship with his seneschal (but still one fundamentally based around ownership!) is a direct result of his commoner upbringing.

Of these characters, Ishtar and Ryn are the most important and will get their own posts soon.

You know what, screw it. glossary of terms below.

Apex: the elven title for the ruler of their entire planet. Has always been either the head of Gens Mercuralis or Gens Sondaica.

Genus (plural Genera, shortens to Gens): In the real world this is the term for a group of similar species. It’s derived from a Latin world for descent or lineage. I am using it instead of House to describe noble bloodlines because elves aren’t normal about nature or evolution.

The Human World: Here. A planet without any natural magic, populated by a whole lot of humans. Parallel to the elf world. It’s June of 2019.

The Elf Word: A parallel world to the Human World. It has the same continents and the same rough evolutionary history, but is populated by the naturally magical elves. And humans that they abducted a long time ago to do work.

Nobility: approximately one percent of the population of the Elf World. They form the genera, and those born into the nobility have the most magical aptitude. They reach adulthood at about 100, and die at around 600. Especially powerful nobles (like Genus Mercuralis) will age even more slowly. It is also possible, but very difficult, for a commoner to join the nobility through merit. This does not give them any additional magic.

Commoners: all elves who are not nobility. Around 60% of the population of the elven world. Depending on magical potential, they reach adulthood at 80-90 years old and die somewhere around 500.

Seneschal: elite human servants of the nobility who are part secretary and part emotional support. Some nobles view their seneschals as trusted companions, some more like service animals, and some like walking printers. It depends.

[disease-danger-darkness-silence]

I'm rereading the Meet Death Sitting series by @bomberqueen17 because I never read the side stories and, let me tell you, it is surreal remembering that a lot of these were written during the early days of the 2020 part of the COVID pandemic. It took me back. I was so scared during those days, and angry.

When the lockdown went into effect (and Nevada was one of the first ones to implement it), my sister was in prison for a nonviolent, first-time offense: embezzling from a multi-billion dollar international gaming company. So... Unjustifiably, imo. I think theft crimes should be weighted by who you stole from and how much it effected them. And frankly, they weren't paying her enough to survive on, and she supervised TWO sports books.

She got sentenced in January and for some reason couldn't appeal, and then lockdown happened in March.

They were doing NOTHING for the prisoners.

She was in the Las Vegas prison doing hard labor in 125°+ weather and they weren't even providing a decent amount of calories to eat each day, let alone masks and hand sanitizer. She lost 100 lbs in prison, in a deeply unhealthy way.

A woman with a mental instability smuggled in a razor blade that she would hold in her cheek, next to her teeth, and when Ashley reported it, they did nothing. Ashley got transferred to a different bloc at some point because she was going to be doing food service work (she has a culinary education), but someone did get hurt by that woman. No consequences came for any of the COs (correction officers) or the warden.

Oh, and then they yanked Ash out of food prep and into heavy labor. Not sure why, because we got her records and there's no citations or anything on there. They just did it. I'm PERSONALLY assuming it's because I was calling daily demanding to talk to the warden or the supervisor on duty to demand better treatment. FFS, they were feeding them grade B, not fit for human consumption food. I was calling everyone I could think of and generally making a nuisance of myself, during a global pandemic, and while advocating for Ashley I also began advocating for her fellow prisoners. I wrote to the governor. I wrote to the Nevada Department of Corrections. I spent 8 hours a day harassing state officials (and politely talking to state workers who don't get paid enough for this shit), and I'm pretty sure her getting hard labor was punishment for her daring to have someone on the outside willing to make life a living hell for themselves and others for her.

We all nearly bankrupted ourselves keeping money on her books so she could buy extra food and special soap because she has a skin condition and they just give you harsh lye soap (no shampoo, no conditioner) at the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center. She has an IUD that stops her periods so luckily she didn't need tampons the whole time she was there, because they ration them and if you need more, you'd better have some money to buy shitty dollar store ones at Target prices! (IIRC Ashley took her allotment and shared them around.)

We illegalized private prisons in Nevada a few years back but they acted like they still were one. You had to work or you couldn't apply for parole. They sold dollar store products at a massive markup. They didn't give her medical care for all but the last month or two she was there, and that meant she didn't have her ANTIDEPRESSANTS for most of the time. She was suicidal and depressed and anxious and most of all, she missed her daughter - my niece, who got displaced to live with my sister's ex-husband, who is an alcoholic, abusive bastard who supports Trump and used to make Ashley set an alarm on her phone so he'd remember when to beat her. That's who my niece had to go live with. He was mostly sober by then, but she was clearly miserable and every time she came to stay with Mom for visitation, she didn't want to go back.

Ashley spent 10 months in there before getting parole in mid October of 2020 - for a first-time embezzling offense that was the equivalent of stealing $5 or $10 from someone in the middle class. (Also adding, the Gaming Board DID NOT ASK for imprisonment, they wanted her on probation so she could get a job and do restitution. The guy who talked her into it? The abuser who found a domestic violence victim and manipulated her? He got probation, and it was his fourth gaming offense.)

The entire time, I was organizing book drives and fundraisers and harassing state officials to do something - some of you remember this, because some of you helped by sending her books and money, and I still cannot thank you enough. To this day, I go to bed every night thankful for you all.

But I was spending my daylight hours, and a lot of my nighttime hours, trying to fight for her. Her voice wasn't being heard so I would damn well amplify it.

A lot of the women there shouldn't have been. Nonviolent drug offenses that clearly needed psychiatric care and not imprisonment. A woman who killed her husband in self defense, caught on tape, but still imprisoned. Another woman who's boyfriend was dealing meth and she got the guilt by association thing - never came up dirty, complied in every way, and they threw the book at her. Prison should be for 1st and 2nd degree murderers, rapists, violent abusers, torturers, organized criminals, people who molest and groom children. Not these women. It was heartbreaking. I knew it was bad, but now I had secondhand experience and I would never wish that on anyone but the most heinous of human beings.

I had nightmares almost every night that Ashley would catch COVID and die, or that she'd figure out a way to kill herself. I didn't wake Raven (my partner, for those who may have forgotten) when I had them. I just read a little bit of fic, and then cried myself back to sleep.

_____________

I don't know that I ever thanked @bomberqueen17. She's been through a lot the last few years (including something I can empathize with - a parent death. I miss my dad terribly. It's been 7 and a half years and I still feel his loss). But... I never thanked her for getting me through 2020 in mostly one piece.

It was her fics that I read when I woke up after a nightmare. It was her fics that I read in the mornings as I woke up, drank coffee or an energy drink, and got my day started to begin campaigning against Nevada's DOC. It was her fics that calmed me down in between calls and it was her fics I read to keep from crying when my sister called me. I'd read excerpts to her (she hadn't seen the Witcher yet but she still laughed at the right spots) and I'd try to keep her cheered up by telling her about fandom stuff.

Like yes, I read other fics and authors. But it was her fics that made a difference and, I think, are the reason Ashley and I were fortified enough to fight for her rights.

So.... A very belated thank you, @bomberqueen17. I don't know that I could have survived that, in addition to everything else 2020 threw at us, without your writing.

Also thank you for this very succinct explanation of why significant age gaps can sometimes present a problem, in a way that isn't denigrating to those with youth. I've been trying to explain it to my 23-year-old for years, and others, but now I will just use this.

You're the best. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

[dameronscopilot]

Omg happy sleepover can i request the fair with the triple frontier boys 😭😭😭 pleeeeease

I don't think words can express how excited we were to write this one, anon.

A night at the fair with the Triple Frontier boys

By @dameronscopilot:

Picture this—it’s a balmy evening in late September, and your four favourite boys just arrived to pick you up for a night out at the local fair. 

Benny - One night when you’re out for dinner with the boys, you eagerly point out a flyer advertising the annual town fair. Everyone collectively groans—besides Benny. He subtly tears the paper off the wall and stuffs it into his back pocket. And when the week of the fair finally comes around, he surprises you by remembering that you wanted to go, and he drags the rest of the boys along (whether they like it or not). 

When nobody else wants to do the silly “old time” photos, Benny obliges your request, grinning from ear to ear when he waltzes out dressed as a cowboy. He also disappears near the end of the night and returns with a ridiculous air-brushed t-shirt that says “Miller’s Good Luck Charm” with a pair of gloves beneath it. (You bet Frankie $20 he won’t wear it to Benny’s next match.) (He does.) 

Frankie - After Benny blows nearly $100 trying to win you a stuffed animal from the water gun shootout game, Frankie quietly slips away and makes his way over to the game. With his pockets only $10 lighter ("That was my Fuck You money, Ben," he slyly remarks), he returns with an armful of prizes—most of which you insist he hand out to the small crowd of children now swarming around him—and a small smile on his face. (He gives Benny a ridiculous, sparkly, pink bear as a consolation prize.) And when you eventually make your way over to try your hand at the baseball toss game, he casually puts his hat on your head and coaches you through your throws. 

Santiago - Santi spends the ride over to the fair browsing the website, and he’s intrigued when he comes across a flashy graphic claiming that you could “WIN $1000 DOLLARS!” He quickly enters all of you in the contest without consulting anyone else in the car. Unfortunately, when your names are called over to the main stage at the fair midway into the evening, Santiago is horrified to realize that he didn’t read the fine print—the contest is a team-based obstacle course. (Frankie talks his way out of it by claiming his stomach didn’t love the questionable chilli cheese dog he ate, Will and Benny nearly win the whole thing but are somehow bested by a pair of teenagers, and you end up sprawled on top of Santi in top of a pit of foam blocks, crying laughing as he groans about his knees.)

Will - The fair is bustling with people, and you’re disappointed when the crowd prevents you from finding a decent place to watch the fireworks at the end of the night. While the other boys begin to debate an increasingly ridiculous series of military-esque tactics to dodge and weave your way to the front, Will rolls his eyes at them and takes your hand, beckoning for you to follow him. As you make your way to the top of the Ferris wheel for what’s arguably the perfect view, you squint your eyes as Will points out the three tiny dots still animatedly arguing on the ground. 

By @dieterbravospr:

Benny - Benny Miller has one goal at the fair: Win you the biggest stuffed animal there. He sets his sights on a massive otter hanging from the poles of the dart game’s tent and he’s found his match for the night. Except, he’s Benny Miller, so it doesn’t take long. The eye of a sharpshooter and the coordination of a fighter comes in handy as the popping of balloon after balloon fills the air, each dart hitting its mark with ease. Bonus: he carries it around for you all night as you sample the various fair foods and candies without so much as a groan.

Frankie - Of course he agreed to go, he always agreed to anything you asked because it made you happy, but you knew deep down he’d rather have spent the night in on the couch with you curled up on his chest watching a movie he wouldn’t pay attention to because he was too busy stealing glances down at you. He doesn’t like crowds, they make him feel trapped, uneasy, his eyes constantly darting to search for threats in the small town you called home. He always needs to be touching you, whether it be a shoulder nudging against you, his fingers toying with the hem of your shirt, or his hand entwined with yours, and you’re happy to provide the solace. When you get stuck on the top of the Ferris wheel it’s his turn to relay the favor, his soft, soothing voice breaking through your heart pounding in your ear as you rely on him to be your eyes until you're closer to the ground. A strong arm holds you tight as lips press to your hair, his hand guiding you out of the little car to the sturdy ground. Next is a stop for a candy apple for you and a beer for him before you make your way over to the other waiting at the water gun game he ensures you win three times over via sabotage and lighthearted threats to his three friends.

Santiago - It’s Santi vs. Benny as they cue up at the ring toss game, the prize being your affection and the stupid little stuffed monkey you want. Santi talks a big game, but Benny smokes him, handing you that dumb little primate with a cocky grin. While he may be disgruntled, he’s not giving up just yet, finding you the lemonade and apple fritters you’d been blabbing about for days, your eyes lighting up as he approached with your favorite snacks. When your hand slides into his he can’t help but shoot a victorious smirk at his adversary, the game once again beginning when you bolted to Benny’s side after an invite to that death trap of a ride his neck surely wouldn’t survive.

Will - The long-suffering elder Miller rolls his eyes at the bickering between Santi and Benny, most of his night spent standing off to the side with Frankie as they kept a watchful eye on the crowds. After your beer goes spilling down your shirt as a result of a careless shoulder check from a definitely drunk passerby, he has to fight the urge to grab the man by the collar and toss him to the side. He focused on you, quickly unbuttoning his overshirt and tossing it around your shoulders as you fretted over your decision to wear white to a fair, your eyes sweetly thanking him before grabbing Santiago as he went to chase down the unfortunate soul who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Join the sleepover extravaganza!

[foreverlogical]

This Sunday, Americans are expected to wager nearly $8 billion on the Super Bowl matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. This number is nearly twice the amount bet on last year’s big game.

What explains this staggering increase? It’s not just the popularity of the teams. This is the first Super Bowl of the online gambling era.

Sports betting has been legalized in 30 states, plus Washington, D.C., thanks to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned the ban on sports betting. Now, more than 100 million Americans live in places where they can legally wager. In 2020, the industry hit $1.5 billion in revenue, a 69 percent increase year to year. And in the first quarter of 2021, it is estimated that revenue rose another 270 percent. But it wasn’t until the NFL agreed to allow ads for sports gambling on its telecasts at the beginning of this season that the betting floodgates truly opened.

Companies like FanDuel, MGM and Caesars have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past year hawking their wares on TV and social media with celebrity-filled advertisements. Anyone who uses a computer, watches television, carries a smart phone or listens to the radio, likely has been exposed to Jerry Rice dumping Gatorade on a winning DraftKings bettor or some other celebrity-filled come-on. The barrage has been relentless, consistent and so widespread that it is safe to say anyone older than 12 understands where and how to make a bet on everything from the final score of Sunday’s game to whether Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s first pass will be a completion or not.

This has not happened by chance. It is a strategic and methodical effort to make sports betting seem no different than going to the grocery store to pick up a loaf of bread. The difference, however, is that gambling addiction can and will cause suffering to individuals, families and businesses. The evidence is abundant. According to the Wall Street Journal, the National Problem Gambling helpline (1-800-522-4700) received an average of more than 22,500 calls a month in 2021, up from a monthly average of 14,800 the year before. Problem gamblers carry an average of $55,000 in debt and more than 20 percent end up filing for bankruptcy.

I know the gambling industry intimately. I know how the C-suite thinks. I know what investors demand from the companies. I know how the marketing people develop strategies and promotions to get the consumer to play the games. I know because I developed those strategies. I have held positions as Senior VP of Marketing for Steve Wynn, president and COO for Donald Trump, and COO for Merv Griffin. I also owned or operated gambling operations in five U.S. States and Greece. I know the language of “hooking” a small-time gambler and how to land a “whale,” someone willing to risk tens of thousands of dollars on a single bet. But for the past 20 years, I have worked in the addiction and behavioral health field. Currently, I am the CEO of C4 Recovery Foundation, an organization that, among other things, is an advocate for individuals suffering from addiction.

To the uninitiated, this might look like the free market at work. If the activity is legal, one might ask, why shouldn’t companies be allowed to attract customers by any means necessary? For the same reason, we don’t let cigarette companies make smoking look fun by using “cool” cartoon camels. Smoking might be legal, but we know it’s dangerous. The same logic should apply to sports gambling.

For elected officials concerned with protecting their constituents, runaway gambling ads should be their worst nightmare. But unfortunately they are sleeping on the job. Despite studies that show a direct correlation between increased exposure to gambling advertising and problem gambling, the last time a local or state government cared about the social impact of gambling on its residents was back in 1976 when New Jersey first legalized casino gambling.

As a result of the citizens of New Jersey voting to approve casino style gambling in Atlantic City as a tool for urban development, a strict set of regulations was enacted. In 1977 the New Jersey Casino Control Act was signed into law. At the time, the state referred to legalized gambling as an “experiment.” Regulators and state officials were skeptical that the benefits of legal casinos would outweigh the negative. The most pressing concern was that of increased crime and the social impact gambling would have on the state’s residents. They were particularly concerned about increases in gambling addiction.

One of the thousands of regulations and controls the state deemed necessary was to limit advertising of the gaming products. A casino property could advertise its hotel, food offerings and entertainment, but it was forbidden to advertise the casino games themselves, including slot machines and the size of the jackpots or odds offered. That, the regulators deemed, was too dangerous to leave in the hands of the operators. Regulators were convinced that if allowed, the industry would prey on the young and those who could least afford to be spending money in a casino. Regulators knew the industry would make false and unrealistic claims about betting and would glorify the ease of winning.

The example that regulators gave was the only other legal location to gamble at the time: Nevada. In Nevada, every street in almost every town had billboards with enticements to gamble. Advertisements screaming “Loosest Slots, 99% payback” created a can’t-lose impression. One could even play slot machines at the local grocery store. New Jersey was determined not to let the operators do to Atlantic City what they had done to Nevada. Problem gambling afflicts 6 percent of Nevada residents, according to the International Problem Gambling Center, well above the national average of just over 1 percent.

The story of New Jersey is actually a great case study comparison for what is happening with sports betting currently. New Jersey eventually relaxed many of its restrictions on advertising, as gaming expanded, and competition increased. But the state didn’t surrender total control. There were still limitations and approvals needed for certain types of promotions and offerings to entice people to play the games. There was a time when every promotion required advance approval, to assure it was not misleading or unfair to the potential customer. There have been no such restrictions for sports betting.

So, what should regulators be concerned about today? Brain chemistry. The neuroscience of gambling is exactly the same as other addictive behaviors, such as drugs, alcohol, sex and eating. Like other addictive behaviors, when one gambles, the brain releases dopamine, which is a feel-good neurotransmitter that makes you feel excited. It would be logical to think this feeling only occurs when one wins, but the brain releases dopamine no matter the outcome. An individual who gets a “positive” response from an activity is not capable of logically deciding when he should stop betting.

The problem lies with advertising “hooks.” The operators of sports betting sites are not just making betting available, they are offering incentives to begin betting and to keep on betting. A good example is one site that offers a new customer $200 in free bets for making just one $5 bet.

Why does this make good business sense? The answer goes right back to brain chemistry. The operators know the more bets an individual places, the more dopamine is being released in the brain. So instead of feeling good for one single bet, they are assuring that the player is going to get several more feel-good jolts, making it very likely that the player will crave more after they have exhausted the $200 of free play.

Back in the early days of Atlantic City, every casino gave free cash to people who rode buses on day trips to the city. You could get $50 for simply showing up. The casino operators knew that most of the $50 would be deposited in the slot machines in the first hour after they arrived. With five more hours before the bus left for home, the customer would reach into his own pocket to keep the rush going. The only difference between the tactic the casinos used back then and what the online companies are doing now is that bettors are using their phones while sitting on their couch at home.

And like most products, the sports betting companies know that familiar pitch men and humor can appeal to various demographics, creating a sense of trust. Older bettors are bound to feel good seeing Brent Musburger encourage one to place a bet, and every 30- to 40-year-old will undoubtedly believe Drew Brees, having watched him play for the past 25 years, encouraging you to live your “Bet life.” And the even more troubling creation of fictional characters dressed in costumes having fun in a fantasy world, reminiscent of Camel Joe cigarette ads and his appeal to younger demographics, including underage individuals.

I am not suggesting that everyone who watches an ad for sports betting is going to become addicted to the activity. The reality is, like other forms of gambling, it is a very small percentage of individuals who become addicted. It is estimated that at least 2.5 million Americans have a severe addiction to gambling. But most experts agree the number is likely much larger.

There are no physical side effects as with alcohol or drug addiction. The first sign to an outsider that a person is suffering from a gambling addiction might be the loss of a home, divorce or even suicide.

But the easy accessibility of gambling products, accelerated by ubiquitous advertising, means that the pool of individuals susceptible to addiction has grown enormously, without adding some type of guardrail for the industry. DraftKings, currently the largest company providing sports betting services, believes there are in excess of 50 million bettors in the U.S. — roughly one in seven Americans. And they admit their goal is not only to target existing bettors, but also to “expand the aperture,” meaning create new bettors.

At a recent conference of the American Gaming Association in New Jersey, when discussing the overwhelming frequency of betting ads, industry leaders asked their membership, “How much is too much”? They expressed a fear of backlash from legislators and gaming regulators. The last thing they want is anything that will make it harder to create new bettors. They also admitted that the current spending pace on advertising is so over top that it is not sustainable for the industry. It will undoubtedly drag some sports betting companies into bankruptcy.

But the industry cannot self-regulate. I know how the industry thinks: They will say that illegal betting has been around forever and it’s enough for them to include some warnings and toll-free numbers in their ads. Beyond that, they’ll say, they have no obligation to protect the public from itself. But the gambling companies are not the ones who have to cover the social costs of an epidemic of gambling debt. This alone is reason enough for legislators to step in and provide the kind of national guardrails that New Jersey once applied.

In the business of gambling, the house always wins. They are going to make their money; it is just a matter of how many lives will be ruined in the process before they are mandated to change the way they prey on their victims. This Sunday, there will be one loser on the field but as you watch the blitz of gambling ads, think about the millions of losers off the field.

[bliss-app]

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[silent-era-of-cinema]

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish (March 11, 1898 – June 4, 1968) was an American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.

Dorothy Gish was born in Dayton, Ohio. She had an older sister, Lillian. The Gish sisters' mother, Mary Robinson McConnell Gish, supported the family after her husband James Leigh Gish, a traveling salesman, abandoned the family in New York. Mary Gish, who was "a former actor and department store clerk", moved with her daughters to Indiana, where she opened a candy and catering business. In 1902, at the age of four, Dorothy made her stage debut portraying the character "Little Willie" in East Lynne, an adaptation of the 1861 English novel by Ellen Wood.

In 1910, she heard from her husband's brother, Grant Gish, who lived in Shawnee, Oklahoma and informed her that James was ill. He was in a hospital in nearby Norman, Oklahoma, so Mary sent 17-year-old Lillian to visit him. At first, Lillian wrote back to her 12-year-old sister Dorothy that she planned to stay in Oklahoma and continue her education, but after seeing her father she admitted she missed her mother and sister. So, after a few months away from them, in the spring of 1912, she traveled back. Soon afterward, their childhood friend, actress Mary Pickford, introduced the sisters to director D. W. Griffith, and they began performing as extras at the Biograph Studios in New York at salaries of 50 dollars a week. During his initial work with the sisters, Griffith found it difficult to distinguish one from the other, so he had Lillian wear a blue ribbon in her hair and Dorothy a red one. The girls, especially Lillian, impressed the director, so he included them in the entourage of cast and crew he took to California to produce films there.

Dorothy and her sister both debuted in Griffith's 1912 production An Unseen Enemy. She would ultimately perform in over 100 short films and features, many times with Lillian. Throughout her own career, however, Dorothy had to contend with ongoing comparisons to her elder or "big" sister by film critics, fellow actors, studio executives, and by other insiders in the motion picture industry. Such comparisons began even from the outset of the sisters' work for Biograph. Linda Arvidson, Griffith's first wife, recalls their initial work for the studio in her autobiography When The Movies Were Young:

Lillian and Dorothy just melted right into the studio atmosphere without causing a ripple. For quite a long time they merely did extra work in and out of pictures. Especially Dorothy, as Mr. Griffith paid her no attention whatsoever and she kept on crying and trailed along. She also continued to play in many one and two reel Biograph films, learning the difficult technique of silent film acting, and preparing for opportunity when it came. Dorothy was still a person of insignificance, but she was a good sport about it; a likable kid, a bit too perky to interest the big director, so her talents blushed unnoticed by Mr. Griffith. In 'The Unseen Enemy' the sisters made their first joint appearance. Lillian regarded Dorothy with all the superior airs and graces of her rank. At a rehearsal of 'The Wife', of Belasco and DeMille fame, in which picture I played the lead, and Dorothy the ingénue, Lillian was one day an interested spectator. She was watching intently, for Dorothy had had so few opportunities, and now was doing so well, Lillian was unable to contain her surprise, and as she left the scene she said: 'Why, Dorothy is good; she's almost as good as I am.' Many more than myself thought Dorothy was better.

Dorothy Gish's budding film career almost ended on a street in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day in 1914. On Friday, November 26, the 16-year-old actress was struck and nearly killed by a "racing automobile". Newspapers and film-industry publications at the time reported the event and described the severe injuries Gish sustained. The near-fatal accident occurred as Dorothy was walking with Lillian at the intersection of Vermont and Prospect avenues. According to news reports, after the car struck her, it dragged her along the street for 40 to 50 feet. Other movie personnel who were standing together on a nearby sidewalk, including D. W. Griffith, witnessed Dorothy being hit. The following day, the Los Angeles Times informed its readers about the accident:

...Miss Dorothy Gish, a moving picture actress, was seriously injured yesterday afternoon. Picked up unconscious, she was taken to the office of Dr. Tryon at number 4767 Hollywood boulevard, where it was found her injuries consisted of a crushed right foot, a deep cut in the right side, and bruises on all parts of her body. She was later removed to the home of her mother at LaBelle apartments, Fourth and Hope streets. The automobile that ran her down is owned by T. B. Loreno of No. 6636 Selma avenue, also of the moving picture game.

Subsequent news reports also describe the reaction of other pedestrians at the scene. The Chicago Sunday Tribune and trade papers reported that Dorothy's "horrified friends" rushed to her aid, with Griffith being among those who lifted the unconscious teenager into an ambulance and reportedly rode with her in the emergency vehicle. In addition to Gish's initial examination by the doctor identified by the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago newspaper and Motion Picture News stated that she was rushed to the hospital, where surgeons mended her "very badly torn" left side with "many stitches" and treated the area where one of her toes had been "cut off", presumably a toe from her badly damaged right foot. At the time of the accident, Gish was completing a two-reel romantic comedy with actor W. E. Lawrence. The film, How Hazel Got Even, had already been delayed once at Reliance-Majestic Studios due to director Donald Crisp's bout with pneumonia. Completion of the short was postponed yet again, for over a month, while Gish recuperated. Originally scheduled for release on December 27, 1914, How Hazel Got Even was not distributed to theaters until mid-February 1915.

After recovering from the 1914 accident, Gish resumed her screen career the following year, performing in a series of two- and three-reel shorts as well as in longer, more complex films such as the five-reel productions Old Heidelberg, directed by John Emerson, and Jordan Is a Hard Road, once again under D. W. Griffith's direction. Increasingly, Dorothy's appeal to both producers and audiences continued to grow in 1915, leading W. E. Keefe in the June issue of Motion Picture Magazine to recognize her as "one of the most popular film stars on the Motion Picture screen". In an article about Gish in the cited issue, Keefe also recognizes that Dorothy, career-wise, was finally emerging from her sister's shadow:

A year ago she was known as Lillian's little sister. A year's growth has changed this. Today she is taller and weighs more than her "big" sister, and is known as Dorothy Gish without always being identified as "Lillian's sister."

In 1916 and 1917, Dorothy continued to expand her acting credentials by starring in a variety of five-reelers for Fine Arts Film Company or "Griffith's studio", which was a subsidiary of Triangle Film Corporation. Her work in those years required filming on locations in New York and on the West Coast.

In the 1918 release Hearts of the World, a film about World War I and the devastation of France, Dorothy found her first cinematic foothold in comedy, striking a personal hit in a role that captured the essence of her sense of humor. As the "little disturber", a street singer, her performance was the highlight of the film, and her characterization on screen catapulted her into a career as a star of comedy films.

Griffith did not use Dorothy in any of his earliest epics, but while he spent months working on The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, Dorothy was featured in many feature-length films made under the banner of Triangle and Mutual releases. They were directed by young Griffith protégés such as Donald Crisp, James Kirkwood, and Christy Cabanne. Elmer Clifton directed a series of seven Paramount-Artcraft comedies with Dorothy that were so successful and popular that the tremendous revenue they raked in helped to pay the cost of Griffith’s expensive epics. These films were wildly popular with the public and the critics. She specialised in pantomime and light comedy, while her sister appeared in tragic roles. Dorothy became famous in this long series of Griffith-supervised films for the Triangle-Fine Arts and Paramount companies from 1918 through 1920, comedies that put her in the front ranks of film comedians. Almost all of these films are now considered to be lost films.

"And So I Am a Comedienne", an article published in Ladies Home Journal in July 1925, gave Dorothy a chance to recall her public persona: “And so I am a comedienne, though I, too, once wanted to do heroic and tragic things. Today my objection to playing comedy is that it is so often misunderstood by the audiences, both in the theater and in the picture houses. It is so often thought to be a lesser art and something which comes to one naturally, a haphazard talent like the amateur clowning of some cut-up who is so often thought to be ‘the life of the party’. In the eyes of so many persons comedy is not only the absence of studied effect and acting, but it is not considered an art.”

She made a film in England Nell Gwynn which led to three more films. Gish earned £41,000 for these movies.

When the film industry converted to talking pictures, Dorothy made one in 1930, the British crime drama Wolves. Earlier, in 1928 and 1929, her performances in the Broadway play Young Love and her work with director George Cukor renewed her interest in stagecraft and in the immediacy of performing live again. The light comedy had proven to be popular with critics and audiences in New York, in performances on the road in the United States, as well overseas in a London production. Those successes convinced her to take a respite from film-making.

In 1939, both Dorothy and Lillian Gish found the stage role of a lifetime. “Dorothy and I went to see the New York production of Life With Father, starring Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney,” Lillian wrote in her autobiography. “After the performance I said: ‘This is the play we’ve been waiting for to take through America.’” Lillian predicted the popular play would be a perfect showcase for all the people who had seen the hundreds of films featuring Mary Pickford, Dorothy, and herself. She was introduced to Lindsay backstage, and immediately surprised the producers with her enthusiastic desire to head the first company to go on the road, with Dorothy taking the same part for the second road company, and the movie rights for Mary Pickford. Pickford did not make the film version, but the Gish sisters took the two road companies on extensive tours. Another stage success later in Gish's career was The Magnificent Yankee, which ran on Broadway at the Royale Theatre during the first half of 1946. Lillian in her pictorial book Dorothy and Lillian Gish repeats John Chapman's comments about her sister's work in that production: "'Miss [Dorothy] Gish and Mr. Calhern give the finest performances I have ever seen them in. She is a delight and a darling.'"

Television in the 1950s offered many stage and film actors the opportunity to perform in plays broadcast live. Dorothy ventured into the new medium, appearing on NBC's Lux Video Theatre on the evening of November 24, 1955, in a production of Miss Susie Slagle's. She and Lillian had previously performed that play together on screen, in Paramount Pictures' 1945 film adaptation.

"The truth is, that she did not know what she really wanted to do," wrote her sister, Lillian, in her autobiography. "She had always had trouble making decisions and assuming responsibilities, in some ways she had never grown up. She was such a witty and enchanting child that we enjoyed indulging her. First Mother and I spoiled her and later Reba, her friend, and her husband Jim. Reba called Dorothy 'Baby' and so did Jim. With the best intentions in the world, we all helped to keep her a child."

From 1930 until her death, she only performed in five more movies, including Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944), which was a hit for Paramount. Director Otto Preminger cast Dorothy in his 1946 film, Centennial Summer, and Mae Marsh appears in the film in one of her many bit parts. In the 1951 release The Whistle at Eaton Falls, a film noir drama film produced by Louis de Rochemont, Dorothy portrays the widow of a mill owner. On television during this period, she also made several appearances in anthology television series. Her final film role was in 1963 in another Otto Preminger production, The Cardinal, in which she plays the mother of the title character.

Dorothy Gish married only once, to James Malachi Rennie (1890–1965), a Canadian-born actor who co-starred with her in two productions in 1920: Remodeling Her Husband, directed by sister Lillian, and in the comedy Flying Pat. In December 1920, the couple eloped to Greenwich, Connecticut, where they wed in a double ceremony in which Gish's friend, actress Constance Talmadge, also married Greek businessman John Pialoglou. Gish and Rennie remained together until their divorce in 1935. Dorothy never married again

Gish died aged 70 in 1968 from bronchial pneumonia at a clinic in Rapallo, Italy, where she had been a patient for two years to treat hardening arteries. Her sister Lillian, who was filming in Rome, was at her bedside. The New York Times reported the day after her death that the United States consulate in Genoa was making arrangements to cremate "Miss Gish's body" for return to the United States. The ashes were later entombed in Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City in the columbarium in the undercroft of the church. Lillian, who died in 1993, was interred beside her.

In recognition of her contributions to the motion picture industry, in 1960 Dorothy Gish was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The (since renamed) Gish Film Theatre and Gallery of Bowling Green State University's Department of Theatre and Film was named for Lillian and Dorothy Gish and was dedicated on that campus in 1976.

[xems-and-stims]

When we say hyperfixation doesnt mean the latest thing you're obsessed with, we need you to understand we mean it can be debilitating at times.

My insomnia is worse when I'm hyper fixating, I cant tune out my own thoughts and sleep.

My finances can be at risk if I find any way to justify spending money on it. "Oh it's only 5 dollars that's practically nothing" "oh this is only 40 bucks, I'll just rebudget my groceries for this month", because once I go down the rabit hole, Its hard to stop (Ive spent nearly $100 on a mobile game in a single weekend)

I cant do chores, I cant clean, I can hardly do anything that isnt relating back to that hyperfixation. One moment it's 1pm, I'll play this video game for an hour, oh but now its 2pm and I'm about to fight a boss, oh now its 5pm but I cant save here....and now its 10pm and it's too late to vaccum because my roommates are going to bed. Oh well, guess that means it's okay to keep playing then, as long as I'm in bed by 1 I'll be able to get plenty of sleep before work. But as long as I set an alarm, it doesnt matter when I go to bed...

We make jokes about our hyperfixations because we cant stop them, this is our life, we have to find the joy where we can because otherwise we're just left with the misery of feeling empty when those fixations go away

[coeursetcolores]

What I Would Add To/ Change About: Devil May Cry 5

Hello again! Today is March 8th! Two years ago, Devil May Cry 5 was released, over ten years after Devil May Cry 4. Such a long gap caused many to believe that Capcom abandoned the franchise, but to our surprise at the 2018 E3 conference, after years of silence and tentative hope brought by a picture of Reuben Langdon and Johnny Yong Bosch in mocap gear, the day we dreamed of happened: DMC was back!

Now here’s the million dollar question: Did Devil May Cry 5 live up to it’s fans’ expectations after all those years?

I’m pleased to say, YES!

To the whole collective fandom, this game was totally Smokin’ Sexy Stylish!

To me individually...

Well...

It wasn’t really what I’d thought it’d be.

This is all just my own personal opinion and if you disagree with me, that’s perfectly okay! If you’d like to talk about a point I made, please let me know, but please try to respect my opinion as I respect yours.

Fair warning, I won’t talk about online stuff. I’m not an online gamer, that’s just not me.

Well, with out further ado, let’s get started!

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Like the last time, I’d like to start with the positives before getting to the things I wasn’t 100% on board with.

Combat. It’s DMC, and it’s styling way past any other game that dare challenge it.

The music: Frustration is getting bigger! BANG, BANG, BANG! Pull my Devil Trigger!

NICO. I jut love that crazy chick. And yay! Nero has a friend!

The death screen changes were SO helpful. Giving an option to come back in the middle of a fight saved me so much time! As long as it stuck to in-game currency...

The backgrounds are so detailed, Redgrave City looks amazing! And I was really happy when they brought back that gorgeous gothic architecture for Sparda’s mansion!

Bosses are tough, but not to unfair levels. It really makes you feel awesome when you finally knock that last bit of health out.

I’ll never miss an opportunity to fight Vergil. One for having an opponent that doesn’t tower over you, two for his fights just being great as usual. And after everything he’s done, yeah, it feels good to beat the ever loving crap out of him.

Dante dance. I cannot do it justice.

Lady’s new outfit is so cool!

Patty! Call her back Dante!

MOTORCYCLE! BUZZSAWS!

Dante has officially embraced being a silver fox. I salute him.

LORE!!!!!!

NERO! NERO! NERO! BEST BOY, SPICY SON I LOVE YOU SO MUCH YOU PRECIOUS BLOODTHIRSTY SWEETHEART!

You can see just how much detail went into the game. From the blood tubes staining you to V decomposing, it’s astounding.

Nero got a Devil Trigger! And it’s GORGEOUS! ...I do miss his persona, though...

Seeing all our favorite demon hunters again! I missed these guys!

Okay, but before we get to what I wish they added, I want to say something.

I have a lot of issues with this game, but while I can blame some of that on the writing and design teams, a lot of it is also on me having spent years basically imagining the story that would be perfect for me and probably me only. So a lot of my problems may boil down to the game not matching my imaginary scenario, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

Now here are some things that could have possibly made me like the game more.

ADD:

MORE LADY AND TRISH. These women were screwed when it came to the plot and they could have done more, what the heck?! Maybe some scenes where they try to process what happened to them, have them distraught at having been used by Urizen to help him destroy the city and blame themselves. Have Lady blow up at Dante for not warning them about what was really going on, for letting them go in unprepared, let her tell him that the blood of the city is on their hands because he kept his mouth shut. Lady is a huge influence in his life, and I feel like this would really open his eyes to how much he messed up.

As for Trish, she knows better than anyone else that you can really screw up and hurt someone that cares about you. Maybe after everything goes down, she could be the one to encourage everyone that, “Yeah, we messed up big time. But sitting around here hating ourselves isn’t getting anything done. So get up, we’ve got a city to fix.” I feel like this could really show how human she’s gotten from being with Dante and the others. I think it’d make her look more multi-dimensional.

And how come Vergil can get a DLC when he was in the game even less than they were?! The women in these games deserve equal representation, Capcom’s DMC developers!

And as for Vergil, maybe make his deal less ambiguous? I mean, the whole “Is Vergil really redeemed?” debate is really bringing out the worst in people. Like yeah, keep it ambiguous to the characters, it makes sense for Vergil to not show something “weak” like remorse to others, but show it in a way that the player can easily interpret.

Give Vergil some missions to himself where he takes in exactly what he’s done. Have him see Redgrave City, where he was born, devastated, people he may have once known reduced to ashes and know this is all because of him. That just because he wanted to be stronger, he’s destroyed lives, because even if he had no intentions of doing so, the split went against his wishes and left him weak to see a tyrant slaughter countless people without any goal. Have him realize that even if that was unintentional, he still nearly almost ended humanity once before with a sound mind (Temen-ni-gru) so he can’t pretend he’s in the right and that he’s actually probably a disgrace to Sparda’s legacy. Have him run into a sobbing little boy crying that his mother was killed and he lost his brother, maybe in the ruins of the family home. Have Vergil look into a mirror and see Mundus, have him realize that he’s no better than the demon that killed his mother and imprisoned him for years. Have him hallucinate Sparda disowning him for going against everything Sparda believed in. Have him see Eva sadly tell him that she wanted to save him, but seeing what he’s become lament that she lost her life trying to save a monster. And when Dante tells him Nero’s his son, he freezes. He abandoned and maimed his own child, left him for his brother to care for. Dante sees this and doesn’t know what to do? Is Vergil...sorry? Can he take a chance on him this time?

Or leave him an unrepentant jerk that’s just upset he still can’t win and expressly tells Nero he’s only going to cut down the Qliphoth down so he can fight Nero again and because he doesn’t want to give up Yamato.

And for that matter, make V’s goal clearer to the player. Have him expressly state, when he’s by himself with his familiars with no one that he can manipulate around that:

A. He wants to stop Urizen and prevent anymore devastation as atonement for his crimes as Vergil and part of the reason he wants to merge again is that while he does want to fight Dante again, he deserves to die as Vergil or defeat Dante and fix his mistakes by himself, realizing that Dante’s been cleaning up his messes for years. 

B: He wants his power back, his mind got stuck in the human half and he can’t stand how weak it is. Everyone is just a stepping stone for him to be stronger.

Actually have the characters react to the Qliphoth. Seriously, everyone is crazy apathetic to all the death and destruction that they failed to stop. Aren’t they supposed to be the “heroes?” The only character this would make sense for, ironically, the one who actually seems to remember it exists at the end, Nero. Yeah. Remember how he didn’t care about anything but Kyrie in 4? Remember how the developers said he would just walk away after Dante shot the pope if Kyrie wasn’t there? I’m not say he needed to stay apathetic, I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense for him to be the righteous character. 

Have Dante at some point just look out at Redgrave and see that if he had told the others what was going on, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. “...This didn’t have to happen.” Have this weigh on him. He’ll still act goofy, but he realizes that his selfishness can have real consequences. 

Have him realize that he really hurt Nero with what he said and that he used Nero’s trauma and insecurity against him in the heat of the moment and it’s causing a rift between him. When he’s alone, make him privately promise to make it up to him later and actually apologize at some point near the end. Dante should know from his experiences with Vergil that insecurity can lead someone down the wrong path and that if he doesn’t do something he could lose one of the few positive relationships he has.

Have Nico have at least one freak out at everything around her and realize that she might not be as ready for this as she thought. She hasn’t experienced something like this before like the others. Nero comforts her and it makes their friendship grow stronger.

When Nero starts talking about family, he should acknowledge that while he is related to Vergil, they’re not really a family yet until they actually work for it, and that he knows what a real family is like, the ones who adopted him and were there for him (Kyrie’s parents, Credo, Kyrie, Nico, Dante, Lady, Trish, etc.).

Make it clearer that Vergil isn’t forgiven for his crimes, but that they’re willing to give him a chance. His last one.

Alright, now for the overall changes.

CHANGE:

The entire ending. Instead of Dante going down with Vergil, Vergil stops him and tells him that his life is here, with people that haven’t hurt him like he has. Dante tries to protest, says he can’t leave Vergil free to do whatever, but Vergil gives a bittersweet smile and tells him he can’t stop him, but it’s obvious Vergil’s not going to do anything again. When Dante gets desperate and tells Vergil he can’t leave him again, Vergil tells Dante he’ll be back, once he’s cleaned up his own mess for once; he’s the older brother after all. With that, Vergil goes to fix his mistake.

Dante’s left behind by his brother again. Instead of brushing things under the table, Nero is furious with Dante for never telling him the truth about his family. Especially after he was left uncertain about the future and looked to Dante for guidance, Nero feels betrayed. Dante understands and apologizes. Nero’s too upset to accept and tells Dante he needs time to think before he’s ready to talk to him again. Instead of begging Nero to stay and keep a connection he desperately needs, Dante lets him go, realizing that if he wants to fix things, he needs to start learning how to talk about how he actually feels instead of covering things up and unintentionally hurting those he loves.

Vergil destroys the Qliphoth, but doesn’t leave the Underworld. Realizing just how much he’s sinned, starting all the way back to Temen-ni-gru, he resolves to not go back to the human world until he’s made himself one worthy of being a Son of Sparda, finally understanding what that really means. Descending into the Underworld, he won’t leave until he’s eliminated those that would harm the world his brother, father and son protect so hard. This could be the start of his own spin-off series that would focus more on the demon lore in the games and take place entirely in the Underworld with Vergil struggling to be a better person and take responsibility for his own actions. Devil May Cry: Atonement, maybe.

Nero heads back home with Nico but doesn’t read V’s book. Hurt from his betrayal, he puts it in a box and seals it up for Vergil’s maybe return. When Nico starts talking about how Agnus is the reason she’s alive, she also acknowledges that she already has a real father and family that love her and subtly (and stutteringly) implies Nero’s a part of that, cementing that Nero has a family that loves him and is there for him. Nero thanks her  and the two descend into silence for a bit before they start mocking each other and end up laughing before Nico realizes Nero’s crying. When she starts freaking out, he explains that he’s scared he’s still not strong enough to protect them, but before Nico can say anything, the phone rings. Answering it, a voice says, “You don’t have to be.” Looking out front the two see Kyrie and Patty, decked out in hunting gear, a phone in Kyrie’s hand. Smiling at them, she says into it, “We’ll protect each other.” Running out of the van, Nero scoops Kyrie up in a hug. When Patty starts complaining about them ignoring her, Nico pulls her away and tells her not to interrupt. After a bit, the group looks out at the horizon and vow to fight together, not letting themselves fall to the bitterness that led to this mess. Seeing some demons approach and watching his crew get ready, Nero smiles before smirking and gets ready to throw down. “Let’s rock!” Devil May Cry: Forsaken.

Dante looks out over Redgrave from his childhood home, silently miserable. After a while, Lady and Trish come over and try to talk, but he cuts them off with an apology. Fully realizing how his inability to let other people in nearly got them all killed, he encourages them to leave so they don’t end up like that again. Stunned from Dante apologizing, the two are silent. Then Lady angrily asks, “What the hell?! Just how dumb are you?!” She tells him that yeah he really screwed up this time, but they’re not going anywhere! He’s an idiot, but he’s THEIR idiot, and they’re not leaving him alone. They need him and he needs them. Trish tells him that if he has time to mope, he has time to clean up the city. The girls begin to walk back to the city and tell him to hurry up. A genuine smile on his face, Dante looks to his family’s home one more time, sheds some tears and walks away, from his past to his new family. Devil May Cry 6 will pick up on what happens next.

If Resident Evil can have like 50 spin-offs, why can’t DMC?

Alternatively, I’m also open to the suggestion of Vergil being stuck as V for the rest of his life. Karmic punishment at it’s finest.

In all honestly, Vergil was really unnecessary to bring back. Like, just make him DLCs, his whole story is done. It just feels like fanservice and the writers banking on a popular character to bring in sales. I also feel like the game bends itself over backwards to please him (back to life, cheat coded to power, no more nightmares, gets to fight Dante whenever he wants, gets a son who wants his acknowledgement he didn’t have to raise, crimes are basically swept under the rug) while everyone else gets kind of screwed over (Dante has to leave his friends behind, Nero’s abandoned again, Lady and Trish are captured and get no screen time, V’s familiars are gone, millions are dead).

I think Urizen and V should have been their own things: I liked the idea of Urizen being the general of Mundus that attacked Dante’s house (his ACTUAL reason for fighting) and V being Mundus’ son who was abused and bonded with his henchmen who decided to become a devil hunter in vengeance for his mistreatment. I dunno, I feel bad V (who legitimately creeped me out) was just made into a convenient little redemption arc.

Nero’s character arc really should have been something else. I think he should have learned throughout the story to stop caring what others thought about him (a trait that should have been visible in 4 if it was going to be such a big deal in 5) and learn to trust his own strength. He should’ve realized that he doesn’t need to prove anything to Dante, he’s never going to be the same and he should be happy with who he is. Also, wanting Vergil’s acknowledgement doesn’t make sense. He may be his biological father, but literally the only things Nero knows about him is that he ripped his arm off, started the apocalypse, got millions killed, manipulated him and wants to kill the guy who was actually like a dad to him. Biological ties can only count for so much.

Alternatively, his arc could have been about becoming a more compassionate person. Like I said earlier, it’d make sense if he didn’t care about anyone other than Kyrie being in trouble. And remember when he tried to kill an armor he thought had a human in it in 4? Along with the seemingly human Agnus? Have Dante worried Nero might go down the wrong path. Have him tell Nero about Vergil WAY earlier (months after 4) and have Nero worried if he’ll turn out like that. Nero actually had more potential to be dark than Dante, and I feel like that in trying to make him look like a perfect hero in 5, they had to make Dante look worse (keeping secrets, ignoring suffering, etc.).

And instead of “deadweight,” Nero’s berserk button should have been Dante not telling him things. You know, like the Order? The group he worked for that tried to start the apocalypse in secret and nearly got him and his girlfriend killed along with actually killing his older bother? Yeah.

I do not like the hyperrealism. This is purely on me preferring more animesque art styles, but I always felt that not looking like actual humans helped the series’ fantastic elements shine.

Dante’s new outfit is just so...muted. It’s just boring. Dante’s supposed to be flashy, dang it! Give me back the chaps!

Nero’s hair is awful. It just looks terrible on him, I wanted him to have long, pretty hair. They should have just kept his trigger hair all throughout the game.

Also, Dante’s the hunk, give Nero back his soft, pretty boy face!

DON’T GET RID OF DEVIL BRINGER! I hated using the Devil Breakers, who wants breakable weapons in Devil May Cry?! What’s next, reloading ammo?! And if you can come back from being stabbed, shot, electrocuted, impaled, would it kill you to let Nero grow his demon arm back to keep his playstyle easier?! And if you needed a challenge, congratulations! Nero lost his Devil Trigger! WORK WITH THAT! 

Please don’t get rid of Dante. I love Nero, but he can’t do the main protagonist role. This is Dante’s series and he needs to finish it. Sure, give Nero a spin-off or two, but let Dante finish the story; the “Sons of Sparda” storyline was just 3. Not the whole series. Vergil is an important figure in Dante’s story, but he’s not where it ends. Dante. And. Vergil’s. Lives. Do. Not. Revolve. Around. Each. Other. They just liked to fight each other and developed opposing ideals, but their overall goals ultimately didn’t really factor in the other.

The whole Vergil abandonment thing shouldn’t have happened along with his beating Dante obsession, it seriously weakened Vergil’s character. He started out as someone who wanted the power to defend himself and became so deluded that he was ready to disregard any moral limitation to get it and simply fought Dante to amuse himself while never letting it get in the way of his goals. And him blaming Dante and Eva and insisting that Dante had an easier life, while I can understand it, just makes him come across as a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.

Let V’s familiars kill demons without him. That was just really annoying.

And that’s it. My dreams for Devil May Cry 5 and the reality were two very different things and honestly...I’m afraid I’m growing out of this series. 

I’ll still post some content I want to get out, but I’m not sure I’ll be picking up the next one.

[mtg-thrill-of-possibility]

A Reflection on Magic, the Pandemic, and the Dark Side of Arena

Hello to all the readers who may stumble upon this in the search for new Magic content. I wrote this mostly to fill a void in my life that has opened up over the last year and more of a mental health thing than some form of Magic related advice but since it is about that, I thought they’d go hand in hand. I love Magic. Or at least I have loved Magic? It’s hard to tell. Like nearly everyone on this planet, I’ve been shut off from in-person Magic and it had/has me left down. I normally volunteer at my LGS and help them organize their tournaments and judge the events and generally whatever else they ask me to do because I really love Magic. I love playing with my locals who don’t spend hundreds of dollars and craft GP/MF level decks. I love watching a group of people playing draft chaff and off beat home brews and where adults and teenagers can compete with one another on that level. I enjoy sitting off to the corner on the store’s EDH night and listening to games and drawing tokens for games in my own corner while I wait for my own games or sometimes my ow turns. I also love traveling with my wife to cities and go compete in GP/MFs where we usually both scrub out of the main event by round 3 or 4 and then hit the vendors and side events as well as explore the cities for new restaurants. I miss Welcome Days where adults bring in kids and I show them the ropes. I love meeting adults who poke their noses in and ask me “Magic is still a thing? I played that in high school” and show them the changes. I can still remember the Theros Beyond Death prerelease last year and thought how much fun it was to not work the event for once and just play. And looking back, boy am I glad I entered the THB prerelease.

February was the start of the downturn. Our EDH night was slightly less full but I just figured it was due to the weather since the winter usually has a downturn in the attendance for every event. But then the rotating cast of 10-15 FNM players was 6; Pioneer on Saturday had 3. The next week, the EDH crowd was down to from the usual 6-8 pods to 2. FNM and Pioneer failed to fire. The news that COVID-19 was starting to creep into the Midwest prompted me to ask the store what precautions we wanted to take and when we were going to stop in general.

I work in chemical research and I have a background in pharmaceuticals and once (or twice) studied the MCATs and considered going to med school. I was definitely concerned but in February it hadn’t reached my state (yet) and I wanted the store to be ready for the imminent shutdown and continued downtick in participation (my LGS and I had been strategizing how to move up in events and the store ranking on the WPN). But it’s a red state. Science denial must be a recessive trait that the Midwest incorporated into its identity for a long time and I was told that I had some freedom but to not go crazy. I thought I’m a volunteer. I’m not spending what little money I have on stuff for you guys. So, I did the best thing I could think of for free, I started a Discord server. I was really excited at the prospect. I had just bought a webcam in case my workplace started working from home and thought how cool it would be to be able to organize events in Arena and talk through Discord when the store wasn’t available. I asked if we could hang up a flyer and tell all the Magic customers that they continue with tournaments and Magic if they joined the Discord I set up in the store’s name.

My LGS asked how much this was going to cost them and I said exactly as much as it costs them now if not a little less since we don’t need the store’s utilities or a cashier behind the counter in the after hours to work the tournament. They were happy and I got the greenlight. Things worked okay at first. Those with Arena accounts showed for a few weeks. Others I knew were interested were convinced that we were overly sensitive to the virus and FNMs continued to limp along with 4-6 people until everything ground down to a halt.

Come mid-March, COVID had finally reached the state and the city. Cases were light, a few hundred people tested each day, single digit cases detected but I again was worried. My workplace had already begun educating everyone on how to wash their hands properly and disinfect every surface and everyone was issued a bleach spray bottle with their name and a serial number on it. While the mayor and governor hadn’t ordered a shutdown yet, I advised strongly that the store go ahead and if they wanted to continue that I wouldn’t be there to assist until the curve was sufficiently flattened.

I’m not sure why but they trusted me and listened. I was glad and I pushed again for people to join the Discord server. Players were reluctant but I assured them that this may be the future for some time and if they get on now, they can still get the Ravnica intro quests and start building up their Arena collections. I got more on my side, we had 8-10 and got them all to try and hook anyone else they knew to join us. However, by the end of March, my workplace had moved to 100% virtual and with my extra time, I had begun to unwittingly shift the power dynamic in the store by accident. You see, I really love Magic. I was now working from home for a job that required me to have direct physical access to hundreds of thousands of dollars or sensitive equipment that need recertification when they get moved 12 inches down a work bench and dangerous chemicals I don’t want near me unless I know there’s an inspected chemical shower nearby. When the campus shut down, I got very bored. I did what research I could from my home portal, attended virtual conferences and webinars every day, but I had tons of down time. That meant watching my wife play Animal Crossing, playing with my dogs, marathon sessions of Civilization but most crucially, I also began grinding Arena.

My local meta had been defined by the understanding that none of us were really Arena players. I had played when the Kaladesh and Amonkhet closed betas were happening, but I was turned off by the fact that all my playing of those formats amounted to nothing when it launched with Ixalan and I would start from square one. Everyone in the group typically shied away from tier 1 tournament decks because to all of us, it was more fun to goof around with RG auras and Tilonalli’s Summoner decks than it was to grind Esper Hero or the new Uro decks. And the limitation that everyone didn’t have all the shocklands meant we were all playing on roughly the same card pools with some variation due to our play styles. So when I suggested we all start playing Arena to replace the tournaments, it worked because it meant we all played the same dumb decks we’d play in person with a few exceptions of having less than perfect mana bases.

But I would find myself grinding Arena everyday where my friends and locals were not. Even though I jumped into Arena at mid-March, I finished the Theros Beyond Death mastery at level 78 when Ikoria began to creep around the corner. I had just begun to get back into Magic when Fate Reforged hit and didn’t realize how much I love wedge color alignments over shards but boy did I love Abzan in Khans standard and now I was in love with Abzan again in Ikoria standard. Grinding the way I did meant I drafted most afternoons for the first month of Ikoria (and forced Temur every time) and started climbing the ranked ladder in the evenings. Ikoria would also mark the first time I spent money on Arena. I’m notoriously spend-thrift in video games and anything you can free-to-play I do religiously because you shouldn’t make a game grindable over the course of years if you give me that option. But drafting took gems and I really love drafting but most people at my LGS are too concerned about rares than learning to do it properly and a lot of younger players feel lost when I draft a zero rare deck and go 4-0 and collect my prizes. By the end of April, I would reach Platinum in constructed and Gold in limited. But now my LGS was far less inclined to play with me. I didn’t brag about any of my rankings but the skill disparity had begun to creep in as well as the difference in our collections. Having played so much Arena, I could see the tells the software gives away that paper Magic doesn’t. I learned to read when the game would hang up on the beginning of combat and end steps because they’re holding potential responses. I began to do the full control shortcut to bluff counter spells and removal. In paper Magic, if my opponent would sequence things wrong or tap their mana wrong, we’d make jokes and rewind it because it’s one of those human errors that we all make and redo it the right way.

But Arena was different; some learned the hard way to not trust the auto-tapper, some didn’t realize that the way they normally stack triggers in paper is backwards and too late to fix after a spell or ability resolved. And I couldn’t help them. And I let them make their mistakes because I can’t change Arena. If they use the auto-tapper and they realize that Arena doesn’t tap the Castle Vantress even though they couldn’t activate it anyway and they lose a dual source, I couldn’t help them. If they have the lethal Explosion in hand but forgot to hit Control in their second main so they can stack the Wilderness Reclamation triggers in their end step, I don’t concede out of pity.

In May, I try and keep the Magic going by suggesting that we shift the format to a draft limited but they’re unconvinced of the website that allows you to simulate an 8-person draft and then import the drafted card lists to Arena. Why? Because they don’t have the cards already and I’ve changed the dynamic. They know I’m much more skilled at Arena and Ikoria drafting. The news has also been reporting that the curve was flattening, and our state was lifting restrictions on gatherings. They want to play EDH and paper Magic, not this digital intangible game. I reluctantly agree but keep grinding on Arena anyway. My friends didn’t want to play Magic on Arena and I couldn’t understand why. I was getting burned out on drafting at this point and the drafts were harder to fire off a month and a half later, work was returning on a limited schedule where I was onsite 75% and virtual 25%, it really did seem like things were returning to normal.

In June I finish the Ikoria mastery and at this point my wife had begun to show more interest in playing on Arena and trying to get her account a little more stocked since our normal paper system is I aggregate everything we typically need and I make her desired deck and hand it off to her to wreck people on FNM but since I didn’t have to judge, I got to play and we couldn’t both play from my account at the same time. I casually start hers and I get the wild hair that maybe I should make a loaner account in the store’s name and if anyone says they don’t have the cards, they can borrow the store’s account for the tournament. I make the account but put the pipe dream on hold when Wizards announces that in-store play can resume with the Core 2021 prerelease. I could read between the lines and see that the curve was trending the wrong way and thought it was a bad idea but at my insistence, everyone would have to wear a mask at all times and hand sanitizer was available every 15 feet and the store had lots of space for players to spread out. The turnout was low which helped as well, and I had everyone who showed up at least aware that I was trying to keep the Discord going and that in case there’s another shutdown that there was another avenue for them.

Well, I got my wish because within a week of the launch of Core 2021, my state had regressed, and cases were exploding and gathering restrictions were sent back in place. Shortly after that, Wizards suspended in-store play again and with that I created the store’s Arena account. At the time, things were pretty good. The locals weren’t playing as much and my server was still fairly empty but most of the Magic Twitch community I interacted with had strongly adjusted to the new paradigm. EDH streaming was commonplace, I had my new Arena account to focus on building up as well as my own. Pro level events and Opens were being held on Arena and the expansion of Amonkhet Remastered gave me hope that Magic was on the mend. But I also think it was with Core 2021 that things started to slide into the negative for me. Grinding the second account was frustrating me a lot. The lack of human interaction was tilting me out for no reason. Some days the server would have me wait a whole minute (the horror?!) for a game and then my opponent would be the world’s slowest red player where everything seemed delayed. There would strings of games I would play where I couldn’t get a third land drop after a mull to 4 and other times where I’d flood out and would have won if it weren’t for generic whiny reason why everyone says they lose.

Maybe it was when I began to see that Arena is not Magic the Gathering as much as it is a video game that it began to really sour on me. For those of you who don’t play a lot of Arena and instead interact with humans over webcams is that Arena is designed for you to not play off beat home brews except in direct challenges with your friends. The game is meant for you to play the best combination of 75 cards and for you to help it machine learn through millions of matches what is and what is not the correct play pattern based on the available information you have. It wants you to play the very best decks in a format against the other best decks. I started to see this in Ikora standard when decks would scoop if you were on the play and went turn 2 Agonizing Remorse. Decks were and still are so linear that they can’t handle that kind of disruption or it’s a matter of the players know it’s faster to accumulate wins by scooping than grinding out a long game.

If you need evidence of whether or not this is true, you should play Arena now and see how often people scoop against the double Ruin Crab opener with a Fabled Passage back-to-back. Or if an opponent against your Lurrus Auras deck will time out when they know they can’t win. In paper Magic, when you drive 4 hours to a major venue, pay your entry fee, you never see your opponent rage scoop unless it’s Legacy and you know what your opponent’s on and you mull to zero so you can see what’s in their deck. You call a judge to your table if they start stalling. Nothing is more annoying that an opponent spamming “Good Game” at you through a match when it’s obvious that you’re not killing them that turn but they’re empty handed and have nothing relevant on board.

I’ll admit myself that what my wife calls “Wizard Chores” for the Daily quests, if I’m 1 red spell short of finishing a quest, I’ll log in for one more game and Boulder Dash my opponent’s creature or cast Shock to face and immediately scoop. Who is that helping? I’d spend the week at work in my down times thinking about what dumb cards I hadn’t played with from a set, start making a list, furiously find the cards on a Friday afternoon and grab dinner with the wife and then race to my LGS for FNM.  Magic used to be something I only got to do twice a week with people in a shared setting and we’d unroll our playmats, shuffle up our jank, and laugh and generally have a good time for three to four hours. With Magic at my fingertips, Arena is a distillation of efficiency at spell slinging combined with the minor rewards system we’ve come to recognize the free-to-play traps to “encourage” us to play different things. If I want to play 100 matches in a day, all I need to do is sit at my computer long enough. If I want to play my old jank on Arena, I can’t even count on the Casual play channel to help since it’s always filled with people with 55 of the 60 cards that make the best deck learning how to play before they commit the wild cards for the deck.

Zendikar Rising has been a pretty dark point for everyone on Arena I believe. It seems like a lifetime ago that Omnath was printed and that I had immediately cashed in four mythic rare wildcards for the deck I would get to play with on Arena for 2 weeks before Wizards realized their mistake. Honestly before I had started writing this in the week before Kaldheim will hit Arena, I forgot that Omnath was part of the most recent set as all I can remember Zendikar Rising giving us is the extremely irritating Ruin Crab and Soaring Thought Thief. The few locals I had left on my Discaord server when ZNR released had lost interest in Arena since they enjoyed the Ravnica standard that was rotating out and Pioneer was not yet available for Arena. I’ve encouraged nearly everyone I know from my LGS to buy webcams since October given that the current state of the COVID world is not likely to go away and the new culture and channels that have opened up in the world to fill the void of EDH has some level of benefit even when in-person play resumes. Not many people play and I’ll search for an occasional game on the official Discord when the craving strikes. Some of my friends have been taking advantage of the webcam world and started playing older formats with me over webcam such as Pioneer and Modern to rekindle their love for Magic and the hope that we can start playing tournaments over webcam. Finishing up the ZNR mastery passes on my two accounts and my wife’s account has been giving me a much-needed break from Arena and honestly, it’s probably done the most to lift my spirits.

I’ve been taking a lot more time to reflect on why I love Magic and I plan on doing in the future. The first thing I know I’m going to do and stick to is not get a Mastery Pass for mt LGS store’s account. They don’t pay for all the work I put into the one already grinding multiple accounts is not good for my mental well-being. The second thing I know I am going to do is relearn how to have fun in Magic again. Not really hinted at in this article so far is the fact I love the art in Magic and I’m often inspired by my own crazy mind to illustrate my own works or reimagine my favorite cards with my own art. Since the release of Rise of Skywalker, I had been working on a personal project of creating a second expansion to the largely underground Star Wars the Gathering card game and ended up making 200 unique, draftable cards. I wouldn’t call myself an artist because I’m still learning and I don’t necessarily aspire to an artist but I would love to improve my skills and one day make a piece that’s so good someone wants on a card. Over the last two years, I’ve been deeply jealous of how amazing and hard working the Magic cosplayers are and that I should put my art to good use and make my own cosplays. And then there’s the playing of Magic. I miss the Gathering part of Magic. So this brings us to the bedrock of this piece. I hope to continue this blog steadily as time moves forward. I’m rarely ever satisfied or have my attention on any one project for too long but 2021 is a new year. And I hope that the title is a hint to the future. Whatever it is; whether it’s deck construction, art alters, or Magic cosplay, story, general discussion, that’s what I’m here for. It’s the Thrill of what I might work on next and I promise because I’m terrible right now at doing so, I’ll be sure to take pictures and try and stream when I can to keep myself honest about the whole deal. I hope you’ll all join me or at least join the Discord to yell at me.

[adinndigitalmdu]

Top Reasons to Advertise on Facebook

You can’t argue with results. which suggests you can’t deny Facebook ads. They’re super profitable. (If, and that’s a giant IF, you recognize what you’re doing.)

Nearly all social media marketers (96%) consider Facebook advertising the foremost effective paid option out of all social networks, per an eMarketer study. One reason is Facebook’s size. Billions of individuals see ads on their platform monthly. People spend almost an hour thereon day after day. And despite what the haters say, Facebook continues to be growing, too. That’s why budgets are doubling (up to $31 billion and counting).

Listen:

You want to achieve people online? Facebook is the single best alternative to Google AdWords. Don’t get me wrong, AdWords is awesome. But it’s also expensive. I’ve personally worked on client accounts where every single click cost anywhere from $50 – 100. Per click! Then only a little percentage of these people ever became a lead. Most of them bounced from the location. Now guess what quantity that effort was? This company literally spent thousands of dollars day after day just to herald some decent leads.

It’s different with Facebook. You get access to the identical number of individuals. except for far less. And once you’ve got some tricks up your sleeves (after reading the remainder of this article), you’ll be able to get website clicks for pennies and new sales for just some bucks each. Let’s see how it works.

Facebook Advertising Definition

“Wait, you'll be able to advertise on Facebook?”

If that was your initial reaction to the current post’s headline, then you’re a touch late to the party. But, no worries, I’ll get you up to hurry. Since Facebook gets plenty of data from their users, who enter it voluntarily on their profile (things like age, location, and interests), they need an honest idea of who users are and what they like. Therefore, they will serve them targeted ads that show them products that they're likely to shop for, sites they have a tendency to love or events they’d like to attend.

For example, I recently joined a Facebook group about Udemy, the net course platform.

Naturally, Facebook jumps on my choice and starts showing me ads that prompt me to join up for a course (they thought i would prefer to study creating video games).

There are some features that each Facebook ad has and these make ads unmistakable. Adinn the social media marketing company in Madurai is elaborating it for you:

You can see a “Sponsored” tag right underneath the name of the page that's advertising to you. Adinn Facebook advertising company in Madurai helps you to give sponsored Ads to your target audience.

There’s also a singular “Like Page” button, within the top right corner, that’s never visible on regular posts.

Finally, unlike regular news feed items, all Facebook ads have a call-to-action (also called a CTA), within the bottom right corner, which could say one in all the subsequent things:

Learn More | sign on | Download | Contact Us | Shop Now | Book Now | Watch More | Apply Now

Facebook contains a predefined set of CTA buttons.

So, remember, you'll be able to spot Facebook ads by being attentive to those 3 things:

A “sponsored” tag, below the name of the location

The prompt to love the page within the top right corner

A call-to-action button within the bottom right corner

Reach out to Adinn the best smm company in madurai to advertise on Facebook.

[emoboijk]

knj | till death

In the demon world, arranged marriages are business transactions. But this isn’t that simple. —demon!au, arranged marriage!au, non-idol!au

01 :: 02 :: 03 :: 04 :: 05 :: 06 :: 07 :: epilogue

3,389 words 

photo cred

After three months of living with Namjoon (of being married to Namjoon), you fall into the rhythm of your relationship, like a heartbeat or a breath. It's not anything you ever have to think about. And you wake up one morning to realize that, without meaning to, you both have a routine.

Namjoon always wakes up early (ungodly so, you think) and is most often gone by the time you get up. He leaves you notes in the morning, unfailingly (on the kitchen table, your door, and ever more frequently, on your nightstand). Addicted to the warm, fluttery feeling they cause in your chest, you squirrel them away into an antique letterbox you found at a thrift store (five dollars!).

After you wake up (and read your note), you shower and get dressed. Then you wander into the living room where Lisa and Jeongguk are loitering in the kitchen or on the couch. It takes you two months to discover that they arrive at the apartment building as soon as Namjoon leaves (per his request), usually waiting in the lobby or outside the building. As soon as you find out you tell them they’re welcome to wait in the apartment, embarrassed at them having to wait for you at all.

These days Jeongguk has breakfast ready by the time you leave your room. Originally, you’d always cooked for yourself, but Jeongguk has a penchant for trying new things (and ultimately being amazing at them), so he’s quickly taken over. When you’d first offered to hand him the reigns, he had beamed at the opportunity, cooking skillfully and smiling, “My boyfriend’s been teaching me.” If it were anyone else you would’ve been annoyed at his immediate success in the kitchen and his overall happy demeanor, but it’s Jeongguk so it just makes you want to smile and ruffle his hair.

After breakfast, you either read or watch TV, or you let Lisa drag you out of the house. Most days it’s a combination of both. You’ve been spending a lot of time in bookstores, expanding Namjoon's already extensive collection (it's a library really, that he tries to disguise as the guest bedroom). But you also let Lisa show you the newest boutiques or restaurants, just barely keeping her from dragging you clubbing. Once in a while, you'll get lunch with your mom or with Yeri (who now perpetually smells like the animal shelter she works for).

Then you have dinner around seven or eight (as long as there isn’t some sort of business function, charity ball, or high-class demon dinner to attend), which usually consists of some sort of take out. Afterward you dismiss both Jeongguk and Lisa in an official capacity; oftentimes one or both of them will hang out with you afterward (Lisa has taken it upon herself to keep you “groomed" so she’ll stay and paint your nails or teach you how to do an intricate braid; Jeongguk has introduced you to video games and he enjoys beating you at them).

Once they leave, you get ready for bed, washing your face and slipping into pajamas before burrowing under the covers. When you first moved in you would try to force yourself to sleep right away, but you soon realized that it was nearly impossible until you knew Namjoon had come home. On a regular business day, he may not return until midnight, so you lie awake daydreaming or reading until you hear the elevator or his footsteps after he shimmers in.

Tonight, as you rub moisturizer into your cheeks, your mind races anxiously. There’s a thought you've been turning over in your mind since this afternoon when Yeri had called you to check up. Two things had kept you preoccupied. First, after you’d spent nearly fifteen minutes talking about Namjoon and the note he’d left you that morning and all the funny things he’d said at the Demon LGBT Rights Charity Ball the night before, Yeri had giggled.

“What?” you’d asked.

“Nothing.”

“No, what is it?”

“You like him.”

“What?” You’d been sipping a glass of water and nearly choked at the accusation.

“It’s okay,” Yeri had laughed, “He’s your husband; you should like him.”

Yeri had moved on quickly enough from there, but it had been orbiting your brain all afternoon. Of course, you like Namjoon. You’d been friends for years!

You worry your bottom lip and look at yourself in the mirror. Scowling, you whisper: “Be honest.” Closing your eyes you take a deep breath and open them again, shrugging in an attempt at casual, “You like him.” As soon as you said the words that warm, fluttery feeling returned in your chest and you jumped a bit in excitement.

Gasping, you take a step back from the mirror, surprised at yourself, “Oh.” You giggle, frowning as the second thing Yeri had said that day came back to mind.

You had been complaining about your daily activities, how boring it ultimately was.

“Come volunteer at the shelter,” she had said simply.

“What?”

“We could use the help. And it would be nice to see my best friend regularly.”

The seed she’d planted had grown to a full tree now. You loved the idea. You missed Yeri and you loved animals (the pictures of the hell hound pups she sent you had you squealing!). But what would Namjoon think…

You end up tossing and turning in bed until 2:00 AM when you realize it’s no use trying; Namjoon’s not home and your mind is too preoccupied. You heave a sigh and crawl out of bed. Your giant t-shirt (one of Namjoon’s that was mistakenly put in with your laundry that you have yet to return; it’s a large, dark blue t-shirt with white designs on the short sleeves, made of the softest material…) has bunched up at your torso so you pull it down, wrapping a soft blanket around your legs and swiping your latest read (a feminist treaty by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie this time) off your nightstand. You walk quietly out of your room and across the apartment, tucking yourself into a corner of the couch, reaching to flick on the light. Then you squint at the coffee table, concentrating so hard your head begins to hurt, until a glass of chilled white wine appears there. You take a sip before opening your book and waiting.

Namjoon takes the elevator tonight, he usually does when he works this late, just too tired to shimmer anywhere. When the doors ding open and he steps out to find you twisting around on the couch to look at him, beautifully disheveled and happy to see him, he briefly considers always coming home this late if it means he’ll always be greeted this way. He steps out of his shoes and says, “Still up?”

You nod, reaching forward for your glass of wine so that he can see you aren’t wearing pants, a flash of skin peeking out from the bottom of your t-shirt and the top of your underwear. He averts his eyes, devilishly tempted, clenching and unclenching his fists to keep himself sane. “Couldn’t sleep,” you say around the glass as he puts his briefcase and jacket on the coffee table, sitting in a chair next to you.

You can’t think of anything else to say so you ask, “Want a drink?” even though you know his answer. You stare intently at the coffee table again, another glass of white wine appearing there.

Namjoon smiles, inordinately proud of you and takes the glass, sipping the liquid, “Thank you.”

“How was your day?” you wonder, closing your book and pulling the cashmere blanket closer around your waist.

He scratches the back of his neck and shrugs, “Could’ve been worse.”

You almost laugh. You’re not 100% positive about what he does all day, but you’re pretty sure that other people’s “could’ve been worse” are his reality. Namjoon runs a hand through his hair and adds, “What about you - good day?”

You shrug, chewing on the inside of your cheek before sipping your wine.

“What is it?”

You shrug again, “It’s just...I don’t do anything.”

“What do you mean?” Namjoon leans forward, watching you intently, clearly interested.

“I just…” you huff, urged on by his rapt attention, “I shop and I read and I cook and I watch TV…” you trail off and realize that you’re complaining about luxury, you feel somewhat foolish but finally say, “I want to do more.”

Namjoon nods thoughtfully, “Well, what do you want to do?”

You look at him with your eyebrows raised, surprised despite everything.

He shrugs and leans back in his chair, smiling at you, “Do you want to work? Or go to school?” His smile transforms to a smirk and he winks, “Give me weekly book reports?”

You flush at the tone of his words, your mind inadvertently wandering to unquestionably erotic scenarios. You clasp your wine glass tightly and take another large gulp, cheeks burning.

Namjoon can’t stop looking at you. You’re easy to fluster and it’s beautiful.

“I was thinking maybe…” you start, swallowing your wine and avoiding his eyes, “volunteer work? Yeri works at an animal shelter part-time? They’re always looking for help…”

“That sounds wonderful,” he grins, a spark of joy in his chest when he sees you smile.

And then, because you’re a little bit tipsy and you have that warm, fluttery feeling you say: “Also, I was wondering if...maybe, if you’re free sometime soon, we could go on a, um, on a date?”

Without missing a beat, he answers: “I would love to.”

“Good,” you smile, looking away from him as your cheeks turn pink, upending your wine glass to catch the last sip. When you put it down and glance back over, he’s still watching you. His eyes are sparkling and he’s almost glowing; it’s as if the sun is beneath his skin. You shake your head but grin, looking back down to your book but unable to get yourself to read.

Namjoon finally gets the hint, blushing at his own unabashed staring, before looking around frantically for something to preoccupy himself with. But his eyes graze over the clock and he starts, “Shit.”

“Huh?” You look up.

“It’s almost five in the morning,” he sighs.

You’re unsurprised when you look at the clock, closing your book and stretching. Your blanket falls down your thigh at the movement and you suddenly remember that you’re not wearing pants. You scramble to pull the material back up, looking at him wildly to gauge his reaction.

But he’s slumped against his chair with his hand over his face, “I have to be at work in two and a half hours.” It wasn’t until, for some reason, this angle that he realizes how familiar the shirt you’re drowning in is. He sits up again and motions to it, “Is that my shirt?”

You choke slightly, your cheeks an entirely new level of fuchsia at having been caught. You shake your head, “No.”

Namjoon feels as though he’s going to burst. His chest has swelled with pride and joy and love. He rubs his lips together, glancing at the clock to confirm that it is way too late at night. So he stands and indulges himself with a risk, running his fingers through your hair and whispering, “Keep it.”

You tense for just a second under his fingers but it feels so nice. He only touches you for a moment but it helps your body relax and you realize how tired you are. You yawn, smiling up at him and he grins, “Get some rest,” before taking his things and walking toward his bedroom.

The next morning Namjoon is almost late, and for no other reason but you. He scribbles his daily note (Please keep the shirt - it looks much better on you. Date tonight? —Joon) and tiptoes into your room to place it on your nightstand, stopping short when he sees you.

It’s only 8:50 AM and you’re dead asleep. But holy hell. You’ve flung the sheets off your body and your t-shirt (his t-shirt) has ridden up to reveal your stomach and a pair of lavender lace panties.

“Fuck.”

You stir at the sound and Namjoon discovers that, apparently, in these situations, it’s not fight-or-flight, it’s freeze. But you don’t wake up. He stares for a moment, almost crumpling the note in his fist because he wants to run his hands up your bare legs, trace patterns onto your stomach, suck hickeys onto your hips, bury his face between your legs and rip those…

He shakes his head, whispering more profanities and dropping the note unceremoniously on your nightstand before bolting from the room. He pauses outside to catch his breath, a bead of sweat on his brow line from the effort of leaving. He wrenches a hand through his hair, his mind still cloudy with fantasies.

He shakes his head again, walking with a determined stride into his bathroom and splashing water on his face. His head slowly clears, but he will always have that image of you in bed in his mind. Maybe he should ask for the shirt back.

You wake up a couple of hours later, groggy with sleep and curling to one side to pluck the note from your bedside table. You can’t stop the smile that spreads across your face and you bury your face into your pillow in glee.

The day passes in complete bliss; total, all-consuming glee. You beat Jeongguk to the kitchen and make him and Lisa waffles with eggs and bacon, putting it all together to resemble a smiley face. Then you’re the one that suggests going shopping, giving Lisa heart palpitations from the shock.

Namjoon spends the whole day grinning, much to the dismay of his staff. Cold, serious, and expressionless they know how to deal with, but Namjoon singing (off-tune) under his breath and smiling as he thanks them for their work? No idea.

He already knows where he wants to take you. He’s had your first date planned since he was eighteen (with slight modifications as he’s matured). So by the time he shimmers into his living room at 7:01 PM he’s nearly giddy with anticipation.

Namjoon glances toward your bedroom door, only slightly ajar, listening as Lisa coos at you. When he turns toward the kitchen he spots Jeongguk sitting on the counter, chewing on a piece of licorice and frowning, “They’ve been in there for two hours.”

Namjoon grins.

Jeongguk raises an eyebrow at him curiously. Of all the staff, Jeongguk might be the most used to seeing his boss smiling since he’s Yoongi's best friend. But this is different than the late-night-drinks smirk or a birthday party smile. He’s…glowing like he could be his own star. His eyes are bright and those dimples Jeongguk had only ever seen flashes of were on full display.  

The sight takes his breath away.

“I’m going to change.” Namjoon disappears into his bedroom.

You stick your head out of your room and look at Jeongguk wide-eyed, “Was that Namjoon?”

Jeongguk nods, still a little starstruck.

“Crap!” you mutter, disappearing again.

You remerge thirty seconds later looking a bit winded, naturally flushed, Lisa on your heels. You dig through your small bag, checking that you have everything while Lisa adjusts your hair, “You look amazing. You are amazing.”

You smile at her, so eternally grateful it hurts. Standing on your tiptoes you kiss her cheek lightly, “Thanks. Have a good night.”

“Night,” she grins, already beginning to fade, “I’m going to want to know everything!”

Jeongguk slides off the edge of the counter and squeezes your bicep, “Have fun tonight,” he says.

“Thanks,” you smile up at him, “Have a good night. Tell Yoongi ‘hey’ for me.”

“Will do.” He shimmers away.

“Ready?” The familiar baritone slides up your spine like a shiver and makes your knees weak. You turn to see Namjoon adjusting a cuff link, his hair falling forward in his face, glancing up at you with eyes so bright they’re almost blinding.

“Yes,” as if you'd been holding it like a breath, in your chest, all day.

Namjoon crosses the room and offers his hand. You take it without a second thought.

“We’re shimmering?” You whisper because you feel close and quiet and safe.

He nods, “I gave Hobi the night off,” he pulls you closer to him, fitting perfectly into his side. His lips graze your forehead as he says, “I wanted it to be just us.”

You smile into his suit jacket.

The restaurant is small and familiar. It has a brick face with a small glass door set into wood. A painted wooden sign, lit by yellow lanterns, reads Rosa Italiana.

A memory lights your mind like flash paper. Soft yellow lighting, his parents and yours, and him. He was seventeen, tall, gangly, almost awkward if not for the undeniable charisma and sincerity. And you, two years his junior, wise beyond your years and yet nervous, blushing anytime someone looked at you.

This was where you had first met.

“Namjoon,” you whisper.

He shrugs as he guides you forward, still holding you close to his body as you walk, “I’m a romantic.”

You blush like it’s triggered by the restaurant, by the memories.

The hostess doesn’t have to ask for his name before taking you both back to a secluded table. There’s a small candle in a glass bowl and roses as the centerpiece, a small piece of cream-colored card stock with the menu printed on it in cursive.

You order wine and pasta and find yourself holding his hand across the table, playing with his fingers absently. You’re not sure if it's the wine or the atmosphere or just the realization that you’re happy, but you can’t stop smiling up at him and drawing star patterns into his palm.

“So,” he says, pulling his hand away as the waiter puts down both of your plates, “when will you start at the shelter?”

You shrug as you begin twining pasta around a fork, “Yeri said they could start training me next week; Monday maybe?”

Namjoon grins hugely, opening his mouth to say something, just about to form the words when his whole body tenses and his eyes switch to black involuntarily. Like a protective instinct.

“Aw,” a sweet but menacing voice coos from behind you. A tall, slender man in a dark suit appears at your table, his pale hand squeezing Namjoon’s shoulder, “Don’t waste your energy on me, baby.”

Namjoon reaches up to grab the hand, fingers encircling the wrist and squeezing. You think you hear a bone crack. The man smirks and uses his other hand to stroke Namjoon’s cheek, “You remember I like it rough.”

Namjoon bats away the hand on his cheek, and uses his other to push the man away. The stranger barely stumbles but does take a step back, his eyes landing on you. Now that he’s facing you completely, you’re startled. He seems elf-like and ageless, sharp features and nearly translucent skin. His irises change color, like clouds of smoke floating behind a film.

“My competition?” he frowns, and you think you see real sadness in his eyes. He raises his hand, dark black nails centimeters from your face when Namjoon catches his hand in the air, standing and forming a barrier between you and him.

“She has nothing to do with this.” Namjoon’s voice is stern and it falls over you like a blanket, makes you feel safe despite everything.

“She has everything to do with this,” the stranger growls. He peeks around Namjoon’s shoulder, his eyes a sinister red now, “And I’ll be back for her.” He turns to smoke in Namjoon’s grip and is gone in seconds.

Your heart is pounding and you fall limp in your chair. Namjoon’s shoulders relax and when he turns around his eyes are human again, cocoa brown and concerned. He touches your cheek where the stranger would’ve, his thumb warm and comforting as it draws a path back and forth on your skin. When he pulls his hand away, it’s wet and you realize you’re crying.

“Who was that?” you whisper.

author’s note—THIS is the shirt! Joon wears it all the time (in AT LEAST two bangtantv eps) and I love it. 

05: moni and yubs and the blood oath ↝

for more of my works check out my m.list

[youtubetomp3convert-blog]

Nine Things I Learned About YouTube

A few weeks ago, having recently published Highly Visible Marketing, I'd a guilt-stricken moment. You know the experience, usually the one where you suddenly realize you're not following the very advice you so freely share with others. In my case, it had been driven insurance firms advocated YouTube as a free of charge marketing tool in your social media marketing arsenal, something I'd yet to complete myself. Having resolved to "practice what I preach" I published my first YouTube video yesterday. The knowledge was so cathartic that I decided to publish about it.

Frankly, my video has yet to snag an Academy Award nomination for best cinematography or sound editing. I'm especially disappointed at being ignored for Best Costume, given that I wore a recently laundered shirt. However, I did so learn two things along the way that could save you time and money, and might encourage readers to "take the plunge" into producing their very own YouTube videos. This can be a list:

1. I began my YouTube adventure expecting to pay several hundred dollars to get the hardware and software I'd need. That did not prove to be necessary. I initially explored several software packages that will provide basic editing capabilities. Each had a price of around $100. It turns out my Windows operating-system already had two bits of software offering most of the functionality I need. If you fancy yourself as the Steven Spielberg of social media marketing, so does yours! They are Windows Live Movie Maker ("WLMM") and Sound Recorder.

2. Although most computers have an integrated microphone, the audio from mine sounded muffled and distant. I invested $15 in a simple headset (available at any big-box store that sells computers or audio equipment), which although not even close to perfect, greatly enhanced the sound quality.

3. You will require a camcorder to accomplish the entire array of input options you'll want. Nearly every digital camera or cell phone will continue to work, but quality and simple uploading to your personal computer may be issues. I initially planned to purchase a Cisco Flip camcorder, the preferred camera on most people I understand that are active on YouTube. I quickly learned this brand has been discontinued. Instead, I bought a related Sony Bloggie camera for $149. One word of advice is always to ensure that your camera includes a tripod mount.

4. I also bought a mid-range web camera, that was on sale for $15. This tool could replace the requirement for a microphone and a video camera. However, I came across the sound and quality both somewhat lacking. More significantly, I will be forever tied to filming facing my computer. With a boy in the military and the free accessibility to Skype (an awesome product I plan to go over at length in my own next book), the cash was still well spent.

5. WLMM lets you import entire PowerPoint presentations or individual slides. That is useful if your video subject matter is technical and requires visual aids. It is much more professional than writing on a flipchart along with your back once again to the camera. The key is to save lots of documents as png or tif files, rather than in PowerPoint. The program also imports pictures. You can then narrate off-screen, or just use them to add spice to your video.

6. Whether you import videos, slides or pictures, MLMM presents an array of editing options. I came across the capability to end youtube to mp3 before that awkward moment when I walk off-screen to avoid the camera is particularly helpful. For this reason, stand motionless and silent for one or two seconds when you end a video or slide. It will make for a solution break as you transition into the following slide. The typical period of a fall is likely to be 7 seconds, but that is easily changed to support your need. Additionally, there are countless video and animation special effects, which I've yet to explore. One feature that I do plan to include into my next video is captions. I might, for instance, include my web address or contact information in the presentation.

7. You can record narrations with Sound Recorder, and match them with the right slide. If you are a type-A person as I'm, pay attention to speaking at a reasonable pace. Again, you are able to edit the duration, adjust the amount and fade in and from the audio. You can also import music.

8. One feature of WLMM did surprise and disappoint me. Perhaps I missed something, but my computer saved the videos into something called a wlmp file format. YouTube supports a wide variety of formats, but wlmp isn't among them. After a little research and experimentation, I discovered some great news. You can upload directly from WLMM to YouTube simply by clicking the right "Share Button" in top of the right Toolbar. I came across a technical explanation of why this works, but who cares? Problem solved!

9. Finally, after you have successfully uploaded your finished video, bear in mind that YouTube lets you do some basic Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It allows a description and tags. As always, make them keyword rich. Fred Campos, the founder of FunCitySocialMedia, suggests you include your company's name in video titles. Since the conclusion game is to have people locate and watch you videos, don't over-look this important step.

Well, that's my list. I am hoping you may find something of good use here, and more to the point that it will encourage one to pursue more of the low-cost marketing experimentation I talked so much about in my own book.

[cyberramblings]

Ex-CoD Kid’s Thoughts on the New One

I wanna talk about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This is 2019′s Call of Duty game (there is one every year). This is a little confusing because it is a reboot of the Modern Warfare sub-series that started with 2007′s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The first three Call of Duty games were set in World War II, which is funny since the whole series is now associated with a modern or near-future setting in most of the games, to the point where 2017′s Call of Duty: WWII stood out by being set in World War II again, which hadn’t been done since 2008′s Call of Duty: World at War (which was the first one to ditch the numbers and also the first one I got into as a kid).

Anyways, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (the 2019 game, which I will now call MW) is one of the biggest leaps the series has taken in a while. These games are kind of notorious for not changing much from entry to entry. The Call of Duty franchise is also kind of notorious for alternating between three different developers in order to crank out a game every year. This gets a little weird because obviously the franchise as a whole shares a lot of traits and code in common, but for example, the Modern Warfare subseries and its corresponding characters can only be touched by one of the three developers, while another of the developers has exclusive rights to the Black Ops subseries and its characters. All this to say that yes, a new Call of Duty game, but the folks (Infinity Ward) who make it only get to make a new one every third year (formerly every other year until the PS4/Xbox One era).

Well, I guess what I mean to say here is that the Call of Duty games tend to be two steps forward, one step back. There’s actually relatively little consensus on which features to include or throw away between games. 2018′s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 got rid of regenerating health, only for 2019′s MW to bring it back, but also bring back Black Ops 4′s healthkit item. Imagine that times a hundred every year. Even Call of Duty fans usually don’t agree on which features should return or not.

So with that all being said, MW introduces the most new features that I can recall in a Call of Duty going all the way back to its namesake (CoD4) which either invented or popularized the modern model for picking a loadout and unlocking new items for it. I want to run through a few of them and why I like them.

1 - Attachments Reborn

Call of Duty has long featured attachments for guns as an integral part of multiplayer gameplay. At first, you would have to pick between a scope or a silencer or more bullets. The red dot sights were so popular that some of the games introduced ways to have multiple attachments, but at the cost of other parts of your loadout, such as forgoing grenades. MW finally, gloriously allows you to have up to five attachments on your gun with no tradeoff.

It also features far more attachments than before, up to 70 on some guns as opposed to the dozen or so maximum before. This is because there are multiple subvariants of suppressor, stock, laser, nearly two dozen scopes even if they mostly fall under a handful of categories. This also means that attachments are less of a pure upgrade and more of a trade off, but this means you can transform almost every gun into more of a short range weapon or long range weapon. It’s really satisfying to transform a gun into something it’s not, especially when you need to for...

2 - Camo Challenges

Call of Duty the last decade has featured unlockable camouflage patterns as a reward. At first, they were an incentive to get headshots with each weapon, then later special camo challenges would be unlocked after getting all the headshot-based camos. MW skips that first step and has you unlocking  ten categories of camo challenges, each with ten camos each as you complete the specific task. At first, the challenges are things like getting kills, getting headshots, getting kills while crouching, but later they become getting 3 kills in a row, getting kills from far away, etc.

What this essentially means is that every single gun in the game has 100 little milestones of progress and each of those milestones has a tangible cosmetic reward that even other players can see. After getting all 100 camos for a gun, you get the 101st camo: Gold! But it gets better: getting Gold for every gun one of a certain type (assault rifle, pistol, etc.) unlocks Platinum for all guns of that type! One step further: getting Platinum for every gun type (and thus Gold for every gun) unlocks Damascus (named after Damascus Steel), which is a cool multicolored camo. More importantly, it shows that you spent a lot of time getting these challenges done. And most importantly, it basically means that you can “beat” the multiplayer of MW.

I really like this because it gives me a goal to work towards, even if I don’t stand much of a chance of ever actually completing. It was really cool to pick a gun as my favorite right off the bat then use it at close range, long range, etc. as I completed all the milestones and unlocked all 100 camos for it, which let me “beat” that gun and move on to the next one. On one hand, I can see how the game becomes less fun when it is just a grind for these camos, but on the other hand, it is really cool to have a goal to work towards, and I have never felt as attached to the unlocks in a Call of Duty since I was a kid. I’ve almost never played Hardcore mode (a Call of Duty staple that takes away your crosshair and minimap and reduces everyone’s health) but it has become my go-to for getting some of these challenges done, and now I really have a taste for it.

3 - The Rest

MW has a bunch of other little new features that aren’t as life changing, but I wanted to mention anyways. The visuals, animation, and sound design are much improved and much more realistic. The gun sways so much more realistically as you walk forward, for example. The nighvision missions of the single player mode particularly look realistic since they’re just green. The campaign itself is much better than other recent Call of Duty’s, but it is still ultimately forgettable at the end of the day if slightly more enjoyable. I did appreciate that it gives you rewards for the multiplayer mode instead of expecting you to play it just to play it. MW also brings back the Spec Ops coop mode from prior games but with unlocks and XP tied to multiplayer, which is nice, but I’d rather just play multiplayer.

Speaking of, MW lets you toggle which modes you do or don’t want to play online instead of having to pick one mode to play, which is nice because otherwise, certain modes never get played online, especially as the game ages. Also this CoD features special “Missions” that you have to commit to focusing on one at a time that unlock free gun cosmetics (slightly different looking attachments and versions of guns) that offer yet another way to be rewarded for just playing the game, while also helping to make me experience different playstyles.

Of course, this CoD also features a free battle royale mode that seems to be a big success, and I enjyo it fairly well, but it can’t compare to the nonstop action of normal multiplayer. Also this CoD features crossplay sorted by controller typer, so I can get matched with Xbox players or PC players but only if they’re using a controller rather than a mouse and keyboard. This is great because it lets me play the free battle royale mode with my dad on my PC while he is on the PS4, so we can each have our own screen.

Also I appreciate that this game offers splitscreen at all, even if it can’t be used in battle royale, Spec Ops coop mode, or even the larger multiplayer maps such as the brand new Ground War, which features big maps, vehicles, and selectable spawn points just like the FPS competitor Battlefield. It feels a little janky, but it is nice to have the option when I need to blow up vehicles or shoot people from very far away for a challenge.

Oh, you can also reload while aiming down the sights. That’s new. Plus you can mount your gun on a waist high surface to reduce recoil, but it just ends up being annoying since you are forced to do it for challenges. Also this is minor, but certain weak killstreaks or overpowered perks have been turned into “field upgrades”, a usable ability with a cooldown. I like this because they’re not quite like an “ultimate ability” in Overwatch or Black Ops 3/4, but they add a tiny bit of a skill ceiling and agency.

Oh! This is also the first CoD in a long time to not feature a 50 dollar season pass that just provides a little over a dozen multiplayer maps. For context, the other big shooters (Rainbow Six, Counter Strike, Overwatch, Paladins, Battlefield) don’t charge for maps and haven’t in years, since it just divides the playerbase and makes matchmaking harder.

This CoD also doesn’t lock new guns behind lootboxes, which had become a big problem for the last several games. Furthermore, this game doesn’t feature lootboxes at all, which is a new development in the right direction. Instead, this game has pricey (10-20 bucks) cosmetic bundles in the style of Fortnite and a battle pass (again like Fortnite, but almost every game has this now).

Conclusion

So what’s the takeaway? Well, I know Call of Duty is a very popular game that doesn’t need defending, but I really think this new one is special and very much pro-consumer. I refused to get excited for it before release after years of microtransaction-riddled cash grabs, but this one is a real breath of fresh air. There is a lot of content here, and they provide more for free. You get to play all the new maps and modes for free and unlock the new guns for free. The battle royale and normal multiplayer are both getting a lot of support and constant content. I just hope this game doesn’t drive off the edge of a cliff when this year’s new game comes out, but that is a whole other topic (there are rumors, but nothing has been confirmed about this year’s Call of Duty if there even is one. It would need to come out pretty soon, despite no information about it existing. If there isn’t one, it would be the first year since 2004 without one, but this most recent game has been pretty exceptional in my opinion and Corona couldn’t be predicted).