#i want you to know i've spent 0 dollars on this game

[1000-rat-corpses]

in defense of a gacha game

"i can't believe tjere's a real fandom for stuff like genshin impact. imagine if half your dash was posting about raid shadow legends. you'd think it was astroturf"

i know it's fun to hate on genshin impact and criticize any gacha game but a post like this makes it very clear you only know that the game has bad ads and a gacha system. .........it has an unbelievable amount of lore and worldbuilding like i get what you're saying really but if you took out the gacha aspect you are left with a very real and substantial rpg.. no the writing isn't very good in the beginning, some characters are filler characters that only show up in their own side stories or events, and i have words about the resolution of inazuma... but there's so many really amazing stories in the game, and lots are just hidden little side quest plots that range from fleshing out the world to pure whimsy

there's a side quest in fontaine about a little girl and her imaginary friends and what it means to grow up, and you go on a very cute and touching journey to help her and her imaginary friends, that were based on characters from Don Quixote which is also relevant to her imaginary, idealized world, feel relieved that she can grow up and still retain her childlike whimsy while seeing the world for what it is. this comes well after she makes this world of imaginary friends who serve as her protectors, each based off the people/pets that replaced her parents in her life after her vigilante outlaw parents literally abandoned her with their ex-outlaw friends because their wanderlust was stronger than their desire to raise their own child. it was actually touching as you swam through the beautiful reefs while the "children" (a school of cute fish she befriended who also may or may not be imaginary friends too) sing nursery rhymes/songs with her about remembering the people who took care of her in her parents' stead and how she should never forget the sweet and wonderful times of her childhood even if she has to face growing up eventually

and there's so many more of these little hidden gems even among the countless side quests, like fischl's persona dungeon where she faces off with and has to accept the side of herself she wants to be but knows isn't real, or that incredibly depressing story with Freminet and the Thelxie and the mother who was delusional and thought her son was still alive and was deteriorating from Loneliness Syndrome but it was actually she who had it all along... That was a ride.

The world is beautiful and absolutely packed, and you can grow to really like the characters in the main story, if you let yourself. Inazuma's story had promise before it fell apart lol but after that Sumeru was awesome (I could write a dissertation on Scaramouche and his background/themes/boss theme lyrics) and I'm loving Fontaine so far. I already love Navia and i've known her for like a a day in the story.

anyway. i know it’s amaaaaazingly easy to just be like ‘ew gacha gambling predatory game with sameface bland over designed characters you have shit taste’ but man sometimes a game is fun and people like it. idk whats so surprising about a game like this having a fandom, but i guess people can go jack off to reveling in their superiority complexes and their REAL GAMERS ONLY games

[ijwrff]

Sorry if it's kinda personal, but what's college like?

Oh I don't mind, hun! I feel like a lot of it will depend on the college, and your interests! Most colleges have a ton of clubs and teams for sports and hobbies! It's not 100% about school, even though (obviously) that's the main reason everyone goes. Finding the right college for you is always the most important, so visiting any in the area and asking questions about what benefits they have there is really important!

For me, I went for the language degree. So there were things for German after class as a club called Kaffestunde, which is basically just a club where you all drink coffee and practice your German with a tutor or grad student! There's stuff like that for most majors I think :0 for example a friend went for programming and game design, and there was a video game club (not exclusive to the program majors though).

I kind of had a love hate relationship with college? I was forced to go. I'm glad it's over, but I could have saved myself thousands of dollars by doing my major from home and taking the fluency exam when I was ready (you do have to pay for that particular exam but thats fine). My mom was huge on forcing her kids to go to college, and I personally think that's the wrong approach.

You can meet amazing people there, but college shouldn't be forced. Especially when kids are just out of highschool, because how are they supposed to know the career path and degree they want to shape the rest of their lives XD some do know, but most don't. One of the good parts about college though, is you can experiment. If you don't wanna pick a major right off the bat, or you're unsure of which degree you want to choose from the ones you like, you can still go to college and take the required courses and dabble in an intro class for each of the degrees you might want to choose.

There's some people who take 3 years of course for a major and decide to switch it last minute. It's ALMOST never too late to change your major, so if you decided you really didn't like what you were taking courses for, you just talk to an advisor and get something else worked out!

But as I said, be sure that you want to try college because it's expeeeeeeeeensive. I know people who owe over $100,000. If you want to go, get a little more settled in a job or apartment that you want! Because going into college without having a job and hoping financial aid will cover everything is hit or miss. Saving up can save YOU a lot of trouble later. I'm not telling you, or anyone DON'T GO TO COLLEGE, I'm saying "Be PREPARED for college and the struggles you'll need to overcome."

It's tough, I won't lie. I was in college for 6 years, when it was supposed to be 4, because I kept failing classes. My health (mental and physical) made it hard for me to do anything, and I spent a lot of that time jobless because of it. College is a time to learn about yourself and what you want to do later in life, so experiment! If the standard 4 classes is too many, try 2-3. If 2-3 isn't enough and you think you can handle another, add it to the schedule! Your advisors? Your best fucking friends. They'll help (or they should) when you need to add or drop classes and help get you the degree you worked so hard for!

I feel like this was a very long ramble, I am so sorry XD all this is fresh in my mind cause I JUST finished. I'm proud of what I've done, but personally I regret going to college. If it wasn't for the pressure from my mom, I wouldn't have gone because I WANT to be a writer and translator. You don't necessarily NEED college for that. It could be fun to take a class for it here and there, but I just feel like I wasted a lot of time that could have been spent catering to my mental and physical needs without having tens of thousands of dollars in debt because it was hard to hold a job when I was so sick.

Overall, do what you want to do. College courses? Sure! Full time courses or part time? Go for what you can handle! Don't need a degree for the job you want? Save some money, and get the degree if you want to and have time to do so!

Be kind to yourself, and do what's best for you!

[margridarnauds]

choose violence, your choice in fandom: 18, 19, 20, 23, and 25

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

Raphael's files for Act 3 in the datamines being "Raphael_Tango" haunts me day and night. It's the reason why I have the idiots dance a tango before corrupting their relationship. I have to live with this knowledge, day and night. Also the fucking. Dialogue for the epilogue that was cut. WHY? WHY DO THE GODS TAUNT US?

Also, the Bluebeard parallels drive me up a wall. I WANT my Perrault/ Bartok/Crimson Peak parallel/AU and regrettably I'm one of the only people who is the proper degree of unhinged to write it.

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

...I regret to tell you that playing Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Wonder in short succession has unlocked a part of my brain that I thought I'd killed off or...at least....knocked unconscious with a large bat.

...I regret to tell you it's awake and I'm back to shipping Princess Peach/Bowser. ...I also have 0 thoughts on Ascended Astarion besides "no, that isn't the authorial intent and people really don't need to defend it or pretend like he isn't intended to be abusive, but also, people escalate the debate and add a nasty undercurrent of misogyny, so you know what? You have fun with your toxic vampire BF" but Evil!Shadowheart corrupting Selunite!Tav? ...yeah. Yeah.

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

BG3, it isn't news that Act 3 lags and there are some sidequests I refuse to do a second time because I did my time and we're not doing it again. I really hate a lot of the combat, even if I'm no longer awful at it. Like, sure, I can fight Raphael, I've fought every major boss in the game at this point at Tactician level, but also, consider: I don't *like* it.

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, I've been watching it for YEARS but I NEVER understood the appeal of Jack/Phryne. I thought it would be her essentially giving up her independence for a man and that they might have a short-lived fling, but it would never go anywhere. I dragged my heels, I bitched, I moaned, I said I would never like it, that it was a mistake to not just adapt the books and make Jack happily married and Phryne in a steady but open relationship with Lin Chung.

...I finally came around to it this watch through.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

*Ronan Mazurier can't be older than 22 years old and he just watched his father be killed in front of him after he TRIED to help him, by an officer of the king, a nobleman who has extreme power over him so Ronan can never really give as good as he gets. He's frustrated, he's angry, he's hotheaded, he makes decisions that screw himself over, he makes decisions that screw other people over, he thinks with his heart and not his head, but he's also a KID, be nicer to him*

Like, it's 2024 and I'm here to fight for my boy.

In general, part of why I stopped doing public streams, besides my schedule no longer accommodating it, was that I really, really got tired of people watching musicals that were obviously near and dear to my heart, that I'd often spent upwards of a hundred dollars on and just....relentlessly shitting on them, especially over relatively minor things like historical inaccurate costumes. Like, excellent, Takarazuka productions don't often have 100% historical accurate costumes, now can we actually pay attention to the MUSICAL? What do you think about the MUSICAL? What do you think of this attempt by a Japanese theatrical revue to adapt 18th century French court clothing? What is this saying about the directorial intent? "I don't like--" I don't like your face, and yet here we are. "I don't like that 1789 pays too much attention to the OCs and not to the historical figures" -- It's called. 1789 -- Les Amants de la Bastille. Not 1789: Robespierre and the Gang's REALLY wacky summer. Admit the musical isn't your thing, enjoy the bops, sit the fuck down, and shut up.

[bismuth-209]

I posted 22,952 times in 2022

15 posts created (0%)

22,937 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@spoonietimelordy

@wibblywobblybowtie

@marzipanandminutiae

@vaspider

@elytrians

I tagged 320 of my posts in 2022

#i said a thing - 108 posts

#nsfw? - 90 posts

#bis speaks - 82 posts

#long post - 23 posts

#unreality - 15 posts

#goncharov - 9 posts

#blorbo - 8 posts

#politics - 7 posts

#time for crab - 6 posts

#clack - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 126 characters

#very funky. i used to be like. what if i am a demigod but i'm just so smart (because athena) the dyslexia doesn't come through

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

🦀 time for crab 🦀

What’s that coming over the dash? Is it a monster? No. It’s just a crab 🦀

today i summoned 49 crabs and caught 2 💰 of them. look at them all!

🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 💰 💰

i summoned some new orange friends 🦀

I LOVE THIS I'M HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE THANKS @williamrikers

5 notes - Posted July 16, 2022

#4

SO. you might have heard about the itch.io bundle for ukraine! which you can find here. the offer ends on the 18th (of march, 2022) i believe.

The proceeds for this bundle will go to two charities that work to help Ukraine, a very good reason to support it for just $10 already. but for that 10 dollars you'll also receive 992 games/a couple other miscellaneous things.

this post is me convincing you to buy it based on the exciting things in the bundle!

there are 573 'games', that is to say, digital games to be played on a device like a computer or phone (531 are compatible with windows, 291 compatible with macOS, 234 with linux, 30 with android and 20 are played in the browser)

now, since buying this bundle 4 days ago i've mostly looked at the other major category, 'physical games', physical here meaning you get a pdf or something of the sort and you use that to play the game. most of these are ttrpgs or can be used to enhance your ttrpg gaming experience. (ttrpg = games in the same category as dnd)

SO NOW I'LL GET TO THE MEAT OF THIS POST. the recommendations.

thirsty sword lesbians

this game i've actually wanted for a little while, and seeing it in this bundle kind of solidified that i wanted to buy it. it's based on the powered by the apocalypse game rule thingies, which is a much easier system to learn than dnd, if my experience with monster of the week, which is based on the same system, is anything to go by. i've read the guidebook a little bit and it is very explicitly queer and anti-fascist and includes instructions for ensuring the mental safety of the players of the game.

link to the game page

can androids pray: red

See the full post

146 notes - Posted March 13, 2022

#3

*shakes you* little miss why so is so important. they're so right. neither of them are right. both are sad. he wants to fix her. she doesn't want to be fixed. do you understand. they love eachother so much but they're so so tired and why is she so sad. and then he's gone and she lost her lifeline that she didn't even grab. do you understand. he doesn't understand why she is so sad and he tries and he tries and she tries and she tries but it's too big. do you understand. do you understand.

152 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

#2

on the search for a slightly improved Improved Disability Pride Flag

so. a couple hours ago @capricorn-0mnikorn answered an ask about the disability pride flag she made. it included an open request for people to try and make new images of this flag, fiddling with colour values and making more hi-res versions. i happen to know my way around a vector software, so i just spent some time fiddling and i have three things to share.

first off: the original in more pixels

i simply colourpicked from the original image and this is that. the dimensions are also slightly different, this is the dimensions that google tells me flags are typically in.

secondly, i fiddled with the colours

See the full post

399 notes - Posted July 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

"Ivan Goncharov" this, "Nikolai Goncharov" that, when will you guys realize there's a reason we don't know his first name. the POINT is that we don't know. Goncharev is a family name and whoever Goncharov used to be totally went up in being the head of the Family. he doesn't HAVE a personal name to denote who he is outside of his mafia persona.

8,799 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cottagecore-peach]

heyyyy !!! i hope ur doing v v well !!!!! so. this might sound a lil random but i've seen u posting abt it sometimes and i've been wondering whether i should buy stardew valley ?? i don't know if u urself play it or if u just reblogged some posts abt it so feel free to ignore this ask !! but yeah !! it looks super cute but i don't rlly know if it has lots of stuff n content to play thru or if it maybe gets boring rlly quickly ?? n i don't rlly know much abt the plot either to be honest but it's just looks so sweet !! plus if i were to buy it i would have to do it on my computer bc i do not have any kind of consoles so i don't know of it's like,, the type of game for computers i guess ?? aaaa i don't actually know much abt videogames in general i must sound so silly,,,, welp ! anyways. love ur account + i hope ur doing very well !! sending love !!

-- yoga anon 💌❣️ (yes i am going to sign all my anons now bc i took that 'i feel like we're pals' little comment v seriously bc u are v sweet & i just !! feel like we're pals as well. plus it feels like signing a letter !! even though yoga is like. not my defining trait at all i haven't done it in so much time hhjdjdkajsj ne ways i'm rambling now !! bye !! lots of love !!)

omg omg you have no idea how happy this made me!! hello my friend!! thank u for opening this can of worms and allowing me to rant about my current hyperfixation 💕💕💕

first of all: i would 100% recommend stardew valley! it’s only like $16 CAD or something so it’s not a huge loss if you end up disliking it. but my friend taught me her criteria for what she thinks makes a game worth the money, and it’s this: can you see yourself playing the game for at least 1 hr/dollar spent on it? if yes, buy the game!! my ex bought me the game 2.5 years ago (while we were together obvs, bless her) so technically i spent $0 on it, but given that i’m nearing 400 hrs played on steam, i think it would be well worth it even if i had spent the $16!

onto the actual game!!! if you don’t play a lot of video games, i think this would actually be a very good game for you!! looking at guides for how to maximize profit can get really overwhelming, but it’s really easy to just vibe and get immersed in the cottagecore/farmcore energy. the game actually does have a lot of depth to it, most of which is revealed as you progress through the long term, story-driven goals, but you literally never have to finish them if you don’t want to!! there are plenty of different things to do, and you can focus on anything you like! 

you might choose to focus on farming (which i would say can be split into two subcategories: plant or animal farming, though you can always work with a balance of both), or you could work on reaching the bottom of the old mines in town and collect lots of rare gems and artifacts to donate to the museum, or you can spend your days fishing to bring in the money, or you can go for my personal favourite: befriend/romance all the townsfolk!! talk to them every day and give them gifts they’ll love (that’s basically the only thing i use the guides for lmao). there are 10 possible characters to romance and you can still befriend everyone else in town! some characters have amazing backstories that they reveal to you as you become better friends with them, and there’s honestly tons of tea to be spilled in this tiny community!!

if you have any more questions or want anything explained more clearly pls pls let me know, i obviously have tons to say!!

ps: it’s also been a hot minute since i did yoga, don’t worry about it, friend 🥰

[topicprinter]

Hey guys so I've been selling on Amazon FBA for about a year now, and I wanted to share some things that I've learned on my journey and why I'm now looking at different business models.In the fall of 2015 I started looking into making money online and Amazon FBA seemed enticing. I started watching all of the Guru 0 to a million in a year type youtube videos and I got all excited about one day working on my laptop while traveling the world and hanging out at the beach everydayWhat did i do first?I started researching a niche with no big brand names, decent margins and something that I could customize and stand out with. I bought the Jungle scout light program to save me some time. I then ordered every product I could from all of my competitors, on page 1 from Amazon to see what they were like. Then what I did was go on Alibaba and order samples from like 6 different factories. What I quickly realized was that this was all the same stuff.All of these factories were making the same thing and guys on page one on Amazon selling for $39 and the guys selling for 19$ were basically selling the same thing, just branded differently. I didn't want to just sell the exact same thing so I found a factory I thought I liked with a good price point and had a custom sample made to set myself apart from the competition. When I got the sample it was terrible. I had to switch factories, found a way better one, this set me back a few weeks but I finally got an awesome product made, and placed my first order and had it shipped by air. I originally invested $4500 bucks, 7 bucks a unit x 500 + 1000 for air shipping.What happened next?My product went live last summer, I started out with a price point of 29.99, since competition was selling between 19 and 39. I wanted to jump into the middle and feel out where I fit in. I had some friends buy to get initial sales and by week 2 I had my first organic sale. I did a giveaway for 40 units in a facebook group to get some discounted reviews (This was before Amazon had changed its terms of service). After the first month I had over 30 reviews, I was on bottom of page 1 and I was getting consistent sales of between 3-5 units a day at 26.99 (I had lowered my price to increase sales).By end of November sales were growing due to the Christmas season and then in December I did close to 8000 in revenue at around a 28% profit margin which I thought was half decent since a year before I didnt even really know what Amazon FBA was. Now this was at the time that Amazon had changed its review policy saying that nobody could sell discounted products in exchange for a review. I thought nothing of this besides the fact that I had planned to give away more but couldn't now, oh well. What I didn't realize was that Amazon would take away almost all of my reviews in January leaving me with only 17 reviews from the 54 that I had and I dropped down to a 4 star from a 5 star. Also I had just placed a 1000 unit order because I had almost run out of inventory due to the Christmas rush. This combined with the fact that a LOT of chinese sellers were starting to take over my category my sales really slowed down a lot.Anyways. Here is what I have learned about selling on Amazon FBA:1) Competition is growing so fast on Amazon.com which means other sellers will copy your product – This is almost guaranteed if your product is selling well. They say you need a product that really sticks out to succeed. This is true but just expect other guys to move in and copy you. Within 4 months of me launching mine I had another guy selling the exact same product but for almost 10 dollars cheaper! (at my cost). The kicker is that he is selling around 10x more than me despite the fact that his reviews were similar at the time and his grammar and spelling on his listing are terrible as well but nobody seems to care, Price and keyword ranking are all that seem to matter2) Managing inventory can be hard - When you think you need a lot of product you place a large order and it won't sell or you place a small order and it sells too quick leaving you out of stock. Its a balancing act and its not easy3) It Is VERY difficult to get organic reviews – I finally figured out a way to get a small percentage of buyers to leave me reviews with a 3 part email sequence I send out with coupon codes in there etc. Seems to work well but took me a while to figure that out4) You need lots of Capital to scale – This is one fact I find to be very important that none of the so called "Gurus" ever seem to talk about. Oh Look I made a million last year on Amazon, yeah but what did you spend on inventory? I for example spent 4500 USD on my first order and then I had to re-order before that one ran out. I didn’t have quite enough in my account to cover my second order because it was larger so I had to shell out another 10,000 USD for my second order which included another SKU6) Amazon FBA Fees are High – 40 bucks a month for your account, FBA fees on every sale, Inventory storage fees, Inventory placement fees, PPC costs, etc etc. I would wager to bet that when 99% of guys that say they are making 40% profit margins are actually making significantly less than than because they aren't factoring in all of the costs and then taxes on top of that7) Don't take out a loan until your product is proven to sell - This business is very capital intensive and so its tempting to take out a loan to purchase your product. The problem is if your product doesn't sell well, you still have to pay back your loan. Prove your model first and then when you have consistent sales and they are growing, borrow money for inventory so you can grow your business faster.8) When you sell on Amazon, it is Amazon's business, not yours - You have to play by their rules and if you don't they can suspend you and shut you down. All part of how the game is played.9) Facebook ads do not work for a low price point physical product - You may break even at best, but scaling on Facebook requires a product with a good ROI and a high price point to cover ad cost10) Amazon makes mistakes - since their system is so big I have had to deal with them on the phone a few times when they started charging me higher fees on one of my SKU's although they are both the exact same weight and size. They have fixed it both times but has made me extra cautious in paying attention to my numbers11) Your margins will always be lower than you think - I originally calculated a profit margin of over 40% selling at a price point of 29.99, but have since had to lower my price point to 24.99, which is around 35% but then after taking into consideration PPC costs and placement fees etc my margin is actually under 30% now.12) To make good money you need to sell a LOT - if you have a product like mine that sells for 24.99 and I make 7 bucks profit on each one, I have to sell over 1400 units a month to make 10k in profit roughly. Or else I need WAY more products selling which requires WAY more capital. This is why I believe all of the Guru's build courses. Info products sell for way more, have a way higher ROI and can be sold unlimited times after being made once13) Don't follow the crowd - Everybody seems to be moving towards selling on Amazon.com these days because it looks like easy money and they get sold on the "passive income lifestyle" that all of the gurus are selling. In my opinion if you want to make a lot of money in business, DON'T FOLLOW THE CROWD, be smart about it. If you start selling a white labeled garlic press or whatever everybody else is talking about then you better have room for 10 boxes full of garlic presses that you can store in your garage because they probably wont sell. I followed the crowd with my product, had it customized which helped me out a lot, but I still have a hard time making money in this category due to that factFinal thoughtsSo this is just some of the stuff that came to mind when deciding to write this. I am now at a point where I have to run the numbers to see if its even worth it to keep selling these units or if I should move on to something completely different. Looking at my sales which are pretty sad (36k in revenue so just over 10k in profit in a year), I'm thinking I might just sell all of my inventory and start up something else, or sell the brand to somebody else.I'm not 100% interested in adding more products to my Amazon store due to the fact that there are so many chinese sellers entering the game every day making it harder and harder to compete. Also like I said above its Amazon's business, not mine, so ultimately its a risky business model. My goal at the moment is to make 5-10k a month working for myself preferably online since I live in a remote location. Right now I'm debating whether:I should pivot into another ecommerce business, except build a brand this time thats not reliant on Amazon for sales, (I don't love the physical product business model due to the fact that its capital intensive and has a lower ROI, but I would be willing to try it a second time since I'm familiar with it)Look into making an info product/service business with a higher price point / ROIStart upping my skills in another area and start a freelancing type business.If you guys have any question or if you have any ideas for me or you would love to share what your favorite business model is to make 5-10k a month I would love to chat. Cheers