#im a sucker for details and environments in this game

[wingedqueenlynx]

Playing Arkham Knight on new game plus again and I've got more screenshots tehehe

I love looking at all the environments and absorbing all the little details in them, especially in Riddlers hideout at the orphanage.

I also like this feature where the more you progress throughout Riddlers mission, the more of the orphanage is painted with his graffiti.

Meanwhile, Selina is just here watching him paint like-

She definitely wants to kick his ass while he does that but knowing Eddie, he definitely has the detonator on hand to keep her back XD

And of course there are these fucked up lookin dogs

Heheheh, I love every little detail in this game fr

[detectivenyx]

anyone telling you not to make fun of tiktok because you can ‘curate your experience to be how you like!’ is a fucking liar and has been completely suckered in by that godforsaken app.

a. even when my feed was ““perfectly tailored”“ to my interests (danganronpa, queer content, australian content, lolita fashion), it was just throwing whatever was in those tags at my face. a lot of this content was completely irrelevant to me - overdone danganronpa jokes that i heard told better on other websites, queer experiences of young kids i couldn’t relate to and felt creepy watching, stuff about australia that i was already observing for myself because i fucking live here, and largely the same 3 topics with lolita videos; ‘stop shopping on amazon for lolita’, ‘you can wear whatever you need to accomodate your disabilities with lolita’, ‘im tired of people assuming im a pedo for liking lolita’. these are all fucking things i agree with, but being repeatedly bombarded with just those and nothing else made it exhausting. this feed is supposedly perfectly tailored to everything i love, and yet even the addictive nature of tiktok wasn’t enough to keep me interested.

b. tiktok is deliberately designed to be as addictive as possible. similar to how the video game Civilization has that mentality of ‘just one more turn’ and suddenly it’s gone from 10am to 9pm, tiktok’s short video and scrolling design are created to ensure you keep going through videos for as long as possible - ‘just one more video’. when i had the app, i was aware of this, and yet would still lose 2-4 hours scrolling through the app regularly. the absolute cavalcade of shit, that would be largely ignored on other platforms, is part of the design of tiktok. you go ‘just one more video’, but the next video is total shit. you scroll to the next video, and it’s also fluff. you keep scrolling until you get to that one ‘good’ video - and you forget you were going to close the app in the first place. it’s the exact same design as games like candy crush, which a youtube friend of mine showed this video that goes into detail about how it creates an addictive environment - and even after he realised candy crush was insanely addictive by its design, he was completely aware of it, he was still suckered in and kept playing. tiktok is the exact fucking same. you can curate the experience however you like! so long as how you want to curate your experience is ‘lose 4 hours of your life scrolling through absolute bullshit vaguely related to your interests’.

c. why would i want a robot to curate my experience completely?! youtube, for all of its fucking garbage, at least lets me pick what i want to watch from its suggestions, and its suggestions are usually not total garbage. by now even my youtube feed is curated to my interests and it’s way better than tiktok ever was because i have more influence over my experience than just giving a robot a few topics and letting it choose videos to force me to watch. at least i can take a look at the title and see if it might be something interesting.

d. misinformation is really fucking easy to absorb on tiktok - there’s a reason it has its reputation for ruining things for the LGBTQ+ community, for the autistic community, for people with DID and OSDD, and many other communities. the fact that anybody can post any video, can post videos that seem legit on the surface, and are using the app’s design to their advantage, means it’s extremely fucking easy to spread and absorb misinformation - that can be fucking dangerous. unlike on a youtube video where i can just click a new firefox tab and look up whether what’s being presented to me as fake, tiktok makes you close its phone app and open up a new app to google it. then if you need to reference a certain point in the tiktok, it doesn’t have timestamps like youtube, and often resets if you minimise the app, so you have to watch the video again, and repetition bias sets in - stuff that’s all annoying to deal with, so your brain just decides it must all be true because it’s easier. and after tiktok is done ruining the reputation of these communities, it makes it even fucking harder than it already is for us to be taken seriously - and for once it’s not entirely the fault of the people who refuse to respect us, but it’s also the fault of people using this shit app to spread misinformation about us.

so yeah fuck tiktok, make fun of it all you want, i want this app fucking obliterated

[crowsent]

so i started watching kings avatar

this is a no-spoiler reaction mini-essay of the kings avatar anime; an action-adventure anime focused on high-paced fight scenes and an insane amount of dramatic one-liners but has like. a surprising amount of character focus and compelling narratives. the anime released a few years ago, around 2017, and i know its technically a “web series” and not an anime but consider this: anime is easier to type. so anyway, this anime is essentially an e-sports centred around a fictional mmorpg which is. not a genre i like. but for reasons i refuse to admit on this blog, i started watching this anime and im glad i did. because its good.

surprisingly good.

the animation, the music, the characters, the sound design, the environment, setting, killer one-liners, plot, character dynamics, emotional scenes...

its fucking good.

i expected something mediocre at best bc e-sports anime arent generally known for any profound themes and usually just funnel all their budget into fight scenes which certainly have a place in the anime community but its not my cup of tea but kings avatar just. decimated that idea.

8 minutes in and i already got a compelling amount of characterisation for the main character, the setting, and oddly enough, a discussion about the chinese gaming culture and how corporate commercialises the industry and leaves their talent (the gamers) ill-prepared for when they get their contracts released and/or terminated which is. not what id expect

obviously, the fictional depiction of the chinese gaming industry in an anime should not be taken to represent the chinese gaming industry in real life but like. 8 minutes in. i got THIS MUCH from kings avatar 8 MINUTES IN.

there is so much about this anime that i didnt expect and i was pleasantly surprised. for starters:

the music. the music of this anime is stellar. that ost during the first fight we see in the very beginning is just adrenaline-pumping. thats the kind of music youd expect to find from a AAA movie. the kind of music youd expect from a fucking video game boss battle. and its soooooooo fitting for the anime which is essentially about video games and battles. amazing score. 10/10

the animation. there is 3d animation mixed in w the 2d BUT its blended pretty seamlessly that it isnt super obvious. obviously the big boss we see in the beginning is 3d bc its cheaper/easier to animate, but there are some background characters and props that are animated with 3d as well. the animation is smooth enough and the amount of detail is made just so to ensure that the focus still remains on the 2d animation. not revolutionary by any means, but the inclusion of 3d anime allows for something that i found really appealing,

the camerawork. dont know if i talked about this before on this blog, but i am a fucking sucker for good camerawork in animated movies. which is why i ADORED kimetsu no yaiba which has PHENOMENAL camerawork that took all my uwus. kings avatar has the same phenomenal camerawork. huge panning shots of a beautifully rendered environment, action scenes with quick cuts and deliberate rolling focus, numerous perspective shots from different angles to achieve suspense, unease, drama, fucking ALL OF IT

the thing that i loved most of course, are the dramatic moments and one-liners bc im a dramatic motherfucker and i eat that shit up. the most unnecessarily extra tossing of a contract across a table, “rest for a year then come back” announcement, “50/50? id rather take 100″ and so on and so on. this anime is so fuckin EXTRA and i fucking love it

please do keep in mind that i uh,,,, may be a little biased for this anime. ive already mentioned that i usually dislike the genre but i watched kings avatar for a reason and for that reason, i may react to the anime a little more favourably than i would otherwise

but also keep in mind that while i normally post screenshots along with my reactions, i wasnt able to grab screenshots this time around bc i uhhhhhh did not pause the episode to grab the screenshots bc this stupid fucking thing got me waiting with bated breath so take what you will from this ig

dunno if ill do an episode-by-episode reaction or do one huge reaction at the very end with my formal review/opinion of the show as a whole. well see

[savefrog]

Anyway, here's my belated take on the Pokedex situation. As preface I have a degree in game design lol

Adding 100+ new Pokemon every major installment is not a sustainable practice. It's tragic but true

I don't think it's impossible to have a game with all the Pokemon in it, the previous games have managed.

However there's a thing called Scope. The bigger the scope, the less time is being spent on perfecting smaller details. This is partially the reason why I think a lot of indie games have outshined AAA games. Bigger scope means more art/concept/animation/programming/design, obviously...but also more testing (and testing doesn't JUST happen at the end of development, that would be a mess)...more things that need to wait for feedback from higher ups...more time spent on communication and figuring out what gets in and what gets cut...more chance for time-consuming errors...etc etc

The previous games had all the Pokemon, sure, but take a look at the meta game. While I think Game Freak does a great job giving overlooked older Pokemon fun hidden abilities and new moves, we're at a point in the meta where there's a tier (ZU) for Pokemon too useless for even the lowest tier (PU). They are just simply outclassed - there's another Pokemon out there that does the exact same thing mechanically that they do...JUST BETTER. They're redundant. And this happens even in the lowest tiers.

While a lot of people don't care about that and battle with their fave Pokemon regardless of whether or not they are good, it's not exactly prime game design. And I don't blame Game Freak, how the hell do you test and consider almost 1000 seperate Pokemon??? The overwatch team still struggles to balance their cast with 31 (ok, they're not entirely comparable but you get it)

Focusing the scope on a smaller cast of Pokemon would mean that more time and attention can be put into balancing them and making sure they all have a place mechanically. Making even the less popular Pokemon have a role!

And besides mechanics, we now have Pokemon camp to interact with these Pokemon face to face, something that'd be less feasible with more Pokemon!!

I'm also sad Pokemon will be put aside, as there's a lot of weirder and overlooked Pokemon I love (so far have been lucky to see my faves in previews tho B-) ). Honestly I'd love a main game that doesn't introduce tons of new Pokemon but just focuses on developing the ones we have and making them fit in the world.

However, Pokemon is a franchise made for a market. New Pokemon generate buzz and help the game sell (important to offset the cost of development, games are incredibly expensive. I know you're thinking "yeah right, it's Pokemon" but no company wants to take that risk, game studios close constantly. And while I highly doubt Game Freak would be at risk of closing, they're at risk of other smaller projects suffering). The Main games are accompanied by a TCG, TV show, spin offs, Merchandise etc etc. There is (sadly) no time for delays. Honestly if they could delay it a year just to keep improving the game I would want that SO MUCH.

And I haven't even mentioned how terrifying of a task it actually is to animate, model, design, program and even just Organize that many Pokemon. We've taken it for granted. Im not fully caught up on the "Are they the same models" debate but even just transferring the models to the switch would be a monumental task. It is entirely possible that the switch renders things differently, or the rigs broke or any number of things that even if they didn't completely remake the models would make devs have to fix 1,000+ 3d models. AND MAKE NEW ONES FOR TRAINERS, ENVIRONMENT, FX, PROPS, PLUS LOW AND HIGH POLY VERSIONS OF THESE!

And considering the pipeline, they may have had to get the models done EARLIER so the riggers and animators could get to work. They didn't have the entire development time to do it, and they sure as hell aren't being lazy.

But I can say I'm interested to see what Pokemon can achieve by managing the scope like this. I'm a sucker for Pokemon world building and seeing Pokemon in the wild in their environments is awesome! I'd love them to feel organic, like they fit together in this world, and with people. So while I'm definitely sad about the Pokedex cuts, I support the decision and look forward to seeing the Pokemon who miss out this game get to reappear in other forms of poke media. They're still around!!

[fyrapartnersearch]

M// lookin for friendly folks and detailed rp's!

Hello!! My name is Luka, I'm a 22 yo Mexican trans guy in California, and im looking for more friends and creative ventures!! I'm pretty shy at first but relax quickly once we start talking n chumming it up, I'm very friendly and really in the deep down of it if we become good friends I'll lament often about wanting to bake for you. I'm a big stoner and go into babbling quite often, I'm very chatty so if that's something that could potentially annoy you, it's a no from me dawg. I like playing the Occasional Video Game, overwatch/spidey ps4/destiny 2/ fallout 3-nv-4, and still vaguely enjoy the memories I have of the HP franchise. I'm a passionate brown transman and would like to find other LGBT, antifa people of color 💖 who are also stoners lmao (also mlm/single)

-Style-

I write in fairly detailed paragraphs, 3-4 with regular responses, 5+ if you want me to do starters! In OOC chat I don't care about punctuation or spelling or anything, I'm on mobile half the time so whatever mistakes happen, happen, and are usually funny. When writing, I don't mind the every now and then mistake, but i do like detailed and thoughtful replies, akin to writing a book with one another I guess! But again this is for funsies so do Not feel pressured!!! I just like a good meaty reply is all

-Likes/Genres-

For pairings I greatly prefer m/m or f/f pairings, but I'm not opposed to a well written carefully crafted m/f pair. Nonbinary characters are hugely welcomed! Most of my male characters end up being transmen, we can talk about general sensitivities over discord!

I fuckin Love romance and drama so that's where my head is half the time with my characters. I love to write long in depth banter with our characters, have them really get to know one another before romance is pursued thru coy flirting and boisterous jokes, a fun lil date or two. Chemistry between characters is important to me! I'm also very much okay with non-romance related plots, variety is the spice of life and I love writing interactions between characters who either hate the absolute Shit out of one another, or two bros who go ghost hunting in their spare time. Friendships, rivalries, families, Anything and everything is up on the table I just wanna rp so bad!

I'm a big sucker for slice of life, obvs, and smut is Very fun to write, I'm totally okay with things getting detailed, but of course After we talk about what all's okay. I like things getting lewd but I have some Hard limits, and im sure you do too! I'm very fond of modern fantasy/supernatural things, meeting a demon at Yogurtland or a werewolf mechanic, shit like that! I'm also hugely interested in post apocalyptic settings, either modern or sci-fi (think horizon zero dawn), historical stuff, regular sci-fi and horror/survival. Really anything that has several big sources of peril and drama for our characters is Great, I love to explore different settings and ways of writing the environment :) anything you have to suggest is hugely hugely welcome!!!! I love plotting and worldbuilding together!!!

-Dislikes/Big No-

No minors. I'm 22 so I really prefer people in their 20's as well. I Do like writing smut, if you Don't then I'm not the rp partner for you :(

I'm not a fan of the wilting overly emotional bottom types of characters, the helpless ""uke"" type you know? Keep the characters real with a spine.

And while I Do like historical stuff I will Not delve into racist fantasies. If it's even suggested like "slave/owner's son" I'll be side eyeing you hard.

No rape, no pedophilia, no incest, no student/teacher, no toilet/baby talk, no gore, no dubcon/"hatefucking", no snuff, no feet. I'm a CSA survivor, and while my characters all have traumas of their own, let's keep it tasteful. To explain a woe or a fear, yes. As emotional wank, no. I'm no fan of people who keep shit dark and helpless all the time. RP is supposed to be fun. There Has to be hope at the end for the character/s, otherwise I'm outies.

-Contact-

If you like how any of this babbling sounds, hmu on discord!! Luka#1685. Or you can email me at mawlocked@gmail.com! Really hope to talk to you soon :) !!!

[love-laika]

homestuck reread: act 5

sso , as a follow up to this post (jesus christ did i really write that over two weeks ago?), i figured i ought to post my thoughts while rereading act 5 of homestuck. obviously spoilers if you still care about that at this point

when most fans talk about homestuck today, they’re really talking about act 5. its when some of the more infamous aspects (trolls, absurd time shenanigans, ridiculously meta storytelling) come in full force. i also happen to believe it’s probably the best part of the whole story (well so far, i still have to reread act 6). before jumping in, pretty much all of my previous complaints remain.

The trolls are great. That’s really all there is to say on the matter! Seeing how their session plays out is really fun, especially since unlike the kids, it is aggressively abridged. It’s so short, I’m actually curious why Hussie chose to have it be an Intermission rather than Act 5 Act 1... or well, actually given the events leading to Cascade, that might not be true. It’s a nice meta way of signifying how the A and B sessions are intimately tied.

Either way, I thought it’d be fun to examine how I feel about each troll! 

Karkat - Everyone’s favorite, really. His ridiculous screaming rants and obsession with feeling important brushes over his intense insecurity. The obsession with hiding his blood (even after Alternia is long gone), insistence on being leader, past/future self-hatred... he’s got a hell of a complex. actually, the story shines a light on how he agonizes over every mistake he’s ever made, to the point where he dissociates his actions from himself by calling past/future him a FUCKING IDIOT or whatever. He’s a good boy

Aradia - On my previous read, I never thought much of Aradia. there wasn’t really anything in particular i disliked about her, she just never stuck. which of course is dumb, and past me is stupid for glossing over her. especially after going god-tier, she’s like... i can’t even really describe it. i guess is just safe to say i like alive aradia a lot because she’s just a little bit crazy

tavros - maybe its my bias towards vriska, but i kind of don’t like tavros. you know, maybe its some sort of reflection of how i feel about myself or something about how his coward schtick is annoying to me. (his raps are fun to read aloud though)

sollux - sollux is a complete asshole (basically to the end if i remember right), but even if he’s written to be unlikeable his position as a snarky jerk fits well within the troll group. though, surprisingly after his introduction he doesn’t do very much because he never interacts with the kids. his bifurcation gimmick though, and how its basically some absurd foreshadowing for act 5 as a whole is just. its so cool.

nepeta - nepeta has always been a favorite troll of mine even though she was basically born to die and plays no real role in the alpha timeline at all. despite this, fans like myself latched onto her because she’s a catgirl duh! the anime is inescapable. nepeta’s just cute bu her death scene makes me really sad... she didn’t deserve it! and being taken out by gamzee is just cruel. i guess this is what fanfiction is for???

kanaya - you know im starting to think my thoughts on all the various trolls were warped by the Vriska Distortion Field. I didn’t give a shit about the rest because vriska is the best!!!!!!!! this time around, i really noticed vriska and kanaya’s relationship sort of blossom all the way through act 5. its kind of touching after she had a pretty rough time in her own game after the Pupa Pan incident. kanaya’s great especially her transitioning from humorless broad to snark extraordinaire. i especially like to read her speech as just the most posh and practiced british accent Because It Makes Her Sound Sophisticated When Shes Saying Really Something Dumb Like Shout Pole

terezi - terezi’s gimmick is just so... so much. the obsession with justice and law (particlarly brutal troll law) makes her just totally silly. she hangs her stuffed animals from her treehouse. the blindness, the licking, H3Y D4V3-ness is a joy to read. it also helps that her harpsichord-led music is some of the best over the entire discography.

vriska - you know how i feel about vriska. you cannot beat her in a troll-off she is simply the 8est there is

equius - i don’t like equius! hes a creep! his gimmick is that hes a sweaty space racist! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! i really don’t understand people that get attahed to him! i wish nepeta got to spend more time separate from him!

gamzee - ah yes the most important character in homestuck. i like gamzee, but 

i dont like his position with fans as the fuckin yaoiest boy to ever live when hes actually a horrorcore clown murderer

how long he remains in the story. way longer than he ever should have stayed. i understand he has to do stuff for lord english and all that, but i kind of wished he died on the meteor. oh well!

eridan - ah yes the other space racist. eridan i can actually stand though because he’s basically every shitty boy you’ve ever met. he’s totally desperate and pathetic and then when he gets rejected he gets violent. for such a silly comic, i think it stumbles into something weirdly real there. eridan’s a douche until the very end. i also give him like chavviest voice i can muster. it is a blight on the queens english and i apologize

feferi - i really noticed that feferi is a little bit deeper than i originally thought! i always just thought of her as “the nice girl” but she can be pretty devious and even cruel occasioanlly. She has an interaction with Vriska in what of the Alterniabound flashes is just so... prickly? on both sides.

ANYWAYS when we get back to the kids, I’ll admit I don’t remember a lot of the details. john goes to explore skaia and spends a lot fot ime with vriska. dave builds up a ridiculous amount of money, rose fucks shit up, and jade eventually gets to start breeding frogs after fianlly entering the game. i can’t exactly explain why, but the pacing here just feels better. maybe its variey of environments and general avoidance of pointless distractions, but its a much easier read than the earlier parts. i mean, i guess id hope so after the comic has gone on for 3 years at this point i think. Act 5, in totality is about the same length as all the previous parts combined, but goes by way faster! it kind of sucks that you know, you have to dig through a lot to get to the good parts. but man those parts are really good.

ad then we get to the buidlup to cascade, the parts in doc scratch’s room. I feel like some of the realest shit is right here. vriska’s triumph/death just kills me every time. i kind of take john’s side here on her past. at the very end, when she really starts to show remorse and to wonder who vriska really is breaks my heart. terezi’s end as well. the culmination of their friendship and rivalry coming down to a single choice. kill her, or let her go and doom everyone. its sad in a way very little else is in the story (except maybe dave and rose’s suicide mission). even knowing what happens much later, it just... its so rough yall.

i remember crying reading most of these parts. i have very specific memories of it happening. i wish it was easier to show new people some of these parts because they are just ugh... so choice. im a sucker for it. also there’s the sotry of the troll ancestors, her imperious condescension, lord english, etc etc etc.

i dont have much to say about cascade, a lot has already been said by everyone else. it is almost certainly the climax, even if the story has a ways to go, and its a triumph! It almost feels like it should be the end of the story in some ways because of how it is the culmination of everything that has happened since the very beginning.

thats all i can really say about that without getting bogged down in minutiae. Act 5 is fantastic, period. Now that Lord English is here (or rather, he already was), a new arc begins in Act 6. It’s approximately around here where I caught with the story as it was coming out! I’m really really curious about how I feel about when reading it in one go because it’s also around this time that updates got slower and slower, due to increased production time, then the exceptionally troubled development of Hiveswap.