#indies trader

[sketchinfun]

Had another Disneyland day yesterday! Mainly did a lot of picture taking and went on a couple rides. I also had a fun impromptu pic with a First Order stormtrooper in Batuu as I was taking another photo. It was super cool, and I’ve never experienced that before! Definitely one of those “Disney magic” moments haha Overall it was a wonderful day!

[roxisucks]

the vibe i bring to the function

[nobylu]

I took such a good nap, now I'm ready to do chill 40k art.

🔴 4:15PM ET

[aboutbeverages]

twitch.tv/aboutbeverages

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A couple runs of Hades 2 & then back to Destiny. Stop by and say hi. Featured beverage is Trader Joe’s Starpointe Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon 2022. Subscribe on YouTube. !vouch !beverage !youtube !tiktok !merch

[radioactivedadbod]

Absolutely unhinged that Neltharion is depicted as a white man when all his notable kids are people (dragons?) of color

WHERE IS THE MELANIN COMING FROM HUH

[waugh-bao]

*

[christmasunderground]

Hit the North Pole: A Festive Charity Compilation for the Palestine Children's Relief Fun (2024)

Hit the North RecordsBuy: Bandcamp Who is ready for some more “Last Christmas?” My son would say no. Oddly… I would give a hesitant “sure,” as this year has been especially good. That said – I put this out into the world – BANDS! Pick a new song! Speaking of new songs to cover… The new Christmas comp from Los Angeles’ Hit the North Records has everything you want. Songs not often covered? We got…

[ednav]

Whickber Street.

Neil Gaiman has said that the street in Soho that inspired the location of AZ Fell & Co. is Berwick Street, where you can find both a food market and the best comic book shop in London (that is, Gosh!), which incidentally is on the corner with some of the last remains of the old Soho— a tiny alley full of old-fashioned sex shops, including one selling, let’s say… intimate books.

So, Whickber Street. Not subtle.

(If you come for a pilgrimage, please support Gosh!, and remember that the falafel stall is nothing short of divine. No, neither of them is paying me.)

[indiiglow]

HOLY SHIT FINALLY! The Mysterious Captain showed up! Damn I wanna meet her in person

[sonsofks]

Descubre nuevos mundos en el tráiler de Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader en la Expanse de Koronus

Owlcat Games revela nuevos lugares icónicos que estarán presentes en el juego Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Nicosia, Chipre Owlcat Games se complace en presentar su nuevo trailer con ambientes y lugares nunca antes vistos en Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Con este trailer, el equipo quiere mostrar cómo recrean la icónica atmósfera de Warhammer 40,000 desde una perspectiva isométrica:…

[oldschoolfrp]

Went to a con, played a bunch of games, and bought a lot of new miniatures this year, mostly historicals including a lot of plastics. But the Sunday flea market is the most anticipated moment of the weekend's shopping. After sorting through my haul some of the highlights include

A 1979 Ral Partha Evil Lord on Litter; I've already sourced his missing throne back.

A bag full of Rogue Trader era Citadel metal vehicles, including 4 complete dreadnoughts from 1987 and an assortment of marine and ork speeders, bikes, trax and buggies.

One metal Sister of Battle from the first 1997 release, ready to purge heretics with fire.

A bunch of 6mm sci-fi battlesuit infantry made for Ogre Miniatures in 1993, to (briefly) hold urban terrain areas against advancing cybertanks.

And a bag of Babylon 5 Wars/ACTA ships, including a shadow omega -- I believe that kit was from the early 2000s by Mongoose, using parts from Agents of Gaming's original 1990s omega and shadow vessel models.

Because no game is "dead" as long as you play it again, and because the recent flood of miniature-agnostic indie games shows no signs of slowing down.

[nierly-amazing]

Controversial opinion: Nier Automata's story would have benefited a lot from the creative freedom of being an indie game with more queer & disabled writers, and writers from heavily colonized places

Probably less controversial to those who are still following my gay ass.

It already manages to be a masterpiece on it's own but there's always going to be constraints in big budget games to appeal to a wider audience--like the rumor/fact/idr that 9S was going to be a girl initially but got changed. There's a lot of good input queer and disabled creatives could have offered from their life experiences and how it relates to some of the transhumanist themes in the game. A lot of people seem to forget the machines have been colonizing earth and genociding the androids for 6000 years and those themes could have been expanded on more too.

Like yay we get lesbian 6O and implied trans Pascal but it doesn't really go anywhere with them. The anime does go more into Pascal and machines swapping parts and 9S completely dismissing it but then they never touch on it again (unless they still plan to but with 4 episodes left I doubt it). I want to see 9S have a crisis over it, (and 2E 2B have a crisis over him having a crisis about it).

It'd be interesting to see more a of a discrepancy between high-end porcelain doll yorha models and underfunded ancient Resistance androids. They all look like normal humans. Even the ship of theseus trader guy with the bad leg looks like a regular android. Give me some androids with fucked up body mods that causes 9S to have another crisis (because this boy can fit so many crises in him). Something something parallels with relationships to gender something something 9S is trans and transphobic--doesn't understand the FEEELINGS or what to do about them.

Yorha could have much stricter rules on body modification that's drilled into the android's heads from day one and then they see the machines swap parts with no reservations and resistance androids swap parts with some reservations. Even the whole "emotions are prohibited" thing could be touched on more with more internal struggle in 9S over his inability to act emotionless, and perhaps touch on the point of conflict with 2B who poorly pretends to have her emotions in check.

Maybe some conflict between the machines in pascals village and how rigid they are in trying to emulate humans. Like a group trying to emulate rigid gender roles despite not having assigned genders or sex characteristics, and a group that just does whatever. Like "no you have to choose" but also "humans didn't choose (mostly) so who cares".

And then there's the fact that most machines in pascal's village are not fully sapient, or are maybe coded as children still learning the world and something something its 1am something something how much should their level of sapience matter

Even with 9S's memory "issues" we only have 1 moment in the anime where he has a flash of past memories. Imagine if his descent into grief-stricken madness in route C had his old deleted memories start resurfacing and mixing with his current ones. Or maybe the machine network had copies of some of them and used them to torment him more.

Imagine if they showed Anemone and Devpop try harder to help him but weren't able to due to them not fully understanding what he's going through and their own hangups about machines. Imagine him being unable to really open up to anyone because he doesn't fully understand what he's going through.

9S """racism""" toward machines isn't at all unique to him. They've been genociding the androids for 6000 years, everyone hates them. I want to see more opinions from resistance androids, especially regarding pascal's village. Even Anemone/Lily aren't completely fine with the idea of trading with machines but are basically forced to out of desperation since the council of humanity left them on read. I want to see more of their internal strife with the concept. I want to see some conflict between resistance and yorha androids, too, and conflict within the resistance over the idea of aiming for a peace treaty.

There could also be some good conflict between 2B and 9S over 2B's willingness to just "accept" pascal's village. Since they both have valid points for their opinions (2B's a big softie and doesn't want to fight and 9S sees pacifist machines 'suddenly' popping up after 6000 years as a mega giganto trap (and why wouldn't he?)).

I would have liked to see more interactions with other androids and how they manage in a posthuman world and them trying to replicate humanity from 11,000 years ago. We have little bits and pieces like the bit where the operators give commander a bunch of brown things for valentine's day instead of chocolates.

Oops I thought I was gonna write like 2 paragraphs but I blacked out and wrote an essay. It's late I might expand on this tomorrow but here's some stuff 2 think about

(and bonus extra controversial opinion but it's kinda fucked up that there's the whole theme about robot sentience and then you can go stab fish in the face for fun and kill moose and boar for a quest so an android--who doesn't need to eat at all--can try eating them. Like here we are arguing about fictional robot sentience and then ignoring actual real animal sentience in our daily lives to the point where we don't even question how messed up killing them for non-survival reasons is)

[nobylu]

Now that we're winding down on some of the Live2D projects, it's time to continue working on the illustration works with my DM's Rogue Trader character.

🔴 Start time 8:05 PM ET

[aboutbeverages]

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Indie game Friday! First time trying out 11 Bit Studios Indika. Stop by and say hi. Featured beverage is Trader Joe’s Organic Jalapeno Limeade. Subscribe on YouTube. !vouch !beverage !youtube !tiktok !merch

[animefeminist]

Press Start to Begin Again: Mental Illness, Adulthood, and Recovery of an MMO Junkie

Content warning: Discussions of suicidality, suicidal ideation, and trauma.

Spoilers for Recover of an MMO Junkie

This is, in the simplest way, a piece about an adult falling apart and nearly succeeding in the most horrific way. In truth, I didn’t expect to be here to write this piece. I expected there to be a eulogy for me that I’d never read, an obituary of kind thoughts for those who would survive me. I expected to be “the late” right now. I expected to be in memoriam.

Instead, I’m writing this perspective piece from my apartment, from a desk that no longer resides in my bedroom, from a room with a view of the sea and a chain of islands. I’m writing this because I’m alive. Also, because as of November 18th, 2024, I am no longer employed.

My time as a socially productive adult is done, at least right now. My bank account dwindles under the oppressive weight of adulthood. I spend my days mostly inside, tackling weekly job hunts while trying to return order to an apartment that is a living record of my major depression. I look out my window, watch the barely wavering sea, wait for the specific hiss of the electric buses whizzing by. Occasionally, I pick up a mask, put on my coat, and leave to fantastical places like Trader Joe’s, Daiso, Walgreens, or the local indie bookstore. These mundane acts are how I measure my days.

But there’s something new now to fill my mind. Now, I’m measuring my life in thoughts about Recovery of an MMO Junkie. After all, since I’m here, I might as well tell this story in Anime Feminist tradition: through the lens of feminism and Japanese pop culture.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[are-we-really-doing-this]

Pro Wrestling Illustrated, May 2006

The Wrestling Forecaster: C.M. Punk

(@selamat-linting here you go broski)

WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2006?

Punk started 2006 with one strike against him. In the summer of 2005, Punk signed a WWE contract and was brought up for a dark match, where he was managed by Alexis (Mickie James) Laree. The promoters had high expectations for Punk, especially since he was coming into WWE after a spectacular run in Ring of Honor. For whatever reason, the WWE front office wasn’t impressed with Punk’s match. Punk was sent down to OVW, cooling him off after the hottest period in his career. That means Punk still has an awful lot to prove in 2006. He has conquered the indy world and won over the legions of Internet fans and tape-traders who constitute the core ROH audience. But that just means he’s a big fish in a small pond. Succeeding in WWE is an entirely different prospect. Punk is leaner and less chiseled than most WWE competitors, and the fans may not know what to make of him at first. That’s why Punk needs to make an immediate impact if he hopes to make it there. After continuing to earn rave reviews in OVW, Punk will be called up to WWE right after WrestleMania. He will have a diva in his corner (either Maria or Candice Michelle) and will sneak-attack Randy Orton. “Everything you have was handed to you on a silver platter,” Punk will scream at the fallen Orton. “I worked my way up from nothing. I fought for every little scrap I have, and that makes me better than you.” Punk will be Orton’s biggest test since The Undertaker. While the feud will be one of the best feuds of the year, Orton will emerge victorious. 

WHERE WILL HE BE IN 2011?

As much as we would love to see Punk win the World title and usher in a new era, we just don’t see it happening. We don’t think Punk is a team player or a big corporate guy. He won’t play politics or suffer in silence when a ridiculous storyline is forced upon him. He’ll be gone from WWE by 2008 and will spend the next few years as ROH’s elder statesman. 

WHERE WILL HE BE IN 2016?

Thoroughly disillusioned with the wrestling scene, Punk will announce a semi-retirement in 2013. He will still wrestle on occasional cards around Philadelphia, but will spend most of his time fronting a new spoken word/hardcore straight-edge band. He’ll develop a hearty audience and will tour with Henry Rollins on speaking engagements and poetry slams.