#it IS-- and was at the time-- very funny from a game design perspective because AWL was clearly not designed with a female protag in mind

[blujayonthewing]

do you guys wanna see something devastatingly unsurprising

early video game crush

[insane-control-room]

Some things are meant to be remembered; for the right reasons.

i've posted this review on steam, but i think that i want to say it here, too.

Here is my review of the 'promotional' material (according to steam) Secrets of the Machine

What I liked: the art appeared to be a true return to form; the style had its original charm with updated lighting techniques and slightly better optimization than previous games in the Bendy series. The audio design was also nice, with good ambiance and nice composition.

And now, the jank.

The game handles reasonably well; but it is clearly slapdashed together and is missing important components. There is no starting menu. There are no loading screens; and it is very jarring. There are no options in the game menu - you cannot minimize the game, you cannot brighten the game, you cannot make the game run any better on your computer, and it is incredibly laggy. If you have a potato laptop? Nah, get out. No game for you. There are no subtitles that you can enable, and voices are very muffled. Additionally, the game is very dark, and as mentioned, you cannot adjust that in the settings of the game, nor in steam settings. You have to do so from your computer.

Controls are extremely janky, as you cannot run, you cannot jump, and there is no indication for interaction with any objects. There are no control settings for remapping, and you cannot even see which keys do what.

Puzzles are boring and confusing; with no guidance. There were no hints, no rhyme or reason. There was more puzzle in the BATIM chapter 1 demo release. This thing is very confusing, especially when you cannot see anything at all. You will spend a long time walking back and forth between two rooms, wondering how you can progress, because you've done everything you could: you smashed cutouts; you hit targets; you opened and closed hands; you found posters for future games, but nothing that could move forward the one you were playing at the time. If you look at the community page, you will see that most people simply spent their time clicking on the soup can dispenser to see how many cans they could get.

If you have epilepsy, nah get out. Oh? I didn't mention the flashing lights? Well the developers did not either. Not only did they not mention the flashing lights, not in the game nor in steam, but they included TWO car crashes without warning - one audio based, and another that was directed at players. This is not only rude, but it is dangerous. Warnings exist so that people can make educated choices whether or not to interact with content that may be sensitive to them. Warn people appropriately. This 'game' did not take any measure to protect its players. There are many instances of sudden loud noises, flashing lights, and jarring location switches (not to mention the car crashes).

The story was lacking, and has nothing to do with the puzzles that a player is faced with. It feels like three disjointed tracks, and none of them align, all of them crashing together in a discordant, unsatisfying, confusing mess. It brought in more new characters that had nothing to do with the original story nor interested players, and had content that went against previously established material. It was (as you can tell, from a writer's perspective) a bad story.

It was less of a demo, less of a playable trailer, more like a tech demo with a few morsels for fans to pick apart and wish there was more of, wish there was more effort put into, wish there was more love and care for them, the players who arguably were the foundation of this game. There were teasers for games that, honestly, lacked the soul that the very first game had, and here's a point to prove it: there was an easter egg that if you clicked something 414 times (very funny.) it would rise in the air and then fall down without further ado. In the game files, the name for that sound effect? Sting. Yeah. It did. Games are a collaborative work; between the creators and the players. Blatant disregard and flippancy towards half of the collaboration is not acceptable behavior. This is a development team that mocks those who once loved them most, those who poured over their coding and carefully crafted world to marvel at what they had made, and coaxed in others with the rich promise of a delightful story that anyone could engage with on any level. The spite the creators have shown for the individuals who, essentially, had given rise to their stature in the first place, is painful.

Finally, by the time that I got a chance to sit down and actually play the game- I personally could not. The developers, by constantly updating a clearly unfinished game, had made their final update - that of a wood board blocking the actual place where gameplay takes place. You cannot go to any of the places shown in the screenshots, because the game is locked on the opening area. I've seen many people complaining of it; hoping that they can play the game.

Now, in the fashion we've seen common of JDS, they have rescinded their terrible design choice - but without notifying players that it is now possible to play the game; without telling players that this was purposeful; without telling players anything aside from a big old screw you. It is entirely possible that the only reason they put the game back into a playable state was the torrent of negative reviews that spawned after their. interesting. choice. regardless, those who care about their playerbase would have informed those who complained that it was a temporary gesture for storytelling reasons. They, however, did not, and there are a multitude of reviews marking the game as unplayable.

No matter what, the bottom line is this: This is not okay.

I'm not sure how much more eloquently I can put the fact that I'm heartbroken. This game, unlike any other, shows how much scorn that a developer can have for their own fans and playerbase. I am glad that there are people who enjoyed it, but I wonder - what did you really like about it?

Is it the memories?

[randomthefox]

I want you to PLEASE do me a favor and put Yakuza 0 out of your mind. Also please disregard Yakuza Kiwami. Pretend that this and the scene with Majima at the beginning of the game is the ONLY content with Majima that exists in the entire world. Ten years ago Majima beat the shit out of his own underling because he disrespected Kiryu, gave him some psudo advice on how to run his family which everyone expected was going to happen soon, then walked off. Next thing that happens is Kiryu goes to prison for 10 years for killing his boss. Majima has no reason to think Kiryu didn't do it. Suddenly Kiryu is back in town and running around with some little girl, so Majima kidnaps Haruka and lures Kiryu to the batting cages EVERY SINGLE OTHER ENCOUNTER that Kiryu has had with EVERYONE ELSE in the Tojo Clan so far has been them going "FUCK YOU KIRYU YOU KILLED YOUR BOSS YOU'RE A TRAITOR WE'RE GONNA FUCK YOUR SHIT UP >=o " OR has been saying "hand over Haruka because she's vaguely important." So obviously the assumption would be that Majima is doing the same kind of thing. But what happens?

Majima just tells him where Haruka is and says he's free to take her.

Because Majima DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK about the main story.

ALL Majima wants is to fight Kiryu. He doesn't care about ANYTHING ELSE. He kidnapped Haruka as a means to an end, and if anything his motivation for wanting to fight Kiryu is BECAUSE HE LIKES HIM. Fighting to the death is Majima's love language.

Majima calling him "Kiryu-chan" also cannot be overstated. I literally don't even have time to unpack the layers of meaning in him applying that particular suffix to him.

Majima literally throws himself in the way to stop one of his own underlings from stabbing Kiryu. In the original english dub he says "Kiryu is my friend." In the Kiwami sub they actually chose to translate this as "he belongs to me." The subs I'm using naturally went with "Kiryu is mine." Everyone was on the same page here. Majima wants to fight Kiryu because he LIKES him.

Is it any wonder Majima became so insanely popular as a character? And believe it or not, the developers didn't originally envision Majima as a very important character. The character evolved and developed over time. As originally written, he only has three scenes in the entire game and the character designer and voice actor kind of ran away with the concept and brought Majima to life in a way that did not exist in the script or design document.

This is why the Majima everywhere system in Kiwami actually kind of annoys me. It's a great and funny system IF YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO MAJIMA IS AND HAS BEEN PLAYING THESE GAMES FOR TEN YEARS. But if you *started* with Yakuza 0 or Kiwami as your FIRST GAMES? It turns Majima into this fucking meme and totally knees caps your perspective of his character.

Majima is so special and unique. A real wild card of a character that only EVENTUALLY had depth added to him starting with Yakuza 4 when his backstory started getting delved into. In the first game, he's actually kind of a yandere type character that has some tantalizing implied nuance to him.

[hollowtones]

final thoughts on zapper?

1st world isn't as bad as I remember, 2nd world is rough, 3rd world feels actively mean, 4th world is mostly kind of boring. If child-me had played past world 2 I think I would actively hate video games today.

Sound design is consistently real weird and unpleasant but sometimes that wraps around to being funny

Level design doesn't usually feel very interesting & if you're trying to get all collectibles it sometimes feels tedious. The best bits are the little self-contained bonus rooms & the levels where things are more puzzle-focused. I don't think it really needed a boss fight at the end but I'm glad there was only one, rather than one for each world / each level.

Individual art assets are okay, but sometimes levels are a little hard to parse visually & paths you are allowed to take aren't very clear. Issues with depth perception. Fixed perspective makes it hard to see details on the models I thought were cute. (At least we have Dolphin free camera...)

Visual theming of levels feels really, really incongruent, outside of the first world. I still don't know if I like this or don't. But it sure is noticeable!

The jump button snaps you in weird directions sometimes & every time it makes me scared for my life. It straight up killed me in some of the moving platform segments. Sometimes the jump lets you get to very high platforms and sometimes it makes you jump over them and go into a pit.

Camera's weird. Zoomed in too close, very easy for things to just get you from off-screen. When you have to deal with moving platforms it feels straight up nauseating (& I basically never get motion sick!! This game got me!!)

Music is good.

This Did Not Need A Lives Mechanic. Getting knocked back to a checkpoint feels fine. Having to redo entire levels from the start because of bullshit getting me made me feel like a ghoul.

A lot of hazards have weird hitboxes. Spikes can kill you after retracting. An object can be fully moved past your location but if you move parallel to its trajectory it'll sometimes kill you anyway. Slow-moving enemies in front of you need the world's widest berth. Moving platforms in combination with hazards is a special hell. A couple times I was killed by a seeming act of god.

Mercifully short.

Zapper as a character is like if someone went "what if Gex didn't talk" and that's real funny to me. Also very funny that they gave a cricket lightning powers instead of, like... sonic / music powers. I guess "a wall of noise so loud it kills slugs and explodes bricks" wasn't cool enough for a radical, sardonic wise-guy.(??)

lol the bird has tits

This is just a Frogger game. It's kind of blatant. You can very clearly see the bones of "Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge" in all of it. (The four screenshots I have seen of that game make it seem like its level design was much more easily readable at a glance, though. Four screenshots do not paint the picture of an entire game, but...) Honestly, I can respect the "we have Frogger at home" angle to it. They clearly wanted to make a game like this again, and good(?) on 'em for doing it, I think.

Didn't like it very much. Had a laugh, at least.

It's no "Claymates". (Future scholars will debate what she meant by this for decades.)

[maxwell-grant]

I'm curious for your thoughts on Dan Hibiki

Dan is real special to me mainly because he was the first time I actually had fun cosplaying, in terms of putting the outfit together and attending the event. I was very young at the time but he was my second cosplay, with the first technically being Bison the year before but I barely remember going as Bison and the costume was basically rented whole, where as with Dan I actually had to take the time to put him together peacemeal.

Looking for shitty ponytails and testing out hair gels and glue to get that doofy spit curl right, ruining a judo gi by cutting the sleeves and dying it pink, painting the eyebrows and kanji in the back and practicing those dumb faces and animations of his, and I was really happy that day with the reception I got. Best part of that day by far was when they were doing this cosplay wrestling thing where people could sign up to enter the ring, and I got to really ham it up with the taunts and pratfalls and Dan-isms I memorized from heart (and I did play the fucker a lot in SSFIV, not even ironically, his Hurricane Kick and normals were really solid in IV) and just, one of the most fun times I ever had. I think of Dan pretty fondly for that if nothing else.

Although frankly I think I like him a little less nowadays than I used to, mainly because a lot of the other characters grew on me more or got better redesigns over the years where as Dan's just, Dan, and Dan's always gonna be Dan, no more no less, little room for improvement because he was just kinda perfect at what he set out to do from the go. I think some of that also has to do with the fact that he pulled Blanka big time into his joke character orbit for well over a decade and I'm not really a fan of that? Idk it definitely got better with 5 and especially 6, just for a while there Blanka's role as being primarily Dan and Sakura's dumb sidekick really sucked and made me resent them a little, still can't say I'm too big a fan even if he doesn't take a backseat to them as much anymore.

Dan becoming essentially one of the co-protagonists of Street Fighter over the years I think has a lot to do with the devs figuring out over the decades that there was a lot more they could do with the character, besides taking potshots at SNK (and honestly in that regard, I feel like Remy does it better, in spite or maybe because they don't play him as a joke on purpose). And I do think Dan has several legs up other fighting game joke characters and not just because he came first, not just because he's funny, but because he's filling in some important niches and they ground him in just enough legitimacy, from a lore and gameplay perspective, that he's worth bringing back. Dan is a joke, but he is also important, in his own way, he's an important character for Street Fighter to have.

If your setting and story are defined as a gathering of the greatest fighters and representatives of martial arts and countries the world over, you kinda do have to address what does a Bad Fighter, The Worst Fighter, representing The Worst Martial Arts, looks like, and basing it on "the guys that ripped us off" is the icing on the gag. Both Dan and Sakura were designed around parodies of the Art of Fighting characters, but they did the right call in assigning Yuri Sakazaki's childish braggart antics to Dan and letting Sakura be treated more seriously.

As much as I may complain that Dan dragged Blanka into the funnyman idiot orbit, Dan's existence prevents a lot of other characters from becoming parodies of themselves (more so than they became, at least), at minimum it definitely pumped the breaks on Blanka and Sakura from doing that because, no matter what, they'd always have to suck less than Dan, because nobody (cept maybe Rufus) is allowed to suck more than Dan (I feel like Sean's joke status was a total misfire, but more on him when I got to Sean).

Dan also works because he's got a legitimate backstory and motivation to be here, and to be the way he is: His father was the one to take out Sagat's eye and Sagat mauled him to death in the ring for it, and desperately driven to take revenge, he took up training under Ryu and Ken's master Gouken until being expelled when Gouken learned his true intentions (and the last time a man with power-hungry intentions was trained in Ansatsuken, Akuma happened), and so Dan had to fill out the rest of his training on his own, which is why his playstyle is the way it is, why he's like Ryu but bad. Dan fills out the other end of a scale occupied by the prior shotos, the worst practicioner there is, the lame and pathetic counterpart to Ryu and Ken opposite Akuma as the strongest. Akuma is Bad Ryu, and Dan is Bad Ryu but in a totally opposite sense. He had symmetry with the existing characters and his backstory was treated with as much seriousness as he can be allowed to have, which isn't much most of the time, but just enough.

Dan being a joke from an in-universe also wound up lending a lot of meaning to Sagat's character arc, because Dan became the catalyst for Sagat's redemption. Sagat was confronted by this pathetic fool wholly consumed by revenge and struggling fruitlessly to defeat a stronger martial artist, and he saw himself in Dan, himself and his obsession with Ryu and the lows he'd stooped to in order to achieve that revenge, and so he lets Dan win, giving Dan his one and only victory that we know of. Sagat, at his lowest point emotionally in the series, who is still supremely prideful and regal and very much not a nice man even as a hero.

The strongest man alive letting the weakest man beat him in a fight to save said man from ending up just like him. If it was against anyone else, it wouldn't be anywhere near as meaningful, but starting the supremely prideful and mighty Sagat's redemption arc by having him realize the futility of his vendetta and let himself get beaten by Dan of all people, The Final Boss letting The Joke Character humiliate him, I think was a very inspired choice.

Much as I enjoy his characterization, I do miss a little how Dan was depicted sometimes in the Alpha series, where he'd be treated with a little more seriousness. Like in the backstory blurb describing how Gou died and how Dan still wakes up with nightmares about it, or in Sakura Ganbaru where Dan's kind of a comedic straightman to Sakura and they take some steps to show that Dan IS knowledgeable and observant about ki and martial arts, and is even pretty good at beating average fighters in local circuits; it's just he's Dan, y'know, and all his hard work and self-mythologizing can't make up for his incomplete training, ego issues and him hanging around Sakura and Blanka, who are freakishly talented and either quickly surpass his teachings or, in Blanka's case, never actually need it.

I don't like the Udon comics very much but I do think they get this right, I like the emphasis they put on Dan having a genuinely impressive ability to take a beating and playing up Dan as a guy who gets up to all these offscreen adventures and picked up all these other skills to make up for his incomplete training (and him becoming Chairman of the CWA I thought was pretty inspired). It nicely reflects what the games have done with him, where he's always showing off new skills and moves added to his playstyle, his fireballs get a little farther and stronger every game (and he doesn't fling himself back when firing them anymore), some characters even comment on his progress and potential. Dan is a joke by World Warrior standards, but by regular person or fighter standards, he can be impressive.

And I think Dan also stuck around the way he did because there's a certain necessity for a character who pokes holes at the premise and mythology, not just a comic relief for levity sake but someone who's there to help the writing avoid the pitfalls of excessive self-seriousness. A character who's an absurd cartoon of a martial artist but not in the cool badass way all the other characters are absurd cartoons of martial artists, instead someone who's kinda lame and full of himself the way that, really, most martial artists, especially self-taught, can be. Everyone on Street Fighter, no matter how nice they are as people or what truly motivates them, is joining the tournament sure that their martial arts are the strongest and that they can and will make their way to the top by beating all the other inferior fighters standing in their way. Dan is like that, it's just that nobody takes him seriously for it. He may not even be the funniest joke character in fighting games, but nobody takes as incisive a punchline to the genre as Dan.

Dan, in his own right, does represent an important, maybe even the most important, facet of martial arts there is: the kind that everyone does when they start out or just don't bother growing as people or fighters. In my experience, myself very much not excluded, the gyms and dojos of the world are full of Dan Hibikis trying to be something more by mythologizing themselves into former losers turned invincible fighting machine blowhards the minute they learn how to kick above their heads or take a punch in the gut, whose training is perpetually incomplete, who think they get to teach others, and who go out there thinking they'll get to show off that invincibility any second now and that once everyone sees how badass these karate chops are, or how much ass I can kick when playing Smash Bros or KOF or Street Fighter, I'll show em all how cool I am, just you mess with me and I'll show you my flying kick WA-TCHAAA! *miss* HUP, WORYEEAAHH *crash*

[toaarcan]

Ian Flynn's Eggman

I have a funny perspective on the way Ian Flynn writes Eggman.

Because in practice, I hate it. It's born out of a still-bubbling resentment for the last big arc of the preboot, and how he was handled as the villain for that (Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally: Part 2 will be about the villains, so I'll go into more detail there), and how it echoed both his earlier appearances from Issue 175-177, and how he's still characterised in IDW sometimes.

Flynn writes Eggman as this incredibly weird mix of a hypercompetent genius and a bumbling fuckup that averages out to a mostly-invincible villain who is usually only defeated by himself.

This is a bit like the game version that he's trying to base this character on, as I'll elaborate further down, but it's missing a few pieces, like the part where Eggman's downfall is usually because Sonic legitimately beats him. In the games where Eggman is finished off by a greater threat, it's normally after Sonic has already broken his final weapon. Contrast the Metal Virus arc in IDW, where Eggman's defeat is entirely because he screwed up, and if he hadn't deployed the Metal Virus as soon as the first test worked, and instead refined it into something he could control, he would've won, as Sonic was losing more and more ground to the infection, and the heroes needed the assistance of Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Starline's Warp Topaz to actually win the day.

Both Archie and IDW have moments where it's established that Eggman at least believes that he can win entirely at any moment of his choosing. IDW Eggman claims it, Archie Eggman proves it, and I have to say, I view this as one of the worst villain tropes ever.

If the only thing stopping the villain from wiping the hero off the board permanently is the villain's own unwillingness to do so, then the hero is a failure and the villain is an idiot. Congrats, you've fucked over your entire series

But what makes this unique is that, if you listen to Flynn talk about Eggman behind the scenes, it's clear that he really does understand the character at a core level.

Because here's the thing: Flynn is absolutely right about Eggman being a fuckup. I know some people really hate the idea that Eggman is not the ultimate BBEG of the Sonic universe, that he gets usurped by other villains so much in the 1998-2009 games (and now again in Frontiers) , but "Eggman unleashes something he can't control" was used for more than a decade of straight releases, at this point it's not a writing failure, it's characterisation.

Eggman is a mechanical genius. He builds fantastic robots, massive flying battleships, incredible weapons, giant mech suits, the works. But some of these machines he comes up with are very obviously the first-draft versions. He's deployed the Egg Dragoon twice in canon, and has never fixed the giant glowing weak spots. He's used the "swinging ball on a chain below the Eggmobile" design at least four times (three of them as himself, once at the hands of Mecha Sonic), and the only refinement he's made to it after all these failed attempts is replacing the ball with a sawblade for the fifth attempt.

His strategy usually boils down to "Bum-rush the objective with an army of robots" or "Make a big show of force with a new superweapon and demand everyone surrender" or "Throw something massive and destructive at his target to create free real estate." He's had some clever plans before, but only a handful.

And his propensity to unleash ancient evils that he cannot possibly control is, at this point, well-established. Because his most fatal flaw is his ego. His arrogance. He believes himself to be superior to everyone else, including ancient monsters and artificial gods and sentient superweapons. And Sonic. And he's wrong. He thinks he can make something more powerful than Perfect Chaos, he's wrong. He thinks Shadow is working for him, he's wrong. He thinks there are no consequences for upgrading Metal Sonic over and over and over again, he's wrong. He thinks he can control a Gizoid, he's wrong. He thinks if he builds a Gizoid of his own, that'll fix the problem, he's wrong.

He thinks he can beat Sonic, he's wrong.

Like, for all Eggman's self-aggrandizing boasts about being the greatest scientific genius in the world, he's not even right about that. SEGA themselves have established that. They gave Eggman an IQ of 300 (and yes, I know, IQ doesn't work that way), and then gave Tails an IQ of 400. By SEGA's own logic, Tails is smarter than Eggman.

And I think I get what Flynn is aiming for. He's trying to write a version of Eggman who is the grand villain of the series, who is the greatest threat to Sonic and friends, and is the antagonist who makes Sonic sweat the most. He also wants to sprinkle some SatAM Robotnik in there too, because well, guy is a SatAM fan (and hey, I really can't hold that against him, I am too), and that results in this hypercompetent, sadistic, borderline invincible Eggman. But he also wants to be true to the SEGA version, who isn't really any of that. So we get the bumbling self-sabotage thrown in, except this time they're the singular flaws in Eggman's armour, and he ends up mostly defeating himself, which is just frustrating for me to read.

So yeah, contrary to where other people who don't like Flynn's Eggman, I'm taking the stance that his take on Sonic's most persistent enemy actually isn't enough of a fuckup.

[azzysecondary]

Sooooo uhhhh….. guess who liked the second game so much they immediately started playing the first after they finished >w>

Anywho I have first impressions of all the protags so far, from the perspective of someone who played the second game first!!

(TLDR: I’m enjoying the game so far,Cyrus is my favorite, and I dub my first four the sillies -w- )

(spoilers for the first chapters of everyone,and for a few mentions of Octopath 2 in here, nothing big for 2, just mentions of characters and chapter 1 tiny spoilers )

Ophilia- 7th in the party

“Que the first shakesphere reference!”

.She’s so wholesome and sweet I love her;w; she’s like a warm presence in her snowy town and I love that for her!! I adore her design and can’t wait to draw it sometime~ it feels really weird hearing the cleric actually and genuinely praise the sacred flame after all my time with Temenos though- I also adore her relationship with her sister it’s so fluffy and wholesome-w-. Overall can’t wait to see more of her!

Cyrus- 3rd in the party

“Prose before Hoes”

He’s my favorite so far- up until his chapter I was wondering why everyone around the protags had an accent and then we reached him and went “HE’S BRITISH *insert keyboard spam*” he’s so silly and goofy and I love his story so far, it intrigues me (´▽｀) （I love a good mystery) also he’s an Aro king from my impressions so far, and I love that for him!!

Therion- Protag

“Purple shadow the edgehog”

He’s giving tries to be tough, but in reality he’s a chihuahua . My Boyfriend said I should chose him as my protagonist , because of the purple chests and I do think that was an excellent idea, because he is carrying my party strategy with steal Sp rn - I think he is also very silly, in a way that he tries so hard to be edgy kinda way- also his laugh is very goofy and chuni, I quite enjoy it! His story also interests me, I wanna see more of his edgy rouge backstory! Also I find it funny both games have thieves with the T spot, that are also purple-

Olberic- 5th in the party

“Oh he has lots of baggage-“

His story seems like it’s gonna be sad so far- my guess is he’s gonna be the party dad, as his father figure- son relationship with Phillip is really sweet;w; I hope we get to see more~I’m intrigued in his relationship with Erhardt because there is SO much tension there too…… I love a good agnsty lovers to enemies, and that’s the vines they give, so much angst (that would make two warriors who have a “comrade/best friend” who betrayed them:( ) ! Overall, I think his vibes are “gentle giant, but will not hesitate violence”!

Primrose- 6th in the party

“ insert everytime I said a variant of “gross” or my jaw dropped in her first chapter”

Primrose needs happiness……. It’s interesting to see how similar her type of revenge is to Osvald’s, yet different. I feel like she’s gonna be as a flirt as a coping mechanism and…… I just want her to eventually become happy, the way people treated her in her first chapter was so awful. I gagged almost every time she was called “kitten” (ew I hate quoting that), and the one person that did treat her with kindness was killed in front of her eyes for it- her “Master, go pleasure yourself line.” was really good though! Overall, rooting for her to get her revenge!! (Also I really like her design it’s so pretty-w-)

Alfyn- 4th in the party

“He’s just a normal guy!”

I love how normal he is, like seriously he’s just a sweet guy, and for that I dub him silly! If Therion is a chihuahua, he’s a golden retriever, and I love his whole wholesome story vibes in general! He’s probably gonna be in my top 4 by the end of the game- I love wholesome characters……. And green ones- also Zeph totally has a crush on him that he’s completely oblivious to (´▽｀) can’t wait to see more of his chill and wholesome vibes!

Tressa- 2nd in the party

“Who is this sassy lost child?”

She’s giving stubborn little sister vibes, and I am HERE for it! Her story seems super adorable so far too! Also love a good back twice a character’s size (gosh that’s gonna be a pain to make/ find when I cosplay her._.) speaking of her bag….. is that thing a bag of holding? How did she carry that barrel to the cave ?!??! Overall 10/10 character can’t wait to see her bickering with Therion in their travel banters, I’m theorizing they’re gonna act like siblings 030

H’aanit- 8th in the party

“Que the other Shakesphere reference”

I love how they used Shakespearian English for her! I actually quite enjoy reading/ the performing of Shakespeare, and I wonder if they’ll use Shakespearian themes in her story. The rhythm of her speech is close to the rhythm of Shakespeare without sounding unnatural, because she’s not actually a Shakespeare character, I can’t wait to see more of it (I’m also hoping perhaps she may call someone a sponge for the full Shakespeare experience -). Anywho, enough of my geeking out about Shakespeare, what interests me about her story is her somber theme. I don’t know what has happened to her master so far, but I’m wondering if this will be a tragedy based on it’s bitter sweetness. Also love how eloquent her voice is, it was a pleasant surprise!

Anywho that’s all for now! Sorry for the long post, and if you’ve read this far thank you! Now I’m gonna go get back to work on my art and stuff for awhile-

[hidingoutbackstage]

Okay I’m STILL procrastinating watching s15 bc I’m SCARED so here’s my extremely biased ratings/opinions on the episodes of s14 to help me procrastinate (episodes which are multiple parts of a single story will be condensed into one slot)

Room Zero: SO cute and good, I LOVED the animation style, it was simple and short but really well done with great colors, fun alien designs, and fluid animation, and I just like seeing the guys go on missions like that. It's a shame that the animated show never got picked up bc I would've adored seeing more of it. 10/10

From Stumbled Beginnings: Very cute and funny origin story for Simmons and Grif, and I love that they were p much always together since they enlisted lmao makes their dynamic rlly good and the humor actually got a couple laughs out of me. 8/10

Fifty Shades of Red: Sarge's humor never quite landed with me like is has for some people (my boyfriend lmao I literally have to pause episodes sometimes so he can stop laughing. Anyway) but it was a very humorous and in character origin for him as well. 5/10

Why They’re Here: Less interesting than the previous two, obviously just meant to fill in plot "holes" and to also show us the origins of the other characters. Also I am completely ignoring that one line from Tucker in the interview, just gonna chalk it up to the "edgy" humor it does not exist to me. 4/10

The Brick Gulch Chronicles: WONDERFUL stop motion, very fun and cute and entertaining, very wholesome and still in the vibe with what the show itself is. I appreciate the willingness to do stop motion for most of it. 10/10

Red Army Unit FH57’s Adventure: It was kinda interesting and kinda funny but I found myself kinda tuning it out cuz it just felt kinda whatever. The combo of the different animation styles was cool though and I thought the ship misunderstanding them was funny. 5/10

Locus and Felix: Okay I'm gonna be a black sheep for a second and say that I rlly don't care that much about Locus and Felix. I don't think Felix is a secretly deep sadboi whom I'm gonna spend an unnecessary amount of time thinking about, I don't think Locus as secretly good all along, and I don't care that much about their partnership and what they were like before Chorus. That being said, the animation here is absolutely gorgeous, this is probably my favorite animated story in the whole season, it looks awesome. The plot is nothing special but who cares like I said it's beautiful, 6/10

Fight the Good Fight!: VERY funny and well-executed propaganda video, short and sweet and nothing more to it. It does its job. 5/10

Meta vs. Carolina: Dawn of Awesome: Another one I really don't care for because literally everything leading UP to the fight between Meta and Carolina is a waste of time. Maybe some people really care about their weapons and stats, but I don't. And even then, you kinda know Carolina is gonna win the fight, the question is just how. 4/10

Grey vs. Gray: I don't know or care about the Game Grumps and the entire thing felt like a short gag that went on for way too long with a predictable ending. 2/10

Caboose's Guide to Making Friends: Again, ADORABLE art style and very cute having a story be told from Caboose's perspective. 7/10

Head Cannon: Kinda funny I guess. I wish we'd gotten it spread out more equally among the heads Omega jumped into. Ik he didn't spend equal time in there but who cares. Whatever, still funny. 5/10

Get Bent: I LAUGHED PROBABLY THE HARDEST AT THIS ONE AND THAT'S MOSTLY BC OF LESBIAN DONUT IT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD AND IT WAS HILARIOUS (also hello, bisexual church?) 9/10

Red vs. Blue: The Musical: it was fine. it was creative. The dancing was well animated. Enjoyable. 5/10

Mr. Red vs. Mr. Blue: I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs but Kaikaina was in this which automatically boosts it to a 8/10 (I also like that they have movie nights it's cute)

RvB Throwdown: Fine but mostly forgettable. 3/10

The Triplets Story: REALLY interesting concept (y'all know I love the freelancers) that felt like it dragged on too long and only gave Ohio something to do. 4/10

Immersion: The Warthog Flip: I loved the costumes and the actual Warthog and it got a couple laughs out of me. 5/10

Red vs. Blue vs. Rooster Teeth: This was made for the fans/themselves. As someone who is neither, none of it was funny and I just kinda waited for it to be over. At least the animation of the armor irl looked rlly good

[cyle]

I'm curious and I've gotta ask: do you know anything about the old MMORPG "Star Wars Galaxies"?

tl;dr it turned into a cautionary tale about chasing new users at the expense of alienating existing users, and among MMO gamers over a certain age, it's infamous

however, it's the exception, not the rule: the majority of the MMO market's history seems to show that a game and/or service -can- survive major changes, -if- those changes are gradual and continual, mixed with changes desired by the existing userbase, and not fully committing the product to a niche already filled by another company's product

that said, Tumblr doesn't have a lot of time to be gradual with its efforts to adapt, considering Automattic has already been nursing it at a loss since 2019...

but on the bright side, the current chaos among social media platforms offers some opportunities and wiggle room that never really opened up in the constantly overcrowded MMO market. like, some Tumblr users seem to think imitating Twitter in any way is a bad business plan, and they cite the fact Twitter is failing. but Twitter isn't failing because of its sidebar design, it's failing because of Elon Musk. imitating certain aspects of it is just free real estate at this point

funny you should mention SWG, i know it quite intimately. the official SWG forum was the first message board i ever joined, and i was highly active in that community for many years. up until very recently, i was still hosting a message board that was started as an SWG fan board. the people i know from that are some of the people i've known longest through the internet, and in my life actually, so it's close to my heart.

to unpack your thoughts here though, i think SWG is an interesting case study that actually supports our strategy, but really it doesn't quite fit because it's fundamentally a different model. MMOs are primarily subscription based (they were when SWG was out) or now freemium, and tumblr and most social media is funded by advertising. the underlying monetization mechanics are totally different, leading to totally different priorities.

if people on the internet were willing to pay to fully fund a social media network, either through a freemium model or a subscription, removing itself from VC funding and advertising, then the comparison between MMOs and social media platforms would make a little more sense. then it'd be much more easy for us, inside of tumblr, to prioritize existing paid customers, when those customers are a significant (or the primary) revenue stream. that would be pretty amazing!!!

and from my perspective, the "current chaos among social media platforms" is much smaller than it seems. i think the media just enjoys writing about this stuff, and overblowing it, and platforms like meta and tiktok are doing silly things mostly to grab that free attention. while certainly more people than ever are willing to try out other platforms, the raw numbers of how they retain / "stick" when they do make that move seem to be abysmal so far.

if anything, right now on the internet, the stage is perfectly set for something radically new to come along and completely blow away the incumbents, including meta and tiktok. i think web3 has already failed (thankfully), and AI is a tool (not a platform), and VR is too expensive and inaccessible, so something else is gonna pop up and become big. it's been a long while since a truly amazingly innovative product came along to shake the foundations of the internet. we're overdue.

[talking-about-bug-snacks]

CLAWBSTERONI

Clawbsteroni has one of the best names in the game, I think! It is so silly but at the same time, it has all the necessary bits. Claw, lobster, macaroni. All it’s missing is the cheese, but that would overcomplicate the name, so it’s ok.

Clawbsteroni’s design cleverly implements not just the classic curved tube macaroni, but also the slightly last classic shell shaped pasta! Overall, it really perfectly attains a lobster shape, while being made of nothing BUT two different shapes of pasta.

You may ask Clawbsteroni, “my, what big claws you have! What are you going to do with those? I do hope you will not snip me with them.” Clawbsteroni would reply, “Clawbsteroni”, because it cannot talk. But don’t worry, it will not snip you! It does not even have enough claw parts to snip.

Clawbsteroni WILL use its claws to manipulate object! It carries around trampolines, referred to as BELOVED trampolines, and that is so sweet. It is a gentle giant who just wants to hold a trampoline, because it likes it! Obviously, since this is a videos game, this means that you can Bounce on the trampoline, and that Clawbsteronis can be lured to different areas to allow you to bounce to previously unreachable heights. Bouncing in Bugsnax was really long overdue, I think. Yes, we had LAUNCHING, but BOUNCING is different! Less technical, more whimsical!

The trampoline is quite interesting from a Lore perspective, too. Obviously, it was not made by Bugsnax, but the ancient Grumpuses who once inhabited Broken Tooth. It doesn’t have anything to stand on by itself, so it seems it may have been made specifically FOR Clawbsteroni! Could this be a beast of burden? A DOMESTICATED Bugsnak?

Another very clever thing about Clawbsteroni is that its food basis is NOT just macaroni and cheese. It’s based on lobster macaroni and cheese, which is confirmed by it being referred to as “LobsterMac” in the files! This makes it the only Bugsnak whose bug basis is actually present in its food basis!

And finally, I love the horns it gives through snakification. Turn your Grumpuses into funny bats! Happy Halloween!

[nihilnovisubsole]

I just started Shadowbringers, too. I thought I was prepared.

I was not in any way prepared.

there's something deeply unsettling about the atmosphere in shadowbringers and i can't put my finger on what it is. i'm interested in how they pulled it off from a game design perspective. maybe it's the different names. maybe it's that the crystarium is built in an architectural style that you haven't seen before. maybe the harsh, blown-out, yellow-white eternal daytime messes with the ingame day-night cycle that you've gotten used to. or maybe it's the music. "sands of amber" sounds like jesper kyd's work on hitman blood money, which was also a super surreal game.

the first is just similar enough to the source to lull the player into a false familiarity. you think you should be at home, but you're not. you don't know anyone except your friends, who are there but also not, and the crystal exarch, who you swear reminds you of That Guy From That Thing. fighting lightwardens should feel like the process of rooting out and defeating primals in your own world. but again, not quite. they're warped in a way that nothing on the source is warped, with traditionally-angelic features taken to grotesque extremes. i've got to hand them that: they've found a way to make light disturbing. tesleen was a surprise. i'm kind of impressed they Went There.

ARR, heavensward, and stormblood have clear mundane themes that give the player vital context for the metaphysical ones. i know i keep bringing it up, but it's why the story works for me. we understand the magic stuff with nidhogg's eyes is bad because we've seen the conflict among the ishgardian people. shadowbringers dropkicks the player into metaphysical bizarro world, and i just need to trust that the story will reorient me eventually. i like it best when it hearkens back to ffvi's world of ruin. eulmore in particular feels right at home in the world of ruin, good lord. my friends tell me there are some great character beats later, too, so i look forward to those. if FF is great at anything, it's memorable characters.

speaking of, it has been very funny to finally meet everyone's blorbo emet-selch. it was the same with estinien. ah, so this is who you've been shipping all this time!

[cynical-tuba]

Hi! I sort of fell in love with that Leo the Toreador ghoul that keeps popping up on my feed because I'm hopelessly browsing VtM content. He looks like he's so done with life, but I also like his design. His hair is very pretty.

Could you tell me more about him? (or point me to where more content resides? I haven't had the time to dig deeper)

Oh wow firstly thank you so much for your ask! This is the first one I've had actually, and super thrilled it's about Leo!

I don't have a master post about him but I suppose now is a good of a time is any so let's go!

(Tw: Abuse mention)

Our Dark Ages game takes place in Oxford England in 1348. The game started in October.

Leo, (Pantaleo) is from Florence, Italy, what is now considered Santo Spirito. He has a love for music, good Tuscan wine, and Italian bread. He and his Domitor along with five other Apprentices traveled to Oxford to escape the Pestilence that was ravaging all of Europe at the time.

MORE BELOW THE CUT!

He came to meet his future Domitor, Dante at an orgy. Leo's best friend Marco told him it would be good money so they both found themselves caught up in this world. Let me note, he was an attendant pouring wine, handing out towels and snacks when he witnessed Dante feed from a vessel. He struck up an interesting conversation and Dante was impressed. Leo kept coming back to him, impressed by his art and personality. Eventually he came to study arts under his wing. He ran away from home and responsibilities to serve this Toreador.

( below Cotarie member 1# Emir Muzaka and Dante having a tiff. Art by @spell-fox )

He is in charge of 5 other artists under Dante all of whom are older than him so it was quite a bit of a march to earn their respect. Marco included. He enjoys painting Lucifer, admiring how he was able to break free from god and slip away from his control. He loves painting flowers as well.

He loves to play the lute and if the metal Genre existed back then he'd be a death screamer. The man carries a lot of stress and it feels like I'm playing a 40 year old man.

(picture by @spell-fox )

Leo in his opinion had a normal life, a normal upbringing but I feel it was hardly anything but. He would be that kind of person to tell a story about his mother drinking all day instead of parenting because it's "funny" and the entire room would go silent, feeling sorry for him.

His Domitor Dante is demanding, flakey and depends on Leo to help him organise, make decisions but Leo also challenges him, having the bravery to tell Dante what he truly thinks about the world. Dante is controlling of him emotionally manipulative. He is abusive at times. All except physically. Leo wants to break free of him by any means and in the Chronicle has been trying to impress Cainites with his bravery, wanting to be embraced into their world by any other means than Dante.

Then there's the second Cotarie member, Emir, (played by @urbanknightart ) the man who followed him around the first night Leo came to Oxford like a lost sheep. Wouldn't you know it he's a Malkavian priest! He "hears the voice of God" as a derangement of his and Leo is doubling down on his views of "god's not real you have free will" perspective. Emir has the power to see visions and can hear god when he touched the cross on his belt.

Emir has adopted the abused and mistreated ghoul, taking care of him, offering him food, insisting Leo hangs out with his own ghoul, Æthelfrid. Emir has protected Leo from a woman giving him a magical drink, wing manned for Leo and the Sheriff (Picture Below), took him on errands so he had an excuse not to go back to his Terrible domitor, and made Leo tell him all about his feelings in the church's confession booth.

Some of my posts have included a Suit of armour. That suit of armour contains a Nosferatu Sheriff named Hengist.

Leo met him when he arrived in Oxford, expressing to him how much be hates England, how it was so cold and he hadn't seen any flowers. The knight kindly pointed him in the direction of a garden where he could see amarth flowers. Leo visited them to paint them and returned the knights gesture by offering him the painting in return. Amarth, as be came to learn later has the meaning of undying love.

They then made love in a closet without Leo ever seeing his face. Leo also let him feed on him, offering his blood, "Dantes blood" to the knight. He accepted.

He offered to teach Leo how to protect himself and did a day of training, taking him to a field of flowers. They discussed the idea of Leo wanting to be embraced, this giving the Nosferatu the courage to carry through with the courtship.

So that's how he started dating the sheriff.

Oh he's also dating the ghoul of Hengist's brother, (The Prince of Oxford, Horsa.)

That's a thing. (both parties are aware of this) This lovely ghoul in mention is an anxiety ridden info dumping nerdy lad named Godwin who was the first NPC that greeted him in the game. They are also very cute. But I've made this post long enough and fear making it go on for ages longer.

I was considering sharing this Chronicle (with the agreement of the story teller and the other player but it does contain adult themes and situations that all three of us have discussed about before hand but I'm noooot sure to be honest maybe some day we will! As we log every session in a synopsis)

[thedeafprophet]

#1 and #7 for the art asks? (from @neathyingenue btw ;D)

1.When did you start creating art?

I would argue that everyone, always, and forever is making art in their own invidual unique ways. while we may have certain perspectives on various art forms, i think to create is simply part of being human.

....if u wanna know when i started drawing i would say maybe around 13/14 was when i frist started sketching? I was never one of those kids who's been 'drawing since they could hold a pencil' or whatever. I never really had any natural inflication towards drawing - as a younger kid i spent more of my creative time building structures out of popsicle sticks and whatever else i got my hands on.

When i was in my preteens/early teens, i mostly started trying to draw because my friends at the time were all doing it and i felt left out 😅😅 it was a bit of an uphill climb starting from a place with less experience and no natural talent for it.

I sorta clawed my way up from there, trying and failing since then. The real skill of an artist isn't drawing in my mind; its continuing to work at it even when you feel like it sucks.

I only really have my digital art saved back to when i was 18, but i started doing it a bit before then. And it was only in the last few years that I really feel like ive gotten a handle on how I draw, where i've ever felt solidly good about things i create, even if i still struggle with self esteem. Its funny what having a muse, so to speak, in your own characters will do for your art.

hmm. this. turned into a ramble. apologies lmao

All that is too say: For awhile and with determination to not back down from it.

7. Who are some artists that have inspired you?

So when I was 13 I was like, really really into Skyrim. Like. A lot lmao. (And one of the first things i really tried learning how to draw was my skyrim character. )

Anyway, the point of this is that my biggest art influence when i was a kid was Kayla Marquez/thewickwheat on tumblr, who used to do a lot of skyrim oc art, and was very inspirational for me learning how to draw. I feel you can probably still see remenants of that past in the way i draw now. I still seriously recommend checking her stuff out, her character design and linework is phenomoinal to me to this day.

I would say one of my current inspirations, of which im sure is no surprise, is J.C Leyendecker. Specifically in the way he draws clothing. While we obviously have quite different styles, i found our form when it comes to cloothing folds to feel somewhat similar, so i find using his stuff to be very inspirational when it comes to how i approach clothes now, especially suits and shirts.

Beyond that its like... so many artists. Honestly i'd need a whole seperate ramble of a poss just for that alone, and i've already rambled. I have hundreds of photos done by various artists i like saved and sorted across different artstyles on my computer to look at and Be Inspired By. I would say now adays i take a lot of inspiration from Edwardian and Victorian era paintings in general, as im drawing the topics of those contents quite a lot.

Ask Game From Here!

[tobiasdrake]

On that note, I think now is a good time to talk for a bit about Maki Harukawa and the challenges she introduces.

Maki is a walking enigma. She's a mystery wrapped in a question mark shaped like twin-tails. Her lab compounds that mystery. That sure is a hostile looking door for the Ultimate Child Caregiver, isn't it? And while we're all out and about checking out everyone's labs, why is she standing guard at hers to block anyone from peeking in?

Well, if you did look inside, you would find racks upon racks of deadly weapons. Assault rifles, grenades, pipe bombs, knives, anything you need to kill whoever you want dead in the most efficient way imaginable. Because Maki is the Ultimate Assassin.

I do not envy her during the course of 3-2, before her secret comes out. Can you imagine being effectively handcuffed to this door to ensure no one ever finds out your secret? Maki did not have a very good week.

In any case, Maki's effectively V3's take on Tokojack. ...well, one of, but we'll get to him. Oh boy. We will get to him. But for Maki, it feels like lessons were learned. I said back in DR1 that the MPD thing was not only offensive but unnecessary; You could just as easily write Toko as secretly being a serial killer, without having to make her out as a harmful stereotype.

Maki Harukawa is that character. A member of the group whose unassuming Talent masks her true, less savory Talent as a murderer. Someone whose murderous true Talent creates tension in the group when it's discovered. But despite being instantly suspicious the second you know, she never kills anyone over the course of the entire game.

Though not for lack of trying and oh boy is that going to be awesome.

But as I've said before, there's a tension in V3 between the "reality" of the Killing Game and the true reality underlying. With Maki, it's not so much a tension between character and actor, but a tension between character and in-universe writing. Her existence undermines the plot. Because. Well. Tsumugi's not a very good writer, as we've discussed before.

So, according to Tsumugi's script, these kids are literally the last survivors of humankind. A catastrophic meteor shower destroyed the Earth, not only killing off mankind but collapsing the biosphere and making the planet uninhabitable. I think Tsumugi played Horizon: Zero Dawn and enjoyed it immensely.

So, these kids were selected to journey through the stars to a new planet, right? Ignoring the fact that sixteen is not a stable breeding population, we can start to see their utility.

Gonta's Entomology lab is for saving species from the apocalypse. There's probably all kinds of gene samples and cloning shit on the ship somewhere too. Astronaut Kaito's here because we're literally in space and should have someone who knows what he's doing. Inventor Miu's here to design tech. Maid Kirumi's here to keep everyone fed and clothed and clean. Etc. etc.

But. Then you run into the problem of Maki. As a colony ship, an Ultimate Child Caregiver seems vital. But an Ultimate Assassin? There are sixteen people left in the world and the sole job of one of them is to murder the other fifteen? What? That makes no sense, Tsumugi. Why would Maki Harukawa ever have been put on this ship?

It would make sense if she smuggled herself in, like Junko and Mukuro slipping into the group in DR1. But. Uh. NOPE, her lab is filled with deadly weapons she can use to murder the other survivors so that's not it!

Honestly, it feels like this was a last-second throw-in. Like Maki really was supposed to be Ultimate Child Caregiver but then Tsumugi got the idea to make one of her characters a secret assassin. Like, Genocide Jack was a funny character, let's do that again! And then she threw that in there without thinking about what it would do to the integrity of her worldbuilding.

From the perspective of a Killing Game, a character who can be outed as secretly ultra-dangerous is a lot of fun. But Maki's existence shatters the entire premise of the reveals that Tsumugi's trying to build up to.

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 3 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Flood

Synopsis

The Eighth Doctor and Destrii arrive on Earth to find rain falling on a market place, rain that radically alters emotions. It is a test being conducted by the Future Cybermen...

Propaganda

listen. this is probably my favorite cybermen story of all time. they're just so...creepy? utterly detached? Their design is super cool and their plan is just. aaaaaaaa. Also separately it's funny from a meta perspective to compare to the parting of the ways (October)

Old Friends

Synopsis

In this swashbuckling instalment, the Doctor and her fam - Ryan, Yaz, and Graham - get caught up in the escapades of infamous rogue Time Lord, the Corsair! Accused of a crime she didn't commit, the Doctor becomes involved in a daring heist with her old friend in order to retrieve something valuable for the Corsair's mysterious benefactor...

This is the Corsair's first ever appearance! Includes a special feature on the history of the Corsair.

Propaganda

Best “canon” appearance of the Corsair, a rogue time lord friend/nemesis and the doctor, filled with fun pirate and heist shenanigans as is befitting the Corsair. Also written by Jody Houser, who plays the Corsair in her best non-canon appearance (Geek and Sundry’s TBD RPG Doctor Who Actual Play) because what’s more iconic than getting hired to write comics and choosing to bring in the very minor one off ‘already canonically dead’ character you played in a live-streamed ttrpg game. Although, don’t let that fool you. This is also a good comic in general. Even if you’ve never heard of the Corsair. (“canon” here meaning officially licensed as Doctor Who doesn’t actually have a canon) (anonymous)

[thefreelanceangel]

Which OCs that are not yours do you most admire? What is it about that character that you find impressive or engaging?

is... is there a limit to how many I can name...?

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

Um, okay. *deep breath*

Seifer d'Latu -- yes, it's my husband's character, but that's not the only reason! (He has other characters that aren't my favorites!) Seifer very, very clearly comes across with a powerful sense of self that I genuinely think comes from Sev having played the character for decades. {As someone who has chronic altitis, I don't think a character has to be a "main" or written for 20+ years to be good, but the development of personality and writing style that Sev has built up for a couple of decades sure doesn't hurt!}

He's also a fantastic villain who never bothers lying about his intentions, but seems… able to just… slide that right past people? I can't COUNT the number of female characters who happily followed Seifer to the d'Latu home and were shocked to not only meet his wife, but also at his disinterest in bedding them. Like they just… didn't listen when Seifer clearly told them he only wanted to fuck with their heads. It's genuinely amazing.

And Seifer I find particularly interesting because he's not the evil overlord who wants to rule the world. He's best suited to and enjoys being an advisor to the throne (so to speak) and was originally designed to be an enforcer to someone with a greater degree of power. It's rather rare to run into a villain character that isn't either The Leader or aiming to be The Leader and I genuinely enjoy how Seifer works into that role. (And how he works the role itself, he's just… such a delight to engage with.)

There are a LOT of characters I've had the pleasure of engaging with that are just marvelous. Voranoix L'espoir (one of my top fifteen RP characters ever tbh), Zale Bolton, Lupus Lynx, Thravnar Ravensun, Sezra'tan Entialpoh, Targur Steelfist, Wisteria… (Why are none of them active on Tumblr, you ask? Because the Irony Gods love to poke me with sticks.)

However, there are also a whole lot of characters I've never been able to RP with (usually because of anxiety/lack of time/lack of IG availability) that I find fascinating to read about.

@luck-and-larceny's Malika and @dumb-hat's Evander both fall in my top tier. Not only are they well-rounded characters with depth--obvious when you just scroll through a very few pieces of writing--but they're also FUNNY. And characters written with humor--both as from the reader's perspective as well as the character themself--are so, so rare. I LOVE funny characters and I love it when authors/players don't take themselves so seriously that they can't laugh at their characters or themselves. It genuinely makes the serious moments of character reflection feel more important when there's a contrast.

Basically everything @gatheredfates writes. Throw @riftdancing in there because they give each other some truly admirable support and cheer each other on. (It's beautiful to see.) There's… just the sense of WEIGHTY backstory in everything they do and reading their snippets, seeing their screenshots, I feel the same way I do when listening to "Jenny of Oldstones" written for Game of Thrones. Which is to say that there's a whole world they've created I'm getting a glimpse of and I'd dearly love to see more.

While I love @kuro8529's "black snack" (:D), his Viera Fakhri (on @gray-morality ) and @catscratching's Seda have a solid story built up, not only between them but also separately, so when I read either of them writing, I get a glimpse of the HOURS it took to painstakingly build this mutually satisfying story that has so much further that it can go.

@ofcruelghosts -- I love the noir aesthetic, the writing style and the very concept. I can genuinely feel the inspiration from the pieces and I'd love to see the character in even more scenes.

@bloodpoetry-lytharp -- Hi, have you read about Lytha? You should. Not only that, but you should read the other characters @erithe writes because she has an amazing grasp of style, character development and plot. (She's also one of the best people I've ever known.)

@mirugaidoesthings -- Dayar, ofc, I love because not only is he old enough I can thirst after the character without feeling like a perv, but also because he's written so pleasantly, so casually that it's like catching up with an old friend only to find out they killed a tiger with their bare hands at 15. You do a LOT of "WHA??" and it's amazing. Miru is a miraculously talented writer and a wonderful person.

@rylen-ashworth -- Eh, he's okay, I guess. Decent character. I suppose. {:D}