#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

[sleepy-aletheas]

Haikaveh, art, and rugs

Once again, I've been thinking about the damn rugs in the teapot, and reading their descriptions just reminded me that Kaveh and Alhaitham are so similar in many ways, but because their similarities "switch" where they focus, it just seems like they're inherently opposite of each other.

Like for instance; Kaveh is an aesthete that tries to integrate artistic expression and practical functionality in architecture - to him the human touch is essential, because the purpose of architecture is to reflect the people, the time, and the culture. It being a discipline has to come with more than "smush a few random materials together", it needs a reason, a deliberate thought and goal.

From his perspective, function cannot sustain a human alone, which makes sense on its own. Barebones of a house don't make a comforting home, doesn't stimulate the senses right, doesn't make a very restful place to stay in for long periods of time.

But what is often made his number one characteristic by people, is his love and appreciation for the arts. To a detriment, but I'll get to that. There is no denying, Kaveh values art, the creation and maintenance, the historical documentation of people existing before in a tangible sense - that is something Kaveh seeks even for himself. He wants to be remembered for his architecture when his name fades from records in time; his art, a part of his thoughts and feelings, will linger way longer than the memory of him as a person.

And I think there is a disconnect between his perspective on art, and the perception of him as a character that values art.

I already harped on him being made an overemotional mess outside the game, because he's more animated and loud and emotionally more in tune with himself; but there is also the other thing people tend to do - they take his notion of "integrating artistic expression and practical functionality", and just drop the practical part and make him a "head in the clouds, naive, helpless dreamer" that has little to no knowledge of how the real world works (hyperbolically speaking for the most part, but you get the point). The amount of times he is depicted as someone who disregards functionality because "of beauty and artistry" is fascinating, or where it takes precedence over practicality to his detriment is....equally odd.

Is he described in-game as someone who has big ambitions and bigger dreams? Yes. The last person saying something like that was Faruzan in the last event. The thing is, these things don't contradict the ability of being practical. Or making everything work in the real world. It just means he has to work harder, calculate things through more often on a bigger scale, and do his due diligence to achieve his goals and make them reality.

Kaveh is a way more grounded character than people let on; he knows the value of hard work, of resting and taking time off work to recharge, however much it feels like he's a recluse 25/7 always late to a deadline or nine. Just because Kaveh deals with a lot of internal strain and battles, does not mean he's not a capable adult that can't do rational decisions.

(he's a pathetic-type of funny "why does this keep happening to me" guy that just somehow gets unlucky a lot, gets roped into something easily, or is being plain silly; he's still someone who graduated with honors on top of his class, is loved across the whole nation, and did a lot of projects that aren't just the debt creating Palace of Alcazarzaray; he has layers, don't strip him of them)

With that being said, the rug in question that is connected to him is interesting - The Olive Grove is a relatively simply designed rug, whose biggest value is from what and what way it's created.

The reason this is interesting to me is, Sumeru decided at some point in time to reduce the rugs to simpler geometric designs, because it seemed disrespectful to step on beauty and someone's likeness.

And my point is, that Kaveh doesn't care how the carpets look with the improved way equipment and better manufacturing ability. He doesn't focus on the materials or the artistry of it all - doesn't even notice that he somehow contributed to that development in a roundabout way. He focuses on the equipment that assists the process; not the end result, but the way to get to it. He focuses on the practical mechanism to arrive at the artistic function of the end product. And that is the whole point of his own architectural method, no? He builds the foundation, creates the basis of his project, and then he can add all the beauty and life to it once it can stand on its own. Without the practical there would be no lasting art; without the art there would be no reason keeping a practical heap of something that is replaceable. To Kaveh, there need to be both things at the same time.

Alhaitham on the other hand is someone who doesn't go out of his way...for anything, really. He likes to go through life with the least amount of detours and problems. He prefers functionality over art, because the art part is an add on that he simply doesn't personally want to work towards.

That does not mean he suddenly hates art (as it's often seen) or that he thinks lesser of artists and people who pursue these things (he respects Nilou and Kaveh; it's just that he nags Kaveh incessantly so he takes care of himself in a very 'old married couple trice divorced never married' way). It's just not his goal, or his top priority.

Honestly? Him dressing with so many accessories, him doodling (we'll get back to that in a bit), playing the dutar, buying decorations (however awful for whatever reason that might be), letting Kaveh decorate their home...that aren't really things people who hate art do. That seems awfully indulgent.

And on the note of doodles; his associated rug Glorious Emerald Tapestry is so much more complex than it should be if its origin is inspired by someone who hates the arts and thinks of them a useless and frivolous.

If anything, this just shows that Alhaitham has an innate understanding of beauty, but because it's not the focus of his existence or thoughts, it just becomes a fact of reality. Flowers aren't suddenly beautiful because someone can wax poetics for fifty minutes per petal; they're simply flowers, and they're pretty. That's all. A sunset is beautiful even if someone doesn't make overcomplicated monologues in metaphors about it. Stopping to admire the landscape when he goes from place to place, or indulge in a moment of beauty is not a contradiction of his character - it's him simply experiencing the truth of the moment that was already there. That's all it sometimes is.

So his doodles making it into the hands of someone else who created intrinsic tapestries is really funny, because he wasn't going out of his way to create that - it was a byproduct as he was doing mental gymnastics to solve puzzles. It wasn't his focus, but it still was something from the depths of his person that managed to crawl out into the light. (also it's a pretty funny image that his doodles somehow make it onto academic papers or somewhere in public documents/books as he's reading, and people snatch it up to make "proper" art from it)

Also, the difference of the rugs is amusing:

Both are so pretty, but one's purpose being more focused on utility (Kaveh) and the other more complicated in method and outcome (Alhaitham) is such a fun "switch up", that just hammers in how similar they are, but often times those similarities don't overlap, and instead makes them more different.

Kaveh is someone who seeks art and utility in one; still he admires beauty and values it, but that beauty needs to be build from a firm base and have a reason behind it (even if it's just emotions).

Alhaitham is someone who doesn't care to go out of his way for art, but needs utility; and yet he still invites and makes space for beauty in his life, because that's simply the truth of the world, and there doesn't need to be a more important reason than that.

...They make me lose my mind every single day that I breathe istg...

[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?

[ellstersmash]

Veilguard loves & hates:

Love It:

the banter!!

overall the armor is very cool looking

don't really have to take a balanced party (but detonations help A Lot)

enjoyable mix of linear quests and exploration

at least some puzzles

more qunari lore that isn't "qun bad chantry normal"

GORGEOUS locations fr. like under the sea? you kiddin???

a lot of the quest location and actual quest designs were intriguing and engaging

the soundtrack on the quests was better than the main theme, in most cases

only experienced one bug (on PS5) so far and it was fixed with a reload

THE HAIR!! love that I can change it often—and I DO because there are so many cool options!

honestly the whole CC is very excellent

im in love with all my friends 🥴 and my friends love each other!! much more successful found-family vibes than Inquisition; more akin to DA2

so much talk about food and using food to come together and show love!!! big fan of that

I CAN PET AND HUG ASSAN (and will. all day.)

I do wish I could hug or interact with my romanced companion....but the overall romance and amount of references to it were acceptable. more than enough to get me daydreaming about my Rook and Taash 🥰

Rook's idle animations near the edge of something make me smile

the final battle (like the whole set of quests) felt appropriately dramatic and significant

my completionism paid off :}

the emotional stakes!! I cried like a baby more than once.

DREAD WOOF \o/

the ending (the one I got this round anyway) felt relatively satisfying, even though **

Hate It:

no lighting swap for the Inquisitor CC

no warning before the first major decision point/point of no return. never had my coffee date :(

no armor/outfit dye mechanic, and my god some of the color combos are.. certainly choices

no crafting system

very few legitimately casual outfit options

the main theme sounds like Harry Potter to me

so few meaningful callbacks to past games and choices... it felt impersonal and disconnected from previous game experiences

the way certain areas are walled off (either exploration areas during quests or vice versa) by some nebulous white haze is lazy

I love a DIY home base in my viddy games, but the decor mode is basically pointless. like that's time that could've been better spent elsewhere (like maybe improving the above point??)

loading a save drops you at a respawn beacon, so I'm always forgetting what undiscovered location I was gonna explore next

combat can be fun but is often an exhausting mash of swipe-and-dodge, since unless you use a companion's Taunt skill, every enemy will prioritize Rook for no reason, minus a few swings at the companions here and there (in Adventure mode)

no dedicated Open Map or Open Journal buttons

can't talk to solas whenever I want :(

the evanuris altars are boring. at least the fen'harel ones have some challenge to them, even if it's not a very difficult one

Davrin's talk about the Dalish is.. idk. mixed bag (update: I like his arc though, and Bellara provides another great perspective!)

the Crows are a good and benevolent organization now?? I thought Caterina abused Lucanis? I need to reread his story but it really felt like the writers didn't.

humorous dialogue options are rarely actually funny

dialogue trees don't flow very well, especially if you take one of "more information" options. they need better transitions

too much mythal 😤

**the ending left me with quite a few unanswered questions AND made my Lavellan look a whole-ass fool (I will be headcanoning otherwise, because I am a whole-ass fool)

[alkeneater]

virtual insanity (E!2080 drabble) 😵

ughhhh wellll just saying ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE and i'm not a good writer so i wrote this because this idea was scratchin my head from inside and i wanted to get rid of it 💙

also this fic is not that angsty as i thought it's going to be, it's KINDA FUNNY TO ME I was laughing my ass off when i translated this shit

okay enjoy if you wanna <3 and yeah Jamiroquai reference 😁

“Are you a loser? A loser that doesn’t have any friends? Your life seems boring and full of disappointments? Not anymore if you purchase a VR-headset by Parallel! The organic design and convenient shape will allow you to spend hours in virtual worlds, and the augmented reality mode will embellish your miserable life!“

“That commercial again…” Joan heard familiar sounds as she walked past the room where Confucius was slowly scrolling through FlipFlop™ on his Holoband™. “Can’t you just block it? Adblock was invented a long time ago. You're into this stuff, aren't you?”

“Joan, you don’t get it!” Confucius jumped up from the sofa and approached the girl. “Thanks to commercials I can easily decide where to spend my money!”

“I wish I had your problems. But your purchases often turn out to be useless.”

“What makes you think that?”

“That laser can opener has been in the closet for a month and no one uses it. We don't even eat canned food!”

“Hey, I saw Gandhi using it!”

“He used this thing to shoot at the drones.”

Confucius thought about it and stared at the floor. Joan was about to go on with her business, but suddenly the guy exclaimed:

“But my next purchase will definitely appeal to everyone! You'll see!”

He did finger guns, expecting support from the girl, but she sighed heavily and went away. 

A couple of days later, a drone with a small box arrives at the door of the house. Confucius quickly runs to take the package.

“Everyone over here! This day has come!!!”

“You bought chips?” Gandhi, smiling broadly, ran to his friend's call. 

“Hollywood's calling me?!” Harriet exclaimed from the kitchen. 

“The shadow government's been destroyed?!” Abe looked out from the second floor.

“You stopped ordering shit from AnyExpress?” Joan crossed her arms and went to the front door.

“Better, better, better! I bought us a VR-headset!” Confucius clutched the box to his chest as if it was his own son, “This thing is going to change our lives!” 

The clones looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Only Gandhi remained in a good mood, who always liked Confucius's purchases. 

When Confucius quickly adjusted the headset (which did not require much skill and knowledge, the design turned out to be quite simple even for an ordinary user), he started testing it. The others watched the process with interest, except for Joan, who was skeptical about technology, and Topher, who preferred to be away from the whole team. Confucius looked very funny: wearing a glowing blue headset, gloves and anklets, he moved awkwardly around the room and talked to himself. But from his perspective, it looked like an exciting game. After removing this thing from his head, he turned to the clones and exclaimed:

“This is fire! You should all try it!!”

“Can I be next?? Please?!” Gandhi ran up to the device, wanting to try it out as soon as possible. 

Abe and JFK were sitting next to each other on the couch.

“It looks fun, but I'm not sure I'll use it often,” Abe mumbled as he watched Gandhi running around the room with his new toy. 

“You're just a bore, this thing, err-ehh, it looks great. I would love to play some VR games right now!“ Kennedy was already interested and was waiting for his turn.

“That’s right, you can play any game on this baby!” Confucius squeezed in between them, “I'm sure you'll all find a use for it.”

“What use can I find for this thing? I don't really like videogames.”

“That's because, ehhh, he sucks at videogames,” JFK jokingly whispered to Confucius. 

“Well, let's just say this headset is capable of simulating anything, just write a couple of commands. Even the gen Epsilon can do this,” Confucius rolled his eyes and grinned. 

“Actually, we are the gen Epsilon,” Harriet was standing next to him, leaning on the coffee table, “Are you saying it can simulate anything?”

“Anything!”

“Even... hmm... the interior of the palace from the fifth episode of the eighth seas-”

“YEAH!” Confucius did not even listen to the end, being sure that his purchase was capable of anything and even more. 

“I don't know…” Abe looked at the window, “I like our reality too. I have real friends here, a real life. They are much better than this artificial one. Yeah, Gandhi?” he turned towards his friend.

“GUYS, I'M IN OUTER SPACE RIGHT NOW! HOLY SHIT, I'M A DRAGON, RAHH! DON'T DISCONNECT ME, IT'S THE BEST THING EVER!!!”

Abe frowned. Apparently, he is really a bore, since he does not understand the delights of this device. 

***

For the next few days, everything in the shelter-house was the same as always: the clones went outside to look for their friends, sometimes fought with the shadow police and quite often spent time at home in each other's company, enjoying free will. After 16 years of prison-like regime, every hour of free time felt like a two-month vacation in Hawaii. 

One day, after another grueling battle, the “Old School” returned home very battered and tired, and barely dragging their feet, most of them immediately went to bed. However, Abe was the only one who felt uneasy. Even anxious. He really needed someone to talk to and vent his emotions after a brutal fight. But Joan and Cleo were not in the mood for heart-to-heart conversations, Gandhi was sleeping like a log, and JFK was lying next to him. 

“John, are you asleep?” Abe looked into the bedroom on the second floor, which for some reason had a lot of beds. Perhaps the previous owners of the house had many children. 

“Ehh... yes.”

“I just wanted to…”

“Bro, I’ll, err-uhh, die if I don’t sleep!”

“...talk.”

“Later, okay?!” Kennedy growled, and Abe closed the door softly with a guilty expression on his face.

It’s not the first time he’s been left alone with his thoughts.

He trudged into the room, where Confucius was currently playing with his headset. Lincoln plopped down on his favorite blue couch and looked sadly at the window, not noticing his friend. He could still hear his conversations with one ear.

“...You have the wisdom of generations, bro. You're absolutely right, I will do that! See you later!” a smile appeared on Confucius' face and he took off the headset. 

“Who were you talking to?”

“Me? My clonefather, of course!”

Lincoln raised an eyebrow and turned to his friend in disbelief:

“How's that?”

“Dude, did you forget? This thing can do absolutely anything! I was just chatting with my clonefather in virtual reality. However, these technologies are not really new, teenagers were doing something like that 60 years ago.”

“Can I, well... do it too?” Abe’s eyes lit up. 

“Of course! Jump in, I'll introduce you quickly,” he beckoned him closer. 

Abe couldn't help but smile. Can he finally see the one who inspired him all his life? Talk to him, feel his presence? It all sounded like something unreal. 

However, it was unreal.

Abe felt the soft ear pads, the gloves clinging to his palms, and heard the anklets snap on his legs. Everything turned blue in his eyes, only the silhouette of Confucius was visible, he was waving his hands and explaining something. At first, Lincoln felt anxious, but after a short briefing, he got used to the device and finally entered commands so that the image he had wanted to see for so long appeared in front of him. Confucius nodded and left the clone alone with his virtual ancestor.

“Is-Is that you? Mr. President?” 

Abe could see a large empty space in front of his eyes, with a tall figure wearing a top hat. A familiar silhouette came closer: 

“Just call me Lincoln. It's good to see you, son.”

The guy was confused, not knowing what to do next. It wasn't every day that he got to talk to someone whose DNA he inherited. And the man with the thick beard continued to squint his eyes and smile good-naturedly. 

“I, I, I just wanted to talk to you. Can I? I promise I'll be brief.” 

Abraham nodded. The clone looked around and realized that he had forgotten to generate the location, decided not to bother and chose something from the “recommended” section built into the device. The space blinked and after a moment both found themselves in a wooden cabin in the middle of the forest, with some furniture inside and a fireplace burning. 

“Reminds me of the days of my youth... I used to live in a cabin like this,” the man sighed and sat down on a bench near the window.

Abe sat down next to him, still not believing what was happening to him. He has long been used to the weight of the headset on his head, he has stopped feeling the gloves, he has completely immersed himself in this charming virtual world.

“I, I, I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I?” the clone came to his senses.

“I know your name, Abe. You are…”

“I'm your clone. A copy. Genetic or something.” 

“Interesting.”

The guy sighed and still decided to interrupt this awkward conversation to finally get to the point.

“There's so much I'd like to discuss with you, but I don't know where to start.… I'm always so anxious and scared, and I don't even know who to talk to about it. I would like to become a great leader like you. You probably weren't afraid of anything and knew how to do everything. And I'm just... a nobody.”

“Don't be so hard on yourself. I'm sure you'll have a great future.”

Abe looked down at the wooden floor: 

“If that future ever comes at all” 

***

It's been a long time since Lincoln put on the headset. “Old school” had already had time to rest, Harriet and the other girls had watched all sorts of TV shows, and the guys had discussed every topic in the world. Gandhi was eagerly waiting for his turn to play with the headset. Kennedy, who was already beginning to worry about his buddy immersed in virtual reality, was waiting as well. He decided to visit Abe again and went into his room without knocking.

“Are you done? We're already tired of, err-ehh, waiting for you! How long has it been? One hour? Two?”

Abe continued to sit on the floor and mumble something under his breath, clearly talking to someone who was not in this room. JFK was so irritated, his hands involuntarily clenched into fists. 

“I'm, ehh, talking to you!” he raised his voice, causing his friend to flinch. 

“Uh, John? I'm sorry, I just-just a couple more minutes, I need to talk to Abraham Lincoln…” 

“You said the same thing about 30 minutes ago!” 

“The conversation got a little long, that's okay!” 

“You're out of your mind…”

Kennedy sighed so heavily he could be heard on the first floor. He sat down next to Abe on the floor and waited, unwittingly eavesdropping on what the clone was saying.

“Huh, yeah, that sounds so much like me. I worry a lot too...”

“Sometimes I feel lonely…”

“I'll never be like you, I'm just a loser. That's what I've always been told...”

After a couple minutes, John began to realize what Abe was talking to his virtual interlocutor about. He's just sharing his feelings, pouring his heart out. He just needed a little attention. 

“Yeah? Sometimes I feel like no one can really hear me...” 

John placed his palm on Abe's palm, squeezing it a little. He tried to feign indifference, but he barely succeeded in hiding the emotion with which he listened to his friend's voice. The tall guy, on the other hand, barely reacted and continued to talk loudly to the void. What Kennedy wanted more than anything right now was what Abe and his virtual clonefather had. Mutual support. 

“I am so lucky to be able to talk to you right now, I am so honored!”

After sitting like that for a few more minutes, he gently releases his hand and gets back on his feet. 

“Okay, I'm, ehh, gonna go.” 

There was no response. 

Kennedy returned to his friends on the first floor.

“Is he done yet?” Gandhi crossed his arms and frowned. 

“I don't like it,” Joan added, “it's too bad for him.” 

Confucius waved his hand:

“It's perfectly safe! I know you don't like all this innovation, but that's no reason to-”

“You know, let's just leave him alone. Why don't we go to the, ehh, pizzeria? Confucius, it's on you!” JFK feigned indifference, wanting to change the subject as soon as possible.

“Oh yes, let's go!” the others replied almost in unison.

The door slammed, and the house was empty. Only a voice from a room on the second floor broke the silence.

***

It took a few more hours before everyone returned home after a delicious dinner at the pizzeria. John was so engrossed in conversations with his friends and the delicious food that he almost forgot about what was waiting for him at home. 

He was the first one inside, turned on the light and hurried into Abe's room. What he saw made him fearful for a split second: Lincoln was lying on the floor, pale, but still barely audibly talking.

“Yeah... I don't know…”

“Abe?! What the hell?!” Kennedy instantly dropped down beside his friend and lifted his head, “Do you even take breaks from this shit?!” 

“Maybe… Huh…” 

JFK really didn't want to do that, but he slapped Abe’s face. One earpiece shifted and now Abe could clearly hear what was happening in his reality. 

“Ouch. That hurts,” Lincoln rubbed his cheek with the palm and tried to fix his earpiece, “Technical problems, I'll be right back…”

“No, you won’t! Take it off already! Ehhh, come on!” he started pulling the headset off.

“No, WAIT!” Abe began grasping at the device as if his life depended on it, “Please, don’t, I'm not finished! I’m fine, I swear!”

“FINE?!” he pulled it harder in his direction, “I found you on the floor, pale, mumbling something to yourself. You look like a zombie!” 

Abe was already losing his grip, so he put his hands down and let it happen. 

“Goodbye, clonefather. Sorry that…”

The headset finally slips off the clone's soaked head and falls to the floor. John saw Abe’s red eyes, his forehead wet with sweat, his hair messy, his skin paler than usual, dark circles under his eyes. It's a terrible sight.

“…I didn't finish,” Abe said softly.

“Holy shit, you're really, ehh, nuts.”

Lincoln tried to avoid eye contact while JFK stared shocked at his friend. 

“You're crazy, Abe, you're really crazy.” 

“What? Me?” 

“Do you know how long you've been sitting here?!” 

“A c-couple hours?... We just got back from a m-mission?” 

“That was LAST NIGHT!” 

“Last… what?”

Tears welled up in Abe's eyes. Either from the fact that his eyes hurt or from the realization. Or maybe he missed his toy. 

“You know you can always talk to me, right?” Kennedy started shaking him by the shoulders to keep him from passing out right in his arms. 

“But you all were so tired, I didn't want to disturb you…”

“Look, if talking to me saves you from that, uhhh, wire shit, then sleep can wait.” 

“John, it wasn't just wire shit, my clonefather was there... The real one…” 

“He's not real, you stupid! YOU are real and WE are real.” 

Abe lay down on the carpet, JFK sat down next to him and began gently removing his gloves and other stuff. 

“You're such a bore…” Abe smirked tiredly.

Kennedy furrowed his eyebrows, but really couldn't even be mad at him. 

“And you're an idiot.”

Both of them were so nervous they laughed, which made John fall to the floor next to Abe. 

“And you said you wouldn't even use that thing! You're Not So Honest Abe! Haha!”

“Haha, indeed!” 

“Guys,” a familiar voice sounded nearby, “Are you both crazy?” 

Joan, Confucius and Gandhi had been standing in the doorway for the last five minutes and had seen the culmination of everything that had happened. The guys looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. 

“Looks like it! Pure virtual insanity,” Abe chuckled.

“Oh, it's just like that old song!” Confucius said.

John got on his feet and reached out to Abe:

“Come on, ehh, let's talk.”

Abe caught his arm and stood up.

“Maybe next time? I'm really sleepy…” he looked at him guiltily. 

JFK nodded.

“Okay, just don't give me that look. You know I wouldn't trade you for, err-ehh, virtual reality, bro.” 

“I believe you.”

[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.)

[thecoolerliauditore]

I've only skimmed a lot of the posts so sorry if this point has been made but I wonder how peoples' perception of Masculinity vs Femininity as a spectrum affects their perception of characters and designs. Do some people view Masculinity and Feminity as complete opposites, with androgyny as the middle ground? Can you be masculine and feminine simultaneously, while not really being androgynous? Does the 'threshold' of androgyny change depending on how the cc/character is depicted in 'canon'? to be clear I don't necessarily think any of these viewpoints are 100% correct or whatever but I think it's interesting how people will have different perspectives, because most people's view of gender are skewed different and what might read as a fem design could read masculine to another or just entirely androgynous. sorry for the ramble this stuff fascinates me deeply

No yeah it is fascinating!! It's a. very complicated topic since of course the concepts of "masculinity" and "femininity" are very frivolous and amorphous, hence why I kept feeling the need to clarify how it gets. Weird with anime-inspired styles what with the culture shock and whatnot.

This song was really popular in fandoms awhile back and I think it's like. a great example of how one culture's completely neutral (or even masculine!) traits can be seen as feminine (or in this case, "gay") when viewed by another. It's also just really funny and I'm kinda sad no on has done a life series animatic to it yet.

masculinity and femininity as a scale with androgynous in the middle is also something I'm glad you bring up, because the concepts of masculinity and femininity are so arbitrary and as such there are so many ways to deviate from the norm -- some more socially acceptable than others! Thinking about, for example, the young MAGA hat'd women you see on sites like twitter with the most racist takes of all time and who are very proud of their ability to keep up with the boys in terms of 'murican masculinity (chugging beers, changing tires, so on and so forth) but at the same time cake their faces with makeup, support that Hashtag tradwife lifestyle and Would Not Ever Consider wearing clothes from the mens section because that is the Bad type of gender non-conformity for commies and lesbians or whatever.

Compare that to like. sorry incoming irl lore. the way I've had people in both more liberal and less woke areas get nervous when they try to address me, with the only big difference being that more younger, liberal people will typically either ask for my pronouns or they/them me by default.

I'm lucky enough that most people here are polite but as someone who has presented both masc/fem the way people treat me is so distinctly different based on my perceived gender as well as my level of androgyny it was kind of shocking to me. Eitherway there's a distinct attitude it's like. Rude to not be able to tell whether someone's a man or woman I've noticed and nowadays I have a lot of fun stressing people out. Sadism in me or whatever.

ANYWAY this was about minecraft youtubers. Analysing how people gender their designs, unconsciously or not, is fascinating because of how interpretative these designs are. There's also probably something you could say about how gaming youtuber is a very male-dominated space and how female gaming youtubers tend to overperform femininity, but in very different ways dependent on their intended audience (compare say. Lizzie and Pokimane for example.)

I think it's also worth noting that like. masculinity and femininity in behaviour is very different from physical presentation. which is how you get images like this

in addition to, again, these concepts already being abstract.

and of course, all said with me biting my tongue on the queer side of things still, because that's a whole other sub-sector of stereotypes and in-group signalling and history that runs convergent with mainstream views on gender.

I think it might be an interesting exercise to put your own designs up against others and consider what points they differ and what that might mean for how the other artist interprets the character vs how you do it. And then if you can look up what the artist actually has to say about the character and see just how right/wrong you were and how your own biases come into play. Two different people can have very similar views on a character, for example, but communicate that through opposite design tropes because they have different associations with said tropes. Not just for gender things btw and I've found peoples more nuanced opinions are harder to read than you'd think! I don't think anyone would look at my Bdubs design and guess that I thought he was fairly feminine in personality, for example.

I love doing that and challenging my own pre-conceptions of what i think peoples takes are judging by their designs (as well as what I think certain traits indicate in personality!). It's amazing for example how many pearl designs I've seen as too feminine and rolled my eyes at turn out to be drawn by artists who very much consider her to be tomboyish.

[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.

[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.