#it reminds me of when i play mobile games and one game advertises on another

[marsixm]

i was lit just having this convo w my coworker the other day that the yt bubble is bursting this year and shes like youtube is never gonna fail like no the platform will keep being used and people will keep watching videos but its very obvious making it a full time job, unless youre literally mr beast, is not really a sensible option anymore for most people

[adultswim2021]

Ephemera Week (2002)

Hey there. Welcome back. We’re almost done with Ephemera Week, I promise. Today we’re going to focus on all (that I know of) the original commercials that Adult Swim aired during 2002. Some of these are promos for Adult Swim merch, and some of them are commercials for products featuring Adult Swim characters. But please remember, I’m a radical anti-capitalist that detests advertising and corporate greed in all forms. Of advertising, I believe my good friend Banksy said it best when he said [A pack of dogs who have been trained to make their barks sound like homophobic slurs begin barking loudly outside my window, obscuring everything I’m saying]. Wow, such wisdom. Lets proceed:

COMMERCIALS

Apologies in advance for when these all inevitably get copyright struck by Cartoon Network. There ought to be a law. Or, lack of a law. I guess.

1-800-CALL-ATT | Aqua Teen Hunger Force | April 6, 2002 - 11:15ish PM

This is the first actual cross-promotional Adult Swim ad as far as I know. It’s the first one I remember seeing. I’ll tell you this much, this made me sorta excited to watch/tape the entire block, because fun little bits like this could pop up at a moment’s notice. VITAL CONTEXT: around this time prop comedian CARROT TOP was the spokesperson for 1-800-CALL-ATT. This was before he got buff. There was a rival service called 1-800-COLLECT, and maybe others. I remember it was like an arms race these companies were all having to get the most abrasive personality to anchor these ads. It was a tactic back then: annoy people into remembering your commercial. It worked! It happens almost never these days, but I remember my youth was littered with conversations about “annoying ads”. Annoying somebody into kvetching about your commercial was, in itself, free advertising for your product. Why not do that?

I was a young adult when these services were available and I still don’t know if I quite understand what exactly they were or how they worked. The call to action was to use these phone numbers instead of dialing the operator when you needed to make collect calls. Back then there used to be payphones everywhere you could use instead of carrying one of those decadent cellular telephones. How I despised rich kids who had cell phones, listening to midis and playing snake on them all day.

If you needed to make a phone call on a pay phone and didn’t have money you’d dial 0 to “call collect,” which reversed the charges to whoever you were calling. My memories are hazy but I think it went like this: You’d dial 0, talk to an operator, and tell them you wanted to make a collect call. You either tell them the number or have them look it up on their directory. They place the call for you. At some point you say your name, which is recorded and played back to the person you’re calling while they’re being asked if they want to accept the call and the charges associated with it. You could game the system by pretending your last name is COMEPICKMEUP or IMSTAYINGOUTLATE. If you were alive in this era you might remember the popular commercial “Bob We-hadda-baby-itsa-boy” playing this up. You know who played that guy? Stephen Paddock. I swear. Look it up.

Okay, it’s not really him. Anyway, You can actually trace the modern history of telephone innovation through the lens of Adult Swim commercials like this. Here we see Shake shilling for a collect call service. Later we’ll see Brak pimping the then-new innovation of text messaging. There’s the Boost Mobile episode of ATHF. Pretty sure Rick & Morty did a commercial for Gab’s mobile app. I could go on. I won’t!

1-800-CALL-ATT | Space Ghost Coast to Coast | April 7, 2002

Here’s another CALL-ATT ad this time featuring Space Ghost! You see, Carrot Top was this LOW BROW PROP COMIC who... Cell phones weren’t NEARLY as sophisticated as they are today. you see...

Collect call services are inherently socialist. If we may look to my comrades in Cuba for a moment...

If I may be so bold: the carrot is a vegetable for fascists. Were the Space Ghost crew aware of this when they produced this ad? I have my suspicions...

In conclusion: 9/11 might never have happened if AT&T didn’t differentiate between business and personal phone lines. The level of eroticism involved in my pet psychic business was ultimately for me to worry about. Did you pet “consent” to being owned/enslaved by you? No? So why is it “over the line” for me to attempt the same?

Maxim Hair Color for Men | Sealab 2021 | June 15, 2002

I honestly wonder who did this commercial? Was it 7030? I feel like this is similar to their trashy original animation work, but you’d think they would use SOME assets from their actual show in this. This seems to be entirely animated from scratch. I wonder why? Anyway, this aired. Capt. Murphy gets his dick wet with a horse or whatever.

Adult Swim Lifetime Happiness Sweepstakes | June 15, 2002

Hey look! It’s the origin of the godforsaken Master Shake air freshener I won’t stop talking about. There he is! Look at that scowl! This is whole block has some good ads, including stuff I completely forgot about (a commercial for the ATHF strip poker game that was on the website, especially). Give it a click, will you? are you fucking deaf

Powerpuff Girls Movie Promos | June 29-July 3, 2002

Hey! Look! Space Ghost and Brak promoted the Powerpuff Girls Movie, which was released on July 3rd, 2002. The above ad I know aired on June 30th. 

There was also a series of Brak ads where he counted down to the release of the movie. Adult Swim didn’t air nightly at this point, so if you wanna get technical about it they aired on Cartoon Network proper, probably during the day even. Unfortunately, none of these are online. Don’t click that link.

Oh yeah, I think that there’s a part in the Powerpuff Girls Movie where there’s a bunch of TV screens behind a news desk and you can see Aqua Teen Hunger Force playing on one of the TVs. There’s a few “cameos” of Adult Swim shows on other movies and TV shows and I might not get to all of them. Feel free to remind me they exist.

[CONTINUED IN PART 2]

[dontenchantme]

catastrophe - part one

Rated T, itaru x izumi.

she had a feeling this whole "pretend to be in a relationship" thing wasn't going to end well.

fics masterlist

It all started when Izumi decided she wanted to go to South Korea.

Why? There was no real reason. One day, she found herself thinking about going on a nice vacation and South Korea just popped into her mind.

She tried not to think too much about going overseas. She was MANKAI Company’s director and she had responsibilities. But it didn’t help when her email kept getting flooded with advertisements from tour companies offering really attractive package deals. One night, it was two in the morning, she was tired, she was kind of hungry, she received a well-timed email and the next thing she knew she had clicked on the ad.

No. No, no. No. But her hand seemed disconnected from her brain and she just stared at her screen as she looked through the different images of what Seoul had to offer – hanboks! Jeju Island! Snacks and souvenirs! Nice scenery! A break from her work!

The next day she spoke to each of the troupe leaders and asked if they would mind if she went on a short holiday. None of them raised any objection, and there weren’t any plays coming up soon, so this was the best time to go on vacation if she wanted to. In fact, they all seemed to want her to take a break.

She felt a little bad. But yeah, maybe it was time she took some time off for herself. She had some concerns about travelling though. Izumi didn’t want to go with a tour, which meant she’d have to sort out her flight, accommodation and itinerary.

Food shouldn’t be a problem. Seoul looked like it had lots of things to eat. She was curious about kimchi. She’d never tried it before. Maybe it would make an interesting addition to one of her curry recipes? She’d have to give it a try.

She reminded herself to search for a place to stay, preferably with a kitchen. She’d like to still have curry when she was overseas, and there was no guarantee that she would be able to find any good curry in Seoul.

Another problem she considered was the language barrier. She didn’t know any Korean at all – well, besides annyeonghaseyo and gamsahabnida, or however you pronounced those. She was pretty sure two phrases wouldn’t be enough for her to communicate with anyone. But maybe she could scrape by with the help of Google Translate.

Nevertheless, after she booked her flight and found some affordable lodging – yes, with a kitchen! – the next thing she did was go to a nearby bookstore and purchase a guidebook for Seoul and a basic Korean language book.

That was where Itaru found her, sitting on the sofa and staring at her language book, trying to memorise basic phrases. Like how to ask for directions to the nearest restroom.

“What’s that?” He flopped onto the sofa beside her, his gaze focused on his mobile game. Izumi didn’t look up from her reading.

“Um, I’m trying to learn some basic Korean. I don’t want to get stuck in Seoul not knowing how to speak to anyone,” she mumbled, the words on the page beginning to blur together. She never did have a head for languages, and this book was not helping in the slightest.

“Oh? Korean isn’t super difficult.” Itaru was jabbing his finger furiously against his screen. She didn’t want to know what he was doing. “I can teach you if you want.”

She blinked, looking up at that. “Wait. You know Korean? How come?”

“I used to play this Korean game. Had to pick up a little to understand what my party members were saying.” Itaru stopped poking his screen, then held his phone out to her. “Hey, pull for me, will you? I want this new SSR card.”

She sighed but reached over and tapped the button anyway – ten little boxes appeared on the screen and started to shake. Itaru skipped the animation and stared at his screen, studying the results. “Oh wow, Director, your gacha luck is pretty good. See? She looks just like you.” He showed her the screen again.

It wasn’t the first time she had seen Itaru’s favourite in-game girl. She still failed to see the resemblance. “Uh. I guess?”

“I’m going to make her my main page character.” She stared at Itaru fiddling with his phone for a while before she suddenly remembered what they were talking about.

“Wait, wait. You know Korean!” She repeated this just to be certain, and Itaru nodded absentmindedly. “And you’re willing to teach me?”

“Well, yeah. You just want to know some basic Korean, right?” he asked.

“Just enough to ask for help if I get lost. Or ask for recommendations, maybe.” She glanced at her language book again and promptly shut it. Nope, not helping at all.

“Sure.” Itaru suddenly put down his phone, and she blinked, taken aback when he met her gaze. “I just have one favour to ask, though. It’s not difficult or anything,” he added, noticing the way she hesitated. “But you’re the only one who can help me.”

“What do you need?” Fine. If he was going to teach her Korean, then helping him out was the least she could do.

Itaru smiled. She wasn’t sure whether he did it intentionally or not, but this was his princely smile and while it was undeniably charming, she suddenly had a really bad feeling about it.

“There’s going to be a company dinner on Friday, and I’ve exhausted all my excuses, so I’ll have to show up this time. I was hoping you’d go with me.”

“Me?” She immediately panicked at the thought – she remembered the last time she stumbled across Itaru at one of his company events, surrounded by a whole bunch of women. The moment he saw her, he pounced on her and used her as an excuse to not go for karaoke with them – the way those women glared at her still left a bad taste in her mouth. “Itaru, the last time your colleagues saw me, they looked like they wanted to kill me.”

“You’ll be fine! I promise!” he wheedled. “If I bring a date, they’ll get off my back and I can go home earlier. And I’ll help you with your Korean. It’s a win-win!”

She found herself a little swayed by the desperation in his eyes. It was the first time she’d seen him so emotional…if she didn’t count him yelling at his screen whenever he lost one of his games. “It’s just one night, right? No more after that?”

“No more after that,” he affirmed. She paused, considering her options – her trip to Korea was in a month. She had seen the way Itaru tutored the other boys and she knew he was a good teacher – he could probably drill some basic phrases into even her language-resistant brain. And all she had to do was pretend to be his girlfriend.

“You know I’m not a great actress, though…” she cautioned. “What if I give it away and the others find out that we’re not really together or anything?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t say that you’re my girlfriend, so it’ll be totally up to their interpretation.” Itaru smiled. “Unless you want to be my girlfriend?”

She felt her face flame. “No!” she blurted out, waving her hands in front of her. His grin just widened. “I mean, not that you’d make a bad boyfriend or something, but no!”

“I was just kidding, Director. You know, you’re cute when you’re flustered.” Itaru leant back into the sofa, stretching. He kind of reminded her of a cat. “So, you’re okay with the plan, right? Keep your Friday evening free then. It’s a date.”

Her face was still warm. “You don’t have to say it that way,” she protested.

“But I want to.” He laughed at the look on her face and she pouted, wishing he’d stop being amused at her expense. “Anyway, I’ll hold up my end of the bargain. You want to start learning some Korean now?”

She nodded. If Itaru was offering, then they might as well – after all, it was rare that he didn’t immediately slip into his room after returning from work.

He reached for her book on the table, his fingers just barely grazing her hand, and she shivered – when he flipped to a random page, his dark blond bangs falling over his forehead, she couldn’t help but think about how good-looking he was.

That time she saw him at his company event, he had been so charming, his dazzling smile reminding her of the first time she ever met this man. But she liked him best when he was relaxed like this, and not wearing his public persona. After finding out what Itaru was like in private, it was hard to take his work image seriously.

He glanced up from the page and caught her eye, his lips curving into another lazy smile, and she quickly averted her gaze, pressing the back of her hand against her cheek. Yep, still warm. How was he so good at getting under her skin?

[coolgreatwebsite]

Cool Games I Finished In 2019 (In No Real Order)

We’re here. The end of the decade. 2019 was a weird, turbulent year for me. Despite my cross-country move already being a year behind me somehow, nothing’s really settled yet. Living situation is still weird, still separated from most of my belongings, I left my full-time QA job for a contractor position at a mobile game advertising company that may or may not convert into a full-time position... everything about what’s going on with me still just feels like I’m completely winging it, and while that’s not a position I’m really comfortable being in for such an extended amount of time, everything seems to be working out okay enough despite it. All this is probably why I spent most of my time playing the shit out of a handful of games rather than playing a bunch of different games this year! Needed some sort of stability. Also when I did manage to pull myself away from the timesink games and play something else, a lot of them ranged from “okay” to “real bad”. But I still managed to play just enough stuff that I liked to where I can put out yet another one of these.  Here’s a bunch of cool games I experienced for the first time in 2019.

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC, 2005)

I haven’t bothered to do two thirds of the story quests yet and have barely touched any Episode 4 content so this game technically doesn’t count for this list, but if I left it off I would be neglecting to mention an extremely large portion of my video game playing time this year. I fell back into PSO preeeettty hard this year after the surprise announcement of Phantasy Star Online 2 finally coming to the US. Guess what: game still rules. It feels stiff to play and it’s obviously far less expansive than it seemed back in 2000, but the core of Phantasy Star Online is still as fun as it ever was and the aesthetics are still entirely my shit. I love everything about the way this game looks and sounds, I love stumbling on a weird new weapon, I love participating in the custom seasonal events the server I’m on runs, and I love how oddly relaxing the experience of playing this game and taking it all in is. I will probably continue to play Phantasy Star Online into 2020. I will probably still dip back into it after PSO2 US servers finally launch. If I know you and you want to join my Discord server for PSO get at me. PSO forever.

Cookie’s Bustle (PC, 1999)

You ever play a game that just speaks to you? Even through a language barrier? A game so incredibly out there and bizarre in the exact way you love that you can’t help but adore it despite barely understanding it? Holy moly did I ever find that game. I learned about Cookie’s Bustle through a news story last year about some rare games leaking from a Japanese collector’s stash. Didn’t manage to get it to run back then, but my off and on attempts to get it working finally paid off in March of this year and I’m so glad I kept trying. I knew nothing of this game other than it had a weird name and was about a bear doing sports, and it turned out to be a fully voice-acted and mostly unsubtitled adventure game starring Cookie Blair, a 5 year old girl from New Jersey who sees herself as a teddy bear and has traveled to Bombo World, an island nation once visited by aliens and currently in the middle of a civil war, to participate in the Bombo Sports Tournament. Dead level, I probably shouldn’t have been able to genuinely love Cookie’s Bustle as much as I did. The only context I had for what was happening and what I was supposed to do was provided by a 20-year-old Google translated walkthrough with broken images, the game’s slightly higher than usual reliance on English loan words, and 30-ish years of video games and anime allowing me to halfway pick up on a handful of Japanese words. However, Cookie’s Bustle is dripping with an undeniable and off-beat charm that genuinely transcends language. Even if you can’t understand the words and specifics, you can understand the basic plot, characterizations, and emotions they’re going for. Cookie’s Bustle manages to both be completely off-the-wall bizarre and feel totally genuine and heartfelt at the same time, a balance very few games manage to successfully hit but many of my favorites do. One could say that’s why it seems to have resonated with a decent amount of other people this year, too. Games rarely make me feel sad that they’re over. but when they do that’s how I know they’re one of the good ones. Seriously, go look up a longplay or stream of Cookie’s Bustle if you (understandably) don’t want to go through the hassle of setting it up and figuring out how to play it, it’s impossible not to love.

Devil May Cry 5 (PlayStation 4, 2019)

Here’s something crazy to think about: Devil May Cry 4 came out 11 years ago. Aside from being a potent reminder that time is moving too fast and we’re all going to die soon, that means that there hasn’t been a DMC for over a decade. Devil May Cry 5 does not bare this fact even a little bit. Not only did they pick up right where they left off and manage to make another Devil May Cry game without missing a beat, they made arguably the best Devil May Cry game. I mean I still like the story and single-character focus of DMC3 the best, but DMC5 is the best playing game in the series without a doubt. Nero finally feels like he has a complete and complex toolset, Dante is the most mechanically dense and fun to play he’s ever been, and they even added a new guy that’s... neat to play as, until you start trying to S-rank the harder difficulties. Then he’s kind of annoying to play as. But it’s still cool that they tried something totally different and mostly got it to work! They also did something very stupid that I love and used this game as an excuse to make literally every single piece of Devil May Cry media canon. Like, characters exclusively from the anime and the books show up and act like they’re someone you already know and love? And they go out of their way to explain the most esoteric lore shit possible?? And despite it all they still intentionally give DMC2 as short a shrift as they can??? It’s so dumb, it rules. It’s just one of the many things about the game that show that even with so long of a gap between entries, no love for the series was lost by the people that make it. I don’t think the suits at Capcom expected this game to hit as hard as it did though, because despite there being clear areas where the game could be expanded on with DLC there still hasn’t been anything announced. I hope they’re maybe saving it for some sort of DMC3-esque special edition, or maybe just already working on DMC6, because even after getting all S-ranks I still wanted to play more. The game’s just that damn good.

Hypnospace Outlaw (PC, 2019)

I expected very little from Hypnospace Outlaw. I backed the game on Kickstarter solely because it looked cool and I thought a game about fake GeoCities was neat, and then I immediately forgot about it until it released. Admittedly my lack of expectations stemmed mostly from the fact that it’s kind of hard to set expectations for a game you never really thought too hard about, but even in the brief period of time where I considered it enough to give it money, I never expected it to be much more than a pretty-looking 101 Great GeoCities Jokez delivery vehicle. Boy was I wrong. I mean, it is incredibly good at that, but Hypnospace Outlaw is so much more than a funny period piece. The basic premise is that you’re in alternate universe 1999 and have just become a community moderator for an Internet service provider that allows people to connect to the Internet while they sleep. You’re tasked with browsing the game’s weird fake Internet and issuing demerits to users who violate the five basic Hypnospace rules, but it quickly evolves into something way bigger. Hypnospace Outlaw’s greatest strength is its exceptional ability at weaving together subtle world building, small and engaging character arcs, esoteric microjokes, and a genuine sense of mystery and discovery into an incredibly cohesive and engaging package. It’s as much a game about the people that use and run its weird fake Internet as it is about that weird fake Internet itself. And a lot of the problems both face echo the problems we face with our real world Internet today. When I was mapping out writing this article like a month or two ago I was prepared to go on about how at its core, Hypnospace Outlaw is an incredibly poignant story about how uncaring tech corporations actively harm their users and always have, but then a couple of days ago I read Colin Spacetwinks’ game of the year list and his #1 entry put most everything I would have said about that topic down in a way more eloquent and well-written way than I ever could have. And then I remembered that Friend Of The Site Heidi Kemps covered some of the same angle but from the perspective of the early Internet in an article earlier this year, again way better than I could have. So I highly recommend you read those when you’re done here. What I wanna bring up instead is just how effortlessly surprising and interconnected a lot of stuff in Hypnospace feels, using a mildly spoiler-ish late game example. Two of the first “zones” you’re allowed to moderate when you start Hypnospace Outlaw are Teentopia and Goodtime Valley, which are essentially alternate universe Yahooligans and a little slice of Hypnospace just for Boomers respectively. On Teentopia you’ll see a bunch of kids that are wild for Squisherz, Hypnospace’s alternate universe version of Pokémon, and over in Goodtime Valley you’ll see (much like there was back in real world 1999) a few pages made by religious fundamentalists convinced that everything the kids like these days is the work of Satan. This of course includes Squisherz, and you can find a page by one organization full of crackpot conspiracy theories with flimsy evidence that TOTALLY DEFINITELY backs up their claim. Squisherz contains a wolf, which the Bible warns about many times! This giraffe monster CLEARLY has a pentagram in its design!! And the eye of this snake-like Squisherz is the eye of Horus, an Egyptian occult symbol and NEED I REMIND YOU that Lucifer took the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden!!! It is very clear what this page is goofing on and throughout the course of the game it doesn’t get updated at all, so it’s very easy to laugh at it and forget about it. Very late into the game, you get an optional sidequest. Adrian Merchant, one of the CEOs of Merchantsoft, the company that created Hypnospace, was found out to have logged traffic indicating he was a frequent visitor of a website called Children of HORUS, and a call is put out to investigate what that even is. You can easily find the website, but it asks you for a password if you click the Enter button. Adrian Merchant is consistently portrayed throughout the game as a complete idiot, and the solution to this puzzle has you capitalize on that. Another early game objective ended up with you finding a list of cracked passwords, and one of those passwords happens to be for the instant messenger account of Adrian Merchant. If you can remember that he was even in that text file from forever ago, and then put two and two together that of COURSE that dumbass would use the same password for everything, you just punch in his messenger password and you’re granted access to the Children of HORUS page. It turns out that HORUS is an acronym that stands for Hiding Occult References in Utmost Secrecy, and the page itself is a basic leaderboard with a list of names and two numbered columns reading “Hidden” and “Found”. In that list of names you’ll find A. Merchant, along with the names of various other CEOs and celebrities you might have read about elsewhere in Hypnospace. One of the other names on this list is F. Kazuma, the CEO of Monarch, creators of Squisherz. The funny conspiracy theory website from the beginning of the game that you most likely forgot about was, about this one specific thing, correct. There was an eye of Horus hidden on the snake from Squisherz. Not as any sort of Satanic plot, mind you, but only as part of some weird millionaire dickwaving contest. This dumb tiny revelation is not called out by the game at all and nothing comes of it, it’s just there for you to notice if you’ve been paying enough attention. Hypnospace Outlaw is LITTERED with stuff like this. Weird small interconnected things you wouldn’t expect to be interconnected. Little dumb things you wouldn’t expect to have any sort of payoff but somehow do. And it’s also just as chock full of big things. Having all the pieces fall into place at once to where I was able to access Hypnospace’s equivalent of the dark web was the best sequence in a game this year for me, even beating out the outlandish shit in DMC5. Getting and solving the final case was a rush. Hypnospace Outlaw is full of incredible moments big and small. It’s genuinely engaging and affecting, which is so much more than I was expecting from a game that was pitched to me as “Funny GeoCities Cop”. It almost has no right being so good. But it is. Hell, even the music rules! I didnt even get into that! I don't have enough time or space to get into that now! The music is so goddamn good! I know I started these lists because I had no interest in ranking games, but every year I sort of jokingly-but-not-jokingly say “haha this game sure would be my number one if I did that!” for at least one game. It’s time to fully lean into it. I don’t gotta rank ‘em all, but I can pick a favorite. Hypnospace Outlaw is my favorite game of 2019 with a goddamn bullet.

These games were also cool, I just had less to say about them:

Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo DS, 2007): Man, this series just started out good, huh? I dabbled with the first two games in college when I got a DS flashcart but never really dug in until EO4, and the first game is enjoyable in just about every way the modern ones are. Definitely more barebones and punishing though. Kero Blaster (PlayStation 4, 2017): This is a game by the creator of Cave Story that does not aim to be Cave Story, and that’s fine! A fun little shooter in its own right, though I do think the shooting in Cave Story felt a little better than it does here. Space Invaders Extreme (Nintendo DS, 2008): I played the shit out of this game in college thanks to that flashcart I mentioned before, but I never finished a playthrough in full until this year for some reason. Still way stylish and way fun! I need to get a copy of the second one... CROSSNIQ+ (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Incredibly chill puzzle game that can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. Almost uncanny in how well it emulates the style of late PS1/Dreamcast games. Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Mario Maker 2 is kind of weird for me. It’s a solid improvement in a lot of aspects, but a clear regression in a lot of others. Also the online multiplayer is the second least amount of fun I’ve had with a video game this year (Secret of Mana swooped in and stole the number one slot near the end). Still, I had a lot of fun with it and I’ll probably end up going back to it eventually. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Nintendo Switch, 2018): The original Katamari Damacy is still every bit as fun and charming as it was upon its original release. This port is weirdly based on the Japanese version with the English text inserted, which means no English voice acting and Wanda Wanda only plays in the multiplayer mode. The Joycon sticks also aren’t the greatest for doing charge rolls. But none of these faults detract too much from the game. Bring on We Love Katamari Reroll! Earth Defense Force 5 (PlayStation 4, 2018): Sandlot somehow keeps finding ways to make each new EDF bigger and explodier, and EDF5 is the biggest and explodiest yet. I think the mission design in 4.1 was more solid overall, but 5 feels the best to play and has the most fun tools. Also the dialogue is the most absurd its ever been, and the final boss goes for it way harder than the series ever has. Pokémon Shield (Nintendo Switch, 2019): This game is honestly just okay, but leaving it off would again be neglecting a game I put a ton of time into this year. Pokémon Sword is fun in the way most Pokémon games usually are, and extremely half-baked in basically every other aspect. I’m still having a good time putting together teams and finding shinies and doing The Pokémon Thing regardless.

And that’s 2019 (and this decade) in the bag! I don’t know where anything’s going from here, but I’m going to ride it out as best as I can! I hope you do too! As always, thank you so much for getting to the bottom of all these words. I’m hoping to be in a more stable place mid-2020, and then I want to get back to all the things I haven’t had time to do. I want to get back to streaming, I want to write more dumb articles like The Best Babies, I want to do it all! I hope I will be able to do it all. Until then!

[silvershoelaces]

HPWU: A One Year Retrospective

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite turned one year old last month, and over the past year, it has improved a lot.

This review is looking at HPWU as a standalone game, devoid of the context of the book series, any views of its author, the movies and spinoffs, or any other media associated with the Harry Potter franchise.  I have plenty of opinions thereof, but they are not directly relevant to my opinions of the game and how it functions.

The game at its core is not particularly inventive, and at the beginning of its first year, it mostly felt like a reskin of Pokemon Go.  Spawns appear on the screen based on a map that a player traverses in real space, and players must tap on the spawns and then attempt to collect them in order to complete their collections.  But instead of catching Pokemon to fill the Pokedex, players are rescuing “foundables” from “confoundables” to fill their stamp collections.  Unlike Pokemon Go, multiple copies of each foundable must be collected in order to acquire the stamp, and once the entire page of stamps is collected, it can be prestiged in order to start the whole process over again.

Traversing the world, though, can prove to be complicated in anywhere but the most urban of areas.  I live in an urban area, close to my local downtown, and at the game’s inception, I had to walk pretty far in order to complete my daily F2P chores each day.  See, all of the POIs (points of interest) on the map are auto-generated from the data in Niantic’s original game, Ingress, and each POI is randomly assigned to one of three types.  Inns, where players can acquire spell energy, are the most common.  Next are greenhouses, where players can acquire potionmaking ingredients and occasionally, more spell energy.  And the least common of these POIs is fortresses, which allow players to enter timed dungeons either by themselves or with other players to fight baddies and get prizes for their efforts.

The randomness of assigning each of these three types of POI is a real drag for many players.  When the game was first released, I had two greenhouses and one fortress reasonably close to my home.  This was enough to play the game, as greenhouses also occasionally awarded spell energy just like inns, except that the dailies explicitly required me to interact with two inns each day in order to get any premium currency.  And as I mentioned, the assortment of POIs was completely random!  Some players found themselves with nothing but fortresses around, while others had only inns and no fortresses for multiple kilometers.  I considered myself relatively fortunate that I only had to walk 1 km to get to a nearby inn!

But unlike Pokemon Go, while the game encourages exploring, the core mechanics are not well suited to walking.  In Go, a rare spawn can be easily subdued in 1-2 attempts, and curveballs are quick and easy to throw.  In HPWU, the rarer the spawn, the more difficult it is to capture, and the more likely it is to run away.  Foundables are captured by tracing patterns on the screen, and they all have a rather low acquisition rate, which means the rare ones are more likely to flee than to stay put unless the player pours consumable items into their capture.  And even so, a player having to trace the same pattern multiple times just to capture a single spawn means that there is much more time standing in one place and less time walking.  This is not an exercise game.

And this is one of the core flaws that has plagued Wizards Unite since its inception.  It’s a clone of Pokemon Go, but every single mechanic that differs from Pokemon Go brings it further away from Go’s vision of an exercise game.  Wizards Unite is an augmented reality exploration game, but it’s more about exploring a story and a setting than about racking up burned calories.  This is especially apparent in limited-time events that encourage players to spend multiple hours standing still by the same POI, challenging hordes of enemies.

Monthly Community Day events aside, the regular cycle of in-game events was fun and engaging at first, but it quickly grew dull as players finished the main story quest and found the primary content of the game to be the fortnightly events.  This is always a struggle for F2P games, especially games that rely on collections rather than PVP mechanics.  The events weren’t even new content, merely recolored versions of content that already existed in the games, spawning much more frequently than other foundables and with featured spawn rates.  What was fun in the game’s first few months had quickly become tedious, especially when the featured foundables had low catch rates.

Despite this stagnation, the game has changed over time, and many improvements have been made.  The tonic for trace detection, a craftable potion that allows players to summon foundables to wherever they are, was long overdue when it was introduced into the game, allowing players who were less mobile to encounter more foundables when they had time to play.  Inns and greenhouses were rebalanced so that inns in less urban areas dropped more spell energy, and greenhouses’ spell energy became guaranteed, rather than a 50% drop rate, which was an important improvement for areas with a low POI density and an active playerbase.  Adventure Sync was added, which allows the game to track steps.  (Unfortunately, this feature does not function well, as the steps counted toward daily tasks only begin after the player’s daily login bonus, and AdSync requires the game to have access to the player’s GPS while the game is closed, which drains phone battery in the background. Players who already have AdSync enabled for Pokemon Go will not notice much difference.)

The most significant overhaul, of course, came with the onset of coronavirus.  In order to allow players to continue playing from their homes, the daily requirement to interact with inns was removed, and the Knight Bus, which allows players to remotely access fortress challenges and even engage with other players remotely, was implemented.  I have found that the implementation of the Knight Bus almost single-handedly revived my interest in the game when I had grown completely bored of it, as it was a lot more fun to play fortress challenges with friends, which I had barely been able to do before, than to play the game solo.

But these improvements also serve to highlight the flaws in this game that have not been improved since its release.  Trace completion always takes a particular shape, and its right-handed bias is clear the moment one attempts to complete a trace off-handed.  The swirl of Ebublio, in particular, which takes an “e” shape, feels much more natural in the counter-clockwise direction in the right hand than in the left.  Mirroring traces in a left-handed or “mirror” mode would be an easy fix!

SOS assignments have not been updated since day one of the game, and they have said “new assignments coming soon” since I completed them.  In my first few months of playing, that was the real draw of the game for me, finishing the story quest and continuing on to the next page to see what would happen next.  Each event feels like filler, while what would have made the most sense would have been to add four or five new pages of story quests every few months or so.  And they (and all other events) aren’t replayable, so when WB/Niantic/whoever is responsible finally gets around to adding them, we’ll all have forgotten what happened.  I already don’t remember.

Finally, the entire story as a whole, which is told as a haphazard, shoddy, zigzagging extra flavor to the repetitive, bland events, could have been told with just a week or even a day of gameplay in a regular game.  “What is causing this calamity?” the characters ask.  “I don’t know, but let’s patch the problem and investigate the cause later.  Maybe the identity of the next problem that arises will give us a clue.”  The game relies on half a dozen characters who show up just to give the player instructions, and it is somewhat over-reliant on the draw of the property to encourage players to invest themselves in the game.  This is not good for a game that is mostly divorced from the primary story of its franchise.  Assuming I knew nothing about Harry Potter or his universe before playing this game, and even if I do, there are way too many characters, and no documented point of reference for a player to look at for a reminder.  The main characters seem to be Constance Pickering and Hermione Granger, with a splash of Harry Potter and a pinch of Ron Weasley thrown in.  Their commentary doesn’t add much to my engagement because it’s the same mildly curious “I wonder what’s causing this” speculation we’ve had since the beginning.

Good stuff appears to be coming soon.  The strongest aspect of the game is the ability to customize one’s character with an ability tree, which lends more variety to the way players can interact with the fortress challenges.  An upcoming update is set to add this customization to the map screen, which may give this game the new life it so sorely needs.

All in all, judging Wizards Unite by its gameplay and content alone, and divorcing it from the source material, I’d rate it a C+.  The game isn’t sure what it wants to be.  It advertises itself as an exploration game, but punishes walking and rewards standing still.  Adventure Sync once again rewards walking, this time when the game is closed, but the player is again punished, this time by severe battery drain.  The game leans heavily on its story, but the story falls short due to poor updates and over-reliance on events to tease rather than deliver new story elements.

And of course, if we are to judge the game based primarily on its being an entry into the Harry Potter franchise, then we must begin to judge it on the merits and flaws of the franchise as a whole, which is a discussion for another day.  If we don’t measure it against the franchise, there is much in the game that will be confusing to a player unfamiliar with the series.  Who are these people, and why are we rescuing them?  Why are we rescuing this one man some of the time, and attacking him other times?  Four of the six pages of stamps feature characters from the franchise heavily.  Players who aren’t invested in the franchise won’t care too much about them.

To someone who isn’t interested in the Harry Potter franchise, or to someone who was previously interested but has become disillusioned with the author of the series, I recommend you pass on this game.  However, longtime fans who can still derive pleasure from the series, who separate the creator from the creation, or who view this and other derivative works as their own entries, created by teams rather than by the one who started it all, may enjoy this game.

[stephicness]

SO seventeen years later after the release of the very first Kingdom Hearts game, we finally come to the epic conclusion of the long-awaited Xehenort saga: Kingdom Hearts III. No, not the end of Kingdom Hearts, not the end of Sora’s adventure – just the end of Xehenort being a butthead throughout the entire series as he goes on a mission to open-up Kingdom Hearts and let darkness fall. There was hype to this epic end, with long-awaited questions finally being answered until we reach our final amazing conclusion and hope for a happy ending.

And yet, it didn’t really satisfy.

There won’t be any spoilers in this review/thought, so read away. C: But it’ll be under the READ MORE, because it’s long~

I’m not, by any means, saying that I didn’t like the game. Really, I did. The combat was probably the most entertaining I’ve seen in any of the other games, keeping it fresh and interesting and rivaling the combat in Kingdom Hearts II (which is still the best combat system, in my eyes). It felt a little lack-luster as KH2 offered a lot of awesome reaction commands that kept things really active and made each encounter unique, but that’s unfair of me to compare. But the combat still was awesome, between different Keyblade forms, different Team attacks, and the attractions thrown into the mix. Things got wild, but it was super fun to see.

The visuals in the game were gorgeous and stunning, and it was nice to see that we can get something other than blocky blocks and flat textures on said blocky blocks. It was gorgeous to walk through the forests of Corona or run through San Fransokyo and wail on Heartless, and the world just felt bigger overall with features of basically parkour that added new levels and dimensions to the game’s level design that we haven’t really seen in other Kingdom Hearts installments. The levels did still feel linear, but the design of it made the linear seem expansive.

Oh! And not to mention that we finally got some of the important closure that we needed on some characters, which is probably the most important thing that they needed to do and luckily did. There was a lot of strong things for the game, and it was probably one of the cleanest games in the series – plot-wise, combat-wise, visual-wise, and just overall game-wise.

However, I can’t help but find myself on this thought that I feel a little bit underwhelmed by the game. Yes, admittedly I had been a skeptic ever since I heard about the final release date of the game, but not being I was in the mindset of ‘It’s a lie! We’ll never get the game actually!’ My bit of disgruntled grumpiness came from the fact that, after waiting 10 years for Kingdom Hearts III, it didn’t feel like it was worth the wait. From linear levels, to more questions left unanswered, to awkward ways to close out different moments – I felt a bit let down, even when my expectations for the game weren’t too high, as sad as it is for me to say.

For me, I managed to beat the game in 26 hours and 3 minutes. The only reason why it took me that long was because of the cutscenes, I imagine, and I had left my game running in about 10-20 minute intervals to take breaks. This, of course, is with me not doing any extra mini-games as needed, not emphasizing collectibles like the Lucky Emblems, and not spending the next decade to figure out if the Ultima weapon is possible to get in the first playthrough (It is, but it’s tedious). My main goal was to know the story that I’ve been wanting closure on since the first game. But I think that was ultimately one of the big problems I’ve had with the game: it took me just as long to beat this game as it did me any of the other games. KH1 took me longer, KH2 took me less by only a mere 4 hours. I feel like with all this hype and anticipation for a game this, well, anticipated, there should have been more to deliver.

26 hours is still quite a bit of content though, especially for just the main story by itself, and I can probably just end up going back through and starting another run to find secret bosses and stuff. But I think that’s the main issue: half of the actual game is just fluff. And what fluff there is just feels tedious. I don’t want to play mini-games all the time or must go and collect them all to play them. I don’t want to scavenge world for world ingredients in a glorified fetch-quest to make recipes. I don’t want to be forced to operate the gummi-ship again, when I already had a grudge against it as it was. It feels a bit whiney of me to say, but the collectibles that we can get should feel a bit more rewarding in the end. And no, not just for the sake getting an achievement and calling it a day.

The extra hours of fluff that they had to, supposedly, make the advertised 30, 40, 50, whatever hours of gameplay that Kingdom Hearts III had to offer, I feel, should have been more elements to enhance the story. Which, don’t get me wrong, a lot of the story was cleared up in the game luckily. But at the same time, we were kind of left in the dark about some major reveals and plot points that we either A) had to, yet again, force ourselves to play through the game once more to see what happens or B) had to know all the backstory from top to bottom in order to process. And there lies another problem I had: we should have gotten more story in the game.

I mean, we already got nine games worth of story, but that’s also the major issue too. Since we did have nine games worth of stuff, there’s going to be games that we’ve missed (from switching platforms or just not enough money, as most of us were youngins, I imagine). Like, for me, I didn’t have a 3DS, so Dream Drop Distance was out of the question for me. And investing in another mobile game that I know I have an atrocious knack of spending money on was something that I couldn’t bring myself to do. Thus, I miss two games of the entire series. And what do you know? There were things I found myself really lost on – particularly the significance of certain characters.

Of course, you can argue with me that Dream Drop Distance was one of the most crucial to playthrough before hopping into KH3, which I’ll admit was my bad. But unless the explanation videos, the cutscenes themselves, etc, explained these points details that I noticed in the game, then most players hopping into Kingdom Hearts III, veteran or masochistic enough to start now, will be insanely lost. And that ultimate takes from some of the details and plot points we see in the story. If anything, the extra hours put into the fluff of KH3 should have been channeled into story to either recap more or clarify to those who couldn’t play the million spin-offs why certain moments were so important in the series. I’m not saying this from my own personal displeasure over this, but I’m saying this for those who were probably just as confused at certain things as I was. In a way, it reminded me of Final Fantasy XV’s expanded story – where the only was to understand all of what happens in the game was to indulge in other media. And I find that to be a problem in games upcoming, not just Kingdom Hearts III or Final Fantasy XV.

Nevertheless, despite it being a good game on the technical sense, the story, the presentation, and the final outcome, for me, didn’t feel like it delivered as much as I hoped. I still adore Kingdom Hearts and I’m happy that I got to finish the game and round-off on the ‘epic saga’ that we’ve all been waiting for. I just wish that – for as long as we waited – we would have been treated to something better than what we got.

[my-hero-academia-writings]

Hiya! It's my first time requesting anything, so please forgive me if I mess it up! Kind of a comfort ask, but could I please get a scenario for Midoriya where he forgets his s/o's birthday? How would he react when, at the end of the day, he remembers/someone reminds him? Love your writing ♥

(Oh goodness, absolutely! And no worries at all, possibilities are endless when it comes to requests--there’s no such thing as messing up! :))

The moment his head hits his pillow, Izuku is already gripped by the tendrils of sleep. He knows he should change, still donning the scuffed and tattered suit of a true hero, and icon, a persona of peace and justice: Deku. Furthermore, he knows he should clean up, perhaps tend to the mild injuries he’s sustained, but as his consciousness begins to slip peacefully into a state of rest, he realizes he’ll deal with them in the morning. 

The moon hangs high outside his room, paired with a soft lullaby of muted car engines passing by and occasional late night murmurs all outside his window that’s suddenly interrupted with a text, his cell phone waking him up groggily. It takes a moment for his tired eyes to adjust to the harsh, bright screen but he catches a notification for some mobile game he plays on his downtime. He thinks nothing of it, a mere advertisement, but underneath is another notification, far older with a timestamp of over 12 hours ago. He’s able to catch the tail end of the notification as he forces his eyes to focus, “...has a birthday today, tap to wish them a...”

Birthday... a birthday today... Oh!

“Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap...!” Izuku stumbles fully awake in his bed, now clutching the phone in his still gloved hands and frantically looking at the clock beside him: 12:43 AM. No! He fumbles with the phone some more, ripping off his gloves and tossing them beside him in the process and his heart sinks with the realization that he’s missed his partner’s birthday. 

He’s had this planned out for days, for weeks, but suddenly work got in the way and everything else just slipped like melted butter from his mind. Everything. It’s late, it’s way too late, to even message back or call, but he does so anything, tapping the familiar name on the screen and bringing the phone up to his ear. One ring... two rings... three rings... four rings... At the tone, please record your message...

“...Dammit...!” He curses under his breath, and while the reality is as simple as they’re just asleep, his brain his quick to jump to the startling conclusion of they’re pissed and I screwed up so bad...! 

The sudden beep of voicemail snapped Izuku out of his thoughts, and he forces himself to speak, “H-Hey, it’s... uh, it’s me...” He’s stammering, embarrassed and rattled with guilt and anxiousness. He wants nothing more than to see them and tell them and give them the world, especially on such an important day. The phone call will have to suffice for now. “I-I just wanted to apologize... I... erm, I missed your b-birthday, dear, and... um... I-I... want to make it up to you--it’s just... today was busy, w-with work and all, a-and, th-that’s not... it’s not an excuse, I know, just... I’ll make it up to you, I promise...” He lets out a soft, tired sigh, already feeling a slight weight left from his shoulders and he smiles slightly to himself, “...I love you so much. I’ll talk to you later... Heh, s-sweet dreams, okay...?” Izuku hardly remembers ending the call before letting himself fall back into the sheets of his bed and drift quietly off to sleep. 

When he awakes the following morning, late after the sun has since risen over the horizon, he’s greeted with a single text message, that familiar name in bold across the top: [Just saw the news this morning. You had a wild day, sweetie, I hope you’re safe! It’s okay, just worry about resting for now! I love you!

--Mod Nilla

[dwellers-mask]

Just some random stuff I found while poking around Hat Kid’s spaceship:

(Cause why not?)

First off, the trunk:

Let’s see...she has:

A half-bitten cookie with mushrooms growing on it.

This thing.

Some plushies. (One with liquid stains around it???)

The souls of the innocent. (and a tv head guy)

H A T

A FUCKING KNIFE

A WINE BOTTLE?!

Hat Kid what the heck?

Smol egg dude

A T-posed...whatever the heck this is supposed to be???

This guy

She has a lot of interesting stuff it in, let’s just say that.

Next up, her desk:

Apparently this is supposed to be a drink? Not sure if it’s a bottle, fruit, or some poor homeworld alien’s head.

Gibberish. (maybe it’s supposed to be a note either to or from her family?)

This kinda reminds me of that one island in Mafia Town that’s out of bounds. (with the tent and the giant pon?)

Sand and Sails. 

Some flasks.

A magazine advertising some dog related stuff (Might be that doggo game, not sure). Maybe it’s from her home planet?

I can only assume this is a globe of her home planet. 

A tool box with a ball and a screwdriver and wrench, right near a Gamecube clone.

And a giant blueprint for her spaceship. (”By: Me!”)

Other stuff:

A mobile with a Mafia goon, a C.A.W Agent, an Express Owl, and a Nomad. 

Bear.

A crafting corner? I think?

And now, her little “diary room”:

We have a bucket of push-pins

Some more magazines and some...wine glasses?! 

A mini-bookcase.

PANDA-

And another mini-toy box, with a slinky!

Anyways, now it’s kitchen time! 

A note of the fridge, which for some reason says not to leave things in the fridge...not sure what that means. (like food?? or other stuff??)

An egg in a bucket.

A shopping list. (I kinda wanna know what a ‘snoozzcherry’ is know :T)

Nice clock.

Oh here we go: two drawings of Hat Adult in the same Time’s End Bookstore area she’s present in at the end of the Beta and a sunset (I guess???) with the same clocktowers seen in the Time Rifts. (Maybe this was supposed to be a Time Rift level, with a different setting?)

A shelf with dirty plates, some fruit drinks and...MORE WINE GLASSES?! (Does...does Hat Kid drink?!)

Random playing cards under a bloody hatchet. 

Well, that looks decent. 

TOASTAR. 

That’s one mean looking PB and J sandwich right there. 

Also bananas. 

Oh, ha ha, I get it. 

This is one wacky fridge, I’ll tell you that. (also MORE WINE BOTTLES)

Considering her reaction to the spaceship relic, you think Hat Kid would take offence to this cartoon artwork as well?

Moving on...

Nice art room. (Makes you wonder who painted these??? Or did Hat Kid photoshop them all?)

Anyways, onto the Basement: 

Looks like some blueprints for a chair. (So I guess Hat Kid likes making stuff and tinkering with anything she can get her hands on?)

Casually placed washing and drying machines. 

Not sure if reference to Sand and Sails or is...just there. :T

Okay, this wine situation is getting out of control. (I know they’re just placeholder barrels but, the fucking bottles and glasses man.)

Some more barrels. 

Oh yeah and this thing is on fire....no biggie. 

And a mini space for Hat Kid to hang out, it seems.

Some more drawings.

G L O O P

Anyways, up to the attic!!!

The drawers up here have the word, “Hattic” carved into them for some reason.  

Some more tools.

Oh here we go! Some more hidden drawings!

Looks like Hat Kid in Sand and Sails again and her again in space with the Snatcher. (I’m guessing they’re fighting? They both have their own parasols out so)

Flying a spaceship from her planet I guess?

Hat Kid riding a giant, yellow bunny??? And her and Snatcher again, it seems, this time with Snatcher copycatting her and I guess they’re in a Time Rift level, judging by the platforms and the lamppost 

And a drawing of Hat Kid near a tall lighthouse looking building?? Not sure what this is, maybe it’s either something from her home planet or a cut area?

I know this is where the weird cryptid message shows up when using the Dweller’s Mask, but these photos just remind me of those paranormal pictures where someone’s investigating like a ghost or alien and they have all these pictures up on their wall. 

Weird. 

And of course, the torn up rug and another hang out spot. 

That’s all I got, so take this adorable Rumbi:

[omarpritt]

He had only seen the two together a few times.

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[gameb-diary-sh]

19.11.2020

/ / Goodlife technology

These are so called serious games, which is a new term for me. And for these at Goodlife technology they used kinect as controls. It was explained that with kinect the first games for it were underperforming. Inaccuracy was an issue, but looking at the code it was very interesting and had a lot of possibilities. The thing they did was a game called glider and the concept was not something that was done by others during that time. Also in the area of these games (rehabilitation), there really wasn’t any back then.

People who survive a serious stroke don’t recover back to the perfectly same state as before and the rehabilitation needs motivation. Your skills depending on severity of the stroke can deteriorate greatly and it makes recovering hard, I see why that journey would need more fun in it and it’s really fascinating how games can make that possible.

I found it interesting that the game itself wasn’t something you’d expect, it’s a glider game where you collect coins! Not something like do this move and try this position for points, but actually fun looking game.

In these sort of games it’s important to not punish the player, but reward them for doing things right or well. Because again, the process of healing isn’t usually an easy one so the player shouldn’t become frustrated, but also not bored by being rewarded too easily.

Difficulty apparently with this glider game was calibrating movements to the player as it had to be good for all kinds of people and their capabilities. This is something I haven’t considered much before, it was good to learn that just moving your upper body sideways was enough movement to somewhat play the game. And the fact that it was easy to start the game too, you could stand in front of it and raise your hand to start the game. This is such a new view to me as I’m more familiar with learning games. I've heard of memory games for elderly at my previous job, but I never considered this further, but I was interested in the idea of these since. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmRJj8MjezU&feature=emb_title)

It really makes sense how playing this kind of game lets you train your mobility and accuracy that you’ve lost. It needs to be easy to use, easy to access (public place in hospital etc.), no keyboards or mouse for access, depending on use should also record only the specific user on their own turn (Bracelet used for starting at the hospital he talked about in the end).

Another game was goodlife trainer.

A game for physical therapists with kinect. The therapists don’t usually get to see their clients from multiple angles and perspectives, certainly not from the bird’s view/top. Again something I have not thought of before! It’s very cool that you could inspect your client and their movements this way, in ways that were not possible or easy before. 

Usability is an usual challenge with these it seems, since you need a computer that’s decent to run these. However forcing the user to use keyboard and mouse in the situation where they interact with their client, is changing their usual behavior so you should consider what would feel more natural, in this case it was a phone. Also the fact that it’s easy for the inspector to see what the patient is doing wrong, but not so easy for the patient if they have no indicators to see. So you have to keep in mind to make it an easy experience for both of the parties.

With glider the win was that the users weren’t also really thinking that they were playing a video game! They knew their relatives play them or something, but they didn’t feel like glider was a video game. As someone who plays a lot of video games, this feels like something that really takes some time to get used to, so that you reach this kind of result. I feel like I’d very easily start thinking from too much of a regular video game kind of view, it would take some practice and thought process to create a rehabilitation game. This was such a good presentation, because I’ve had interest in games and learning, mostly considering language as I’m very familiar with those apps. Those usually fail at creating the feel of a game at all, it’s a lot of repeating words in a fancy interface, so it becomes a chore like regularly studying very fast. Or if some manage to make the repeating somewhat interesting, the actual benefit towards learning isn’t that good. You can repeat 500 words, but as the app gives you no sentences or usable context for them, your knowledge becomes rather useless. I knew rehab games exist in some form, but you don’t hear much talk about them. Ended up writing quite much of the points down that I want to keep in mind... 

Note: In the game industry the customers decide will you live.. Or die :) For these games there was a lot of doing wrong and doing many different tries. More on rehab with games (there seems to be a lot of research, less content for someone who wants to just familiarize yourself with the subject through articles which is a shame, these definitely could be more known to everyone): https://www.nrtimes.co.uk/a-game-changer-in-rehab-exercise/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4839901/ (survey on what patients look for in these games)

/ /  Running your own indie & crossplatform publications

I’ve actually stumbled upon Kukouri before searching for nearby game companies, so this was not the first time I’ve heard of them. I was surprised to hear pixel worlds has 5+ million downloads. It was nice to see what kind of game it was a bit closer. The way they keep the content for the game constant, always having something new, keeps it fresh and engaging to the players. This reminds me of how games I’ve been playing the longest offer similar service and updates to the players. 

Then onto the subject of running your own indie. You usually do need more than one person for these games and dedication is needed to keep everything together. Varied skills are important since the teams are smaller and also due to the size, it’s more important to get along with the team. 

To remember: Bad chemistry and different goals will really hurt you in the long run so it’s important to keep this in mind right from the start and aim for people who are on the same page. Also have someone who makes the big decisions at the end of the day.  (This I can agree on! I’ve been working without such a person at a job and it would’ve really helped if there was someone keeping the ropes on their hands in a consistent way. It can really result in unnecessary confusion and slow down the process.)

I feel like without knowing what this takes, it’s easy to dream that you just start and that’s it. It was informative to hear that yes, there is finances and these are resources what you could need. Enough money to survive for 12 months is probably something I wouldn’t have thought at first as I have zero knowledge on this subject, so you really need to have this planned a year ahead. -> Different loans and grants there are: Starttiraha, ELY-keskus, Business Finland for example. Then there is Venture Capital (Harder to get) and Angels (Much smaller in Finland, so harder to get also). On the other points like outsourcing to pay bills and publishers I decided to look for some extra information: https://www.consultancellc.com/outsource-bill-payment/ https://blackshellmedia.com/2017/07/23/7-companies-every-game-developer-should-work-with/ https://blog.getsocial.im/indie-vs-game-publisher-whats-better-for-your-game/

Compared to mobile publishing for PC (steam) is much more traditional and not as expensive. For mobile the marketing takes a lot of money. “The mobile gaming landscape is constantly changing year-on-year and so is advertising“: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-05-12-growing-apps-through-user-acquisition (On subject of UA on mobile) -> Day to day operations and bureaucracy take time!  -> Revenues are paid with delay up to 180 days. Store cuts and taxes. Another thing to remember is that something always goes wrong. You need to be prepared for that and ready to deal with it. It might mean delays of several months. Planning and doing your homework will be a matter of life and death, so don’t be lazy with this. Without forgetting the importance of networking.  There is a lot of new information for myself so it’s a bit difficult to have my own thoughts on this matter. Especially since it has never been a plan of mine to start my own indie. However, I think it’s very important to know this even if you’d join as an employee only, so you understand how indies operate and are formed. The part about getting along with the team is very important in this case, so it is a big thing to keep in mind when applying for an indie company. They might already know each other and have a group that gets along, you have to be willing to communicate and get to know people so you’ll get along as well as possible. These are articles I went through on the side, because I feel like I need to do some reading on the subject: https://www.polygon.com/2014/7/31/5949433/the-cost-of-a-game-studio Hades is indie I’ve played recently and took part in the early access as well and I really enjoyed the experience: https://www.pcgamer.com/a-journey-through-early-access-helped-make-hades-a-masterpiece/ On the subject of forming a solid team: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/forming-solid-indie-game-development-team/

[mediocrethoughts]

An Additional Waste of Time

Written: October 19, 2020

Back when Amber and I were still in my parents’ place, my brother installed a game called Talisman Online. I’ve been seeing a lot of advertisements for the game lately, whether it be on my YouTube or on Facebook. I just kept on sneering at these ads because the graphics weren’t really the best, and the game I’m currently playing is way better.

This Talisman Online Mobile is actually a mobile version of the PC Game I played way back elementary and high school days. I was very much addicted to that game before to the point that all of the money I saved up from my baon, I spent for my computer time (I used to just play in piso-nets before together with smelly boys in a small internet cafe), and also for top-ups to gain in-game currency. I was also the one who introduced the game to my brother (or I’m not sure, probably one of the boys in the internet cafe did). He also got addicted to it so we became a brother-sister computer game addicts during that time. Years passed, and the game closed down. The game is actually based here in the Philippines. The name of the game distributor is Gameclub, and I’m sure that when that game was still alive, it was pretty popular within the Filipino teen to adults demographic. 

Anyways, so this mobile game caught my brother’s attention and he installed it when we were in my parents’ place, and I saw how easily he got addicted to it. I thought, maybe I judged the game too much, and maybe it really is quite similar to our old game.

And so... out of curiosity, I downloaded it today... and one of my phones is stuck with the game app open for hours now. It’s a game that doesn’t really require you to be hands on on it too much, a typical mobile game. So it doesn’t really take up too much of my time, but it’s what I do whenever Amber wants to nurse from me (yes, my baby still nurses at the age of 2 years and 5 months). 

The game... well it does kind of remind me of our old game. However, the graphics are much more... mobile-like. It’s super far away from the game I’ve been playing for months now, but there’s a competitive thing to it that makes you want to play it more and more. In my case, I am super curious as to how these people (especially my brother who probably hasn’t spent a dime yet) got such high ratings already. It’s making me want to play everyday to see if I can catch up with the ratings of these players,.but that’s the problem. It’s another waste of precious time!

Nothing special happened today aside from the game and the fact that I’ve been looking at progress pics of people who started to make a move to change their lives and bodies. I might have way too much idle time going on, and I’m not being productive about it!

Also, midterm examinations tomorrow! I don’t know why I haven’t started studying yet as of this writing... Aaaaah!

Sincerely, Angel

[the-zarabaxby]

Week 10: November 14

Hey guys “how you doin?”… did you get that Friends reference? Well I hope you did but anyways moving on to this week’s topic which is online, interactive audience in a digital media world. This week we will be focusing on more online presence, and how interactive media can place an importance when it comes to understanding audiences (Sullivan, 2013, pg. 216). OUUU INTERESTING... in this week’s blog we will be covering the meaning of convergence, audience fragmentation and autonomy, user generated content, participatory culture, and we will end it off with the assigned reading.

Convergence… what is it? Well like we’ve talked about before in my blogs, the world is always changing. I know for a fact that technology when I was a kid is not even comparable to what technology is like now. When thinking about convergence it is understood as “media content to be displayed on any number of different devices but also enabled the simple reproduction of these media into compute file formats that can easily be distributed…” (Sullivan, 2013, pg. 216). Although that is what convergence is defined as, Henry Jenkins reminds us that it is encouraged to step out of the box and make new info and connections when reading into media. As much as its good to keep on trend and to republish, I do agree with Jenkins I the sense where it’s good to get creative and step outside of the norms.

Following convergence, comes audience fragmentation and audience autonomy. Audience fragmentation is understood as “audiences have been continually fragmented into smaller and smaller groups thanks to the dramatic expansion of media channels…” (Sullivan, 2013, pg. 217). This is basically saying that due to do the change in media platforms and technology like cable, satellite, and handheld devices it is hard to measure audiences. There are so many options now to participate in media and other sites that scholars and researchers are finding it difficult to measure and represent audiences.

Next up is audience autonomy, which is described as “how contemporary characteristics of media environment, ranging from interactivity to mobile to on-demand. Functionally to the increased capacity for user-generated content” … (Sullivan, 2013, pg. 217). This is referring to how exactly audiences are consuming their content. We are at a point where audiences have control over what they are watching and when they are watching. Times have changed from DVD’s to streaming and other sites like Netflix and Disney +. Due to this evolution, the way of target marketing and advertising is having to adapt. There is no sense of space or time, therefore advertisers cannot access you. For example, when you go to the movie theatres, advertisers know what you’re seeing when you are seeing it. Therefore, they can promote and target your assumed interests according to what you’re seeing.  Sneaky, but smart.

Staying on topic to autonomy, we move onto user-generated content. A sentence that stood out to me to best describe this for you is “media corporations are providing consumers the means to create, store, and distribute content that are designed by users themselves” (Sullivan, 2013, pg. 217).  This description is perfectly matched up with the world of video games. What makes that world so popular is the fact that you can interact with one another, players/people are creating their own experienced and interpersonal relationships through the grounds of gaming. 

I am not a gamer, but my boyfriend and his little brother is, so right away I connect this idea to them. My boyfriend and his bro have a shared account on Xbox. Both boys play the same games and sync their friends on the same account. The occasional times, my boyfriend and I will walk in on his 12-year-old brother playing Fortnite with my 21-year-old boyfriends hockey friends. Which is super funny, because they connect really well and enjoy each other’s company, even though there is a gap in years. This notion connects perfectly with what Jenkins was wanting for the world, which was more creativity and dispersed media content. Gamers are “shaping their own media and network usage” (Sullivan, 2013, pg. 218).

Guys this is the end of my second last blog post, I cannot believe we are creeping up to the end of the road. This is it for this week, thank you so much again for stopping by and reading in.

References:

Sullivan, John L. Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power. SAGE Publications Inc., 2013.

[gamerestart]

Games Developer’s Conference 2018: Day Two

Remember what I wrote about it remaining to be seen if we dodged the “con-crud”? Well, forget all that. We came down with it as expected after all—which is why this missive from the second day wound up being more delayed than I would like.

Onward.

Here I am in Day Two. I look terrible—there’s reasons for that which involve both a general lack of sleep and a surfeit of confusion.

By the end of the second day, trends became apparent, and I’ve had time to reflect on a number of these: 

VR

AR

Analytics

Ads

Cryptocurrencies. (Really.)

Virtual Reality (VR) was heavily represented here. I’m going to come out and confess that VR is not something I seem to be able to take part in. I suffer from migraines even under ideal conditions, and motion sickness besides. This limits my ability to participate in VR—the one time I tried, I became nearly claustrophobic when the goggles went on, nausea set in very quickly and I had to take the set off. Even Raven can't use most VR headsets for very long—safe to say, neither one of us are within the target audience for this technology.

AR is another matter, since it doesn’t depend on my ability to focus on an image mere centimeters from my eyes. But I think the utility is kind of dependent on a given external environment or other factors, so I, again, I don’t have much to say about AR in general. Most of the cases presented at the conference were little more than tech demos.

While AR seemed a mere afterthought to the conference at large, analytics seemed to be almost an obsession. Knowing what the users of a product are doing with it at all times, aggregating the data to make better choices and create better worlds to play in, &c. Much of this would be useful for game devs who are engaged in level design, and some cases for analytics were presented with just that in mind.

However, many cases for the use of analytics verged into what I perceived as somewhat invasive territory, and I admit to being uncomfortable with that. One exhibitor offered what they regarded as a compelling use-case for using their service—say, a user hasn’t been playing your game “enough”, and in this case, we'll use the particular developer's example of a week of inactivity for a particular user who tends toward making lots of in-app purchases. Notifications can be automatically generated and sent to the individual user's account - pushed to not only remind a player that the game “misses” them, but to also dangle an extra treat or bit of loot valuable to the gameplay experience to sweeten the deal: come back to the game, and you can have this thing which you might have found by yourself after a few hours on your own.

It’s important to realize that some of these games are being used to sell advertising, and lots of ads being played during the course of gameplay leads to more income for the developer. All well and good. But:

Whatever the developer sets as “not enough time spent in game” is something I see as ultimately arbitrary— perhaps more disturbing to me, however, is now the process is automated. Is a week really too much time away? And would I personally be more inclined to play a game that effectively “nags” me to play it? The implications for the particular developer that we are using as example here also seemed a bit classist to me – users that paid more real world money into the game were obviously targeted with more notifications and enticements to return, which leads to some uncomfortable questions that didn't manifest for us until much later. Were lower-paying or free-to-play users targeted with the same level and quality of loot? What does this ultimately do to game balance?

Obviously, most mobile devices offer some level of granular control of how and even who can hassle the device’s owner, but this shouldn’t be necessary to implement from day one, because it violates a key principle of ownership and how anyone might choose to spend their own time. Would some folk be grateful of the reminder? And choose to accept the digital gift being offered? No doubt. But it’s a little creepy in an industry known for creating compelling and even addicting experiences in the name of having fun in a harmless pastime which then provokes a user’s attention in order to justify selling a few more ads. That this data is then being gathered and monitored I have no doubt, but I think game developers should tread cautiously when presented with such tools, however tempting:

Games are toys. They should only command our attention when we are ready for them, never vice versa. Hassling players in order to provoke engagement may be tempting, but accepting a passive role in entertaining others is perfectly acceptable.

Games are the kind of entertainment often easily associated with poor experiences. How often has anyone said “I hate that game” or “that game gave me cancer” and meant they were having a good time and would recommend that experience to their friends? A game might not be objectively terrible, but no player is going to be objective while playing. If free-to-play comes with a high price to play (in an annoying coin), folk may remember only the bad things about the product and forget the good things. 

It never looks good seeing your company’s name (or more) in a headline along with the terms “data breach” or “users of [game] had their personal information hacked”—even if it was harmless. An easy way to avoid this is to never monitor your own users beyond accepting payments from them. Does this leave you in the dark with regards to valuable informatics? Yup. But it also covers things pretty well in light of what is turning out to be a fairly regular occurrence—and may even be part of the cost of doing business. In a free-to-play scenario, violating that trust also won’t be good for attracting new users to your product.

If I seem out of place with my tone here, given that I am at this point certainly (as I have amply established) a relative outsider, consider that most game devs still come from games players. These things struck me as obvious, but as I’ve learned, no industry is 100% infallible when it comes to trends or even groupthink.

Ads seem to be a potentially good way of helping fund a project.

But I don’t really know if there’s a best practice for this. Ads are ads—there’s not much anyone can do to avoid ads, given how pervasive they are in television, magazines, and, recently, movie theaters. Why not in games? So long as information which doesn’t belong to the advertisers isn’t being handed off to third parties, I’ve no objection to ads as a revenue stream.

I will say I prefer to pay for games outright. That seems more sustainable and less susceptible to external factors over the long haul. It also seems like a small company could carve out a comfortable niche doing only games which are available for a small fee.

Some advertising requires a transaction, either a tap/click or other form of interaction either to dismiss the ad or—for those rare occasions when a player might actually want what’s being advertised—click through. Obviously there are entities ready and able to handle those transactions and deliver some sort of fulfillment—whatever it is—on whatever’s being offered. Certainly, groups who do not only ad design but make playable games within ads themselves were represented at GDC. (That latter one is clearly new to me, given the demise of Flash, but considering the ubiquity of JavaScript, maybe it shouldn’t at all.)

Ad Delivery is understandable. Cryptocurrencies, however…

What I don’t understand is the presence of cryptocurrencies (not just one, but I counted four when we went), some of whom represented themselves as an alternative to paying for games outright, possibly in exchange for a little (or more than a little) of a game player’s CPU/GPU time or unused disk space to facilitate mining.

Let me get this out right now: I don’t regard cryptocurrencies as valid economic vehicles, investments, or even valid currencies. Right now, they seem to be digital tulips run amok. I confess to dabbling with a bit of “mining” in the past, but the frustrations associated with cashing out now that the market has become so unstable has only affirmed what I believe about cryptocurrencies. It’s clear that crypto has a lot of black market movements associated with it, and some decidedly unsavory political movements as well as money laundering. It doesn’t matter to me that fiat currency is likely based on nothing tangible, except the agreement of an entire nation or treaty group that is has value, and the militaries that often come with such arrangements—something no cryptocurrency will likely ever have.

So I remain a hard skeptic of cryptocurrencies and all of their attendant industry, which is why it was a surprise to see any cryptocurrency represented at a game design conference.

My reading on this presence is as yet incomplete.

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

We're all second-screening. Here's how you're doing it wrong.

Second-screening — watching TV while also looking at your phone, tablet or laptop — is probably the  most widely adopted destructive behavior of the decade. We keep hearing that it's bad for us; we keep doing it regardless. It's the smoking of the 2010s. 

Psychologists were sounding the alarm as early as 2012 that this kind of screen-based multitasking seemed to be correlated with depression and anxiety. Did we listen? Did we hell. Back then, according to Nielsen, a mere (!) 40 percent of American adults looked at their phones or tablets every day while parked in front of the tube. By 2017, according to eMarketer, that number had climbed to over 70 percent. 

The same study anticipated that second-screening would afflict 76 percent of us by 2019; looking around our living rooms now, that figure seems too conservative. 

SEE ALSO: Dear significant others: Please let us watch our shows alone

"It relaxes me," my wife says, slightly defensively, when I catch her playing a mobile game rather than paying attention to our show. And really, who am I to judge? Many's the time I've thumbed through Twitter in the dull moments of a so-so episode. No one could be faulted for trying to hide from the commercial break by plunging into their phones instead. 

Let he who has never second-screened cast the first stone. 

So if we all do it, perhaps it's time to acknowledge that — and instead of wagging hypocritical fingers at each other, try to limit our second-screening in sensible ways that can help head off the worst, most anxiety-inducing aspects. Here's a look at the ways we're doing it right and wrong. 

RIGHT: Stay on topic

Probably the most positive use case for second-screening is breaking news. Cable channels can give you one stream of information on a fast-developing story, the internet can provide another, and the two together make you less quick to jump to wrong conclusions. 

When you've got multiple sources agreeing on the details of any still-murky event, you're doing news right. 

With one eye on the news anchor and a thumb on Twitter, you're less likely to feel useless in the face of the latest unspeakable tragedy. You can donate, you can write to your representatives, you can motivate and console friends. A 2015 paper on "Second Screen Use and Its Effect on Online Political Participation" reached the conclusion that it actually makes us better, more engaged citizens. 

The record high youth voter turnout in the 2018 midterm election, the most recent test of our activist second-screen culture, certainly did not disprove this theory. 

But you don't have to be saving the world from your couch to feel good about second-screening. The psychological toll (not to mention the IQ-dropping effect!) of multi-tasking seems to derive from the effort of making our brain pay attention to two disparate topics at once. 

If you're looking up the answers to questions brought about by the show, or live-tweeting it, you're going to have a better time than if you're just randomly browsing Instagram or scrolling anxiously through your email.

The early 2010s saw a brief flurry of interest in official second-screen apps specifically designed for popular shows, such as ABC's Grey's Anatomy Sync. That app has since vanished from app stores — possibly because it was redundant, given Twitter's ability to host all kinds of conversations, but more likely because Big TV realized that most of us aren't second-screening that way. 

According to that eMarketer study, 131.5 million U.S. adults were looking at unrelated content on their phones and tablets while watching TV; just 46.2 million were browsing something related. 

Be smart. Be one of the 46.2 million. 

WRONG: Don't do it tired

There is, my wife the expert suggests, a limited pool of mental energy available for second-screening. The research on multitasking would seem to back this up, although we probably need more specific research on second-screening itself.

But anecdotally, I think we all know this to be true. Second-screen for too long, or do it too late in the evening, and you end up in a kind of mindless zombie second-screening situation. One where, if you were suddenly asked at any given moment what was happening on either of the screens, you might be hard pressed to answer. Where has your mind gone? 

Our current global epidemic of sleeplessness is at least partly caused by the blue glow of LED screens. There's also a second-order effect involved: our obstinate insistence at bathing in two screens at once, too close to bedtime. 

RIGHT: Stay alert for ads

An unsuspecting family about to be lured in by marketing.

Image: Getty Images/Hero Images

The zombified nature of the worst kind of second-screening may also be responsible for another  trend: we are ridiculously receptive to advertising when we're doing it. 

That's partly because we're in more of a position to follow up on a TV ad if we have a device in our hands already. A 2018 study found the average viewer is 75 percent more likely to search for the product if they're second-screening, and that you're even more likely to do so if you're over 40. 

But it also works the other way around — in terms of the screen and in terms of generations. A more recent study by Aki Technologies found that viewers were 59 percent more receptive to mobile ads if they're second-screening, moreso if they're millennials. 

In other words, the more screens we use, the more advertisers and marketers have us right where they want us. Far be it for a journalist to decry this state of affairs and bite the hand that feeds us, but we should at least be aware that it's happening — not just to us, but to our kids too. 

WRONG: Doing it alone

Pick a screen, dude.

Image: Getty Images/Maskot

Second-screening makes a kind of sense for couples and families. It surfs the fine line between together time and alone time without you having to move from the couch. Your significant other can watch their favorite show while you catch up on work, indulge a good old-fashioned Facebook session, or maybe even — whisper it low — read a book.

But if you're flying solo, there's less of an excuse — and more of a possibility that you're just using multiple screens as a substitute for sociability. Are you getting that bright zombified buzz from being bathed in completely disparate kinds of media at once? Maybe pick a lane and stay in it. 

Better yet, invite a bunch of introverted friends over, specifically for second-screening purposes. The lure of alone time together is stronger than you might think. 

RIGHT: Stay connected

Even if you and your partner/family are all on the couch together, there is a right and a wrong way to second-screen. 

Everyone's mileage differs on this, depending on your ideal level of physical affection. Personally, I'd argue that second-screening without some form of snuggling is no kind of second-screening at all. Holding hands while staring at different devices, occasional squeeze included, is a good way to remind each other that you're present, no matter how deep your internet rabbit hole has gone. 

The other element of second-screen connection to consider is this: are you creating a safe, warm, happy space for conversation? Can anyone look up from their device at any given moment and say what's on their mind? Or are you hushing them, or dramatically rolling your eyes when you have to hit the pause button to hear them out? 

I'm occasionally guilty of the latter. But it's important to remember, especially in our digital age, there is literally nothing we can't put down or pause for a chat. Humans come first. 

No matter how many screens you have around you, remember: they come second.  

WATCH: Report says popular apps are silently recording your screen

[prixmiumarchive]

Do you ever wish for a place to talk to other fanfiction writers? Do you get frustrated with the lack of commentary and text in a commentary-and-text-based medium of expression? Do your plot bunnies look like this fellow in the above, not-so-great banner? Do you miss the days when we called them plot bunnies? Has disenchantment with the state of the discussion of transformative works made you long for the days of dial-up, yahoo groups, and tiny fic archives run on GeoCities? Then this Discord server may be the solution for you!

Now, you might have questions. What is Discord? Isn’t it full of hentai? Do I have to install another application on my duct-taped-together computer? Can I do this on mobile? What, exactly, would make this have the potential for being anything better than the oft-abandoned, crickets-chirping concept of tumblr networks from a couple of years ago?

Those answers and more will be below the read-more. This is a living document which can be reblogged but whose content under the read-more may change. You can find this information and any other important updates to it in a static location at http://metamorprose.dreamwidth.org

Contents

Who this server is for.

How is it set up? 

What is Discord? 

What are Roles?

How do I set a Role or Roles for myself? 

What/why Metamorprose?

Rules for Metamorprose.

Punishments on Metamorprose. 

Disclaimers.

Who this server is for.

This server is intended for those who write fanfiction. If you have written 1,000 words or more of fanfiction, then you can assume this includes you, if you want it to. This is an all ages server with a few important exceptions. At present, there are three text-channels that are marked NSFW, meaning you will need to verify that you are of age to view them. Those text-channels are: nsfw-warren, nsfw-celebritiesrpf, and nsfw-musicbands. They are marked that way for these reasons: #nsfw-warren is a place to talk about writing fic that is rated M or E, #nsfw-celebritiesrpf and #nsfw-musicbands are marked that way because they are under increased moderation and discretion because they may deal with real persons who are living.

This server is open to individuals 13+ with the nsfw channels being restricted to those 18+. Any user found to enter an nsfw channel under the age of 18 will be subject to disciplinary action. Your curiosity and maturity is not wroth getting someone else in trouble.

Metamorprose is intended as a place for people who have a current or frequent interest in writing fanfiction. This does not mean that you must be writing at a certain pace or publishing a specific amount. Writer’s Block happens and so does real life. What this does mean is that if you are just a casual fanfiction reader who rarely writes that this might not be the most fun place for you. If you are an avid reader who has a lot of recs, even if you don’t write, you are welcome to join and see what happens. Any specific entry requirements or rules will be implemented and updated on an as-needed basis. For now, it is up to your discretion whether or not you would be a good fit.

How is it set up?

Metamorprose is vaguely rabbit themed in honor of ‘plot bunnies’ and their legacy. You do not have to care about or like rabbits. It was just the first naming scheme that came to mind.

At the time of invitation launch, the following are the text-channels on the Metamorprose Discord server:

#foxden - off-topic and social chat #rabbithole - where you go to role yourself #thewarren - fanfiction writing/process discussion #nsfw-warren - same as above for M/E-rated material #recs - rec fics by others #selfpromo - rec/promote fics by yourself #beta - seek/offer beta services #ficexchanges - yuletide? uh... anything else? promote and discuss here #catnip - PG13 very off-topic thread, stuff you just had to share that isn’t conducive to regular conversation #inspiration - aesthetics, music, etc. you want to share and chat about what it makes you feel or reminds you of #groupwatching - a place to set up sharing your favorite shows and movies and whatever else, through rabb.it or another service (not affiliated with this vague bunny theme) And text-channels for which you must have the appropriate role assigned to enter where you can discuss fanfiction writing and ideas and related topics for a given genre/medium. These subdivisions are based on Archive Of Our Own’s division of the same with some alteration.

#animemanga #booksliterature #cartoonscomicsgn #nsfw-celebritiesrpf #movies #nsfw-musicbands #theatre #tvshows #videogames #webseries These may change an the adminabun (me) is always looking for constructive suggestions on just about any aspect of my life.

What is Discord?

Discord advertises itself as “Free Voice and Text Chat for Gamers.” In addition to self-proclaimed gamers, it is also a place where one might find those who are interested in “memes” as a way of life and anime/manga fans with some overlap with tech-savviness. These are all generalizations, though.

Discord, in my personal experience, is very similar to Skype but with many more options. It is also, at present, ad-free, and to my knowledge plans to stay that way. If you are interested, the Discord team has provided a comparison chart of their features: https://discordapp.com/features

If you do game, do voice chat, or anything else, then it is my understanding that it really is a great application to use for that. For simple, text-based creatures like myself who rarely play games, however, it is a perfectly serviceable place to keep organized chats and PMs, all under one roof.

Another great thing about Discord is that you have several options to use it. You can use it in your browser simply by pressing “Open Discord” on the app’s homepage. You can use it in a desktop program/application, available for download on the app’s homepage. You may also use their mobile app, which to my knowledge is available for both iOS and Android. (I use Android, so if you have iOS issues with it, not my area.)

The application’s website is here: https://discordapp.com/

What are Roles?

A “Role” is a discord feature and term that determines aspects of a user’s status, permissions, and abilities within a server and its individual channels. For the purposes of Metamorprose, you should choose the one or two most-relevant genre/media roles and the posting medium (where you put your fic most-often) for yourself. The genre/media role will determine your username color, and if anyone hates their genre’s color I would be open to putting it to a poll. If you have more than one genre, you will inherit the color of the genre that comes first in the alphabet. AO3/Fanfiction.net/tumblr roles do not impact your name color.

The currently-available self-assignable roles are:

genre/media: - Anime & Manga - Books & Literature - Cartoons & Comics & Graphic Novels - Celebrities & Real People - Movies - Music & Bands - Theatre - TV Shows - Video Games - Web Series

posting medium: - AO3 - Fanfiction.Net - tumblr

How do I set a Role or Roles for myself? 

First, you need to be in the text-channel #rabbithole. I am just learning about bot usage for this venture, but at present I use a bot called Nadeko. She is a bot who sits there on the channel at all times and will, unless she is having server downtime, respond to your commands. The commands you need to know for self-assigning roles are:

you: .lsar

Sending the message ‘.lsar’ will show you a list of self-assignable roles.

you: .iam ROLE

Sending the message ‘.iam ROLE’ will assign the role typed in place of ROLE to you. For example, if I want to assign myself the Anime & Manga role, I type this exactly: ‘.iam Anime & Manga’. Nadeko will message you back when the deed is done. If It doesn’t work immediately, try again in a few minutes.

you: .iamnot ROLE

Sending the message ‘.iamnot ROLE’ will unassign the role typed in place of ROLE to you. For example, let’s say I am finished with my current Anime & Manga fic project or am moving on to another fic for now. I can type exactly this: ‘.iamnot Anime & Manga’ and Nadeko will tell me when she has unassigned the role from me.

Please note that using these roles most effectively is not assigning yourself every single one of the genre/media roles that you sort of like. Having one or two genre/media roles active at once will make it easy for people to see what you are currently interested in writing, are writing, etc. There are plenty of places you can ping-pong from liked-topic to liked-topic at the speed of your fingertips, tumblr included. This server will be the greatest resource to you if you use roles and the genre-specific text-channels judiciously. You can alter your roles as much as you want, within reason, so you are not stuck just because you have an interest shift. (Trust me, I am the queen of multifandom lack of focus.) Just don’t abuse Nadeko. She is a free service who does not belong to me.

What/why Metamorprose? 

I just wanted a name for the server that was kind-of unique and meant something.

“Metamorphose” is a verb meaning to change the form or nature of;  transform.

“Prose” is what most of us write in, striving for the middle ground between purple and beige.

In the age-old fandom tradition, therefore, it is a portmanteau for the process of creative transformative works: metamorprose.

Rules for Metamorprose. 

1. Treat others with courtesy and respect. Do not insult a person, disagree respectfully, and only offer constructive criticism.

2. Do not bait or otherwise goad another user into misbehavior. This will be considered misbehavior as well. If you are having an issue with a user, please come to the adminabun or any assigned mods to deal with it.

3. Do not post NSFW material in non nsfw channels. This does NOT include posting clearly marked M/E-rated fics in fic rec channels.

4. Keep on-topic within reason in the text channels that are not the #foxden. Reasonable and brief rabbit trails are fine, but don't turn them into niche off-topic channels.

5. Use good sense. Use discord's features appropriately. If you don't know how to or if you can do something, Google it first. If you can't figure it out from the first page of Google results, ask someone you trust. The adminabun is willing to take your questions about discord operation, within reason, after you have tried googling it yourself.

6. Non NSFW-channels should be kept at a PG-13 tone. There are no nsfw or profanity filters set up on the non-nsfw channels, so this is based on the honor system and abuse of this WILL get you warned.

7. Theft or plagiarism will merit a warning or an immediate ban, depending on context and severity, at admin/mod discretion. 8. Do not direct people directly to your patreon or ko-fi page. What you do in PMs with friends is up to you but do not otherwise promote monetary gain for yourself on this channel.

9. Do not offer financially-compensated commissions on this channel for fic or for art.

10. More rules may be added and will be announced, but ignorance of a rule is not an excuse to not follow it.

On Dreamwidth: http://metamorprose.dreamwidth.org/334.html

Punishments on Metamorprose. 

Egregious and flagrant violation of any of the above rules or other abusive behavior may be cause for immediate ban. However, the general rule is that 3 warnings result in a softban. This will ban you but will allow you to rejoin the channel again after you’ve had a cool-down. 5 warnings will result in a permanent ban.

Disclaimers. 

This Discord server is not affiliate with any of the following: Archive Of Our Own, the Organization for Transformative Works, Fanfiction.net, tumblr, rabb.it, dreamwidth, yuletide, or any other unnoted, official organization. It is a project by the fan and fanfiction writer whose Discord tag is Prix#9110.

By clicking the following link, you agree to be subject to the aforementioned rules and policies, whether you read them or not: https://discord.gg/z3FHEYQ

[lexixixie]

How Does India Make Me Think of China During The Trip

After staying in Asia’s safest as well as most expensive country- Singapore for half a year, I decided to explore something new and different. When India crossed my mind, I booked my flight tickets immediately without any hesitation.

Most foreign travelers say India is a country which you would love it or hate it. I did experience some chaos during my trip, but thankfully all of them were manageable. The people I met, the beautiful sceneries I experienced, the unique culture that touched my heart and an overall amazing experience I had enable made me one of the fortune ones who love the country.

Despite the fact that India is an extremely distinctive country, it gave me some sense of similarity and constantly reminded me of China. Here is something that I want to share with you about the similarities between these two countries.  (PS: Some of my thought could be biased, as all the places I visited in India are Tier2 and Tier3 cities of the country.)

BARGAINING

In Singapore, all commodities have a fixed price, so bargaining is not an option. But as I was travelling across India as a tourist, I had to bring back my bargaining skill as it was part of the rules there and a basic necessity. Fortunately I am born and raised in a like-minded bargaining mindset country - China, I know exactly how to play the negotiation games with these shop owners and drivers. Actually the bargaining in India was even much easier than was in China. No Indian shop owners were agitated or irked whenever I proposed a lower price. (like what most Chinese shop owners did).  Indians they just smiled, shook their heads in the very Indian way then offered you another price.

TRAFFIC & POLLUTION

On my first day in India, it took me around 5 minutes to just cross the road to the other side. The streets were filled with vehicles, the noise of impatient drivers honking and traffic lights being completely ignored. I had to teach my mind to forget the friendly traffic light button in Singapore and just follow the local way of waving your hand to the driver and trotting across to the other side.

There were some jokes that my friends always said to me after I had moved to Singapore: “Lexie do you miss the four seasons in China? Do you miss the pollution?” Yes, I was not only able to experience the other seasons besides summer in India, also I had chance to smell the homey pollution then. 

IMPORTED BRANDS

It was quite surprising that the first advertisement I saw in India was a big outdoor print of a CHINA mobile brand-Vivo at the airport. Moreover, the advertisement I had most frequently seen in the whole Rajasthan were from two China manufactured brand- Vivo and Oppo. With Shanghai being my first home, most people back there do not use the domestic mobile brands. The popularity of these China made brands in India made me feel like I was visiting another city in China rather than in India.

What was the place where I met most foreigners during my whole trip in India apart from those tourist attractions? is If you still don’t have any idea, here’s one more clue: the products sold in this international store were even more expensive than the same ones in Singapore. It was KFC. When I saw so many foreigner tourists coming into the store with the excitement on their faces, another thought on the fast food industry crossed my mind- the comfort food for tourists and travelers. Meanwhile, when I saw the price on my bill (after the tax and service charge), I understood the marketing strategy of KFC in India- to be the premium exotic meal rather than fast/ junkie food, which is exactly same as its brand positioning in China 15 years back.

TRADITION

In India it’s very common to see people especially women wearing traditional clothes anytime anywhere, which is quite rare in Asia. In most Asian countries, people only dress in traditional clothes for some special occasions. Thus it’s evident to see the role that tradition is playing in Indian culture.

Similarly, it makes me think of how China has lost its traditional value in some ways. For instance, a lot of Chinese Singaporean and Chinese Malaysian family still have the custom of wearing Cheongsam during the Chinese New Year and some other important occasions. And it’s quite difficult to see lion dance in China nowadays. Conversely it happens almost everywhere in Singapore during the CNY.