#its just so restrictive when it comes to gameplay

[bill-gates-hate-blog]

the sims 4 has so many systems because theres so many fucking expansion packs and NONE of them mesh well or interlock in ways that are satisfying or deep. Half the time they straight up contradict each other, the other time they end up completely redundant. Modders do their best but they can't fix whats broken underneath. ARGH

[jhugas]

‘BE A GOOD GIRL’- Jeon Jungkook

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

Genre: smut

Pairing: gamer! Bf! Jungkook X afab! Reader

Summary: You decide to try cock warming while he plays a game, but it doesn’t go as planned…

Word count: ~1k

Warnings/tags: cock warming, teasing, praising, restriction (f cums when he wants to), penetration, lil aftercare.

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

Jungkook, your boyfriend, is a famous streamer. That means, he plays a lot of video games, and very often. Usually, it wasn’t a problem. But sometimes, he was too much into the games and wouldn’t give you any attention.

In the end, you’d just sulk and he’d always come talk to you again. But today, you wanted to do something different…

You always wanted to try cock warming. So today, you’re planning on cock warming him while he plays on his ps5.

You watch him as he’s concentrated on his gameplay and talking to his friends.

Then, you gather your confidence and decide to finally make your move and get closer to him. But with his gamer headset, he cannot hear you. Though it didn’t take long for him to notice you standing behind his expensive gaming chair, thanks to his screen’s reflection.

Standing there, you slide your hands down his torso and give him a kiss on his neck. And when he felt your soft lips against his sweet neck, he smiled and rose his eyebrows to ask you what you’re doing, before taking off his headset.

‘you know what I wanna try?’

You ask him.

‘What?’

He says amused, looking at you and the screen back and forth.

‘I wanna try cock warming.’

You say confidently. You were a bit scared of his reaction, but you knew he was usually open to try new stuff so you knew it’d be fine. After hearing your confession, his eyes widen in shock as he mutes his mic immediately.

‘Baby everyone could hear you!’

He sighs.

‘When? When do you want to do that?’

He finally asks, curious since he’s never done that.

‘Now. Just keep playing the game I’ll sit on it.’

You answer. He slowly nods before fully consenting to it and takes his pants and boxers off in one go. Quickly, he comes back to the game as he was afk for too long, and since his teammates were yelling at him, he had no other choice but to unmute his mic and insult them back.

While he insulted his friends, you had the time to take off your pants and panties. Then, you look at his tall, thick and veiny cock standing on its own. He was already hard and it couldn’t look better.

‘You stupid!! Behind yo-‘

He yelled before feeling your warm walls surrounding around his cock. He keeps cursing under his breath and gets one of his hands off of the controller, to grab your hips.

You, relaxed, let your back fall on his chest, then, you let your head fall back on his shoulder and you close your eyes to feel every inch of him. You can feel his hot breath on your neck, and you can feel him holding himself back from thrusting into you.

‘You alright?’

His friends ask.

‘Yeah yeah…’

Your boyfriend lies, he clearly couldn’t handle being in you without doing anything. The more time passed, the harder he got.

And to tease him even more, you decide to move a little bit, bend over, and slightly jump when he kills.

‘Fuck…’

He whispers, then act like everything is normal after his friends ask him what’s wrong. Later, since you see him struggling and you want to please him, you decide to give him a chance to fuck you. You get closer to his ear.

‘Win the game and I’ll jump on it.’

You tell him. You words motivate him and he starts playing way more seriously. He doesn’t let anyone touch him and kills them all.

You occasionally praising him with ‘good boy’ or ‘good job’.

Once it was only him and another player on the game, he went on full try hard mode. He loved the adrenaline.

But it didn’t last long since he saw the other player, and killed him in a second. ‘Top #1’ appearing on the screen. He’s happy that he won but is even happier about what’s going to happen.

He throws the controller on the bed, mutes again his mic and grabs firmly your hips. Hands sliding to your ass from times to times.

You start jumping on him easily thanks to your wetness and his pre-cum, as he moans in relief. All you can hear now is the sound of your ass slapping against his hips, the wet sound of your pre-cum mixing together, and your moans.

Every time he lets you take the lead while making love it always reminds you of when he came late from work, tired, and he’d just beg you to fuck him or suck him off. It was one of the few times he let you take the lead, or be a top.

You do your best to fuck him good. You go deep, then fast, then aggressive, then slow…

The game was still on and Jungkook’s friends were still calling for him. So loudly that you could hear them even without having the headset on. But he didn’t care, he was too busy and you were his priority.

Suddenly, you feel like your orgasm approaching and making you weaker. Consequently, you’re getting more sloppy.

But he feels it and with his hands already on your hips, he helps you jump up and down on it and guides you to rock your hips against his.

‘I- I’m gonna cu-cum!’

You cry out. Your walls clenching around his thick cock.

‘Hold it. Be a good girl and only cum when I tell you to.’

He says in a deep voice.

‘O-okay!’

So you do your best to not disappoint your lovely boyfriend, and do your best to not cum. His moans get louder and harmonize with yours. He also gets more and more aggressive, faster, and keeps on hitting your sweet spot, like usual. But it doesn’t take long for him to reach his highest point.

Then suddenly, a long moan slips off in between his lips as he fills you up. Painting your walls with his white semen. He throws his head back and breathes heavily.

‘Now… cum for me baby girl.’

He says, tired but he still gathers his energy to give you his best performance. Without any surprise, in less than a minute you find yourself cumming all over his cock. Your juice mixing up with his, and as you get off of him, it slides down on Jungkook’s dick.

You still go back on his lap then to kiss him lazily but passionately, whispering sweet words to each other.

‘Good girl. You did a good job today.’

He whispers with his lips against yours.

Then, later, after bringing you to the toilet, he played two last games with you napping on his lap, your head on his shoulder and arms around him. Then after, he lifted you up and brought you to your bed, and let you sleep until he finished cooking dinner.

Thank you for reading! Likes are veryyyy appreciated, but be aware that reblogs and comments truly help the writes get more exposure<3 thank you!

Masterlist

[danandphilplay]

ok last sims poll for a minute lol

i believe this poll has been done before and i know if u google dan and phil sims reddit a post comes up telling people to stop discussing how they play (as well as other posts from people talking about whether they like dnps sims gameplay style)

now in my opinion i believe u should be able to discuss any content ur fav creators make and i don’t think discussions should be restricted i think you should be able to just be like yeah love dnp but this content isn’t for me

as long as you aren’t being straight up mean to dnp or anyone in the phandom and like you keep stuff about them playing ‘wrong’ lighthearted then i genuinely see no issue with this discussion. i fear that is basic decency but ,,,

anyway my dnp sims thoughts are below

i don’t think they play the game wrong bc there’s no specific way to play and actually i find their sims series refreshing bc i always get fixated on building and CAS that i end up playing so quickly. i just hit gen 26 of my almost 2 year save file and sometimes i just extend the family so i can make a new build or make new outfits so watching dnps series is nice bc i feel like theres a lot more world/story building,, their sims kinda have personalities to them which i feel i ignore in my game bc i focus on building or CAS.

but i will say yesterdays vid when they kept saving and exiting CAS and making each sim open a wardrobe rather than doing the entire household at once ,,,, a LITTLE bit grating. but then i have to remind myself its for youtube so that probably added in a bit of time waiting for those slowww slow loading screens.

and i think some people genuinely find their gameplay too slow to watch which is fair enough i rly don’t see issue with expressing that you don’t like some of their content (whether that’s related to dnp or the specific game like generally not liking the sims). i’ll truthbomb that i don’t care about their heartthrob videos and that’s fine. i’ll still watch the vids it’s just when it drops i’m kinda like eh about it

[82mitsu]

{18Trip} <CHAPTER 001 SIDE-A: Sun will R1ze!> 001-A02 Proof of determination

A translation of 18TRIP's CHAPTER 001 SIDE-A by 82mitsu. ENG proofreading by sasaranurude.

TL note:

金転がし (kanekorogashi) is an alternate name for まわり将棋 (mawarishogi), a traditional Japanese children’s game using the four Gold General shogi pieces and the pawns move into an anti-clockwise direction. The rules and gameplay elude me, but this website described it as Snakes and Ladders, which I am more familiar with, thus I went with that.

Kafka: HAMA will fully cease accepting special financial support from the prefecture of Tokyo!

Hakkei: …Wha- what is the meaning of this, Kafka! No- 0th Ward Mayor!

Kafka: Ah, you recognized me as the 0th Ward Mayor. Thank you very much ♪ It’s a given, though. 

Hakkei: Leave the trifling matters aside. Refusing funding from the capital? What are you planning to do with HAMA’s dwindling budget!

HAMA ward resident A: S-seriously, what is the plan here…

HAMA ward resident D: A stop to financial support… A declaration of a full stop to HAMA… 

Kaede: (...Kafka, just what in the world are you thinking?)

Kafka: Please be at ease. Now that I’ve been inaugurated as the 0th Ward Mayor, I’m intending to fully restore all of HAMA. Hence, the current method of doing things is no longer applicable.

Kafka: Rather than being restricted by insufficient funding and having our hands tied, I must go as far to propose a temporary termination in order to be able to enforce more drastic measures. 

Hakkei: And instead of that trifling amount of funding, from where do you intend to procure your capital?

Hakkei: This isn't child’s play- do you even comprehend that these politics are intertwined with the foundation of a whole city? 

Kafka: Towards these ends, I’ve invested every single penny to my own name into establishing a travel agency that will have direct control over the 18 wards of HAMA.

Kafka: Its name is HAMA Tours!

Kafka: It will be in charge of directing all general tourism affairs of HAMA,  and arranging package tours which haven’t been done before now. Proceeds will in turn serve as financial support for tourism.

Hakkei: Hmph! A mere pipe dream fabricated by some anklebiter. Tourism is not to be underestimated! Is your purpose to smash all of HAMA with that company of yours to pieces, Kafka!?

Hakkei: If you’re using your legal obligation as the 0th Ward Mayor to play house, then I will not allow this in a million years!

Kafka: …Who’s the one playing house here?

Hakkei: …

Kafka: Let me make it clear how I’m putting my life on the line.

HAMA ward resident A: The president of the biggest bank in all of HAMA!? And… they’re shaking hands!?

Kaede: (Kafka… Just when did you meet up with the president of the bank!?)

Hakkei: This is…

Kafka: A few days ago, fundraising for HAMA Tours found itself in a rough spot, so we were able to come to an agreement about receiving a loan♪  

Kafka: Incidentally, as a safety net, we have all that is in my possession, and everything under the name of the Oguro Family. Not only our estate and plot of lands we own, but the colossal amount of intellectual property left by mother is included too. In other words—

Kafka: When HAMA sinks to the depths of the ocean, I too sink. I am mentally prepared to lose anything and everything. Still feeling inclined to describe this as playing house?

Hakkei: ……

Kafka: Of course, sinking to rock bottom is not in my agenda. Therefore, the days of receiving financing will not come back. To all ward residents of HAMA…

Kafka: Together with me, we’re facing a big gamble to bring our HAMA back to life. So you’ll place your bets, right?

HAMA ward resident B: I changed my mind! If he’s willing to go that far, then I'm onboard!

HAMA ward resident C: “HAMA Tours”, eh?- Good luck! Come partner up with our joint!

HAMA ward resident D:  The new Ward Mayor’s top of the grade determination… Gleefully accepting resolution…  One chance of HAMA’s regeneration…

Kaede: (The whole venue’s mood flipped completely…! Kafka… you went as far as putting everything you own into this. You really are out of this world…!)

Kaede: (I also have to contribute with all I can! We’ll absolutely make HAMA Tours a success!)

Hakkei: …Hmph, you've gotten the extent of your determination across. If you’re willing to declare that much, then you'd better show it with your actions. On the other hand!

Hakkei: I won’t cut any corners. Reviews will not get higher ratings out of compassion. I have not a single clue about how many times you’ve succeeded with your investments, but I’ll have you know tourism differs from a game of snakes and ladders. At most, you’ll flail hopelessly. 

Kafka: …Please continue to enjoy the view as a spectator. We will show you achievements beyond your expectations. …Uncle Hakkei.

Hakkei: Hmph!

Kafka: Good work out there, Kaede-chan. How was the inauguration? I gave it all I got, right?

Kaede: Kafka… I was anxious, to be honest. And I was relieved everything turned out well. When I heard that you’re cutting off funding, everyone around me was shaken to their core, you know. 

Kafka: Eeeeh~ That’s noooooot much praise. Especially when I did my oh-so best out there too~

Kaede: I thought you were amazing! I really did! It was just such a risky bet…

Kafka: Well, can’t deny that. But there were a lot of people passionate about the tourism industry from the ward residents that gathered, and I wanted them to properly accept HAMA’s situation and make it a personal problem. 

Kafka: Hospitality isn’t viable if only those at the top put in the effort. I wanted each and every single ward resident to consider contributing to HAMA. But, ultimately, I wanted to show there’s hope. You get me?

Voice of newscaster: “Furthermore, as declared by the new 0th Ward Mayor Oguro Kafka, the establishment of the travel agency HAMA Tours was made public.”

Kafka: Ah, look at that display over there! Our company logo is being shown on it!

Kaede: That’s… our new company’s…

Kaede: …. It is cute, but why a dog?

Kafka: Because I’m a dog person ♪ Which you already knew, yeah? Ah, I also have plans for a company song to be made.

Kaede: You are not going to put dogs in the song too, right?

Kafka: It’s a surprise for when you listen ♪

Kaede: (....Kafka, you look like you’re having fun. The inauguration today gave me chills all over, but if he can smile like that, then I have a feeling it'll be okay.)

Kaede: (Maybe the reality of all this is starting to sink in for me too. I’m going to be working for the sake of HAMA going forward…!)

(Kafka smiling)

Kafka: …

Kafka: Okay, I’ll send you the location of our company office building and schedule on PeChat. Work begins immediately starting next week! And, as for Kaede-chan himself~

Kafka: Given you're the first commemorable employee, the role of chief goes to you! 

Kaede: Chief!? Are you suddenly shoving me into an executive position!? 

Kafka: I'm the company president, after all. I’m looking forward to working with you, right, Chief-chan ♪

Kaede: Eeeh~.... Geez, still pushy as always..… 

Kaede: (But, I’m not complaining. There’s an incredible feeling in my chest. I want to try it. I feel like this is what I’ve been truly wanting to do…) 

Kaede: (If I take this one step forward, the radiant sun will be ahead of me.)

Kafka: As if it’s a morning where the sun rises from the depths of the dark sea. There is hope for the future. 

Kafka: Don’t you believe we can convey that through our work? At least… that’s what I want to believe.  

Kaede: …Yes!

Kaede: (I’m sure that a lot of new encounters await me from now on. And… I want to believe that they’ll bloom into something beautiful!)

<<previous chapter / next chapter>>

chapter 001 side A directory: TBA upon completion

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Tenshi

Debut: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!

I know what you're thinking. It's been four grueling days since the last post about some kind of fictional cube. Don't worry! Cube delivery right here! Even the most humble of gray blocks is a beautiful and valuable thing. Far too valuable for some schmuck like ME to touch with my oily, mortal, mammal skin. Only the divine can be trusted with delivering this block!

This gray block is the ground for our feathered friend Pyoro! He needs to eat those Beans, and if he can't stand on a solid surface while doing so... well, I can't stand to imagine such a calamity! The beans are ruthless. Just a single gently drifting bean can obliterate a poor block, making a gap Pyoro cannot cross, restricting his movement! What Bad Beans!

But even among Bad Beans, there are some Blessed Beans! When this funny bird eats the right bean, something happens. The heavens are notified. God must intervene. Even if He may have been watching over the entire universe, He knows something dire has happened in one small area. He can't let the beans prevail. He must send His angels!

That's what Tenshi means! It means Angel. This is one of those funny situations where an entity's name is just a regular word in Japanese, but it has never technically been referred to in English, so we gotta just accept the Japanese name as official until further notice. They come bearing gray cubes from above for Pyoro to scuttle atop! Anything to let him eat some more beans! It's a very important matter!

In WarioWare Gold's remake of Pyoro, as well as Super Pyoro, the Blocks have received a makeover! Please let me know if you were a Gray Block Enthusiast who is miffed about them now being made of real dirt and grass and looking kinda Minecrafty! I feel neutral to good about the change, though. It's a handsome block. Maybe it can be argued that it lessens the strange ambiguity of Pyoro's whole situation for the blocks to be more "realistic". But if that is a concern to you, then maybe you should think about other things. Sorry. Look, Tenshi now has a halo in game! Yay.

Super Pyoro introduces a few new mechanics to the classic gameplay, including a new Hidden Bonus Area in space! Here, beans abound on conveyor belts, being put there by food service Tenshi wearing little uniforms! Retail workers are the real angels!

To get to this stage, you must allow a beanstalk to grow by letting a bean fall through a hole in the ground... will you sacrifice one of our beloved Blocks to let this happen? Is it worth it? Does the presence of unique Cloud Blocks in the bonus area make up for it? It is up to you! And up to Anubis when he inevitably weighs your heart someday! I hope you made the right decision!

Tenshi is a very Ko Takeuchi character design, by which I mean it is one of those very simple Little White Guys he is always drawing. All the time! Rhythm Heaven is full of them, not nearly limited to just the Chorus Kids, and WarioWare gets its fair share of them, too! What can I say! The man just loves to draw Little White Guys!

[sharkfoodstore]

One thing i always appreciated about hisoutensoku in particular was the way it used characters bullet hell styles of fighting in their fighting game movesets.

Like, historically the difference between reimu and marisa is an easy to play low damage character who doesn't need to bother aiming versus a high-speed high-execution character. When bringing them to a fighting game, you'd usually want the series protagonist to play kinda like ryu, being the default character with a tool for everything. And indeed, AoCF does this exact thing, making reimu a jack-of-all-trades character.

But soku instead makes you make this exact decision between the two of them. Reimu's still got her homing shots, but she can also put up walls and has amazing anti-airs, meaning that like in her bullet hell games she can control the screen very well. They couldn't make her homing bullets just hit you from anywhere, so instead they turned her into a really easy to pick up zoner who captures the feeling of playing bullet hell reimu by encouraging her to play less aggressive manner. In both games, you don't need to chase down your opponents, and are instead responding to the threats they're posing and forcing them to make the first move.

In an more basic fighting game, with reimu being the defensive beginner character you'd expect marisa to be a similarly easy character, but with a focus on aggression. But instead, like in the bullet hell, she's kinda both easy and hard at the same time. She's got very simple tools that are really effective, and is extremely fast, and has high damage. But like in touhou, marisa takes high execution. Marisa's combos are way harder than usual. She also can't control the screen as well as reimu, forcing her to use her movement to put herself in really favourable situations. In touhou, i feel like reimu is the basic easy character and marisa is the basic hard character, and most other characters are usually based around a gimmick. So it fits that Reimu and Marisa are both really basic fundamentals-heavy characters, though Marisa asks for a mastery of movement and execution to be played at her best.

but its not just the protagonists, i feel like so many other characters have their gameplay accurately reflect their fights. The big standout for me is Reisen. Her fight in IN is so cool because of the way she uses really really slow bullets and tries to trap you. In Soku, she has bullets that match many of the ones she uses in IN. Her basic B bullets remind me a lot of the ones she uses in her first phase, traveling really fast at you before slowing down when they reach around 3/4ths of the screen. And when it comes to trapping the opponent, reisen's okizeme game is one of the best. And her mixups are amazing thanks to a lot of her fakeout teleports that are reminiscent of the way she teleported her bullets in IN.

There's details like that in most of the characters. Loads of Cirno's bullets in EoSD are fired in shotgun style bursts, and she spellcards like icicle fall that shoot out to the side before moving towards the player. Similarly, Soku cirno's bullets are often fired in similar spread-shot bursts, such as her memorable 5C. And she has some bullets she can ricochet off the ground to control space like icicle fall. Sanae's most memorable spellcard is the one where she traps you between two really wavy beams and forces you to dodge bullets while also trying not to get hit by the moving waves. In soku, one of her strongest aspects is her okizeme, setting up wind tunnels to chase you and read your tech rolls and restricting your options in a similar way. Aya is the fastest touhou character, and uses her speed to get in and take pictures in her home game. Similarly, Aya's main strength in soku is her mobility, and while she suffers at longer ranges she's one of the best characters up close.

I really appreciated just how well touhou characters gameplay translates into their Soku counterparts. This is done so well that i don't even really notice it at first, i pick up a character I've fought or played as in the bullet hells and intuit how im supposed to play them here. This feels pretty obvious, characters in a fighting game spinoff should feel like they do in their home series, but its interesting because the other main touhou fighter doesn't do this as gracefully. I do think AoCF is an excellent game that is outstanding in both gameplay and aesthetics, but moveset wise i find it doesn't translate character gameplay quite so well. I didn't fight nitori in mountain of faith, with her array of unpredictable spell cards with really unique patterns that control the screen, and expect her to focus more on fighting you up close. Reisen's gameplan has completely changed and now uses poison damage and fast melee, and her teleports are now used as mobility tools too instead of strictly mixup tools.

And this is all fine, in my opinion. AoCF feels like the devs looked at the characters' designs and power sets and drew inspiration from that, rather than their in-game spellcards. And I personally think it's very cool having two fighting games based on the same property showing the strengths of both approaches. I love how each games movesets are designed. But I feel like what Soku did when designing its moves is rarely discussed despite being insanely cool and showing incredible attention to detail.

[paragonrobits]

so i was thinking about world of darkness' takes on vampires and werewolves from a worldbuilding angle and what the general implicit slant of intended character is for the settings of Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf the Apocalypse; what the gameplay encourages without outright restricting it, and it occured to me that in many ways Vampire and Werewolf flip the script for what is often expected, nowadays, from a vampire and werewolf story.

Vampire takes the approach of vampires being undeniably romantic, but its a veneer. Vampires SEEM romantic, powerful, a walking power fantasy of sorts. They consume as they wish and are immortal, able to look over the ages as they come; all power and undeniably tough compared to just about most other character types, and they're as close to human from a psychological angle as you get. even a young and weak vampire is likely more powerful than any normal human can ever be, treating blades and bullets alike as minor inconveniences even if they don't specialize in pure defense.

They seem purely cool, something ideal to be. It would be pretty cool to be an immortal predator, wouldn't it?

But its a veneer. Beneath the skin of what looks like a beautiful human (for the most part), there's a monster. They're not human. Not any more; beneath that skin is something hungry, craving and thirsting for death, to consume. A vampire has certain instincts; to forge territory, to fight and hunt, and they put pretty faces on it, they give it nice titles and imagine themselves as divinely ordained predators to bring fear to mortals, but in the end... its all something they tell themselves. There is a Beast inside them, and it feels like the Beast is the real thing, and they're just pretending otherwise to feel better.

Vampire's narrative generally focuses on an assumption encouraged by the gameplay mechanics: that people start out as young vampires trying to manage the hungers of the beast and reveling in their own power while navigating cutthroat vampire society. But a lot of it is about denial; denial of the Beast, denial of their desires to feed, denial that they can still care about things like love, and friendship and ideals when every fiber of their being screams to kill, knee-deep in gore and sucking out the blood of dead people like a wild animal. Its a constant battle between the desperate lingering shreds of Humanity and the demands of the Beast; and sooner or later, a bit at a time, the Beasts. How long can they keep it up?

Vampire is about the masquerade; both the literal conspiracy to conceal their existence from humanity as a whole, and pretending that they're not ravening monsters in denial of what they've become.

So what about werewolves?

Werewolf, unusually for most depictions, does NOT depict them as infected creatures, or afflicted by a curse. Being a werewolf isn't something inflicted on you, or spread; they're not made. A werewolf is born; they simply are what they are, whether born as a human or a wolf, either too fierce to feel entirely comfortable around humans or too smart to feel right around wolves. And then one day, the First Change happens, whether in liberation or in tragic bloodshed, and whatever else happens, its a revelation:

A werewolf is not something created, or a transformation done to you. It's seeing the world of spirits revealed, the compulsions to hunt and fight given a purpose. You're not something that shouldn't exist, but a part of the world, a living function to protect it. Your jaws itch and your fingers itch to rip and to tear, because there are horrible things in the world that must be slain. Corruption and violation incarnate, whether as malicious spirits or powerful humans who don't give a damn about the world dying as long as they have a good time in the here and now.

There are things that need to die, and you were born to hunt the things no one else can.

You're not a human that becomes a wolf, or a wolf that can become a human. You're both. You're neither. You're a spirit creature, walking between both the physical world and the realm of spirits, fueled by the rage of a world rejecting its own inevitable destruction. You're not human, not because something changed you...

But because you were never human. You simply are what you are; this is who and what you always were. And you can't just ignore what you were made for; to rage against the dying of the world, to rage against the inevitable extinction of all things.

Vampires are monsters, clinging to humanity and playing their games of politics and trying to feed their ravenous hunger without losing themselves in the prospect, maintaining a masquerade inside and out. Werewolves might be monsters, depending on your point of view, but they're not losing themselves, they're fighting against an apocalypse.

If Vampire asks "What are you willing to do to feed the Beast, lest you become that beast", Werewolf asks "When will you Rage?"

[pixelnrd]

Now that the decades are coming to a close, did you have a decade you loved playing with?

From a purely play-based perspective (as opposed to storytelling), I have several decades I have love love loved to play and these are:

1890s: I really enjoy the overall challenge of starting up a Decades Challenge with all the limitations of the first decade - no money, lots of restrictions, etc. This kind of gameplay gets me super invested and immersed in the family I am creating and navigating my way through all the difficulties.

1930s: when I played the 1930s Cottage Living had just been released, and I crafted the family story of that generation around rural farm living so I could play through the gameplay of the pack. Hands down my absolute favourite EP, I loved the soft slow rural vibes for the generation and its story as a whole, and I enjoyed the new challenges of playing with cottage living features. It was a throwback to the challenges of the first decade, which I loved (for above reasons!)

1950s: the previous generation had been very disjointed because of the war, and I loved the 50s because it went back to more of a family-focussed decade. I also loved just indulging in the vibes of the era, including the baby boom, and all the different character types I was able to explore with the kids born in this generation. Maggie's difficult personality and her big brood of kids always hold a special place in my heart.

1980s: possibly a bit random, but similarly to the 1930s I used the 1980s to explore the Growing Together EP and hone in on those family-dynamics vibes, especially in a generation where I planned marriage failure and divorce. Also, at this point I had came back to actual gameplay after a long hiatus and it was so much fun to explore the 1980s and all its aesthetics and vibes.

[friendlyengie]

HIIII i NEED to know more about The Decoy he's so awesome. Did he do something to get kicked out of the circus he previously worked in or did he run away for personal reasons ? How do he and Scout get along, if at all ? Does he have any restrictions for what he refuses to do on a battlefield or is it all game ? I have So Much Interest in this clown its unreal

ohhh these are all very fun questions. Cracks my knuckles

1. Armani, for about a decade or so, used to work at a place me and my friends have lovingly entitled “the murder circus.” Which was a shady front for a whole lot of bad shit in the background that he had to help with. He did not have fun! He is currently on the run from the murder circus (TM) and somewhat actively being perused by them.

2. I think they get along pretty well! They’ve both got an attitude about them such that I think they’d definitely get on each others nerves and yell a lot but. Also the type of guys to just straight up forget about an argument if its been a couple hours.

I think they’d work good together on the field! And. Gameplay wise i feel like they’d be miserable if you ever had to come head-to-head with both of them at once. Two very maneuverable and hard to hit guys about to make your life Miserable.

3. The number one rule of being a decoy is to have fun and the second rule is to be yourself. When he was younger, he had a lot of anger issues. As he got older and worked at Mann Co, hes learned to keep those anger issues mostly not really in check and release them all in a violent surge of adrenaline on the battlefield, where he becomes like a type of angry, feral street dog. He Will bite people if he’s out of ammo.

[spiribia]

i'm thinking of getting into gw2, is it true that it feels less addictive than other mmos? i want a game where i can have fun exploring like in botw but i don't want to feel like i have to spend all my free time doing dailies and upgrading gear and stuff

the good news for you is gw2 has no 'gear treadmill' - reaching maximum level is its Prologue, and any gear you can equip at that point will remain just as optimal as it is then for the rest of the game, for all time. you can equip the best gear, go on hiatus for several years, and come back, and it will still be the best, most relevant gear in the game. so it's not beholden to the situation in many mmorpgs where progressively 'better' gear is released in the interim, meaning you will have catch-up work to do.

a lot of gameplay progress also unlocks account wide (vs. being restricted to individual characters), so if you grind once to obtain a cosmetic, mastery skill, or mount on one character, it will automatically become available on all your alt characters, regardless of their own level or progress. if you're someone who enjoys multiple characters in an mmo, there are many tasks that you will never have to repeat in order to have them on a different character unless you want to experience them again.

though it's not a game bereft of the potential for tedious grinding. these things are more intended by the devs to be optional long term projects, but there are dailies and weeklies or optimal farming areas where abiding by these can shorten what already may be a literal months long grind for your project, so you may feel compelled to follow these routines. this is mostly endgame content that players seeking stuff to do will pick up, and i don't think this really clips into the first time story / exploration experience of a newer player. in fact, a lot of the currency for stuff like this can be accumulated by just spending time around the maps doing whatever you like, so by the time a lot of players decide to pick up legendary crafting, for example, they'll find they already have passively accumulated a nice chunk of what they need.

largely it's stuff that is not mandatory to the game. my biggest grievance is that flying mounts are locked behind moderately rough grinds because they were meant to be a sort of high-end, optional novelty, but with so many years elapsed since their release, so many players have them that they have become optimal for keeping up with the group in a lot of farming maps. this is one case where though you can technically navigate the maps without a flying mount, you may feel obligated by the social landscape to do this 'optional' grind anyway.

SORRY my long post. the game itself is quite casual and lenient. it wants anyone to be able to participate in its story and maps. whether or not there is time-eating grind in the game will ultimately depend on what you choose to pursue in it. it's definitely possible to play without it, but where it's there, it is definitely there. i would encourage new players to not even look into farming until they're all caught up with the storyline etc., as the more perks / skills / maps you unlock over the course of it, the easier and easier efficient farming will get. it will feel much more hostile when attempted by someone just starting out, and you don't need that stuff to play through all the content.

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability:  AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

[felassan]

Some thoughts on things like lyrium and narrative design from David Gaider, on Twitter:

"One narrative design issue I've run into is what I call the "lyrium problem" (for obvious reasons). If you have something in your setting which can technically do anything ("magic" often qualifies, also eezo in ME) then it will, eventually, do *everything*. And that's not good. Why is it not good? Because it becomes this shiny, easy solution for every issue that prevents the team from doing the work to do anything *else*. Weird thing happens? Lyrium. Need a mechanic for a cool gameplay thing? Lyrium. Something that breaks all existing rules? Lyrium. You can try to put limitations on your Anything Thing, but for many members of your team it's SITTING RIGHT THERE. It's the equivalent of narrative jazz hands... why do we need to restrict ourselves to a stupid box when anything is *technically* possible, right? "The multiverse" is another current example. It can do anything. We can tell any story. We can resurrect characters, break every existing rule of the universe... and what other explanation do we need? Multiverse. Easy peasy. Thing is, eventually you turn around and that Anything Thing has turned into narrative crack filler. It's lost all meaning on its own. So be careful if you use it. It needs strict, clearly-communicated limitations established from the outset or it will grow like a weed. Since it's come up in the replies, I should mention that this issue doesn't automatically render settings with an Anything Thing bad or unenjoyable. People like magic. It's fine... for a time. The problem is with long-term narrative cohesion. Eventually, once your Anything Thing becomes the answer to everything, suddenly it's a task to explain why it *isn't* the current answer. You have "It's Not Lyrium This Time I Swear" and it's cousin "No Lyrium Is Not the Solution" to contend with if you try to do anything *else*. "No, we can't go to the multiverse to bring this character back because... uh, reasons." "No, magic won't help you solve this riddle because... uh, reasons." "No, the holodeck won't give you the answer this time, even though it did last time, for... uh, reasons." I don't claim to be better. I created the "lyrium problem" for myself in Dragon Age, as I was the Lead Narrative Designer. I agreed to everything each step along the way. It was a trap I fell into by inches, mainly because convenience was the Order of the Day. All I'm saying is that, if you want to save yourself long-term headache, you need to put in the work on cohesion early... assuming you have the support of the rest of your team. Sometimes they don't want to be bothered by your narrative nonsense, and who can blame them? ;)"

[thread, source]

Some further snippets from the replies (respective source links can be found by clicking on "DG" throughout):

User: "Do "lyrium ghosts" qualify as such?" DG: "Indeed. I started out the setting saying there should be no proof of an afterlife. But then we need ghosts (apparently), so if they weren't *really* ghosts then... lyrium? Because lyrium!"

User: "Great advice aside, I’m immediately adopting the term “narrative jazz hands” into my lexicon." DG: "It's probably unfair for me to reference it in a negative since, considering "narrative jazz hands" was my go to response anytime we'd written ourselves into a corner that was too costly to get out of."

User: "the more constraints you can put on your magic the better. you need solid uncrossable lines with what it can do, what it can’t, and what it won’t" DG: "Magic is especially egregious, as many team members can bring existing ideas and assumptions about "magic" from other settings... so you need to be extra clear right from the start about what it can and can't do. Even then, you'll have problems. Because magic!"

DG: "I should mention that just because an Anything Thing exists and might be a problem for the long-term narrative cohesion, that doesn't render everything automatically un-enjoyable for the audience. People like multiverses. People like magic."

DG: "Magic and, to a larger extent, fantasy itself, can be a real issue when team members bring elements that are actually from other settings into the current one... not on purpose, but simply because it's so omnipresent. You have to try really hard if you want to set boundaries."

User: "There's the opposite of this though: our Warden and our companions can take Lyrium and have no after effects whatsoever - most likely due to programming limitations." DG: "That's easy to explain, actually. Me: *explaining all the narrative things involved with lyrium use in the lore* The Rest of the Team: Or not." User: "At least they did cover lyrium addiction with Cullen later on. It would have been a fun mechanic though if it had been implemented." DG: "Yeah, I agree. I remember once presenting how we could do a lyrium addiction mechanic in game terms, and it was cool... but ultimately seemed like a system the player would find annoying/limiting with no real upside. So it was on us writers to paste over that with words." User: "As you said in any old post on the BioWare forums, you're meant to get dimishing returns from lyrium the more it's taken. So the more your mage chugs down, the less effective it'll eventually be, due to dependency. With addiction added on top, that actually would have been fun." DG: "Honestly, if I could go back now, I would have worked with the other designers to see what they could do and were willing to do before I tried to make an end run to create lore that would force them to do something they couldn't or weren't. Lesson learned!"

User: "[scrolling through this thread] ...What?" DG: "Look, when you gently try to explain to a stressed-out team member why the Cool Thing they just made doesn't actually comply with the lore as-established, and it needs to be redone even though there is No Time, sometimes you gotta accept "just fuck OFF" as the final answer."

User: "not including lyrium addiction could be considered as a plot contrivance. It's the opposite of the usual Macguffin issue, inasmuch as something is supposed to do something but isn't shown doing that said thing. In Meredith's case, it was." DG: "Much the same as mages struggling with demonic possession vis a vis the lore, but it’s not something the player contends with. Less plot contrivance and more gameplay convenience, honestly, except whenever we try to explain away the difference."

DG: "Me: "I hate time travel stories. They never work! They're the worst!" Also Me: "So there's this plot in Inquisition where you travel to the future, right? Because it's cool."" User: "“I hate everything about this trope so I’m going to write it differently, but still earnestly” mixes well with people who have read their beloved trope a hundred times and are ready for something novel." DG: "And then you fall into exactly the same traps as everyone else did."

User: "that quest [time travel quest in DA:I] was so good, I barely knew them but seeing them suffering and choosing to give me all the time they can is so heart wrenching. and then you come back and they have no idea you are now terrified of losing them. genius" DG: "In retrospect, I felt bad we didn't make it crit path, as it did the best job of demonstrating to the player why Corypheus winning was Definitely a Bad Thing."

User: "'How do we account for a player having killed Leliana in DAO if she's a critical character for DAI? Lyrium.'" DG: "That was SO Mike Laidlaw’s fault, but yes… one more inch into the pit"

[respective source links can be found by clicking on "DG" throughout]

[achromant]

Ranking all GW2 Specializations

by 1) Gameplay and 2) Visual

based on over 15k hours of playtime, supported by badly drawn Elite Spec Icons.

Feel free to make your own version and reblog or @ me. I wanna see your reasoning :3

Explanations, sorted by classes, below:

Elementalist

Base Elementalist: Pretty sturdy gameplay. Features both interesting interactions, as well as great utility. Versatile, and visually okay. Attack animations desperately need cleanup.

Weaver: Elegant gameplay. Flows smoothly during combat and offers great utility. Also has nice defensive options available. Requires experience and thinking ahead to pull off. Visuals are okay, and feel like a great fit for the aesthetic without being too overwhelming. Especially love Weave Self.

Tempest: Really cool playstyle. Requires a similar amount of attention as Weaver, but in a different way. Unmatched breadth of utility within elementalist classes. Could even be a contender for top spot at visuals, but Fire Overload visually drags the whole spec down.

Catalyst: This class has no right to exist. It feels like someone said "Elementalist doesnt deal much damage, let's give it some numbers." and then stopped halfway through. There is no utility, no elegance, no cool interactions with the gameplay. The whole class feels restrictive and clunky to use. If you like the hammer cata playstyle, better play Weaver. If you like nice interactions, play Tempest. Jade Orbs dont feel like a mechanic, but a punishment. Visually boring, horrible UI, aweful animations.

Mesmer

Base Mesmer: Elegant gameplay, but lacks flow in certain edge cases. Kinda wish greatsword was more melee, but with range capabilites. Needs some more fun interactions with its own mechanics.

Chronomancer: Essentially Mes Plus, when compared to Base Mesmer. Great gameplay, fun and flowey. Slightly choppy in some millisecond cases, but still amatzing to play. Visually striking, absolutely mindblowing sound design. Continuum Split could use a more impactful visual design, like a giant illusiory asronomy clock that ticks down.

Mirage: The self contained version of Mesmer. Lacks a bit in support options for allies, but offers elegant gameplay if timed correctly. Visuals are adequately unique, sparkly but still not overwhelming. Does not have the visual Boom that Chrono has, but feels just that more natural.

Virtuoso: What if took anything that that means Mesmer and just. Didnt do that. This class feels not like a Mesmer anymore, mechnically speaking. Lacks support options, and is outshined by Mirage when it comes to PvP gameplay. Also I'm so fucking pissed at the daggers floating constantly above my head. Animations are kinda cool, though a bit overwhelming. Fun Fact: I divined the coming of the Virtuoso in some sketches a while before EoD previewed. Though in my head it was a Guardian Spec, shooting small silvery stars with its Virtue skills. AND it had double Daggers.

Necromancer

Base Necromancer: It fills its role as master of death. Even the base version of Necromancer has impactful gameplay, and both okay utility, damage, and support for allies. Lacks elengance at some points, especially in Shroud. Visually okay, could use more explosions.

Reaper: Death Knight, here i come! Reaper offers amazing visual effects, and both impactful and flowey gamplay. Reaper Shroud has just the right oomph to make it feel like the steamroller it is. Even when playing without quickness during shroud, it feels amazing. The slight sluggishness just adds to the experience. Did you know that when you enter Reaper Shroud, the character grows giant feathery wings that explode within the fraction of a second? So fucking beautiful.

Scourge: As the absolute opposite of Reaper, this spec offers exactly what Reaper lacks: impactful gameplay at range. Though Scourge can absolutely hold its own in melee, this version feels like a true death mage. Only issue i have is that it's yellow. Horrible choice.

Harbinger: Why does it exist? Ugh, this thing feels so boring. Harbinger would've been a better fit as an Engineer spec. I don't even care about the utility of those damn potions, they lack uniqueness, aesthetic, even the skill icons look like placeholders. What does it have to offer? Well. It gives quickness. Though you could just use a Chronomancer Relic and play another spec. And why am i a black cloud midfight? hello?

Engineer

Base Engineer: The epitome of improvisation. Toolbelt, weird inventions. Explosions, potions, flamethrower. Engineer feels like Elementalist without the magic. There's amazing interaction between skills, great offensive and defensive options. Engineer feels like a hectic class at times, but with some experience it can just be as chill as any other class. Could use some more striking visuals, but still okay.

Holosmith: What if we take an Engi and give it just a smidge of magic? Holosmith feels like an extension of Engineer that pushes it into a slightly different direction. It's just as versatile as the base version, but has even better options for agressive gameplay. Playing a Holo feels elegant and has just the right amount of sparkle and whoom. Still has good interactions with other players, but can easily hold its own. 10/10 design.

Scrapper: Essentially the opposite of Holosmith. What if Engi, but even LESS magic? Though Scrapper can feel a bit sluggish at times, it still has a nice gameplay. Same issue as Base Engi though, it needs more sparkles.

Mechanist: Why put training wheels on something that already has so many levels of gameplay? Mechanist feels like the worst option in any situation. The only saving grace may be the alacrity (which is applied in the most horrifyingly braindead way possible). There's no visual connection between Base Engi and Mechanist, neither in color nor in shape. Why is the mech so that? The gameplay would feel more fluent if you just kidnapped a new player from Queensdale and gave them a gun. Would also be easier to handle than that damn mech.

Thief

Base Thief: There's elegance here, but it's quiet. The visuals underline the subtle beauty of this class. Even a base Thief offers nice utility and okay interactions with other players. The only reason i placed it that low is because how stealth works. A better idea would be to replace it with something like Blur, maybe granting a 50% chance to automatically evade an attack and avoiding being directly targetable in competitive modes.

Daredevil: This is the oomph Thief needed. it feels like it hits hard, but with deadly accuracy. You lose a bit of stealth capabilities, which is a plus in my opinion. Essentially, this is what a monk class in other games would be. It doesn't even need much utility by itself, base Thief already has a bunch. Only issue i have is that i would love it actually using fists to fight, preferably in addition to a staff. Maybe could leave weapons unequipped to swap to an unarmed fighting style? Fun though, great design.

Deadeye: The absolute opposite of Daredevil. This sharpshooter class prefers intelligent positioning rather than quick reactions. It offers great damage and okay support capabilites. Visual effects appear perfect for this class, though the sound design is only okay. Definetely needs a better interface for displaying Malice stacks. And maybe remove the casting time of Deadeye's Mark?

Specter: What if Necromancer, but. Not. Playing Specter feels like playing Core Necro, but with more teleports. Wells are, well. They exist, but only barely. Visual effects are underwhelming, the while class lacks the feeling of impact or elegance that even a base Thief has.

Ranger

Base Ranger: I can see how people like playing ranger, but only through a vaseline treated camera lens. The class itself has okay utility, but lacks in interaction with other players. Though a Ranger's defining feature is the pet, it's also its biggest flaw...

Soulbeast: ... which Soulbeast 100% solves. I will continue to ignore Base Ranger and just pretend that Soulbeast is what Ranger was always supposed to be like. Soulbeasts have the option to just. Not do the whole minion managing thing. Stances feel elegant and unique, and bring fresh air to a moldy base class. Really cool visual effects, though i wish i could turn off the green swirlies while merged.

Druid: I was in Druid Jail for most of my raiding days, so i know what i'm talking about when i say "Urgh." The base mechanic of a Druid is the Astral Avatar, which by itself is probably the best thing Ranger has to offer. It's pretty, it has boom, it's actually useful and elegant. The issue here is swapping in and out of it, which feels clunky and more of a hassle that a reward. To heal with the Avatar, you need people to take damage, so you can heal them, which fills the Avatar, which allows you to. heal. them? Better solution would be to make it similar to Firebrand Tomes so that it still needs energy to use skills, but allows you to spread out your healing a bit.

Untamed: What if Soulbeast, but. Thief. Well, the result is a clunky mess that looks like a swampy lump of bonk. Probably makes a wet smoph when it his a wall. There is no way for me to enjoy this class. The supposed flow of a good Untamed rotation is completely unknown to me, simply because it's so damn ugly. Play Soulbeast.

Warrior

Base Warrior: Hello, yes, it's the bonk class. Love it, have it, it still bonks. What looks like a braindead brick only people with a real life play, is actually an ornate pattern of golden filligree. A base Warrior offers elegant and flowy gameplay at a minumum of effort, and can with some experience still weave itself through the flow of battle. Wish it had more fun interactions with allies, aside from Shout skills. Could go great with Wells.

Berserker: Warrior, but with more bonk. There's exactly two issues i have with this spec. One, its visual effects feel lopsided. Needs more boom toward the target, and less burning man on myself. Two, it lacks utility. However, any rotation that's done on Berserker flows perfectly, it feels fast paced and has absolutely perfect sound design. Executing a perfect Axe/Axe feels like playing a rythm game in the way it bonks.

Spellbreaker: Less bonk, more tshink. Spellbreaker feels like someone took the best about a Thief and put it on a Warrior. The playstyle between Daggers and Full Counter feels elegant and smooth, but requires good reaction. Spellbreaker shines versus players rather than against monsters, which is probably the only issue i have with this spec. Beautiful shiny glitter sparkle capacity though.

Bladesworn: Okay, it says on the tin that it contains Flow, but no. Bladesworn trades movement for maximum bonk. Could use more elegance in its skills, but it makes up for it with great bursts, so much that you can almost feel pixels being cut. The absolute worst about this spec, and the reason why it's not in the legendary tier for me, is that damn Gunsaber. It either needs to be broader for more bonk (with a powerful downward strike as Dragon Trigger), or about 50% longer for ultimate tshink (with a ligering silver sparkly line where the blade sliced your pixels), you know what i mean? As is, the class feels like the definition of blue balls.

Guardian

Base Guardian: The first time I solo'd Twilight Arbor's Aetherblade Path was on a base guardian, some time before HoT. I used a mace and a shield and just slowly pummeled my foes to death. Base Guardian has the feeling of a true paladin class, with just the right amount of sparkle and utility. Only reason it's not way higher on my tier list is that it cant do much on its own.

Dragonhunter: Such a beatifully executed class! There are aesthetic parts that make Dragonhunter feel like a holy warrior, but without the support capabilites of a true paladin class. That's a good thing, by the way. Its playstyle feels unique, at most comparable to a Warrior, but just barely so. Dragonhunter has some small group support, but shines with utility and bonk. If it wasnt for the Traps' visual effects, i wouldnt even care for those (excep Dragon's Maw, like wow). The whole class is perfect. Would've been higher on the list if the rotations felt just a bit smoother.

Firebrand: This one is a more support oriented Guardian. It overflows with utility and support skills. Factually speaking one of my favorite classes. Speaking from a balancing standpoint, it can do way too much at once with its Tome skills. There's elegance in this class, mostly due to it being filled with skills to the point it overflows. Visually, amazing work, same goes for the sound design.

Willbender: A movement based version of Guardian. Willbender feels like it tries to be a monk class, but somehow misses still. There's something lacking from the whole design. You could probably slap this spec onto any other class and it would still work. Together with base Guardian skills, it's fun to play though. Still a balancing horror, for the same reason as Firebrand: It can do way too much for a single class. Aesthetically i find it absolutely revolting. I get that the Virtues are supposed to be movement skills, but they feel choppy to use and leave red-blue scorch marks on the ground. These weird trails look like an accident and are outshined by most other base Guardian skills. All over, a meh rating.

Revenant

Base Revenant: I am regularly confused when i see this spec's icon. There is absolutely no reason to play a base Revenant. There's not much reason for me to play Rev anyway, but hey. What i love about it are the Legends. What i hate about it. also Legends. There's utility and versatility, but both are locked behind Legends, which makes the whole class feel rigid and choppy. I am a fan of the energy mechanic though, and the visuals are also kinda pretty. Could use more sparkles though, maybe more in the Necromancer direction.

Herald: Since Rev came out with HoT, it released with its elite spec from the start. And to this day, Herald is the actual Base Rev to me. It sparkes, it bonks. It feels fine to play, not under- or overwhelmingly so, but just. pretty okay.

Renegade: This one feels like a base Rev (not Herald, in this case). It had the advantage of using a shortbow when it released, but since SotO it lost its usefulness to me somewhat. The Renegade Legend's skills are fun; somehow like Well skills, but visually more striking. The rest of the spec is only meh.

Vindicator: Another one with more bonk! Equip a Stamina Sigil and go stomping! Vindicator feels fun to play, has nice visual effects and great sound design. Similar to Reaper, you can really feel the bonk. Absolutely hate the double Legend thing though, it feels choppy and sluggish to use, similar to playing Elementalist while affected by Chill. I would love Vindicator on another class, like Warrior for example. But since it's a Rev. It's a No.

Conclusion, Expansion based:

EoD specs generally feel the worst of the bunch. booooring. There's no EoD spec in the game that i can really enjoy playing.

HoT specs feel bonky, but slower. On par actually with the whole maguuma jungle (except Pocket Raptors. wtf was anet thinking there)

PoF specs feel less bonk, but more elegant. Also matches the Crystal Desert (except Hydras. THOSE feel more HoT than PoF)

Elementalist is my favorite overall, followed by Mesmer, Engineer, Guardian and Necromancer in that order. Revenant and Ranger can dissolve into brown slidge for all that i care.

[tomurakii]

I kind of hate the whole "evil race" thing that you get in fantasy worlds. Like I know 5e specifically has relaxed the moral alignment chart rules/generally made racial traits less of a thing, but a lot of adaptions of its lore still use those things (like bg3) so I feel it's still a relevant point of discussion.

First of all it seems like there's a fundamental difference between the humanoid races that can be individually good, but come from evil cultures (like Lolth-sworn Drow or Githyanki), and (non-playable) races that are credited as being innately morally evil, like orcs and goblins. Probably just because the player can choose to be a Drow or a Gith, and if they were made exclusively evil like the non-playable races it would restrict gameplay a lot.

There are small moments that touch on this in-game (like the discussion about stealing the githyanki egg, or when you can choose to save Sazza) that seem to imply that the 'correct' option is to say that no race is inherently evil, and yet morally-good characters like Wyll and Halsin are FULL of vitriol for goblins, and when you kill goblin children to save Halsin (despite several companions saying that childhood is a time to be forgiven regarding Arabella) nobody bats an eye. After saving Halsin you can ask him if his grove was worth the bloodshed, implying that it was bad to kill Gut/Dror Ragzlin/Minthara, but none of the companions regard the camp you massacred as having nearly the same importance as the tieflings in the grove. So goblins are evil, and yet Sazza is "a person who doesn't deserve to die" and Githyanki and Drow are morally complex.

I don't think it's interesting to just say all goblins are evil, personally. It's a cop-out so that players can fight a lot of enemies without having to grapple with the moral implications of that. And I honestly don't think bg3 as a whole is completely set on whether they agree with the idea of evil races either, between Omeluum, the Emperor, Sazza, Minthara, and Lae'zel who are all characters of "evil" races that you can protect and sympathise with anyway.

But it's tough to see how characters like Wyll who are meant to be so morally steadfast and good treat Lae'zel completely differently to Sazza, ostensibly just because Lae'zel is romanceable so they have to get along. If Wyll really hates evil races like goblins (which he does. A lot), he would hate Lae'zel, so it feels like just another area where his character (and the broader moral stance of the game) was underdeveloped.

[maguneedsalife]

OK so I know it's been FOREVER since we talked BUT I have been watching a stream of someone playing FFXIV from the beginning and then I was also talking to a friend about the story of FFXIV and I thought of you.

I know if I get into FFXIV it will eat my life (and sometimes I consider it) but if I do, how should I start?

Also, what are the best parts of the story and/or gameplay?

(also Aoife is cool, I like her a lot, and I've just been casually following you long enough that she's like... my default WOL, just so you know)

aaa ty for the ask! (and it doesnt feel like forever somehow bc we reblog each other's posts all the time lmao)

anyway this ended up very long so im putting it under a readmore, but aaaaa im so happy you're interested in trying the game!!

ffxiv will absolutely eat your life, but! if you're interested in giving it a try to see if you like it, (deep breath) have you heard about the free trial of the award winning mmo final fantasy fourteen with no restrictions on playtime and content up to level 70 including the heavensward and stormblood expansio--

jokes aside, the free trial is my personal rec for where to start. you can play as most of the available races (viera and hrothgar are locked to shadowbringers unforch, but as part of the story you get an item that you can use to remake your character if you want, so if you decide to buy the game later you can use that to make the bunny or lion of ur dreams). there are some limits on things like buying items off the mb and how much gil/items you can have, but for the most part there's like 200+ hours of content that's just available for FREE. Idk if you have mmo experience, but if xiv would be your first foray into MMOs i would definitely try the trial first to see if you like it! and since stormblood is included in the trial now you can meet my favorite robot beetle without paying a CENT

the other thing to consider is that there is a big expansion coming at the end of June, which will also include a gigantic graphical update for the characters and world. right now the game is doing its best with ps3-early ps4 era graphics, but come june everything will look a lot prettier! (not that it isn't already pretty, but i won't miss the pixelated grass...). They'll also be adding furry lion ladies if that's your thing (though they won't be free to play as; you'll have to buy the full game to make a hot lion). the downside is the new expansion will be a tough time to start with everyone trying to get in for the new story, so I'd say if you want to start, either do it before dawntrail (easy to log in) or end of july (login queues have eased, and you get to see everything in the pretty graphics!)

normally here is where I'd put my "if you want to play around with the character creator, there's a free benchmark program you can download that includes it!" buuuut the dawntrail benchmark has uh, let's just say wip character models, and they're actually working on putting out an update to it sometime in the next couple weeks.... but when that update does come out, it'll be a great way to play around and see what kind of character you want your wol to be!

WHEW. Okay. that's the first part of your question.

Second part of your question - i wont discuss details of the story bc imo it's worth experiencing firsthand, but i think my favorite part about the story is that your little guy is at the center of it. a lot of the wol's narrative is left open to interpretation, and you are free to imagine how your character responds to the plot. every single person who plays this game has a different and valid experience with the same story, simply due to how they envision their character participating in it, and i think that's beautiful. i can't think of a lot else like it out there.

you'll see a lot of people online arguing that some expansions are "skippable" or base game is "skippable" but they're all lying to you. play all the main story. watch all the cutscenes. there's no need to zoom through it. the reason you are crying your eyes out at the end of endwalker is because you have watched your wol grow from the time they were killing level 1 ladybugs in the starting area. some parts might be stronger or weaker than others, but it all comes together to make one of my favorite stories videogames has ever told.

(also, no spoilers, but shadowbringers is still my favorite expansion for a reason. you've probably osmosized a fair bit of it from my posts about it but it's soooo good. it's worth seeing in person.)

also there are some surprisingly good storylines in the "side" content (raids, trials, etc), so it's definitely worth picking up those blue plus quests and seeing what adventures are to be had. not to be biased but the omega storyline is my favorite ("yes ren we KNOW you like the robot beetle"). some are serious (there's one about child soldiers) and some are goofy (in one questline you solve zany mysteries with the world's least competent detective) but all of them have heart, and a little final fantasy corniness.

as for gameplay, its probably obvious that i love the fashion aspect. Gear you obtain can be seen on your character (even jewelry!), and there's a whole system for saving outfits. people joke that glamour is the true endgame but i literally, like an hour ago, cleared a high difficulty raid because i wanted a specific shirt. So obviously the dressup aspect is a main draw for me gameplay wise.

but other than that, one of the game's strengths is there's something for everyone. if you want to be the sweatiest raider and optimize your rotation and get BiS and clear ultimates, you can, but it's not the only way to enjoy the game. i have friends who enjoy just dinking around in roulettes, friends who love to fish, friends who roleplay, friends who organize rare monster kill trains, and friends who spend a ton of time on minigames in the casino. that's just scratching the surface. there's so much to do!

anyway, whew, i think that maybe answered your question? or maybe you now have more of them?

i am always available here and on discord to answer questions and help you get started in eorzea :3 ty again for the ask!!!

and aaaaaaaaaa hearing that you like aoife makes me so happy 😭

[leafytaffy]

can anyone recommend some affordable games with really good character customization, so much so I can make my blorbos, but also good gameplay too?

stuff I liked in the past for reference, and reasons I stopped playing as well:

Miitopia: ngl I wanna do another playthrough with an Everhood cast, but my main problem with this game is it loses replay value IMMEDIATELY after you beat it. The gameplay is pretty shallow aside from the customization aspect, and the story you already know so it won’t hit differently when you restart of course. Now onto the good: The customization in the switch version is god tier, the story with everyone being miis you cast in each role (excluding our best boy Dominic <3) is amazing, I love playing a fanfic basically!! The personality quirks and relationship aspects are also really fun!!

Cult of the Lamb: more focus on gameplay than customization, but in every damn save I GOTTA make my Everhood blorbos!! For now the little animal followers do well, but I wish modding becomes easier in the future for custom follower forms </3

Flight Rising: I REALLY REALLY want to play this again, but I can’t because the only legal way for me to play it is to use my shitty account I made when I was 16 which used up all username changes and has a TON of shitty cringeworthy forum posts attached to it because it was the pandemic and my social media was extremely restricted with parental controls……. I don’t feel comfortable enough with the moderators and their extremely strict attitudes and rules to just make a new account and not touch my old one.

Sims 3: I wanna play this again so baddddd… I stopped playing sims 2 tonight after a few minutes because tbh? Modern game customization (mainly sims 3 and miis) have absolutely spoiled me to death and I can’t stand having to download a mod for every. Single. Customization I want. It’s so painful.

Rain World: I wish I could play this, I have tons of skin mods including an Everhood one, but it’s too damn hard for me to play (yeah okay Leaf sucks at video games and just needs to git gud and stop whining). The hardest games I play admittedly are Monster Hunter and Everhood’s battle replay, and I absolutely cannot STAND video game time limits. They stress me the fuck out every time and I can’t deal with them at all (shoutout to Mix quitting the call with me fighting the splatoon 3 final boss because I was screaming my guts out and I ended up having to hand the controller to them for me to beat Grizz), and on top of it I have to use a map in order to beat the game, pre-planning my routes every time and not making a single mistake lest the rain get me. I hate it. I hate that I can’t be good at games for fucks sake ughhhhhhhhhhhHHH

Lobotomy Corporation: I like the customization and modding is rather easy but. Come on. It’s lobcorp no fan has beaten the game its even a fandom in joke LOL (though I’ve definitely gotten farther in it that Rain World. CURSE YOU, TIME LIMITS!!! The thing also keeping me from beating Wandersong….)