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bit-b · 1 year ago

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AI *F*ART

------------------------------ Note: Please do not harass, intimidate, threaten or doxx the person being discussed here. Names and genders have been censored for this reason. No disagreement is worth hurting someone over. ------------------------------

I was typing out this as a reply to a specific person with some dubious takes. But I think it applies to everyone. So I’m gonna rework this and make it a tiny bit more general.

This all comes from someone who got upset by a post that was being critical about AI technology. They were clapping back at anyone clowning on tech-bros in the comments.

I admit that I was on the clowning side of things. And my points were more for comedic value, and not to make any solid arguments. But after getting replies from this person citing some flaws in my logic, I decided to play ball and listen to their side.

My main question I had for them was: “What are the benefits of using an AI to generate a base picture instead of having a human artist do all the work?”

Their response was:

1. It's thousands of times faster. 2. It's far higher quality than most artists are capable of producing. Even with the occasional fucked up hands that need to be edited.

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Let’s cover the first one.

This person uses indie game devs as the base for their argument.

People tend to have a limited amount of time on their hands. And making a bunch of art from-scratch takes up a LOT of that time.

In all this time, a person will need to pay for food and shelter. So they’ll either need to have a lot of money, or will need to save up to be able to dedicate their time to the project.

Now, I also wanna add the option of working on the project in the background for as long as needed. Though, this method also has its own costs/benefits. The main drawback would be the MUCH longer time it would take to complete.

There’s also the option to bring other people on board. That said, everyone would have to operate under the expectation that no one is being compensated for their work unless a successful product is made. Everyone would have to be really passionate about the vision of the project for a scenario like this to work.

For an indie, I can see how using AI would be tempting.

However, what isn’t being accounted for is the original artists whose art was loaded into these AI models.

Their art represents decades of personal practice. Skills honed by passionate people that wanted to bring their visions to life. This is why work like theirs tends to be compensated for. Or at the very least, credited.

In a good number of cases, artists don’t want their finished work to be fed into an AI model.

With current AI ethics, original artists are usually not credited or compensated. And the images generated from these AI models get used for all manner of projects that the original artist didn’t consent to.

In cases described above, the indie devs would be effectively stealing the artists’ work, mashing it up a bunch, and reselling it to their customers. All without getting consent. And the artists would receive no financial compensation or credit for their work.

So if I’m interpreting this right, this person values the speed and efficiency of indie development over properly crediting and paying the artists that made these AI tools possible to begin with.

And this person, according to their own words, believes that giving artists the ability to use the tools counts as compensation. They believe artists should start using AI and stop complaining. “[Adapt to the times]”, more-or-less.

I don’t subscribe to ANY of the mentality here. To me, It’s basically a person demanding others do what they say. All because they wanna have a fun little toy that allows them to get away with not paying or crediting people.

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Now, how ‘bout the second point.

“It’s far higher quality than most artists are capable of producing. Even with the occasional fucked up hands that need to be edited.”

I want to point out that art quality is a subjective thing. “High quality” boils down to people’s individual interpretations.

In my opinion, a lot of the AI images I’ve seen are extremely similar in color composition, have very repetitive layouts, and most contain plenty of the telltale flaws of AI generation (weird hands, text, plants, architecture, etc.).

AI images lack any kind of specific flavor that makes human-made art unique. With an art piece made by a person, you get stuff like unique lineart, quality shading, distinctive color palettes, dynamic poses, noteworthy or relevant emotions on faces. All-in-all, a more personal art piece. And a chance to work with a pretty cool person.

So to me, I don’t consider quality to be a solid reason to use AI-generated images. If anything, the opposite is true, and your quality is significantly hurt from using these tools.

As long as legal statutes aren’t set, no one can stop a person from using AI to generate assets for projects. However, using them is ethically dubious. It showcases the lack of quality and effort a person wants to put into their work. And it really reveals how a person ACTUALLY feels about what they’re selling.

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Another point made had to do with open-source software.

This person noted how much open-source software has helped people. They stated that artists are being selfish for not allowing their work to be used when programmers have been contributing their code for free.

The difference is that when a programmer starts coding around someone's open-source code, there's an express knowledge that they're making something under an open-source license.

When a base set of code is made under an open-source license, it's dictated that other people can take that code and trade it around and modify it in whatever ways they want, as long as they ALSO operate under a similar or exact open-source license. It’s also usually required to link back to the original source.

Now, if an artist really wanted to, there’s nothing stopping them from creating art exclusively to feed it into AI models. Heck, someone could get a community of artists together with the goal of drawing art for the sole purpose of feeding it into AI. Everyone in that group could properly consent, and accept the terms of this kind of agreement.

Problem is, most AI initiatives aren’t set up like that. They collect art from all over the internet, generate new pictures out of them, and assume that the original artists will be cool with it. It’s actively taking the choice away from people. And stripping their names out in the process.

Open-source software has a reasonable setup that facilitates sharing and modifying for free. The legal groundwork for AI images do not. And until some proper ethics and legalese are put in place, AI image models will continue to hold a reputation for undercutting and undermining artists.

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This person offered up a bunch of other options for artists to consider instead of only focusing on commissions. Stuff like:

Making a game and using their art as assets for it. Using an engine like Ren'Py, which is open-source.

This implies that artists are gonna wanna make games in the first place. Making games and making art are two different things. They have overlapping parts, but the interests are not the same.

Also, it’s not as simple as that. You still need to learn how to use a game engine. While it’s easier than starting from scratch, not everyone’s a whizz at coding and programming.

It would take time to learn. An artist can’t just swap skill sets at the drop of a hat. And they might spend all this time learning this new skill (one that isn’t even a passion of theirs) to end up having poor sales and failing in their new endeavors.

Learn to 3D model. AI can’t do that yet. And won’t for probably a decade. And if it does learn, then learn how to rig your models for VR games like VRChat.

Once again, there’s overlapping interests. But 3D modeling is not a simple skill to learn, and a lot of 2D artistic skills don’t translate over to 3D.

As someone who has made his own 3D model from scratch, I can tell you that it is NOT simple. And there’s mountains of tools and functions that you’re gonna need to learn to make 3D modeling a viable skill to profit off of.

And, wait. If AI learns to 3D model, this person’s next suggestion is to learn to rig models for VR?

Realistically, what’s stopping programmers from setting up the AI to automatically rig models? I know of a bunch of plugins for Blender that already exist that do that sort of thing. A tiny bit of human correction, and auto-rigging can be pretty easy.

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So in summation: This person wants 2D artists to toss out a perfectly valuable skill they spent years perfecting, let an AI do it, and learn other artistic skills that they might not like, or aren’t adept for. All to make a bunch of non-artists happy? People who show little to no respect for the skill it takes to make art happen?

And the really delicious irony about all of this? They’re suggesting that artists should go learn new skills to survive new AI technologies, when THIS PERSON could practice what they preach and go learn new techniques that could improve their ability to draw.

Brush up on some skills that help with quality. Pick up tricks that improve output speed. Work on mastering the ability to draw EXACTLY the thing envisioned in your head.

The best part of doing it that way: you’re not screwing over a bunch of innocent people just to make a picture of an anime babe.

#ai #ai art #ai generated #ai image #ai artwork #artificial intelligence #art

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janeiteoftheslums · 11 months ago

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Now that Advent Children (Complete) is being released in theaters prior to FF7 Rebirth, and we know the events of that movie will remain canonically in line with the outcome of the Remake trilogy, I want to talk about some scenes that I find especially relevant to the upcoming title.

1. This one speaks for itself:

No way we won’t be seeing every angle of this gorgeous scene in Rebirth, and the devs want us to be excited for it.

2. When Cloud has a Geostigma attack at the place where Zack died, in which he hears Sephiroth say the following:

“Don’t pretend you’re sad… Why tremble with anger that’s not even there? Face it, Cloud… all you are is an empty puppet.”

Expect even more chilling lines from Sephiroth at the end of Rebirth.

3. When Cloud says to Aerith, “But… I let you die.”

We already know when and where. But how? How is it going to come about this time? And why is he so convinced it’s his fault? Those are my burning questions.

4. When we hear Aerith’s voice say, “I never blamed you, not once. You came for me. That’s all that matters.”

The words “I never blamed you” are in the past tense, one of many indications that Aerith’s consciousness has lived on in the Lifestream ever since her death. And just as Cloud came for her when she was being held at Shinra Tower in Remake, he’ll come for her again, even if he’s terrified of what he might do. Will the stakes be raised even higher this time?

5. When Cloud arrives on the scene during the attack on Edge and sees Denzel and Tifa in danger, he has mirroring visions of two tragedies in his past he couldn’t prevent: Zack charging in alone to his fateful stand against the Shinra army, and then this:

OK, we get it, this is still happening, but again, what else is going to lead up to this moment?

6. There are too many fun moments with the OG FF7 crew—all of them alive and well—to count: Barret being loud and bold as always, Yuffie getting queasy after parachuting in, Cid running like an old man, Cait Sith riding on Red XIII, Vincent’s broody, cape-flipping flair; and, of course, Tifa, taking center stage with her steadfast courage and commitment to those she loves. Not to mention the warm-hearted slapstick duo of Reno and Rude (sadly, Reno’s JP VA passed away in 2020 and the role wasn’t recast so he won’t appear much in Rebirth, but Elena will probably pick up the slack). And the hilarious banter (“Lassie, shut yer gob!”) on the airship while Cloud fights Kadaj. Imagine how much more these characters will be fleshed out, how many new interactions we’ll get!

7. At the very end, when Cloud is reunited with family and friends and has found forgiveness and peace with himself, he not only hears but sees Aerith and Zack together, bidding him a final farewell before they disappear into the Lifestream.

How are we to understand the conversations Cloud has with Aerith and Zack throughout the film? Are they really there together, or are they just in Cloud’s mind? If only Aerith, as a Cetra, can retain her consciousness in the Lifestream, how are she and Zack able to speak not only to Cloud but to each other, when they joke about Cloud being too big to adopt? I’m convinced Rebirth is leading up in some way to their reunion after death, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.

#final fantasy vii #final fantasy vii advent children #final fantasy vii rebirth

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kaija-rayne-author · 18 days ago

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Review of Dragon Age Veilguard 6.1 in series.

39 hours in, 37 hours playtime.

Obligatory disclaimer, you can skip to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Spoilers for Dragon Age Veilguard

Part 5.2 here.

I've played for a while today. I'm stuck in bed due to the embolism, and goddess do I need the escape from reality right now.

Met Inky again. The scars I gave her in CC didn't show up. Saw Solas again. Still doesn't look like himself.

I still really hate how everyone talks about him. Like he's evil for trying to keep the Evanuris from breaking free. And fix the world of the mess he made. Y'know, the veil that, according to the Lore, should be full of holes and strangling the magic and life out of THEDAS. But oooo, no, he's such a bad dude. And they all know the point of his ritual by now.

Guess the devs just wanted to hammer home the everyone hates Solas angle?

Sucks to be Sollavellan playing this game, let me tell you. It’s disappointing, irritating, or infuriating by turns if you actually understand Solas.

Have decided Neve is a bitch I don't want anything to do with. Wasn’t sure at first, but she’s arrogant, suspicious, and just unpleasant. No thanks.

Also, whoever wrote some of these conversations with characters you might end up in a Romance with needs to read some bloody Romance. Sheesh. I think it should almost be a requirement if you're going to write Romantic material that you should be a regular if not even an avid reader of it. It's known as the hardest genre to write for a reason.

Davrin is curt and dismissive, though his bond is higher than some. Amazing voice, a bit blocky for my taste but he's a tank so it works.

Emmrich is a darling. I love Taash, and game version of Lucanis is pretty cool. Haven't really settled on one, since there's no such thing as polyam in Dragon Age despite only 30% of the dating population being monogamous. Cowards.

I'd say I'll be glad when a polyam mod comes out, but unless this game gets better, I highly doubt I'll be playing it again. It’s probably taking me longer than it really needs to because I'm doing puzzles and searching for everything simply because I highly doubt I'll play it again. If I even end up finishing it.

FWIW? I've played DAO twice, DA2 once, and DAI 4x. Soooooo.

They made the memorial gardens in Nevarra so beautiful. I've always enjoyed cemeteries. They're usually so peaceful.

I don't even have all areas on the maps opened up yet, so there's probably a decent amount left.

It could be because I'm playing it pretty fast, but it's weird seeing the percentages of Steam players getting the achievements drop lower and lower. I think only 25% actually got the 'finished getting a team together' achievement. I've never been sure if that means people have quit or not.

Part 7 is here.

#dragon age veilguard #da veilguard #da4 #veilguard #review #Dragon Age #Dragon Age Veilguard review

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lightinthesilence · 1 year ago

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Quick update and a love letter to the LBRP

Hello! It's been a while. I had been quite a bit more busy than I thought I would have been when I first made this blog, and naturally my work, both mundane and magical, had to come first. However, I do now have a bit of time on my hands. To update everyone, I have also done work with a Sylph and Gnome, which completes the little series I had started to become more familiar with the elements, those posts are coming soon. I do also still plan on continuing my work on the game Clavis Elementorum, I should have a true "dev log" of that a bit later on.

With that said, I have had a lot of time to think about my initial inspiration as to why I wanted to make this game to begin with: "Why make a game that so accurately (I hope) showcases the personalities of the elemental spirits, and the nature of the elements themselves?" And the answer is to help give others who were starting out the same kind of nudge from words on a page to effective practice. I'm not saying my understanding of these things is anything special, but rather that I simply recognize and have recognized in my conversations with other practitioners and aspiring practitioners that some really seem to understand what's 'really going on' versus not, and that I shudder to think how subtle and easily missable the point of it is, since no author I've seen has really given it the detail it deserves, though a lot of them do hint at it. So with all this pretense out of the way, I will showcase these hidden lessons that help to unlock imagery based magic, through the example of the LBRP, but of course what I say applies to any act of magical imagination.

First are the skills required before you can make use of the formula. A lot of times in writing, these skills are obfuscated behind flowery words or trying to force-fit the skills to correspond to the Powers of the Sphinx or whatever else, but this obscures the supreme simplicity of the skills.

The first skill required is focus. This is not simply paying attention to something, nor is it hyping yourself up. This is the focus of preparedness, letting the world fall from around you, to still the mind toward just the task at hand. Many writers describe the LBRP with the magician making their own "Magical Universe". This is a good description in regards to philosophy, but it obscures the practical action of the magician in the circle. The key is in single-edged focus, focus keeps your eye on the goal, it keeps all your mental and spiritual energy directed on the aims of the work you are doing, and without focus, a lot of what you put into any working will not be effective.

The second skill is imagination, or imagery. It is the syntax used to communicate. The purpose of this is to both give form to your focus, and also to set up a place of communication. This is not just communicating with the forces you are working with, but communicating with the parts of yourself who are doing the actual reaching out, to tell the unconscious what you wish to be done. I say that imagination is communication because while at first the main purpose is to give form to your desire and communicate that *to* your unconscious, Higher Self, and the forces you are reaching out to, the other half is to learn to receive these messages through the same canvas of imagination.

The third skill is reaching out, and must be done on every level of the operation. What I mean by reaching out is acknowledging and striving toward the forces you are working with. You should be actively willing yourself to come into contact with the forces you are contacting.

This is how all of this looks within the context of the LBRP

Before starting, you should be in a state of focused concentration. The first task is to stop thinking about what your day was like, or what you're going to do after this, or whatever is not focusing on the imagery you're about to form. This is clearly something easier said than done, and you should take some time before the ritual to put yourself in a more relaxed and focused state. I have found what is best is to first let your thoughts play themselves out, as you sit in the silence and let them naturally fall to a close, moving toward a state of stillness without fighting against the ideas.

Then, when ready, stand facing the East. The first action of the Qabalistic Cross is actually an act of reaching out. You are reaching out to the Source of All Sources, Hypsistos, God Most High, Ein Soph, The One, The Monad. In short, your first action physically is reaching out with your right hand above your head. Imaginably, you are growing, up out of your room, up above the planets, above the stars, breaching into a realm of pure white Light, Standing within the realm of the Empyrean. Before even the first word, your actions are truly embodying the ethos of the Magician, to aspire toward the Highest, and to stand, not grovel, not kneel, in the Presence of The King. (and yet, the path is open and, dare I say, ideal, for those who yet wish to remain in service, the Parable of the Prodigal Son comes to mind for the full proper mindset as far as my path is concerned. The Son returns, willing to be but a servant of the House, but none the less accepts the hug of his Father, and accepts the freely given Inheritance)

Let us take the next segment in whole, and then discuss it. "Atoh, Malkuth. VeGeburah, VeGedulah, LeOlam, Amen." "For Thine, is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, World Without End, So Mote It Be." These words alone are very potent, and of course so is the imagery, the simple thing is to simply construct the Cross in Light, and for some added symbolic attachment, you can of course add the colors of the Sephirotic correspondence, Kether, Malkuth, Geburah, and Chesed, in order.

Of course, the most interesting thing to note after the initial Kabbalistic correspondence is the fact that the placement of Geburah and Gedulah are inverted. This is by design, at least as far as the original makers of this ritual are concerned. If you look at the Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life, you would of course see Chesed on your right, and Geburah on your left, but that is exactly opposite of the truth if you imagine the glyph of the Tree of Life as a mirror image, as the founders of the LBRP would imagine. If you 'back into the tree', to see the Tree as a mirror image of the Self, then you see Gedulah (Chesed) as your left, and Geburah as your right. Certainly, this little part of the ritual can in of itself hold great depth, It is the crossing-point of Highest and Lowest, Kether and Malkuth, and of that other great binary, of Mercy and Severity (of course, this bit on "backing into the tree' is rather unique to the Golden Dawn, if you decide to read some more traditional Kabbalah, you won't see this idea at all. Whether you decide to leave the concept for just Golden Dawn work or not is your decision). This midpoint which is the essence of the Rose-Cross is of itself the Heart of another good ritual, the aptly named ritual of the Rose-Cross, which is the essence of the place of meditation and peace, but that is its own conversation piece.

By the end of the QC, you have touched the Highest and united it back with Materiality. You have touched Strength and Mercy, and have united it all within your Heart. Touch is certainly the key word, because to go beyond a simple tap on the shoulder of these Giants is in of itself the realm of an entire life's work. The QC is a stabilizing factor, its presence at the start and end of the LBRP is to make sure the practitioner is in a stable state before and directly after working with the Elements, it bookends the ritual, as if to make a separate space, to separate the mundane from the magical.

If the QC is about leaving the mundane and entering the magical, the initial setting up of the Circle with Divine Names is laying the foundation of this magical world. You are ridding your Sphere of Sensation from the mundane, imbalanced, impure elements, to then in the next part fill your Sphere with the pure element of each Archangel. Stepping forward, around the altar, to the East corner, with the right hand, whether it be with a tool in hand, or the oft cited "sword mudra", or the sign of the benediction, tracing in the air a Banishing Pentagram while also imagining light blue fire (though also cited is simply white fire) tracing along this pentagram, piercing the center (this time either the same color, or also red light as possible images) and vibrating the Divine Name "YHVH" while imagining the letters glowing brightly in golden light, then repeating after going to the South, keeping the arm held out, tracing the circle in fire, this time with the divine name "Adonai", the West with "Ehyieh" and the North with "AGLA" before returning first to the East station, then back to the Center, facing still East. The blue flame of the Pentagram is to correspond it to the "flame of spirit" that is seen as a representation of the Inner Flame, and it as a symbol is used as a symbol of Spirit within the Golden Dawn tradition. White light is an acceptable substitute, because of its correspondence with purity, Kether, etc. It is a useful substitute if you are using blue within your practice for another correspondence. The red piercing ray corresponds to Geburah, utilizing the restricting quality of the Sephira as a way of pushing away the impure elements.

The next segment is more a matter of invoking than banishing, now calling into yourself the form of the Archangels, who rule and represent the Elements in their most pure and balanced form. What I also find interesting is that with our more common imagery, of imagining each Archangel in robes of their color, with flashing colors, and holding a symbol of their element, we see the Wand and Sword flipped from their usual Golden Dawn correspondence(and usual Tarot suit correspondence), where usually we see Wands with Fire and Swords with Air, it is Raphael who holds an airy Caduceus wand/staff, and Michael holding a fiery Sword. We do see another current, examples being the "Practical Magick" series by David Rankine and Sorita d'Este, and the system of Franz Bardon, which does have this flipped correspondence, of Air with the Wand and Fire with the Sword. This I am not entirely sure what to make of in the grander scheme of things, but I would be remiss to not bring it up. With that wrinkle said, there is a lot of potential that lay within having these Archangels invoked, outside of their purpose in the ritual as heralds of their respective elements.

"Around me flame the pentagram, and within me (or 'in the center column') shines the six-ray-star." This line makes more explicit the whole purpose of the operation. The Pentagram is representative of the microcosm, and the Hexagram that of the macrocosm. In this line, they are inverse, the Microcosm displays itself about you, and the Macrocosm is the shining light within. This is the alchemical operation of the LBRP, You take High and bring the light to the low in the QC, you bring balance on all these levels. The version of the line that says the Central Column invokes the idea of the Middle Pillar in the Kabbalah, and the version that says within me invokes the idea that "The Kingdom of God is Within You" (Luke 17:21).

At this point, this is in essence the birth of a new world, the imbalanced structure of how things were is gone, and now you have laid a new, firm foundation from which to start, whether it be a magical operation, or just the start of your day. This is, frankly, only a summary of my thought on the LBRP, there is of course much more that can be said on the topic, but I think this gives enough of a nudge in the right direction on all the different levels that the ritual may be understood, so that other students of the occult may bring their own thoughts to the discussion.

#occult #magick #golden dawn #lbrp #ritual

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msviolacea · 10 months ago

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enshrouded is the obsession for february

So, @garafthel and I have been absolutely addicted to Enshrouded the past week. Enshrouded is in early access, just released a week and a half ago on Steam. The Steam description calls it "survival, crafting, and action RPG" - think Valheim meets Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, in a lot of ways. If you like crafting, gathering, building, exploring, with a smattering of occasionally challenging combat, then I very highly recommend giving this game a shot.

Survival games are not always my thing, mostly because I hate being on a perpetual timer - I want to be able to play the intended gameplay loop, whatever that may be, without having to constantly worry about whether I'm going to starve or freeze or whatever. I don't mind grinding for resources - it can be soothing, in fact, in the right game - but once you tell me I have to return to base every six minutes or else I'll be eaten by the shadows or whatever, I'm out. So the fact that Enshrouded only has a small bit of that is a huge plus for me. The vast majority of the land you can explore is perfectly normal; then there's the titular "Shroud," which is basically toxic fog, and you can only venture into it for a certain amount of time before you'll die. Going into the Shroud is necessary - most bosses and a lot of needed materials are there - but you can choose when you want to go in and how to tackle it.

The core conceit of the game - the plot, such as it is - is very Breath of the Wild. You wake up as one of the few survivors of a fantasy apocalypse long past, and now you have to make your way through this overgrown, ruined world, finding other survivors, making your home, and figuring out how to combat the deadly Shroud that still lingers. And ... that's pretty much the entirety of the plot. There's not a lot of story here. There's lore built into documents and artifacts you find along the way, that tell some of the story of what happened before the Shroud took everything, but don't expect anything narrative.

Since I know most people have probably just skipped over this because tl;dr, let's go with some bullet points to break things up, shall we?

You can play solo or co-op with up to 16 people. Either playstyle is totally viable, but co-op can definitely make the grind more entertaining.

You can build houses from scratch or choose to renovate/fix up old ruined farms and estates. The building system is very intuitive; it can be fiddly, and since the game is early access, there are some bumps along the way, but ultimately it's the easiest building system I've come across.

The vast majority of your time in this game will be spent gathering resources - to build, to fulfil quests, to make buff food, et cetera. Like I said, I actually enjoy gathering in video games, and this is a very satisfying gameplay loop for me.

The character creation is ... sparse. And all body types look kind of like hobbits. But there's a decent variety of skin tones, which is something.

The combat is pretty intuitive, I say as someone who is a mediocre action combat gamer. There's the usual array of options - sword and shield, two hand, bows, magic - but you can do everything if you want. And after just a few chaotic wipes, I started to get it enough that I'm able to solo the low-level bosses with just a little bit of effort. (Haven't gotten up to higher levels yet!) If you've played the last two Zelda games, chances are good you'll get this with no problem.

The whole world is hand-crafted - no procedural generation here - and it is HUGE. The developers say that only a portion of the map is currently available, that it will be even bigger when they get to full release, but even as it is it's bigger than most other games I've played.

Anyway. If any of the above sounds like your jam, I highly recommend picking this up, even in early access. I'm ridiculously impressed with what the devs have put together so far, and it's going to satisfy my urge to craft and gather for a good long while. I'm gonna have to take a short break for a few days for D&D and so I don't get hopelessly spoiled for Star Rail 2.0, but I'll be dreaming of renovating our cool farm the whole while.

#enshrouded #seriously it's so good #worth giving them money in early access for sure

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derekscorner · 2 years ago

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I wish the original God of War had a remake

Now before you immediately click off because you’re one of those gamers (or even movie fans) tired of the laziness that studios have fell too lately please allow me to elaborate.

I do not say this because I want anything grand. I’m not demanding they remake the classic series or even the classic trilogy. What I desire is that original game remade for some polish and love. (the series has an anniversary soon right?)

Sure, I could just find the original and- well, I did! I’m waiting on it in the mail so I can emulate. Despite this I still would like to see it redone for a few reasons.

Namely World-Building

I’m sure a good reason for many is just gameplay alone. I’ve yet to play it so I can’t chime in on that part of the topic but I do know many say the game has moments that are more annoying that fun. A little rework and polish to rid a player of needless annoyance is always desired.

The reason I personally want to see it remade is from a world stage perspective. The original title was a great enough stand alone work that it spawned this series and since I’m someone who adores simplicity I feel drawn to seeing it.

In the bluntest of terms, I find the grander world that Kratos’ lives in to be a headache. (Let’s list a few)

Such as the world of GoW being depicted as round in Ascension yet the dev team confirming this world is flat.

Or the nature of the various pantheons inhabiting this shared flat world despite the two pantheons we’ve seen so far having vastly different, yet both accurate, origins to that world.

How can Midgard be made of Ymir’s corpse when the world was supposedly born of the Greek primordial gods killing each other in a war of mutual destruction?

Was Odin just blowing smoke up his own ass? How much of Greece, Midgard, the other realms, and even confirmed countries like Egypt is made from Chaos or Ymir?

How can the death of the gods in Greece be so grander to the desolation of that nation compared to the deaths of the Aesir in Midgard? So far the only life that seemed to drastically alter Midgard’s environment was Atreus when he was on deaths door in GoW 2018.

Who cursed Kratos to be an undying demigod?

What is the higher plane that Athena ascended too and what is the rift in Odin’s basement? (yes I’ve seen the theories on both being based in gnosticism)

How many timelines has Kratos and Jormungandr created between Kratos killing the Fates and the splinter in Yggdrasil?

If lands are connected as one world then why would Greece “dying” render Kratos of all his magics when the world as a whole seems as alive as always?

How can death exist in Greece or any land with Thanatos slain by Kratos? How does one even kill death?

The sheer level of damage Kratos had done in the various prequels and intermission games. I find it hard to believe the other gods, let alone Zeus, let Kratos be when he was going around sinking Atlantis among other bits of collateral.

There’s a slew of questions and I’m sure long time fans can both answer some of these, add more, or offer decent theories to wipe them away.

Others may just argue “it’s about the characters” and ignore this and, ya know what, that’s fair. I agree.

No, seriously, some would argue this but God of War is fundamentally character focused. To ignore the inconsistencies is a valid approach with this having even more validity in the classic series due to it’s action game nature.

Sure, classic Kratos can be stoic and one-note but he is not without character. Everything he did was due to his families death. He wasn’t a good man, not a faithful husband, but he did truly love them. By Greek/Spartan standards he may have even been a great father too his daughter.

He only gets more stereotype as the series progresses because he’s meant too. IRL he was known as the angry god killer man but in-story his rage was constantly building. Any semblances of trust or attachment was answered with betrayal or tragedy.

For him to be screaming “ZEUSSSSSSSSSSSSS” for most of GoW 3 is a logical evolution in my mind. Not sure about the hope angle or Pandora but that’s an argument for a long time fan to make.

God of War, classic God of War, is a greek tragedy through and through. It’s not as deep as 2018 but Kratos’ character does reflect change. Even if it’s a villainous change.

I’m not trying excuse his actions nor is those titles nor is Kratos himself years later. He was an vengeful rage fueled god and his guilt for that is one reason his story in the Norse world works so well.

Getting back on Point

Sorry for the tangent, point is that I get it. However, I’m a being bothered by things in world building. I got into this series backwards with 2018 having only played GoW 2 once in high school. I’m not going to ask for a whole rework or remake series when the Norse titles have done so well building off Kratos past.

I want a God of War remake because I believe it’d be a fun title but I also think Kratos’ world works best within the confines of one mythology. There’s not as many holes in the stage and it’d make a great stand alone title. An entry point for some.

From my understanding, the original title had two endings. A stand alone ending and one suggesting a sequel. You could keep those, the original stand alone ending and another showing what’s to come. You could add costumes and weapons from the series as a whole. Maybe add other things that I wont even know of being a newer fan.

Possible Hot-take (I guess?)

Most importantly, and by far the most personal aspect for me, I think it’s more impressive if Kratos is just a mortal that slew a god. I’m not sure if Kratos being Zeus’ son was present during GoW 1 or if that was a plot made for GoW 2 and built upon but I actually find it a bit weak compared to what was presented in the first game.

The Norse titles did a damn good job of using that history of patricide as fuel for Kratos’ growth as a person but I still (and I do stress “personally) think it is less impressive. (especially when he canonically slew several immortals prior to GoW 1)

GoW 1 focus’ strongly on the fact that gods are immortal. Kratos rising up to kill the god that wronged him is more impressive, if not world shaking, to Greece if he’s just a mortal. Not a son of Zeus or any god but a man. One that, albeit with aid, managed to stand up to a god and kill that god.

A damn good spartan, a god-made monster/weapon forged with the intentions of battle Olympus but still mortal all the same. That’s what stuck out to me most when seeing GoW 1′s story.

That’s one reason I’d love to see GoW 1 remade with minimal story change. You could take it or leave it, play it and try the rest of the series or just stick with this one entry, overall I think it’d be a fun game if remade.

Anyway, bye now~

================================================

P.S. those images are taken from a fan project of a God of War remake in case you’re wondering....I also realize that last section would’ve made a better separate post but oh well.

P.S.S.S I have just finished God of War 2005 and I used a cheat to take a peak at the treasures. Seems like Kratos being Zeus’ son has been an idea from the get go.

I still feel it’s a bit weaker compared to a regular mortal toppling a god but I won’t hold that as strongly now that I know.

#god of war #god of war ragnarok #kratos #ghost of ramblings

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yaboisorzoi · 1 year ago

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Square Enix Should Apologize To Deck Nine - And By Extension, Us - For How Terribly They Squeezed On the Life is Strange Remaster

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Okay so I know it's old hat to say that the Life is Strange Remasters are… not good.

Everyone and their dog knows that at this point.

But I want to talk a bit about WHY they're so bad. And how it isn't Deck Nine's fault they are as bad as they are.

I've just finished my playthrough of Before the Storm on the Remaster, and while it is definitely a downgrade from the original release, it wasn't terrible. The new character textures are fantastic, the new meshes are impressive, the lighting changes are… fine. I only ever had one or two audio lines drop per episode, and the subtitles would commonly lag behind a full sentence but it was never too bad and was always worth a laugh.

But then I got to the Farewell DLC, and oh my god. It is just unplayable. Like, I straight-up gave up and just bought the Farewell DLC for the base game.

At the top of this post is a video excerpt of the straw that broke the camel's back.

I regret throwing Deck Nine under the bus in the video's editing. I was so frustrated at the time, though!

So let's talk about how we got here.

The development of these remasters was done while True Colors was still in development. They released 4 months after True Colors' release, and I have heard that the original goal was to have them all release at the same time.

Which is an absolutely absurd mandate for Square Enix to push. Like, just think about it for a minute.

Life is Strange 1 is about double the length of True Colors. Before the Storm is about the same length as True Colors. And while Deck Nine didn't have to write and build the games from scratch, the remasters still involved engine upgrades (Life is Strange is a heavily-modified UE3 game; Life is Strange Remastered is on UE4.23; Before the Storm was similarly upgraded to what was at the time the latest version of Unity for the remaster).

Beyond that, Deck Nine also upgraded character face textures and character outfit meshes (and for some reason remodeled the characters' noses; I don't know why…). None of which is to mention how, in order to apply the mocap facial animation upgrade to the base Life is Strange, they had to effectively rerecord all of the dialogue for the game - and then throw out the audio, to keep only the facial animation data.

Top is Life is Strange Remastered, bottom is original. Note how much higher-poly the outfit is, and how things like Chloe's tear or her bra are actually fully modeled now.

All of which is to say, they had to do a lot of work for these remasters. And Square Enix expected them to do all this work while working on True Colors? For games that equate to 1.5x the length of True Colors? Effectively working on 2.5 games within 1 dev cycle?

When playing through the remasters, you can clearly see what Square Enix's priorities were. Life is Strange is the star child, the one that launched this whole franchise (read: money machine for Square Enix) and is the fan-beloved. It very clearly got top priority from Square Enix, and Deck Nine very clearly spent the most time and money on it.

Next up was Before the Storm, and by the time you get to Farewell, it is clear that we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Farewell was Square Enix's last concern, and Deck Nine had to work with the dregs of what was left of their time and budget to remaster it. And it very clearly shows.

The absolute worst part of this all to me, though, is that of these three games (I am counting Farewell as its own game, given how it is a DLC expansion that was made in a separate development cycle from the rest of Before the Storm), two of them are Deck Nine's own babies. And of these three games, only one of them was given priority by Square Enix.

I can't even imagine how terrible it must've felt for Deck Nine, being forced by Square Enix to release their own games in Before the Storm and especially Farewell in such a broken state. To have to effectively cripple their own children, while fawning over their step-daughter brought into the marriage that is Life is Strange (developed by dontnod).

Obviously we're not going to actually get Square Enix to ever apologize to Deck Nine, and I doubt Deck Nine will ever be given the resources to properly fix Before the Storm and Farewell.

But dammit, the injustice on display is so apparent and so egregious, I just have to scream about it.

I hope I'm not alone in feeling this way. That the terrible state of the remasters is Square Enix's fault, not Deck Nine's. That Deck Nine deserved better than how Square Enix treated them on these remasters. And that, through extension of the sorry, broken state these remasters were released in, we the players and fans of these games deserve better than what Square Enix forced out the door on us.

Fresh out of giving up on the Farewell Remaster, I was upset. But now, thinking about it, about all the things that had to go wrong to get us to this point?

I'm just disgusted.

Shame on you, Square Enix. And I'm sorry, Deck Nine.

#life is strange #life is strange remastered #square enix #shame on them #deck nine #deck nine did nothing wrong #the terrible state of the life is strange remasters is all Square Enix's fault #Youtube

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faradaykay · 2 years ago

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HERE IS MY UP-TO-DATE P5R CHARACTER RANKING bc i think it will be funny if i post this now and then come back when i am later in the game and see that my opinions were severely bad and wrong. also i am doing phantom thieves only (but know shiho would be second if she were in the ranking)

(DISCLAIMER: you cannot get mad at me for my opinion on people who have not showed up yet okay. i have been avoiding spoilers and i know nothing about them so i just know what has happened IN THE GAME SO FAR. also very long post i went off about some people sorry about that)

1. ANN TAKAMAKI - MY GIRL OF ALL TIME. what can i say, i love myself a silly blonde girl. i think my favorite thing about ann is how she’s portrayed as both strong and emotional - she is consistently shown to be resilient, capable, and tough, but she also deals with her emotions in the same way that a teenage girl in her position would. it makes me happy to see that bc not a lot of characters get that right and i hate seeing emotional girls always being the pathetic ones. also i know she’s not canonically sapphic but she does feel very deliberately sapphic to me if that makes sense. having it be canon would be nice, but in a way, the fact that her and shiho have a very sapphic relationship without it being called that reflects what being young and confused about sexuality is like. it’s very common among teenage lesbians, and i know it probably wasn’t the devs’ intention to accurately portray sexuality confusion, but they did a good job of it on accident regardless. anyways i love and adore ann i am hugging her hugging her hugging her and pressing her lips to shiho's as if they're barbies

2. haru okumura - OKAY LOOK. LOOK. i know she hasn't shown up... i know she hasn't said anything besides that one time i saw her in the hallway and she talked about plants to a random teacher for 10 seconds... I KNOW BUT BUT SHE'S SO SKRUNKLY LOOK AT HER. she is so soft looking so silly looking i want to hug her so much. i am reserving this second place spot for her, if it turns out i don't like her as much as i thought then that's fine but nobody knows Girl Of All Time Vibes better than me and she has them

3. yusuke kitagawa - YUSUKE MY BEST FRIEND YUSUKE. I LOVE AND ADORE HIM SOSOSOSOSOSO MUCH... i honestly didn't expect to like yusuke when he first showed up but as soon as he spoke i was like. oh. Oh This Guy. LIKE HE'S SO SILLY he makes me giggle with how he's just so like. WEIRD. but i genuinely don't see how people find him creepy - the fact that he doesn't have any harmful intentions is very clear and he's just a guy who fumbles every social interaction he's ever in and i want to be his best friend for it I LOVE HIM.

4. ryuji sakamoto - I LOVE RYUJI HE'S SUCH A GUY TO ME i love him being best friends with ann and i love his stupid comments he is so funny fr

5. morgana - EVERYONE'S SO MEAN TO MY SILLY KITTY GUY... usually mascot characters like him are super annoying but i fuckin LOVE morgana he's so funny and adorable. i wanna cuddle him THE KITTY EVER

6. kasumi yoshizawa - she's really cute and sweet! the fact that i don't have anything besides that to say about her is why she isn't higher on the list lol

7. akira kurusu - he's a Guy. i like him as a protag, he has dialogue options that don't make me wanna rip my hair out and he had the emotional intelligence to comfort ann without making me want to be like "YOU'RE FUMBLING THIS FR SHUT UP STOP TALKING LET ME TALK TO HER" so i like him. however he's just a guy that exists to me

8. futaba sakura - she's cute! but being a woman in stem is like. every girl i know irl is Like That so she doesn't feel very blorbo to me when she's just An Average Girl In My Comp Sci Class, yk? i might be more interested in her when i actually come across her tho

9. goro akechi - i don't care about him at all i want what he has tho (knows sae niijima personally)

10. makoto niijima - SORRY SORRYSORRYSORRY SORRY. i know this is anti-feminist of me and considering she's so well-liked i am sure i will change my mind on this based on later stuff in the game. but MAN. her attitude is absolutely rancid in the pre-second palace scenes........ LIKE i'm not even mad at her for selling out the phantom thieves bc i get that she's been blackmailed but she said something to akira about how she "didn't know if ann being a victim of kamoshida was all there was to it" naming ANN SPECIFICALLY and not akira or ryuji and like. GIRL WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING THERE WHY ARE YOU SINGLING OUT ANN i do not like the implications there they're Yucky!!! you can do what you have to do without being nasty to ann and mean Okay Thanks.

#squishy talks too much #squishy plays p5r #i don't have super obvious favorites wdym #anyways i will come back to this when i get much further and change some of these opinions #sorry again about makoto i'm so sorry i want to like her i am keeping an open mind for her to change

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pwnyta · 2 years ago

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Okay so there’s the thing… I play CROB still (for some reason 💀) and couple of updates ago I sent you a pretty long message about all the changes and how ugly they are and how much I hate them and how they demotivate me and I don’t really wanna play the game, but that message, sadly, was completely lost when I sent it because of the internet disconnection… so, I was really angry about it and just decided to let it be.

But OOOOOOHHHHH MYYYYYYYY GOOOOOOOOOD I CANNOT DO THIS ANYMORE‼️‼️‼️‼️ THIS FUCKING GAME JUST GETS WORSE AND WORSE, UGLIER AND UGLIER, LESS AND LESS CONVENIENT I— god I REALLY don’t want to be angry about it, but I’ve been playing this game for 2-3 years and put good amount of many into it (let’s not discuss whether it was a good idea or not, I have money to spare and CROB was one of my hobbies), but now the game is just so. Fucking. BAD.

Bro.

They changed the way to level up characters. I LEGITIMATELY don’t know how to do it anymore. You can pay GEMS to level up your characters (yes, you heard it right), they got rid of the character and pet gachas, BUT IT DIDNT MAKE IT BETTER!!!! I AM!!! SO‼️ ANGRYYYYYYY AGHHHHHH‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

Today was a new update (it’s a Yogurca update) and I’m just…. Not only did they bring ANOTHER legendary treasure that is near impossible to get (I spent 50k+ gems that I’ve saved up + a lot of free pulls for treasure gacha and didn’t get SHIT), But also - and, tbf, I didn’t connect the dots until I went to the CROB’s YouTube channel - they’ve released a BOMBER cookie with a BOMBER jelly shapes for a middle eastern inspired world during Ramadan… need I say more?

God I’m so tired. I really liked CROB, I preferred it heavily over CRK, I was there for quite some time, but devs just get greedier and greedier, and they keep making game uglier and less convenient. I really don’t want to leave it behind, because, well, I put money into it, but outside of that, I still really like characters, I love their designs, I love the concept of the game and I REALLY love guild runs, they are fun! But at this point, I just login into the game everyday for rewards and to login into guild lottery. I just… god I feel so defeated. Why are they doing it? If the game is doing worse than they want, then just pull the fucking plug. I understand that some people are going to play and going to whale no matter what - I’ve already seen people with fully refined new legendary treasure, and that shit came out only couple of hours ago. But my GOD. I really liked this game, I felt nice while playing it, I liked the sense of accomplishment when I was getting better. Now the game is ugly, I don’t understand how to fucking LEVEL UP the characters and just….. ugh. Sorry for this rant, I just needed to talk about it somewhere 😓

Damn… Yeah IDK whats with CROB lately either. Im assuming theyre just putting more time and resources into CRK now, I know they never expected for CROB to get as consistently popular and well loved as it did and were planning for it to end well before… but like I honestly wish if they dont wanna do it anymore that they really did just shut it down rather than making things super bad until people just leave.

Which I mean theyre PROBABLY not going out of the way to make the game worse… but certainly FEELS that way. Or I guess its more they just wanna make more money off it. Since the Gacha was super generous when I was playing at least with the character/pet Gacha

And Peppercorn Cookie... great design... probably ANYWHERE ELSE at ANY OTHER TIME would have been a better time to release her... remarkably tone deaf.

It all really sucks since with Kingdom you need a higher end phone and it takes up way more space so theres probably a lot more people on the poorer side of things playing CROB which is probably why its so popular still… IDK.

Well IDK what to tell ya… I know I really loved the game and praised it for a long time and even spend money on it as well cuz I really enjoyed it… but it just stopped being worth it. If your still having fun just enjoy what you can… if you just wanna see the characters im sure you can find the stories on Youtube or something so you dont have to waste your time with it…

No worries tho. Im always ready to commiserate the loss of a good series or game...

(Unlike BNHA Im more sad about CROB than mad about it.)

#alladin-gohan

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night-city-valentines · 2 years ago

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It's the end of the Year, and I played a lot of games, here's my Top 5!

5 - Saints Row (2022)

I grew up with Saints Row The Third, and after SRIV kinda killed the series, I was a little bummed. This new reboot of the series is a return to form. Yes, it has been scaled back considerably from the insanity of the last two entries, but I see that as a given - its a reboot, they're testing the waters to see if there's still an interest in the franchise. For me, there absolutely is. Hopefully we see more Saints Row games soon.

4 - Cult of the Lamb

An incredibly charming and captivating game, Cult of the Lamb combines a management sim with a roguelike dungeon crawler, and it works perfectly. The artsyle is cute, which contrasts perfectly with the Lovecraftian abominations you encounter.

3 - Fortnite

Yeah, yeah, I know. Fortnite didn't come out this year, BUT this was the first time I properly got into it, after the addition of the Zero Build mode. Removing building means that you can pick it up and play a lot more casually - no more skyscrapers appearing when you take a single shot at an opponent. Super fun, and if you've never played Fornite before because you don't want to worry about being behind on building, its worth giving it a go.

2 - Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Another series from my childhood with a banger entry this year, TSS let's you play through the stories of all 9 main Star Wars films. The gameplay is almost completely reinvented for this entry, and with the ability to explore planets, do side quests, and invest in skill trees for the different character types, it feels more like a Lego RPG than anything else.

Before my number 1, let's see some Honorable Mentions:

- Metal Hellsinger

A rhythm-FPS set in Hell with a heavy metal soundtrack, Hellsigner is incredible. What makes it a mention rather than a top 5 is the length. I wish it was longer, but as all the songs feature actual metal vocalists, I understand why the game is the length it is. Still! Hope to see Hellsinger 2 at some point!

- Pokémon Violet

Ah, Pokémon...you tried, ill say that. Violet is a testament against yearly releases and crunch, and its sad. It could have been so much better if Game Freak's devs had another year or so to work on the game, but alas. The loop of catching Pokémon is as fun as ever, if not more so with the lack of random grass encounters, and the story is actually pretty good. What lets it down for me is the overall lack of polish, and the fact that it feels like SUCH a Downgrade from Sword/Shield

- Final Fantasy XIV

I've never been one for MMOs, but when my boyfriend let me play on his account for a while, I was hooked. Truly the only reason this isn't higher is because I haven't put all that much time into it. But I WILL!

- Need For Speed Unbound

Sneaking in at the end of the year, NFS Unbound is tons of fun for a racer. I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a racing game fan, but I WOULD say that I love this game. Like FFXIV the only thing keeping this game down is the time I've spent with it - I only played the free trial of it, but if I end up getting the full version at some point I know I'll sink hours and hours into it.

Finally, my Number One Game of 2022 is...

ELDEN RING

I...hated Soulsborne games. I really did. I found them too challenging, too overwhelming. Then my boyfriend bought me Elden Ring. I figured, hey, I'll try it out.

Now I love Soulsbornes.

Elden Ring is the combined genius of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin, coupled with Fromsoft's trademark combat system.

I have put over 200 hours into Elden Ring. I've completed the story twice. I've made 4 characters, and I STILL don't think I've found everything this game has to offer. Hell, I recently bought the strategy guides for it (which, by the way, requires two volumes to cover all of the content in Elden Ring).

If you like fantasy - try Elden Ring. If you like challenging combat- try Elden Ring. If you like exploring a beautiful world with a complex story - try Elden Ring. It won GOTY at the Game Awards for a reason.

#long post #my goty #goty #elden ring #lego star wars #need for speed unbound #pokemon violet #metal hellsinger #saints row #ffxiv #cult of the lamb #fortnite

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kozykricket · 9 months ago

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some more minecraft thoughts (unorganized AF wow)

yknow, i think a lot of people kinda forget like... how daunting game or.. really any media creation can be, with Scope in general, and generally making something requires some things to be cut, in order to like, say... focus on the main plot of a movie, instead of getting caught up on trying to do Everything Good. to focus on the strengths and do them Great... instead of opening up more cans of worms now you apply that to minecraft, where its whole strength is that there IS so much to do, its strength IS that it has like, everything... and really its no wonder they... have some difficulties developing it sometimes

well, yknow, ironically they have to cut things, but thats because they want to do everything Great instead of just Okay, but they also at the same time want to... do everything, which will ultimately take quite a while. to do everything that they could do...

in a game like minecraft, the backlog is endless, and figuring out what to prioritize is definitely a MASSIVE factor for like... well, lets take fireflies. of course they wanted to do fireflies, and to update more biomes to be more pretty. you see how joyous the devs sounded talking about that stuff?? of course they want it just as much as we do. but ... to open up a can of worms that is a whole mob that they want to do justice (even a mob as "simple" as fireflies) is to uh, put a bit much on their plate, considering they were already working on a lot of their backlog and had opened a massive can of worms with the ancient cities... and then you also factor in the Marketing and Stuff that wants them to get the update out ideally for around the summer and... to move on to the next update and... agh i guess what im tryna say is like, people seem to sometimes act like gamedevs cut things because they ... dont want to bother working. but its almost always priorities and scope. Of course mojang wants minecraft to be the best it can be, to have so many lovely wonderful things.

im sure if they never got any more ideas or suggestions for the game, they'd still have enough ideas to last until like, 1.80 if not higher.

so i imagine its quite tough for them, too, to have to say no to certain things because it... isnt relevant to open up certain cans of worms.

and that is, i believe, why you see them adding wolf variants now. it is strategic to finally yoink them out of the backlog (because surprise, the backlog is far more than just mob vote losers) because the armadillo makes them relevant. im not a huge fan of loosely connecting features like... armadillos to wolves. its kinda weird. but it does mean that that one mob winning gives them an opportunity to also add wolf variants and have that be... efficient in that it isnt opening up a brand new can of worms -- the can of worms of Wolves was already starting to open when they added wolf armor. is this to say wolves are done? of course not. nothing in minecraft is ever Done. and thats another reason its so hard to prioritize things. they want to add new things, and they want to improve old things. its a tough balance since... so many communities want DIFFERENT things out of the game

so it can end up seeming like they really dont add much... because. think of it like a pizza. someone bakes a really nice mixed pizza for a party, yet you... only get one or two slices that you really like. thats a shame. but that doesnt mean they didnt put a tonna work into baking it. the other pieces are being enjoyed by other people. people who, quite frankly, dont care about your slices.

i guess this post is kind of all over the place, but this is all to say... priorities and strategic development, as laaame as it may be to admit, is ultimately what mojang is going for, for both longevity and for quality. not to say theyre perfect. i wish they did armadillos a bit differently, and i wish we didnt have to wait for wolves to come up in relevance via a Shiny New Feature for them to be subtly tweaked... same as signs coming into relevance when they add hanging signs, so they add editing sign text as a feature.

i think ill... rewrite this post. its more of just a bunch of thoughts that arent super cohesive since theres just so many of them. ironic considering a big part of this posts sentiment is that for creation of many things, you should probably focus on the already good parts, instead of stretching it to do Everything Ever.

its. its just a lot of topics that i think are interesting.

respect to mojang for all the work they do. even if i dont agree with some of their implementations

#minecraft #minecraft ramblings #rewrite this post

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felassan · 11 months ago

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Some notes/quotes from this video, under a cut due to length:

Ben [interviewer]: "You left BioWare after 19 years. When was your last day there?" Mac: "Last day, it was just over a year ago [interview was posted on December 18th 2023]. I can't remember the exact date, I believe it was like the end of November, beginning of December last year, so I kinda just passed that anniversary recently." ----- Mac: "There's a couple of factors you have to consider in doing that [posting all over social media about leaving]. As a person who, you know, I guess was fairly senior at the company, you don't want it to be a distraction, especially to the teams that are working. You know, I was on the Dragon Age [Dreadwolf] team at the time, so. You don't want a whole bunch of news about 'oh, another dev is leaving' or something like that, so it was right before Christmas break, we just agreed that, you know, I'm not gonna talk about it right now, and I didn't have a need to talk about it, I didn't have any plans, there was nothing I really wanted to discuss. So I just sort've was happy to keep it quiet. I thought the news might get out on its own, but it didn't, and then eventually I was ready to just sort've start talking about things. And also just, you don't want people kinda finding out the wrong way and then making a story out of something that isn't a story. So eventually, I was just like, I'll just update my LinkedIn and see what happens." Ben: "The press love writing these stories. So it was just like a quiet, agreed-upon thing of like, you know, anything we can do just to not make people worried or stressed, that's the way to go?" Mac: "Exactly, and you know, it was one of those things too where I was asked a lot internally and talking to the team, and everyone there about 'why now' and what, you know, it was one of those things where it was really just time for me. After 19 years, it just felt kinda like this was the moment. So there wasn't like a definitive triggering event, right, anything I needed to discuss, and so again it was one of those, let's just part ways amicably and you'll continue to do your thing and I'll go do my thing and figure out that." Ben: "Did it kinda time up with kinda a re-shuffle or a re-org with Dragon Age, or was it really just a kinda random moment in that game's development where you decided to step out?" Mac: "Yeah, there was nothing particularly going on at that point, I should say we had some big milestones that I knew I wanted to get the team through before I did that, and like one of the last things I did there was, we had a big presentation with the very higher-ups, Andrew Wilson and his team, just sort've showing the state, and I wanted to get it through that sort've phase before I announced so that they had stability going through that, and then once that was over, I just said, yeah, I think it's time." ----- Mac: [was asked about whether it was remote working or in-the-studio working around the time he left] "No, we were in at the studio, but I think like a lot of companies, it just never returned to what it was before. I remember we had a few, the most effective thing was we would try to bring people together for a reason, and then you'd find you'd get a decent number of people, but for a studio that could support I don't know how many people, I'd be guessing, but a few hundred, I rarely saw more than 15 or 20 people at the studio. It was nice to get in and having meetings with people, see people face to face, it's also nice just to get out of your house and go work at the office every once in a while, but the impetus, or the driving sort've like 'everybody's there', it just, it hadn't materialized by the time I left so."

Ben: "How stressful was your job at BioWare?" Mac: "That's a really good question. I don't think, I never really thought about it as a stressful job, I mean, game development has stressful moments is the way I think of it right. There's always points in any development cycle where, you know, the unknowns feel like they're outweighing the knowns, and time is running is short, whatever it is, and that's what sort've amps up your stress, but I loved what I did for the most part and I'm one of those people who loves both a challenge and problem-solving, so most of the times when we had those, I always felt like, okay, we're gonna figure something out, we're gonna do something there. I think when I left, if you think about sort've, weight off my shoulders, or whatever it was, I think it was more about, you know for a while I'd been feeling my time was kind've coming to an end there, and all I can say about that is just like, you know, I'd explored the things I wanted to do, the things I still wanted to do in my career I probably knew I wasn't going to be able to do there, so that was starting to create I think internal tension for me, and creating a little bit of angst or something like that, so there was certainly some stress around that. And just the idea of having to tell these people that I had worked with for almost 2 decades that I'm now leaving, I was surprised how much anxiety that created because I'm one of those people that once I make a decision, I make that decision and go for it. Once I had made this decision and I was confronted with, now I have to tell people, that was, yeah, that really hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. The first person I told was Gary McKay, the General Manager at the time. Just out of, you know, he was my manager, and the person I spent a lot of time with, certainly in the last year of being there. And then, I actually kinda kept it quiet for a while, again out of respect for, don't disrupt the team, I wanted him to have a plan, how did we wanna talk about it, things like that. So I told him, let him sit with it, then we, slowly trickled out the information."

Ben: "So what did you wanna do? Did you want to run a project, run a smaller project? Like what did you realize you were not capable of doing within BioWare?" Mac: "One of the great opportunities I had which kinda came outta the blue was working on MELE. So that was a project I think we wanted to have greenlit, for years we'd been asking to do it, and when the opportunity came up and EA came to us and said, hey, can you do this? We were like, yeah, we can do it! But it wasn't on a road-map, you need to think about a lot of the planning that goes into these games, cycles that can be 4 years long, hundreds of people involved, you plan all that stuff out. And all of a sudden we've got this project that's unplanned, what do we do with it, right? And so the way to make that successful was really for me to be a little bit rogue, a little bit sort've entrepreneurial in how we were gonna build this out with the people we had and the people we could get without disrupting the other teams in the meantime. Looking at different methodologies, so one of the big ones was I knew I wasn't going to have a huge internal team, so how do we create this, you know, yes it was a remaster, but it was a remaster of 3 whole games plus all their DLCs, it was an immense project. I quickly realized this was gonna need co-dev work, like we're not gonna be able to handle this just with our internal team. So it was kinda just a whole different mindset of how we were going to run things. Anyway, long story short, that process reminded me a lot of early days BioWare, we were a small scrappy team, a lot of people were wearing lots of different hats, a lot of people with opportunity to lead even if that wasn't in their title, just because that was the nature of what we needed folks to do. And there was a lot of camaraderie that was formed with that team, I think because we stayed small. Also, looking at what we were able to accomplish working with some really talented co-dev partners, I was like, yeah, this is the future, like, I think this is how AAA gaming needs to go when you look at how complex and challenging it is. And so a lot of that was just reminding me of, you know, call it the 'good old days' or whatever, or certainly things that I remembered about originally starting there that I wanted to do. Like, let's start something small, let's be scrappy, let's do that. And then on top of that I think the other big thing was, you know, I got to work on 3 new wholly-owned IPs from the ground up. Jade Empire, Anthem, and Mass Effect of course. I knew I wanted to do new IP again. I wasn't even thinking it has to be my IP, that's great, but really I knew I wanted to do new IP again. So between all of those things kinda culminating, I was just feeling like, I don't think, and you know, to be fair I asked around, like, well, can we do something like this at BioWare, or is there opportunity at EA? And when it became pretty clear that there probably wouldn't be, at least not for the foreseeable future, that's when I started thinking, it's like, no, okay, I think I'm done."

Mac: "I think the other big thing too was after MELE, because it was so successful to me as a project, in the sense of, team was healthy, we really got along, and of course it was critically and financially successful. It just felt like this is the bow on my, on all of the things I've done, and Mass Effect, which is like, all of things, really. I don't want to do any more Mass Effect after this, like why, why tempt fate? Right? So I also knew I didn't wanna move into that space, and I do love sci-fi, so it was like, well now what are my options, at BioWare?" Ben: "Were people trying to nudge you towards the Mike Gamble, new Mass Effect project? Or was it clear you could move to Dragon Age if you wanted and no one was gonna bug you about that?" Mac: "No, I think it was more of a, you know, I was looking again for something new and different in general, and people recognized that, and they were trying to figure out what we can do, but you know, there's always these other competing factors going on that end up dictating what projects are gonna happen and which ones aren't, and it just became clear that it's like, yeah, I'll probably need to find something else." "[on the MELE team] it was also a reminder of what a smaller team could accomplish, I think due to just varying factors, I found myself on increasingly large teams. And again I was trying to find a way, and I don't wanna say there's something inherently bad or wrong with large teams, it just feels like it's sometimes necessary, but I also deep down felt like, maybe there's a different way, maybe there's a way that we can actually have a smaller internal group where we can really focus on culture and who we are, showing up every day and actually enjoying working with each other, and making that a focus, as opposed to just the project and the needs of the project. That's always a challenge, that push and pull." Ben: "I remember Mark Darrah, when we were visiting for Anthem, he was even talking then about how eager he was to get a small team rolling making a smaller game within BioWare, were just a lot of kinda the old-timers all had this sense of like, we need to make smaller things for our own sanity at this point?" Mac: "Yeah, I think so and, you know, the nature of just even the content pipelines that you create, you end up with these teams that are just so big to fill these massive worlds, and the way it scales generally too, there's a bit of a rapid exponential factor at the end where just the teams scale so fast. As someone running a project, you feel like you lose contact with the majority of people, like you don't have that sort've one-on-one contact with people, so you're then working or trusting or delivering messages through leads or through directors through leads and then just everything starts to feel a little bit more disconnected. And it's driven home a lot of times, when I would meet someone on a project that maybe I had led, and I realized well okay, well, I know you were on the project, and you realize that their only touchpoint with me was meetings where I presented or something like that, and that was it, and that's their whole viewpoint. And that's not a way to sort've, I feel, truly inspire people, or get them on board with something. You want that one-on-one opportunity and it's just really difficult to have it in those big teams."

Ben: "Who do you think you learned the most from in terms of studio management, team management throughout your career so far?" Mac: "One of the people I still sorta keep in touch with is Greg, one of the founders of BioWare. I'd say he's one of the people who to this day I sort've consider a mentor and someone that I look up to. I mean he did it from the ground up with Ray. And to me sort've looking at, because, a lot of his advice is really, 'don't do this, I did that and you don't wanna do that'. Like he's got really fantastic insights on that. But also when I joined BioWare, Ray and Greg would take everybody out to lunch, like you met them, no matter what when you started. I think I was the hundred and thirty-something employee, and they still took everyone out to lunch, made sure they met them, they also interviewed them. That's a good example. Even just, I always felt like, even from day one, even though I didn't have a reason to, if I wanted to work into Ray's office or Greg's office and talk to them about something, I could. If you ask Greg, he would say starting a game studio is really hard, the business side of it is really hard, and if you don't have really solid partners in part of that process it will pull away from your ability to actually make the game, which is what you're really there to do."

Mac: "We reach out, Casey Hudson and I touch base every once in a while and like I said I talk to Greg, plus there's, I keep in touch with the MELE folks quite a bit just because, you know, I think, again, we had that tight-knit group. It's a fun community, a thing that's really interesting to me is, how, I don't want this to sound bad, but, how, I guess, a little bit myopic or lenses-on you can be when you stay at one studio for a long time, right. There's an assumption that game development is similar everywhere, and sure, yes, but also once you start talking to people who've had experiences at wherever, Rockstar, Crystal Dynamics, wherever it is, you know, you start to go, oh wow, yeah, people had vastly different experiences going through these processes, they had different methodologies, they had different creative processes, things like that. And again, this is one of the things that you didn't realize you were kinda missing until you found it. It's really exciting to get out there and start talking to people and figuring that out." Ben: "From the outside perspective, it's easy to be like, oh, I bet Mac's having a hard time unplugging from BioWare, and specifically from ME and the ME lore? Do you feel that? Is it tough to emotionally unplug from being a ME guy for so long?" Mac: "Nope, it actually wasn't. But again, to be clear, this wasn't like a decision in a day, like I said, this was burbling, I think, for a little bit. Like MELE shipped in 2021, spring 2021 I think, and I left in, you know, holiday 2022, so there was a long period there of me sort've unwinding and unplugging and kind've feeling like, you know, yeah, I think I'm kinda done with this. So you know, it was a process for me. I'm sure it seemed more abrupt from the outside looking in. But, you know, I went through my own mental journey of that. Back it up even further, I'll be honest, when MELE came up, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it. Like I was already starting to have that feel of, oh, another Mass Effect, do I have it in me to do another Mass Effect? There's part of me that sorta had that feeling of like, do I wanna revisit all this, do I wanna go backwards? Because there's a sense of like, am I gonna go back? And obviously I'm so glad I made the decision to do it because I personally learned so much through that whole process, it was fantastic and I really enjoyed our time together. It was also nice because it was a nice short project. That was one thing that was kinda really special about that too, being able to kind've start and finish in like less than 3 years."

Ben: "You're welcome to slink out of the camera frame if you're so exhausted by it, but, is it a matter of like, in doing MELE, I'm gonna have to revisit the ME3 ending and talk about it again? I mean, the vibe I always had from visiting BioWare is like, it was a no-joke - traumatic thing for the studio to go through, like extremely stressful." Mac: "Oh yeah." Ben: "Is that genuinely on your mind when you're thinking of picking up MELE as a project? Revisiting the end of ME3 and all of the baggage with that emotionally." Mac: "Yes, I think so, I mean, for sure, I knew, at least, at the very least I was like, well, this is gonna bring those conversations back up again. But, you know, had they ever stopped? Like I can think of a few interviews that I did, I'm sure, around Anthem time or something like that, and people, it always just comes up. It's like, oh, yeah. Or like, I'm doing stuff for comics that are kinda not related, and it's like, okay, well let's talk about - you know, it's just, I feel like it's in everybody's rolodex of 'things we have to ask Mac in a meeting'. So it's like it hadn't really ever stopped, so. It was a consideration, but not one that really caused me much pause." Ben: "Also the nice thing too is, bundling them all together, it's like, alright people from the press, I dare ya to play through all three games in a time where this is still gonna be relevant, and then you can post an article about it. But most people revisited ME1 and said 'this rules', moving onto the next project, and then the hardcore fans would stick with the full trilogy and play through all of those. I didn't see it bubble up again from my vantage point, but I'm sure you did." Mac: "Well, actually, a couple of comments we had were actually very much to the point you said, that when you experience them back to back like that, it puts a different lens. I'm not saying it fixes the endings or anything like that, don't quote me as that, but it put a different lens on the endings, and on that whole experience. And then the other thing was, you know, I think a lot of the pain around that was the sense of ending, you know, ending Shepard's journey, but you have, it's kind've like, we're giving you the full trilogy once again, so if you wanna re-roll and start over, re-roll and start over. And that's what I hear, a lot of people. They literally play it all the way through and then start all the way back at ME1. If you think about it in the past, like if you think about the difference in the way it looked, the way it played between ME3 and ME1, when you're done ME3, where was your, you know, you had to be hardcore to go all the way back to ME1 and pick that up again. So it does really feel almost more like an ending in that regard, right? And now it's kind've like, I don't know, we've kinda tried to smooth it all out, it feels like all one cohesive thing, jump back in if you wanna jump back in, so yeah."

Ben: "How often are you thinking about ME, and I'm sorry for screwing up ME so much, but like, in a given week, how many times do you think of, or something reminds you, of a little bit of lore from ME or a development moment from ME?" Mac: "It's a good question, I mean it is super-entwined with all of my development experiences, so I would imagine it's definitely in there as far as just, you know, remembering times with friends and times where we had different problems that we've solved previously on other projects. So 100% it comes up. One of the things was, it just happened to be a very, very busy week, because we were getting close to our own studio announcement, and someone told me that it was N7 Day, and I had forgot. It's not that I'd forgot, like I knew it was coming, but then it was just like, oh, what are you gonna do for N7 Day? It's like, is that today? And that hasn't happened in how many years for me, right, I was just like, I was so laser-focused on the new project that, so, it's not that I didn't know that it was happening, I just had other priorities."

Ben: "Can you put into words just how much the release of MELE kind've boosted morale at BioWare? Do you feel like it was a huge thing? I mean, the studio's been quiet for a pretty long time. And it felt like a good boost of good will from the outside, at least." Mac: "Yeah, I think, you know, certainly internally, obviously, you know, working from the MELE team, the MELE team was stoked about the release, felt really good about it, given. You know, again, there was a lot of that like, we'd been given this small team, are we gonna be able to do it? So that was fantastic. But then of course, everyone loves to see when the fans are happy about stuff, and there was so much good will around the campaign, like the whole campaign and then the release, I think everyone really definitely got a boost. Obviously we love to see good Metacritic and everything like that, but it was the fan response I think that really sort've made everyone feel kinda like, you know, we're less in a defensive mode with what we're trying to do, and more like, yeah, no, this is, we've made great things and we will continue to make great things."

Ben: "Lessons from the past. Andromeda. I know that was a tough project overall. As Creative Director, working so much with BioWare Montreal there, was that also kind've priming the pump for working with a distant studio and trying to connect people across physical barriers? When you look back on ME:A, what lessons do you take on development from that?" Mac: "The remote part is a really good point because I, you know, I realized in that process that we could be doing this a lot more. And the key, which I don't think we had at the time, either solved or maybe put the emphasis on we should is, is really being careful of that 'us-them' kinda thing. And we did our best with that, but I think we could have done better with it for sure. I know the Montreal team sometimes felt like, oh, you know, there's the mothership in Edmonton and then there's us, sorta thing, even though they were by and large driving the development of that from day one. And so obviously me coming in, that was something I was very sensitive about, because I was coming more from the Edmonton office, but I realized pretty quick is like, yeah, this can work. We had the tools, we had the technology, why aren't we doing more of this remote distributed work? So I think that was a big lesson learned. And I think the other big one for me was, that was, I wouldn't say the turning point in my career but it was a point where I really started to emphasize people over product and process. And that was kind of an evolution in my career, I'd say, like, when you first join, you're an individual contributor, you tend to be hyper-focused on your product, like, I've gotta be the best writer I can be. Then you kinda progress in a little bit and you realize, hey, these things aren't as efficient as they could be, or maybe we could do this better, right, so you start to go process, that's the thing that's gonna make all of this better. But as a leader you start to realize, no, all of that doesn't matter if you don't spend the time with the people, if you don't get to know the people, if you don't have a great relationship with them and trust is built. And I think that was my big lesson learned on ME:A, which was, while I knew we could do remote, it didn't afford me, at least in the way that we managed it, to really develop the relationships the way that I wanted to. And I wish I had been able to get to know that team a little bit more. And so that's why, when I had that opportunity with MELE, it was top of my list right at the start, it was just like, we're gonna have a small tight-knit team, we're all gonna know each other. And even the co-dev. The way we approached co-dev was, you're part of the team, right, like, you fly out, you come see us, we'll fly out, we're gonna come see you, you're gonna be in our tools, you're gonna be part of the team, we're gonna have the same expectations of you as we have of the team, and that's the way to make that work, right. So that was one of the big lessons learned for me."

Ben: "Are there gigantic ME:A fans that you hear from a lot, a subset of ME fans that we don't see from the outside?" Mac: "Those might be more rare. I think what I see a lot are people who either are, you know, 'ME:A wasn't that bad, you know, it was okay', and I see a lot of people who are like, in hindsight, they appreciate it more than they did, which is often the case, right, you know, something, you know, the criticisms of it weren't unwarranted, there was a lot that we could've done differently, I think. But I think with time, heals all wounds, I think a lot of people look at it and go, yeah, but there's a really great premise here, there's some really interesting things here, and you see a lot of people wanting to even make sure that we tie ME:A back to whatever happens in the future, that's a common thread." Ben: "And it seems like that's happening, without you revealing anything." Mac: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm out of the loop, so I can't say anything about that. But I'm just saying that, you know, I see that as a common reference right now. It's like, 'we really hope that these storylines make their way back into the ME universe.'"

Ben: "Did you have any parting advice for Mike Gamble on your way out the door for leading the new Mass Effect project? Does he come to you for advice, or do you just get together every once in a while and talk about the challenges of everything they're tackling?" Mac: "It's more like, we would sort've share stories and talk about the different challenges and stuff like that. I think, you know, every person who ends up leading a project has to find their own way and he's finding his own way with it, so, yeah."

[soure and full watch link] <- the transcribed quotes in this post are only a small part of the full interview, which is quite extensive and over an hour in length. go to this link to watch it

New interview with Mac Walters: "Why Mass Effect’s Lead Writer Mac Walters Left BioWare" - [link]

Description:

"In this MinnMax Interview, Ben Hanson talked to the lead writer for the Mass Effect trilogy Mac Walters about why he left BioWare to create a new studio funded by NetEase called Untold Worlds. They talk about lessons from BioWare's growth over the last 20 years, how to assemble a team for a new studio, and the sci-fi action game that Untold Worlds is developing." [source]

#bioware #mass effect #video games #jade empire #next mass effect #dragon age #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #anthem #long post #longpost #tags based on games mentioned in the video #covid mention

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