#minecraft and its consequences etc. etc.

[elbiotipo]

"Survival" game: Press X to destroy that tree bare-handed. Now you have Wood, press Enter to access your inventory and turn Wood into a Crafting Table. Now press E on your Crafting Table and use Coal and Iron to make a Steam Engine.

[sonicasura]

*sees Cybertron's horrible caste system and Energon being hidden off planet in various continuities while diving through Transformers lore*

This gives me ideas about a hidden community of Cybertronians living on a different planet like Earth. When a place has a system similar to Cybertron in order, there are always going to be people who rather leave than deal with it. Everyone being careful about their activity to not draw suspicion.

If a large group plans to leave whether altogether or separate times is gonna require some strategizing especially if it includes a Cityformer. Supplies, patrol schedules, escape routes, destination, etc. After all I don't think the system would be so keen about deserters.

Leaving Cybertron is probably a big fat middle finger to them especially if it causes even more citizens to follow said lead. A few workers won't be an issue since they can replaced. It's only in larger amounts that causes production to slow down is when you got a serious problem.

A bigger pain in the ass if those who leave either have precious resources or someone with higher status/knowledge. You don't want the universe to get ahold of your gold and dirty laundry. The consequences for capture would be very nasty.

Once our Cybertronian immigrants reach their destination then it's all about setting up a place to live. Although there are chances a planet inhabitant would get involved but negotiations can lead to some pretty good boons. Natives know the land, its dangers, gifts and how to use it to their own advantage.

Once it's all set up then rules would be made to benefit everyone than just bring some order. Any newcomers can join the community and possibly help it expand. It would no doubt remain neutral ground especially if word about the civil war reaches them. Everyone left so they wouldn't have to deal with the possible outcome and rather it stay that way.

A hidden Cybertronian community definitely has great potential for shenanigans especially if involves any Transformersverse or continuity. A slice of life mixed with worldbuilding and maybe some action sprinkle in from time to time. Like Minecraft or Animal Crossing.

What do you guys think?

Edit: Forgot to mention this a prompt of sorts so y'all can try it without worry.

[suffarustuffaru]

im highly predictable and ive made yet another playlist i promise if you hear from me about a playlist again itll probably be another subaru one or something HAH

yeah so. anyway. theres arc 5+ spoilers in this if you listen carefully!!

notes under the cut as always.

the first three songs are the intro to his character in general - "don't forget" is his good intentions and loyalty for example. and also in general theres a good chunk of songs in this playlist with light and dark references (don't forget has "don't forget / i'm with you in the dark" which can be either seen as good or bad) and also a lot about duality, lying, or hidden depths as well (the stranger has "you are not the one you say you are" for example)

ottos character arc is also pretty bittersweet in general so i tried to choose at least some songs that fit that yeah. also a few repeats from my. other otto playlist. but i keep it to a minimum!!

the rezero ost song i included is the song that plays in the anime when we first learn ottos backstory!! it also marks the start of his whole childhood/past and such in the playlist

"sweden" and "sidelines": yes. i know i chose a minecraft song i stand by it. anyway these two songs are very like. quiet. mellow. calming. which doesnt fit ottos dp in the early part of his life but they fit his emotions more at this point id say. it gets that vibe across

also i know ballad of a homeschooled girl is an Interesting choice for this but like. i stand by it okay. its about how cringe fail ottos life is. his life is a series of terribly embarrassing events.

"shots" and "it's time": otto leaves his hometown

"sin triangle": the whole stuff with otto, marone, and the bandits happens!! also the lyric "two faced bitches never lie / and therefore i never lie" is so...........................

the songs following this song are about him getting into debt, him getting a little more wary, etc. "the hand that feeds" is a darker song for sure but its also a nod to the sheer amount of routes that have otto fall into slavery at this point in his life. also a good summary for the money / merchant ideals motifs.

the end of "any way the wind blows" to "you're on your own kid" mark arc 4 <3

"bird tutorial": this is a funny song to put in an otto playlist i think aljsdfls but i meant it as a nod to how hes being socialized (he now has a large group of friends that he lives with). also the transition into arc 4-5 timeskip.

"trouble is a friend": transition into arc 5, also a nod to ottos bad luck, could also see the "trouble" in this song as subaru as well

"consequences" to "canary in a coal mine": otto gets attacked by gluttony, injured as a result, and now hes stuck waiting for subaru <3

"this december": transition into arc 7+

"outrunning karma" and "friends.": i chose them as ending songs bc theyre so.... theyre like kind of innocent sounding but theyre Not Innocent. its a nod to the direction ottos arc is headed atm!!

[bellshazes]

@nydescynt replied to your post “do you ever think abt that time in s9 when etho...”:

^ seconding . Also I changed my mind mid response, bc I think a territory that you can traverse without need for a map bc its logic is synonymous w/ maps is indeed a dual territory/map. Which tbf is a consequence of all crafted worlds, but we don't interact with most of those on the 1:1 scale of MC.

​it gets so confusing and arbirtary when you deal in the digital!!! since i'm also fixated on digital literalism i am thinking abt the capacity for digital territory to not be the territory - less an issue in minecraft but eminently a concern for 3D non-open world metroidvanias. which is to say mainly dark souls and its fandom culture of dissecting hidden, obscured, structural pieces of the game both in normal gameplay and with tools made to take the game apart without running the game (map viewers, etc.). superposition of multiple equally "real" maps/territories made ultracomplex by the terminology of terrain "maps" and also "real" digital ""spaces"" being capable of things not physically possible in the material world.

but also more to the point abt navigation and maps and readability of signs/signifiers, i think now what i want is more writing on the territory-as-MAP which does not make it a map that is a territory. the reversal of subject/predicate are distinct concepts and not interchangeable, although due to the non-existence of maps-as-territory and some serious longrunning doubts about the ontological vs functional implications (or not) of x-as-y-ness is yet more tempting rabbit holes. but i am out of time

[molluskmirage]

going to talk about some personal qualms about role play in general with Minecraft as the backdrop. If thats not your jam, you understandably disagree or have your own opinions, well, this discussion is for me to organize my own thoughts on it so you can either disregard this post entirely or view it as a spectacle for your own gain, or whatever the case… I shall dive in now.

Qsmp is my first heavy role play server and I have to say in general I really despise role play. However in trying to state what I dislike theres a lot of things to it, somethings that are technically role-play that I do enjoy verses that which I dont.

there is what I will call ‘natural roleplay’ that occurs in a natural sense. Characters aren’t necessarily ‘really’ in the situation but they play into it by the feed back or for the fun of it. This is something that happens in real life, it particularly happens in areas of high stress as a playful way to navigate or center people in a chaotic world. An example of this (there are many examples in the life series but im going to choose for this ) the clockers from limited life. Now they weren’t really a ‘family’ but they played into being a family because it was funny because it bonded them while dealing with the high stress parameters of the server. Which leads me to my next set of role play which I adore which I'm going to call ‘elements’.

Now elements are any set of rules/mechanics that is what gaming is. There are stakes, ways to win and lose and actions and reactions can seamlessly flow into natural role play. Theres a genuineness to it as you play that your outcome is determined by your merit, skill, wit, charisma, luck, your agency. Because it is so genuine life itself sets the stage on wether you are smart or ignorant, abled or disabled, skilled or unskilled. Life sets the ‘uncontrollables’ while you the player navigate the stage props that are ‘elements’ decided by the host.

Those two example’s of role play are what I can enjoy now for role play I really cant stomach. Now I was an actor for 2 decades before falling ill, I can very much enjoy scripted work however ‘scripted role play’ is my absolute beloathed. For me it falls into the uncanny valley of storytelling and I just hate it. If there is the parameters of everything being a dream I can do it, but with out that statement my pleasure in said material plummets to the ground. Reason being is that the content is rife with contradictions and stakes that are set to whoever's controlling the stories whimsy which can completely assassinate characters to fit to these ideals. I think in part I really hate this because I have a language disability that while making language difficult for me I became hyper attuned to things like lying. There are pitches and inflections that come about from lying and not lying and very very few people can act appropriately when they need to for the story they are weaving which is unsettling for me to many degrees. And very often I know the ‘twist’ the creator has set up too far in advance. There is also the issue for me that when in choosing options for yourself its too absurd degrees because the ‘sky’ is the limit, however thats not really the case because most people write the same story over and over, either being a cartoonish hero or cartoonish villain that’s reminiscent of playing pretend with 4 year olds (and then my laser shoots you, ah! But I survive because I have a nuclear blaster and I shoot you-etc.)

all that to say I find it boring and tired. Now completely confined scripted works means that the author has set stakes for the characters and they can act and react accordingly (results depending upon an author’s skill varies) but characters tend to make sense and because no person is behind each character individually characters are free to be flawed without it being silly and free to consequences without it trying to be stopped because the difference between a play and role play is that people in a play are trying to tell A story while role-players are each telling Their story. With so many tellers it can become the adage ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ for me.

so thats the general outline of what Id like to discuss now for the applied principles in regards to the qsmp itself.

I have stayed enjoying as long as I have for the qsmp because there are a lot of elements and natural rp within it, which is and has been expertly crafted by Quackity himself. The eggs are an example of elements (they are vulnerable having two lives and if they die they are cast out from the series) and natural role play (we’ll use charlie here as he is the most extreme in his rp) while Charlie may act reckless for a fun gimmick of natural role play because the elements are real the effects from losing a character from his behavior, his actions leads his character to handle grief and remorse. while he does do this as a ‘character’ there are genuine feelings that he allows to lead his natural role play, ‘going to kill all the other eggs’ in grief while would be extreme behavior for real life and is a larger then life sort of sentiment it is still a real sentiment. This behavior can be exhibited time and time again for humans in the ‘if I cant have happiness neither can you’.

now it is certainly risky setting up an element in which you both need to care for and can lose a player because while the highs of those elements are incredible the lows are extreme and you end up losing more then the players that died to elements, you lose all that were attached to them as the emotions are too strong and too real to navigate for most individuals. The brilliance of the eggs though is that there simplicity and needs are understandable across language barriers and because they act as children they also provide access for language learners to start their journey as well, as players that interact with them will speak more simply and delicately giving nursery rhymes and explaining concepts that allow for beginner language learners an easier introduction to the language. There is a lot of reason and success in the qsmp that’s absolutely brilliant full stop.

For the things that make me cringe or fall apart are the more ‘scripted rp’ aspects. I think q!quackity suffers from this most acutely. I really wish quackity had set himself up as a villain/more admin character from the jump. He as a creator knows too much and its hard to watch him play ignorant and angsty when he feels so detached and displaced story wise. My biggest problems with the server are the overall mechanics and world building. I think there is a solid interesting story there but it can only be accessed when the heavens deem it so and respectfully it sucks so much to me.

‘find luffy’ ‘find the eggs’ the admins playing those characters aren’t physically on the server there is no way to find them, which we the audience, and the content creators know but how can they act out as they would ‘naturally’ when there goal is physically unattainable, you cant, which then when mixing the fandom into it they extrapolate and make strange character dives ‘no ones looking for quackity’ ‘no ones looking for roier’ there’s literally nothing players can do to find them so of course theyre not looking but suddenly it’s angst and ‘these poor characters no one cares from them’, like I said uncanny valley of storytelling I don’t like.

I did understand right from the get go this would be an issue as the set up of being trapped on the island, being the minecraft server itself, was a very peculiar plot device as it serves basically the opposite of what you would want for your players. ‘You cant leave the island!’ Uh what if they dont log in? Theyve escaped, there free! had there been an actual island in game that if they tried to escape from there could be consequences ( while perhaps difficult to dm/manage (though you could make some cool commands/effects that could do a lot for you) I think story wise this narrative could have been soo much more compelling and not just players having to willingly submit themselves to torture while saying they dont want the torture and to be free for the plots sake.

just putting this out here too but Ive hated Dapper’s kidnappings so much. He is probably hands down my favorite character and the amount of character assainations they have had to jump through for ✨plot✨🙄. I can understand the motivation for kidnapping Dapper as his Father is highly contested and Dapper is a vulnerable point for Bad but I really need characters to put in the effort like Charlie did. that was entertaining and intense and every character involved got a great dramatic story. Any other time when he’s been ‘magically’ obtained it feels like a filler episode to me and my eyesroll into the back of my skull.

another point about scripted rp is that the further it goes the more effort put in and the less time you play because it would mess up story continuity and in general just because a pile of angst plots, I just dont find appealing, and I know the creators put in a lot of work (that deserves praise) and there are very clearly people that really appreciate that content and absolutely great for them, happy their getting content they enjoy but for me it’s lackluster.

to the point of ‘well if you dont like it then dont watch’ as stated there are plenty of things I like about qsmp but also I try to watch things I don’t understand and don’t enjoy at times as research to learn what others enjoy and see in it to further my own understanding and compassion. I may never like it fully but if I can understand why others do I can better support and encourage there interests and I very much like that, people are great and its nice to share thoughts and feelings. because I do have what I feel is more outsider/anti? views in general on this subject then most of the fandom Ive felt the need to compile some thoughts from my perspective of it, now done I think I’ll go back to hibernating until a next thought.

[single-malt-scotch]

really glad you mentioned the whole tonal shift in the life series thing bc that thought was actually what motivated me to make that post. i remember people talking about when the Tonal Shift happened and for me it was 100% when keepinventory was turned on. please ramble some more about it all i would love to hear your thoughts esp wrt death games and whatnot bc i think you pretty much summarized my Exact thoughts better than anyone

yeppp Limlife is where it happened to me. as mentioned i think this worked just fine w limlife, i remember when it first happened and i was unsure, but that was on like. the first death. and when we got to see how much people would die in that series, it made sense.

we have only had one season with it after now, and i can say imo i think it was entirely pointless to secret life. i felt like something was off about that season outside of just the new gimmicks, and i realize that keep inventory means no tension/drama of losing items and surviving which meant that the entire focus on that season was really only the consequences of the main gimmick- the tasks.

and the tasks had next to no consequences until certain circumstances (being red life or getting a hard task-- hard tasks being rare, and red lives being near pointless considering 90% of the server had to get turned at the same time at the very end thus not allowing reds to play out their purpose for long). secret life wasnt trying to be a survival series in the same way, it was trying to be a series that handed players ways to keep surviving in means that werent rooted in minecraft's vanilla survival mechanics. there was barely a threat of death unless it was directing people to die, which takes out any traditional survival all together. where as previous seasons didnt bring in some new system to override the survival provided by the game-- you relied on vanilla survival to survive, not an outside modded gimmick.

SL's only worry was about the tasks and if the tasks werent good/interesting/etc then, well. there may not be much to like about some episodes because it otherwise would just be me watching someone interact with others (to the best of their task related abilities) with little threat of death. SL felt like a fun goofy hang out, which does mean it sucked to watch it. it just means to me that it did not achieve what i wanted to feel about a life season, based on how previous seasons made me feel. i would have wanted to have seen the alliances battles i remember of past seasons, for example, and yes i think something as 'minor' as keep inventory plays into all of this.

i dont point this out to keep hating on SL specifically, but im saying it to express how survival changed and why keep inventory can kinda impact this a lot. what makes a death game isnt just the threat of dying for good, its also knowing that you really need to try to survive. and when your armor and weapons are handed right back to you, you lose the fear of when its coming to get you. the anxiety of running back to your friends, or hoping to recover your gear. you dont want to die, not just because you lost one life but also because you know youre not out of the water yet when you respawn. if you lose all your armor when you die, you have to keep worrying until you get back on your feet. it might force you to find help and make new friends. who knows?

maybe that seems harsh but hey, that has never been an issue before, so i dont feel like the concern should be taken to 'what if they die too fast because they keep losing gear?' theyre capable. if anything im a tad worried that the want for content creation feeding into the audience will take priority over the original intention of the game and its survival aspect. i wasnt a fan of SL because i felt like it was constantly feeding the audience things with little focus on it being the kind of survival focused series we had seen prior, and keep inventory + the system of tasks kinda just turned off every other part of what made the older seasons survival/death games imo.

what i need is factions/groups/etc all teaming up and fighting and big battles and desperately clambering away to hide from death. or crawling to the feet of their enemies begging to join because they lost everything. i want them to struggle through each recovery. you die, you lose everything, thats the consequence of playing.

[aroaceacacia]

"in dream smp things have consequences" WHERE DID THE DREAMONS GO !!!!!!

everyone jokes about the dsmp having ridiculous lore while hermitcraft is a lot more tame even though you can make statements like "the mayor of the nearby shopping center, who is also a wizard and ceo/founder of major drilling/rocket company ScarX, is waging war against mushrooms" and have them be completely factual

[abysstwins]

my take on sagau ... ♡

if you cant tell , my mental sillies make me a sucker for the obsessive cult aspect of sagau (burn me at the stake i guess) but idk the whole "imposter" thing feels weirdddddd i always prefer creator!reader to be like isekai'd into teyvat yk (can you tell i used to be obsessed with the kuroshitsuji time travel au .....) ?? anyways have this while i decide if i want this to be a full series or just a mini series

notes : gn!reader , creator!reader , r is not traveler , they them used , this - like most of my writing - is self indulgent hinted with some projection , bulleted list cause its 4am when im typing this and acrylic nails suck , i mainly refer to reader as either r or creator enjoy <3 i wrote this while listening to this playlist ♡

okay so i feel like the self awareness began longgggg before this takes place ok

starts out with traveler , then albedo , then kaeya , etc

it takes a while but albedo finally finds a way to bring r to teyvat

i imagine that the acolytes can hear r when they play (esp the traveler)

if you're like me and dote on all of the characters you have they eat that shit uppppp bro

anyways so now r is isekai'd into teyvat yayyyy

it takes them a whileeeee to get used to being an all-powerful being cause like .......... ??? social anxiety ?? inability to communicate with neurotypical people ? depressive and manic eps ?????? mood swings ?????

eventually they kinda fall in the swing of things

damn if i was stuck in teyvat id just deal with it. you got some other way out ???

i view the acolytes as being obsessive in nature once r is like ....... there with them ( with due respect , that is the "creator" n all .... )

immediately wanting you to find a suitor ( or multiple )

by like the second month of being in teyvat r is WORNNNNN OUTTTT

everyone basically walks on egg shells around them oHMY GODDDDD

r has to basically beg the acolytes to stop being WEIRDDDDDDDDD

they feel weird being treated like a god ( well ....... )

they do kinda like their dreamy palace tho <3 its nice n has really cozy beds to nap in

their acolytes are also more than eager to nap with them om gee

r is a big fan of hanging out with the twins ( i like to think they're reunited when the creator comes to teyvat <3 ) they've all been to so many diff worlds they have a lot to chat about ( and also the twins are really the only charas to be semi chill around r )

oh ok random but also

r is visiting mondstadt and plays minecraft songs on the lyre and everyone goes CRAZYYYY

"it's their divinity's holy songs!!!!" cue the inner giggling cause its literally just minecraft music you memorized in like middle school

r is lowkey a huge flirt too once they get comfortable in teyvat ( they most likely hope this is just a dream and when they return home if they return home ...... that it'll have no real consequence cause it's EMBARASSINGGGG )

this leads to

well

jealousy lol

the acolytes basically beg them to find a consort or suitor or whtvr ( or even multiple :thumbsup: )

r tries to be fair and choose like 3 from each nation but cmonnnn ,,,,, wom en fdjfheskrf.vja

genshin makes me [ cries in bisexuality ] i wanna make out with like half of the characters

anyways def lots of fights between the nations about where their aforementioned palace will go ( r decides to station in inazuma , preferably near kokomi's shrine place ) and since r can still use the teleport points , it's fine by them if they wanna visit venti for some dandelion wine or zhongli for tales and tea

overlooking the whole imposter or villain au's i like to think being isekai'd into teyvat would be pretty chill

oooo r def likes to hangout / help out in bakeries n stuff

they're also besties with hu tao ( they kiss sometimes probably )

r and cyno have so many inside jokes pls help

idk maybe i'll continue this later or add onto it but im sleepy night guys

[tobi-smp]

What makes the misconception that exile wasn't physical abuse ironic is the fact that it stems (at least in part) from dream intentionally normalizing the physical abuse To tommy.

Most people familiar with the exile arc know that tommy stopped reacting to his physical pain, that he stopped reacting to mobs, hunger, fall damage, etc. What I don't think is acknowledged enough is that this was intentional.

Dream made the effort to not only connect his abuse of tommy as a punishment, but also to disconnect it from an active choice that dream was making to hurt him.

In the same way that dream normalized destroying tommy's things to the point that he was meant to be taken as a savior figure when he "let" tommy keep them, he normalized hitting tommy as a consequence to the point that tommy assumed that he'd done something wrong in reaction To being hurt. Meaning he excused the action as it was happening for the same reason he'd say "I deserved that" when he took fall damage.

The psychological effect dream had on tommy was Loud, its impossible to miss unless you're trying to, but these moments are now quiet. Its not the action from tommy but the Lack of action that tells us that something is deeply wrong. intentionally Not drawing attention to dream beating tommy is an Extremely effective way of communicating tommy's mental state, but the horror of that fact can get lost without that audible cue from tommy because of the medium.

People are extremely limited in their choices for interacting with the world in minecraft, so the same actions have to be read differently in different situations. Sometimes punching someone is horrifically beating them to death, and sometimes its pushing your friend to be annoying. As an audience we're largely dependent on how the cc's react to parse the difference in any given situation.

Dream's physical abuse both plays into this And subverts it to an extent. We're shown that we're supposed to read these actions as serious depictions of violence early on with tommy's reactions to it. The quiet horror stems from recognizing the dissonance between tommy's later reactions to the same actions in contrast to what we know they Should be, because the context behind those actions haven't changed. Which is both what makes it an Extremely smart writing and acting decision, And what makes it not register for some people even when they know that something is wrong.

People register it as tommy being uncomfortably docile around dream, but they don't register the violence of the act anymore. And now we're left with the memory of dreams psychological effect on tommy but not the physical abuse itself.

[spearxwind]

Your Subnautica gifset reblogs are making me want to play it but I also suck at survival games - is there any playable version (modded, a different mode, etc.) where where I won't die immediately and can explore?

Well, there IS a creative mode built into the game!

You dont have to worry about anything pretty much. Just explore and create whatever you want, but the story is disabled so you cant interact with any of the actual story elements

if its any consolation though, I also suck at survival games, this one isnt so bad! There's a freedom mode where you only have to worry about dying and O2, rather than also worry about hunger and thirst, thats how I usually play. It's a lot less stressful

Dying also doesnt have any real consequence other than 'makes you respawn at your last base/vehicle' which may or may not be very far depending on where it happens (at most you have to go on a mission to deep dive and get your sbubby back)

And the only consequence is if you got important/rare items and then die you lose those, but you can go right back to fetch them (so it prevents cheating) but everything else stays in ur inventory its not like minecraft. as far as survival games go this one is pretty chill

At least the first one is though. I honest to god cannot recommend the sequel. Most stressful gameplay of my life (derogatory)

Edit: including this reply also! I forgot about console commands, im not tech savvy 

[witheredbonnie]

Other anon, I get how you feel.

The main difference between Scott and JKR is that Scott has never publically advocated for the oppression of minorities.

People have a right to be upset with him for making those donations, but it is not the same level of shitty behavior. Still shitty, but not nearly as shitty. JKR doubled down and has had a huge impact on trans people in the UK, even now. Scott retired and is slipping away in the background. So, while FNaF has been connected to Scott for a long time, as he moves into retirement, that image will start to fade, unlike JKR with HP.

Yes, Scott will make money off the games and merch. Yes, some of that money might go to alt-right. So is investing in FNaF an immoral decision? ...Hell if I know.

At the end of the day, the decision of whether or not you want to involved with FNaF is your decision and based on your own thoughts and feeling of these events. No one can you give you the answer of how to act, that's for you to decide. There isn't always a clear answer, and if you decide to not financially support FNaF and look for other games, no one can fault you. But don't tear yourself apart over whether you're a good person for liking FNaF and wanting to invest in it, because that time could be better spent advocating to solve the actual issues plaguing us.

"The main difference between Scott and JKR is that Scott has never publically advocated for the oppression of minorities. People have a right to be upset with him for making those donations, but it is not the same level of shitty behavior. Still shitty, but not nearly as shitty."

while that may be technically true, scott cawthon just like JKR uses his money to fund people who take away human rights, because scott agrees with their beliefs that we are not deserving of those rights. scott may try to weasel his way around this by donating to charities or denying that he's in any way a bigot, but he himself admitted in his reddit post that he cares more about america's economy than the lives of half his fanbase. scott is still actively using his money to fund laws against minorities, he's just pretending that he's somehow still a good person if he also sprinkles some of his millions to organizations that wouldnt need to even exist if not for the laws and bigotry that scott supports in the first place. i think its dangerous to act like scott is acting "better" than JKR just because he's hiding from criticism and consequences like a fucking coward.

i think what you might have meant here is that the majority of scott's disgusting views arent pushed into FNAF, unlike harry potter which is a mouthpiece for JKR's eugenicism, antisemitism, transmisognyny, etc. if fnaf were to fall under new ownership, it could be like minecraft in how we separate the game from the creator. unfortunately, like you get to later in this ask, scott still gets money from FNAF.

"Yes, Scott will make money off the games and merch. Yes, some of that money might go to alt-right. So is investing in FNaF an immoral decision? ...Hell if I know."

i think you should be able to answer your own question here. the answer to "should i allow my money to fund facists" should NOT be "hell if i know".

i understand people wanting to support steel wool, but they have a) likely already been paid for their work and b) the executives of steel wool are still incredibly friendly and inclined to praise the open white nationalist that they work for. they are a company who are capable of dealing with the consequences scott's actions.

"But don't tear yourself apart over whether you're a good person for liking FNaF and wanting to invest in it, because that time could be better spent advocating to solve the actual issues plaguing us."

obviously there are bigger issues than video games, but let me rewind to what you JUST said a few sentences ago. that if money is given to FNAF and therefore scott, said money will go directly to the openly facist side of the american government. supporting these people is what leads to the actual issues plaguing us. downplaying scott using his monetary and legal power to help take away the rights of his own fans actually does make you a rather ignorant person who's willing to contribute to the suffering of your neighbors for your own pleasure.

[ivi-prism]

gimme some of your headcanons pls 🤲 I don’t mind if it’s hermitcraft, dsmp, minecraft in general, your fics, etc, I’d love to hear anything!

Oh I have so many headcanons about everything and everyone so you get a bucket of headcanons!

- Slimes have been known to randomly gain sentience, it isn’t clear why exactly but you’ve got just sentient slimes going around. It isn’t common but it isn’t that rare. You’ve got Jevin, Pete and Charlie and you could ask any of them why they are sentient and they all would just look at you and go “beats me!”

- Grian created Demise as a way to ease the Hermits into respawning more frequently. After season five when the vines took away Etho and Beef and incapacitated Bdubs + resulted in Iskall loosing his arm the Hermits where very shaken and fearful so they where extra careful in season 6. Grian arrived and saw this and went “understandable but this great adventurers that settle in planets at the edge of the universe need a boost in morale and confidence!” Cue to the civil war and eventually Demise…. It was sort of a cathartic experience and it helped the Hermits a lot

- Not all creeper hybrids can hiss. Doc can but Sam cannot

- enderman hybrids do get affected by the enderdragon depending on just how much enderman is in their genes. Ranboo would be more affected than Niki in this case

- Vault Hunters exist because the IPA detected some strange ancient worlds that seemed dangerous so they wanted to send some of its best adventurers (Mr. Sparkly pants himself) but someone went “Shouldn’t we like… understand first what the hell is going on in those worlds so we aren’t sending unprepared people?” Cue to Iskall and a team of admins under his supervision recreating the conditions of this world (season 1 of VH) and he himself + Stress, Ren, Cap. Sparklez, Antonio Ash and Hbomb ventured to this world to learn.

What they learned would be enough for them to later explore the actual ancient world under the jurisdiction of the Vault Gods (season 2) and seeing as they knew alredy they brought more people in. Why so many from the DSMP? In general you could imagine the dsmp would have proven to have competent people by now. But personally??? I like to think is a consequence of the events from Off World Vacations with Fundy joining the team and then introducing Iskall to Tubbo, Cap. Puffy and 5up and convincing him to let them join in

[jnixz]

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom

For this alphabet ask game

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Oh goood AUs AUs, I’m bad at thinking of them right off the bat. I’m usually intrigued to go with a hybrid form of fusion or crossover of something but here we go:

For Psychonauts

DnD AU MY BELOVED (we don’t know if they have dnd but imagine them playing and making characters for it. An actual AU if we get this entire thing with them as dnd characters + memchanics)

DnD Shows AU (aka y’know those popular shows with DND? imagine interaction with those characters either in their psychonauts version or DnD version. That’d be a treat to me)

Minecraft

Just design AUs like what’d they look like and powers they have in Avatar, Journery, Starwars, Steven Universe, Adventure time, Pacific Rim, RWBY (bc weapons combos my beloved), etc.  

also just common trope aus like Dragons AU, Wings AU

Musical AUuuuuuu just have entire psychonauts 1 and 2 as a musical (wait wasn’t this in your sideblog)

(someday, I’ll design them)

Tvshows crossover like Mob psycho, gravity falls, bnha etc.

okay fuck now I’m thinking Pokemon Legends Arceus crossover/AU because thats literally the only game of pokemon I know the story of bc of tumblr exposure to submas

speaking of, most of this ideas didnt start of with me but hey I still think about that subnauts ideas post I have. I need to think more of it someone please obsess with it with me

some other AU where you Isekai a character into another franchise and it’s weird as hell but character interactions are *chef kiss*. learning about others is good actually

Pantheon AU (or just fun assigning them aspects to lord over)

Lego AU (Psychics = Masterbuilders, also I just love legos. Give me Lego Psychonauts)

Zombie Au or any other Apocalypse Au -- my man you can never get more classic than this

Arknights -- its a gacha tower defense game and honestly the lore here fucking slaps idk it’d just be fun and bleak as shit

obligatory Self indulgent AU inserting my OCs and my Lore + 

TIMETRAVEL AU -- a fucking goal fic I ASPIRE to have the brains to world-build for. I’m gonna die from this premise. There’s a version my OC is in it and that it’s their journey while the consequences play around them.

literally these two last ones are gen-fic dreams in my brain help

+ any crossover to games i’ve played or seen

OH also I recommend ya’ll read this Psychonauts x Danny Fandom Crossover Fic its so fucking good, it incorporates both franchise pretty well!! (crap I need to comment on this again I keep forgetting to)

AS for other fandoms uhhhh brb need to remind myself what I like again (*never goes back to this post to add ever again)

[mariaiscrafting]

ahhhh ty ty ty <3

ok, so I think that what makes Dream act this way (iykyk) is how dreamwastaken became so big so quickly. and by quick I mean fucking lightning speed.

he didn't have enough time to learn enough about cc etiquette, especially in these three aspects: influence, boundaries and fanbase/stans/whatever you call it. I'll try to explain it:

• Influence: Does he know the influence he has? Like, when he hears that he is the myct with the largest fanbase, does he really process that? I remember he talked about not being able to control all of his fanbase and there's bad apples everywhere -- which is true, and that only like 1% of his fanbase breaks his boundaries (that include sending hate for him, harassing, doxing, etc. yk, basic twitter culture lol) but, honey, with your big ass fanbase, 1% is still a lot of people. As a content creator you *have* to be aware of that.

let's take the hbomb situation. First off, as a streamer, it's you that set the mood of the stream. Even if he was only messing around with his pals, even if they did say to do not send hate to hbomb, dt dunking on him created a toxic environment, which caused his fans being toxic towards hbomb and you know what happens next. Hell, when this happened, I was watching Tapl and he was watching them and he was crying laughing over them screaming bc they were just. so loud and so aggressive that it was kinda ??? Sirs, this is literally a Minecraft Stream lmaooo

my point is, that was not the road that dreamwastaken, 21M fans, should've taken. he don't condone his fans actions but he knows his fans are diehard and will always be on his side, he should be more careful before stating negative opinions, especially if its towards another person.

• Boundaries and Fanbase: He posted a list of his boundaries a while ago, idk if you know or seen it (btw please george copy your bestie for the love of god <3) but I'm not talking about those boundaries, I'm talking about the basic boundaries between cc and viewer. boundaries that, in my opinion, should exist between cc and viewer. I get that Dream is an open person, an oversharing type of open person if I may add, but I think he should take a step back regardless. When I heard that he was taking a time from twitter, I genuinely got so glad, not because he couldn't start any drama then, but because it would do so so good for his mental health. I'm not even that fond of him, it's just that for me, any cc taking a break or outright leaving twitter is a win for me. I know how RSD is hard to deal and honestly letting shit out it's better but dream you have dt you have bbh so please don't make things worse online 😭 I know how good can be to feel validation from millions of people but. it's not a good idea, especially in the state that his fanbase is on rn (this topic is kinda sensitive to talk abt for me bc people be outright ableist and hide it as criticism like. say that shit's not helping his reputation and whatever without acting like he's fucking. manipulating his fanbase for being affected by his rsd💀 or, on the other hand, don't say that hes just being adhd🤪 when he's just being an asshole like damn that's a Him thing bro lol)

(omg it's so big I'm so sorry and theres a part two I'm so sorry tumblr user messed-up-gal ToT) - morango 1/2

pt. 2:

Dream is the proof that the people who loves you can be your downfall. istg. Have you noticed that every drama that Dream enters, people usually get more mad abt how his fanbase reacts (85% they'll react in a bad way) than Dream himself? it's not always, but its definitely more likely. I'm not saying Dream is saint, he Is petty and his ego does him dirty and made him choke multiple times before,, But! i dont think hes a bad guy. he's literally just a dude. ok, he's a 21yr old white gamer man that has a trumpie past (maybe?? idk. I think hes cured now ig lol) so he's bound to do some shitty things but he still tries to get better and hopefully he'll mature. 21 is old enough but it's still so young, yk? I kind of lost my mind during the end and my eyes are literally begging to be closed so tl;dr: Its gonna be hard for him to become a better cc bc his fans don't let him be criticized (by infantilizing his adhd symptoms or the mob mentality as soon as someone says anything abt him), the honest criticism get lost between lies from antis that don't know shit, he still has a lot of growing up to do and overall he became famous too fast and he needs to learn things even faster bc as soon as there's not a single one dream hater on sight they'll turn their back and attack him instead lmao I hate twitter i definitely have more to say but I'm tired and my memory is shit. just-- hate dream if you want, love dream if you want, nobody is obligated to have an opinion but I wanted to express mine. have a lovely day! -morango 2/2

Aight, there's a lot to unpack here, so Imma try to only go into the points I have something to add to (here's what I talk about in each paragraph, if you want to jump to a specific point):

Speed of Dream's rise to fame

The "bad apples" in the Dream fanbase

Post-MCC HBomb stream

Not condoning versus actually condemning his fans

Manipulation & RSD

Criticism of Dream, his fanbase, and his brand

The “just a dude” argument, flipped

First, I agree that one of the many factors that has resulted in the current image Dream has set up for himself, the way his fanbase functions, the ways people hate on him, and the way the Dream brand functions, is the speed of his rise to fame. It's unique, and there are probably a hundred social/psychological angles that could be used to examine the exact effects of that speed upon all of these facets of the Dream Name; did rapid fame beget the rapid rise of unrighteous hatred, did those waves of hatred then instigate the rise of a surprisingly overdefensive fanbase, did that rapid fame get to his head and/or result in an inability to appropriately handle all the after-effects of rapid fame, etc.? That point you bring up, about how the speed of his rise to fame requires him to learn even more quickly, is so interesting to me. I think that maybe Dream expected to get pretty famous pretty quickly, hence the preparedness in regards to some mechanics of influencer fame- merchandise, business-building, networking, knowing how to manage his fanbase to best benefit him. But I don't think he expected to get this famous this quickly. This is all speculation of course, as are this entire post and your ask, but I think that he just couldn't anticipate having to learn how to handle enmasse controversy, waves of antis, or every Youtuber speculating/knowing about him; and yeah, that results in him having to learn all of these things very quickly, lest he allow his whole brand and fandom to fall apart.

Second, I disagree with the frequent argument that Dream's fanbase is only marginally toxic. Personally, I think that the circumstances of Dream's fame, his personality and management of his fanbase, and his brand of content have resulted in the very specific kind of stan that Dream stans are. I don't think this is simply a case of "all fandoms have a small percentage of assholes who take it too far;" rather, the nature of the community itself breeds the kind of mentality of "an asshole who takes it too far." I only even know this because I was a Dream fan (kinda a stan, I'm ngl). At one time, I watched every single Dreamwastaken & Dream Team video multiple times; I listened to the Manhunts on repeat, as though they were podcasts; I followed mostly smiletwt and dttwt accounts on mcyttwt; I had upwards of 10 tabs for AO3 DNF fics open on my phone at a time; I watched DNF and Dream Team Being A Family-esque compilations on repeat; I watched every George and Sapnap alt stream I possibly could; I went out of my way to defend Dream against Redditors and Twitter antis regarding the cheating scandal. For the latter half of 2020, and a couple months of 2021, I lived and breathed this part of the fandom; so when I say that Dream stans are a whole other breed than any other kind of mcyttwt stan, I say that because I used to be like that, too. I usually use parasocial very loosely or ironically, but Dream stans are genuinely one of the most parasocial fanbases I have ever seen or been a part of. The level of investment Dream stans have in this man's life, the lengths they will go to to defend him, the amount of psychonalysis and digging they do on his life and character, the amount of emotion he can evoke in them- it's taken to another level, man. This isn't just characteristic of a fraction of his fanbase; this is what the fanbase is like as a whole.

Third, I partially disagree with your take on the HBomb thing, but not in the way one might think? I actually empathize with the way they reacted much more than I thought I would, simply because I suspect I have RSD (also suspect I have ADHD, have for several months now) and I can see myself getting insanely frustrated because of something like that. Like yeah, it was "just a MC stream" or "just an MC game," but that's kinda disregarding the fact that something that might seem like "just a [insert inconsequential thing]" to a rational mind might have a major emotional consequence/take a major emotional toll on someone with RSD, or really anyone who gets easily impatient/angry about video games (Sapnap reminds me of many of my friends, in that way). The issues I, personally, had with the way they handled the HBomb situation is that these are simply explanations and reasons for my empathy; they are not excuses. I have no excuse when I get irrationally angry about something inconsequential in my own life, for a couple of reasons. One, because I am an adult and I need to learn how to handle my reactions and manage my own anger. Two, because as someone with many mental problems, it is my responsibility to learn coping mechanisms to ensure my own emotional stability and livelihood; this includes learning whatever I need to handle RSD- whether that be isolating myself from others when I know I will become violently/passionately angry about something, creating and sustaining a support system that can get me through bouts of extreme emotion, finding healthy emotional outlets for my negative emotions that won't harm myself or others, or a combination thereof. I don't think what they said about HBomb post-MCC was an irreversibly horrible thing, or anything. I think there were errors committed by two men who should be fully capable of foreseeing and preventing those errors, but I don't unconditionally hate Dream or Sapnap for the post-MCC stream or comments. I just wish they had made amends quickly, publicly, and sufficiently, because the greatest consequences from the whole thing weren't even from those two criticizing HBomb themselves; they were from the waves of backlash because of their immense influence on the MCYT fandom, which could've been prevented, if they had acted maturedly and responsibly after the stream.

Fourth, you’re right, that he doesn’t seem to condone his fans’ behavior. I detest the frequent anti argument that one of the reasons Dream should be criticized is because he explicitly uses his fanbase to attack others, or something of the sort. Personally, I think he created his fanbase in a very specific way and interacts with them in such a way so as to benefit him as much as possible, yes, but he never actually tells his fanbase to go and yell at or harrass anyone. Still, there is a significant difference between not condoning something and condemning something. It might seem unfair, and it might be annoying of me to say this, but I truly think that someone with this large a fanbase, especially one as overzealous as Dream’s, needs to be condemned every single time it goes on some kind of rampage/harrassment campaign. Either that, or Dream needs to make a definitive, permanent statement against any kind of harrassment of others on his behalf. I know he’ll occassionally make the odd tweet or serious stream addressing something his fanbase did, but one of the many reasons his fanbase keeps doing the same damn thing is because he’s so lukewarm and spotty about this condemnation. A fanbase like his needs to be given explicit guidance and boundaries for the numerous things they do in his defense- harrassing/doxing antis, harrassing people who criticize him who aren’t antis (respectful criticism, other CCs, other MCYT stans, etc.), harrassing the people he critcizes (i.e., HBomb), speculating about his personal life (his relationship with his gf, his mental health/ADHD, his romantic life, his childhood, etc.), and speculating about his relationships with his friends and colleagues.  My personal ideology is that, if you have significant influence over someone or a group of people, you are at least somewhat responsible for the things those people do or don’t do, if it at all relates back to you. I’m so fucking tired of the argument that CCs aren’t responsible for what their fans do. Obviously they aren’t responsible for every single one of their fans, and obviously they can’t fully control their fans at the end of the day. But I think there are certain things that reach such a level of extremity that does make those CCs responsible. This can be measured by either scale or intensity; that is to say, if a CC’s fanbase does things on an extremely large scale, or one person from/a fraction of the fanbase does something really extreme, then the CC is made all the more responsible. Another CC I’ve always had trouble discussing with other people on this subject is Pewdiepie, in particular, about the extremists in his fanbase. Because the things a small handful of his fans have done in reference to him and/or in his name were so fucking extreme, I thought Pewdiepie had to take at least some responsibilty. Along a similar vein, because the things Dream’s general fanbase does are so widespread and on such a massive scale, Dream has to take at least some responsibility.

Fifth, okay. Hmmm. I want to tackle this point you made about the ableism he faces in some criticism of him carefully and with empathy, but not coddling. One, I do think a lot of the criticism he receives for the ways he handles criticism (post-cheating Tweets, reactions to John Swan, post-MCC HBomb stream, etc.), disregard his RSD and can be oftentimes ableist. I’ve actually encountered people irl who criticize this aspect of Dream’s character, and have had to explain to them their disregard for how ADHD/RSD affect neurodivergent people’s reactions to criticism. But - and this is a big, and very controversial but - I think mentally ill/disordered people can 100% leverage their mental illness/disorders for the sake of manipulation. This is actually something I’ve learned from a psychiatrist, regarding the ways people I know and I handle our anxiety and depression. This manipulation can be unwitting or intentional, but it is entirely possible, and the possibility shouldn’t be entirely dismissed as ableist. Living with a mental illness or disorder that others know about/that you are very public about puts you in an interesting position to receive frequent sympathy, empathy, and/or pity. I’m not saying that empathy for Dream having ADHD/RSD is entirely unjustified; on the contrary, I have frequently expressed how I can relate to his ADHD symptoms and have defended him for expressing those symptoms, both on mcytblr and in real life. I am saying that Dream fans tend to use his ADHD as a kind of shield for a lot of criticism levied against him, including the supposition that he could be manipulating his fanbase to defend him because of his public expressions of RSD. So yes, my theory is that Dream knows how to levy every aspect of his life for his personal gain and for the growth of his brand, and that includes his ADHD. I think he has courage for his openess about his ADHD, I think his openness has contributed to the rise in awareness of mental health and empathy for neurodivergent people within Gen Z, and I think at least some of his expressions of RSD publicly/online weren’t intentionally made public. All that being said, I also think he has to know just how much his fanbase cares about defending him for his ADHD, and I think he has to know that some of the things he does related to his neurodivergence endear him to his audience, in a coddling, baby-ing, mildly ableist sorta way.  Maybe this is all incredibly presumptuous of me. Of course, I can never know the real intentions behind any Dream video, Tweet, or stream. Maybe I’m just projecting, because I can see myself doing just this, if I had the maturity I had circa 2018-2019. Idfk know, man.

Sixth, I actually agree with you here, people probably do get more mad at his fanbase than him. Dream puts out content pretty seldomly, considering the frequency of content output for other Youtubers/streamers in his field/at his brand size. And yet, he has received masses of criticism. Considering that the things Dream himself does/says do not entirely correlate with the amount of criticism he receives, I think it’s a logical assumption that a lot of that criticism actually goes back to the size of his presence online, rather than the man himself. That is to say, because of the massive community he’s amassed, the exponential growth of his fanbase, their presence on every single social media site and in virtually every single Internet space/fandom, and the size of his metaphysical presence in his fields, Dream is much bigger than the man himself, so the criticism he receives will, at least in part, be a direct or indirect result of all these other aspects of the Dream brand.  Something I don’t think many Dream fans/stans, or even most MCYT fans in general, understand, is that Dream isn’t just “one guy” in the eyes of the Internet- at least, not anymore. He hasn’t been for nearly a year. Like Pewdiepie, Mr. Beast, and other CCs who have amassed similar levels of fame and wealth via Internet content creation, Dream is a brand now, and most people will treat him as such. He isn’t just some uwu soft boy playing Minecraft anymore. He is on a whole other level from any other MCYT in his friend circle or colleague interaction bubble. His words will never again live in a vaccum or private bubble, his friend circle will never again be under anything less than intense scrutiny, his past actions will never again be simple mistakes or silly errors, his words will never again be casual tweets or streams for laughs among a couple thousand followers. Dream’s name represents something much bigger than just the one man. As such, all aspects of his brand, including his fanbase, will tie back to him and, ultimately, to any general criticism of him.

I’m not saying I like any of this, and I actually think the evolution of influencers from people to a marketable brand with similar mechanisms, responsibilities, and liabilities as a corporation is some kind of late capitalism nightmare fuel; I’m just stating my own observations and theories as to why so much anti-Dream criticism seems to be directed at his fanbase, rather than him.

Seventh, he’s just a guy, you’re right, but I think a lot of the antis on Tumblr understand this more than you know. As I’ve seen it, the sentiment among much of the “DSMP stans DNI” crowd seems to be that of “Dream/other MCYTs are such ‘bad’ people, so why do their fans stick to these mediocre, racist men, when there are so many better people to watch/better content to consume?” We know this argument is flawed for many of the obvious reasons - the conflation of all MCYTs’ actions regardless of individual identity, the equating of a CC’s fanbase’s morality to that of the CC they enjoy watching, the exxageration of any error MCYT CCs have committed as bigotry/racism, the fundamental misunderstanding and misinformation that led antis to believe this exxageration of the facts, etc. But I want to focus on the general, underlying sentiment of, “why not watch someone better, when your creator is problematic?” Sometimes, I ask this of Dream stans. Yes, being mildly ignorant, getting involved in the scandals Dream has, and being a right-leaning/libertarian centrist in the recent past all seem like harmless things, all things considered. One could say Dream isn’t nearly as bad as many antis who are misinformed seem to believe, and that there are much worse CCs Dream stans could be watching and creating fan content for. But I think what Tumblr antis wonder is, aren’t there also much better MCYTs/CCs people could be watching and stanning? Because he’s just some guy, right? Is his content truly so exceptional or is he really so exceptional a person, that people have to stick by him, despite the things that spike up regarding his current or past actions? I think that’s what made me finally decide to stop watching Dream. I realized he was just Some Guy. The Dream Team was a comforting dynamic to indulge in, DNF was a cute ship to read and speculate about, and Manhunts were fun videos to watch; however, once the Reddit posts came out and I read them in-depth, the cost-benefit analysis tipped over to the “not worth it” side for me. I realized Dream’s content, while fun and comforting, was not entirely unique, and wasn’t worth sticking around for, given what I then knew about his past political leanings. If he is just Some Guy, then there are a hundred more like him out there. There a hundred more ships, a hundred more found family dynamics, a hundred more entertaining and skilled Minecraft players. So while I agree with you on the point of people being allowed to love him regardless because he is just a guy, at the end of the day, I think that, if we are to believe that sentiment or use that argument in such a manner, we should also understand the flip side- that, if he is just some guy, why is it worth sticking around? To that I say, maybe because people just enjoy the simple things they enjoy.

Anyways, I wholly agree with your tl;dr. Thanks for that insanely long ask, this was a fun thing to keep me occupied while I’ve been at work, facilitating Zoom sessions this whole morning.

[bellshazes]

like all that abt soulsborne etc i meant but i'm specifically thinking about hermitcraft season 8 and the recurring urge to attempt to resolve individual creators' storylines during moon big as canonical or non-canonical, or less-canonical or compatible with some larger canon, etc etc etc forever. i get the appeal of searching for that single narrative you can grapple with as a fan and communicate to other fans in mutual understanding, but it is easiest to see, to me, that it's a fucking futile exercise when it's so clear there was no singular core narrative shared by those creators.

with SMPs - even more cohesively-coordinated ones - it is undeniable that there is no singular truth. there can't be, creation of videos is too highly individualized and on top of that, game mechanics and interaction with the game world is often only the pretense or the backdrop for the constructed narrative. a storyline might focus on the derived consequences of game mechanics but are oftener about relationships between players, collaboration or confrontation, territorial disputes, etc. if not being more straightforwardly and explicitly roleplay that uses minecraft as its setting.

as a way of producing new stories, considering "what if x was connected to c?" is an interesting jumping-off point, but i wish obsession with how things are interconnected didn't get in the way of appreciating the range of stories about a theoretically singular event and engaging with the novelty and possibility of those contradictions.

[castlesinchaos]

I thought about making a separate tumblr for my current minecraft/dream smp hyperfixation, but then I remembered that I have shamelessly pumped superwholock/X-men/literally-any-obsession-I’ve-ever-had-regardless-of-time-spent-obsessing onto this blog since fuckin 2013 and the only thing that makes this one different is the fact that I’m not letting myself enjoy it unapologetically. :-/

Edit: I was going to leave it at that but I think I’m going to elaborate actually.

The biggest difference between the mcyt community, and all of the other fandoms/communities I’ve been a part of for so long is how old the communities themselves are, as well as the average age of the people in those fandoms. And in a lot of cases that’s what makes the dsmp/mcyt more toxic most of the time, especially (recently) for girls. Let me explain.

The minecraft YouTube community is obviously not a brand new thing. There’s creators like Grian, Mumbo Jumbo, even old server players like Tobuscus, hermit craft etc. But the thing about the Dream SMP community specifically, is that DSMP only got popular in the last year or so. Specifically, over quarantine the server grew exponentially, as did its fan base. This fan base, tends to be younger people (I’m talkin 14 and under), and is predominantly male for the majority of the content creators (especially for the “largest” creators on the server (ie, Dream, Tommy etc).

Now, I’m not saying this growth is bad. It absolutely is not, the creators have put in time and effort and care and it shows in the way they engage with their communities, in the way they put out for us, the way they have tried to create a safe space for their fans. But the problem with quick and exponential growth in a young fandom ESPECIALLY when that fandom consists of pretty young fans, is that a large part of that community is going to have little to no previous experience in a large fandom. (Now, this has much harsher consequences and can lead to a lot of risk for young fans who don’t necessarily realize the need the protect their identity/personal life from potential community predators, but that’s a post for another time), but the biggest consequence I see and experience from this sort of situation is fans not knowing/understanding what is acceptable in the fan space and the repercussions of their actions.

I’m talking specifically, in what tends to be male members of the community, the use of slurs or offensive language constantly, berating other fans who do x y or z (ie, people who only watch Dream for his speed runs/YouTube videos berating people who only watch him for DSMP/lore or Vice versa), more specific to the gaming community but male viewers not respecting or validating female content creators (don’t even get me started on the way Hannah, Niki and Puffy are treated and viewed by some fans), AND MOST IMPORTNATNTLY: toxicity surrounding how the fanbase engages or participates in the community. most of this happens inadvertently or without realization from the fans doing it.

This creates a VERY tense relationship both between female and male (and NB fans because there is a large portion of the NB community who watches mcyt/dsmp), and young and old fans. Women feel like they’re not welcome in the community, they are shamed for watching and participating in the communities, they are belittled and shamed for art/writing/any contribution to the fan base they make and at the end of the day it can be a VERY hostile place for female/NB fans.

Young fans don’t have a good example of how to act or respect (both content creators and fans) boundaries, they tend to be adverse to education on the things that they’re doing wrong, and often they will continue to behave as they do until someone they respect addresses their behavior. And the problem with a predominantly young fandom, is there isn’t a whole lot of older fans to do that correcting, and when there is young fans tend to have alienated them already and therefore don’t necessarily respect them.

I also want to address that I’m not saying this is only the case for the mcyt/dsmp community/fandom. I’m just saying the conditions that created the community (short timeframe, exponential growth, predominantly young and male audience) has contributed to current state of the community. Other fandoms also had periods like this, the main difference, and where it becomes more personal for me, is that these periods of growth and toxicity happened YEARS ago, and the community as well as the people who engage in it has “grown up” a bit, so to speak. When you look at shows like Doctor Who and Supernatural and Sherlock, those shows have all been going on for 10-15+ years and the fanbase has also grown with it, overall becoming a more welcoming place and a place where fan created content is appreciated by a lot of the fanbase. (It’s also important to note a key difference here between the physical consumption of mcyt/dsmp and traditional shows like DW/Sherlock/SPN, with the latter there’s a consistent hiatus that allowed for a huge influx of fan created content like art/writing/theories. A lot of the fan base came to rely on this content to fill the time until the “canon” returned. and in doing so that put a higher appreciation on fan content and creators (which tended to be predominantly female ((something that is also common for the dsmp community)), which overall contributed to the destigmatization and toxicity surrounding fan content.)

At the end of the day I’m not saying mcyt communities or the Dream SMP community is all bad, or even irrepairable. I am saying that as a female and LGBTQIA fan, I have inadvertently internalized some of the ultra toxic sentiment surrounding participation in things like fan art, fan theories, and general fan engagement, and I want to be comfortable sharing these things that interest me and keep me engaged in the community on my blog that I’ve had for 8 years with the same shameless enjoyment that I’ve lent to other fandoms, and I think we can get to that point, it’s just gunna take some self realization from the community. Thank you for coming to my ted talk :)