#my interests align with my favorite medias genre. how cool is that.

[spatio-rift]

saiko being average at stuff he claims to be awesome at and saiko having no stamina at all and avoiding to even WALK if he can are both important traits so saiko being okay-ish at basketball isnt necessarily an inconsistency because it plays into his averageness instead. because thats funnier in that particular situation. i love saipsis rule of funny so much

[batarangsoundsdumb]

hae interrogationes multae respondeant quia demens .

if you read this entire ask post you deserve a gold star and financial recompensation

Um, Obviously because when you’re adopted by a white guy you automatically become white duhhh

this is about this post lmao and yeah youre absolutely right, you have to hand your poc card in when you get adopted by a white guy.

Do you think Cass would listen to Yanni, the YouTube channel epic symphonic rock, or some other stuff? There's some cool mashups but idk if that's up your alley, I kinda feel like I'm pushing it with my weird taste of music by recommending an orchestra cover of metal, but i just love that sort of thing and mashups :P @harvestyourcherries 

i haven’t heard of that? but in my personal (correct) opinion steph listens to classical music, and then both modern and older, and then also stuff like black sabbath, iron maiden, but also hardrock and hardcore. i like the idea of cass just liking the most extreme screaming songs full of noise and then also listen to pachelbel’s 370th sonata yanno? THANK YOU for the rec tho

speaking of ur cass playlist hc...reminds of the time (yesterday) i found 2 playlists randomly on spotify from the same user. one was abt 3 hours of instrumental/classical "dark" & "nostalgic" music. the other almost 11 hours of nothing but hardcore bass/synth/electronic music. just an incredible tightrope act to put on in public. the synth one was also called like "psalms for synth sluts" which is Also incredible

tbh i LOVE synth SO MUCH like for no reason at all but then also cannot handle a poppy electronic beat lmao. but this seems like the kinda thing i’d do but just in one (1) playlist bc i just sort songs by vibe instead of genre? that’s how i end up with britney spears and billy ray cyrus in the same playlist. 

Oh, I want Kate Kane playlist next! It would be amazing if you could do one when you have time and will 🙏

how rude would it be of me to just say no? like sorry kate but idk you and also you seem way too keen on the us military for an institution that homophobically targeted you? (and also commits war crimes) but let’s unpack the fact that the institution that caused the death of your mom and sister and also got you blacklisted for being gay is still one you align with???

'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' --- when i tell you i fucking screamed LOL!!!!!!! i can imagine the cameraman not knowing if he should cut to commercial or keep it on these two weirdos fighting on stage (bruce definitely ruffled dick's hair/noogied him right?? 

about this post but yeah lmao. this cameraman just turns to like the audience to get a reaction and it’s just multiple moments of CLEAR shock.

you are the only funny person on this hellsite

how egotistical is it for me to say that i get this ask multiple times a month? bc it literally happens so often it’s hilarious to me.

Wish there was more john/Bruce content 😔😔😔 was so hungry I actually looked at canon media 😔😔😔 (Justice League Dark babeeeyyyyyy)

check out batman: damned for some mediocre content but at least it’s john/bruce (also very interesting story and stuff, just got very >:( over this weird part where harley quinn tried to r*pe bruce or something? it’s not for everyone)

dick grayson but he's nicki minaj

his anaconda don’t want none,,, unless...... 

Dick Grayson was never a cop, he played Marshall on Paw Patrol

you are SO right. also paw patrol is a fucking good show idc. that shit could���ve been the new steven universe on this hellsite.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CS1lI0bLI7-/?utm_medium=copy_link

...

why do people keep reposting my CONTENT. if you are not funny yourself don’t just grab shit off of tumblr and post it on insta,,, get a life. sidenote: should i start an insta and get all these ppl to take my content down that would be funny as hell.

Might I suggest for a Gotham City Meme: something about the true crime fandom thirsting for the rogues gallery

ok can i just say something slightly controversial?? no? i don’t find true crime ppl who are into criminals funny, that shits disturbing irl im not gonna bring that into my very chill universe.

i may have never seen a 'jason cleaning guns in sink' fic but i do know he WOULD

THANK YOU

bestie im sorry to say this to you but while you can, and people do wash their guns in the sink, that is a lot of lead in a very vital part of the kitchen.

people tend to do it in the bathtub.

WHY???? like damn why do you even have guns

i dont think i read many gun sink fics exactly but i have read lots of fics where jason cleanes his guns in the living room. usualy dissembles them and cleans them with a rag i think

lmao fair enough, like i think that’s a large part of what i remember as well.

if you say you've seen/read gun sink fics I believe you. I think those of us who didn't see them are lucky or maybe didn't search for fics by tags or something idk

i mean ive never sought them out but i HAVE seen them,, like definitely i know almost for certain.

saw your tags and I'm interested in Steph/Kara now. They would be the most chaotic couple <3

literally thoooo, i have a wip where they get together in a zombie apocalypse and like UGGGHhhh i am so in love with them.

I am the Breece anon. Thanks for the recommendation; am reading now. I’ve always been a hardcore Superman fan because I love my pure himbo farm boy. My logic is, if one Bruce is a Broose, then multiple Broose are a herd of Breece. And this is a hill upon which I will perish.

fair enough,,,, like moose, meese, goose, geese, bruce, breece. i get your logic and i stand by it as well. (glad you enjoyed the comic recs!!!!)

It's a beautiful day in Gotham, and you are a group of horrible Breece

OH my god dude lmao

there only being 42 fics on ao3 for tim and bernard is honestly so sad i need more

it’s like twice that now!!! we did it lads. (tho very sad that my fic isnt number one but like number 4 :((((  )

i'm too late you already did the poll lol but may i suggest bethy (bernard + timothy)

shit dude that wouldve been so fucking funnyyyyy. think ppl have just stuck to timber tho, tim/bernard kinda died down recently and i think it’s too bad, they’re a great couple and i love them.

Wait, hear me out

Bernothy @redlightofdawn

great recommendation (lmao this ask is from like a month ago) but very sorry to announce that NARDTH is the superior shipname

Wait, we know that bernard likes milfs (Tim's step-mom) but what about dilfs? gilfs?

Wait no, I regret sending that ask

these were two seperate asks and they’re HILARIOUS. in my personal opinion tho,,, milfs, gilfs, dilfs are just about vibes and bernard is just attracted to sexy ppl who may sometimes be milfs, dilfs, or EVEN gilfs.

crime in bludhaven would drop to half if nightwing had a boob window. in this essay i will-

WHERE’S THE ESSAY ANON, WHERE’S THE FUCKING ESSAY

Wait if Barbra and Tim r at opposite ends at all times what happened to Barbra once everyone’s Tim’s ever love before started dying lol

she won a lottery ticket and spent 2 weeks on a resort in the bahamas before returning home and finding out that the joker was arrested for tax evasion and then spent a month staying at her big tiddie goth girlfriend’s house before conner came back to life and she broke her pinkie playing table hockey.

Why is the opposite end thing so funny and compelling to me. Tim comes back from his depression quest for Bruce and Babs is now a literal god

lmao when tim loses his spleen barbara reaches nirvana.

Are you still taking music recs because I have three songs that remind me of Jason that I think you'd like

send to me or lose a toe

🌸 ⭐ put this star into the inbox of your favorite blogs. it’s time to spread positivity! ⭐🌸😋

thanks, i wont tho on account of i wont.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMduBy3Sr/

⬆️

This is the whole of Blüdhaven and everyone anywhere.

Nightwings ass alone saves more people in a calendar year and does more for so society than most heroes do their whole career.Also u are one of the funniest tumblr pages out there. The vibes are unmatched and the memes and tags ✨send me✨.Thank u and goodnight @julia-flow 

fanksss also lmao.

That's going to be a little bit difficult to explain, but

There's some music that you listen to and you think, "oh my gosh, I can perfectly imagine Dick Grayson singing this song, with the same voice as the singer because that voice matches with Dick Grayson"?

oh yeah totally lmao. i have a lot of songs that i think are just entirely dick grayson yanno? kind of all of my playlists have that vibe, but i really find bleachers to fit with dick? idk.

"Lois lane/Superman" fics this, "Lois lane/Clark Kent" fics that, (/lh) let's get into the real good stuff. Some people ship Lois, Clark, and Superman as a throuple. Most popular fic tag for sure

yes totally, i think they’d be absolutely killer on ao3 and clark gets so fucking embarassed about it.

I miss your post, hope you’re doing okay!!

haha this was like 2 months ago, but i was doing fine then too! just didn’t have a lot of inspiration in terms of content.

Doot doot!

noot noot

I’m confused. What did DC do now? Like with nightwing? And another sibling? Please spoil everything for me

lmao they gave him a secret sister plotline where they had his dad cheat on his mom with tony zucco’s wife, bc dick’s life wasn’t traumatic enough yet.

sorry but it's so funny that batman is called "the dark knight" when the gotham city baseball team is called the gotham knights. it'd be like if a vigilante was running around new york called like "the scary yankee"

lmaooo no. but like yankee comes from dutch names or something so wouldnt it be HILARIOUS if gotham knights came from like german names and bruce would be running around called the dark KLAUS UND NIEK @graysonnightwing 

(not a batcest shipper) it’s so funny to me that the responses are “i’m a batcest shipper because i can differentiate fiction from reality and and it doesn’t bother me personally, but i understand why you oils think it’s weird” to “i wish all batcest shippers a very fucking die”

yeah lmaoo. i personally basically flipped my entire stance around to ‘i dont care please leave me and everybody else alone’ bc i think there’s really no point in starting a moral dillema over some fucking fandom bullshit. Please just,,, go home,,, log off, find a nice forest to have a little walk in and remember that somewhere in history, somebody probably died in the place you’re standing. and you will also die someday, and somebody will have to look at your internet usage and see you fighting multiple people anonymously while being named ‘nightwingsbuttchin200186′ like... calm down, we’re all gonna die this is not the thing to worry about.

so since like "wards" don't really exist in modern society almost all the batkids are foster kids, right? i used to work in the system and imagine: monthly visits from social workers and guardian ad litems, bruce having to get permission to take the boys anywhere out of state, calling their social worker at like 8 a.m. like "yeah dick broke his arm again... a gymnastics accident this time...." their poor social worker. bruce send her a huge bouquet and box of chocolates every month to stay on her good side

i imagine the social worker just getting into the case like ‘yeah let’s get this kid a good guardian’ and then ending up having to work with 22 y/o bruce wayne and his 50 y/o dad. and so this social worker is like ‘okay we can work with this, this is the best home i can find’ and then like it ends up landing on its feet and then the kid gets adopted and then they get a call a year later like ‘uhm so hi, this kid tried to steal my tyres can i adopt him?’ and like 3 years later. ‘okay so basically, my neighbours’ kid imprinted on me and now they’re dead, can i keep him?’ two years later it’s like ‘okay so this assassin child-’

ever since I saw that one post of yours, the meme that's something like "I know that abba's backup dancer got me" with a picture of discowing, I've been haunted. Every once in a while I'll be minding my own business then the image of abba's backup dancer dick grayson aka nightwing aka discowing will flash in my mind and I'll be frozen in place. Today at work I was in the middle of folding clothes and suddenly once again discowing entered my mind and I suddenly lost the ability to see anything except He. Thank you.

wow. the IMPACT.

Braver than any US marine man props to you🤝

this shit is about the time i wrote an article on batcest, like man,,, the fact that i didn’t get cancelled is MIRACULOUS. also like,,, uh if anybody on here did gossip on me,, send screenshots i’d love to see it.

Hello, just wanted to say your article was great. Thank you for taking the time to provide an unbaised answer. It should provide people with nuances they couldn't possibly conjure on their own.

May I ask where your username originates from?

yes you may (also thanks!!!) i thought it up when i was trying to find an original username bc i didnt want to be called like ‘timdrakes something something’ or ‘jason todd something smoething’ or ‘dick grayson something something’ yanno? so i thought batarangs, they sound so dumb and that’s my username story... now it’s my whole entire brand lmao.

yno that bit in kick ass where red mist asks kick ass if he wants a hit of his blunt, was that the inspo for stoner tim

no? it’s bc i think stoners are hilarious and drugs are great. (dont do drugs tho) 

How would u feel if someone actually wore one of those bruce or ollie pride shirts u edited

fenomenal next question.

Dick as lil huddy and Jason as James gave me radiation poisoning and now I’m screaming crying throwing up so thx for that

(Rico suave as Tim is perfect tho literally no changes needed)

i was so funny for that shit wasn’t i??? lmao i loved those weird ass fancasts

You're doing the Lord's work by providing us with all these Gotham/Metropolis citizens memes, thank you for being so relentlessly funny @nellethiel-aranel

you’re welcome!! i really enjoy making memes, but getting validation for my content and my memes is REALLY nice.

Bruce is such a slut in your memes and honestly i love that for him @rhodey-rhudert-rhodes-main 

he’s that much of a slut irl too dw.

Bruce and Alfred have an emergency pride flag for the batkids. Oliver Queen printed an emergency "I love my gay son" t-shirt and as soon as Roy told him he was dating Jason, Oliver started wearing that shirt everyday and Roy always cringes when he sees it. Oliver also has an emergency "I love my lesbian daughter" shirt just in case for Cissie.

lmao YES i had a post like this bc like all of their kids/family members are so gayy

stop bringing back batfam fancasts it is not real it is not real it is not- 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

oh yes it is my darling.

did discowing burn down the notredam because he hates the bees? @allulily

no he did it bc fuck the french.

im gonna beg for 1 thing and 1 thing only. please please please put physical by olivia newton john on dick's playlist

okay then beg. bc i wont. physical reminds me too much of glee and that hurts me mentally.

your playlist is sorely missing some Madonna. Specifically Into the Groove, Like a Prayer, and Vogue

i’m scared of madonna that’s why she’s not on there. she haunts me in my dreams.

suggestion: son of batman by aaron dews for dick’s playlist🤩

sorry, i listened to it and the vibe didn’t agree with me.

Hear me out, metropolis citizens sending rare pair fics of Clark Kent x Superman fics to Lois to edit

yes, absolutely hilarious. even more funny if they send like physical copies, no address attached and lois sends it back marked with red ink, SOMEHOW

Imagine all the smut Clark must of read editing the fics

clark reads smut confirmeeed

NOT LOIS READING SUPERBAT PORN AND EDITING IT A 2AM 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

hc that alfred is a meta that boosts healing factor of the people around him. if the bats are injured as much as they seem to be they would be doing bat stuff MAYBE half the year. no one including alfred knows about this. whenever the kids move out they inexplicably dont recover from injuries as fast and feel better whenever they visit the manor they just chalk it up to homesickness. bruce just thinks he heals really fast. alfred thinks everyone doesnt take care of themselves properly @finchcollector

that’s actually such a great idea, but i think that alfred would find out and learn how to concentrate it better so he can help more people, bc he’s great and i love him.

One of your dickfast posts reminded me of that tweet that goes: 'so you've had sex how many times? Yeah technically that's not a bromance' lol that's dickwally or dickroy

literally tho. like that’s all of dick’s friendships. once it gets past a certain time dick is like ‘wow i wonder what it would be like to make out with wally, wally come make out with me’ and wally’s like ‘we’ve done this like 40 times, dick, you know what it’s like’ and dick is like ‘sorry are you complaining?’ and they just make out.

superfam and batfam associations??

-batman and superman

-dick/barabara and supergirl?

-conner and tim

-jon and damian

pls enlighten me I am confused

nope,,, uhm batman and superman, but dick and superman as well, and then conner and tim, jon and damian and steph + babs with supergirl

I came across a fic in which Wonder Woman calls Batman "Stella" (like Stellaluna, the children's book) and I can imagine the batkids hop on the trend and maybe copies of the book appear at random places (aka, everywhere Bruce frequents)

sorry can’t reciprocate that was the name of my high school chemistry teacher and it gives me nightmares to think about.

good human what are your pronouns?

wouldn’t you like to know?

I need me some gothamites preferring harley over joker memes

everyone prefers harley over joker youre just very fucked up if you dont

don't understand why people try to add like veteran policy to the batfamily

dick pulling out his veteran batfam member card so he can eat first: step aside, peasants

Do you know the song Simmer by Haley Williams? It (the first verse anyways) reminds me of Jason? It's about rage.

damn yeah i LOVE HAYLEY!!!! youre right thoo

Okay so I like listen to your stoner Tim Drake playlist 24/7 but would he listen to skegss? Also I keep adding songs mentally it’s killing me 😩✋🏼 Anyways,, I literally love and worship your playlist 😃🤞🏼 And uh yeah have a good day ✨

stoner tim drake playlist is lyfeeee. also dont know who skeggs is? i’m stupid? have a good day!!

All the Robins (and Batgirl) decide to trade costumes for one night just to fuck with Batman and all the villains in Gotham. @subspacecadet 

batman knows it’s them youknow but like,,, what does he call them? he’s like ‘red hood?’ and 3 people answer and he’s not about to compromise some identities so he’s just Pissed.

I aspire to treat cops the way my dad treats them. This man is a 45 year old Asian immigrant to the US and the treats them like his pets. He talks about them like unruly children. Sometimes he pays off local cops to shut up and stop acting racist. And usually it works. I don’t know why but I can see Oliver Queen doing this

vibes... and also yes? oliver queen handing a local cop a donut to shut the fuck up lmao. but yanno i commit enough crimes to not really want to ever see a cop ever, so they kinda scare the everloving fuck out of me.

seeing as tim hasn't aged in years, that means he was 17 at peak emo tumblr era. im back on my emo tim bullshit and im not letting it go

emo tim had a wattpad account send tweet

People seem to think that batman is so dark and serious when the rainbow batsuit is right there. He wore it with no shame.

dude the 60s were a DIFFERENT TIME

dick grew up in a circus, jason grew up on the streets, and tim was probably raised by the internet

all of them cuss every other word and you cannot tell me otherwise

bitch i KNOW but dc has to change to an 18+ rating if they want to sell comix with swear words in them so we gotta deal with imagining the swear words in ourselves

thoughts on teen titans and young justice

haven’t seen teen titans on account of havent seen it and young justice was LITERALLY my favourite thing ever, tho i do gotta admit it’s not at all similar to the young justice comics unfortunately. i really wouldve liked to see timmy bart kon cassie and cissie animated on tv!!

ew ew ew how to delete batcest shippers I genuinely digust them

log off tumblr?

Okay as poc who was called racist for calling an Italian pastabrain: in the batfam are Italians bit Damian just yells various insults about the others being Italian. Just him yelling “What are you doing you moronic spaghettihead!” At steph etc

huh? i meant real italians. homeboy is telling steph he hopes she chokes on her fucking garlic.

I think it's dumb as hell to pull the batman is the best fighter in the batfam argument because like it's just irresponsible of Bruce to let his kids fight when they couldn't possibly be on his league or something

fair enough, but also like who cares they could all kill you just sit down and take a beating.

lady shiva, thalia al ghul and Selina Kyle are all milfs @notanothertimburtonenthusiastugh 

unfortunately, i have to admit,,, you’re right

why tf didn't someone give joker a death sentence already? like he's a mass murderer...give him the electric chair treatment wtf

idk i think plenty of people would have tried to murder him already (boring answer is: he is a popular character so they can’t kill him off bc he brings in lots of money)

There’s no such thing as “ copaganda”.

all american media is propaganda. happy to clear this up for you

is it bad that I find lady shiva owa owa

no. find her as owa owa as you want.

aight I'm guessing the order of your favs in batfam:

1. tim

2. Steph

3. dick

4. Duke

5. the rest

you’re wrong but it’s cute that you tried, i generally don’t have favourites, but i have a special place in my heart for steph, tim, dick and cass. bc they were like my introduction to batfam. but damian, jason, duke, bruce, babs and alfred are NOT FORGOTTEN OR UNLOVED

oh my god i was literally just readily willing to believe that italians werent white ty for clarifying it was a joke im so dumb sdkvjskdfs

i mean some italians aren’t white? italian is a nationality as well as an ethnicity, so like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

since I saw so many people doing headcanons about the nationalities of batboys, I see Dick as an Italian.

dont know if youre serious or not, but sure.

super random but

jason 🤝 damian

old english

lmao fair enough.

tim absolutely has 1 gay uncle and his parents shit talk said uncle all the time so after bruce adopts him he specifically reaches out to this uncle to be like "heyyyy just so you know you majorly influenced my life yes i know i havent seen you since i was 5 and at the family reunion yes i know you dont remember my name idc thank you im gay too" and then they never talk again.

yuppp lmao that’s definitely something that could happen. i can also consider tim having no family members, like none. until he does like a dna test and he realises he has like an aunt living barely 2 miles away from him who’s like some illegitimate child of his grandpa.

I dare you one of them sends clark superman/clark fic and clark corrects the shit out of it and then goes like ps his dick is not that big, just telling as someone who has seen it. internet either explodes or goes who tf did he not fuck at this point.

i think everybody would call clark a buzzkill and try to cancel him over that.

so you're telling me Tim Drake wouldn't buy Starbucks?

no. dunkin donuts all the way

One of my favorite things is imagining people finding out jason came back from the dead and being like "oh no does he have magic powers now?!?!?" and he just pulls out a gun and tries to shoot joker

now he doesn’t even have the gun :) lmao

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

bruce gets codename ‘ugh’ everytime. he hates it.

crazy that tim being a 17 y/o ceo and a stoner who does brand deals are all actual canon things written in detective comics comics and not made up for shits and giggles by you, tumblr user batarangsoundsdumb @rowdeyclown

SO CRAZY HUH?

batman au where everything is the same but his utility belt is bright pink

absolutely, but i raise you, his boots light up like sketchers when he kicks people.

unbeknownst to the superhero fandom writers in the dcuniverse, clark and BRUCE are one of the most prolific fanfic writers in the superhero rpf tag on ao3. clark writes the best lois x superman angst, full of unhappy endings and scenes that are a so detailed you'd think you were in the middle of a superhero beatdown. bruce made an ao3 account to fuel "the do the butts match" thing, and makes batman/bruce fics from time to time. he wrote a superbat fic as a joke but ended up making it REAL porny. @concrastinator

dude they’re WAY too busy for that. Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan on the other hand are the most prolific fanfic writers in the superhero rpf tag writing what is Mostly porn.

When the dining table topic gets to politics, Steph says "eat the rich" as the solution

bruce just silently takes away her fork and knife while she’s talking.

[recurring-polynya]

What comparisons can be made between renruki and Ichiruki? I often wondered about this.

This is such a hot button issue that as soon as I received this (perfectly polite) ask, my body tensed up and my brain went Am I being trolled?

It’s honestly a shame that there is so much bad blood behind this, because it is, in fact, a very interesting thing to talk about, and I am going to attempt to do so in good faith, because I love thinking about this kind of thing. Even though I am very openly a Renruki shipper, I love all three of these characters very much, and I think that Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship is very important! I am doing my best to be neutral, although I have not read very much Ichiruki fanfic/meta, so please give me a benefit of a doubt. Obviously, I can’t stop anyone from reblogging this and putting their own comments on it, but I have no interest in getting in debates over it, so don’t be surprised if I don’t engage.

This is both long, and I am sure some people don’t care, so I’m gonna put the rest under a cut. I have tried to hard to write this in a way that will not make anyone mad, but if you think it will make you mad, please give yourself the gift of not clicking on it.

So, what is the same between Ichigo and Renji? Lots, actually. Physically, they are both tall, strong, and have ridiculously colored spiky hair. They are outwardly grumpy, but secretly have soft, gooey centers. Neither one of them is dumb, but they are both dumbasses. They are protectors: they would rather take any amount of pain or damage onto themselves than see a loved one hurt. Their friends are everything to them, and that goes triple for Rukia.

How are they different, then? There are three major bullets:

- Ichigo is alive. Renji is dead. Perhaps this is a little flip, but Renji belongs to same world that Rukia does, and Ichigo does not. This is not a value judgment, it is just a fact: If Rukia ends up with Renji, she stays where she is. If she ends up with Ichigo, either Rukia or Ichigo have to make a huge change. I will get back to this.

- Youth vs. Experience. Ichigo is a 15-year old boy, as we are told about 1000 times. There is some mystery over how old Rukia and Renji are, but they have graduated from secondary education and are currently employed. I think it’s safe to assume that they are roughly close in age to each other, but I think Rukia may perceive Renji as seeming older than herself-- he graduated from school, and she didn’t; he’s on his third squad transfer, whereas she’s hasn’t budged from her initial, entry-level job, and he’s now middle management. However, the arc of the story we don’t get to see, is that over the timeskips, Rukia not only catches up to, but surpasses him. Also, not for nothing, but I think that in the same way Rukia is immediately drawn to Ichigo because of his resemblance to Kaien, I think she is also drawn to him for his resemblance to Young Renji-- a grumpy, prickly young man, leaking self-doubt from every pore, whom she is more able to be generous towards through the lens of age and experience. (And I think this comparison could support either ship)

- Ichigo is the protagonist. Rules don’t apply to him. Fate breaks on his sword. He represents the triumph of love or hard work or dreams or what have you over the cruel millstone of the world. Renji, on the other hand, is firmly bound to the rules of the world in which he inhabits. In fact, that is arguably the entire purpose of his character. Renji’s fights are often used to set the stakes of the conflict-- ah, Renji got mangled, this guy must be tough. In the Soul Society Arc, he is an antagonist because he is doing what he is supposed to. In the TYBW, Kubo literally throws the two of them in a pit to fight some asauchi just to make the point that Renji is a shinigami and Ichigo is something else.

Let’s jump over to Rukia for a moment. Rukia is a great character, one of my favorite characters in any media. Rukia contains multitudes. She is tough and strong, but often melancholy. She can be beautiful and elegant, but she also lies and breaks rules and tried to put Kon in a dead cat once. Emotionally, she likes to present a cool front, but she has a big, loving heart, and she feels deeply. As a character, all of this makes her very easy to project onto, which is why I think so many people OTP her with someone, no matter who.Some people choose to try to make her into one of these things or another, and some people try to keep her as the full bundle of contradictions that she is.

There is no romantic content in canon Bleach. There is no romantic content in canon Bleach. There are many, many scenes that can be interpreted romantically, but no one goes on a date, no one kisses. Ichigo gazes longingly into the eyes of all his friends, it’s just a thing he does. Orihime does explicitly proclaim at one point that she loves Rukia, although I suspect that in the original Japanese, it’s the word for “friendship love” and not the very-rarely-used “romantic love.” I have seen a scene-for-scene comparison of IchiHime “romantic moments” only it’s Chad and Uryuu (which I choose to believe supports IshiChad, rather than negates IchiHime, but we may all choose for ourselves!) My point is that shipping in Bleach is a DIY craft, which, when we’re all having a good time, is what makes it so fun.

So, bringing all of this together, given that Ichigo and Renji are fairly similar characters, why are the ships so different, and what makes one appeal to some people and be abhorrent to someone else?

I think about romance stories a lot. I actually took a class on romance novels in college and I just really like to think about the mechanics of stories. In the truest sense of the word, “romance” is about extremes-- about sailing the high seas and wearing ostentatious shirts and shouting off a cliff in a rainstorm. When we talk about romance as a genre, the characters tend to behave in a way that we would not prefer our actual romantic partners do, but the over-the-top nature of it makes us swoon and our hearts drop -- except when it doesn’t. What is heart-breakingly romantic to some people can be a huge turn-off to others. The biggest fight my husband and I have ever had was over a kdrama. The male lead was hiding his identity from the female lead in order to help her, and I found it all to be deeply, deeply romantic, and my husband turned to me and said “He is being dishonest with her and I think it’s morally wrong” and I almost died.

So, let’s break down some of the themes of the two ships, which I think gets at the meat of what you were asking. Now, like I said, shipping is very participatory, and anyone may have their own ideas of how these relationships would be, and I am a big fan of “a great writer can get away with anything”, but in broad strokes, I think that these are the themes of the two ships:

IchiRuki:

Love conquers all/ Love is enough to overcome differences of class, age, lifestyle, geography, etc.

Instant connections/Love at first sight

Love is a force of the universe that cannot be denied or defeated

Young love

Grand gestures

Your partner changes you (in a positive way)/You effect change in your partner

Your partner is the center of your world

Your partner is the one person who can get through to you/You are the one person who can get through to your partner

Banter

Dumbassery

RenRuki:

Love takes work

Best friends to lovers

Second chances/Broken things can be repaired

Love is a choice

You improve with age

Shared experiences build love

Pining

Working together with your partner to create a mutually satisfying life together

Your partner enriches your world, but your independence is maintained

Banter

Dumbassery

There is also some degree of character interpretation at work, too-- there seems to be a huge degree of disagreement between fans as to whether:

a) Ichigo enjoys his normal, human life, and even though he do anything to protect what he loves, he would prefer to live a human existence with his human friends and family. He credits Rukia will helping him realize his strength and powers.

b) Ichigo is unsatisfied with his human life and that meeting Rukia opened the doorway to a life of excitement and adventure, on top of being given the strength to protect his loved ones.

As far as Ichigo pairings go, I think that most IchiHime people fall in category (a) and most IchiRuki (and GrimmIchi) shippers fall in (b). In both cases, peoples’ ships align with their view of what makes Ichigo happy. Most IchiRuki content I have seen  seems to feature Ichigo moving to Soul Society, rather than Rukia moving to Karakura. Rukia pretty explicitly indicates at the end of the Soul Society Arc that she wants to stay in Soul Society, plus she’s got a pretty established life there. Contrast that to the story of Isshin and Masaki-- Isshin seems pretty flippant and disaffected about his life in Soul Society; it doesn’t seem like it was a particularly hard choice for him to give up being a shinigami. Also, it’s pretty clear that what Isshin did was illegal, and I’m not sure there would be an easy way for Rukia to just say “WELP, I’m off to live as a human, smell you jerks later.”

To try to wrap things up, I think the actual dynamics of an IchiRuki or RenRuki relationship would be very similar, actually. They would banter a lot and dive headfirst into danger and support each other no matter what. Byakuya would treat either guy with the vaguest, most grudging amount of respect. The primary perpetual, unresolved argument between Rukia and Ichigo would be “The Living World is dumb/Soul Society is dumb”, whereas with Rukia and Renji, it would be “Squad 6 is dumb/Squad 13 is dumb wait no I didn’t mean that Captain Ukitake is an angel.”

Personally, I headcanon Renji as being more able than Ichigo to step back and be the support person in the relationship (see that bullet about Ichigo being the protag), so I think that RenRuki could manage to run a functional household, whereas Ichigo and Rukia would just go on adventures until they got arrested for tax evasion.

*For the record, I am very pro-IchiRenRuki, except that they would be even worse at running a household. It’s just Renji trying to explain how a chore wheel works while Rukia and Ichigo walk out the door on him.

[vapormaison]

2019 Best Japanese OST Press/Repress: Elfen Lied by Tiger Lab Records

Like many late millennials with artistic pretensions, I used to have an “Anituber” channel back in the wild west days of youtube. From 2010-2013 — roughly corresponding with my first three years in university — I reviewed DVD releases from ADV, Manga Entertainment, Central Park Media, and Geneon — all the big players in Western anime releases at the time, all dead and gone now with the rise of streaming. Everyone but Funimation — a sad irony and perhaps telling about the nature of the dubbing industry that the studio with a serial rape problem and established casting couch was the only one to survive.

In the interest of maintaining my personal ethics, posterity, and sanity I’ve long since deleted that channel. While there was definitely a “moment” on the platform for a nineteen year-old cokehead film student in front of a MacBook webcam doing his best Slavoj Zizek impression, that moment has long since passed. I’ve long since cooled on “substantive” media critique anyway. The world doesn’t need another Eisenstein-aligned Marxist analysis of Neon Genesis Evangelion — or, a 6-part series on using Lacanian techniques to develop a leftist praxis for Fate/Stay Night. Media exists in the present moment to be a salve for the postmodern hellscape we inhabit together.

As an interesting sidebar, the most popular video on that channel — raking in just north of 10k views over its lifetime from 2011-2015, was a twelve minute video essay on the 1995 anime Elfen Lied, where I asserted that it was the ultimate expression of contemporary Japanese anti-modern rage. While I don’t find myself particularly nostalgic for any of the content on that channel, I’m actually kind of proud of that one in particular.

While most of my analysis was fixated on the visuals, narrative, and recent oeuvre of its mangaka, Lynn Okamoto, and series director, Mamoru Kanbei, I did lay out a framework on why I consider it to be one of the most successful soundtracks ever produced for an anime. I did not heap this praise lightly, as that roughly fifteen year period of 1995-2010 was bookended by the OSTs of Evangelion and K-On! — and certainly proved to be one of the most sonically iconic periods that the medium has ever produced.

it was also one of the first soundtracks that spurred my own history of Japanese OST collection.

And, then, almost a decade later, I found out that Tiger Lab was releasing a vinyl of Elfen Lied.

In spite of this, when I originally the news, I felt a tinge of trepidation. This is not to throw shade at Tiger Lab, however — but at the reputation of previous releases of the Elfen Lied soundtrack in Japan. A quick adventure with google translate across the Japanese net for various Elfen Lied OST roleases — especially on CD — will reveal for you a lot of contempt from Otaku and anime-enthusiast audiophiles for any number of reasons. Most hinge on the quality of the physicals. This is often because Japanese physical media releases of anime soundtracks are often laden with fresh, exceptionally crisp and clean-sounding masters for CDs, and usually exclusive posters and other content geared toward the “collector” nature of many Otaku. This has usually not been the case with Elfen Lied.

A friend of mine in Kanagawa quipped “Sometimes it sounds better on the DVD” in regard to a number of OST releases of soundtracks from anime produced by Studio Arms with CD releases published by VAP. Admittedly, some of it must have been born in resentment, but I’ve always trusted the man’s opinion — as he’s invested a small family fortune into building a shrine of sorts to that studio’s output. He chalks up the poor release quality to the studio’s inability or lack of funds to master the content properly for a CD or HQ digital release, and VAP’s decline in release quality during the early 2000s roughly corresponding to a sale to another Zaibatsu. “Studio Arms made hentai for many years to stay solvent, maybe they could not send a good master to VAP [the publisher]” he told me. While I can’t know if it’s VAP, Arms or another studio handling the CD-master work, a cursory check of their oeuvre seems to confirm confirms that claim of his — but I acknowledge I’m wandering into uncharted waters here.

In spite of all that — I ordered the wax from Tiger Lab and was duly impressed. In lieu of reviewing each track as per my usual review format, in the following section I want to talk about my listening experience from the two formats I own the soundtrack in — the SA/VAP published CD from 2004 and Tiger Lab’s release. Once we finish going into the core differences — and why this vinyl is absolutely worth your purchase over competing physicals — I’ll go into the virtues of the listening experience on the whole.

Part 1: Comparisons of Select Tracks

I suppose the expectation is that I start off by taking about the most iconic recording from the series — the OP, Lilium. In the spirit of defying expectations, I’ll begin with what I consider a better litmus test.

My personal shit-test for a good master and press is how well it can handle a track that is sonically robust and diverse, crossing genre and form — requiring an intensive, sufficiently wide mix and refined master. You don’t get that on every OST album — but Elfen Lied offers one such potential track in particular, and that particular track happens to be my favorite composition on the entire album. Uso Sora, composed by Kayo Konishi and Yukio Kondo is a truly magnificent piece, and it’s used brilliantly in the series — for those familiar, I only need to quote one line: “M-m-mommy…?”.

It begins with lulling piano chords that gradually build in tempo and energy with the addition of percussion, and then it undergoes a full metamorphosis in its last minute or so to become an aggressive, frenetic techno piece with distorted lows and an angry drum kit. Mirroring the evolution of its subject in the show with understated aplomb, and functioning as a robust and enjoyable composition divorced from its source — it really deserve more recognition than it receives, but I do not doubt it will ever step forth from the massive shadow cast from the haunting chorals of Lilium, and the brilliantly directed visual intro that accompanied it.

Needless to say, Tiger Lab more than passed muster here, to the point where I’m almost blown away by just how good it sounds compared to the rest of my Elfen Lied related physicals. I experienced a definite brightness from the vinyl master over my stereo that I don't get from a lot of other Western label releases, like say Milano, which tends to cash in on a Westerner’s preference for warmth.  Tiger Lab deserves credit for this approach, because it genuinely feels like a more authentically “Japanese” sound. In my experience, the Western labels that care the most about the dedicated audiophile adhere to this sonic profile, and Tiger Lab deserves all due credit here.

Finally, I might as well include my thoughts on Lilium. In short, it sounds fantastic. The mix here really brings out the most of the chorals, and provides crisp and clean sounds where you want them most. It’s also one of those tracks where you can just feel the dynamic range before you even hear it. I ended up listening to these on my Cambridges, and I’ve got to say that’s there’s something in the way they treat this particular profile of song — strongly vocal dominated, extremely muted piano, and supporting string inhabiting the negative space — absolutely incredibly. It put the KEFs to shame. I’ve always asserted that you’ve got to pair certain songs with certain speaker pairs. I’ve never been a huge devotional music guy, and I’m not entirely sure that the Cambridge or KEFs provide ideal profiles for the track. That said, Lilium sounds great anyway.

But I can envision these on a pair of high end Yamahas, or a pair of vintage Blaupunkt bookshelves sounding as stone-cold killer as Lucy when Kouta’s threatened.

I sent a rip to my friend Hiroshi, the StudioArms Shrine man, who immediately snapped up a copy after listening. I also learned that it was actually the first vinyl purchase he’s ever made after two decades of serious collecting. So perhaps that is a testament in and of itself!

Part 2: Physicality

I rarely devote an entire section to talking about the vinyl/OBI itself, but then again, Tiger Lab has put out a release certainly worthy of this. First off, the cover, which pairs perfectly with the overall aesthetic of both the series and previous soundtrack releases. I can imagine this being a release that has already attracted some attention by Japanese collectors, as the cover seems to tap into a certain sense of continuity that I know are a huge hit with that community. It certainly pairs well with my two releases from VAP, and a laserdisc set that I have. They all opt for that very iconic Klimt Vienna Secession style with appropriate creative flourishes — but I like Tiger Lab’s take on it the most. The side characters populating the back in a choral array reminiscent of the Beethoven Frieze is also a really nice touch for any enthusiast of the fin-de-siècle style.

I picked up the pink vinyl on release, one of the few pink vinyls that I’ve bought that at least feels thematically consistent with the release and not just a default “vaporwave” or “city pop” or “future funk” styling. Diclonii rock the pink hair, after all. That all said, I’m wishing now that I got the “metallic gold” edition, as its another color that feels both apropos and stunningly beautiful. With all that in mind, this is also one of the better waxes that I’ve felt in-hand, and manages to feel robust. I’ve yet to find specific info, but it certainly feels like a 180g.

In conclusion, I’ve got to give immense credit to Tiger Lab for handling this release with a class and vigor that few Japanese publishers have given it. It certainly bodes well for the future of anime releases on vinyl, and makes me eager to fill out an emergent collection.

[planets-and-prose]

Eleven Questions

I was tagged by the lovely @cvrmillas​ (thank you so much you always make my entire day <3)! I’ll tag @violetcancerian​ @imaghostwriter​ @blitz-spirit-and-foray​, @kipskiff​ and anyone else who wants to do it! (I’m not sure who of y’all from the discord like being tagged in tag games)

My Questions

1. What’s your favorite genre to read? How about to write?

2. What trope will you defend to the death?

3. Name one thing that gets you invested in a character in minutes

4. Do your OC’s have anything in common with each other? How about with you?

5. Do you play any video games? Have the plots of any of those influenced your writing?

6. Do you have a style? Describe it.

7. What would be the best compliment you could get as a writer?

8. What is one of your favorite reviews that you’ve ever gotten?

9. Do you give thought to your character’s zodiac signs/other astrological alignments?

10. Summarize your WIP (or a WIP of yours/AU of yours) using only the 1,000 most used words (link here!) [Skip this one if you want lol, I just got the idea and it made me laugh]

11. Would you be able to dress like any of your OC’s? Which is closest to your sense of fashion and which is furthest?

Questions Asked Of Me

1. Is there any genre you want to try writing but haven’t yet?

I sort of want to try writing more historical fiction type stuff? But I get interested in super niche areas of history, and I don’t know if the scope of research would really gel with what I enjoy.

2. Besides books, poetry, literature in general, what other media inspires your writing?

Video. Games. I love some really really good video game plots and I absolutely am not above playing one and being like “that. that. I want to write THAT.” 

3. How do you create your oc’s? Are there any who are inspired by people you know or characters that you like?

I give them my traumas I never write OC’s inspired by people I know--that kind of weirds me out because then I have trouble distinguishing between the OC and them, if that makes sense. Mostly, I like to pick a character trope and then do my own spin on it, I guess? Honestly I mostly develop them as I write, once I write their intro, they start doing their own thing and I am cool with it, it helps it feel more organic.

4. If your oc is from a fantasy/scifi world, how do you think they would live in our world? If they are from our world, do you think they could survive in a fantasy/scifi world?

OK, let’s go through ALL of them.

Anura and Dawn would not do good in our world since like. Specialized physiology and all that jazz, and people thinking of them as freaks. We can’t even deal with people of different ethnicities/religions/sexualities etc, I can’t imagine how much people would lose their shit over a plant person and a glowy bean.

Morgan would miss piloting a LOT. They’d probably have a pilot’s license for airplanes but it wouldn’t be the same.

Sellia and Sergei would both do pretty well, but would hate not having their prosthetics.

Henry would be peachy keen (aside from worried about Dawn).

5. Are there certain types of characters you’re drawn to when reading or watching a show or film? Do these character types make their way into your own writing or do you write different types of characters?

The gay ones Seriously though, I really like characters with interesting representation. Asexual characters most of all (since I’m ace and wanna see people like me). And heck yes they make their way into my writing. I really rarely write straight white men.

6. Is there a book that you wish you wrote? What about it makes you wish you wrote it?

My favorite book, I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak. The style is BEAUTIFUL and the message is so inspiring and profound. It’s one of those books that made me think differently and I loved it.

7. What’s the last book that you read? Has it influenced your current writing in any way?

Lol, the last book I read was The Sound Of The Mountain by Kawabata Yasunari for my Japanese literature class. So no, it hasn’t.

8. Are there any writeblr’s who influence or inspire you to keep writing?

I love @imaghostwriter for all their lovely positivity! Same with @cvrmillas! @quilloftheclouds and their worldbuilding also inspire me! And I love @crypticsx and their consistent posting about their process!

9. Besides writing, what other hobbies do you have?

I play video games, knit, do nail art, read, sketch some. Nothing super exciting lol

10. Do you think you would be friends with your oc’s? Are there any oc’s you dislike but would be friends with, or any that you like but think you wouldn’t be friends with?

I haven’t created a ton of OC’s that are distinctly bad people, so I could probably be friends with most of them. Sellia though has SO MUCH personality, so I don’t know if I could keep up with her lol

11. Your oc’s are in a band: what instrument would they play? Who would be the lead singer?

Oh gosh, oh gosh. I have exactly NO idea. Dawn has the nicest singing voice, so she would probably be the lead singer. She’s also the one who like. Radiates charisma at all times. Morgan would probably be the drummer, like constant support, Anura might assist Dawn with vocals or play like? Keyboard? Sellia and Sergei would do guitar. I honestly don’t know with Henry.

[clr-flr]

bubbuh lol

PART 1: THE BASICS

What is your full name? Maestro Bubbuh T. Guhm PHD of Rubbishry III

Where and when were you born? I was born in a fairy circle before things got STANKY MY BOY

Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.) They were hawkers. Not much to say about graves.

Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like? I’m the sole special one child.

Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people. I live in my machine shop, a very respectable business. I host my little robo-mate Castor in various spaces there.

What is your occupation? I’m a master-of-all trades, but I’m a specialist in weapons engineering. I can be swayed into most jobs for the right price.

Write a full physical description of yourself. You might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks. I’m very tall, taller in my power heels, strong and efficiently built, dirt with a bit of dried blood colored - clay maybe? I like my pauldrons sharp, my sunglasses sharp, my stilettos sharper. I’m a fan of feathering scarification. Got my hair in my top knot like the warriors in those old VHS things I’ve found. It’s hot.

To which social class do you belong? Same as everyone else in the age. Surviving.

Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses? Monthly bleeding, that fucking sucks. Good for war paint, though.

Are you right- or left-handed? Left handed. Or right handed. Versatility!

What does your voice sound like? Saucy. With a hint of spice.

What words and/or phrases do you use very frequently? New ways to string curses together.

What do you have in your pockets? Nutz.

Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? No, of course not. ;^m

PART 2: GROWING UP

How would you describe your childhood in general? Birds.

What is your earliest memory? Birds, big gloves, then the Big Stink.

How much schooling have you had? Not much, Big Stink happened too fast.

Did you enjoy school? I probably might’ve IF I HAD GONE.

Where did you learn most of your skills and other abilities? On my own, tinkering, a few mentors here and there. Pulling things apart and putting them together - experimenting - experience.

While growing up, did you have any role models? If so, describe them. Me, me and uhhhh……maybe my good old jizz lump boy.

While growing up, how did you get along with the other members of your family? Who knows? Been a while.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Fuck if I know.

As a child, what were your favorite activities? Whatever.

As a child, what kinds of personality traits did you display? I don’t fucking remember!!

As a child, were you popular? Who were your friends, and what were they like? Dude…Probably.

When and with whom was your first kiss? Shit…Doesn’t matter.

Are you a virgin? If not, when and with whom did you lose your virginity? I don’t remember that shit either. Shit don’t matter.

If you are a supernatural being (i.e. mage, werewolf, vampire), tell the story of how you became what you are or first learned of your own abilities. If you are just a normal human, describe any influences in your past that led you to do the things you do today. Hah - I’m just a human. We have aliens and robots and cyborgs and radiation fuckers roaming around these days, but I’m not one of them. I’m this way because of my situation. That’s all.

PART 3: PAST INFLUENCES

What do you consider the most important event of your life so far? The end of civilization. Fuck yeah.

Who has had the most influence on you? Fuck you, me.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Being alive.

What is your greatest regret? Pass.

What is the most evil thing you have ever done? That’s a matter of opinion…

Do you have a criminal record of any kind? In reference to what?????

When was the time you were the most frightened? When I thought I didn’t get my wings perfect on my eyeliner.

What is the most embarrassing thing ever to happen to you? Associates’ failures that make me look bad, of course.

If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be, and why? I can change things now in the present, so why linger on things I can’t change??

What is your best memory? The ones I’m having now.

What is your worst memory? Worrying about potential futures.

PART 4: BELIEFS & OPINIONS

Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic? I don’t think either is necessary, or even useful. I work on a reactionary basis.

What is your greatest fear? I’d rather not divulge that. So in a way, that gives you some insight.

What are your religious views? There’s lots of spiritual uprisings these days that are pretty...interesting. But I don’t follow any.

What are your political views? Politics don’t survive here. If you mean in lawful morals - I guess I could go that oldies tabletop alignment route and say maybe a chaotic neutral.

What are your views on sex? It’s sassy.

Are you able to kill? Under what circumstances do you find killing to be acceptable or unacceptable? It’s always acceptable and required in a majority of cases. I won’t do in in rare exceptions when people give me a reason not to.

In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do? Brainwash them into false hope to drain them of their ability to fend for themselves - especially to sustain their own survival at the expense of dumbasses. I get it to an extent, but save some dumbasses for the rest of us, asshole.

Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love? That survive long enough to get to that point?? Hardly.

What do you believe makes a successful life? Living.

How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings (i.e. do you hide your true self from others, and in what way)? I’d like to think I’m genuine enough.

Do you have any biases or prejudices? Who has time for that, really?? It doesn’t really matter anyways. We’re all equally fucked.

Is there anything you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances? Why do you refuse to do it? I refuse to be a savior or a hero to mankind. I probably could, but fuck that shit. Not my job.

Who or what, if anything, would you die for (or otherwise go to extremes for)? I dunno, a spaceship to planet of sexy aliens made to worship and bang me?? That’d be nice.

PART 5: RELATIONSHIPS W/OTHERS

In general, how do you treat others (politely, rudely, by keeping them at a distance, etc.)? Does your treatment of them change depending on how well you know them, and if so, how? I shoot first and ask questions later. If they make it past that point, they’re probably a fairly good resource of something or another. I generally treat everyone at that level the same. I guess Castor’s more like my personal butt-boy though.

Who is the most important person in your life, and why? Me, because, well, look at me.

Who is the person you respect the most, and why? Fucking look at me.

Who are your friends? Do you have a best friend? Describe these people. Blobulon the jizz parasite is a pretty cool dude. I always forget his real name. But he’s one of the goopy parasitic aliens that helped cause the Big Stink, what a guy. We’ve known each other a while. Cactus I run into off and on. Loves drugs. Pretty reliable chemist. Castor has a nice butt and a lazy eye, other than that I can kill him with a push of a button so I have him under my heel so there’s that.

Do you have a spouse or significant other? If so, describe this person. Does my right hand count? Dildos. Castor’s weener and butt? If not, nope.

Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened. It was a misty summer morning, I groggily rose from my bed, half nude. I stumbled into my bathroom - head pounding from the night before. Then I saw him. My reflection.

What do you look for in a potential lover? Didn’t I already describe my physical build??

How close are you to your family? I don’t remember where their bodies are dude.

Have you started your own family? If so, describe them. If not, do you want to? Why or why not? No because fuck that shit.

Who would you turn to if you were in desperate need of help? My ass, it’s very wise.

Do you trust anyone to protect you? Who, and why? My vagina, it’s super flexible and strong. Kegals, bro.

If you died or went missing, who would miss you? The universe would be missing a star.

Who is the person you despise the most, and why? I don’t have time to waste thoughts and energy on useless fools.

Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict? I tend to fuck them up and move on.

Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations? I usually have to, but not by choice.

Do you like interacting with large groups of people? Why or why not? No because of mob mentality. That shit’s rough.

Do you care what others think of you? I care about what the most important person thinks of me: my ass. He has opinions. Strong ones.

PART 6: LIKES & DISLIKES

What is/are your favorite hobbies and pastimes? I enjoy a good tinker, a good shit, sleeping upside down, anal beads, sharpening heels to a deadly point, and smacking Castor’s head so his eye falls out of place.

What is your most treasured possession? My antique hall. I collect pre-stink artifacts and refurbish them to working condition. I guess that’s my all time favorite pastime.

What is your favorite color? Who cares.

What is your favorite food? Crickets.

What, if anything, do you like to read? Anything with tanks or monkeys.

What is your idea of good entertainment (consider music, movies, art, etc.)? I love those uh...I guess genre?? Of media...Kaiju stuff. Big monsters or robots wrecking shit or saving things. In video games, comics, movies, shows - any of it. Love it.

Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? If so, why? Do you want to quit? I smoke and drink. I don’t use drugs regularly, but I use them casually. Why not?

How do you spend a typical Saturday night? When’s Saturday?

What makes you laugh? Other people’s misfortune or clumsiness.

What, if anything, shocks or offends you? Disrespect towards me specifically. Expect violence.

What would you do if you had insomnia and had to find something to do to amuse yourself? Have sex until I pass out probably.

How do you deal with stress? Just busy myself with work or go scavenge - do something productive.

Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan? A little of both.

What are your pet peeves? People fucking things up for me by being idiots or directly putting my life in danger through incompetence.

PART 7: SELF IMAGES & OTHER

Describe the routine of a normal day for you. How do you feel when this routine is disrupted? There’s no routine, so it’s fine.

What is your greatest strength as a person? Just one??

What is your greatest weakness? I’d say it’s actually the inability to form strong alliances. I keep people away which keeps my net from growing and it only holds me back. Oh well.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Having a dick would be nice.

Are you generally introverted or extroverted? Introverted I guess. 

Are you generally organized or messy? I’d say a weird version of organized. I like restrained clutter - it looks confusing to keep others at bay but everything does have a place.

Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at. Living, being hot, and business. People, riding horses, singing.

Do you like yourself? Oh, I don’t know, take a wild guess-a-roonie.

What are your reasons for being an adventurer (or doing the strange and heroic things that RPG characters do)? Are your real reasons for doing this different than the ones you tell people in public? (If so, detail both sets of reasons…) Because if I don’t I’ll die. That’s pretty much all there is to it, I’m surviving after a huge apocalypse, if that wasn’t clear.

What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime? Nothing big really. Make a giant mecha I can pilot.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Even sexier than now and with bigger delts.

If you could choose, how would you want to die? Burning to death in radiation or acid.

If you knew you were going to die in 24 hours, name three things you would do in the time you had left. Just one thing. Have sex with a man for the entire 24 hours, so long that he dies in the process. Taking you down with me baby.

What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered after your death? I climbed these garbage mountains in 7 inch heels, fuckers.

What three words best describe your personality? Bitch, Ass, Fuck.

What three words would others probably use to describe you? Prick, Dick, Dong.

If you could, what advice would you, the player, give to your character? (You might even want to speak as if he or she were sitting right here in front of you, and use proper tone so he or she might heed your advice…) Stop.

[umusicians]

UM Industry Profile : : Wizkid News

As an artist, one of the biggest teams rooting for your success is your fan base. They are the ones who will purchase your releases from digital stores such as iTunes, stream your music on various digital platforms and buy tickets to your shows. They are the backbone to your success and without them you wouldn’t be where you are today. Wizkid News is a platform created to support Nigerian Artist, Wizkid. From posting about Wizkid’s releases and those of associated acts, they’ve been able to keep fans informed about all things Wizkid. They have launched several campaigns in support of Wizkid’s music endeavours and more! Since their launch in 2014, they have acquired a following over 2 million followers across their social media sites. This is something very rare that we have not witnessed with fan channels dedicated to other artists. Amandah Opoku sat down with the founder of Wizkid News to talk about why they started the platform, their recent website launch and more! Check out our interview below!

Amandah Opoku: Hey Wizkid News how are you?  Wizkid News: Been alright.  Same old quarantine routine.  I went to the park and did some content strategy. AO: For Wizkid News? Wizkid News: Yes, all day everyday!

AO: When it comes to the content you produce, what is your game plan? How do you choose what to post and when?  Wizkid News: It depends. There are times I’ll sit and plan content out for like the next 2 or 3 days, perhaps if we have a campaign going on for a video or project.  For the most part though, I just wake up in the morning and freestyle with my team.  We’ll post whatever feels right lol, or makes sense.  I often go scoping the internet looking for stuff that's interesting to post about Wiz or anything related to him.  So yeah that's pretty much that.  Oh, and we like dope content.  That’s it!  We’re just curating the page to look/feel as dope as Wizkid.

AO: That is very very cool! I know that in running a music site, we always had pressure to post this first or post that first. When someone releases a single for example, we wanted to make sure that we were the ones to break the news and everyone would come to us for the information. When it comes to the content that you curate for your socials, do you ever feel that kind of pressure? Like as soon as Wiz announces something do you have to be the first site to post it? Wizkid News: Definitely, I feel that pressure!  When I first started, I was REALLY doing the most to stay on top of everything.  I feel like I had an internal post notification alert before Instagram made theirs lol.  I guess I still have it now, to a certain extent.  It’s gotten easier now that I have a team.  

However, that pressure to get content out first is not what it used to be.  We’ve built up enough reputability where sometimes even if we’re a few, whether it be minutes or maybe like an hour late, I know people really value the news from a credible source like ours.  If Wizkid News puts it up, then it’s really a thing.  Wiz doesn’t usually share a lot on his social media, so I realize people often look to us as the source.  Being mindful of that, we always try to make sure the news is legit & is in line with how we view Wiz’s brand.  Yea, so being accurate & intentional are a lil more important to us than getting stuff out first. 

AO: I want to take it back to how you said that you are seen as a source, that people won't question what you post. Forgive me, I only found out about your page before No Signall’s Vybz Cartel v. Wizkid clash. Someone on Twitter had tweeted a screenshot of your Instagram page with over 1.7 million Instagram followers. And because of this Wizkid had an unfair advantage in the clash. What do you have to say to this? Wizkid News: Lol you’re forgiven!  The No Signall clash was dope, big ups to that crew for doing that.  It was really cool to celebrate the culture of black music, arts, & entertainment around the world.  I’m glad my team & I could contribute to the success of the Wiz v. Vybz clash!  

I don’t really like the word “unfair”.  We had an advantage, yes!  That’s due to the popularity of African music which is the new wave currently making its way around the world because of artists like Wizkid. Wiz just happens to have the FC, which is very passionate about him & his music. Wizkid is an icon, and that’s because of him, his fans, and African music lovers worldwide.  We, as a people/culture, worked (consciously & subconsciously) to build him & our music scene up to where it is today & I think we’ll continue to do so. We should be proud of that! AO: Yes, I totally agree with you on your comments about Wiz and his place in music and how Afrobeats has really grown. And I guess more and more people are welcoming that sound as part of their music catalogues and whatever they listen to on a general basis. 

AO: For you specifically, I’m going to take it back to the 1.7 million followers you have on Instagram. That is a lot for a fan page. Why do you think people, this could be Wizkid FC, I know that they go hard for Wiz so they want all the news or general fans of Wizkid, why do you think they follow you? Why are you specifically one of the only Wizkid sites with such a large following? Why do you think people are drawn to your content? Wizkid News: Hmmm, you know I still wonder about that too lol.  I think there's a few reasons. One of them is definitely consistency.  We've been really consistent over the years.  I started the page as a college kid back in 2014, and I’ve put a diverse team together to keep it moving, growing, & evolving to date.    Another reason is that people simply love Wizkid!  They love him for music, and everything else - i.e. his charisma and personality.  They love his lifestyle & what he represents.  What’s there not to like about Wizkid lol?  So, the page is basically like a lifestyle.  Every day, a fan can interact with the Wizkid brand in multiple ways since we try & feed followers a wholesome experience of Wiz.  

A third reason is that Wizkid doesn’t post much on his own social media, so it allows room for our page to flourish.

Lastly, our content is fresh!  I think our page really stands out in the media space!  I’m really proud of the way we’re curating.

AO: Speaking on how you mentioned that people are drawn to Wiz’s charisma and his personality. I guess you tie that into the fact that you’re right he barely posts. He’ll pop up when he has a song coming out and then you won’t hear from him ever again, sometimes promoting and sometimes not promoting. Do you kind of see yourself as an extension of his brand? Not an official extension because you are a blog, a fan blog, but anything along those lines? Wizkid News: Of course! I definitely do.  Before launching, I watched my brother/college roommate work as a contributor for a few Kanye West blogs.  Kanye, like Wiz, would only be on social media ever so sparingly. So TeamKanyeDaily & YeezyCentral, to name a few, were the go-to sites for all Kanye updates. TeamKanyeDaily still is today lol.  So, that’s how I sort of learned how to make my page align in an official manner with the Wizkid brand/camp.  

AO: That is very very cool to hear about your brother! Wow so it's almost like you guys have a knack for running blogs and everything associated with that. My biggest question is, why Wizkid? You could have started a fan site or blog  for any artist in the world, why did it have to be Wizkid? Wizkid News: Because Wizkid is dope!  He was my intro into Afrobeats & actually African music altogether.  I’m an American of Cameroonian descent.  Growing up, I used to listen to African music here & there at family functions but hip hop was my favorite genre - i.e. JAY Z, Kanye, etc.  In 2014, I was studying abroad in Europe. At the time, I was actually put on probation by the dean’s office at my school & had a strict curfew.  So, I was in my dorm room ALOT lol & my morale was down. That September, Wizkid’s ‘AYO’ album dropped & I came across it while bored scrolling on Facebook lol.  I recognized Wiz’s name since “Show You The Money” was big that summer & one of the FEW African songs I had on my phone. I decided to give the project a listen & I was hooked from that moment on! My whole mood gradually picked up as I vibed to that album repeatedly for days. From there, I went on discovering Wiz’s more & more of Wiz’s catalogue online. It was exciting! I realized I loved his music, and it was something for me to look forward to, despite being stuck in my dorm.  That vibe is what gave birth to Wizkid News! 

AO: Do you think in creating Wizkid news it helped you to better connect with your culture? I know Ebro from Beats 1 had a statement along the lines of saying we are drawn to Afrobeats because it's from the motherland, like where we’re from. Do you think that rings true of your creation of Wizkid News? Wizkid News: Yeah, 100%!  Like I said, African music was only something I’d come across while at family functions. My phone was filled with very, very few hints of it & endless amounts of hip hop. I’m actually a big JAY Z fan, he’s easily my favorite artist!  I own all his albums, all of them in CD format. However, Wizkid and that ‘AYO’ album really got me into African music. Wizkid became my next favorite artist & I consequently became a fan of African music genres! Wiz is truly a pan-African artist so I get introduced to so many sounds from the continent thru keeping up with his collabs, tours, etc. I’m able to experience the unity and diversity of African culture.

AO: Wizkid News…why that name? You could have called yourself anything. You know Wizkid Daily. Why did you settle on that name? Wizkid News: Yea, so I’m a big JAY Z fan. Jigga has a record called “Blueprint 2”  & in the intro he mentions “JAY Z News”. That’s where I got it from, and it fit the official feel I wanted for the page.   AO: Very very cool. I love how everything you do is tied to Jay-Z and his love for his music and artistry. You’ve really kept a bit about yourself in what you’ve created.

AO: From your point of view, what would you say is the most rewarding part of running this site? And what would you say is one of the most difficult things or challenges? Wizkid News: This page has changed my life and continues to do so everyday!  I’m very grateful for that. The most rewarding aspect of running this page is having impact!  Just knowing that my team & I are able to translate our digital influence to real life impact.

One of the challenges is just trying to get better & grow!  My team & I are all about improving our craft & finding new ways to increase interaction & reach! We actually just launched our Artist Aux feature where we highlight new, exciting artists in the culture!  It’s sort of our first time sort of showcasing other acts that aren’t necessarily connected to Wizkid/Starboy on a consistent basis.  We’re doing well to make it flow into our content mix, so I’m happy.  But, it’s a lot of work lol.

AO: Okay, so you must be a mind reader. My next question was going to be about why you decided to launch wizkidnews.net and I really wanted to go further into the Artist Aux Series. Wizkid News: I’m glad you asked! I feel like we were supposed to have had a website a long time ago lol. With the quarantine, we just had more time & energy to focus on getting it done.  It’s also instrumental now that we’re really expanding our blog with the Artist Aux & the Wizkid News Playlist. Wiz is really the inspiration behind the Artist Aux.  Wizkid was among the very first kid superstars on the continent. He inspires a lot of the young talents who came up around his time & those coming up today. Understanding this part of his brand, I thought it best to highlight some of these new, exciting talents! I’m glad we get to create more value for our features & our platform. Plus, I really love the African music scene worldwide. I’m genuinely a fan of many other acts and sounds. The Artist Aux & Wizkid News Playlists allows me to share and nurture some of my other interests.

AO: With the Artist Aux Series, how do you choose what artists to feature and interview? Do they need to be on Wizkid’s Starboy Entertainment label, do they need to have a large following, does there need to be a lot of noise behind them. Could they just be anyone? How does one get onto the website of yours? Wizkid News: My team & I select the Artist Aux features.  It’s really just based on who we are feeling at the moment. I love Oxlade’s EP & had met him last year.  He’s a really cool guy & a talented artist making waves, so I thought it best to feature him. Same story with Terri. We’re really excited about all our feature artists.  Stay tuned for the next one!  

AO: For any upcoming African artists how can they get in touch with you to potentially be featured? Wizkid News: I’m reachable via email & DM on IG. We try our best to review all throughout the week.

AO: People now have seen your success with Wizid News and we know that this was not an overnight success. You’ve been doing this for the last couple of years. For anybody who’s looking to start a fan site, what would your main piece of advice be? Wizkid News: Consistency + dope content are both key.  Be reputable.  Have impact.

AO: Wizkid News thank you for sitting down with me! To close this interview, what is your favorite Wizkid song and why? Wizkid News: That’s a difficult question. I can't even pick one Wizkid song because I have maybe a handful of songs that I like for various reasons. One that comes to mind right now is actually off of the recent ‘Sound Man’ EP, its called “Mine” with Kel-P. I love that song. Multiple reasons. Wiz is a versatile artist who can literally sound like an artist of any genre, but still be unique.  On that record, he flows so organically & creates a one-of-a-kind reggae feel that’s both soothing and heartfelt.  I think Wiz does a great job of making music that reflects his persona & this song definitely captures his very cool, calm, & collected nature.  I also like that he’s working with a young, buzzing producer - Kel P.

We’ve teamed up with Wizkid News to bring you a playlist of their favorite Wizkid songs because it was hard to choose just one. Check out the playlist curated by Wizkid News on Spotify!

Connect with Wizkid News on the following platforms: https://wizkidnews.net https://instagram.com/WizkidNews https://twitter.com/WizkidSource

[aurelliocheek]

Working with the community to make better games

Philomena Schwab shares her positive experiences with community-based development and everything she has learned about it in the past couple of years.

Why build a community? Well, building a community around your game in development is not only beneficial for financial success but provides developers with constant feedback and can serve as a motivator to push through the tough times of development. For our indie studio Stray Fawn Studio, this was utterly true, and we are very grateful for everything our players helped us to accomplish. In this article, we want to share our story and provide insights on how we built up and maintain a healthy, friendly community and how they helped our games becoming financially successful.

We recently put together a survey, asking indie game developers from all over the world about their experiences with building game communities. You will encounter the results of the survey while reading this article, and here is the first one: According to our survey, 96% of developers believe that community building is relevant for the financial success of indie games. Having a loyal fanbase and financial benefits sound great! But as with most good things it comes at a cost. The initial effort of opening a hub, finding people and establishing an appropriate tone and rules within the community can be quite time-consuming. However, if you are ready to put in some time and effort, the chances are that you are positively surprised by the fruits of your labor.

Philomena wrote her master thesis about community-building for indie game developers. She spent a whole year testing methods to engage, maintain and activate a games’ community.

It‘s all about the game When trying to build up a community or even thinking about what kind of game to develop, the question of the games‘ „hooks“ should be asked early on. Building up a fanbase around a game that has nothing special to offer will be hard. That‘s why you need to think about hooks. Our first game „Niche – a genetics survival game“ defined the following hooks for itself: Scientifically accurate genetics, cute animals, survival genre. When we started Niche‘s development in 2014, no big games about genetics and evolution had been released for a long time, and there weren‘t many survival games available either. Whichever hooks you choose, a game either needs to be unique enough to attract its own audience or be better than existing games it‘s trying to compete with. A game‘s visuals can be a great first hook to get people interested. If the game looks dull or ugly but has excellent gameplay, it will be a tougher sell at first, since people need to play it to be able to tell all their friends how amazing the game is.

There are many other factors about games that can make community-building and discoverability easier; multiplayer for example. Playing with friends can be a great motivator to buy a game and stick with it. Our studio‘s favorite helpful factor is expandability. If you show your game in an early state, you can gather feedback at the beginning of the project. This method can have a positive impact since problems in the core gameplay can be corrected before more is built on top of it. Then, with every new update, players can pick up the game again and discuss all the new changes. This works exceptionally well for system-driven games and can often be seen with games in Early Access. The supreme discipline of expandability is modding support. Letting players create their own content can increase a games‘ lifespan drastically. If a game is heavily story-driven and can‘t be played before it‘s finished, there are other ways to build up a community around it, for example by starting a blog that analyzes games that are similar to yours. The game‘s worlds and characters could be introduced using additional stories and lore. Then, once your game is released, you will have access to people that are interested in exactly the type of game you are creating. Whichever type of game you might create, they all face the same problem: Where to find people that care?

Going to events helped to re-define the target group of Niche. The game was initially intended for a younger audience (kids and teens).

Where to find players? There are many ways to approach this problem. For us, an excellent place to start are events. Events can be great to gather early feedback and to see if the game attracts our chosen target group. With Niche, for example, we weren‘t surprised that many young girls (age 8 – 12) where attracted by the game. What we didn‘t expect however, was that men and women age 25 – 35 were interested in it too. This encouraged us to adjust the concept towards an older target audience, which allowed us to add more complex scientific concepts. When exhibiting at events, newsletter signup lists are a great tool to stay in touch with interested players. Once the game launches, few things are more useful than a long newsletter list of interested people. You don‘t have to start from zero when building a community. There are many already established groups out there that align with your target audience. For Niche, for example, we reached out to the author of a fantasy series about fighting forest cats. Thethor appreciated that her books have inspired our game and gave us a shoutout on her Facebook page. This resulted in lots of teenage girls becoming interested in the game. Of course, we also advertised Niche via social media ourselves, using hashtags and existing groups to reach related communities.

Where to bring them? Once we found a couple of people that cared about our game, the next question was where to bring them. Here is another survey result or you: 45% of all indie developers are currently using Discord as their primary community hub. 16% are using the Steam forums, 8% their own forums and 4% favor Facebook groups. Discord is the most popular option by far. Survey participants stated that it‘s easy to set up, it‘s platform independent (in case a game is planned to be released in different stores or on different platforms), that they appreciate the direct chat functionality and the ability to automate processes using bots. I agree that Discord is currently a great option as a community hub. Other options, such as a Subreddit or Facebook group can work too. The most important requirement for a community hub is that people should be able to interact with each other easily. So in my opinion, sites like Youtube and Twitter are great for gaining visibility, but the interaction of the community should not be limited to leaving a comment on the developer‘s posts.

Thanks to the support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Stray Fawn Studio was able to present Niche at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Are you using a forum? Our studio has decided to start running its own forums. The main reason being that after we released our second game, the different channels/hubs were becoming too numerous to maintain and people expected us to be available everywhere. So we decided to declare the new forums as our primary communication outlet and informed our players via pinned posts on all other channels. We still drop into our Discords, Facebook groups, and Subreddits occasionally, but the change to one central news channel relieved some of the pressure to respond everywhere within a short amount of time. Bringing the forums to life was a different beast entirely. For now, it turned out to be a good decision, enabling cross-promotion between our two games and allowing to add many cool features, such as an up- and downvote plugin for feature requests and bug reports. If you‘d like to hear more about why we chose a forum and how we brought it to life, check out my GDC 2019 talk about this topic: strayfawnstudio.com/insights

Stray Fawn Studio is based in Zurich, Switzerland. The team consists of 10 people, half of them graduated from the Zurich University of the Arts’ game design course.

How to manage a community? Once you have found at least a hand-full of interested people and opened up a hub where they can easily communicate, community management begins. The early days of a community are when its fundamental tone and rules are defined. If you do a good job at this point, players will become advocates and pass on the desired behaviors to new members of the group. I like to refer to this phase as „forming the backbone.“ Having a clear vision of your game at this point is important since you want to be able to communicate what players can expect. With Niche, players requested „options to build traps and fences“ after playing the first prototype. We clearly stated that building anything beyond basic structures such as nests would never become a part of the game since the protagonists are animals. After a lengthy discussion, the community members accepted the decision and passed on the knowledge to new members requesting building features ever since. There are quite a few things developers can do to deepen the connection with their community:

Show benefits of being in the community (such as letting them know news first)

Show people that you are human and why you love your game, tell your story

Take the time to explain decisions (especially if people are unhappy about them)

Listen to feedback

Implement suggestions and credit people for them (generates a sense of ownership)

Educate people on how games are created, so they understand the effort

Always be honest and transparent

However ultimately, the developer is not the protagonist of this story. In the end, it‘s all about people making friends. We are only the ones providing the platform for it. If community members become friends, our game is suddenly not the only reason for spending time in our community hubs anymore. Instead of talking about the game exclusively, they will start to discuss all kinds of things. For example in the Niche forums, people post their drawing of animals and ask for feedback. Suddenly, the hub provides an entirely new type of value: Artistic improvement. Now people can easily entertain themselves until the release of our next big game update.

Stray Fawn Studio initially financed Niche and Nimbatus via Kickstarter. Crowdfunding is now a fixed step in their development cycle to test if players are interested in a game concept before working on it for too long.

If all goes well, the community will slowly start to grow on its own. At some point, players might open new hubs by themselves and will ask us to approve them or even drop by occasionally. This is the point in time where moderators become essential. If a moderator is needed, our team often asks people who joined the community during the „backbone phase“ to take on the responsibility. Usually, people feel honored and happily assist. This is a huge time saver since moderators should be able to answer most questions that players have on their own.

What to do next? Now that you have a healthy, growing community in place, what other things besides feedback and ideas can they support you with? One example would be community translation. More and more indie game studios depend on their players when it comes to localizing the game. Niche‘s community has localized the game to eight languages. However, while players understand a game‘s context very well, it might still make sense to let a professional translator double-check the spelling.

Players can also help to create social media content. Our studio often runs „best gif“ competitions for our second game „Nimbatus – The Space Drone Constructor.“ Winners receive a free Steam key, and we get to post their amazing creations on social media.

For their new game Nimbatus – The Space Drone Constructor, Stray Fawn Studio offered everyone who joined the games’ newsletter a free demo before the game was released.

Also, there is the option to ask players for financial support, using sites like Patreon and Kickstarter. Our studio has run Kickstarters for both our games, raising funds that were essential to keep working on the projects. If you are interested in reading more about our games‘ crowdfunding campaigns (Spoiler: One of them got funded thanks to a free demo), you can do so here: strayfawnstudio.com/insights Running a Kickstarter can be a great way to deepen the connection between your players and your team because if a campaign succeeds, the community will celebrate it together with you and feel that they were an essential part of the accomplishment. Also, crowdfunding is a great first step to teaching a community that making a game costs money. Which brings me to my favorite moment with our games‘ fanbase to date. When Niche was ready to leave Early Access in autumn 2017, our team was afraid that the game might not break even financially. So we turned to our community and explained that we would not be able to release further updates for the game anymore if we didn‘t hit the break-even mark of selling 50.000 units during launch month. The community was shocked and asked what they could do to help us. We put together a list of helpful things, such as contacting their favorite YouTubers, streamers, press outlets, as well as sharing posts on social media and telling their friends. This worked out way better than expected. Many prominent YouTubers and streamers picked up the game since their viewers asked them to do so. The game easily surpassed its break-even goal, and our players got to enjoy many more free updates.

Problems we have encountered Looking back now, we had surprisingly few issues with our community. However, I‘d still like to address two of them. The first issue came up when at one point we introduced a new game mechanic. The community was unhappy about the change, and some of the players initiated voting on whether the new mechanic should be removed again. After we set down, discussed and re-iterated the mechanic with them, they started to accept it. However, this kind of strong reaction was something our team wasn‘t prepared for.

Events are not only useful for community-building, but also to meet potential publishers, distributors and other partners that are relevant for the success of an indie studio.

Our second problem was something we could have foreseen from the start: People that like to play survival games and people that like cute animals might not enjoy the same kind of gameplay. Pretty early on it became obvious that we had to cater to two very different interest groups. „The breeders“ wanted life to be peaceful and were mostly interested in breeding animals with all kinds of different patterns. On the other side, we had the „the survivors,“ who wanted to be continuously challenged and didn‘t care about cuteness too much. Luckily, plenty people were filling in the gaps between those two extremes, but it wasn‘t easy to satisfy such a broad interest spectrum in one game, and Niche might have turned out better by focusing on just one of them.

Closing words Even if things got tough sometimes, we would do it all over again. Our community has done more for us than we can ever repay. They have improved our games in many ways through their countless ideas and feedback. Community-based development has become our team‘s favorite way of making games. So hopefully we can keep on making games that both our team and our players love.

Philomena Schwab is the co-founder of Stray Fawn Studio and vice president of the Swiss Game Developers Association (SGDA).

Philomena graduated from the Zurich University of the Arts Game Design Masters program, writing her thesis about community-based development and crowdfunding. She went on to co-found the Zurich-based Indie game studio Stray Fawn, which just released its second game. As vice president of the Swiss Game Developers Association, she tries to help the Swiss games industry grow.

The post Working with the community to make better games appeared first on Making Games.

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[nikihawkes]

Title: Spaceside

Author: Michael Mammay

Series: Planetside #2

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Overview: Following his mission on Cappa, Colonel Carl Butler returns to a mixed reception. To some he is a do-or-die war hero. To the other half of the galaxy he’s a pariah. Forced into retirement, he has resettled on Talca Four where he’s now Deputy VP of Corporate Security, protecting a high-tech military company on the corporate battlefield—at least, that’s what the job description says. Really, he’s just there to impress clients and investors. It’s all relatively low risk—until he’s entrusted with new orders. A breach of a competitor’s computer network has Butler’s superiors feeling every bit as vulnerable. They need Butler to find who did it, how, and why no one’s taken credit for the ingenious attack. As accustomed as Butler is to the reality of wargames—virtual and otherwise—this one screams something louder than a simple hack. Because no sooner does he start digging when his first contact is murdered, the death somehow kept secret from the media. As a prime suspect, he can’t shake the sensation he’s being watched…or finally succumbing to the stress of his past. Paranoid delusion or dangerous reality, Butler might be onto something much deeper than anyone imagined. But that’s where Butler thrives. If he hasn’t signed his own death warrant. –Goodreads

The Review:

I love love love this series. I love the character. I love the story. I love how tight the writing is. I love the dry humor. I love that the mystery had me thinking about the book every time I set it down. It has been a hot minute since a series has drawn me back to it so strongly. It continues to provide all the story components I’m craving these days, and for me at least, it’s the perfect read.

The brilliance of this story is the superb main character, Colonel Carl Butler. I freaking love him. He’s straightforward, clever, and he really doesn’t give a shit what anyone else thinks.. but at the same time he has this cool moral compass that drives him to do right by people. The ever-present underlying sardonic nature of Carl’s thoughts delights me to no end. He’s written so well it feels like reading about an actual person, which is the highest compliment I can give to a character. He’s the main reason I’m loving this series so much and feel so connected to it.

Mammay’s writing is a breath of fresh air. I love the tone of his storytelling, the witty dialogue, and overall presentation… it’s so smart. The main character is excellent at reading people, and profile demands a lot of complex rationalizing and assessment that must have taken a lot of extra effort to infuse so seamlessly into the story. It’s absolutely fascinating! Mammay is also good at starting at a slow burn and building interest and momentum as the story goes. Good momentum in stories has often made the difference between a decent book and an amazing 5-star can’t-put-it-down read for me, and it’s always a factor I take into consideration when reviewing. This is the second time I felt catapulted to the end, and I freaking love that.

With not only one, but two awesome books under his belt so far, I can say with confidence that Michael Mammay is now one of my favorite authors. I can’t wait to see what he comes out with next!

Recommendations: it’s no secret that I’m an uber fan of Planetside (book 1) because I’ve been talking about it constantly. Spaceside was just as good! It’s a highly engaging military sci-fi that’s super easy to recommend because of its concise writing, dry humor, and exciting action. It hooked me right from the start. Give this series a try!! It might not delight you to the same extent it did me, but I can stand behind it as a great read you won’t regret picking up!

Other books you might like:

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Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Aftershocks by Marko Kloos

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

by Niki Hawkes

Book Review: Spaceside by Michael Mammay Title: Spaceside Author: Michael Mammay Series: Planetside #2 Genre: Science Fiction Rating: 4.5/5 stars The Overview:

[theparaminds]

As if childhood wasn't difficult enough, the world up and forces us all to become adult. Forces us to face reasonability and to learn life on our own accord. This is, at its core, the time in which Troi Blank finds himself within. He finds himself at the greatest, most critical crossroads yet, but for comfort, he has found solace through sound. 

Working with the Raised by the Internet creative team, Troi has situated himself as a multi genre artist who can explore the deep emotions of everyday life in endless ways. It doesn't matter who listens, they’ll find resonance within his sound, within his ideas, hopes and fears.

As the new year looms ever close, Troi sets his sights on one key idea, being true to himself, whatever that may entail. This year is set to be one of output and endless work, but at the core of that all will be his dedication to self. All that stands in his way is the world attempting to confuse him, but he knows that he’s learning and growing faster than it can keep up. 

Our first question as always, how’s your day going and how are you?

My day is going alright. It’s been really busy but I’m glad, living and breathing, and personally I’m doing okay. I’m just adjusting to life being on my own and all the things that come with adulting. All of that has been a great experience and has taught me a lot about life and myself. Lately I’ve been big on just trying to keep my mental health first and have good days.

What have been some of those experiences and the growths you’ve been able to make? How do you reflect on the past year?

This past year has been challenging but it has been a very productive year for myself and I’ve learned a lot. I was able to put out some cool music in late 2017 and going into this year it's been a journey finding myself again musically and really just trying to get a good grasp on who I was as a person. I just recently graduated this past May so finishing high school and passing was my main concern pre-summer. And this past summer was a very eye opening experience. I met a lot of people, was able to talk to many different people from many different walks of life that were able to be instrumental in this new direction my life is going. I was able to really enjoy myself for once and spend much needed time with friends and family. I went to so many places, drove so many places, saw so many sights that are just memories that are truly priceless. I’ve also had a lot of situations and things come up in my family which has made the middle to ladder half of this year somewhat hectic and very emotionally draining. I’m glad this past year has been what it has been though, because I’ve been able to make the best music of my life so far and everything about the music is richer and more in depth and way more personal to me. I wouldn’t be able to make the album right now if it wasn’t for the hardships and struggles of 2018.

With it being december, what new year goals and hopes do you hold and what avenues do you hope your music goes down?

This upcoming year can be a very big, if the cards are played right. I would love to be able to quit my job and support myself off of music. I feel that the music I’m making right now can take me to places I didn’t think were possible and I feel if given to the right people and heard by the right people I could do something very special. I hope my music is able to connect with all audiences no matter what genre you align because the music is authentic and 100% raw emotions, I’m really focused on creating my own lane and making the music I want to because music is a very therapeutic thing for me and it’s the way I get over things and release energy that I need to, so why would I not make music that is 100% me and what I want to make? I didn’t make music to blow up or to become a celebrity, I do it because I am an artist and I care about the art. I would love the chance to be put in playlists on Spotify and Apple Music and have the masses be able to hear me and my message. I hope some of my idols can hear my shit too!

Where did this love and appreciation for music as a medium begun for you and who have you found around you growing and supporting it? What did you earliest days of inspiration look like?

I think that the love and appreciation has always been an innate feeling that was just able to be express as I matured and got older. I remember times I would cry as a little kid listening to music because I loved it so much and it made me feel a certain way that was unexplainable as a child. As for my support system that would be the collective I’m apart called Raised By The Internet. It was founded by my best friend Jelani Aryeh, originally starting as an art/music collective that had different artists, producers, and visual artists from all across the world. We move as a unit as well as solo acts. Those are my guys, my best friends, & my brothers. I wouldn’t be where I am without any of them. The growth and support came from just putting out music and having people from anywhere and everywhere listening to my music. I was able to have a small but die hard loyal fan base that supports all my music and other creative ventures. shares, playlists & social media are all other big factors in the growth. My early inspirations was everyone from the whole odd future collective. I was obsessed with everyone and all the subgroups within it. I remember I was very inspired when I was 11 by the Purple Naked Ladies album by The Internet. Tyler will always be my #1 and owe him a lot as far as being able to be a left of center black kid that didn’t grow up in the hood and was into more things than just the typical black shit. Frank has always been there and will always be inspiration. Kanye of course did so much for me a person and his vision very much inspired me to try to think on the same artistic level as him and have the same passion as he did.

Absolutely, those artists are huge for so many young artists today, as well as the internet as you mentioned. Looking at this beginning time, how would you compare your musical vision from back then to what you see it currently, whether in genre or emotion?

I think now my vision is a lot more clear because of the depths in which I know music now versus back then. My senior year I took an AP level music theory class and hated it, but in the end I actually learned a lot about the science behind music and I was able to make my songs sound more developed/interesting just by knowing music theory. And all of the songs in my discography right now were made the summer going into my senior year and the first semester of my senior year, so I hadn’t had that much knowledge about music theory yet. Also, I think that now I’m able to dig deeper into myself and able to put whole coherent thoughts and stories into a song. When I was younger I would be able to have a topic I know what I want the song to be about but not be able to stay on track so that was pretty eh but it’s ok because people progress and shit.

For sure school would be beneficial, how have you found yourself balancing your blending of genres and sonics between song to song? How do you find a middle ground you’re satisfied with?

I don’t necessarily try to balance or blend genres, I typically just try to make what comes to my head and what emotion I’m feeling or trying to convey. I’m never too concerned about a middle ground either because I believe that necessarily doesn’t exist for me because different emotions call for different sonics. I think that the music becomes disingenuous if you think too much on what genres and styles you are blending together, rather than just go with a raw emotion and build on that idea.

To shift a little, what are the main messages and ideas you hope for listeners to resonate with through your work?

The main message that I hope resonates with listeners is just loving and being comfortable with yourself. I hope that my music brings somewhat of introspection or just some type socially conscious message for people. I hope people are able to listen to my music and just think about their lives and other things in society that help them get through and push their lives. I hope people who listen my music also feel empowered and know that they could be anything no matter what circumstances they’re in.

What is the greatest book or poem you’ve ever read and what about it resonated with you deepest?

I’m actually not a big reader and I hate that! So I actually don’t have a favourite book or poems, but I do very much enjoy a lot of Langston Hughes’ work. I love his poem called Genius Child. I would say the lyrics of people like Frank Ocean, King Krule, Earl, & many of my other favorites really resonate with me on a deep level. A lot of their songs connect with me and I get that feeling where you think songs are made for you.

If you’re not a reader, what are you some of your favourite mediums and works within them? Like Films, tv, YouTube videos, concerts etc.

I truly do not watch that many films or tv anymore but my favorite movies would probably have to be Auperbad, Annie hall, & Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. My favorite tv shows would probably be like all the major Seth Macfarlane cartoons (i.e. family guy, american dad, the cleveland show). I was also very obsessed with this show called Wilfred but they finished the show. I also enjoy watching any type of crime show, I love shit like forensic files. I’m a big youtube viewer though. I mainly watch live sports tv like fox sports 1 videos, from Colin, first things first, & undisputed. On YouTube I will just dig and find interesting videos and add a bunch to my watch later. I watch a lot of interviews and performances from my favorite artists and creatives. I love listening to podcasts as well. I love listening to the Brilliant Idiots podcast, the Joe Budden podcast, & the Bodega boys. I also play 2k whenever I can just to keep the gamer that used to be in me alive.

Yeah it’s always great to have a wide base of interests, on the topic of watching sports and such shows, what’s your sport of choice and favourite athlete?

My favorite sport is basketball. I played from like 1st grade all the way to 9th grade. I quit before high school started though because I never fucking grew and I chose to play soccer instead. My favorite athlete is for sure Lebron James. He was the first basketball player I ever really watched; I just loved his game and he just looked cool with all his miraculous plays and dunks.

Man you're talking my language! You gotta tell me, who do you think is going to win it all this year? Also, what's your favourite Lebron era?

I think that the Warriors will more than likely win the chip this year. when they’re all clicking that shit is damn near unstoppable. And they haven’t even gotten Boogie back yet. Them niggas really went to great lengths to secure championships after Bron came back on them. 3-1 lead. But if Steph gets hurt in the playoffs and their dysfunction comes back, I can see the lakers advancing and winning just because of Lebron. My favorite lebron era would probably have to be either Miami or LA. Miami was great because it revolutionized free agency and gave more power to players to make moves for themselves. if LA plays out how I think it will it will be a great place to close his career and will make him the best player ever.

Miami Lebron was a near perfect player, plus that game 6 against Boston is forever legendary. As a wrap up question, what’s the biggest advice you wish you heard when you were younger that you hope to pass on to others?

I would just tell the younger creatives to always just be yourself and take time the necessary time to find yourself. Also if you have no work ethic you will not succeed. Last thing would just to be work hard and never give up no matter what place you might be in.

Do you have anyone to shoutout or anything to promote? The floor is yours!

SHOUTOUT TO MY COLLECTIVE RAISED BY THE INTERNET. SHOUTOUT TO EK, ABHI, & ABDULLAH. SHOUTOUT TO ALL THE NIGGAS IN THE CONQUISTADOR CHAT. SHOUTOUT STRAY RATS AND GOD.

SHOUTOUT TO MY FAMILY AS WELL AND GET READY FOR MY ALBUM I'M LOOKING TO RELEASE IN SPRING/SUMMER 2019. RAISED BY THE INTERNET COMING AS WELL. AND GO STREAM AND LISTEN TO MY SONGS ALREADY OUT ON ANY MUSIC MEDIA PLATFORM!

Follow Troi on Instagram and Twitter

Listen on Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Music

[kintailscape]

Awesome Con 2017- Day 1

Friday, Day 1: I woke up about an hour later than usual and had a leisurely but efficient breakfast before heading off to the Metro. I began reading Pack Animals (Torchwood #7) by Peter Anghelides on the long ride to the Library of Congress. While walking from the metro station to the LOC building, I passed two women around my age taking photos of a group of people walking across the street, escorted by the police. I have been watching news nonstop for the past two weeks, but I didn’t recognize anyone in the group (and I’ve been watching a lot of news). Looked like it might have been a representative and her congressional aides, but I’ve no clue. Anyway, I got to the Thomas Jefferson Library of Congress Building a little before 11.

The Library of Congress put together a really neat pop-up exhibit only available for a few days, called Library of Awesome. It was filled with parts of the LOC collection, grouped by themes. It was a great reminder that the LOC preserves these parts of culture that are important to fans. The people behind me as we went through the different exhibit rooms were in the most AMAZING Wonder Woman and Black Panther outfits ever. There was also a brave young man in an amazing Fantastic Four outfit. There were so many great comics on display, I couldn’t begin to list them all. But I did take photos of some of my favorites. In one room they had clips from TV shows playing and I walked in just as Buffy was sacrificing herself (feels!), following by a clip of Doctor Who with the Tenth Doctor. It was a surreal to be standing in the largest library in the entire world, watching Buffy and Doctor Who and looking at first appearances of comic book characters in print! There was also a neat letter from Gene Roddenbery to Carl Sagan.

Milestone issues including X-Men #1 from 1963, Fantastic Four #1 from 1961, and Watchmen #1 from 1986   First appearances of Batwoman and Dick Grayson aka Robin! Kyle Jinadu & Northstar get married! Buffy on screen, popular recent media series on display Ralph Ellison collection lends its room to this exhibit Library shop even had some geeky things for purchase… including some March graphic novels

After fully enjoying the exhibit, I went out in search of food. Google said there was a Subway in a nearby building. So I headed to the James Madison Library of Congress Building. I found my way up to the cafeteria on the 6th floor. I wasn’t entirely sure I should be there, among the congressional aides and LOC staff. But the security guard seemed to have no problem with it and a very nice woman in the elevator who worked in the building gave me exact directions there. The view was wonderful, and the sushi was delicious. I read while I ate. I got a little lost trying to find my way back to the elevator, but I made it in the end. Then I headed back to the Metro to get to the Convention Center.

It was strange being back in the Convention Center only a few months after #AWP17. It was all arranged differently–our registration hall had been turned into a cool, dark, moody video gaming center! And our bookfair space was where I knew I needed to head for Awesome Con registration. I already had my badge, so I just picked up a program and headed down three floors to the exhibit hall. I had one mission for Friday: find Andrew Aydin and have him sign my copy of March. But when I got to Q1 in the Artist’s Alley, there was a woman selling lovely jewelry in his space instead. Confused, I checked the program and the signs; no changes there. I ran into a friend and chatted for a bit. Then I checked social media; apparently Mr. Aydin was not going to be able to attend due to a personal matter. Well, darn! But these things happen. Hope his family’s okay.

So I found myself with a few hours of free time before the first panel I wanted to attend. I wandered around the exhibit hall, sticking mostly to the Artist’s Alley and spending much of that time in Pride Alley, which was new to the con this year. It was a nice little LGBTQ+-friendly space with all sorts of things I wanted to buy. I ended up buying way too much fanart and a graphic novel that is just my kind of thing that I can’t wait to read. I stumbled upon Karen Hallion’s exhibit space and bought a few postcards; it was wonderful to meet her and be able to tell her how fantastic her art is, because I’ve loved it for years and have some of it on t-shirts. I also bought an Outlander book necklace with a dragonfly and a Celtic charm on it. I have ZERO free wall space at home, yet I bought at least 10 prints for myself (and a few as gifts). I even bought an original art piece (done by an artist in from South Africa) that was creative and adorable and unintentionally sexy; I NEVER see my favorite kink portrayed in art, let alone fanart, so I absolutely had to buy it. #NoRegrets!

I had some tough choices to make as far as panels. I ended up choosing so that I’d get a good variety and pack in as many as possible (lots of panel times overlapped) while still hitting the evening Stucky one I knew I definitely wanted to attend.

3:30 PM-4:15 PM Nerdiquette/Anerdomy: Geekdom in Theory & Practice A nice way to start out the con, talking about geek culture. We began with Felicia Day’s definition of a geek as someone who dares to love something unconventional and moved on to topics like marketing’s role, the nerd culture stigma, the differences between sports fans and the sorts of fans we are, and if it stops being a subculture if it gets too big. The moderator kept diving into much more critical analysis of it all, including ways of testing geekdom’s coherence. I didn’t follow every philosophical reference he was throwing out there, but I enjoyed it anyway. I found the discussion regarding reactionary exclusionism to be especially interesting, as I’d not considered the idea of geeks feeling the need to covet and protect what we are passionate about and keep it as our own because we were excluded/outsiders.

4:30 PM -5:15 PM YA Literature Today I wish I’d done more prep, because I had two of the presenting authors’ books at home and didn’t bring them! Panelists discussed a lot about the things they like about writing YA (really interesting characters with really interesting problems, can work in any genre, we have all been teenagers but we still wonder who we are) and how to increase diversity in books and creators of books. The best part: they shared info about their own works and shared book recommendations. The worst part: so many good recommendations! I feel like I need to quit my job and just read YA full-time now. For recs & notes from this panel, see my book blog.

5:30 PM-6:15 PM Following Your Bliss: How the Stories We Love Can Help Us Succeed This wasn’t exactly what I’d been looking for. Attending this felt a little like listening to a motivational speaker. Using himself as a case study and tapping heavily into Joeseph Conrad’s “Hero’s Journey,” Russell Walks attempted to inspire us to follow our bliss to find success. “Storytelling is more than just guns and bullets. It’s what we have in here,” he told us, patting his chest above his heart. I was hoping for useful, specific tips rather than inspirational sayings. But I do like the concept that we’re all on our own hero’s journeys and our friends are our goofy, supporting characters. And I can’t disagree with things like “Tell yourself this is what you’re meant to do and don’t give up!”

Afterward, I was going to stick around in the room to attend Whose Roll is it Anyway? (a sort of interactive RPG where the audience controlled the twists and turns instead of the DM), but that was cancelled. This made me shuffle my slots around a bit again. I ended up being able to snag a seat in room 144BC and staying put there for the next three panels! That was both convenient and due to the fact that that room’s programming all aligned with my interests.

6:00 PM-6:45 PM Full Spectrum: Why color in comics matters This panel had a nice balance of identifying current problems and looking at current trends/solutions. I liked the observations that, throughout history, most trendsetters in the comic industry have been indie. I also loved the helpful tip of don’t just yell when there’s something bad, start yelling about the stuff you like! Other discussion topics include: recent reaction to Marvel news (putting out Black Panther trailer then cancelling Black Panther: World Of Wakanda), the difference between making a cast diverse organically and changing characters (reskinning) to make them diverse, how the binging culture changes the way we consume comics (monthly issues vs. TPBs), and how Check Please is an awesome fan-interaction model (it is!). I also loved this comment from one of the panelists (slightly paraphrased because I was writing so quickly) “Lately, people over-complicate things. Just write human beings. Give everyone a chance and diversity automatically comes about.”

7:00 PM-7:45 PM Stop Queerbaiting, It’s Time to Be Brave One of my friends magically appeared beside me just as the panel was about to start, which was a lovely surprise. Another lovely surprise was the panel starting out with a mention of one of my favorite pairings: Wolfcrawler! The panelists were brilliant, passionate, and prepared. But they were also largely preaching to the choir. Sure, an explanation of queerbaiting was a great place to start, and explaining in detail why it’s hurtful, not brave, and insulting was important. But the majority of the presentation consisted of examples and explanations of why it’s horrible. At the very end they did manage to squeeze in a little bit about what we can do (which was mostly, consume the content of the people doing it right). So, by the end of the panel, I mostly felt frustrated and mad at some of those content creators who do this to us.

A few things I wrote down include: are the creators/producers really blind to what they’re doing?, they might think they’re doing something nice for us but they’re not, you shouldn’t have the freedom to jerk us around, we need real bravery from our allies, we deserve better, we’re desperate to see ourselves represented as a living main character, makes being gay into a joke, makes gay into a gimmick, there are no repercussions, you can’t be what you can’t see, Netflix and Chill could be Netflix and Educate. My three favorite quotes from the panel were:

“Prancing is very intimidating to the straights”

Regarding fandoms that have “invisible queers” (creators say that there are totally some queer characters in the world/universe, we just haven’t seen them yet) “SHOW US! Specifically I’m talking to J.J. Abrams about the cute one in the jacket and the cute one that gave him the jacket.”

“Albus Dumbledore is the very definition of a peekaboo queer.”

8:00 PM-8:45 PM Not Without You: Discussions and Reading from the Stucky Anthology This was easily my favorite part of the whole day. First, there was a great conversation about what makes Steve/Bucky so appealing and how each of the panelists fell in love with the pairing. It was interesting to hear that so many of them came to it because of Bucky. Second, panelists that came from all over the world specifically to be on the panel. Third, hearing slash fanfic read out loud by the writers themselves at a general con was amazing. Fourth, amazing Bucky and Cap cosplayers sitting in the front row (sorry, I don’t mean to objectify you, but you were sweet and really helped set the mood for those of us seated behind you). Also, someone mentioned a His Dark Materials AU with Stucky that I now I have to track down. I was able to buy a copy of the absolutely beautiful anthology at the end of the panel. I really wanted to stick around and have all the writers autograph it, but I knew that would take a long time and there was kind of a jumble as we reconvened in the hallway. So I ended up just heading to the next panel.

9:00 PM-9:45 PM Trekoff LIVE! -The NSFW Star Trek Comedy Show!/>I was a few minutes late, but I don’t think I missed much. This is only my second time attending a live taping of a podcast at a con, and this one was much more lively than the first. The game we played as a group was to figure out how to staff a ship of the most fuckable Star Trek villains. The hosts took us through every entry in the Star Trek franchise, pulling up both well-known and obscure villains and having the audience choose between two at a time to determine who was more fuckable. Some were easy choices and others were more difficult. There were also some pretty convincing creative arguments for and against some of the characters. I was surprised to find characters like the Borg Queen and Evil!Hoshi beating a lot of others. I was surprised characters like Q and the three-some of Kor, Koloth, and Kang didn’t go further. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan made it pretty far but didn’t ultimately win! Who won? I can’t even remember. You’ll have to track down the episode!

I headed home after a long, tiring day and made more progress on my book. When I had to switch trains, it took almost half an hour for the right color train to arrive. So I did get a lot read but I didn’t get home until nearly midnight (at which point I still had a load of laundry to do before bed).

Awesome Con 2017- Day 1 was originally published on The Fangirl Project

[exfrenchdorsl4p0a1]

Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation?

A comment, a question, and a blog post all came together last week to make me ponder this question: When does an “influencer” become a “salesperson,” and is there a difference? Can a social media influencer cross a line become an ad … instead of a thought leader?

Let’s unpack those questions today.

The influence line

Hamish Campbell recently posted this question on my blog (edited for style):

“Influencers started out as your friends, your social group … real life and virtual. Your interactions with this group may lead you to new store fronts, show you interesting products or teach you something new. When influencer marketing began, they were nothing more than the popular kids, social personalities, and industry leaders. And when you came across them in your virtual mall or street you stopped, looked, took a selfie, shared a moment, and took notice what they were wearing or where they were eating. They were doing it because they were just living. Before it was all monetized.

“Now we have a new breed of influencer, with a new pecking order. They want free things and will shout about anything and everything they receive. The integrity of each of these people can now be anything from 0-100 based on their activities but at some point they cross a line. How is it different for a company to pay a member of their sales staff to sell a product versus paying an influencer to sell the company’s product on Instagram/blog/Twitter?”

Borrowing trust

On the surface, the difference between sales and influencer marketing is reach and trust. Even after a decade of work, a salesperson may have a limited audience but an influencer may have the ears of thousands or even millions of fans. A company representative has an agenda, so there is natural mistrust. An influencer, in theory, is a passionate, honest expert, and our friend.

Companies are generally seen as cold and detached but influencers are trusted friends. We will ignore an ad, but we’ll subscribe to our favorite influencer.

The smart influencers (and the companies who sponsor them) don’t cross the line and break the trust of an audience. I think the placement of that line of trust varies by the type of influencer and the acceptance of their audience.

And to understand where that line is, you have to understand that there are three different types of influencers, not just one.

The three types of influencers and the line of trust

There are three social media influencer pipelines available to brands today … let’s look at these types and the implication for the “line of trust” for each one:

1. Celebrity — The oldest type of influence marketing is aligning your brand with a celebrity. An example would be Matthew McConaughey doing car commercials. For a celebrity influencer:

Influence is based on their fame

Enormous “pipeline”

Endorsement is purchased

Brand Goal = “Image.” Certain brands may pay to access this pipeline just to be associated with this person’s image and lifestyle.

The line of trust for a celebrity endorsement is very low, meaning we’re willing to trust celebrities unless they really screw up.. We’ve become conditioned to seeing famous people in ads since the 1920s and celebrity endorsements are now an expectation. They can take money from a brand and we usually don’t think any less of them.

2. Thought leader — This might be a well-known blogger who has established their position through consistently creating helpful content.

Influence based on authoritative, original content

Brand content may be either organic or sponsored (purchased)

Large, engaged audience

Limited brand engagement, i.e. probably no organic advocacy exists without sponsor dollars

Brand goal = “Awareness.” How do I get the word out quickly in a business niche?

The line of trust for a thought leader is extremely high. They have built their reputation based on expertise and once that expertise is put up for sale, their credibility may be diminished among their discerning audience. Smart brands (and influencers) will be careful about crossing that line between “thought leadership” and “advertisement.”

3. Advocate — An example would be a content creator who creates passionate videos about their favorite fashions and shopping experiences. They post content about your brand because they love you and they can’t get enough of you.

Influence based on passion and the emotional connection with their audience

Targeted, relevant audience

Authentic, organic, unpaid advocacy

High brand engagement due to true belief in the product and company

Brand goal = “Drive word of mouth attention and sales”

The bar of trust for an advocate is moderate. They are passionate and authentic but their audience also knows they need to make a living. Sponsorships may be seen as a badge of social proof that the advocate is moving up in the world.

Any single person might fit into multiple categories depending on the situation. Author Seth Godin is a celebrity often featured through the mainstream media, he is a content-based influencer, and he goes out of his way to authentically advocate people and products he believes in (without compensation). But a person can only have one type of influence relationship with any individual brand.

There is probably a fourth kind of influencer I’ll call the placeholder. It is certainly possible to be considered by some people to be an “influencer” based on Twitter followers or some vanity metric like that. Most companies are moving past that (I hope) and I do believe that in the end, true influence and authority will win out and eventually focus on the three types I’ve described above.

Putting this into action

One of my friends, a person who created his well-earned influence through his own content and thought leadership, recently ran a sponsored post (content another company paid him to write, which was clearly labeled). My reaction was “yuck.” That reaction doesn’t seem quite fair until you start to apply the above model.

His reputation is built entirely on trust but has now turned his content into an advertisement. Taken to an extreme, he will destroy his reputation in the industry if he does this too often.

Casey Neistat (pictured at the top pf the post today) is also an “influencer,” but he built his reputation as a YouTube entertainer and is now a true celebrity. He was recently featured on a Samsung commercial and my reaction was “cool.”

Similarly, mommy blogger Glennon Doyle Melton built her career through authentic advocacy (and may have crossed over to celebrity now) but if she sells some products through her site, it is seen as part of her genre. People expect her to make money from her blog through brand sponsorships.

The point of this little exercise is that not all influence types are equal because they’ve built their audiences in different ways — through fame, through expertise, or through emotional connection. The brand relationship must be accurately geared toward the correct type of influencer, and the influencer must accept the responsibility of sponsorship based on how they built their reputation.

I recognize that there are lots of opportunities out there to monetize content. I don’t blame anyone for trying to make a buck to put some food on the table. But be intentional about what you’re doing and recognize the long-term consequences and risks of sponsored relationships.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Mid-post illustration courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner

The post Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oOUEff

[grgedoors02142]

Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation?

A comment, a question, and a blog post all came together last week to make me ponder this question: When does an “influencer” become a “salesperson,” and is there a difference? Can a social media influencer cross a line become an ad … instead of a thought leader?

Let’s unpack those questions today.

The influence line

Hamish Campbell recently posted this question on my blog (edited for style):

“Influencers started out as your friends, your social group … real life and virtual. Your interactions with this group may lead you to new store fronts, show you interesting products or teach you something new. When influencer marketing began, they were nothing more than the popular kids, social personalities, and industry leaders. And when you came across them in your virtual mall or street you stopped, looked, took a selfie, shared a moment, and took notice what they were wearing or where they were eating. They were doing it because they were just living. Before it was all monetized.

“Now we have a new breed of influencer, with a new pecking order. They want free things and will shout about anything and everything they receive. The integrity of each of these people can now be anything from 0-100 based on their activities but at some point they cross a line. How is it different for a company to pay a member of their sales staff to sell a product versus paying an influencer to sell the company’s product on Instagram/blog/Twitter?”

Borrowing trust

On the surface, the difference between sales and influencer marketing is reach and trust. Even after a decade of work, a salesperson may have a limited audience but an influencer may have the ears of thousands or even millions of fans. A company representative has an agenda, so there is natural mistrust. An influencer, in theory, is a passionate, honest expert, and our friend.

Companies are generally seen as cold and detached but influencers are trusted friends. We will ignore an ad, but we’ll subscribe to our favorite influencer.

The smart influencers (and the companies who sponsor them) don’t cross the line and break the trust of an audience. I think the placement of that line of trust varies by the type of influencer and the acceptance of their audience.

And to understand where that line is, you have to understand that there are three different types of influencers, not just one.

The three types of influencers and the line of trust

There are three social media influencer pipelines available to brands today … let’s look at these types and the implication for the “line of trust” for each one:

1. Celebrity — The oldest type of influence marketing is aligning your brand with a celebrity. An example would be Matthew McConaughey doing car commercials. For a celebrity influencer:

Influence is based on their fame

Enormous “pipeline”

Endorsement is purchased

Brand Goal = “Image.” Certain brands may pay to access this pipeline just to be associated with this person’s image and lifestyle.

The line of trust for a celebrity endorsement is very low, meaning we’re willing to trust celebrities unless they really screw up.. We’ve become conditioned to seeing famous people in ads since the 1920s and celebrity endorsements are now an expectation. They can take money from a brand and we usually don’t think any less of them.

2. Thought leader — This might be a well-known blogger who has established their position through consistently creating helpful content.

Influence based on authoritative, original content

Brand content may be either organic or sponsored (purchased)

Large, engaged audience

Limited brand engagement, i.e. probably no organic advocacy exists without sponsor dollars

Brand goal = “Awareness.” How do I get the word out quickly in a business niche?

The line of trust for a thought leader is extremely high. They have built their reputation based on expertise and once that expertise is put up for sale, their credibility may be diminished among their discerning audience. Smart brands (and influencers) will be careful about crossing that line between “thought leadership” and “advertisement.”

3. Advocate — An example would be a content creator who creates passionate videos about their favorite fashions and shopping experiences. They post content about your brand because they love you and they can’t get enough of you.

Influence based on passion and the emotional connection with their audience

Targeted, relevant audience

Authentic, organic, unpaid advocacy

High brand engagement due to true belief in the product and company

Brand goal = “Drive word of mouth attention and sales”

The bar of trust for an advocate is moderate. They are passionate and authentic but their audience also knows they need to make a living. Sponsorships may be seen as a badge of social proof that the advocate is moving up in the world.

Any single person might fit into multiple categories depending on the situation. Author Seth Godin is a celebrity often featured through the mainstream media, he is a content-based influencer, and he goes out of his way to authentically advocate people and products he believes in (without compensation). But a person can only have one type of influence relationship with any individual brand.

There is probably a fourth kind of influencer I’ll call the placeholder. It is certainly possible to be considered by some people to be an “influencer” based on Twitter followers or some vanity metric like that. Most companies are moving past that (I hope) and I do believe that in the end, true influence and authority will win out and eventually focus on the three types I’ve described above.

Putting this into action

One of my friends, a person who created his well-earned influence through his own content and thought leadership, recently ran a sponsored post (content another company paid him to write, which was clearly labeled). My reaction was “yuck.” That reaction doesn’t seem quite fair until you start to apply the above model.

His reputation is built entirely on trust but has now turned his content into an advertisement. Taken to an extreme, he will destroy his reputation in the industry if he does this too often.

Casey Neistat (pictured at the top pf the post today) is also an “influencer,” but he built his reputation as a YouTube entertainer and is now a true celebrity. He was recently featured on a Samsung commercial and my reaction was “cool.”

Similarly, mommy blogger Glennon Doyle Melton built her career through authentic advocacy (and may have crossed over to celebrity now) but if she sells some products through her site, it is seen as part of her genre. People expect her to make money from her blog through brand sponsorships.

The point of this little exercise is that not all influence types are equal because they’ve built their audiences in different ways — through fame, through expertise, or through emotional connection. The brand relationship must be accurately geared toward the correct type of influencer, and the influencer must accept the responsibility of sponsorship based on how they built their reputation.

I recognize that there are lots of opportunities out there to monetize content. I don’t blame anyone for trying to make a buck to put some food on the table. But be intentional about what you’re doing and recognize the long-term consequences and risks of sponsored relationships.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Mid-post illustration courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner

The post Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oOUEff

[repwinpril9y0a1]

Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation?

A comment, a question, and a blog post all came together last week to make me ponder this question: When does an “influencer” become a “salesperson,” and is there a difference? Can a social media influencer cross a line become an ad … instead of a thought leader?

Let’s unpack those questions today.

The influence line

Hamish Campbell recently posted this question on my blog (edited for style):

“Influencers started out as your friends, your social group … real life and virtual. Your interactions with this group may lead you to new store fronts, show you interesting products or teach you something new. When influencer marketing began, they were nothing more than the popular kids, social personalities, and industry leaders. And when you came across them in your virtual mall or street you stopped, looked, took a selfie, shared a moment, and took notice what they were wearing or where they were eating. They were doing it because they were just living. Before it was all monetized.

“Now we have a new breed of influencer, with a new pecking order. They want free things and will shout about anything and everything they receive. The integrity of each of these people can now be anything from 0-100 based on their activities but at some point they cross a line. How is it different for a company to pay a member of their sales staff to sell a product versus paying an influencer to sell the company’s product on Instagram/blog/Twitter?”

Borrowing trust

On the surface, the difference between sales and influencer marketing is reach and trust. Even after a decade of work, a salesperson may have a limited audience but an influencer may have the ears of thousands or even millions of fans. A company representative has an agenda, so there is natural mistrust. An influencer, in theory, is a passionate, honest expert, and our friend.

Companies are generally seen as cold and detached but influencers are trusted friends. We will ignore an ad, but we’ll subscribe to our favorite influencer.

The smart influencers (and the companies who sponsor them) don’t cross the line and break the trust of an audience. I think the placement of that line of trust varies by the type of influencer and the acceptance of their audience.

And to understand where that line is, you have to understand that there are three different types of influencers, not just one.

The three types of influencers and the line of trust

There are three social media influencer pipelines available to brands today … let’s look at these types and the implication for the “line of trust” for each one:

1. Celebrity — The oldest type of influence marketing is aligning your brand with a celebrity. An example would be Matthew McConaughey doing car commercials. For a celebrity influencer:

Influence is based on their fame

Enormous “pipeline”

Endorsement is purchased

Brand Goal = “Image.” Certain brands may pay to access this pipeline just to be associated with this person’s image and lifestyle.

The line of trust for a celebrity endorsement is very low, meaning we’re willing to trust celebrities unless they really screw up.. We’ve become conditioned to seeing famous people in ads since the 1920s and celebrity endorsements are now an expectation. They can take money from a brand and we usually don’t think any less of them.

2. Thought leader — This might be a well-known blogger who has established their position through consistently creating helpful content.

Influence based on authoritative, original content

Brand content may be either organic or sponsored (purchased)

Large, engaged audience

Limited brand engagement, i.e. probably no organic advocacy exists without sponsor dollars

Brand goal = “Awareness.” How do I get the word out quickly in a business niche?

The line of trust for a thought leader is extremely high. They have built their reputation based on expertise and once that expertise is put up for sale, their credibility may be diminished among their discerning audience. Smart brands (and influencers) will be careful about crossing that line between “thought leadership” and “advertisement.”

3. Advocate — An example would be a content creator who creates passionate videos about their favorite fashions and shopping experiences. They post content about your brand because they love you and they can’t get enough of you.

Influence based on passion and the emotional connection with their audience

Targeted, relevant audience

Authentic, organic, unpaid advocacy

High brand engagement due to true belief in the product and company

Brand goal = “Drive word of mouth attention and sales”

The bar of trust for an advocate is moderate. They are passionate and authentic but their audience also knows they need to make a living. Sponsorships may be seen as a badge of social proof that the advocate is moving up in the world.

Any single person might fit into multiple categories depending on the situation. Author Seth Godin is a celebrity often featured through the mainstream media, he is a content-based influencer, and he goes out of his way to authentically advocate people and products he believes in (without compensation). But a person can only have one type of influence relationship with any individual brand.

There is probably a fourth kind of influencer I’ll call the placeholder. It is certainly possible to be considered by some people to be an “influencer” based on Twitter followers or some vanity metric like that. Most companies are moving past that (I hope) and I do believe that in the end, true influence and authority will win out and eventually focus on the three types I’ve described above.

Putting this into action

One of my friends, a person who created his well-earned influence through his own content and thought leadership, recently ran a sponsored post (content another company paid him to write, which was clearly labeled). My reaction was “yuck.” That reaction doesn’t seem quite fair until you start to apply the above model.

His reputation is built entirely on trust but has now turned his content into an advertisement. Taken to an extreme, he will destroy his reputation in the industry if he does this too often.

Casey Neistat (pictured at the top pf the post today) is also an “influencer,” but he built his reputation as a YouTube entertainer and is now a true celebrity. He was recently featured on a Samsung commercial and my reaction was “cool.”

Similarly, mommy blogger Glennon Doyle Melton built her career through authentic advocacy (and may have crossed over to celebrity now) but if she sells some products through her site, it is seen as part of her genre. People expect her to make money from her blog through brand sponsorships.

The point of this little exercise is that not all influence types are equal because they’ve built their audiences in different ways — through fame, through expertise, or through emotional connection. The brand relationship must be accurately geared toward the correct type of influencer, and the influencer must accept the responsibility of sponsorship based on how they built their reputation.

I recognize that there are lots of opportunities out there to monetize content. I don’t blame anyone for trying to make a buck to put some food on the table. But be intentional about what you’re doing and recognize the long-term consequences and risks of sponsored relationships.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Mid-post illustration courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner

The post Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oOUEff

[pat78701]

Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation?

A comment, a question, and a blog post all came together last week to make me ponder this question: When does an “influencer” become a “salesperson,” and is there a difference? Can a social media influencer cross a line become an ad … instead of a thought leader?

Let’s unpack those questions today.

The influence line

Hamish Campbell recently posted this question on my blog (edited for style):

“Influencers started out as your friends, your social group … real life and virtual. Your interactions with this group may lead you to new store fronts, show you interesting products or teach you something new. When influencer marketing began, they were nothing more than the popular kids, social personalities, and industry leaders. And when you came across them in your virtual mall or street you stopped, looked, took a selfie, shared a moment, and took notice what they were wearing or where they were eating. They were doing it because they were just living. Before it was all monetized.

“Now we have a new breed of influencer, with a new pecking order. They want free things and will shout about anything and everything they receive. The integrity of each of these people can now be anything from 0-100 based on their activities but at some point they cross a line. How is it different for a company to pay a member of their sales staff to sell a product versus paying an influencer to sell the company’s product on Instagram/blog/Twitter?”

Borrowing trust

On the surface, the difference between sales and influencer marketing is reach and trust. Even after a decade of work, a salesperson may have a limited audience but an influencer may have the ears of thousands or even millions of fans. A company representative has an agenda, so there is natural mistrust. An influencer, in theory, is a passionate, honest expert, and our friend.

Companies are generally seen as cold and detached but influencers are trusted friends. We will ignore an ad, but we’ll subscribe to our favorite influencer.

The smart influencers (and the companies who sponsor them) don’t cross the line and break the trust of an audience. I think the placement of that line of trust varies by the type of influencer and the acceptance of their audience.

And to understand where that line is, you have to understand that there are three different types of influencers, not just one.

The three types of influencers and the line of trust

There are three social media influencer pipelines available to brands today … let’s look at these types and the implication for the “line of trust” for each one:

1. Celebrity — The oldest type of influence marketing is aligning your brand with a celebrity. An example would be Matthew McConaughey doing car commercials. For a celebrity influencer:

Influence is based on their fame

Enormous “pipeline”

Endorsement is purchased

Brand Goal = “Image.” Certain brands may pay to access this pipeline just to be associated with this person’s image and lifestyle.

The line of trust for a celebrity endorsement is very low, meaning we’re willing to trust celebrities unless they really screw up.. We’ve become conditioned to seeing famous people in ads since the 1920s and celebrity endorsements are now an expectation. They can take money from a brand and we usually don’t think any less of them.

2. Thought leader — This might be a well-known blogger who has established their position through consistently creating helpful content.

Influence based on authoritative, original content

Brand content may be either organic or sponsored (purchased)

Large, engaged audience

Limited brand engagement, i.e. probably no organic advocacy exists without sponsor dollars

Brand goal = “Awareness.” How do I get the word out quickly in a business niche?

The line of trust for a thought leader is extremely high. They have built their reputation based on expertise and once that expertise is put up for sale, their credibility may be diminished among their discerning audience. Smart brands (and influencers) will be careful about crossing that line between “thought leadership” and “advertisement.”

3. Advocate — An example would be a content creator who creates passionate videos about their favorite fashions and shopping experiences. They post content about your brand because they love you and they can’t get enough of you.

Influence based on passion and the emotional connection with their audience

Targeted, relevant audience

Authentic, organic, unpaid advocacy

High brand engagement due to true belief in the product and company

Brand goal = “Drive word of mouth attention and sales”

The bar of trust for an advocate is moderate. They are passionate and authentic but their audience also knows they need to make a living. Sponsorships may be seen as a badge of social proof that the advocate is moving up in the world.

Any single person might fit into multiple categories depending on the situation. Author Seth Godin is a celebrity often featured through the mainstream media, he is a content-based influencer, and he goes out of his way to authentically advocate people and products he believes in (without compensation). But a person can only have one type of influence relationship with any individual brand.

There is probably a fourth kind of influencer I’ll call the placeholder. It is certainly possible to be considered by some people to be an “influencer” based on Twitter followers or some vanity metric like that. Most companies are moving past that (I hope) and I do believe that in the end, true influence and authority will win out and eventually focus on the three types I’ve described above.

Putting this into action

One of my friends, a person who created his well-earned influence through his own content and thought leadership, recently ran a sponsored post (content another company paid him to write, which was clearly labeled). My reaction was “yuck.” That reaction doesn’t seem quite fair until you start to apply the above model.

His reputation is built entirely on trust but has now turned his content into an advertisement. Taken to an extreme, he will destroy his reputation in the industry if he does this too often.

Casey Neistat (pictured at the top pf the post today) is also an “influencer,” but he built his reputation as a YouTube entertainer and is now a true celebrity. He was recently featured on a Samsung commercial and my reaction was “cool.”

Similarly, mommy blogger Glennon Doyle Melton built her career through authentic advocacy (and may have crossed over to celebrity now) but if she sells some products through her site, it is seen as part of her genre. People expect her to make money from her blog through brand sponsorships.

The point of this little exercise is that not all influence types are equal because they’ve built their audiences in different ways — through fame, through expertise, or through emotional connection. The brand relationship must be accurately geared toward the correct type of influencer, and the influencer must accept the responsibility of sponsorship based on how they built their reputation.

I recognize that there are lots of opportunities out there to monetize content. I don’t blame anyone for trying to make a buck to put some food on the table. But be intentional about what you’re doing and recognize the long-term consequences and risks of sponsored relationships.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Mid-post illustration courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner

The post Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oOUEff

[stormdoors78476]

Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation?

A comment, a question, and a blog post all came together last week to make me ponder this question: When does an “influencer” become a “salesperson,” and is there a difference? Can a social media influencer cross a line become an ad … instead of a thought leader?

Let’s unpack those questions today.

The influence line

Hamish Campbell recently posted this question on my blog (edited for style):

“Influencers started out as your friends, your social group … real life and virtual. Your interactions with this group may lead you to new store fronts, show you interesting products or teach you something new. When influencer marketing began, they were nothing more than the popular kids, social personalities, and industry leaders. And when you came across them in your virtual mall or street you stopped, looked, took a selfie, shared a moment, and took notice what they were wearing or where they were eating. They were doing it because they were just living. Before it was all monetized.

“Now we have a new breed of influencer, with a new pecking order. They want free things and will shout about anything and everything they receive. The integrity of each of these people can now be anything from 0-100 based on their activities but at some point they cross a line. How is it different for a company to pay a member of their sales staff to sell a product versus paying an influencer to sell the company’s product on Instagram/blog/Twitter?”

Borrowing trust

On the surface, the difference between sales and influencer marketing is reach and trust. Even after a decade of work, a salesperson may have a limited audience but an influencer may have the ears of thousands or even millions of fans. A company representative has an agenda, so there is natural mistrust. An influencer, in theory, is a passionate, honest expert, and our friend.

Companies are generally seen as cold and detached but influencers are trusted friends. We will ignore an ad, but we’ll subscribe to our favorite influencer.

The smart influencers (and the companies who sponsor them) don’t cross the line and break the trust of an audience. I think the placement of that line of trust varies by the type of influencer and the acceptance of their audience.

And to understand where that line is, you have to understand that there are three different types of influencers, not just one.

The three types of influencers and the line of trust

There are three social media influencer pipelines available to brands today … let’s look at these types and the implication for the “line of trust” for each one:

1. Celebrity — The oldest type of influence marketing is aligning your brand with a celebrity. An example would be Matthew McConaughey doing car commercials. For a celebrity influencer:

Influence is based on their fame

Enormous “pipeline”

Endorsement is purchased

Brand Goal = “Image.” Certain brands may pay to access this pipeline just to be associated with this person’s image and lifestyle.

The line of trust for a celebrity endorsement is very low, meaning we’re willing to trust celebrities unless they really screw up.. We’ve become conditioned to seeing famous people in ads since the 1920s and celebrity endorsements are now an expectation. They can take money from a brand and we usually don’t think any less of them.

2. Thought leader — This might be a well-known blogger who has established their position through consistently creating helpful content.

Influence based on authoritative, original content

Brand content may be either organic or sponsored (purchased)

Large, engaged audience

Limited brand engagement, i.e. probably no organic advocacy exists without sponsor dollars

Brand goal = “Awareness.” How do I get the word out quickly in a business niche?

The line of trust for a thought leader is extremely high. They have built their reputation based on expertise and once that expertise is put up for sale, their credibility may be diminished among their discerning audience. Smart brands (and influencers) will be careful about crossing that line between “thought leadership” and “advertisement.”

3. Advocate — An example would be a content creator who creates passionate videos about their favorite fashions and shopping experiences. They post content about your brand because they love you and they can’t get enough of you.

Influence based on passion and the emotional connection with their audience

Targeted, relevant audience

Authentic, organic, unpaid advocacy

High brand engagement due to true belief in the product and company

Brand goal = “Drive word of mouth attention and sales”

The bar of trust for an advocate is moderate. They are passionate and authentic but their audience also knows they need to make a living. Sponsorships may be seen as a badge of social proof that the advocate is moving up in the world.

Any single person might fit into multiple categories depending on the situation. Author Seth Godin is a celebrity often featured through the mainstream media, he is a content-based influencer, and he goes out of his way to authentically advocate people and products he believes in (without compensation). But a person can only have one type of influence relationship with any individual brand.

There is probably a fourth kind of influencer I’ll call the placeholder. It is certainly possible to be considered by some people to be an “influencer” based on Twitter followers or some vanity metric like that. Most companies are moving past that (I hope) and I do believe that in the end, true influence and authority will win out and eventually focus on the three types I’ve described above.

Putting this into action

One of my friends, a person who created his well-earned influence through his own content and thought leadership, recently ran a sponsored post (content another company paid him to write, which was clearly labeled). My reaction was “yuck.” That reaction doesn’t seem quite fair until you start to apply the above model.

His reputation is built entirely on trust but has now turned his content into an advertisement. Taken to an extreme, he will destroy his reputation in the industry if he does this too often.

Casey Neistat (pictured at the top pf the post today) is also an “influencer,” but he built his reputation as a YouTube entertainer and is now a true celebrity. He was recently featured on a Samsung commercial and my reaction was “cool.”

Similarly, mommy blogger Glennon Doyle Melton built her career through authentic advocacy (and may have crossed over to celebrity now) but if she sells some products through her site, it is seen as part of her genre. People expect her to make money from her blog through brand sponsorships.

The point of this little exercise is that not all influence types are equal because they’ve built their audiences in different ways — through fame, through expertise, or through emotional connection. The brand relationship must be accurately geared toward the correct type of influencer, and the influencer must accept the responsibility of sponsorship based on how they built their reputation.

I recognize that there are lots of opportunities out there to monetize content. I don’t blame anyone for trying to make a buck to put some food on the table. But be intentional about what you’re doing and recognize the long-term consequences and risks of sponsored relationships.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Mid-post illustration courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner

The post Crossing the influence line: When does sponsorship destroy your reputation? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oOUEff