#or id watch gamers do one single lets play of it and be like oh ok i can see how this game is fun (me assuming they'd doubt it's potential)

[loafbud]

The first Splatoon game turned 8 yesterday!

[miekasa]

I’m in love with the idea of twitch streamer bf eren

OKAY ME TOO!! Easily top 3 best Eren concepts imo it’s just so good and so... him, he falls on the gamer himbo boyfriend side of the scale for sure

Let’s start with his setup: purple and/or green with a dark wood tabletop. He keeps the lights green during the day or when his computer is idle, and mixes in the purple when it’s dark out because he likes the Ambiance. 

Only one monitor and do not let him buy another one no matter how much he claims he needs it. He does not. He has a TV in his room tho, but it’s not mounted above or near his desk; it’s on the opposite wall that faces his bed. Laying down and watching Netflix takes priority.  

He’s a sucker for themed keyboards/keycaps. If he finds a set themed around his favorite show or a character he likes, he’ll buy it. No self control.

The majority of his keyboards have that super clacky almost officey sounding click to them, and he’s obsessed with it. Sometimes he fucks around on Google Docs typing nonsense just to hear the keyboard make noise.

Puts in special keycaps on the ones with your initials on whichever keyboard he’s using at the moment <3 gamer boyfriend things <33

Always swears he wants to do some kind of special event or thank you for subscriber/follower milestones, but he never catches his own milestones 😭😭 by the time he realizes he has 100k subs, he’s already on 103k or something 

Then he calls you, his friends, and his subscribers fake for not pointing it out to him like sir it’s right there on your screen please. All you had to do was LOOK

If he’s in the middle of a game and he really has a to pee, or he’s gotta go do something, he’ll yell for you, and you come in, obviously slightly worried, but then Eren is just hurriedly giving you instructions, “Here, press left or right to move, spacebar to fire, avoid these, kill those. That ugly look thing to the left is Jean, and over there is his character. You’re teammates, I’ll be right back,” before he puts his headphones on your head and runs off. Now you’re left to fend for yourself, good luck.

He can be gone anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes 😭😭 if he’s gone for a short amount of time, he comes back with just as much chaotic energy to take back his headphones and shoo you away as he did to throw it all on you pls.

Other times, he’ll go and make a whole ass meal and come back sauntering in with a half eaten grilled cheese in hand, “Oh shit are you still playing, babe—hey you’re doing really well, look at you go!”

When you’re not there, he mentions you a lot, because he’s always thinking about you no matter how small it is; even just the design of a character would prompt him to a make a comment, “I don’t think my girlfriend has ever played this, but I know she’d main this character.” 

Does he invite you to play a game he knows you’ve never played or are bad at with him on his stream, knowing full well he’s an ace at it and will crush you publicly? Absolutely. Without a doubt. 

There’s always a very shameless, not at all subtle shoutout to his Instagram in the middle of all his streams please, he’ll be playing a game and randomly it’s like, “Fire pic on Instagam by the way, go like that.” 

His comments are pretty respectful whenever you’re there or he mentions you; there’s a few cheeky randoms who like to make donations whenever you’re on the screen or say some inappropriate stuff, but Eren’s learned to just ignore it. It doesn’t make him happy, and he might tell people to chill if it’s excessive, but he won’t call out anything explicitly and make you uncomfortable while you’re there. 

Sometimes Connie will make a comment about how you’re hot, and that’s definitely something Eren will call out and bring attention to, more so to mock Connie than anything. 

At one point, his subscribers keep asking for more content with you (especially if you’re not there often/it’s been a while since people have seen a peek of you), to which Eren will pout because, “Hey, this is my Twitch-- now, look, you’ve gotten your Eren’s hot girlfriend privileges revoked for the week.”

Terrible at doing unboxing videos whenever he gets sent product because he just rips things open 😭😭 he’s too eager to do ASMR or gentle/detailed unboxing, he just wants to test out the new parts as soon as possible. 

Abuses his spinny gamer chair. Spins himself dizzy on it (yes, while he’s streaming and waiting for lobbies/things to load), spins you dizzy on it when you’re just trying to be comfy, spins the both of you dizzy when he’s trapped you on his lap. 

He’d be one of those lucky people who gets a cool single name user/ID. Like he gets just @eren or @jaeger/yeager, because his name is pretty unique, but I can totally see him going the typical fun gamer tag route. 

His content is anything from him streaming Overwatch and COD to terraforming his Animal Crossing island, he does not discriminate. One day you could get Eren calling Jean a fucking dumbass for not healing him, and the next day he’s doing his best impressions of Timmy and Tommy.

Do not put it past him to build you a whole ass PC setup if you express the slightest interest in one, even if it’s not solely for gaming/you wanna use it for work/school. He’ll do it. He’ll make his hyperfixating work for him. 

Plus then he’d get to give you one of his old keyboards and give you special keycaps with his initials and go on about how he’s officially got a gamer gf even if all you can do is press the spacebar <33 

[pkgam]

What Happened to Twitch?

Twitch used to be a pretty good website. I had really high hopes that it would be a competitor to Youtube. It is a live stream platform that was ahead of Youtube as Youtube took a while to do live stuff. It has videos as well such as of past streams or people streaming videos they made for viewing later, viewer interaction features, solid streamers, no audible magic, good mods/staff, etc... Now the issues with the site are virtually endless. Let me give you a rundown of various things I have experienced and I have heard others experiencing which you may or may not have experienced because it’s as if that issues are not even account-specific.

Lately when logging in, every time, they prompt be to get a 6-digit code from my Email to continue to login because they “don’t recognize” my device. Yeah, you know how on every other website that has verification things like this, it’ll keep track of what devices you logged in from so you don’t have to keep verifying? No matter what, it doesn’t do that for me and a bunch of others. It seems to work fine for others though. So it’s user-specific. I have even tried logging in from one PC, then logging into another off the same internet while STILL being logged in to that PC and it’ll ask me to verify on both. It should at least be able to tell it’s from the same IP, but nope.

Try reporting the glitches and problems to Twitch as well. You’ll get nowhere. A recent experience I had with them was I tried to resolve that 6-digit verification thing for months. I explain it, get what looks like a generic copy/paste or automated response that does not address the issue, I respond back saying that wasn’t it and explain it again, then get NO response back, but do get a response back with a survey on how they did. Needless to say I was not satisfied and explained it in a civil way. No response back from them for that either. They used to handle stuff like that so well way back. Like, I remember when The Speed Gamers migrated from Ustream back to Twitch that they were having layout trouble during one of their charity streams in that what they wanted to incorporate on their page couldn’t be done, so they messaged Twitch staff about it and they tweaked the page so they could. Stuff like that was amazing! I don’t see things like that happen anymore.

When finally being able to log in, I’ve noticed that oftentimes my status is set to “offline” when I always have it set to “online”. Alternately I have seen friend’s statuses going to idle despite them being active on the site. So that status part of the site is entirely borked.  Moving on to other topics...

I think users knew when they implemented Audible Magic (basically Content ID for Twitch, automatically hitting videos) and played it off as a benefit to streamers so they can remove copyrighted music in their videos that it was going to go downhill. Remember that a lot of people went from Youtube to Twitch (Or Justin.tv) BECAUSE they were tired of Youtube’s horrible automated systems. Add automation in the mix and, well... it indeed went downhill.

Twitch is clearly inconsistent in their moderation now too. There was this one girl who frustratedly threw her cat behind her on stream and nothing came of it. But on the other hand, there was a girl who got banned for apparent dog yelps off camera with her being there, stating the ban was for animal abuse. Story: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/twitch-streamer-furious-over-animal-abuse-ban-amid-alinity-controversy-1296710 Many’ more examples like that out there on various topics.

Also, ever since they implemented automatic moderation of words in chat, there has been a ridiculous amount of people punished for innocent things (you can briefly read what they post before it gets removed from view or use a browser extension to reveal them) because it can’t tell context. At least streamers can turn that off, but it was set to on by default which caused a lot of issues. Still’ does when people have it on as not everyone turned it off.

Streams have been getting very bad audio glitches for me in that they will get more and more distorted until I pause then play the stream. On top of that, the chat will stop scrolling with new messages at times, forcing me to scroll it down manually. With both of these, it’s like having to maintain two fronts while trying to interact. Not fun.

Speaking of trying to interact, ever since they implemented that stream delay of like 20 seconds to cheap on the servers, it has not been the same anyway. They eventually implemented a “low latency” thing which yields faster delivery at the cost of possibly buffering a lot, but it’s still longer than the 2-3 seconds it used to be. Just imagine trying to converse with someone face to face and they respond 20 seconds later first. It’s the most awkward thing to keep track of. (Smashcast doesn’t have that. Just’ saying...) It can be even worse if the stream player itself gets an error and you have to refresh, which does happen fairly often. Making you possibly miss the point the streamer talked to you. Trying to sort it out then just stalls the whole thing because they have to readdress you if you mention it to them which backlogs them responding to others and etc...

For the videos on demand (VOD) themselves, playback is often glitchy as errors happen midway through, they don’t play at all and seeking to a certain part is often very difficult as it doesn’t go where you click. Heck, I heard from others that sometimes you can’t even PAUSE a VOD as that functionality is glitched out. But pausing works fine for me. Why is that? Who knows.

Live streams aren’t much better as they have their own issues. I often get errors and have to refresh the page to get it to run again. Even when not getting an error, I noticed that I’m served a slightly-slower stream than others seem to get. So I have to pause then unpause the video every so often to get it to jump back ahead to the closest point I can see. Part of me wonders if the error and slightly slower stream are related, but don’t hold me to that. I have a good internet connection too.

Twitch streams also get deleted nowadays unless set up to into highlights. Given that many weren’t aware this happened before it was too late (you only had 14 days to save them if not a turbo/prime member and 60 if you are), a TON of content got lost. People argued that it’s to save money because of the hosting costs of video data being large. So rather than streams just being automatically turned into highlights as a precautionary measure, they just let them get wiped because they didn’t care. I’m not entirely sure about that “because” you can save streams to highlights as mentioned. So it’s just going to fill back up again since people now know of it, if not already has filled back up.

Twitch also got rid of PMs so past conversations you might have wanted to look back on or had to catch up on as a backlog were lost. You can do the same sort of thing in whispers if a person allows it in their settings, but what’s the point of getting rid of PMs?... Text is text regardless of where it’s located. This was one of those sorts of changes that I can’t figure out. I “thought” maybe they wanted to unify a private place to talk since both existed at once time, but why not just move the conversation to the other or not have both at the same time to begin with?

Another thing they get rid of for no reason is email notifications to streams you follow. They “say” if you don’t watch a stream for a while they’ll turn off email alerts to it. Which makes sense to not fill up someone’s inbox. Imagine for instance they stream 30 days straight and you don’t go to any of them as sort of a break. That’s 30 emails that are useless to you. Except it doesn’t work. Even streams I watched regular like Bob Ross got email alerts disabled. You can tell that they keep track of when you click an Email link to someone’s stream too because in the URL you’ll notice it recognizes you came from the Email. So there’s no excuse. Oh and there’s no way to toggle that automated disabling of alerts to off as far as I’m aware. So you just have to deal with it. At least they do seem to be consistent about telling you when it does turn off email alerts, but get ready to enter that 6-digit login code just to fix the alerts regardless if the person is streaming or not.

After the Amazon buyout, eventually they started pushing Twitch Prime as well, basically another paid subscription thing like Turbo, only with Amazon benefits added on it. But all the things they push as “prime loot” are complete garbage. Stuff like Raid: Shadow Legends which is hardly a “game”. What made them even think a community of gamers would be into that? Well, maybe they did realize that, but did it anyway as a business partnership for the moolah.

I get the feeling that business partnerships are what’s going on with all the Valorant stuff popping up as well. Only with streamers being able to take advantage of it. For example: People found out to try the game, they need to watch any Valorant stream with drops enabled for a for 2 hours. That lead to people going to streams just for that invite. Many people. Artificial-inflation amounts of people that encourage people to stream it for said numbers and Twitch recommending channels playing it like mad to people, lol! So yeah, I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t a business partnership.

You can find many more examples out there of people may or may not having a bug for things, but this should be enough to explain that Twitch is a complete mess. Every single aspect of it. It’s in a state like Youtube where everything is broke and they are ignoring users who message them telling about bugs (which they claim they encourage people to do and they listen to) or maybe are just unwilling to fix any of them even if they know about them. Who knows because they don’t communicate like they used to.

Your thoughts?

Thanks for reading and have a good one!

[letstalksymphogear]

Symphogear, EP.7 (Cont.)

“i have not now, nor ever, liked this creepy ass church elevator.”

“kanade please get out of my head, just because im hungry doesnt mean you have to tell me every time i am”

Hibiki finishes getting a full body X-ray. She’s fine.

“that anime protagonist immunity is really kicking in well!”

“by the way, your wife is here! and she’s looking mighty miffed., as opposed to me, mighty milfed.”

“you dont strike me as a mother figure but ill play along for now”

“i just hope miku’s okay...”

“oh, she’ll be fine! see, i’ve seen these kinds of plots before. big secret revealed, another lover is shown, the victim watches as they’re thoroughly cheated on, and they get to lik-”

“please stop breathing”

Genjuro’s wasting away again in Margaritaville. Looking for some daughter to adopt. SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT THERE’S A, WOOOOMAAAAAN TO BLAAAAAAAAAAME, BUT HE KNOWS

XYLOPHONE RIFF

THAT’S IT’S ALL HIS FAULT

XYLOPHONE RIFF

“i hate it when he gets like this. jimmy buffets not a good look for him.”

“for once you and i agree. seeing the commander sulk like this like a middle aged perma-tourist is genuinely miserable”

“hey homies! im back and i brought some bitches! oh, jesus, why does this place smell like mistakes in miami?”

“its me. im sorry. every time i feel like i failed as a dad, my anti-dad energies manifest. imagine every midlife crisis rolled up into a single ball, smacked into the face for eternity. thats the depth of my pain for failing this girl.”

In a moment of positivity, the friendship between Tsubasa and Hibiki is cemented.

> Tsubasa has joined the party.

“FRIENDSHIP!”

“fweindship.”

“uuuuhhhhh... dadship? yeah thats close enough.”

“WE’RE ALL GOOD FRIENDS!”

“ya tiddies are ringing again, better go get it”

Ryoko also points out that Hibiki’s relic is fusing with herself at an alarming rate. This is important to keep in mind.

Meanwhile, at night.

Miku is posing in the motherly “you done fucked up, where have you been young lady” position. A cold scolding is coming.

“.........................hey miku......”

“you can come in. are you worried im gonna bite? you suplexed a car. that shouldn’t be an issue anymore.”

“miku, i.... i wanted to tell you.... but.... the plot wouldn’t let me, miku....”

“should’ve told the plot to fuck off anyway. now you’re gonna live with that. you’re sleeping... on the bottom bunk.”

“b.... b..... b...... b.... b...... bottom bunk...?”

They slept separately that night. God, this is so stupid. All of this is so goddamned stupid. “I’m so mad at you even though you saved my life.” This is just so. AUGH. THIS IS DUMB. KANEKO WRITE BETTER ANGST THAT MAKES SENSE THAT ISN’T THIS.

Meanwhile, far away from this garbage...

Chris, having been evicted from Fine’s McMansion, wanders the streets of mumblemumble aimlessly. Don’t be fooled by her new fancy dress. Basically, she’s a combat-competent hobo.

“no food. no home. no victories. this sucks. whyd you do it, fine? we coulda been great together. but no. ya fired me. now i look like im prancing the red light district with a highly advanced superweapon around my neck.”

“no... hibiki’s to blame. ever since that genderbent little mac showed up to fight me, it’s been all downhill. fine thought me a laughstock because i couldnt take out her oversized boxing gloves, and now she beat me while i had nehushtan. god... i wish i never met that damn hamster faced chubby cheeked nerd.”

“wait, whats that crying”

Chris spies two kids talking to each other, one of them crying. Chris immediately makes an assumption, believing the big bro is bullying his sis.

“hey! stop nicking her lunch money, twerp”

Chris currently is a firm believer of corporeal punishment.

But the sister deflects the blow. Chris can’t even defeat children right now. Truly, this is a record low for her. You know you blew it when even kids are schooling you on basic morality. She then tells the little girl to stop crying, ironically mirroring her brother.

The infamous double T-Pose maneuver. Chris, you might as well get a shovel and start digging your own grave.

“i keep doing bad things badly, and now im doing good things badly... when fine said i was bad... did she just mean im not talented?”

Chris, finally, does a good thing and helps these kids find their parents.

“yeah. hibiki saved a kid when she got her gear. guess what? bam! im saving two! that’s fifty percent more kid per kid saved. take that, weirdo.”

The kids call her out on Chris singing unconsciously, and Chris gets flustered over it. Dawwwwww.

Chris manages to get them to safety to their Dad...

...while brutally lying about it, making Chris look like a predator. There’s a very crushing irony at play here, given who Chris used to serve.

“ugggggggggggggggghhhhhh hes not even gonna payyyyy meeeeeee why the fuck did i dooooo thiiiiiiissssss”

“hey, you know. you kids have a really nice relationship with one another. care to give me tips on how to be an empathetic human being capable of making friends?”

“maybe we’re born with it”

“maybe its maybeline”

“maybeline...”

Meanwhile...

A cold wind blows through Lydian Apartment 69-L. (I don’t actually know if that’s their room number, I just made it up.)

“jesus take the wheel, because i’m jumping out the passenger seat to save this current wreck of a relationship”

“miku please i saved your life, doesnt that count for anything”

“you already killed me the moment you lied. also im taking the bottom bunk so i dont have to see your face coming down the ladder.”

“miku you cant hide in this depression den forever. i know i hurt you and im sorry for it, but please understand i literally couldnt do it. you saw there were punches and violence and stuff... i didnt want you tied to that...”

“what was that? i cant hear your apologies over my incredibly loud snoring. SNOOOOOOORE. SNOOOOOOOORE. SNOOO- fuck, i just swallowed my spit, fuck”

“i hope this cocoon of displeasure you’ve made for yourself lets you erupt into a butterfly of acceptance so i can fly with you again.”

“......thats not fair. you cant say those beautiful metaphors and get away with it. let me be mad... sniff... let me be mad...”

Sadness wafts in the den of lies Hibiki has been forced into.

No music plays. There is only heartbreak, and woe.

In the midst of this pain...

Ryoko loredumps about how the Symphogears work and are immune to the noise on her blog, ‘hornyonmainforscience.org’, her hybrid science journal slash kink zone. It’s mostly a recap with some pretty good soft techno beats in it.

“i made a custom brew of red bull, five hour energy drink, coffee, and cream. i call it gamer girl piss.”

“damn. that’s some good piss.”

She muses about how Hibiki has managed to break the limitations of her Symphogear, making her a totally unique specimen. Wait, where have we heard this before...?

Hey... Ryoko... let’s just... cool it a bit with the Hibiki pictures... come on...

Ryoko touches upon the Custodians and the Curse of Babel. We ain’t touching that shit until later, because that’s another shitfuck box of crazy just ready to jump us in a dark alleyway to rob us of our wits.

Back to Lydian:

“miku whats the answer to the first three multiple choice questions”

“B. A. D.”

“oh, thanks. huh, BAD.”

“yeah. you are.”

“mmm. taste likes dissapointment. just like my life.”

“hey table for two haha get it cause there’s two chairs and miku for the love of god, please, forgive me”

“ive surgically removed my eyes and drew eyelashes over them with sharpie so i dont have to see your bird bangs.”

“thats very rude to both me and my hair. also, wig.”

Even Hibiki’s meal is judging her. Mainly for not eating it. Fucking look at this. God, that looks amazing. Fuck, why did I write this while I was hungry.

“miku you cant do this forever. i might die and youll end up crying on my tombstone going ‘oh god, why, oh god’, and really, i cant live with myself if that happens. mainly because id already be dead by then”

The Anime Janai crew show up to break some icebergs with a goddamn sledgehammer. As the self-aware Gods of this realm, they got very tired of this poor display of angst, and have decided to directly intervene.

Nevermind. They came for her kneecaps, and they most certainly got them.

PLEASE. I’M BEGGING YOU. END THIS GARBAGE PLOT THREAD.

“look. imma lay down the facts. yall are gay. yall are in love. yall are angry for the wrong reasons. its nobody’s fault here but the writer. so please kiss and make up. pretty please.”

“kaneko... you fool... we all know what the original sin is. its your hack writing making this stupidity in the first place. let the pencil go, asshole!”

They bring up the fact that Hibiki isn’t doing her work and wonder if she has a job on the side, which isn’t allowed by the school. Miku gets annoyed and bails, with Hibiki running after her. Unfortunately, Miku runs faster...

“oh god miku not the rooftop whatever you’re thinking just dont do it! please!”

“no. i came here to angst, since this is the Maximum Angst Zone.”

“i..... okay! okay, that’s fair! rooftops are the perfect place to look sad while getting proper air ventilation, thats fine”

It really would have been better played if it was played off that she felt hurt not because of the lie, but because she felt like she could have helped her better having known the truth, and it being a self-loathing sort of scenario for not being there better for her and not fully understanding the risk at play.

But no, instead, we get this.

Absolutely obliterated. A heart ripped, shredded, and sent to the Shadow Realm.

The episode ends on that note, but has a post credit scene.

Naked. On an old timey telephone. On a computer. Wearing stockings and long gloves.

The main antagonist of the series, everybody.

She’s talking the best English possible to some random-ass American when suddenly bursting through the scene is none other than:

“I WANT WORKERS COMPENSATION YOU BITCH, BEFORE I UNIONIZE YOUR NAKED ASS”

“AND I WANT A GOOD REFERNECE FOR MY FUTURE EMPLOYER, AND ALSO A SEVERANCE PACKAGE SINCE I’M FUCKING HOMELESS”

“i paint my eyelashes with mascara made from the tar of freshly carbonated corpses manufactured through noise, what on gods green earth compels you to think id give a rats ass about you?”

“so you never cared, huh! you’re just a nasty naked hedonist trying to- trying to- what the fuck are you even trying to do?!”

“i want to live the dream every spicy little fossil like me yearns for.”

“I WANNA FUCK GOD!”

“how- what? what? how do you even- what? are you- do you want to be the pope? is that it? does the pope get to fuck god? are you- is this a larping thing? you’ve really been into larping lately! i don’t like this!”

“youve never read the old testament, have you. ass out, pussy bare, hips up and barefoot. that’s how god’s always liked it.”

“now get lost, punk. you tipped off my hand to genjuro and now you being here is going to ruin everything. if you still feel any semblance of devotion, eat one of your own bullets and call it a day.”

“it’s 2012 bitch, if the mayans dont get you, I WILL”

“what god gives, He takes away, and so do i. i built you from the ground up. your relic, which was good for jack shit on you. the nehushtan, which you failed to do anything with except zap a couple hundred people. stop wars? you’re a walking war, waged by me, for me. and your cartridge has just run out of bullets.”

“uh oh! hand’s acting up again! better bail before i send you back to smacktown where all the bitter little shittalkers like you strut around spending their lives being useless as hell.”

“ah fuck, im not dealing with no manos: the hands of fate bullshit again”

“and guess what else i got on motherfucker”

“i see the union efforts have officially been busted. understandable, have a nice day ma’am”

“LEAVE.”

“I’M GOING, I’M GOING”

[syncogon]

summary: During the entirety of Ye Qiu's eight-and-a-half season Glory career, as far as the general public knows, One Autumn Leaf's user is male. A select few, however, she trusts enough to reveal the truth. (fem!Ye Xiu)

(( i finally (well, like a week ago) got an ao3! so here’s a shameless plug of a little one-shot I wrote and posted. there’s some other stuff too (and i’ll be posting/compiling my old things there too) so feel free to check it out!))

((since it’s not TOO long, i’ll put the full text on tumblr as well. please read/comment/enjoy!))

Ye Xiu is fifteen years old when she runs away from home. With hardly a semblance of a plan in mind, she carries her twin’s identity and belongings and she wanders until stumbling upon a certain internet café. She has limited money, but she pays for some time on a vacant computer and slides into the seat.

There’s a boy sitting nearby, about her age, laughing as he handily defeats challenger after challenger, money trading hands. Ye Xiu recognizes the game, of course, it’s one of many she’s played. And so when no one else seems quite so eager to take a turn, she speaks up.

“Hey, I’ll play you,” she says. The boy gives her a once over. His previous challengers had been of varying ages, but, notably, were all male. Still, if he’s surprised to see a young girl so boldly want to fight, he doesn’t show it.

“Sure,” he says with an easy and friendly grin. “You’re new here, so we’ll keep money out of this. But I won’t go easy on you!”

To that, Ye Xiu only smirks.

The boy is skilled, for sure. The match drags on, and there are several moments where Ye Xiu very nearly loses. But, ultimately, she executes a clever move that earns her the victory.

“Damnit!” she hears him yell. And then, a second later, “That was amazing! Rematch?”

“You’re on.”

Slowly, a crowd of internet café patrons gathers around them to watch. It seems that this boy – named Su Muqiu, as she eventually learns – is quite well-known around this crowd for his skill, and they’re excited to see him meet someone who can match him. There are some murmurs of surprise that his opponent is a girl, but Ye Xiu forces herself to ignore them.

Eventually, Su Muqiu declares that they should take a break.

“What, tired of losing?” she teases him, but she’s almost out of time on the computer anyway, and so stands up and logs off.

“You wish,” Su Muqiu snorts. “We’re settling this later. Mucheng, come on, let’s eat over there.”

The little girl whom Ye Xiu noticed earlier scurries forward, holding a bag that she offers to the boy. Siblings, judging by their appearances, and Ye Xiu feels a brief pang of regret at abandoning her twin. She furiously squashes the feeling. She would go back, eventually.

Su Muqiu takes several steps before pausing to find Ye Xiu still standing there next to the computers. “Well? Are you coming?” he asks, and Ye Xiu hurries over to join them, her new family.

********

“Glory supports female avatars,” says Su Muqiu one day, peering over at his friend’s screen curiously. “Why’re you still sticking to male?”

Ye Xiu gives Su Muqiu a look. “Do you have any idea what it’s like, being a so-called ‘girl gamer’?” she says flatly.

“…No?”

“It sucks.”

Su Muqiu waits for her to say more, but when she merely continues to maneuver the game in silence, he prompts, “In what way?”

“Well,” she begins, still staring intently at her screen, “it’s not 'proper' for girls to be interested in gaming, for one. So a lot of guys will be condescending and won’t take me seriously, even if I could beat them up in ten seconds, because apparently there’s no such thing as a girl that’s good at gaming.

“Any sexist joke you’ve heard of, kitchens, sandwiches, anything, I can guarantee someone’s made it to me. And I’ve had my fair share of disgusting comments and come-ons and general harassment as well. I’ve been lucky enough not to get in any physical danger, but I’ve heard plenty of stories about that too.

“Anyway, when Glory announced that they were including the option for female avatars, you should have seen the backlash – men were acting like it was a personal attack on their freedom to even have this option exist. ‘Pandering to feminazis’ they said, and a whole lot of other bullshit.

“So if I use a male avatar, I can pass as a guy, and avoid all of that trouble. Glory has voice chat, but my voice isn’t particularly feminine, so there haven’t been troubles on that end, yet.” Ye Xiu takes a deep breath. She isn’t usually the type to say so much at once, but Su Muqiu’s question prompted an outflow of all the grievances she’s quietly suffered during all these years playing games. She’s long since accepted it as a fact of the gaming world, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t irritated by it.

“Sorry for the rant, but yeah. That’s why One Autumn Leaf is male.”

“…Oh…” At the end of all of that, Su Muqiu is at somewhat of a loss for words. He was aware that these attitudes existed, of course, but he thought they were ridiculous – what did your gender have to do with how good you were? His friend here was living proof of that. He hadn’t realized just how prevalent these views were, and it makes him sick.

To think Ye Xiu has to deal with all of that… To think that she still loves gaming anyway. Su Muqiu feels his admiration for his friend grow.

“I’m sorry,” he says, even though he knows those are about the most useless words he could say.

She shrugs. “For what? You’re a good guy. This is just how things are.”

Later, when Su Muqiu starts making alternate accounts, he still makes Dancing Rain female for his sister. But he makes Lord Grim female as well, out of respect for a different girl.

********

When Ye Xiu steps onto the professional stage – no longer with her closest friend and best partner – she presents herself as her twin, Ye Qiu. Ye Qiu is female, like her, otherwise she’d never be able to pass her “borrowed” ID as her own. But she begs Club Excellent Era to hide her gender, in addition to her face and practically every other identifying piece of information about herself.

This still being the early days of the League, when things weren’t quite so commercialized, the Club agrees to these terms. Later, looking at the success of All-Stars Su Mucheng and Chu Yunxiu, some of the Club regret this decision. But at the time, it hadn’t seemed like that big a deal, not much of a stretch from allowing Ye Xiu to avoid all public appearances. And having their team publicly led by a female captain had seemed like a publicity risk, anyway.

Among her own teammates, of course, Ye Xiu can’t keep up the gender part of her identity lie. Wu Xuefeng is surprised to learn that the incredible Battle Mage with whom he’d played in-game all this time was actually a girl, but he’s nothing but supportive from the start. Some of the others are more skeptical, but their doubts are silenced after they see her in action.

A championship is a championship, after all, and Battle God One Autumn Leaf earns them three.

So during the entirety of Ye Qiu’s eight-and-a-half season professional career, as far as the fans and the public know, Ye Qiu is male. It’s much more difficult to hide from her fellow proplayers – but she doesn’t particularly want to hide from them, only from the public. As she says, Glory isn’t a single player game, and this means forming bonds with not only teammates but opponents as well. So to those proplayers that earn her respect and trust despite being on rival teams, she reveals herself in person:

***

Han Wenqing is even more terrifying in person than any pictures could convey, and he towers over the somewhat short and skinny girl in front of him. Not that she’s cowering. There’s an amused gleam in Ye Xiu’s eye as she looks at him. Surprising the steadfast King of Fighting is no easy task, after all. And though Han Wenqing is fairly good at hiding his emotions behind a scary poker face, the revelation that his longtime rival was actually a she was enough to get a reaction from him.

“So then,” asks Han Wenqing as he remembers another question he’s had for a while, “where is Autumn Tree? That player was quite skilled as well, he would do well in the professional scene.”

Han Wenqing isn’t the type of person to have regrets. He finds them unnecessary and a waste of time. In his view, one should simply concentrate on moving forward, channeling all energy and focus toward the future.

But now, seeing Ye Xiu’s expression tighten, he does wish he could retract that question.

“He’s gone,” she finally answers, quietly. “Car accident.”

“Oh.” What’s the proper thing to say to something like that? “That’s… a shame.”

“Yes. He would have been a god.” Ye Xiu sighs and looks off into the distance, looking so much… sadder… than her shameless in-game persona would have led him to believe possible.

But her eyes turn back to him soon enough. “But we keep living anyway. Isn’t that right, Old Han?”

Han Wenqing nods, and Ye Xiu smiles and makes to leave.

“Ye Qiu,” he calls after her, “see you on stage.”

She doesn’t look back, but does give a friendly wave in reply, and Han Wenqing hopes he’ll be able to see his remarkable rival again soon.

***

As Hundred Blossoms makes their way through the passageways under the stage after their startling defeat to Excellent Era, they come across a girl in red Excellent Era uniform leaning casually against the wall.

“Captain wishes to speak to you two,” she informs Zhang Jiale and Sun Zheping, who are standing at the head of the line. The passageway is narrow, so it’s hard for the other Hundred Blossom team members to catch a glimpse of her.

She’s avoiding their gazes, acting somewhat timid and nervous, but she seems sincere enough. Sun Zheping gestures for the rest of the team to head back to their room, and he and his vice captain follow the girl down a different path.

She leads them to a vacant room, where Zhang Jiale finally bursts out, impatient, “So where is this mysterious captain of yours, huh?”

“Right here.”

Zhang Jiale’s mouth actually falls open. Sun Zheping’s reaction is more subdued, though he’s just as stunned.

Meanwhile, Ye Xiu continues speaking, any semblance of the timid façade casually discarded. “To be honest, that match was kind of disappointing,” she says airily. “The undefeated Blood and Blossom duo was hyped up all this season, and when we finally face you, your combination just kind of falls apart like that? You new guys still have a long ways to go.”

She’s mocking them, but there’s no real animosity behind it. This sort of playful trashtalk was common in the pro scene. But, of course, Sun Zheping wasn’t going to take it lying down.

“My respect for Wu Xuefeng grows with each passing second,” he says, “for having to deal with you on a regular basis.”

Ye Xiu only smiles and makes a mock bow.

Zhang Jiale, having picked his jaw up off the floor, butts in, “We’ll beat you next time for sure!” He’s making finger guns for emphasis, and Ye Xiu can’t help but laugh at the enthusiasm.

“We’ll see, we’ll see.”

***

“Unexpected,” says Wang Jiexi, raising an eyebrow. The action only emphasizes his unnaturally large eye, and Ye Xiu stifles a snort.

“High praise from the unpredictable Magician,” she replies, instead.

“Is there any reason for telling this to me now?”

“Mm,” she tilts her head, “not really, I suppose, but it does feel nice to let people know. Sometimes their reactions are funny.”

“…I see.”

“Do you, though? With those mismatched eyes of yours?”

Wang Jiexi huffs at that, but Ye Xiu’s pleased to see the hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

***

Yu Wenzhou takes in the news with hardly a blink, completely calm, like he is in every other aspect of his life. His companion, of course, reacts slightly differently.

“What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck One Autumn Leaf is actually a girl are you fucking serious my entire life is a lie there are already so few girls in the League and it turns out one of them is the Battle God are there any other big life changing revelations I’ve missed? But no ultimately it doesn’t make that big a difference I guess because you’re still a good player and I still want to fight you and I still won’t go easy on you at all got it that’s right I want to PKPKPKPKPK with you right now and you’re not getting out of this okay are you even listening to me huh?!”

“You’re even more of a headache in person…” Ye Xiu says flatly. “Captain Yu, I’m impressed you haven’t gone deaf.”

Yu Wenzhou smiles and shrugs helplessly.

Aside from the gender, One Autumn Leaf’s user is about what he expected, especially that aura of quiet confidence. And even just from their short interaction, Yu Wenzhou can tell that she has a true tactician’s mind, quick and lively and calculating. He hopes to speak with her again, if only to compare notes with the original of the four Master Tacticians.

Judging from how Huang Shaotian rambles on about “that girl” for days after, the talkative proplayer definitely feels the same.

***

“Senior…Ye Qiu?”

The girl nods.

Zhou Zekai stares at her in silence for a while, before finally mustering the strength to say, “You’re… pretty… amazing.” He wants to say more, but he isn’t sure how.

Ye Xiu laughs. “Why, thanks,” she says. “But so are you. I’m looking forward to our next match.”

At that, Zhou Zekai loses all capacity for speech, and can only nod.

***

Chu Yunxiu walks alongside Ye Xiu, unsure of what to say. The fact that the number one player of Glory, the number one of such a male-dominated field, was a girl… It didn’t change everything, of course, but it did change a lot.

“Do you resent me for hiding?” the other girl asks suddenly.

Chu Yunxiu considers. The polite response, of course, would be an immediate “no,” but the question is so unexpected it forces her to give it serious thought. Her own path would have been easier if there had been a figure at the top she could point at and say, look, there’s proof that girls can do this too, even better than boys.

But things had worked out in the end. She was among the top in this field, now, leading a powerhouse team with the highest female-to-male ratio in the League. And Chu Yunxiu was proud of the path she’d taken, what she’d accomplished in the gaming world. Of course, she didn’t play Glory to be an icon of feminine empowerment, or whatever the media called her.

But she would support the cause in the capacity she could, including as a symbol for young girls to follow their dreams.

“No,” replies Chu Yunxiu, after this thoughtful silence. She hesitates, looking at Ye Xiu, wondering if she should say more, or if the other girl understands.

Ye Xiu smiles faintly, and they continue walking.

***

Ye Xiu meets a few others in person as well. And so, among the upper levels of the proplayers – the captains and vice captains and All-Stars and powerhouse teams – the fact that One Autumn Leaf’s user is female is common knowledge, though they have the sense to keep it from spreading; plenty of the “ordinary” proplayers never find out. During large events and get-togethers where every player is obliged to make an appearance, those not in the know simply ignore or forget the plain black-haired girl, even though she seems seems comfortable casually joking with any of the gods.

In the middle of the eighth season, Ye Qiu is forced to retire. The underlying reasons are largely the same – her lack of commercial value to the Club owners – but it was perhaps fueled by some sexist attitudes as well, some teammates who didn’t take well to taking orders from a girl, others that wanted her and couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Sun Xiang sneers at her shaking hands as she passes over One Autumn Leaf – of course a girl would be so emotional; no wonder she wasn’t fit to lead.

Outside Excellent Era, Ye Xiu wraps her adopted sister in a tight hug and whispers in her ear. “I’ll rest for a year, and then return.” The twilight of a god, a promise of a brilliant show of glory.

And when the various Glory pros begin hearing of a mysterious, fearsome, female player terrorizing the tenth server, the same name crosses all of their minds.

Ye Qiu may be gone, but Ye Xiu is still here. And this goddess is ready to take the Glory world by storm.

[supercoolgamesstuff-blog]

Board Gaming - Explaining Modern Board Games to Non-Gamers

New Post has been published on https://www.coolgamingzone.com/board-gaming-explaining-modern-board-games-to-non-gamers/

Board Gaming - Explaining Modern Board Games to Non-Gamers

Your Hobby is What?

How many times have you heard this question?

Your hobby is what? You play board games? Are You Kidding?

As I started to become fascinated by these modern eurogames, I got a lot of funny looks from people – my wife, brother, and sister included. Their response was “Ok, if that is what you want to do… I’ve never even heard of Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne.” What they did not understand is that there is quite an underground community developing around these games.

Over the past half a year or so, I have had to come up with a description for what this community affectionately calls Eurogames. They go by many names, none of which are known to the general public – adult board games. modern board games, designer games, German games, or Ameritrash games. Not one of these explains it well to the non-gamer. It really just digs you into a deeper hole.

You Can Not Answer Like This

We actually don’t play “board games” like you may think. We actually play modern designer games from Europe. They tend to be fairly complex and take several hours to play. Nobody is usually eliminated, so everyone actually has a really good time. They tend to be more interactive and engaging, yada yada… Right. Now their eyes have glazed over and you look like a board game snob.

You are Familiar with Monopoly, Right?

When introducing the games, touching a nerve is important. Asking about Monopoly tends to be my first response to them. This is a game everyone is familiar with. They understand that it is a game more complex than your average 7 year old child can handle, that it has aspects of fiscal responsibility, scarce resources, cards, and strategy. They also know there are no trivia questions, movie quotes, drawing pictures or putting words together. Good, we have a starting point. You are dealing with a game that is mildly serious and can go for over an hour.

Now, Think About Chess

Then, I go to the other end of the spectrum, chess. Again, this is a game most everyone has seen or played at some point. Heck, it even shows up in the first book of Harry Potter. They understand that this is a deep strategy game that many play and only some master. They also know that it is two players ONLY and those watching need to be very, very quiet…like golf. They are probably also aware that if you are good at chess, you are respected and considered intelligent, by most.

Now, you have your two extremes.

Next Up…Risk

This is a third game that is more complicated, and closer to the standard modern board game. And, everyone is fairly familiar with it. The thing you have to watch out for with this game is that not everyone has had a positive experience with it. It tends to be long and drawn out with two sides battling it out until the wee hours of the morning – while the eliminated players go and watch TV or munch on snacks and watch the clock.

So, Modern Board Games Are like Risk

You can actually say that a lot of the adult board games are like “Risk on steroids”. But, people actually enjoy them and most of the time everyone plays for the entire game. These games are strategy-oriented. You get to shape a country or landscape, manage an economy, manage energy infrastructures, or handle political races or micromanaging small businesses.

Unlike typical board games, the Risk board looks like a map of the world, with zones that have value. This is much more like a eurogame, than Monopoly – where all you do is go around and around hoping to land on GO! or Free Parking.

Also, you can talk to them about the imagery of the games. This is something that really attracted my wife. When she saw the level of art involved with Ticket to Ride, she was really interested. Carcassonne is similar – the art is more cartoon-like, but you build the city as you go. It is very rewarding to see the final city once it is done.

Have You Ever Played Video Games?

This is a really good leap because most 30-year-olds have, at some point, seen an RTS (real time strategy) game on a PC. They may have played Warcraft, Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer, or Civilization. Or, they may have played games like The Sims, SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. If so, they are in! These are the PC game cousin to the modern board game.

Sid Meyer, Will Right, John Romero, Chris Sawyer

These names are familiar to PC gamers. They created games like Civilization. SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, Doom, Quake, Roller Coaster Tycoon. One of the cool things about Designer board games is that the designer of a good board game can become a star in his own right.

If they know the PC designer names, you can share your excitement for Klaus Teuber, Alan R. Moon, Richard Borg, and Andreas Seyfarth. They should understand the respect.

Blizzard and ID

If you don’t hit the note with the designer names, just throw out these two names and you should get a nod of recognition. Blizzard has put out several games (all of them hits, by the way) such as Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft. They are also responsible for the Online Multiplayer game World of Warcraft. ID is the gaming company that busted down the doors of the first-person shooter game with Doom – the most downloaded shareware of its time.

Rio Grande, Days Of Wonder, and Fantasy Flight

If you have hit the nerve talking about PC gaming companies, you can make the logical jump to Adult Board Game Companies. These three companies should be at the forefront of the discussion. Most of the “hit” games come from these. Oh, and don’t forget Mayfair with Settlers of Catan.

Here is an interesting point you can share with your new-found connection…

Many PC Games are also Board Games

And, they land squarely in the modern board game genre. This is what some of the gamers call Amertrash games. But, they are games you can point to that might draw the non-gamer in. Point them at Fantasy Flight Games For example, they will recognize Starcraft, World of Warcraft, and Doom. They will also be familiar with Age of Empires and Railroad Tycoon. It really should not be too much of a leap to get them to Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, Memoir ’44 or Power Grid.

What You Don’t Want to Do

Unfortunately, when people think of board gaming as a hobby, and they have never tried it, they get a single image in their head…it is a bunch of geeky guys with greasy hair in a basement or back room with funny shaped dice, a bunch of metal figures, and lots of paper. This image also usually involves someone screaming “Shoot my +3 Fireball at the hill troll for 2d Damage…roll for initiative” What?

They had a friend at some time that was into Dungeons and Dragons. This crowd is always portrayed in the same manner as trekkies.

You also don’t act like a snob about how your games are better than their old games from when they were younger. This will just turn them off.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Just keep a couple of games in your car trunk or at the ready. When the opportunity arises, offer to bring it out and show it. Let them see the rules, touch the game, maybe even give it a shot. If they like it, great! If they don’t, oh well. You gave it a fair shot and shared the gems with one more person.

Not Everyone is Going to Be a Fan

The one thing in all of this that you can not forget is that you can not please all the people all the time. Personally, converting my wife was not a hard sell. She loves puzzles. However, my sister and her husband, on the other hand, run in completely different circles than I do and I don’t think they will ever try a eurogame. I might get them to try Pizza Box Football, but that is where it will end. My brother might actually convert at some point.

Don’t let it bother you. Just keep talking about it and we will eventually create a few more addicts together! Keep on playing the best games in the WORLD!

Source by Barry Nadler