#screw nfts

[bubbawastaken]

Well, it's the end of an era....

The "Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games" series is officially over.... all because of freaking NFTs.....

[sjbattleangel]

95% of NFTs are worthless, and most of the most expensive ones are priced between $5-100 where they were once drawing millions US$ apiece

Not a moment too soon, and fully deserved 😎

In conclusion-

[miss-barker]

Sesame Street, I am so incredibly disappointed in you right now.

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Yea,

Fuck the Olympics.

[keeganmantle]

A message for the hardcore Twitter Musk fanboys...😐😅

[beardedhandstoadshark]

AI art is bad:

It's trained with millions of artist's drawings without their consent and on top of that it's used for profit. There’s even AI art NFTs 🤮

They‘re the same people. Ai and nft bros, that is. Always have been. Same pathetic attempts at justifying themselves, too. And general gleefullness in exploiting people who actually do something with their lives. (Drawslaves, isn’t that a cute word?)

No to mention the whole thing getting funded by giant corporations (Those oh-so-holy open source generators aren’t as "community“-driven as they pretend to be =) )

Gonna be fun when they realize they won’t be able to sell these images anymore either because they overflowed the market like they did nfts. The jobs are still irreversibly fucked, but at least there’s that I guess.

[gumjamin]

Twitter is bein a drain tbh... It does not do one well to see the same thing over and over again, even if I agree with it. Especially if it's just a fucking mess of ethics and the value of human existence.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

So, considering what's going on with Riot right now, do you think Arcane Season 2 got caught up in all of this restructuring?

Yes and no. Arcane season 2 is part of the reason for the restructuring.

As I understand it, internally at Riot, after Arcane was a huge (and more importantly: prestigious!) success, the decision was made to basically hand the entirety of the game's lore and story over to the Entertainment division within Riot. These are the people in large part responsible for projects like Arcane, K/DA, Heartsteel, that animated series China got, all that sort of thing.

The writers at Riot were basically told to flat out stop producing new content and lore for the game - that's why there's BEEN no new story content for League for over a year - because everything was going to be consolidated under the Entertainment division from now on. This is why Riot started talking about "One Runeterra" and "Arcane is going to be canon" and so on.

The success of Arcane convinced executives that what League of Legends needs is a singular cohesive brand with its most successful public property leading the charge, Arcane is going to be the gateway drug, the hook on the end of the line that brings new players and new paying customers into the exciting world of the League of Legends multimedia IP universe!

Nevermind that Arcane's story and worldbuilding is fundamentally incompatible with >checks notes< the overwhelming majority of Runeterra as it exists and enormous compromises would have to be made to either the world of Runeterra or Arcane itself to make it work. Arcane is the big shiny prestigious mainstream Emmy-award winning project that every executive wants to put their name next to, and like companies Pivoting To Video in 2015 because Facebook showed them inflated viewership stats, Riot Games is Pivoting To Arcane. It's better than them pivoting to crypto and NFTs, at least, although I know for a fact that high ranking people at Riot tried to make that happen too.

Now, the primary cause for all of these games industry layoffs is that interest rates aren't zero anymore. Borrowing money isn't free, the curve of constant growth has ever so slightly slowed, taking on debt is becoming a little tiny bit more risky than it was previously, and corporations are responding to this with massive rounds of layoffs and constriction to show "financial responsibility" and prove to shareholders that they are prioritizing core growth strategies and blah blah blah etc. They're also trying to kneecap the growing labor movement in the games industry and exert downwards pressure on wages, but the interest rates seem to have been the main thing.

In Riot's particular case, a secondary reason is they want to pivot the focus of the company to support their One Runeterra pipe dream, so a lot of the people who got fired at Riot are writers, artists, creative leads and sometimes extremely senior and successful staff who are now surplus to requirements. This is also why Riot shut down Riot Forge in the same round of layoffs - can't have a bunch of talented indie devs going off making video games that don't adhere to the new One Runeterra policy. What if someone played Mageseeker and got confused how there can be mages all over Demacia but somehow there are no mages in Arcane's Piltover and Zaun. That's a plot hole! People write snarky articles about that sort of thing. It turns off new consumers! What if Cinema Sins makes a video making fun of it?!?

So yeah. A bunch of cocaine-addled fame hungry executive vultures at Riot are absolutely gagging on their own d*cks to put their name next to Arcane related projects, and since they were going to be screwing hundreds of people out of their careers, healthcare, and in some cases their fucking visa status anyway, it seems to have presented a nice opportunity to clear the board for their latest Visionary Scheme for the company IP.

That is as I understand the situation, anyway. I'm a bitter old man and most of what I hear is second hand and anonymous gossip through my social networks, take what I say with a grain of salt, but I've followed this company for (oh god) twelve years now and I have developed a tragically keen understanding of how its executive class operates.

[sjbattleangel]

we bullied the metaverse and NFT craze into irrelevance and we can do it again with AI. i believe in us.

[tsams-and-co-memes]

TMGAFS Monty Canon Info

Updated - 11/10/24

Monty’s likes:

Winning

Screwing with people

Trains

Tea

Aggressive humor

Earth

Money

Frolicking

Monty’s dislikes:

Clickbaiting people

Fire

Their favorite season is winter

Kids (<- their thoughts and feelings towards kids may or may not be different now)

Their dad

Stitchwraith

Eclipse

Bloodmoon

El Chip

Miscellaneous:

Monty is gender-fluid and bisexual

Their dad is British. It’s probably fair to assume that by extension, that makes Monty British, too

They have a sister who is a lawyer in Germany

Their mom is dead, and Monty was the one who handled most (if not all) of her funeral arrangements and expenses

They get extremely competitive over gaming

They have a temper and swear a lot

They have ADHD

Monty’s father and sister are human, but were genetically modified to look more like gators. Fazbear's merely bought their dad's likeness and used it to create Monty (<- partial retcon, it seems that Millie is an animatronic like Monty now. Everything about their dad is still pretty concrete)

Monty’s sister’s name is Millie

Their parents used to argue frequently

They once worked as a bartender

Monty’s sister (Millie) is very professional, even outside of her working hours (according to their dad)

Monty’s dad was a horrible parent

They con and rob NFT bros

They don’t pay taxes - they apparently owe $8 and some odd cents to the IRS

Monty built an off brand Vegeta animatronic and a husky animatronic

Monty had a kill switch at one point from Fazbear’s to shut them down if they did anything super bad, but the kill switch no longer works

Monty and Millie play Minecraft together and talk just about every other day, which would mean they have a decently close relationship

Monty plays D&D with Puppet sometimes

Monty hires a photographer to take pictures of them every few months, and the photographer charges $10,000 per picture. They then pay off the photographer with Monopoly money

They had a dragon ball phase

Monty used to sell food to the cartel

Apparently Monty’s nemesis is hip Yoda

Monty knows how to drive and seems to be a better teacher than Sun. It's implied that Monty also knows how to fly planes

Monty knows what Millie's job is, but they don't know the specifics about it

Monty is Francine's godfather

Monty apparently smells like hand sanitizer, according to Earth

Monty’s a fan of alcohol and drinks every so often

Monty has killed an entire population of smurf people

Funtime Freddy had a habit of looking through Monty’s window at night and watching them sleep

Monty recently sold a Chili's to Moon (implied, since Moon recently bought it and Monty said that they recently sold it)

Monty swears more when drunk

Monty shows up late for work and then leaves early

Monty knows Spanish

Monty's tail gets stiff when they are angry (fact yoinked from the wiki)

In the past Monty had asked out Glamrock Chica but ended up getting rejected (fact yoinked from the wiki)

Their tail has been said to be magnetic meaning that it can take it off and move it around. Lunar liked to play with it (fact yoinked from the wiki)

Apparently, they are banned from Switzerland for some unknown reason (fact yoinked from the wiki)

They nuked Sweden for unknown reasons (fact yoinked from the wiki)

They are the ones who updated the daycare and have access to cameras (fact yoinked from the wiki)

They had a space station at one point, but it was destroyed by meteors (I think?)

Monty sold a space apartment/house to Sun once, but the place was also destroyed

Monty’s been to jail before

Monty experiments with "medicinal stuff" (with there being implications that the "medicinal stuff" is actually weed. There are two bongs in their new house, and Foxy even picked one of the bongs up and directly referred to it as "weed paraphernalia")

Despite being an animatronic, Monty has functioning taste buds

Monty knows how to pilot (?) a ship

Monty is a grill master and is good at cooking

[eugenedebs1920]

When a company decides they want to take their business venture forward and have it publicly traded, the Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) mandates the heads or owner of the company file a S-4 registration statement. This gives possible investors a background on the owners of the stock in questions past business dealings. Did they exceed expectations for growth in their previous companies? Was there any litigation or leans? What were the profit margins? This enables investors to make an educated and thoughtful decision before investing.

Since the 80’s it has been Trump’s priority to portray wealth. The golden decor, the foreign model wife, huge 747s with his name plastered on them, his name plastered on buildings, hotels and skyscrapers worldwide. This giving the illusion of success. What’s lesser known is often the buildings that bare his name do not belong to him nor are they financially affiliated with him. Some are. Some are just a marketing stunt that the name, Trump, brings luxury to, or used to, mind.

When the idea of making Truth Social a publicly traded company was introduced it was mandated that a S-4 registration statement be made public before the SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Corp could move forward with the merger of Truth Social and Technology Group Corp. it reads as follows.

Entities associated with President Trump have filed for bankruptcy protection. The Trump Taj Mahal, which was built and owned by President Trump, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991. The Trump plaza, the Trump Castle, The Plaza Hotel, all owned by President Trump at the time, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992. THCR, which was founded by President Trump in 1995, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004. Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc, the new name given to Trump Hotels and Casino Resort after its 2004 bankruptcy, declared bankruptcy in 2009. While all the forgoing were different businesses than TMTG, there can be no guarantee that TMTG’s performance will exceed the performance of those entities.

It continues,

Trump Shuttle, Inc, launched by president Trump in 1989, defaulted on its loans in 1990 and ceased to exist by 1992. Trump University, founded by President Trump in 2005, ceased operations in 2011 amid lawsuits and investigations regarding the company’s business practices. Trump vodka, a brand of vodka produced by Drinks Americas under license from the Trump Organization, was introduced in 2005 and discontinued in 2011. Trump Mortgage,LLC a financial services company founded by President Trump in 2006, ceased operations in 2007. GoTrump.com, a travel site founded by President Trump in 2006, ceased operations in 2007. Trump Steaks, a brand of steak and other meats founded by President Trump in 2007, discontinued sales two months after its launch. While all these businesses were in different industries than TMTG, there can be no guarantee that TMTG’s performance will exceed the performance of these entities.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s all a lie. An illusion. Smoke and mirrors. The fortune Trump’s father left to him, Trump squandered quicker than he could recover, leading to a lifetime of shady deals, loans from foreign banks, failed get rich schemes and grifting.

Oh my the grift is strong in that one. From digital trading cards, NFT’s, ugly sneakers, bobble head dolls, $100k watches, madeIn china, sold from a strip mall in Wyoming, there’s ornaments, a $60 Bible, also made in china for $4, where the gold edged pages stick together, heck! He’ll even sell you a piece of the suit he was wearing when he was shot at in PA.

Another financial stronghold of Trump is to simply screw over people. Whether it’s not paying contractors who worked on his properties, not paying employees at his hotels, confiscating their tips as well, suing models who worked at his agencies for defamation, a charity, The Trump Foundation, was found guilty of fraud, stealing from those in need to line his pockets, or trying to cut out the very people who created his TMTG company in the first place. Trump doesn’t seem to care who he stiffs, as long as it benefits him.

The new and most lucrative venture is campaign donations. Whether it’s billionaire oligarchs who are buying favor, or little old Mr and Mrs MAGAdonia, Trump will happily take your money.

Lord knows he needs it. Between owning his rape victim 90 some million dollars and counting. The over half a billion dollars he scammed from New York he has to pay back. The hundreds of millions of dollars in lawyer fees. Not to mention upcoming cases and his lavish lifestyle. Things might get tight.

As you can see it’s a fake. A failed businessman who couldn’t just take the money his father left him and sit on an investment. He wanted fame. He wanted power.

After a lifetime of pursuing fame and power, a lifetime of fraud, cheating, grifting, ripping people off, and skirting the system has come back to haunt him. Accountability is knocking. Eventually it will kick in the door.

[90shaladriel]

AI Manipulations of Rings of Power. (Longish)

Saw the AI edits of Haladriel scenes being altered by GenAI to make the characters* kiss. I have seen chatter about it and the negative implications of creating or interacting with AI generated content.

At the risk of being nuanced, (feel free to block or scroll past this) it interests me what exactly is the concern with it and why. To be clear, I do work in an industry that is both working to incorporate and profit off AIs while simultaneously my own job is increasingly at risk by the same products or we are forced to use them for productivity reasons.

Some reasons that make sense to me that you would not want AI content would be

1. Legal and copyright infringement of the ownership of the art or source material used to train the AI models. Stolen work, no credit or payment to artists

2. It’s generally shitty, sloppy, uncanny valley. Which aesthetically I think most people would be against

3. It directly competes against manual labor of a human, devalues work, replaces jobs, or floods the market so creators never can be separated, investment in a skill or art form isnt worth it.

4. It extremely energy intensive, the environmental implications can he huge with the climate crisis.

5. Its being shoveled in our faces by overhyped tech bros because they think its cool and can find gullible investors for, like NFTs and crypto curriencies

6. Deep fake abuse with AI, making up fake news, abusing a real person image in a degrading way without consent.

I think all of these are serious issues with AI.

The stuff that was shared about Sauron and Galadriel kissing does it materialize those concerns? I’m going to assume that it may for the first one, legal and copyright ownership of training data. Im not a lawyer, and there are also some AI models trained on legally owner content or public domain / open source content. I have no way of knowing what models were used by the GenAI that made those haladriel kisses, so we probably have to assume they may have questionable provenance, and I think by that alone we should boycott those.

Now what if someone used a more solidly vetted model or genAI service without those legal issues? What if the artists do get paid or some form of royalties?

The kiss videos themselves were ok, maybe halfway believable, there were obviously the weird uncanny ai artifacts and stuff. It’s objectively worse than if ROP had actually filmed a kiss with live actors in the show proper. But who am I to judge whether that slop is aesthetically pleasing to someone else or not? Sometimes I have found AI art that is truly bizarre in that this is too weird surrealness quality like looking into a dream while being awake. I’m not sure that this feeling is necessarily wrong to enjoy on its own.

Regarding the AI replacing jobs argument. I suppose it depends what we mean. They were never going to remake ROP Season 1 or 2. Morfydd and Charlie won’t be offered the same role if another company were to buy the rights and make Rings of Power reboot. We will never get those kisses on screen. Maybe you can say that if people were fed content for Haladriel you could give them that almost infinitely by GenAI and then those people would be less likely to consume or pay for some other newer media that might otherwise give a satisfactory ETL with backstory and build up equivalent to what ROP has done with Haladriel? I’m not sure how to weigh that, it might be true? I tend to think these AI kisses arent replacing any creative workers in the film/tv industry. I don’t think we say that fanfic reusing known characters competes with original written stories (or do people argue this?) although i suppose it does on some level. Do people boycott fanfiction?

Along these lines, what about the actors consent and deep fake aspects? Personally, I don’t see how the AI images are more offensive or harmful than fanart which uses the actors depictions to do all sorts of things, stabbing, killing, kissing, screwing and everything and everyone in between. Or fan edits which use clever editing and overlay soundtracks with pointed lyrics which completely change the artistic intent of the actors /creatives who made the original in a particular way, say make two characters have a romantic chemistry that wasn’t there in the original? Or even the old photoshop manipulation stuff? I thought we’re ok with this in the fandom world, is this that different?

I’m not saying I like AI or you need to. I probably wont interact with it and try to avoid it personally wherever I can. But I do wonder if the arguments people are making against ROP AI edits are actually in good faith? Because then i question why other kinds of fan creations are acceptable?

[hikari-hellspawn]

ART COMMISSIONS OPEN! FINANCIAL HELP DESPERATELY NEEDED!

The title is what it says on the tin; I'm opening up art commissions, because after my next paycheck I don't know how much I'll be getting after that, or how much, and I'm desperate for work and some kind off income because I am literally in danger of losing a place to live. I need need NEED income if I want to continue to, well, live.

My Ko-Fi

My deviantART

NOTICE: I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY COMMISSIONS THAT I DEEM INAPPROPRIATE. THIS INCLUDES ART CONTAINING HATE SPEECH/HOMOPHOBIA/TRANSPHOBIA/APHOBIA/RACISM/BIGOTRY/ANTISEMITISM/ETC.

How do I pay you? I take payments via my Ko-fi or PayPal (h.m.reed@mail.com), half before I start the sketch and the other half on delivery. That is set in stone; I will not accept any kind of cryptocurrency or things like Amazon or Walmart gift cards as payment. None of those can be used to pay rent, and paying rent is exactly what I need.

Do you do NSFW? Not at present; I'm not comfortable drawing NSFW content, though doing shirtless and swimsuits are fine. However I won't draw sex, and I won't draw straight-up full-frontal nudity.

Do you do furries/anthros? I'm not gonna lie, I don't have much experience drawing anthros--THAT BEING SAID, if you want to commission me to draw an anthro character or your fursona, it's definitely on the table and I'll do my danged best--even if it takes a bit longer than non-furry/anthro characters.

Do you draw mecha? I...have zero experience drawing mecha. Do I like mecha anime? Yes (Evangelion my beloved). So this is a soft no on my part, purely because of my own lack of skill with the subject matter.

Do you draw horror and/or gore? Hard no. Not simply because I can't draw said gore (which I can't, same reasons as the mecha explanation above), but because it's another one of those things that I'm not 100% comfortable drawing at the moment.

^HOWEVER, this question comes with a caveat: I will draw eldritch horror. Y'know, eyes where they don't belong, tentacles, pulsating masses, bodies that're just...weird? Those are fun. So, negotiable, but keep in mind that if you want slasher-type stuff that ain't my jam.

Will you send me progress pics? YES. At every stage of the process, I'll both scan the image and take photos to make sure that what I'm working on is the direction you want to go.

What about reference images? If you have references you want to provide, whether they're drawn by you, someone else, google image search, etc, then I'd appreciate it so I have an idea of what your character looks like. Written descriptions are also fine if you don't have any visuals--basically, if you know what your character looks like and you have some way to communicate that to me in a way that puts us both on the same page, we're good.

Can I use your art as an NFT? NO. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL I ACCEPT A COMMISSION TO CREATE NFTS, IF THAT IS THE REASON YOU WANT TO COMMISSION ME THEN GO FIND SOMEONE ELSE.

Can I use your art to train an AI algorithm? NO. AI art is the reason why artists like myself are being pushed out of work; if you're only commissioning me to get hold of some works so that you can train an algorithm to make more based on my style, then you don't actually want to buy art; you're just looking for some excuse to screw yet another artist over.

If I don't have the money right now, can I just pay you the full amount later? While I understand the desire to buy art but not having the funds, the whole reason I'm opening commissions is because I don't have enough money to survive. Paying me half now and half upon completion is non-negotiable, because I can assure you my need to be able to make rent and feed the Fuzzballs (aka the cats, please ask me about them I will go total Maes Hughes on them because they are PERFECT) is as strong as yours to make sure your expenses are covered as well.

Are the prices negotiable? To an extent, though the prices you see in the image above are the minimum; I won't go lower than these.

I want something that isn't listed on here/I have an unusual request, can you do it? That is something we'd have to negotiate, but it's not off the table. I do some weirdo drawings for myself in my free time (I've graced several servers I'm in on discord with the little wonders known as Eyeshrooms, no I will not elaborate here), so I can do other weird stuff too (as long as it's SFW).

Do you have more art examples I can look at? Yes! I have a deviantART page, though due to the company's own exploitative and artist-harming features they've rolled out, I've been working on glazing everything in my gallery there (if you haven't heard of Glaze and Nightshade, they're both really cool and you ought to check them out, seriously I really really really want to start using them both on my art SO BAD but I CAN'T) and migrating to Inkblot and Cara.app. Once I have links to both of those, I'll add them to the post!

You said traditional art...can you do digital? No, unfortunately; I don't have a device powerful enough to run a good art program (not for a lack of trying; attempts at experimenting with Krita have only resulted in it crashing the laptop I've been using, which is bad because it isn't even mine), nor do I have the funds to be able to get one--and I don't know when, or if, that'll happen. This circles back to the initial problem; I don't have the funds to pay for what I need to survive, which means I literally cannot afford to save for a new, more powerful laptop for myself. As it is, I've been borrowing my roommate's laptop for everything I need to do that requires the use of a computer, as mine died back in 2020 and I haven't been able to scrape together enough to even get a bare-bones basic one myself.

If there are any other questions you need me to answer, then please please PLEASE send them to me in a DM here and I'll do my best to answer them! And please, I'm begging you, I'm begging you so much, even if you don't buy something please spread this around I need the income desperately. I'm not lying when I say that my ability to continue living is in danger, I literally do not know if I'll even be able to pay my rent next month. I need every penny I can get, just to be able to have a chance of surviving, and what determines if I can keep a roof over mine and the cats' heads and if we're out on the street with nowhere to go is very much determined by if I can get commission work. So even if you can't buy anything, or only get a headshot or two, please spread the word. Reblog this. Share it in tweets. Post the link to this post on Facebook, link it on Discord, if you have friends who are looking to commission art tell them because I'm desperate and terrified that I might not have a place to live come October. I'm begging, please, I need the help. I need the help more than I can put into words. I don't want to die.

(Also big shoutout to @nomnomroko for putting together the commission sheet, thank you so much!)

[howtofightwrite]

Do heist stories still work in the modern world, especially the developed world? More and more wealth these days seems to be intangible and electronic, and more and more of the physical stuff that's still valuable is marked and traceable so that even if you take, it's hard to spend or unload it anywhere. What are macguffins that a thief in today's world could still physically steal today and realistically hope to profit from (without the profiting getting him caught)?

Heists still happen in the modern world. Hell, the entire NFT “economy” crashed last year as a result of a multiple heists. The Axie Infinity hack last year saw over $600 million worth of crypto tokens stolen. There have been many, many, famous heists, and there is no sign of them slowing down anytime soon.

So, in the vague sense of, “is it realistic?” It happens today, in the real world.

What gets stolen? Anything of sufficient value is a potential target. Art is one of the classic examples, and it remains a tempting target. Any liquid asset is tempting, and no matter how good the tracking is, chances are, someone will find a way to defeat it. In theory, crypto tokens are impossible to scrub, as the entire history of that token will be publicly logged on the block chain... so, thieves were using places like Tornado Cash to launder their cryptocurrency. (Incidentally, the US Treasury has sanctioned Tornado Cash, as of August last year.)

How realistic is it to get away with a heist? There are a lot of unsolved heists. Both, of physical items, and also with a lot of crypto thefts in the last few years. Some of the latter are believed to have been the product of state actors (read: Hacker groups believed to be working for authoritarian states with few extradition treaties.)

Art theft is alive and well. Now, I'm not an expert on laundering stolen paintings, however, from the ones that have been found, a lot find their way into private collections. Art collectors, and brokers who aren't particularly bothered with the legality of a given piece will move stolen art. It's not going to command the prices it would on the open market. (If someone estimates a stolen painting as worth four million dollars, expect that the thieves will get considerably less than that when they fence it, and while the fence will make enough to justify their risk, they're probably not going to be raking in millions either. Once it's made its way to a new owner, it will likely go up on a wall in a private gallery, or get carefully stored in a vault, and never seen again by the outside world for decades (or longer.)

Of course art theft can also be sculptures, books, or really anything else.

When it comes to other things, any liquid asset is a potential target for a heist. Cash, precious metals, and gem stones, are probably the most obvious examples, though, certainly not the only options.

The heist is, generally, a fairly consistent (if modular) structure.

It starts with identifying a vulnerable asset. The reason for the vulnerability may be important for the story, but not for the genre itself. This may be as simple as, “the asset exists,” and the PoV character learns of it, or it could be a situation where an exploitable flaw in the electronic tracking for the item is identified.

Once that's happened, then the ringleader starts assembling a team of specialists (and, amusingly, it is almost always specialists), to fill necessary roles in the heist. Usually this is a mix of technical specialists, social specialists, and at least some muscle.

So, assembling the team is something very specific to the formula, and not reflected in reality. A lot of real world heists simply need bodies, and prefer to have as few people as possible involved. The reasons are twofold. First, the less people involved, the less ways the resulting cash has to be split. Second, the fewer people involved, the fewer people that can lose their nerve and screw up, or rat their partners out to the police.

Once the team has assembled and they have a plan (this is usually hammered out along with the recruitment phase of the story, though that doesn't make a lot of sense when you step back and think about it), then they identify the preceding steps that need to be completed before executing the heist. This involves prepwork, sometimes smaller thefts to obtain the resources they need, and other necessary activities. (Again, this is more of a formula consideration, than a strictly realistic one. Especially the perpetration of earlier crimes. Those crimes can easily result in errors that would lead law enforcement to identify the heist before it occurred, and also help with identifying the thieves. To be fair, this is sometimes handled intelligently while staying within the formula to build tension. As the police close in on the team before they've even gotten started.)

After this, the team goes to execute the heist. Expect several things to fail simultaneously, with members of the team scrambling to salvage the heist. So, I don't want to harp on this too much, but this is another one of those places where the formula structure is extremely unrealistic. When looking at real heists, these kinds of fumbles will usually either botch the heist on the spot or provide the police with the threads they need to find the perpetrators. From a narrative perspective, it makes sense, it help build tension moving into the climax. So, while it's not realistic, that's not the point.

Once the team has the item, then they need to extract with it. Sometimes you'll see this skimmed over, but, getting the thing you're stealing away from the people trying to arrest the thieves is a somewhat important consideration. Generally speaking, yeah, a loud extraction with gunfights and car chases is going to end with the police response scaling to the point where escape is impossible. Also, generally speaking, most writers have a difficult time keeping stealth sequences tense, especially when their instinct is to transition into action.

Once they're out, lot heist stories end. The thieves, “won,” and the climax has played out. From a writing perspective, this makes sense. They won, and everything from here is going to be downhill. The team will break up. The actual process of fencing the stolen goods are going to be fairly dry, and, alternately, the process of laundering any cash they may have stolen isn't going to be that interesting either. There might be some lingering character threads to resolve, but the story is over, at least until you start another.

The main purpose for dragging a story beyond the heist is if you're setting up a tragedy. Probably with the police hunting them down for whatever errors they made along the way. I know I've cited it before, but Michael Mann's Heat (1995) is an excellent example of how the heist structure can be turned into a tragedy. (It's also a rare case that reworks a lot of the formula into something more realistic.)

On the whole, I'd say the heist genre is as relevant today as it's ever been. The specific stumbling blocks your characters will encounter are different. That always changes, and your ability to tune your story to your setting is always important. From a strictly mechanical perspective, there's no difference from your character accidentally leaving his driver's license behind at the scene of the heist, and failing to identify a tracker concealed in the stolen object. Both of them create a direct line from the crime back to that character. In a very real sense, a lot of the particulars for how this plays out is simply flavor. If you want your heist to be a techno-thriller, then you can absolutely do that, though you will probably have to spend quite a bit of time studying modern security methods and technology, but you can do that.

-Starke

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[wolfnanaki]

I've had people on YouTube and Twitter try to mock me by calling me "Goodbye Volcano High's strongest soldier".

But you know what? Going to bat for KO_OP, a worker cooperative queer indie studio with 4-day work weeks? And they avoid crunch and ensure the mental health of their employees? I'll gladly do so.

Especially since I've seen what "gamers" will defend.

$70 games that are broken at launch and teeming with microtransactions, DLC, and gambling mechanics. Games that take up over 100GB of hard drive space. Executives who crunch their employees to dust and allow rampant sexual abuse and wage theft, followed by mass layoffs to preserve profit margins and corporate bonuses. Cultures of racism, misogyny, and queerphobia, both in the workplace and in the gamer community. AI and NFTs being incorporated into game development. Lack of accessibility for players with disabilities. "Live service" games touted as being supported for years only to die in months. Decades of games no longer being available except through piracy. The lies and broken promises. The list goes on. There's so much of all of it everywhere, and it seems to get worse by the year.

Yet for gamers, all of those are secondary issues, if at all. They're more concerned if the video game girls are sexy or not. Or if a reviewer gave the "right" score for their golden goose game. Or if a game has - heaven forbid - an easy mode. And when their games are awful, their go-to blame is towards the "woke", the "SJWs", the "game journos". They keep financially supporting the things that are ruining games then blame marginalized people and reviewers for games being bad.

So yeah, screw it, I'll gladly throw my support towards an indie studio that represents what I want to see more of in the game industry. Come at me.

If there are other studios you want to show support for that you think are doing the right things too, feel free to share in the replies and reblogs.

[keeganmantle]

Ksmantle Vs. Musk is coming out October 26! Get ready to see Boris & Ksmantle bring back the bird as they fight Elon Musk and his weirdo fans even the NFT and AI creeps along the way.😁😏