#sso critical

[mistwhisperexpress]

hey sso could you please call the snow goblins literally ANYTHING else. snow imps is right there. a green little thief called a goblin is not cute, it’s antisemitism and we really don’t need more of that right now

[natduskfall]

I’m not good at putting my feelings into text, nor am I a writer, or good at literature analysis, but I do have thoughts.

I never liked SSO’s writing to begin with. The writing of SL was okay for a game of that scope. I loved the mystery of a seaside town and strange powers that be. But SSO’s writing is confusing to me.

Dialogues almost always try to be funny, relatable, and it comes across as shallow or boring. I try to read all the dialogue because I am invested in the universe by now and I want to know everything about the events of the world and it’s characters. But lord is it hard sometimes to not skip the repetitive, shallow dialogue.

The characters lack debth and it is hard for me to like any of them. It feels like the Soul riders are just written as stereotypes. Don’t know something? Talk to Linda, she knows everything and loves doing research! She’s a nerd! Alex is the hurr durr let’s do shit without thinking anything over. Haha, Lightning goes zap zap!! Elizabeth is our teacher. A druid. And? Fripp? What even is Fripp? “Mysterious” leader who I don’t know anything about or don’t spend any time with. Who comes across as emotionless and disinterested in his charges. Avalon? Recluse who barely shows up and when he does, he always disagrees with everything.

I like that SSE has been trying to focus on the characters more. Elizabeth’s death didn’t make me feel anything because I just didn’t know her, didn’t have any attachments to her. If anything I laughed during that scene because of the way she ass slammed Darko like that Ground Slam Ash of War from Elden Ring, then got turned into Annie from Attack on Titan, and then blew herself up. That scene should have been an emotional story beat that should have gripped me and made me sad. Red Dead Redemption does that so well. I cried a lot during that game. I wish SSE took the characters seriously tho. It’s like every quest is an episode of The Simpsons where shit happens, it never gets acknowledged after, the characters don’t change. Every episode is a new start. I really like that they commited to the darker and real events, such as Lisa losing her mother, Alex having a dysfunctional low income family, and Anne getting over the real trauma of Concordes death, her kidnapping, and isolation. BUT THEY DON’T GO ANYWHERE WITH IT.

I want to love these characters and I want them to feel like real people, but it’s hard when they get treated as a joke, or the real and traumatic things that happened to them never get acknowleged and have no impact on them or the story. What about Linda and the betrayal of the Baroness? What about Meteor being lost. She didn’t even mention Meteor until the spymaster sent MC to tell her where Meteor was. And I am still waiting for the new Fort Maria quest to see the dynamic between the druids and the Soul Riders after the events of Justin’s rescue.

And the story…. Sometimes it just feels too whacky to me. I don’t know if the witches and golden apples are some folklore from Sweden, but I did not expect that when I first played through, and I did not like it. It felt like the game was spreading itself too thin? It felt out of place to me.

And sometimes, the quests feel like they have no impact. We need to do a difficult thing. Ha let’s do it this way. Go there. Click the ground. Done, we did it, yay!! It just feels very childish, lacking weight. I’m not sure how to put this into words, and I think there are people out there who are much better at this then I am.

I disliked the new Alex quest and felt unsatisfied. The whole questline had me anxious because the job of an event planner is so hard for me as a person with zero organisation skills and confidence. I am sure it is a very important and difficult job, and I was waiting for how SSE handled it. The entire time I felt like MC and Alex were not making any actual tuall progress. Then the whole thing got derailed to “let’s record a narrated tour of the CIty”. And when the quest ended, I was like “that’s it?”

The cinematic for Alex shows a resourceful, hard working and strong individual who got delt a bad hand, but found hope in Elizabeth. But the game keeps treating her like a stupid comic relief character who can only do one thing, and that is use her lightning power no matter the occasion. Even the Freeing Anne quest felt off to me. Why would Alex chose to go back and face Darko alone, when they keep rehashing the theme of “we’re stronger together”. Her power can be fueled by anger, but her main thing is to protect her loved ones. They got Anne, her priority should have been to get Anne out of there, not come back alone for Darko. It just felt like the writers did that because they needed Elizabeth to die, and MC getting stranded in Pandoria so that Lisa could use her singing power. And how would getting blown off a cliff into a bottomless space get rid of a powerful individual who can easily teleport himself and other people?

I really wish SSO would hire actual writers do deal with their story, the structure of the story, and the characters. Helena did such a good job making the main cast feel real, and structuring the story.

TLDR: SSE please hire a writer, and stop treating your characters like stereotypes. Stop treating Alex like a stupid person who goes zap

[ro-sso]

thinking about all the forms of magic MC has used, just suddenly as if they are fully trained. also the lack of magical tools used feels weird? Like we got a rune ward for rune carving, and a shadow seeker vacuum, a fragment of aideens light and a bottle of aideens tears but these all do... nothing? We dont use the rune wand to help channel energy, or rune-work outside of that one questline.

idk if it's just me but with some of the more recent late-game quests it feels as though MC has suddenly become adept in magic after training in the Sun circle (& doing minor work in the lightning and moon circle). It feels quite... offputting but that could just be me being weird

[mistwhisperexpress]

Sorry reblogging this again and deleting my previous one because it keeps bothering me and I want to unpack it. But first thank you so much for messaging them about it even if you got such a terrible response, it really means more than I can express. Hopefully asking him to send your support ticket to another employee as well as his supervisor results in something.

"Star Stable would never associate any form of religious beliefs onto any creature or person in starstable."

But you do. Like big time. Ignoring the fact religion isn't even the point and Judaism is an enthoreligion (and only became a religion in some aspects because Napoleon wouldn't let us practice our traditions any other way), the game is very culturally Christian. It may not directly be called Christmas anymore, but we all know that's what the winter holiday is. It's filled with Christmas centered traditions. It has a tree and presents. That's a Christmas tree. There's Santa hats. Santa was literally in the game for years. And also the witches?? There are real life practicing witches? Irregardless of whether you believe that's possible or not, it's still a thing. Mysticism type things are very much practiced by real people.

"Antisemitism just isn't something that we have added to the game."

If you aren't Jewish, you don't get to decide that. Period. You do not define antisemitism.

"Goblins are a fantasy creatures that don't exist. They exist within pages of magical stories. Goblins and Trolls are derived from a similar fantasy so changing any name from goblin to troll isn't solving anything. An imp is also just a smaller goblin. Calling a goblin an elf is also somewhat wrong. When I say elf i think if the beautiful human-like people with pointy ears and shiny hair."

Lots to unpack with this one. Okay. Fantasy and folklore, particularly European fantasy and folklore, which is what the game draws influence from, and which is where goblins come from, is filled with antisemitism. I can't emphasize enough how antisemitic Europe and the Grimm Brothers were. Goblins and trolls absolutely do not derive from similar places. Goblins were initially a Germanic fae creature. Trolls likely come from Norwegian witch folklore. He's right in that changing the name alone wont fix things, because they need to also NOT BE FUCKING GREEN. Imps have similar fae origins to goblins, but they aren't a fantasy creature historically been used as an antisemitic caricature. The only vaguely maybe antisemitic imp connection I've seen is grimmsnarl in Pokemon. The caprans in the game are called elves several times, and elves also have fae origins like goblins.

"Again I appreciate your concern. Star stable would never insinuate that Jews are Goblins and that isn't what we have done during our character development process."

No one said SSO insinuated Jewish people are goblins. We're saying the game perpetuated an antisemitic version of goblins. SSO took an element of folklore without researching it, the antisemitism may not have been done intentionally but that is the result.

"I think you will be able to overlook the antisemitism, for one reason, jews are not goblins, that's absolutely ridiculous."

Telling someone to overlook antisemitism is gross. Noticing it is our survival. Telling someone to overlook racism, which antisemitism is a form of, is like telling the frog to ignore the water is getting hotter. This issue is relatively low stakes and not serious, but it's part of a culture that normalizes it. Ignoring that while antisemitism is rising makes it worse. I think this is part of a language barrier issue but also, this is a bit of an admittance?

mister sso, fire him /reference

[paigeswiftsea]

hi guys i’m gonna rant about the medieval update again

more specifically that sc coin code, and sso in general

like i’m sorry you made a goal of what like 30k new players/memberships all for a lousy 20sc? sse has very clearly lost touch with us and the fan base in what they want.

on insta people voice their concerns and complaints and they has they’ll work on it or thanks for the feedback, something along this lines. Yet nothing has changed. it keeps getting worse and it’s clear that they aren’t listening to us

we want these events. they keep taking them away and every event is a money grab with a lousy race or concept or quest.

me personally i want easter, april fools day, the cloud kingdom midsommer, birthday events all back. that’s what made the game so fun. know it’s a five minute quest, a bazaar, and new items for 9900 shillings.

it’s getting really old very quickly.

[cheval-grand]

it makes me feel a kind of way when i see SSO complaints that are just players not understanding very basic game and business logic.

"why don't they add XYZ?" SSO's framework is over a decade old, it has limitations as to what they can do.

"why are there always bugs when an update is released?" because not all bugs can be found in testing. this happens with every single game out there; there are singleplayer games from 15 years ago still getting bug fixes to this day.

"why does Star Rider cost $80?" you are getting over a DECADE of content, in the form of areas, quests, and star rider exclusives, as well as a weekly allowance of paid currency, for LIFE! A MAJORITY of MMOs charge annually ONLY, and a lot of those also charge you for new areas in the form of expansions on top of being billed monthly, half-yearly, or yearly.

"why don't they just remake SSO?" That's like deciding to tear down a mansion because you want to add a room onto it. Building games is HARD. And it costs a LOT of money.

"why does everything cost star coins, or a ridiculous amount of shillings?" because most of the playerbase bought lifetime membership YEARS ago; those funds have LONG since been used. SSE's revenue is mostly likely coasting on star coin sales.

"why isn't SSE more transparent about things?" Probably because of how consistently there's backlash to the smallest things. It doesn't look good for interested new players when your playerbase is actively hostile about the game, especially on official posts. The best damage control is to not cause damage in the first place.

SSE aren't saints or without fault, but I will say. I've been playing consistently for almost a year now, and they have fulfilled every promise they've made so far. And it's A LOT considering what was the starting product. Enjoy what we have! Celebrate the progress! And continue to anticipate and encourage what's to come!

[mortiflyer]

me when i thought i liked star stable more when it was older and of shittier quality because that's when everyone said it was better and then i took time away from the fandom space and realized i was a) in like third grade when the game was "old" b) genuinely love the new updates, quests, and horses

[natduskfall]

I legit played this mission this year for the first time and It left me..... laughing histerically but also confused. Like "This is it? It can't be that bad. This has to be a shitpost."

The effects as Alex just stands there, hand outstreached, and the goons just being yeeted. The BOTW Shrek Hinox. I'm surprised Justin even has a falling animation lmao. And ten the horse just fucking SLIDING towards Justin, and just SLIDING in the air, mr Sands watching them IDLE across the sky. I fucking died. What the fuck was that??? THIS IS THE HYPED SAVING JUSTIN MISSION????? This is the quest I get after returning to SSO after 12 years? LMFAOOOOOO

This game has such horrible animations, writing, sequencing, storyboarding. I have gotten spoiled by modern games and returning to this old quest was like getting punched in the face.

It's hilarious, I love it. Tho I would have absolutely loved this as a pre-teen and maybe young teen.

I love this game so much

[mistwhisperexpress]

I'm not Jewish myself but I do belong to a couple of minority demographics that receive denigration for one reason or another, along with people trying to speak for me.

My only real advice is that there comes a point where it's no longer "defending the oppressed" and more infantilization. There is such a thing as being too sensitive. This is a kid's game, not propaganda meant to encourage hatred. Same as any other demographic, Jewish people can speak on their own behalf. They don't need others' help, they only need a listening ear. To do anything else is risking spoiling the fun for everyone including those you're trying to speak for.

Also "goblin" as far as I've seen is as much an umbrella term as anything else. Jewish people don't hold a cultural copyright on financial greed and hooked noses. (may I direct you to dragons and stereotypical witches respectively) I could probably name a dozen other fairy tale and mythological creatures that have such traits.

Suggesting that SSO's new little green goblin (Grinch? Norman Osborn?) is a caricature of Jewish people makes as much sense as saying the orcs in Tolkien's legendarium represent black people or that the white walkers from ASOIAF represent white people, aka little to no sense once you look past the surface. The comparison of Jewish people and goblins alone could be deemed borderline antisemitic in itself. It's misguided, but forgivable.

Worry more about enjoying the game and less about whether SSO is offending a group who are more than capable of defending themselves in a kid's game. ❤️

Okay I don’t blame you for assuming I’m not Jewish because apparently I haven’t mentioned that here yet even though I (mis)remembered I had, but this still feels really weird to send? Telling someone who’s not part of a minority to not speak for them is absolutely okay, the job of people outside a minority is to raise up their voices, not add their own, so I have no issue with that aspect and I am genuinely sorry that’s been done to you, but why are you, someone who by your own words isn’t Jewish, speaking on if goblins antisemitic or not at all? You are speaking for/over us there, and you would be even if I wasn’t Jewish.

I am Jewish, and obviously while we aren’t a monolith, no group of people is, I personally find this depiction of goblins (green and greedy/thief) antisemitic, and with much of the world going mask off with their antisemitism right now I’m not as open to giving benefits of the doubt as I used to be. I do believe this was a mistake on SSO’s part and not intentional as I said in a reblog, but that doesn’t make it any less harmful or antisemitic.

I have done quite a bit of research into the history of goblins and when they began to be used as an antisemitic caricature (as early as the 1800s thanks to the Goblin Market poem, which is just classic blood libel) because I make dice as a job and I want to enjoy D&D without antisemitism and the whole dice goblin thing, and there is a very large connection. This isn't unfounded.

You’re right in that goblins are a bit of an umbrella term, they are, which is why it’s important to let the antisemitic version of them die. You can have goblins that are just mischievous, not green, big nosed, greedy, sneaky, and untrustworthy. It’s really easy to not have antisemitic goblins, but unfortunately the antisemitic version is a mainstream staple and that doesn’t just go away overnight.

If you apply harmful stereotypes to anything, even if it was completely harmless before, you’re going to get a harmful caricature. That’s what happened to goblins, and that’s what SSO did with the Snow Goblins. They took the popular depiction which is the antisemitic version, and applied it to the game without a thought because it’s been normalized to the point most people don’t even consider it may have less than great origins. Like Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel. They’re so normal the vast majority of people don’t even realize they were created for antisemitic reasons. Antisemitism is sneakily within a lot of things. You don’t start recognizing it until you become familiar with the tropes and stereotypes.

I’m also going to bet if they’re European in origin, the “dozen other fairy tale and mythological creatures that have such traits” you could name also had that done to them if they weren’t antisemitic to begin with. And since you mentioned them, it’s also what was done to the stereotypical version of witches, which is antisemitic and has a very long history of such going back to accused women who were burned being forced to wear Jewish clothing of the time as further humiliation. It’s also where the classic pointy hat comes from, since a pointy cone hat was what we were forced to wear to signify we were Jewish. Witches actually share a lot with goblins in antisemitic traits and SSO also needs to address Pi hitting all but the green skin.

You clearly know a little about the issue, as you brought up The Nose when I didn't, but you also don't know nearly enough to speak about this at all as evidenced by you not knowing the antisemitic history regarding witches, so please don't. And I never said they were a Jewish caricature, I said they were antisemitic, there's a difference. A Jewish caricature is the happy merchant meme.

What we're also not going to do is the whole 'you're the antisemitic one for seeing Jewish people in goblins' thing. That has and always will be an utterly bullshit dismissive argument. The whole point of this kind of caricature is to normalize the stereotypes so when they're actually applied to people you don't blink an eye, like how very few goyim blinked an eye at Mother Gothel in Tangled. I'm currently sick so I really don't have all the smart brain power to go into that right now and I hope someone else can. It's not antisemitic to notice when antisemitic caricatures have been applied to something. That's a very good thing to notice actually, and I want more goyim to start noticing that.

So it does actually make more sense than someone saying those things (which I don't think I've ever seen someone argue??), which I'll get into under the cut to clear up any confusion about how SSO's Snow Goblins tie into the antisemitic depictions, since a couple people were confused in my initial post.

And I am worrying more about enjoying the game; that's the whole reason I brought this up, because I'd like to enjoy a game that's been with me for more than half my life and means a lot to me, and this is preventing me from fully doing that.

Again, I am genuinely sorry people have spoken over and for you. That is wrong and not at all okay. And I'm sorry if I misread the tone of your ask.

Okay !! Education with Mandy time. This has been a long post but I hope you'll all stick with me for just a little longer.

And real quick before we get into the specifics, I want to mention that Christmas time is one of the times where you want to be especially careful about things like this, given the history present with characters like Scrooge.

So for those who don't know what the Snow Goblin is, this is the creature in question:

The typical antisemitic goblin is green, greedy, big nosed, and some flavor or sneaky and untrustworthy.

The Snow Goblin quite obviously hits on the green. If this creature looked like a normal capran and was named something like Snow Imp or Mischievous Capran, there would be no issue. Because bastardy little guys stealing things on it's own isn't an antisemitic stereotype. It's when there's multiple things that are the problem, like green skin, or in this case fur, and calling them something with a very large history of antisemitism when combined with those very traits.

The whole schtick of this little guy is they steal your snowflakes if you don't catch them in time, so it also hits on the greedy and untrustworthy tropes. If the Snow Goblin looked like a normal capran but was still called a goblin, there would still be an issue because the antisemitic goblin isn't just green, it's also bastard of greedy kinds, like a thief not out of necessity but of pleasure. "Thief" isn't directly an antisemitic stereotype, but it's very much there as an undercurrent. The "Jewish people are unfairly taking my money!" implication from The Middle Ages when the stereotype began, when money lender was pretty much the only job we were allowed to have.

If the Snow Goblin was called something else but was still green, I wouldn't say its directly antisemitic, but I would side eye it and not feel comfortable. It's kinda like the Grinch, ignoring the fact Dr. Seuss may or may not have been Jewish depending on who you ask because there's conflicting information. It's not directly anything bad, but I'm going to be a little wary of the intention and engage with it extra carefully.

Its about the combination.

I can't tell you exactly when the mainstream antisemitic goblin came together, because I don't know and it's really hard to find information on that, but it's there, and you can't deny that. I don't necessarily blame SSO for contributing to it's perpetuation, because you don't think to look deeper into something when you have no reason to think it's harmful, but I do hope they change it. And hire some Jewish sensitivity readers because this wouldn't have happened with more Jewish people around to catch it, and with witches being a focus of the story now I am admittedly a little nervous about how that'll be handled.

Also, this is all unintentionally made worse by use of the capran model, because it also gets to hit on the whole fun we're in league with the devil thing and the Jewish people have horns thing. I don't know when exactly those started either (drawings of us with "devil features" have been around a long time), but I know the we have horns one was popularized when Michelangelo decided to give his sculpture of Moses horns, because that's what we look like apparently. There are still people who genuinely believe we have horns. I feel robbed. Horns a super cool, I want horns. Where are my horns?

And before someone says it, yes this is a lot of words for something low stakes in a kids game. There are a lot of more important things right now. But that's exactly why it's mattering to me right now. I don't want to be silent about antisemitism while it's on the rise, but I don't know enough about the current aspects of that to speak on it. I do however know a lot about how it applies to fantasy, and I have had about three work in progress essays about the goblin issue to prepare for this.

And also before someone says it, Snow Gremlin isn't exactly an acceptable new name either. It's basically Snow Goblin 2.0. Gremlins aren't goblins (though they have become a bit synonymous and interchangeable), but they were popularized by the massive and proud antisemite Roald Dahl, and I have a hard time believing he didn't put any of those beliefs into them.

[natduskfall]

The Beginning of the End

Contains negative "critique", or more precisely, my thoughts and observations, of the newest story quest. Might be interesting, might not be.

Fripp says that the spymaster’s squirrels have reported three Drakonium shipments being simultaneously abandoned. And that’s it? Couldn’t they also tell us who abandoned the shipments, and if any Dark Riders were spotted? And how did they not notice that the abandoned shipments were empty?They must know what a full shipment looks like, what types of containers Dark Core uses. They must have noticed the goons taking the shipments to unusual places, maybe they even spy on G.E.D.‘s mining operations, and see Dark Core loading the shipments. They must know the usual routes. They also could have checked to see if there actually was any Drakonium nearby.

It bewildered hen Alex yelled at everyone to stop. Like chill Alex, we’re just having a discussion, we’re not about to attack each other.

Linda’s comment about there being six of us confused me a lot initially, because there’s only 5 of us soul riders, eight of us if counting Fripp, Avalon, and Evergray.

Alex discourages Anne from creating portals, but is okay with her performing an allegedly hard and elusive spell nobody has mastered or performed in a very long time?

“I won’t bother you anymore with my jumbled thoughts.” …… brother in Aideen you just told me you had some thoughts to share with me. I really wish I could spend more time with Fripp, talk more with him. He might be such an amazing character if there was more to him.

“The future of Jorvik rests on your shoulders.” Gee, thanks.

The “Fripp teleporting away” cutscene was very weak.

I honestly was under the impression that the Drakonium shipment trap was set up to allow Dark Core access to the Library, so they could get to the Brambletween. I had not realised that there is now an army of druids there. So now I wonder why Fripp walked out on us when he didn’t need to go back to protecting the Library.

When the runestone appeared from the ground I thought it was the island itself trying to talk to me. I was a little disappointed to find out that it was a message from the druids.

Also, why did Alex and Anne waste time going to the Singing Yew to talk to me rather then just texting me and going straight to Valedale.

The Drakonium is already all unloaded from the trucks, even tho the Dark Riders want to take it further towards Valedale. And how are Lisa’s healing and Linda’s visions supposed to do anything to stop the Dark Riders?

How big is the Drakonium blast radius?

I’m so glad the writer had Alex ask such an interesting and valid question.

I honestly am conflicted about about the Oil Rig. Android or human, I still feel sorry for the goons. And what about other workers, like Lisa’s dad, or maintanance divers? But also, shouldn’t the Drakonium have been teleported to wherever G.E.D. mines it?

I think that Dark Core can already sue the pants off the druids for destroying and stealing their property.

I actually felt worried that Mr Sands might have died or been hurt. Then I thought that maybe he had been suffering for some years under Garnok’s influence, and this way he could be free, and Darko could take over. And then I was relieved that nothing happened to Mr Sands.

Mr Sands must have other oil rigs, he is an oil tycoon. I still wonder if he had the foresight to stop any drilling that might have been going on on the DC rig (If there was any), so that he wouldn’t lose the oil.

It was cool to see the hostility between the Dark Riders. I always had a feeling like they might actually hate working with each other, and that their working relationship might be strained.

Cool, so the Gate/portal is actually called the Hadal Gate. I wonder if Darko was working on it. It’s a shame it got destroyed.

I really thought the ending cutscene was happening in Wildwoods, but I suppose it’s not. The animation of Sabine swinging the hammer was kind of whack, but the animation Erissa had when she jumped out of the portal???? And her idle???? CHEF’S KISS. But the difference in quality of the cutscenes in one quest that takes a few minutes to finish is jarring.

Now I wonder where Erissa’s Dark Horse is, and what happened to the one Darko made.

I don't like how the writers introduce these new concepts, such as spells, rune warning messages. New rules. Things that are useful for only that one quest, and are never mentioned again. It's nice to have more material for fic writers, but it also would be nice if those spells and concepts would reappear. They either change their mind and abandon that concept or direction, or they forget, or it takes them so long that they're now going in a completely different direction and that thing they introduced is no longer needed or canon.

Overal, I think it was a somewhat okay quest. I think the writing was meh. So were the cutscenes. But I'm just glad that things are slowly moving somewhere. I'm elated that we finally have the fourth Dark Rider, and that they finally showed us some behind the scenes stuff going on with Dark Core. I'm glad they let Dark Core get the upper hand, or also progress with the story.

I wonder if SSE has their game documented. I don't know much about gamedev, but apparently developers use their own wikis to teep track of factions, items, characters, places, narratives... everything in the game. And It seems like SSE either doesn't have one that is up to date, or they just don't have one at all from the previous years, and are now working on a new one?

The name of the quest has me wondering if SSE is perhaps itching to wrap the main story up fast, so they can focus on the horses, outfits, and tack. That is a scary thought.

[worldlydesiretemple]

a little upset with the chiyo change tbh. i didn't realize or know chiyo was going to undergo a COMPLETE remodel/rework but seeing erissa is just ... man. i understand where people were coming from with their criticisms on chiyo's design but it feels even more backhanded that they just straight up made her (afaik) white.

erissa doesn't have much ... personality? to her design? it's an alright design by her lonesome, but it doesn't signify chaos to any degree. this is just a tiktok influencer to me. and she doesn't seem like an actual child anymore. chiyo was fun in the regards that she's clearly meant to be a rambunctious tweenager and could be seen as such, but now this is just. Ambiguous Older Teen/Young Adult to me.

i don't agree with their solution to chiyo criticism being "oh let's just not make her japanese!" because her being japanese wasn't . the problem? so.

i showed my friends the new design and we all came to the collective agreement she doesn't look like a dark rider or chaotic at all this is a quirky tiktok fashion influencer

[natduskfall]

Yeah, I wondered about that too. If the Drakonium is so volatile that Linda can't even use her illusion/vision magic around it, and rain or maybe wind could destabilize it, how did this do nothing.

Also why is all the Drakonium already unloaded from the trucks when the Dark Riders were planning to deliver it even closer to Valedale.

How big is even the blast radius?

Why did it get teleported to DC HQ when it should have been teleported to wherever G.E.D. mined it?

The magnetizing void just seems like last minute or poorly tought out spell/mechanic.

Why did Alex discourage Anne from making portals for the Soul Riders to get to the Drakonium shipments, but was okay with Anne (who might still be mentally unwell after her trauma) attempting to do an alegedly hard and reclusive spell that not many had succesfully pulled off before?

I cri

i don't want to be a buzzkill. but that would do so much more damage than just picking up the drakonium and dc stuff. hollow woods would be GONE. there would NOT be a ruin of the oil rig left. matter of fact, the entire planet would be screwed

[spoonbirds]

Tried drawing horses for the first time today

The second drawing is supposed to be Alvirah's normal coat from Sso

[starbornsoulrider]

serious shoutout to everyone who's had to put up with the complete bullshit bigotry that the community's been spewing out bc of this update, i'm sorry these assholes who are too up and arms about their old crusty victoria's secret supermodel characters are so insensitive

[shiroselia]

While I was definitely more critical about horse progression initially because it looked a Lot worse than it turned out to be I am still incredibly critical towards the features excessive reliance of taking already existing freely available features and now putting them behind a grind (there's no reason the faster gallop should be locked other than SSE needing Something There, no matter how easy it is to get, and it's also a bit of a Theme that I'm very very worried about but that's for a whole other rant)

And more than anything this shows itself in the Level 7 rewards. It is nothing but plain stupid to lock the gaits + moves behind a grind wall. I've already said that it's shitty to have something which the player already pays extra for at the beginning be locked behind extra time but that's not even the only problem with it.

Like. SSE. What the fuck were you thinking locking Gaited Horses behind a Training Feature. Like. The one thing which Still gets misinformed as being something riders Force On Horses? Something that real life people actually have to defend because gaited horses Are natural and Aren't trained Nevertheless abused to be gaited. And I'm mostly saying this because a lot of SSO players. do not know a lot about horses. And it's a very common misconception even in horse circles that gaits are Always forced upon horses and that simply isn't the case.

It's especially really fucking yikes with the Tennessee walker, which I'm pretty sure is 90% responsible for the misconception anyways, because while the Tennessee *is* naturally gaited when you say "tennessee walker" most people automatically think of Big Link which is basically the poster child of horse abuse and has been ever since it became a thing people knew about. So why in the absolute god damn hell is any, but Especially the tennessee walkers (who generally are a lovely representation of the breed because it actually features its natural gait) gaited horse in a subtle but already terrible way playing into this misconception.

Like it's just The most baffling choice ever and all of it is so clearly traceable to SSE wanting to make the feature big and significant but not having enough ideas to fill every other level with New Stuff so they resorted to locking old features anew which. Y'know. Turned out to be fucking stupid on so many levels.

[yashley]

imogen, with a smile: and it’s the end of an hour so I just want you to remember, we’ve exchanged so many words with each other today. please remember them.