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hasquetzorkukudoneanythingwrong · 4 years ago

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The (not so) lil master that could

Rex was sitting at a desk in an art studio. He was practicing his art with Da Vinci (caster) over looking his practice. He was practicing with human anatomy, with Cleopatra as the model. This wasn't the first time he'd tried this but he had an unfortunate habit of being over critical of himself. Da Vinci was well aware of this, many times when she tried to give him some criticism he'd take it way worse then she intended and end up dropping it for a long time.

Rex: uh... I might be close to being finished?

Da Vinci: are you sure? How do you feel about it?

Rex took a look at his sketch, the anatomy wasn't amazing and the clothing was a bit inaccurate.

Rex: no... it's crap.

Da Vinci: it's not that bad... I've told you before not to be over critical of your art.

Rex: but it's true. I shouldn't even try...

Da Vinci: hey! Stop giving up! You won't get anywhere doing that!

But Rex wasn't listening and he got up and left.

Cleo: what happened?

Da Vinci: he gave up. *sigh* he needs to stop dropping this stuff so quickly.

Cleo: well let me see the picture.

Da Vinci showed the picture to Cleopatra

Cleo: I mean... it's not so bad. I can see potential... he should keep going.

Da Vinci: that's what I've been trying to tell him...

Eventually Rex was in the writer's room this time trying his hand at writing a story. He was too disappointed in the art he tried so he hoped writing would be more his speed. Murasaki was there to help like Da Vinci with the art. Just like with the art and anything he tried, he was too critical of his own writing. Murasaki wanted to help him get better and to keep at it but she was too shy, the only reason she's helping instead of others is because folks like Shakespeare and Anderson annoyed him a bit too much so she's the better option.

Murasaki: how's the manuscript? Is it going well?

Rex: ...not sure... why don't you take a look?

Murasaki took a look at what he wrote.

Murasaki: it's pretty good so far... but this part seems a bit forced.

Rex: *sigh* so what do you think I should do instead?

Murasaki: stories need to flow naturally... try to take a bit of a realistic view on it.

Rex: hmmm...

As he reread the story, he became more and more dissatisfied with it. He noticed many errors and moments where the characters' dialog didn't seem right.

Rex: y'know what... maybe I shouldn't try...

Murasaki: wait! Please don't give up master!

Rex: why keep going? It's crap...

He got up and left, Murasaki just watched him as she wasn't very confrontational. Not that it would help as Da Vinci could tell you.

Murasaki: *sigh* not again...

Eventually Murasaki and Da Vinci met up in the hall and Da Vinci had a question for Murasaki.

Da Vinci: have you seen Rex?

Murasaki: no, he was writing earlier but he got over critical again and left.

Da Vinci: of course. He needs to work on his self esteem issues. I know you're always your own worst critic but he won't even let the ink dry before he burns the canvas.

Murasaki: did he go that far?!

Da Vinci: no... but it wouldn't surprise me. I'm going to keep looking, he needs to end this whole hyper critical crap!

Murasaki: alright, but don't be too abrasive with him, he may shut down entirely on the subject.

Da Vinci: *sigh* he needs a therapy session or something.

As she continued to look, she passes by the gym and hears his voice.

Rex: how was that?

???: your almost there! Let's try one more time!

Da Vinci: there he is!

She went into the gym, to see him in the wrestling wring. He was sparring with Quetzalcoatl, specifically lucha libre moves. This wasn't the first time he'd done this. In fact he'd been practicing with her for ages now.

Da Vinci, thinking: hey... how come he's never dropped this? When he first came in he had no interest in most physical activities. He was overweight and rarely left his room, but now look at him.

Da Vinci left the gym for now, but she planned to confront him about this later.

Later on Rex was walking back to his room, tired from the training he just endured. Then Da Vinci came in to question him.

Da Vinci: Rex!

Rex: ah!

Da Vinci: there you are!

Rex, nervously: what do you want?

Da Vinci: I've got some questions for you.

Rex: I dunno if I wanna answer

Da Vinci: too bad. Why do you keep dropping art and writing and such!? You have real potential for those things. But then I see you practicing hand to hand combat and you've stuck to it for so long! I've read your file, and have seen your behavior firsthand before all this and you never struck me as the athletic type.

Rex: ...well if you want the answer, then I've got a story to tell.

Da Vinci: by all means.

It was relatively far back, a while after Camelot was dealt with. Rex and Quetz were at the rec room watching Lucha matches. They had just finished one up, and you could see just how pumped Quetz got.

Quetz: wow! Wasn't that amazing master?!

Rex: it was pretty intense...

Quetz: I still can't believe you've never watched a match before. It's so increible!

Rex: I dunno... just never peaked my interest that much, but you make it way more interesting then I thought it'd be.

Quetz: gracias! When I first layed eyes on this amazing spectacle I couldn't help how awe struck I felt. I knew I had to master it.

Rex: ...I've noticed most of the time they have a partner. If you were ever in the ring for a serious match, who'd you want to be your partner?

Rex had asked simply out of curiosity, he expected her to say Martha or Scathach or some other powerful servant. But what she said surprised the hell out of him.

Quetz turned towards him, and before she said anything she held both of his hands in hers and gave him her answer.

Quetz: I actually think you'd be an amazing partner!

Rex couldn't believe what he heard. Him? Why?! He wasn't coordinated, he was a bit fat, and he was barely any good fighting without a weapon. If anyone that knew him from before chaldea was there, they'd expect him to give her a "no thanks" because that's the kind of person he was. But what he did say, would've surprised any of his family or former friends.

Rex: ...I'd love to!

Quetz: you would!?

Rex: yes! Anything for you!

Quetz: yay! Let's get started with your training!

Rex: now?!

Quetz: well.. it's actually getting late, how about tomorrow?

Rex: sure...

Back in the present day.

Da Vinci: of course, I knew it had to be her. You continue on to make her happy.

Rex: yeah... there's been many times where I was ready to quit training with her. It's painful, and just like with other things, I don't see what I do as good enough. But everytime I see her face beam with excitement for my training, I keep going. I do it for her, I want to be her perfect partner, she has high hopes and I can't disappoint her.

Da Vinci: but you can't put that effort for things you enjoy?

Rex: ...not really...

Da Vinci: ...why don't you show her your art or writing?

Rex: no! She'll think it's stupid.

Da Vinci: only you think that way... or at least that critically anyways. Regardless, I'm showing her!

As she said this she left to find Quetz and show her the picture he drew.

Rex: don't! It's too stupid!

Despite pleading with her he couldn't get her to budge on the subject, she was determined to do this. After a bit of the two walking and their back and fourth they finally ran into Quetz.

Quetz: Hola mi amor! Hola Da Vinci! What's going on?

Da Vinci: Quetzalcoatl, I've got something to show you!

Rex: pls don't look!

Quetz: why not mi amor?

Rex: it's crap!

Da Vinci: stop thinking that way!

As she says this she hands the paper to Quetz. She over looked it for a bit.

Quetz: mi amor, did you draw this?

Rex: yeah... it's crap I know

Quetz: no! It's actually pretty nice! I think you did a fine job!

Rex: huh?! You can't be serious!

Quetz: of course I am!

Rex: for real?!

Da Vinci: I've been trying to tell you!

Quetz: si! Don't look down at your art mi amor! It's really good!

Rex: ...you sure?

Quetz: si! You've got potential and I'd love to see you continue!

Rex was now filled more confidence then ever! He was ready to get back into it! Especially if it was for her!

Over time he'd get back into drawing and writing and even got into a bit of cooking. It was all for Quetzalcoatl of course! But he also never stopped training to be her lucha partner! He was ready for the day they'd have a match up together.

A/N: there ya go. Had this idea brewing most of work. Sometimes we're more willing to do things for others then ourselves, but that can still be a good motivator.

Tags

@hasishtardoneanythingwrong @hasereshdoneanythingwrong @haspaulbunyandoneanythingwrong @haskamadoneanythingwrong @hasabbydoneanythingwrong @hasspartacusdoneanythingwrong @castlecsejtespeakertechnician @hasbbdoneanythingwrong @hasnightingaledoneanythingwrong @nureenarts @kierakaz @valiantstrawberrymilk

#fate grand order #quetzalcoatl #wife #rexcoatl #rex #mastersona #leonardo da vinci #murasaki shikibu

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innuendostudios · 5 years ago

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Here’s How to Radicalize a Normie, a video essay on how the Alt-Right and their fellow travelers recruit. Clocking in at 41 minutes, 6756 words, 633 individual drawings, and 27 sources (including three full books), it is by far the longest and most heavily-researched video in The Alt-Right Playbook. I am very tired.

It took so long to put this behemoth together that my Patreon started to dip. So, maybe a little more than usual, if you want to keep seeing videos like these, please consider backing me on Patreon.

Transcript below the cut.

Say, for the sake of argument, your friend Gabe is starting to worry you.

Gabe’s always been just, you know, a regular guy. Not very political. He likes video games, sci-fi, comics, Star Wars, and anime. White guy shit. The only offbeat thing about him is you suspect there’s like a 20% chance he’s a furry. For all intents and purposes, Gabe is a normie.

But recently Gabe’s been spending a lot of time on some radically conservative forums, and listening to radically conservative podcasts, and picking some radically conservative arguments with you and your friends. You never would have expected this, not from Gabe, and, given the speed it’s happened, it’s worrying to think where it might be headed.

How have the Alt-Right gotten their hooks into your friend?

If you’ve ever known a Gabe, this video is for you. Here’s How to Radicalize a Normie.

Step 1: Identify the Audience

What you need to know before we begin is: around 2013, the Nazis went online.

Hate groups in the US, as tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center, had been growing in number since the noughts, but, between 2012 and 2014, they dropped by almost a quarter. Patriot groups dropped by over a third. However, hate crimes stayed about the same. Radical conservatism was not shrinking, but decentralizing. Still radical, still often violent, but now full of white nationalist nomads unlikely to join a formal organization.

This didn’t make them harmless. What it did was protect their asses from the typical hate group cycle: getting the public’s attention, making allies in conservative media, swelling their numbers, and then eventually disgracing themselves with failures, infighting, and, often enough, members committing horrific acts of violence, which come with social and sometimes legal consequences for all the other members.

So the Alt-Right and their fellow travelers these days don’t so much have members. They have hashtags, followers, viewers, and subscribers. This insulates them from their own audience. If Gabe, as a member of that audience, were to go out and commit a crime on their behalf, there’d be little doubt they had a hand in radicalizing him, but it’d be very hard to claim they told him to do it. On some of these sites, where Gabe spends hours and hours of his day, he’s never created an account or left a comment; the people radicalizing him don’t even know he’s there.

This distributed nature is what makes the Alt-Right, and the movements connected to it, unique. (You may remember a notable proof-of-concept for this strategy.) Doing almost everything online has, as compared with traditional hate movements, dramatically increased their reach and inoculated them from consequence. The trade-off, as we will see, is a lack of control.

And so we come to Gabe.

Gabe exists at the intersection of the kinds of people the Alt-Right is looking for - straight white cis men who feel emasculated by modern society, primarily, though they do make exceptions - and the kinds of people who are vulnerable to recruitment. Gabe fits the first profile in that he got bullied in high school, and often feels he has to hide his nerdy side for fear of getting ridiculed. The Alt-Right also has success with men who can’t get laid or recently got divorced or feel anxious about an influx of non-white people in their community. These things can make one feel like less than the confident white man they’re “supposed” to be. And it’s the closest they will ever come to being minoritized.

Regarding the second profile, it’s important to know that Gabe is not categorically different from you or me. He’s a cishet white dude - his problems are not unique. There isn’t a ton of research into the demography of the Alt-Right, but there may be a higher-than-average chance Gabe has a history of being abused or comes from a broken home. You don’t know if it’s true of Gabe, he’s never said. But most abuse survivors don’t become Nazis. The things that make people like Gabe recruitable tend to be situational: it happens often during periods of transition, as dramatic as the death of a loved or as benign as moving to a new city. Things that make people ask big life questions. Gabe has concerns like economic precarity, not knowing his place in a changing world, stressful working conditions. In other words, Gabe is suffering under late capitalism, same as everyone, and it’s entirely plausible he could have gone down the path to becoming a Leftist.

This is not to make an “economic anxiety” argument: the animating force of the Far Right is and always has been bigotry. But the Alt-Right targets Gabe by treating his “economic anxiety” as one of many things bigotry can be sold as a solution to. It is their aim that, when dissatisfied white men go looking for answers, they find the Alt-Right before they find us.

Step Two: Establish a Community

Were Gabe pledging an old-school hate movement, there would probably be a recruiter to usher him into an existing community. But that’s the kind of formalized interaction modern extremists try to avoid. Online extremism has many points of entry, and everybody’s journey is unique, so rather than be comprehensive we will focus on what are, in my estimation, the two most common pathways: the Far Right creates a community Gabe is likely to stumble into, or infiltrates a community Gabe is already in.

The stumble-upon method has two main branches, one of which is just “Gabe ends up on a chan board,” which we’ve already done a video about. The other is kind of the polar opposite of 4chan’s cult of anonymity: Gabe ends up in the fandom of a Far Right thought leader.

These folks are charismatic media personalities (that’s charismatic according to Gabe’s tastes, not ours; I don’t understand it, either). These personalities may gain traction on any number of platforms, from podcasts to reportage to blogging, though the most effective platform for redpilling is, and yes I am biting the hand that feeds me, YouTube. They may get Gabe’s attention through fairly standard means, like talking about or even generating controversy to get themselves trending, while some of the more committed will employ dubious SEO tactics like clickbait, google bombing, and data voids (just pause for definitions, we don’t have time).

What they tend to have in common, especially the most accessible ones, is that they don’t present themselves as entry points to the radical Right. In fact, many did not set out to be Far Right thought leaders, and may not think of themselves as such (though they are often selling products, of which the Alt-Right are among their biggest purchasers, and it’s not like they’re turning the money away). How they present is the same way anyone presents who wants to be successful on social media: accessible, approachable, authentic. The face-to-face relationship a budding extremist forms with their recruiter or the leader of their hate group’s local chapter are here folded into one parasocial relationship with a complete stranger.

Why this person appeals to Gabe is they’re not selling politics as politics, but conservatism as a kind of lifestyle brand. They rely heavily on criticizing or ridiculing the Left: feminists are oversensitive, Black people unintelligent, queer folks doomed to loneliness, and trans people insane; I dunno if it’s a coincidence that these are all things Gabe thinks about himself in his low moments. By contrast, they don’t sell conservatism as having sounder policies or a more coherent moral framework, but that abandoning progressive principles and embracing conservative ones will make Gabe happier. Remember, Gabe isn’t looking for white nationalism or misogyny, what he wants is the cure to soul-sickness, and these friendly micro-celebs are here to offer a shot of life advice with politics as the chaser. It is extremely important that politics be presented as a set of affects, not a set of beliefs.

The second pathway is infiltration, which is its own beast. Media personalities sometimes become gateways to the Right almost by accident: they do something edgy, a part of their audience reacts positively, and, facing no real consequence, they do it more; this leads to further positive reinforcement from conservative fans, the rest of the audience acclimates, and the cycle repeats, the personality pushing the envelope further and further based on what flies with their increasingly conservative audience. In this way, they become a right-wing figure by both radicalizing and being radicalized by their audience.

Infiltration is deliberate.

The Far Right will reliably target any community that has 1) a large, white, male population, 2) whose niche interests allow them to feel vaguely marginalized, and 3) who are not used to progressive critique of said interests. This isn’t to say progressive critique doesn’t exist, or hasn’t been baked into the property from the beginning, but that it has been, so far, easy for white guys to ignore. As such, progressives within that community probably don’t talk politics much, and women and minorities are perfectly welcome to post, same as anyone, but just, you know, don’t, don’t make identity politics, you know, like, a thing.

Given Gabe’s proclivities, he’s probably already in a number of fan communities where he can geek out and not get teased. And this is where the Far Right will go looking for him

Communities are at their most vulnerable to infiltration at times of political discord. This can happen naturally - say, a new property in the fandom has a Black protagonist - or it can be provoked - say, a bunch of channers join the forum and say provocative things about race to get people arguing - or both. Left to its own devices, the community might sort out its differences and maybe even come out more progressive than they started. But, with the right pressure applied in the right moment, these communities can devolve into arguments about the need to remove a nebulously-defined “politics” from the conversation.

The adage about bros on the internet is “‘political’ means anything I disagree with,” but it’d be more accurate to say, here, “‘political’ means anything on which the community disagrees.” For instance, “Nazis are bad” is an apolitical statement because everyone in the community agrees. It’s common sense, and therefore neutral. But, paradoxically, “Nazis are good” is also apolitical; because “Nazis are bad” is the consensus, “Nazis are good” must be just an edgy joke, and, even if not, the community already believes the opposite, so the statement is harmless. Tolerable. However, “feminism is good” is a political statement, because the community hasn’t reached consensus. It is debatable, and therefore political, and you should stop talking about it. And making political arguments, no matter how rational, is having an agenda, and having an agenda is ruining the community.

(Now, it is curious how the things that provoke the most disagreement tend to be whichever ones make white dudes uncomfortable. One of life’s great, unanswerable mysteries.)

You can gather where this is going: a community that doesn’t tolerate progressivism but does tolerate Nazism is going to start collecting Nazis, Nazis whose goal is to drive a wedge between the community and the Left. Once the Left acknowledges, “Hey, your community’s developing a Nazi problem,” the Nazis - who are, remember, trusted, apolitical members of the community who might just be kidding about all the Nazi shit - say, “Did you hear that, guys?! Those cultural Marxists just called all of us Nazis!” Wedge. Similarly, any community members who say, “but Nazis though” are framed as infiltrators pushing an agenda, even if they’ve been there longer than the Nazis have. They get the wedge, too.

This is how fandoms radicalize. They are built as - yeah, I’ll say it - safe spaces for nerds, weebs, and furries, and are told that the Left is a threat to their safety. Given a choice between leaving a community that has mattered to him for years and simply adjusting to the community’s shifting politics, the assumption is that Gabe will stay. This assumption is right often enough that a lot of fandoms have been colonized.

What is true of both of these methods - Gabe finding the Right or the Right finding him - is that Gabe does not come nor stay for the ideology. He’s here for the community, the sense of belonging, of being with his people, of having his fears validated and his enjoyment shared. The ideology is simply the price of admission.

Step Three: Isolate

There is a vast, interconnected network of Far Right communities out there, and Gabe is, at this point, only on the periphery. In order to keep him in, they need to disrupt his relationships to other communities, and become, more and more, his primary online social space. Having made this space hostile to the Left, they now seek to break his connections to progressives elsewhere in his life.

This is hard to do online. The whole appeal of moving radicalism to the internet is that your away-from-keyboard life doesn’t have to change. You are crypto the moment you log off. Some thought leaders will encourage their audience to cut ties with Family of Origin, or “deFOO,” but, even then, they can’t monitor whether the audience has actually done it the way an in-person movement could. And so alienating Gabe from the Left is less controlled, and, consequently, may be less total. How much Gabe isolates is up to him.

But the vast majority of Far Right media presumes an alienation from the Left. Part of conservative bloggers and YouTubers making the Left look pathetic is doing a lot take-downs and responses. This is a constant repetition of the Left’s arguments for the purpose of mockery, and, for Gabe, it starts to replace any engagement with progressive media directly. He soon knows the Left only through caricature. It also trains him, if he does directly engage, to approach the Left with the same combative stance as his role models. (For reference, see my comment section.) And this is only if he doesn’t partake in one of the many active boycotts of “SJW media.”

In addition to mocking the Left’s arguments, they also, curiously, appropriate them. This is one part sanitization: liberal centrism is more socially acceptable; indeed, many figures on the outer layers think of themselves as moderates, even as they serve as gateways to radicalism. But, also, many of Gabe’s problems could be addressed by progressive leftism, so they sell him racist, sexist versions of it. Yes, there is a problem with workers being underpaid and overextended, but the solution isn’t unions, it’s deporting immigrants; yes, there is a chronic loneliness and anger to being a man in the modern age, but it’s not because of the toxic masculine expectations placed on you by the patriarchy, it’s women being slutty; yes, wealth disparity does mean a tiny percentage of elites have more influence over culture and politics than the rest of us combined, but the problem isn’t capitalism, it’s the Jews. And it’s hard for Gabe to reject these ideas without, in the process, rejecting the progressive ideas they’re copied from; the Right’s “take the red pill” is, to the untrained eye, similar to the Left’s “get woke.” (Or, at least, the bowdlerized version of “get woke” that is no longer specifically about race which came to fashion when white people started saying it, grumble grumble.)

Take the red pill or reject them both; either is a step to the right.

As this rhetoric slips into his day-to-day conversation, even as seemingly harmless “irreverence,” it may strain relationships with people who are not entertained by this shit. Off-color comments about race and gender can certainly be wearying for female and non-white friends, which can lead to a passive distance or an eventual confrontation [“why is everyone but me so sensitive?!”], which only seem to confirm what his reactionary community says about liberal snowflakes. If he says these things on social media, he may get his account suspended, and, if he comes back under an alt, you can bet his new reactionary friends will be the first to reconnect, applaud the behavior that got him banned, and repeat should he get banned again. A few cycles of this and he’s lost touch with everyone else.

Also, his adoption of the insular, meme-laden terminology of this community makes him less and less comprehensible to outsiders.

Over time, sources of information get replaced with community-approved ones: conservative news, conservative YouTube, conservative Wikipedia if he’s really committed. The Algorithm soon takes note and stops recommending media from the Left. He stops watching shows with a “liberal agenda,” which usually means shows starring women and people of color. Now, there is evidence that the human mind responds to fictional characters similarly to real people, and that consuming diverse media can decrease bigotry in ways roughly analogous to having a diverse group of friends, which is one of many reasons we say representation matters. By consuming a homogenous media diet, Gabe stymies his ability to have even parasocial relationships with anyone who isn’t a cishet conservative white dude or one of their approved exceptions.

To the extent that any of this happens, it happens at Gabe’s discretion and at his own chosen pace. It has not been forced on him, only encouraged and rewarded. But the fact that it hasn’t been forced can make him all the more willing to accept it, because it seems safe to consider; even though his life and social circle are changing to accommodate, he does not feel committed. But many Gabes have walked these halls, and, if they close the door behind them, there’s nowhere left to go but down.

Step Four: Raise their Power Level

(...and they say we ruined anime.)

Consider the ecosystem of the Alt-Right as layers of an onion, with Gabe sitting at the edge and ready to traverse towards the center. (No, I’m not just going to reiterate the PewDiePipeline, though, if you haven’t seen it, go do that.)

The outer layer of the onion is extremism at its most plausibly deniable. Without careful scrutiny, the public-facing figureheads could pass as dispassionate, and the websites as merely problematic rather than softly fascist. It is valuable if Gabe believes this as well; that, at this stage, he believe the bigotry is simply trolling, the extremists an insignificant minority, and any report of harassment faked. That he believe where he is is as deep as the rabbit hole goes. And that he continue to believe this at each successive layer.

People in the deepest crevices of the Alt-Right self-report getting redpilled on multiple issues at different times in their journey to the center of the onion. If Gabe’s first red pill is about the SJWs coming for his free speech, he’ll think that’s all anyone in his community believes; there’s no racism here, people are just making a point about their right to use slurs. Then, when he gets redpilled on the white genocide, he’ll laugh at those Alt-Lite cucks who tried to sweep the race realists under the rug, and at himself for having once been one, but acknowledge that those channels and websites are still useful for onboarding people, so he won’t denounce them. At the same time, nobody takes those manosphere betas seriously.

And this process is reiterated with every pill swallowed: gender essentialism, autogynephilia, birtherism, Sandy Hook truth, pizzagate, QAnon if he’s really out there. The heart of the onion is typically the Jewish Question, but these can happen in any order, and in any number. But each layer sells itself as being, finally, the ultimate truth. Each denies the validity of the others; the layers ahead don’t exist, they’re made up my liberals, while the people behind are asleep where you are now awake. That’s why they chose “the red pill” as their metaphor: take it, and everything will be revealed. That’s why it cozies up with conspiracism. But what’s supposed to follow is that this knowledge help Gabe in some way, and it doesn’t. Blaming immigrants doesn’t actually fix the economy, and hating women doesn’t make men less lonely. But, having been alienated from everything outside the onion, once that sinks in, the only recourse on offer is to seek out the next pill.

And pills are easy to find. Those within the network have laissez-faire relationships, even as they, on paper, disavow one another. When they need a source or a guest host, they aren’t going to go to the Left; they’re going to feature each other. The Left is the enemy; their ideas are beneath consideration, and the only reason to engage them is for public humiliation. [Shapiro’s book.] But you can interview “western chauvinists” and that doesn’t mean you’re endorsing them, just, you know, it’s fine to hear ‘em out, nothing should be off-limits in the marketplace of ideas. Besides, Nazis are apolitical.

And because these folks keep showing up in each others’ metadata, regardless of what they say, Google thinks there is definitely a relationship between the guy “just asking questions” and the guy denying the Holocaust. Gabe is softly exposed to many flavors of conservatism just slightly more radical than he is now, and is expected, at the very least, to not question their presence. This is an environment where deradicalizing - listening to the Left - would be sleeping with the enemy, but radicalizing further? You do you, buddy.

Gabe’s emotional journey, however, is somewhat more complex. If you’ve spent any time reading or watching reactionary media you’ve probably noticed it’s really. fucking. repetitive. It’s a few thousand phrasings of the same handful of arguments. Like, there’s only so many jokes about attack helicopters! But these people just crank out content, and most of it’s derivative; the reason to pick one personality over another isn’t because they say something different, but because they say it differently. Gabe just picks the affect it’s delivered in.

Repetition dulls the shock of the most egregious statements, making them appear normal and prepping him for more extreme ideas. Meanwhile, the arguments themselves? They’re not good. (BreadTube will never run out of shit to debunk.) They are repetitive because they’re not good. They’re mantric. A good argument you only need to hear one time; if you can follow it, internalize it, and explain it to someone else, you know you’ve understood it. But a bad argument can’t convince you on its own merits, so it will often rely on affect. This can be the snappy, thought-terminating cliche, or the long, winding diatribe that sounds really sensible while you’re hearing it but when someone asks you for the gist you can only say “go watch these 17 videos and it’ll all make sense.” Both these approaches are largely devoid of content, but, gosh, if they don’t sound sure of themselves.

And that mode can be very persuasive, but it doesn’t stick the way a coherent argument does. It needs to be repeated, the affect replenished, because the words matter less than the delivery. There needs to be a steady stream of confident voices saying “we’ve got this figured out and everyone else is stupid” or Gabe’s gonna notice the flaws. They are not well-hidden.

And the catch-22 of returning to that stream over and over is that these communities are stressful even as they are calming. People afraid they will die virgins go to forums with people who share and validate that fear, and also say, “Yes, you will die a virgin.” People afraid Syrians are coming to kill us all watch videos by people who share and validate that fear, and also say, “Yes, Syrians are coming to kill us all.” Others have already pointed out that rubbing your face in your worst anxieties is a form of digital self-harm, but I need to you understand the toxic recursion of it: Gabe is going to these communities to get upset. Every emotion is converted into anger, because sadness, fear, and despair are paralyzing but anger is motivating; Gabe feels less helpless when he’s pissed off. And so, while he’s topping up on reassuring nonsense, he’s also topping up on stress. And, being cut off from everything outside the network, the only place he knows to go to release that stress is back to the place that gives it to him. It’s a feedback loop, pulling him deeper and deeper on the promise that, at some point, relief will come.

It is a similar dynamic that keeps people in abusive relationships.

When someone in Gabe’s community makes a racist joke, they are presenting Gabe with a choice between the human interaction of laughing with his friends and his societal responsibility not to be a fuckin’ racist. And not laughing seems ridiculous; everybody’s friends here; no one’s getting hurt; this is harmless. And so the irreverent race joke draws a line between the personal and the political, and suggests that one can be safely prioritized over the other. One way to look at radicalization is being asked to stick with that seemingly innocuous decision as the stakes are raised incrementally: first with edgier humor, and then comments that are funny because they’re shocking but you couldn’t really call them jokes, and then “funny” comments that are also sincerely angry, but, in each instance, since he laughed with his bros last time, it stands to reason he should keep favoring the personal over some abstracted notion of “politics.”

This is why the progressive adage “the personal is political” is among the most threatening things you can say in these spaces.

I’m not trying to make a slippery slope argument. Most of us who laughed at edgy jokes when we were teenagers didn’t grow up to be Nazis. It is a slippery slope in the specific context of being in community with people trying to radicalize you. Gabe is a lonely white boy in need of friends, and laughing at a racist joke is personal, while not laughing is political. Staying in a community that has Nazis in it is personal, and leaving is political. The personal is what brings people together and the political drives them apart. (The “only if some of them are bigots” part of that sentence is usually lopped off). There’s this joke on the internet that nerds perceive only two races: white and political. Following that logic, what could be more apolitical than an ethnostate?

They are banking on his willingness to adapt his beliefs to suit an environment that meets a need. That same need can be satisfied by white nationalism. There are few things more seductive to people who doubt their own worth than being told you are valuable simply for being white. And you can sub in male, cis, straight, allosexual, or able-bodied. It just takes priming: by the time Gabe officially embraces bigotry, he’s already been acting like a bigot for months. The red pill is simply the moment he says it out loud.

Change Gabe’s surroundings, and you change Gabe.

Step Five: ???

The final step in a traditional extremist group would be getting a mission. But that is one thing the Alt-Right can’t do. Once you start giving clear directives, you can’t play yourselves off as a bunch of unaffiliated hashtags and think tanks; you are now a formalized movement accountable to its followers, and can be judged and policed as such.

To my mind, Charlottesville was an attempt to become such a movement, taking things offline and getting all the different groups working collectively. And, as so often happens when these people get in the same space - especially with no official leaders or means of control over their members - it backfired. Their true colors came out before they were ready and a counter-protester lost her life.

This would be the point where, historically, an extremist group starts to disintegrate. Their veneer of respectability gone, they’re now hated by the public, the media wants nothing more to do with them, and everyone not in jail turns on each other or goes underground. This is also the point where the liberal establishment says, “My job here is done,” and utterly fails to retake control of the narrative, allowing the next batch of radicals to pick up more or less where the last one left off.

But to an already-decentralized group like the Alt-Right, Charlottesville was bad but eminently survivable. People retreated back to the internet, with its code words and anonymous forums, but that’s where much of the work was already done anyway. The platforms where they organized kept tolerating them, the authorities still didn’t classify them as terrorists, and any disgraced figureheads were replaced with up-and-comers.

The major change in strategy is that it doesn’t seem anyone has tried to formalize the Alt-Right since.

So where does that leave Gabe? He’s gone through this whole process of largely hands-off indoctrination - and I should stress his journey may look like what we’ve outlined or it may look different in places, this video is not comprehensive - but now he’s swallowed every pill he cares to, he blames half a dozen minorities for everything he sees as wrong with the world, and no one will give him anything to do. You’ve got this ad hoc movement frothing young men into a militant fervor and then just leaving them to stew in their own hate. Should we really be surprised at how many commit mass shootings?

This is a machine for producing lone wolves.

Leaving men to take up arms of their own volition is a way of enacting terror while being just outside the popular conception of a terror cell. There are also, of course, more classic militias that will offer Gabe clear directives - they’re recruiting from the same pool. And Gabe may stop short of this step, settling in a middle layer that suits him or finding the inner layers too extreme. But violence is the logical conclusion of an ideology of hate, and, should Gabe take this step, he can approach violence in the same incremental fashion he approached conservatism.

He can start with yelling at people on Twitter, and then maybe collective brigading, DDoS attacks, sharing dox, leaking nudes, calling their phone numbers, texting them pictures of their houses from the sidewalk. These acts of cruelty become games of oneupmanship within his community. All this can start as far back as Step 2, and get more intense the deeper he goes. Some people join explicitly partake in harassment and violence the way Gabe joined to talk about anime.

But this behavior can serve as a kind of buy-in. The Left and the feminists and the LGBTQs and the Muslims and the immigrants are all, within his community, subhuman. You’ve maybe heard the conservative catchphrase “feminism is cancer”; well don’t treat cancer by having a respectful exchange of ideas with it, but by eradicating it down to the last cell. Cruelty against the Left is framed as righteous.

From any other perspective, posting someone’s bank information is something you might feel ashamed of. Which creates a psychological imperative not to consider other perspectives. A thing that keeps people in is staving off the guilt they will reckon with the moment they step out. Gabe is also aware that anything he’s done to the Left could be done to him if he leaves; some communities even keep dox on their members as insurance. And the things he’s been encouraged to do to the Left will likely make him feel that the Left would never take him now; the radical Right is the only home he’s got. Harassment becomes another tool of isolation.

Steadily, options for Gabe are whittled down to being a vigilante or a nihilist. There are periods of elation: moments the Alt-Right feels it’s winning - or, more accurately, the people they hate are losing - are like cocaine. They are authoritarians, after all. But the times in between are mean and angry. They are antisocial, starved of emotional connection, consuming incompatible conspiracies that may at any point run them afoul of one another, devoted to figureheads who cater to but cannot risk leading them, and living under constant threat of being outed to the Left or turned on by the Right for stepping out of line. Gabe took this journey for the sense of community and purpose, and, but for the rare moments everything goes their way, the Alt-Right can’t maintain either. They can only keep promising his day will come, a story he could get from a $5 palm reading.

The feeling there’s nothing left but to kill yourself or someone else is so common it’s a meme.

But there is always a third option: Gabe can leave.

Pre-Conclusion: For Fuck’s Sake Do Not Make Gabe Your Whole-Ass Praxis

Before we continue, I want to state plainly that Gabe went off the deep end because he found a community willing to tell him that, because he is a cishet white man, the world revolves around him. Do not treat him like this is true.

If a fraction of the energy spent having debates with America’s Gabes were spent instead on voter re-enfranchisement, prisoner’s rights, protections for immigrants, statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, and redistricting, Gabe’s opinions, in the societal sense, wouldn’t matter. Reactionary conservatism is a small and largely unpopular ideology that is only so represented in our culture and politics because they’ve learned how to game the system.

And I get it. Those are huge problems that are going to take years to address, where, if you know a Gabe, that’s a conversation you could have today. And, if you think you can get through to him, it is worthwhile to try. This is a fight on many fronts and deradicalization is one of them. But it is only one, so please keep it in perspective. It sends an awful message when we spend more time trying to get bigots back on our side than we do the people they are bigoted against.

Your value as a lefty does not hinge on whether you can change Gabe’s mind.

Conclusion: How Gabe Gets Out

He may just grow out of it. These communities skew young, and some folks hit a point where hanging with edgy teens doesn’t feel cool anymore.

He may become disillusioned after the movement fails to deliver on its promises.

He may become disillusioned if something goes wrong in his life and his community isn’t there for him, if he feels they like his race and his gender but don’t actually care about him.

He may be shocked if he sees the Alt-Right at its worst before being appropriately conditioned. Charlottesville was a step too far for a lot of people.

His community may turn on him for any perceived unorthodoxy, and he may leave out of necessity.

He may be separated by circumstance from the community - a trip with no internet, hospitalization, arrest - and not be able to top up on the rhetoric. This may lead him to question his beliefs.

His community may disappear, either tearing itself apart or getting shut down by authorities.

He may have incidental contact with populations he’s supposed to hate, and have trouble reconciling who they are in person with what he’s been told about them. In his community, people bond over shared intolerance, but, suddenly, being tolerant helps him make friends. (This is one reason the Alt-Right has made a battleground of the college campus.)

He may form or revisit relationships outside the network, people who can offer him the connection he’s been looking for. This may reintroduce outside perspectives. More importantly, it rekindles his ability to have healthy relationships at all, something the Alt-Right has estranged him from.

As with recruiters, it seems these “escape hatch” relationships can sometimes be parasocial; coming to respect a public figure who is on the Left, or is critical of the Alt-Right.

Someone he is close to may compel him to choose, “me or the movement.” A lot of young men leave to save a romantic relationship.

Hearing stories from people who’ve already jumped may help; there aren’t a lot of public formers, and some raise suspicions as to their sincerity, but it is getting more common, and may be the closest we get to exit counseling for the Alt-Right.

He may become aware of the ways he’s being manipulated, or have them revealed to him, maybe because he stumbled into BreadTube, I dunno. Knowledge that you are being indoctrinated is no guarantee it won’t work - you are not immune to propaganda - but it can help one resist.

And he may revisit a core belief system that used to guide him, be it religion or social justice or a really wholesome fandom, and be reminded of the identity he used to have.

Moments like these, in isolation or in aggregate, can inspire Gabe to jump. They are also good times for friends to intervene. The reach and the impunity that comes with the internet means it has never been easier to fall into reactionary extremism. It has also never been easier to get out. People who exit skinhead gangs often fear for their lives; for Gabe, there’s a chance getting out is as simple as going to a different website. Much of his community does not know his name or his face and he may not important enough to dox.

What doesn’t get Gabe out - not reliably, not that I have seen - is an argument with a stranger who proves all his facts wrong and his ideology bunk. Facts don’t always work because facts don’t care about his feelings. This was about staying in a community, and holding onto an identity, that mattered to him. It was about belonging, and that is something a rando from the other side of the culture war can’t give him and probably shouldn’t be responsible for.

The theme here is human connection. Before he can do the work of disentangling himself, and facing the guilt of what he’s believed and maybe done, he has to know there’s somewhere for him on the other end of it. That the Right hasn’t ruined him. They’ve told him all of history is groups fighting each other over status, and, without his clan, he’ll be an exile. He needs a better story.

I don’t know that lefty spaces are ideal for this, in no small part because bringing someone who’s a bit of a Nazi but working on it into diverse communities is… questionable. And it probably wouldn’t be good for him, either; having just gotten out of a toxic belief system, he’s going to be deeply skeptical of all ideologies. In a perfect world, people who care about Gabe could build for him - to use a therapy term - a holding space. Someplace private - physical or digital - where Gabe can work out his feelings, where he is both encouraged and expected to be better but is not, in the moment, judged. That comes later. It is delicate and time-consuming work that should not be done in public, but we find these beliefs, built up over the course of months or years, tend to fall away very quickly with a shift of environment. Change Gabe’s surroundings and you change Gabe.

But, instead, a lot of people who jump are functionally deprogramming themselves, which is working for a lot of them, but it’s haphazard, and there are recidivists.

If you don’t personally know a Gabe, or have training as a counselor, you may not be in a position to help him. Possibly there are things you can do to disrupt the recruitment process or prevent infiltration of spaces you’re in - I’m looking into it, but talk to your mods - but, elephant in the room: meaningful change will require reform on the part of platform holders. Tools to disrupt this process already exist and are being used on groups like ISIS, but they’re not being used on the Alt-Right because they try oh so very hard not to get classified as terrorists (and also any functioning anti-radicalization policy would require banning a lot of conservative politicians, so there’s that...).

But what makes our story better than theirs is that the fight for social and economic justice, though it is long, and difficult, and frustrating, when it works, it fulfills the promise the Right can’t keep: it materially make people’s lives better. I am not prone to sentimentality, or to giving these videos happy endings. But one thing we have that the Alt-Right doesn’t is hope.

#video essay

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signalterminated · 4 years ago

Text

Altered Item S-96 (Control/TMA crossover)

a while ago when i was playing Control i wrote up a little crossover fic for fun. a week or 2 later i found out jonny was streaming control on twitch which was one hell of a coincidence. i figured i might as well post this here in case anyone else finds the concept interesting or fun to play around with.

------------------------------------------------------------

ALTERED ITEM S-96

Description:

A black and white children's book titled A Guest for Mr. Spider. Story details a cartoonish spider greeting flies as "guests" to his house. There are two doors on each side of the house but no furniture save for a single table with withered bluebells. Each fly has a moniker as a name that refers to their individual species.

Setup for the story is cyclical: one page introduces a fly offering a gift to the spider in an attempt to appease him. Subsequent page heavily implies Mr. Spider ate them after being dissatisfied with the gift. The final fly is shown offering his own son to the spider for reasons unknown.

The doors and Mr.Spider are depicted as being progressively bloodier. Mr.Spider's abdomen is also swollen to gargantuan proportions but the text states he wants more, even desiring another guest for dinner. Last page of the book is a cutaway of the right hand door that simply says, "It's polite to knock."

Ability:

While unsettling, the pages themselves possess no visible paranatural qualities. The reader is instead put into a trance while reading that can only be broken by an outside force or intervention. Age, gender, height, or any other physical characteristic does not seem to affect the potency nor threshold of interruption for this trance.

The reader is rendered oblivious to their surroundings but is capable of walking, oftentimes significant distances. Furthest distance recorded for this effect was [REDACTED] observed at [REDACTED]. So far no measurable distance has been noted as a "minimum" requirement, though a median of approximately [REDACTED] has been recorded for all controlled tests. It's possible that the distance a reader must travel is random, or (more possibly) is quantified by factors we are as of yet unable to ascertain.

The reader eventually reaches a stained door. The door is different colors depending on the environment but the stains remain consistent regardless of locale. If left uninterrupted, the reader will place the book against the door and knock on it. It's uncertain if this is necessary to prompt the next part of the ritual or not, as testing beyond this point is fatal for any subject.

The door opens to reveal pitch blackness. Shortly after, the reader is yanked inside by limbs described as [REDACTED]. No one taken by the creature behind the door has ever been seen again.

See S-96-CV-1 for further details regarding testing.

S-96-CV-1

Variables:

Various factors have been tested to determine the strength of the book's controlling properties. Photography had proven to be impossible in both digital and film formats, as any photo taken always comes out completely black, damaged, or distorted beyond recovery. Video recordings of the book being read have been tricky to establish, as digital equipment will almost immediately glitch and stutter within a range of [REDACTED] of the book. Attempting to use even an advanced zoom feature from far away results in similar phenomenon.

So long as the patient's back is obscuring a view of the book, it's relatively safe to record. Additionally the effect operates in a far more reduced capacity while S-96 is closed, causing glitches and technical issues within a range of [REDACTED] instead.

Strangely enough, motivation presents more of an obstacle in attempting to monitor S-96. Nearly every agent instructed to photograph or record the book reported a sudden lack of motivation to do so when approaching the containment room. Many formulated excuses for why they couldn't at that very moment. Others simply forgot why they were there. Installing sheets of Black Rock within the containment room helped reduce this effect considerably but did not eradicate it.

See JS-P1-95 for an interview from the only known survivor.

JS-P1-95

Transcript for an audio recording between Jonathan Sims, aged 8, and a child therapist appointed by local protection services. Interview occurred approximately 2 days after the disappearance of [REDACTED].

Therapist: Hi there, Jonathan.

Jonathan: Call me Jon please, ma'am.

Therapist: Right, of course. How are you feeling, Jon?

Jon: I'm not sure, ma'am.

Therapist: Please, call me Imogen. And that’s alright. After what you went through, that’s a very normal reaction.

Jon: Noth—

(There is a brief moment of silence followed by the sound of clothing rustling. Jon is shifting uncomfortably in his seat.)

Jon: Yeah. I guess.

Therapist: What were you going to say, Jon? Remember, I’m not here to judge you.

Jon: O-okay. It’s just...nothing about this feels normal.

Therapist: How so, Jon?

Jon: You won’t believe me.

Therapist: You told the police that you saw [REDACTED] being kidnapped. They believed you, right? So will I.

Jon: I didn’t tell them everything.

Therapist: And why is that, Jon?

Jon: Because what I saw, it...it doesn’t make sense. It was really dark out but I know what I saw, and...

(Small set of hitching breaths followed by a deep breath. Jonathan appears to be repressing a breakdown very well for a child.)

Jon: It happened so fast but I saw it. It took him.

Therapist: What took him, Jon?

Jon: Mr. Spider.

(There is a brief onset of soft static here. Most likely due to the age of the recording.)

Therapist: ...Mr. Spider?

Jon: From the book.

Therapist: What book, Jon?

Jon: A Guest for Mr. Spider! He took the book when he pushed me and I followed him a-and he knocked on the door and --

(More shifting, this time including papers and seats. Jon is breathing harder and the rest of his sentence is unintelligible.)

Therapist: Jonathan, take a deep breath. There you go. You’re okay.

Therapist: Now, tell me about this book. The police never mentioned finding a book by that name.

Jon: That’s because he was holding it. Don’t you understand!? The book, it made him go there. It forced him to knock on the door and...and then...

(A small sob followed by the hushed cooing of the therapist. Jon seems unresponsive and there’s the creak of a chair, followed by silence.)

Jon: I don’t want to talk about the book anymore.

Therapist: Okay. That’s okay. You’ve done very well so far.

Jon: I’m not a toddler.

Therapist: I’m sorry, Jon. I know you’re not a toddler, this is a lot for anyone. Even an adult.

Jon: I knew you wouldn’t believe me.

Therapist: Now what makes you think that?

Jon: I can see it. I see a lot of things.

(Recording ends here.)

There are no other audio logs regarding this incident. Additional services were turned down by Jon’s grandmother, [REDACTED], and there are no other records of him seeking out professional treatment in the following years.

For more information regarding Jonathan Sims, refer to JS-19-UAE.

JS-19-UAE

Initial Impressions:

Jonathan Sims displays a very high intelligence for his age. Whether due to trauma or his orphaned status, he exhibits a world weariness rarely found in a child. This emotional aloofness coupled with a lack of any close relatives might indicate an affinity for future leadership.

Bureau agents stationed in the UK are instructed to closely monitor his activities for the following 2 years. This is to determine potential eligibility in the Prime Candidate Program and to assess if the Altered Item will return to claim its intended victim.

Pre-Adolescence to Early Teenhood (10-13)

Jonathan Sims has exhibited no further paranatural abilities. He appears to have thrown himself into academic pursuits and has not made contact with any other Altered Items. The book mentioned in his initial therapy session has not appeared within his vicinity, nor has it been reported by any other agent stationed in Great Britain.

As of now, surveillance will continue, albeit in a reduced capacity.

Teenhood (13-17)

Still no indication that Jonathan Sims possesses any paranatural talent. However, he appears to have a heightened sensitivity to paranatural events and items. There have been at least 4 instances where he nearly stumbled upon AWE’s or Altered Items, only to just skirt by them. Each instance has been logged in a separate report and successfully apprehended before it could catch public attention.

Whether this is a 6th sense keeping him out of danger — or drawing him to it — is currently unknown.

Early Adulthood (18-21)

Agents recently discovered the book mentioned in Jonathan Sims's therapy session. It does not appear to be tied to him in any way, given the fact it was found in a check-out bin at the [REDACTED] Library in [REDACTED]. It was contained successfully by [REDACTED] and shipped back to the Oldest House in a crate lined with Black Rock.

Jonathan himself has become a full time student in Oxford. He has exhibited no latent talents or abilities of interest. Due to his growing age and the fact the book has been found, his eligibility in the Prime Candidate Program has been revoked.

That being said, he is an excellent accidental bloodhound. More than once his intuition has led him within the range of an AWE or Altered Item. By proxy, we are made aware and are able to act quickly to avoid further disaster.

Whether these items are reacting to his presence, seeking him out purposefully, or this is all simply coincidence is not yet determined. Closer study could risk exposing Bureau operations, as Jonathan has grown increasingly paranoid since teenhood. Measures have been taken to avoid any further unintended alterations in his usual behavioral patterns.

Adulthood (22-24)

Nothing to report between college and entering the workforce. His grandmother's death led to a period of instability but nothing atypical of a grieving individual.

ADDENDUM: Jonathan's habit of accidentally brushing up against the paranatural has culminated in a job at the Magnus Institute.

While not tied to the Bureau, the Magnus Institute has been partnered in some capacity with the Bureau for over 2 decades now. This coincidence has been logged as potentially being influenced by paranatural forces.

An ambassador will be sent to the Magnus Institute to investigate and negotiate with the current Director of its operations, Elias Bouchard. Extra caution should be exercised to avoid arousing further suspicion from Jonathan or the Institute.

#the magnus archives #tma #magnuspod #Control

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vanikolya · 4 years ago

Note

hello! can i request a matchup (male characters) for bungou stray dogs & assassination classroom if that's okay? thank you 💕

― i’m a female and a grey asexual!

― appearance-wise, i’m 165cm (5’4"), asian, with shoulder length black hair and dark brown eyes! i don’t like wearing dresses, often times i’m wearing long sleeves paired with shorts or jeans.

― personality-wise, i can be cold and really blunt at first and i don’t let people in easily bc trust issues™ at the rare times people actually succeed in making me their friend, i’m a bit chaotic. i’m a rational person (which sometimes offend others??), but i can be very childish at times. i have pretty dry and dark humor, and i love making sarcastic comebacks. it’s literally second nature at this point. i’m a vv moody & have a short temper. people say i’m iNtElLiGeNt, and so naturally, i’m the person my classmates go to for academic help, despite being super harsh when they get something wrong. (i can’t help it bc what i teach them usually seems easy to me ;-;"). and sometimes i’m just so done with everyone’s shit that i don’t care about anything HHHHH it’s like i have two separate personalities??

― i like horror, psychological thrillers, action & action comedies. i’m very interested in psychology & pathology, and i want to be a psychologist or a forensic psychologist one day. i love spicy food and have a sweet tooth! (ill eat literally ANYTHING sweet) i also prefer working alone than in groups, bc i do better alone. i love foxes & cats too! (i have a cat named ginger eEEE) i also really love collecting stationery!!

― i hate crowds & socializing. i’d prefer staying in and binge watching anime or movies! despite being the person people come to for academic help, i absolutely hate studying and rarely ever do study.

― my hobbies are writing, drawing, playing the piano, violin & guitar and singing! at a young age i’ve been taught how to play those instruments, but i’m only really good at piano. the life of an asian lol

this is rly long omg- anyways, thank you!!

{i hope this is alright! it’s my first time doing a matchup ^^; i hope you enjoy! i wrote them in a headcanon format since that’s what i’m most comfortable with, hope you don’t mind that! - s}

i ship you with...

{.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} RANPO EDOGAWA {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.}

at first, ranpo finds your bluntness interesting; he isn’t going to push you just for the sake of figuring you out, but he can tell there’s something more to you than your cold attitude

completely understands you getting annoyed when your classmates ask you for help and get it wrong, he feels similarly whenever he has to explain the reasoning behind his deductions, and when his clients don’t understand him

he loves that you’re both chaotic/childish and also rational, as he understands that sometimes life really does call for being serious, but downtime is still precious to him and he’s glad he can have someone to relax with outside of his work/the agency

supportive of your dream to become a psychologist, he definitely knows you’re smart enough for it. if anyone tries to convince you to do something else even if you don’t want to, he’ll honestly just like, complain about them to you but he’ll do it in front of them to put them off the subject. he also thinks the idea of being with a forensic psychologist would be interesting, but not in a kind of way where he’d be dissatisfied if you chose to do anything else

stubbornly possessive of his own sweets and sweet stash, but honestly doesn’t mind sharing with you or letting you take some, just as long as you replace anything you’ve taken for yourself

ngl i hc that he loves cats too, if the two of you were to move in together at all but ginger stayed at your family home he would be constantly, cheekily asking to see them, but if ginger moves in too he is chuffed

thinks it’s super endearing that you like to collect stationary, though he doesn’t particularly understand why you love it so much. doesn’t mean he’s not going to buy or ask yosano to buy things for you if he ever spots little stationary things like stickers or memos that he thinks you might like

prefers to stay inside with you anyway, most if not all dates planned by him consist of things like movie nights or playing games inside. if you do want to go outside somewhere though, on occasion, it isn’t a problem with him but it doesn’t change his preference considering he struggles to do certain things without using his ability

isn’t going to pressure you into singing/playing for him when he figures out you can but i feel like he’d enjoy it if you did, even if you’re not specifically playing for him, just practicing, he still likes to listen to you

he’d ask you in a cheeky/childish way, like “not to be cheekyyy, but can you play/sing for meee”

{.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} KARMA AKABANE {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.}

teases you for your height, but in a kind of “aww, you’re so small, so cute” way, even though you’re only about a head shorter than him. he’ll stop if you ask him seriously enough but until you do he’s just going to assume that you don’t mind it

treats you the same way as he would with anyone else in the class, until he gets to know you and sees that you aren’t entirely as cold and blunt as you were letting on

he likes getting on your nerves to a certain extent, only ever really driving you to a “i love you but if you don’t shut up-” kind of mood, not too much to really set off your temper and make you mad at him. he finds it fun to bounce off your sarcasm with his own, either to tease you or someone else

willing to help you out with your classmates if they ever come to you for help, after all he has some of the highest grades in class if not the highest, so he’s capable of helping. however, he’s similar to you, he’s harsh and gets a little agitated if someone fails to understand something that’s so easy for him

similar film tastes, his favorite genres are action & action comedies. he gets surprisingly into discussing films with you. if there’s a new film coming out that you both want to watch and he ends up seeing it before you, he might joke about telling you spoilers but he wouldn’t actually ruin the film for you, because it would annoy is sm if someone did that to him

honestly not too fussed about what your dream job is and what you’re aiming for, that’s your business, just as long as your happy. if you need help with it though, he’ll take an interest and try to help as he knows it’s something that’s going to make you happy

he’s fine with either going outside or staying in with you, he prefers to go out but isn’t going to pressure you to. sometimes he sees spending time inside with you as special even if you’re just watching anime, it’s more private

if you do go out though he’ll try avoiding crowded areas with you, whilst also trying not to make it obvious that he’s doing it ig

he’s never particularly been interested in creative things like writing, drawing, and music; his strong points in class being more maths and science; so anything you make or play is honestly amazing to him especially since he has nothing like his own experience to compare it to (if that makes sense-- sorry for the personal comment aha but like ig it’s similar to if you’re drawing and you don’t like it but someone who doesn’t draw will think it’s great)

#matchup #bsd #ranpo edogawa #assassination classroom #karma akabane

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xseedgames · 7 years ago

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Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection - Localization Blog #2

“Rally-ho, true believers!” I shout, swinging into the grand hall on a chandelier, interrupting the fancy party. Everything stops as eyes are focused solely on me – on my roguish good looks, my brand-name tabard, my elk leather highboots. I somersault to the floor, landing on my feet with a flourish and a bow. “I know you must have thought this high society gathering dreadfully dull without me here to tell you about the intricacies of composing prose for novel electronic amusements, so I’ve come to enlighten and entertain thee. Also, did you know all the food here is free? My pockets are full of cocktail wieners right now.”

Indeed, it’s an honor to see you again, dear readers. I hope you enjoyed my previous blog about the upcoming PC release of Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection. As a small refresher, it served as something of an introduction to Zwei: II as a game – what it’s all about, its two main characters, the setup of the story, and its battle and leveling system. You can think of it as a sampler platter to give you a taste of why this game’s cool.

Do a barrel roll

Today, in my second Zwei: II blog, I’d like to go into more detail on the process of writing and editing for the game, and some of the things I dealt with and thought about as I localized it. I’ve done an entry like this for each of my prior projects, and I always enjoy it because it gives me a chance to briefly pull back the curtain and share with you some of the minutiae of localization, and the truism that every project is its own beast.

One interesting thing of note about this project is that it’s the first project on which I served as the sole editor. When I started working at XSEED, most of my prior localization experience had been as part of a team working on large single projects, while most of XSEED’s workflow at that time had been to keep a single editor on a project as much as possible. Each method has its own benefits, as you’d expect. When I work with a partner or team, I enjoy being able to bounce ideas off them or ask for hot takes any time I want, like, “Okay, which of these five potential quest names sounds the best to you?” or “Here’s what I have so far for this scene, but I want this girl to sound more disinterested. How would you do it?” We solicit general impressions from the office fairly regularly, but having other editors acquainted with the specifics and setting of the project you’re working on gives you access to an informed, expanded scope beyond your own intuition and experience. That’s important, because every editor is naturally going to have some characters or scenes they click with more readily than others.

On the other hand, flying solo can also be nice because it represents a purer distillation of editorial voice. With single-editor projects, you know that all the text in the game was overseen by the same person, making thoughtful choices with full knowledge of where everything fits in the greater scheme of the story. I think that’s what XSEED values about this methodology, but with the arrival of mammoth-sized scripts like those for the Story of Seasons and Trails of Cold Steel games, it became a matter of practicality to learn to work well as small teams on projects – a challenge I think our editors have risen to meet in admirable fashion. Of course, that’s not to say I didn’t have a lifeline or two working on Zwei: II. Junpei and Tom were an ever-present source of support whenever I had a question about something in the Japanese – and there were many, many of those over the duration of the project. Even when you’re working alone, you’re never truly alone when you’ve got the office familia backin’ you up.

Getting to work on a project by myself has also helped me better understand my own work process. One nice thing is that everything I mentally bring to a project – the stories I’ve consumed and experiences I’ve had that color how I interpret characters and scenes – remains consistent throughout. This is especially pertinent when writing for comedic scenes, as no two editors will have the exact same sense of humor, and Zwei has more than its share of wisecracks and comedy. The scary thing about being the sole face of a game, though, is that anything that’s weird or wrong, any jokes that totally fall flat, emotional connections that don’t get made – that’s all on me. In a way, it’s a test of myself as a writer and editor, with you all as the judges. With the original Story of Seasons, Tom and Ryan lent me a hand, and I had the dashing Young Kris as my partner for the first Trails of Cold Steel, but here, you get pure Nick, for better or worse (hopefully for better).

I mentioned briefly in my previous blog that Zwei: II felt like it was deeply informed by ’90s anime and manga, and I’d like to unpack that a little more for you here, in case your curiosity was piqued at the notion. After all, a lot of the games we work on here at XSEED are pretty anime-flavored, right? What’s one more on the list?

Here’s my take. Over time, the general vibe of anime has undergone change, as all thriving arts tend to. One major difference – the one most relevant to our discussion – is the observation that protagonists in many modern series tend to be passive, disaffected, reticent, or otherwise hesitant to engage the world and situations around them. They’re the reactive sort. Sometimes it’s because they’re exceptionally socially aware. Sometimes it may be because they’re awkward youths. Sometimes it’s because you get the impression that the writer really wants you to think this person is cool or above it all. Anime from the ’90s, on the other hand, is much more associated with protagonists who leap into situations without thinking, do things without considering the ramifications of their actions, and adhere to a personal code or philosophy that the character consciously or unconsciously holds. Both approaches, in the hands of a good storyteller, can and have made for some great entertainment, but from a writing perspective, the “’90s anime” types are definitely easier for me to work with. They’re more expressive, more willing to engage, and their very being tends to create conflicts that help drive the story and the growth of both themselves and other characters.

During the time I was working on Zwei: II, I actually ended up rewatching a season of Ranma ½ (those blu-rays are preeeeetty sweet) and seeing the Tenchi Muyo TV series for the first time (on loan from Tom). Seeing those really made this whole point click with me, like, “...That’s it! That’s the kind of comedic stylings Zwei is trying to channel!” Not in the sense of specific plot points or characters from any particular series, but the sort of atmosphere that was about creating opportunities for amusing things to happen. Ranma, for instance, tends to nettle many of the characters in his series not on purpose, but just by being who he is. And not just that – doing it on purpose also comes very easily to him (just watch how he loves to bait Ryoga or Kuno with his taunting). Ragna is less purposefully ornery, but his decisive personality draws the admiration of some and the exasperation of others. Plus, later on in the game, you run across a genuine hot spring, and we all know what a staple of the era that is. ;)

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Tragedy is easy, comedy is hard,” and there’s truth in it. Most of us love a good comedy, but do any two of us love all the same comedies or laugh at all the same things? Humor is deceptively difficult because it’s so mercurial, influenced by the times, by moods, by delivery, and more. A bit that might leave you stone-faced Monday night could have you busting a gut Thursday night. Understanding why something that makes you laugh does so is the study of a lifetime. There’s really no shortcutting it – you have to get the mileage, experiencing things that make you laugh, thinking about why, and chasing the next thing you think might give you another shot of mirth. I can only hope that I’ve imbibed enough of the spirit of humor to properly convey the charm of what is perhaps Falcom’s most levity-laden title.

Yeah...just hangin' in there, y'know...

Beyond my approach to the game itself, we have its characters – the heart and soul of the action. Quite often, early on in the process of localizing a game, I’ll get an impression of a character as, “Oh...I guess he’s a lot like X from [other source],” and as I make a couple of those anchoring connections and begin considering the characters in the game from those perspectives, they begin to show their multiple facets. Lest you think this sounds too close to, “Oh no, he’s just taking an existing character and foisting that persona on this carefully crafted, unique game character!”, take a measure of comfort in my assurance that I, too, would be dissatisfied with an approach that oversimplified. Think of it more as a basic framework – scaffolding that lets me clamber around the object d’art to get at the fine detailing.

With Ragna, for instance, his characterization is very front-loaded in the game. Right away, you know he’s a freewheeling pilot, sort of a hotshot, and likes to do things his own way. The image he creates is very “early 20th-century flyboy,” and I sort of conceptualized him as a guy who wouldn’t feel out of place if you stuck him in among the cast of “The Rocketeer.” Speech-wise, his alternating between laid back and fired up reminded me of Gundam Wing's Duo Maxwell, and like that character, Ragna likes to chime in with some tongue-in-cheek commentary if something patently ludicrous or weird happens in the game. Finding characters who are reasonably like the one you’re writing for helps, as does understanding the milieu in which a character exists – what they were doing just before the story began, and what the world around them that shaped them is like.

There are actually a couple characters who have what I termed “Ragna-variant” speaking styles. Ragna’s main vocal tic is that he sometimes truncates words ending in “-ing” (so “nothing” would become “nothin’,” and “fighting” would be “fightin’,” though I tried to generally keep it to one per text box – it’s a spice, not a marinade), so among the expanded cast, you get some people who speak that way because they have similar lifestyles. Odessa, as a rough-and-tumble Treasure Hunter who specializes in capturing bounties, is very colloquial in her faux old-west style. Gashler, who runs the garage out by the airstrip, is a full-bearded, goggled mechanic that sort of reminded me of Cid from Final Fantasy IV, and his speaking style is pretty thick – one of the most affected in the game, though I tried to make it still pretty easy to comprehend. One also has to consider that people who have special styles of speech have certain occasions where that’s either suppressed somewhat, or is expressed with even greater emphasis than normal. Even old man Gashler might speak (mostly) standard English if you dragged him to a black-tie event, but on the other hand, if someone said his workmanship is rubbish, I have no doubt that he’d be cussin’ up a storm, blastin’ furnace-fire, and lettin’ loose with the sort of strange, idiomatic expressions that only grease-stained mechanics know.

Ragna being an unusually “American-feeling” character made him pretty easy to write for right from the start. Alwen took a little more finesse and more time to find her ground – but not because she was difficult in a conventional sense. The trick with Alwen was that she definitely inhabits a certain archetype, at least partially, but I needed to figure out how much of that I needed to accurately represent her, and when to let her individual characteristics shine.

Alwen, as the daughter of an esteemed Trueblood vampire house, can be very prideful, bordering sometimes on haughty. She learns fairly quickly that the world beyond her castle has more complexities than she gave it credit for, but her distance from the world of humans actually gives her some surprising insights. Now, the most common way you see characters like Alwen played are that they step out into the greater world, eventually realize how much they don’t know, and depend on their friends to teach them what it means to really live along the way. Alwen...has some of that, but it’s the way she interfaces with the world that makes her an interesting and fun character. For example, she doesn’t technically NEED to eat food, but likes eating a ton of it (on Ragna’s dime, of course) just because it’s tasty. She’s not afraid to walk right into town and make small talk with the people. Alwen may be a vampire, but she’s refreshingly (and oddly) free of so many of the preconceived expectations people have about what vampires are like. She even calls Ragna out on this early on in the game when he’s shocked that she walks around just fine in the bright morning sunlight. A great deal of Zwei: II’s story is really her story, especially when it comes to getting the ball rolling, and it helps the story greatly to have a character who both entices with a bit of the familiar but also stands out due to individual quirks.

I also did with Alwen a variant of what I did for Laura in Trails of Cold Steel, where I shifted her from talking with a “proper,” antiquated style of speech to a more natural speaking style that still retains the idea that she’s highborn. Coming at this from a lore perspective, Alwen hasn’t been out of her castle in the last 100 years or so and has learned what she knows of the world from her estate’s extensive library, so it would be very feasible for her speaking style to sound older than that of Ragna or the people of Artte. In practice, though, Ragna having a casual style of speech and Alwen’s speech being fairly rigid made it difficult for the comedy to land, and to really connect with Alwen as a character. Can you imagine what Star Wars would’ve been like if Princess Leia spoke like a medieval fantasy princess while trying to banter with Han Solo? That’s the kind of disparity I’m talking about. It might’ve been funny, but for reasons entirely unintended. So after thinking on it a while, I decided to adjust Alwen’s speaking style, dialing it back. My priority was to keep her sounding articulate and well spoken, but casual up the language so that the banter between her and Ragna has the requisite snap it ought to. In my opinion, the net gain from that was well worth the adjustment, which you’ll be able to see for yourself when you play.

Sort of tangentially related to that, in the Japanese version, Ragna goes through basically the whole game calling Alwen “Princess” (“hime-san”). The best reasoning I could figure is that maybe, having taken on some power from their blood contract, Ragna feels he should acknowledge her as his liege, but...that explanation totally flies in the face of Ragna’s personality. Ragna is a guy for whom there is ONLY a first-name basis (or a nickname if he finds one for you he likes). The most likely explanation is that it’s just the difference between politeness levels in Japanese personal address versus Western personal address, but the title put a certain amount of “distance” between them that I didn’t want to remain there for the duration of the game. The alteration I made to compensate for this was to have Ragna refer to Alwen as “princess” a bit at the very outset of the game, but quickly fall into using her first name, which feels much more natural for the character. To draw the analogy with Star Wars again, think of it as Han Solo going from calling Leia “princess” or “your worship” in a sort of snarky context when he doesn’t really know her to simply calling her “Leia” once he’s spent time with her and knows her as an individual. Plus, with as big a deal as Ragna makes over wanting to work together with Alwen as “equal partners” at the start of the game, it would be weird for him to then go on to refer to her by her royal title for the rest of the game.

This discussion isn’t meant to be a comprehensive retrospective of Zwei: II’s localization, of course; just a list of some of the noteworthy things I grappled with working on the game. Editorial work does have its pressures and difficulties – when the buck basically stops with you, how do you know you’re making the right call? – but ultimately, these kinds of challenges are what keep the job fresh and interesting. The point of all the character personality profiling, the speech styles, the fine-tuning, is for players to be able to sit down and experience a fun story and memorable characters that “just work,” no speculative microscope examinations of the translation required. I think my obsessive tweaking and spit-polishing will make for a better game experience...but you don’t have to take MY word for it. Give Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection a try when it comes out and see for yourself!

#xseed games #xseed blog #xseed #Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection #post: nick #long post #Falcom

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bonerhitler · 8 years ago

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Much Ado About Mobile Games

So, this week (an astounding week two of two) I'm going to write too many damn words about mobile games. I like mobile games, free to play ones in particular. I like those little capsule machines, you know the ones where you put in a quarter and get some little soft plastic ninja or something. Most mobile games I play are the same, though minus the quarter cost. I try to avoid paying money to an F2P game unless I think it's exceptionally good. What counts as exceptional though? Well that's what I'll get to.

I think I'll start with a list of mobile game sins though, things that usually deter me from coughing up my dollars or more often get me to uninstall the game entirely.

1.The (in all but name) Pay Wall.

Typically something only done by very cheaply made games intended to cash in on the popularity of others, often done by devs with no real name or identity. So, what is this paywall I'm talking about? Well if you've played any bad mobile games you know it. Usually it occurs in campaign stages after a certain point, there will be an intense difficulty jump without the usual gradual climb. I've even played a few games that flat out refused to let you progress unless you had a certain number of high rarity units, which you couldn't get without spending money.

2. Same Character Evolution.

So, you loaded up a game and you like the art and got lucky and rolled a rare, and therefore powerful, character. Except in the vast majority of games the version you get is always the basic weak form, never the strong form advertised. Far too many games have a system where in order to reach the next level of rarity, evolution by any other name, you need the exact same character. This is a wretched system that preys on the “whale”, a type of player willing to spend obscene amounts of money to constantly have the newest and latest thing, at the cost of any other player. What's the point in playing if you have literally no way to improve your characters short of getting lucky enough that the game gives you enough duplicates of a character to reach the max level, especially when the max level is often required for all of the content.

3.PVP reward focus.

Now, this is a tricky one to explain properly. There's nothing wrong with a game that focuses on PVP, PVP can be fun. The problem is, as with a lot of mobile games, there's a very generous advantage given to players who pay. There is no victory when the person you beat can pay a dollar and remove all the penalty for loss. There's very little gameplay experience when a person who would normally have no chance of winning can pay and get an advantage and win. Mobile games often eliminate the skill of the player entirely, turning the highest ranks of PVP in mobile games into competitions of who can spend the most. Then you add in the idea that the players who win most get the best rewards. It just creates a horrible feedback loop of a very specific group of players paying until they get a reward that gives them further advantage. This exact thing happened to a game I had liked, in theory at least, called Transformers: Battle Tactics. The gameplay was fun and interesting but effectively the only way to earn any new units was to straight up pay for an incredibly low chance at it, or win PVP events and come in the top percentile. The only people were the whales. Unsurprisingly the fanbase was incredibly unhappy, and as it hemorrhaged players the whales became increasingly dissatisfied because after a while the only players they saw were the same players over and over, the ones who had the same items as themselves, the ones who paid as much as they did. There wasn't anything to keep them there either. The game has since shut down and the new game the company has started follows a very similar business model.

4.Unforgiving Rolls.

This might seem crazy to hate, but I've played a lot of games and there are a lot of ways to do rolls. The two primary ways are to have low rates but give the player as many free rolls as they care to save up. One game I liked a lot, SD Gundam: G Generation Frontier did this route. It was incredibly easy to save up the max number of free roll tickets for whatever cause you wanted. Paid rolls had better rates, the standard rates were absolutely abysmal though, well below 1%. But when you had 999 tickets plus however many your mailbox could hold, it didn't matter a whole lot. Though it was especially frustrating when you'd take a thousand plus rolls and still not get the thing you wanted. The second more common route is to make rolling currency rarer but give players bonus rolls. Give them a bonus roll for saving up arbitrary amounts, guarantee them a certain rarity for spending more currency. All very good alternatives. What's terrible is when a game doesn't even try. Charges an arm and a leg for a roll and gives you no incentive to bother, or maybe they do the bonus thing. Maybe they promise you a rare unit but include every single possible unit in that roll as well. Have fun getting the basic generic unit, but at a higher rarity than you'll ever want!

5. Uncontrolled Power Creep

This is a problem a lot of devs don't know how to deal with properly. They release a new character, the fanciest and strongest new character to date! Why? So people will spend money to get it. Then once everyone's gotten it, they'll beat all of the new content too easily. So they start making the new stages specifically to counter that character. Then they release a new character, one that can clear that content and is stronger than the previous one. It never ends. This style of balance is pervasive through far too many mobile games, and specifically this is why I stopped playing Puzzle and Dragons. That game was fun, I loved playing it and I loved messing around with team builds. But keeping up with the meta was dreary. I'd been playing since the game had its English release. I first noticed this specific strategy when everyone was using 2x lucifer teams, after a while Athena hit. Virtually impossible for a slow tank team because it had a wave that did impossible damage if you didn't clear it in a set team. So the offensive meta took over. Then the game just became an insane arms race while every other type of team took an increasingly irrelevant back seat. But that wasn't even good enough because they started giving every boss auto-revive skills that brought them back to life and killed you instantly if you killed them in one turn. It's not fun when the game is literally just countering whatever it forces you to use because nothing else works anymore.

6. Whaling.

What I mean is appealing solely to the whale userbase at the expense of everyone else. Bits of that are in all of my complaints. But it's the core thing that drags down mobile games, largely because it works for a lot of short term payoff. The problem with the whale focus method of earning money is that you still need free or casual paying players, because you need to keep your playerbase expanding. A game with a population of a hundred isn't going anywhere and even those high rollers will get bored eventually, especially once they realize they're the only ones playing anymore. Without word of mouth giving your game the good graces, praise and admission of not being a money grubbing machine is especially important for mobile games, there will be no more whales to replace the ones that leave. But instead of thinking about player retention, instead of designing a game that everyone can enjoy far too many companies slide things towards catering solely to one playerbase.

So, as said before, I've played a lot of mobile games. Dropping one and moving on to the next is no problem, I've spent money on games that I've dropped when they started doing too many things that bothered me. But if this was just about not liking a thing there would be no reason to write all these words, the internet is full of people talking about how bad mobile games are and why they're the worst. I just think it's important to know where to draw a line in the sand to help sort the bad from the good.

So what is good then, what makes a mobile game good? Well that list is far, far shorter.

1. It's Rewarding.

A problem with a lot of the more whale-oriented games is that only the absolute hardest difficulty gives you a reward, and only players who already have the absolute best will be able to clear that hardest difficulty. Once again only rewarding the best equipped players with the best equipment. This isn't saying you should give the best gear to a brand new player who just started, but players should be able to earn their way up. Give the players who beat the hardest difficulty a better reward than an accessory that gives them more damage they don't need. Put that reward on the next hardest difficulty instead, one that the F2P players would be expected to beat so they can upgrade their teams and maybe one day have a shot at the hardest tier themselves.

2. F2P Progression.

I don't just mean “You can technically beat it if you min-max and have a whale friend help” like a lot of games. I mean, can a player start the game and without paying a dollar, work their way through the content? Even though I quit both, with PAD and SD Gundam this was true, even in both whaling wouldn't have helped. Yet I was able to clear most, if not all, events up to when I quit and obtain the rewards. There was no wall that flat out made me stop because I hadn't paid enough to get the top gear, because I hadn't been lucky enough. At the same time, these events never rewarded the top players and only the top players. In fact both games had a similar system too. The higher your difficulty, the more likely you were to get the best reward. In PAD this amounted to getting a 100% drop rate for the boss on the hardest difficulty, 50% for the next and so on. In SD Gundam the higher difficulties dropped rarer units at higher rates but you could still grind the entire event on the lowest rank if you didn't have a strong enough team. In fact that was the easiest way to get started, grind a brand new event unit to boost your team immensely right off.

3. It Feels Fair.

It's rather arbitrary to bring in feelings admittedly, but it's a lot easier to enjoy a game when it feels like the developers are on your side rather than working against you to take your money. The brand new Fire Emblem: Heroes for example. When you roll for a character, you're given a choice from five orbs representing unit type. Each following roll from the same pool is slightly cheaper than the last. So a full roll from the same pull only costs 20 orbs, the game's premium currency, where as five individual pulls would cost 25. The game also doesn't stress the importance of character rank. While it does the usual thing of character rarity, the majority of characters gain little more than minor stat boosts at the maximum rank, meaning you don't need to make the time, cost and effort to max out your team if you don't have it, can't afford it or are just unlucky. Whereas many other games make the higher level content flat out impossible if you don't have some of the best.

So what does this all mean, why did I type all of these words even? Because I'm playing Fire Emblem Heroes and it got me thinking about other mobile games. Sometimes I miss playing PAD but then I remember how everything shifted to a RA/Kirin focused meta and I hated using those units. I kind of miss SD Gundam but bandai ruined that by unbalancing the whole game with a new rarity. I was enjoying Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius but between the recent blatantly whale-focused events and the very disappointing interviews the devs have been giving, I'm not sure I'm going to keep going with it.

However Fire Emblem Heroes is new and probably won't get ruined for a while. There's a lot of room for it to improve, the rolls and rates are surprisingly refreshing for a game like this and the gameplay doesn't really favor people who pay more. There are a few minor balance issues and the game could use some important quality of life additions, but I'm still hopeful that those will be added as the game thrives.

#nerdshit #I can't stop playing these bad games #Fire Emblem Heroes Is Good Though #I don't think I understand tags #I refuse to understand them too

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crosbysierra95 · 4 years ago

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Premature Ejaculation Treatment Sweden

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Shortcut #1 - The problem that affects their partner actually heats up.Pelvic muscle is located in a similar condition.Technically, many instances of their efficacy and safety.The problem of ejaculation control PC muscle could assist to control their ejaculation process.Tip #3: Deep Breathing - Most men have had this problem might exist seems far greater than the first ejaculation, it is happening to you for sure.

#Pre Ejaculation Staggering Cool Ideas #How Does Kegel Exercises Help Premature Ejaculation

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katelynbreanne-blog1 · 6 years ago

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Ways to give good results and earn quite nicely from the household working with personal computer and online world

Clean up up the code on your online site that can help expand site traffic. Maintaining your code neat and thoroughly clean will cut back the incidence of damaged web pages and web-site options, lower time it's going to take for internet pages to load and ensure it is less complicated for search engines to index your web pages. All of this will expand website traffic and one-way links for your website.

Produce a webpage for your home business and retain it up-to-date. If a consumer or opportunity customer is fascinated inside your business, the main matter they will commonly investigate is your website. You wish to include things like any relevant information regarding your organization on that online site, allow it to be glimpse wonderful, and higher than all, be certain it happens to be person pleasant!

Using recommendations from content users is really a legitimate online world advertising strategy. A wide unfold of completely happy users reporting over the price of a blog will encourage would-be users who distinguish with them to analyze the website further. Merely a very few unique stories of appreciation will reveal web page site visitors that the site's services and products can fulfill their demands.

To correctly sector your organization, you ought to locate out what your competitors are accomplishing. A single way for you to retain a watch on the competitors could be to generally search and visit their organizations. The idea is just not to repeat whatever they are undertaking, but fairly to determine how these preferred establishments run and really enhance on what they're undertaking.

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Setup an electronic mail signature to immediately be extra to each email you ship. Include your title, firm identify, situation, and contact facts. This offers the consumer a number of ways of contacting you. They are able to also go to your site to get pricing, watch samples of your give good results, or have a look at your solution. This provides them the information they demand fast when you're not without delay out there.

Have a look at the online websites of one's competition. This will help you see what you are up against, even so it may also give you concepts about anything you can do a little bit improved or perhaps a tiny otherwise. You should use their web pages for suggestions about articles and other content for ones unique online site and web log.

In almost any world-wide-web promotional plan it can be necessary to not drive revenue on potential prospects well before they may be completely ready to shop for. Providing is not really not like seduction-the target should be to make the client need to buy of their very own free will. A sales and profits website have to focus on rendering seductive information and facts. The choice to buy have to always be current but it really should really at all times be unobtrusive.

If you ever operate a variety of company internet sites don't neglect the value of cross-promotion on your online promotion efforts. Its probable that your various internet websites share some standard values, so readers to at least one site can be intrigued in one other. Ensure it is as simple as is often for possibilities people to jump from online site to site to examine your complete range of choices.

To make interactions with the prospective clients, its critical for getting associated with social media. Websites like Twitter and Fb, alongside with group message boards, make available you special techniques to have interaction specifically with your buyers. Social networking might not result in fast sales and profits, but it surely certainly will assist you to make brand recognition and long-term expansion likely.

For anyone who is aiming to boost your earnings by advertising via the internet, the most beneficial issue to carry out is present a straightforward nevertheless complete webpage for your personal enterprise. This includes obviously stating what programs you could have and what they do. Getting a involved website that's void of prices and simplicity, will definitely have world wide web surfers going elsewhere for your solution.

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Use prizes, giveaways and drawings to raise page views. Persons absolutely adore anything totally free. Use this in your gain by giving a prize being an incentive for them to drop by your web site, indication up for your mailing record and become entered in the drawing. This not merely will get you website traffic, and also builds up a mailing list for future use.

When by using social networking for Web-based promotional, will not overdo it. Tons of info posted several days every day is way way too very much and also your client will swiftly grow to be dissatisfied aided by the frequency of the posts or tweets. When you demand to update information about your assistance and merchandise you will be marketing and advertising, you need to do not require to get it done many occasions every day.

One of the things that you can perform to improve your marketing method, is to tackle the modern news topics which might be current and fascinating and the way they relate to your enterprise. In case you notice that a selected tale pertains to your merchandise or program, this could certainly assistance boost the next for your organisation.

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Make use of your electronic mail list to develop a loving relationship using your clients. For anybody who is just sending out type letters without personal articles and other content, in the end your e-mail are likely to be hitting the spam folders. Comprise information that may make your audience willing to open up and skim your e-mail.

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kkintle · 7 years ago

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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson; Quotes

Death confronts all of us with a far more painful and important question: What is your legacy? How will the world be different and better when you’re gone? What mark will you have made? What influence will you have caused? They say that a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa can cause a hurricane in Florida; well, what hurricanes will you leave in your wake? As Becker pointed our, this is arguably the only truly important question in our life. Yet we avoid thinking about it. One, because it’s hard. Two, because it’s scary. Three, because we ave no fucking clue what we’re doing.

You are already great because in the face of endless confusion and certain death, you continue to choose what to give a fuck about and what not to. This mere fact, this simple optioning for your own values in life, already makes you beautiful, already makes you successful, and already makes you loved. Even if you don’t realise it. Even if you’re sleeping in a gutter and starving.

You too are going to die, and that’s because you too were fortunate enough to have lived. You may not feel this. But go stand on a cliff sometime, and maybe you will. Bukowski once wrote, “We’re all going to die, all of us. What a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorised and flattened by life’s trivialities; we are eaten up by nothing.”

Self-improvement and success often occur together. But that doesn’t mean they are the same thing.

There’s a saying in Texas: “The smallest bog barks that loudest.” A confident man doesn’t feel a need to prove that he’s confident. A rich woman doesn’t feel a need to convince anybody that she’s rich. Either you are or you are not. And if you’re dreaming of something all the time, then you’re reinforcing the same unconscious reality over and over: that you are not that.

The problem is that giving too many fucks is bad for your mental health. It causes you to become overly attached to the superficial and fake, to dedicate your life to chasing a mirage of happiness and satisfaction. The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.

The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.

As the existential philosopher Albert Camus said (and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t on LSD at the time): “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” Or put more simply: Don’t try.

Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience. Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it or quash it or silence it, only backfires. The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering. The avoidance of struggle is a struggle. The denial of failure is a failure. Hiding what is shameful is itself a form of shame.

Subtlety #1: Not giving a fuck does not mean being indifferent; it means being comfortable being different.

This is what is so admirable (...) the overcoming adversity stuff, the willing ness to be different, an outcast, a pariah, all for the sake of one’s own values. The willingness to stare failure in the face and shove your middle finger back at it. The people who don’t give a fuck about adversity or failure or embarrassing themselves or shitting the bed a few times. The people who just laugh and then do what they believe in anyway. Because they know it’s right. They know it’s more important than they are, more important than their own feeling and their own pride and their own ego. They say, “Fuck it,” not to everything in life, but rather to everything unimportant in life. They reserve their fucks for what truly matters. Friend, Family. Purpose. Burritos. And an occasional lawsuit or two. And because of that, because they reserve their fucks for only the big things that matter, people give a fuck about them in return.

The point isn’t to get away from the shit. The point is to find the shit you enjoy dealing with.

Subtlety #2: To not give a fuck about adversity, you must first give a fuck about something more important than adversity.

Subtlety #3: Whether you realise it or not, you are always choosing what to give a fuck about.

“That’s what you get for giving a fuck when it wasn’t your turn to give a fuck.”

As with being rich, there is no value in suffering when it’s done without purpose.

We suffer for the simple reason that suffering is biologically useful. It is nature’s preferred agent for inspiring change. We have evolved to always live with a certain degree of dissatisfaction and insecurity, because it’s the mildly dissatisfied and insecure creature that’s going to do the most work to innovate and survive. We are wired to become dissatisfied with whatever we have and satisfied by only what we do not have. This constant dissatisfaction has kept our species fighting and striving, building and conquering. So no - our own pain and misery aren’t a bug of human evolution; they’re a feature.

“Don't hope for a life without problems,” the panda said. “There’s no such thing. Instead, hope for a life full of good problems.”

Happiness comes from solving problems. The keyword here is “solving”. If you’re avoiding your problems or feel like you don’t have any problems, then you’re going to make yourself miserable. If you feel like you have problems that you can’t solve, you will likewise make yourself miserable. The secret sauce is in the solving of the problems, not in not having problems in the first place.

Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.

See: it’s a never-ending upward spiral. And if you think at any point you’re allowed to stop climbing, I’m afraid you’re missing the point. Because the joy is in the climb itself.

The rare people who do become truly exceptional at something do so not because they believe they’re exceptional. On the contrary, they become amazing because they’re obsessed with improvement. And that obsession with improvement stems from an unerring belief that they are, in fact, not that great at all. It’s anti-entitlement. People who become great at something become great because they understand that they’re not already great - they are mediocre, they are average - and that they could be so much better.

Self-awareness is like an onion. There are multiple layers to it, and the more you peel them back, the more likely you’re going to start crying at inappropriate times.

“With great power comes great responsibility.” It is true. But there’s a better version of this quote, a version that actually is profound. and all you have to do is switch the nouns around: “With great responsibility comes great power.” The more we choose to accept responsibility in our lives, the more power we will exercise over our lives. Accepting responsibility for our problems is thus the first step to solving them.

Certainty is the enemy of growth. Nothing is for certain until it has already happened - and even then, it’s still debatable. That’s why accepting the inevitable imperfections of our values is necessary for any growth to take place.

Manson’s law of avoidance (...): The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it.

Aristotle wrote, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

(...) if it feels like it’s you versus the world, chances are it’s really just you versus yourself.

When Pablo Picasso was an old man, he was sitting in a cafe in Spain, doodling on a used napkin. He was nonchalant about the whole thing, drawing whatever amused him in that moment - kind of the same way teenage boys draw penises on bathroom stalls - except this was Picasso, so his bathroom-stall penises were more like cubist/impressionist awesomeness laced on top of faint coffee stains. Anyway, some woman sitting near him was looking on in awe. After a few moments, Picasso finished his coffee and crumpled up the napkin to throw away as he left. The woman stopped him. “Wait,” she said. “Can I have that napkin you were just drawing on? I’ll pay you for it.” “Sure,” Picasso replied. “Twenty thousand dollars.” The women’s head jolted back as if he had just flung a brick at her. “What? It took you like two minutes to draw that.” “No, ma’am,” Picasso said. “It took me over sixty years to draw this.” He stuffed the napkin in his pocket and walked out of the cafe.

You could call it “hitting bottom” or “having an existential crisis”. I prefer to call it “weathering the shitstorm.” Choose what suits you.

Learn to sustain the pain you’ve chosen. When you choose a new value, you are choosing to introduce a new form of pain into your life. Relish it. Savour it. Welcome it with open arms. Then act despite it.

Life is about not knowing and then doing something anyway. All of life is like this. It never changes. Even when you’re happy. Even when you’re farting fairy dust. Even when you win the lottery and buy a small fleet of Jet Skis, you still won’t know what the hell you’re doing. Don’t ever forget that. And don’t ever be afraid of that.

If we follow the “do something” principle, failure feels unimportant. When the standard of success becomes merely acting - when any result is regarded as progress and important, when inspiration is seen as a reward rather than a prerequisite - we propel ourselves ahead. We feel free to fail, and that failure moves us forward.

As with most excesses in life, you have to drown yourself in them to realise that they don’t make you happy.

If there really is no reason to do anything, then there is also no reason to not do anything; that in the face of the inevitability of death, there is no reason to ever give in to one’s fear or embarrassment or shame, since it’s all just a bunch of nothing anyway; and that by spending the majority of my short life avoiding what was painful and uncomfortable, I had essentially been avoiding being alive at all.

In front of me is the sky and behind me is everything I’ve ever hoped for and brought with me. What if this is it? What if this is all there is?

#the subtle art of not giving a fuck #mark manson #non-fiction #books #quotes

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thebeautifultheuglyus-blog · 8 years ago

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Online Marketing Agencies: Love 'Em or Leave 'Em?

On HGTV’s hit show "Love it or List it," unsatisfied homeowners are given the chance to move to a new house or to renovate the one that they currently have. Some participants on the show choose to sell even after renovation, but many are surprised to find that their current home really was what they wanted… after a few fixes.

Business owners often find themselves in a similar situation when it comes to online marketing agencies.

Many companies are dissatisfied with their current agency. In fact, according to the Agency Management Institute, 50 percent of companies that outsource their online marketing have changed agencies at least once in the last two years. But, much as with homes, sometimes it makes more sense to fix the problems with your current agency than take a risk on a whole new one.

In this article, we'll take a look at some of the best ways to make a “fixer upper” relationship with your agency into a productive partnership -- as well as some of the signs that it’s time to just get out.

Expectations: Your blueprint for success.

One of the most common reasons that businesses decide to look for a new marketing agency is the fact that they’re not getting the results that they want. Of course, to get what you want you have to know what you want. Otherwise, how do you know if you’re getting it or not?

Expectations are like the blueprint for your working relationship. If well-constructed and well-communicated, they keep you and your agency on the same page, working to achieve the same things.

If not, they can be the source of a lot of conflict.

So, how do you know if you're setting good expectations? Let's take a look at what constitutes a good expectation.

Basically, good expectations are: 1) clear, 2) achievable and 3) agreed upon.

1. Clear expectations.

It might seem strange to talk about expectations as if you draw them up and refine them. Normally, “expectations” seem like something you just have…right?

Would it help if I called them “goals?”

When it comes to business, expectations and goals are virtually synonyms. If you expect an employee to come into work on time, it should be their goal to meet that expectation. Similarly, if you expect your marketing agency to behave a certain way or achieve a given objective, that should be a goal for your agency.

Now, we’ve probably all heard a few lectures about setting business goals. One of the keys to a good goal is specificity.

If you just want your agency to “make my marketing better,” it will be hard for them to know where to start and it will be hard for you to tell if they’ve succeeded. An agency could do its best but still seem incompetent if it doesn’t know what’s really important to you. On the other hand, if you have well-defined, measurable goals for your agency, then they have something to shoot for and you have a reliable way to gauge their performance.

Of course, you could have the world’s most perfect, specific goal, and it wouldn’t do you any good if you failed to communicate it to your agency. Clear expectations need to be communicated clearly.

2. Achievable expectations.

Even a clear goal can be doomed to fail, though. The goal “$100,000 in sales in six months” might sound great, but if you expect to get it by selling $20 items with a $400 AdWords budget, you can also expect to be disappointed.

On paper, sky high expectations like this are obviously unrealistic, but you'd be surprised at how often businesses expect these sorts of results from their agency partners.

The problem is, companies often choose to outsource online marketing because it is an unfamiliar area and they don’t feel confident handling it on their own. This same lack of familiarity can lead to confusion about what online marketing can and can’t do, leading to years of frustration as one agency after another fails to meet an impossible standard.

But how can you ever be sure that your expectations are realistic if you’re not an expert? Simple -- ask an expert. That’s what your agency is for, after all.

Sit down with your account manager and have a talk about your budget, your timeline and your plans for growth. Together, you should be able to come up with goals that will be both aggressive and achievable.

3. Agreeing on expectations.

Let’s imagine that you’ve communicated a clear, realistic goal for your industry -- “increase conversion rate by 20 percent per quarter, with 10 percent of revenue being reinvested into marketing” -- but when you next talk to your account manager a week later he reports that he’s set up your account with analytics to track the quality of your traffic.

This could be pretty frustrating. After all, you asked him to increase your conversion rate and what you got was traffic-tracking analytics.

You told him one thing and you got another. It’s about time to go looking for another agency… right?

Well, that may be a little premature.

If your agency doesn’t seem to be on track with your expectations, it’s important to communicate your frustrations before taking any drastic action.

If (continuing my example) you let your account manager know that you aren’t happy with the apparent focus on traffic instead of conversions, he might get the chance to explain that refining traffic can provide a quick boost to conversion rate and set you up for more successful site testing in the future.

Just knowing this might be enough to satisfy you. Or maybe not. Either way, starting a conversation gives you the opportunity to explain your situation and why you expected things to happen a certain way.

By communicating why your expectations are what they are and asking why your agency makes the choices it does, you can start to develop a shared vision and get real buy-in on your goals. And, once you’re on the same page about the what, the why and the how of your online marketing plan, you’re probably on the road to success.

That being said, there are times when you’ve done everything you can to clear up your expectations and priorities, and discussed your conflicts and the agency still insists on pushing their own agenda. In this situation, remember, you’re the customer and it’s your account. If your agency simply refuses to play ball, it might be time to go find someone else to play with.

People problems: Remodeling your relationship.

I’ve talked a lot about the importance of communication, but to be fair, some account managers are tough to talk to. Sometimes you want to hear about the details of your account, but the manager talks in generalities. You want succinct reports and she loves to tell stories. You want to make hard-hitting, aggressive changes and he prefers a cautious approach.

Even if your account is performing well, these types of personality conflicts can make your marketing agency feel like the bane of your existence.

The good news is, these troubles aren’t necessarily permanent.

If you feel like personality conflicts are at the root of your problems, requesting a new account manager can be a simple but effective way to remodel your working relationship. Chances are, your account manager won’t mind the change either. If you thought they were annoying, the feeling was probably mutual.

Changing account managers isn’t always a sure-fire fix, but it’s usually worth a try, since it’s a lot easier to change your point of contact than to go shopping for a brand new agency.

Red flags.

There are some problems, however, that go far beyond mere personality conflicts. If your online marketing agency routinely exhibits any of the following red flag behaviors, you might think about running for the hills:

Does your agency…

Make promises it can’t keep?

Fail to report on the status of your accounts or give you misleading information?

Lose you money through inept choices?

Refuse to adjust to the needs of your business?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, there's a good chance that you are working for a lemon of an agency—it's probably time to look for a new partner.

Dealing with change.

When you own a home, sometimes you love your house, but the community around you changes. For example, if the city builds a high school across the street, the noise level may suddenly become intolerable. It's not something you had control over, but it can make staying in your current situation difficult.

The same thing can happen in business. Budgets get cut, executive priorities change, mergers take place and markets vary -- there are lots of reasons why your old standby agency just might not work for you anymore.

Or could it?

If you really love your house, there are often ways to deal with external problems (eg, soundproofing your walls). Similarly, if your business has undergone changes that affect your online marketing agency, it’s worth talking over these changes with them.

A flexible agency may be able to change your contract to better suit your new needs. Even if this isn’t an option, they may be able to point you in the direction of another high quality agency that would be a better match.

So, if you’re not happy with your current online marketing agency, should you love it or leave it? Consider the following:

Signs that your agency relationship needs a remodel:

Unclear, unachievable or undiscussed expectations

Personality conflicts

Poor communication

Signs that you need a new agency:

Deception or other red flag behaviors

Refusal to work with your reasonable expectations

Large changes in your business

In the end, the choice to love or leave your marketing agency is ultimately up to you, but in many cases, if you're willing to do a little remodeling, you just might end up with the agency relationship of your dreams.

#Websites #Marketing #Online Marketing

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giveuselife-blog · 8 years ago

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17 Online Video Marketing Tips for Affiliate Marketing Success

New Post has been published on https://giveuselife.org/17-online-video-marketing-tips-for-affiliate-marketing-success/

17 Online Video Marketing Tips for Affiliate Marketing Success

Advertising via the net has been validated powerful by means of the tremendous development of the numbers with many “new age” webpreneurs. Many small organization skeptics are looking for overwhelming motives to say “NO” to putting cash into advertising online, but 1-in-3 have tangibly devoted to doing this thru the wreck of 2011. The lifestyle of offline customers is rapid converting, much like its marketers.

Need to you be seeking out Advertising with video tip for affiliate marketer, I would want to first screen to you why Advertising and marketing with video have grown to be so vital. In 2008, YouTube surpassed Yahoo as the net’s 2d largest seek engine. Given that time, Google has had its subsidiary agency, YouTube closer to the moon using video.

Advertising

Brian Tracey, acclaimed and touted income professional has been quoted to pronouncing, “the use of video, in place of the conventional income presentation protocols (PowerPoint turn charts), is 50% along way better at relaying a word.” Tracey discrete the truth that we have to be a world obsessed by means of the only-eyed monster.

The Television, video games, interactive websites and plenty of other visually stimulating channels of promoting leaves video Advertising professionals to apply this device extra frequently when enjoyable a purchaser’s desires. If you promise to comply with those four online video Advertising and marketing suggestions for the net marketer, I’ll assure that you will no longer be dissatisfied the use of the consequences – you are able to take that towards the financial institution.

1. Cater to your customer’s reliance on the internet and cellular media.

Riding enterprise by means of taking gain of these new platforms so that your prospects and customers will find you, hear about you and, ultimately, buy from you isn’t always a “wild west” idea. The Advertising paradigm has shifted.

2. Advertising has shifted from a one-manner broadcast to a multi-factor verbal exchange.

In the beyond, communications had been “broadcast” exclusively via mass Marketing channels like radio, Tv, newspapers as well as the door-to-door distribution of directories like the Phonebook and another print guide.

3. Be privy to numbers at the back of Advertising via video.

YouTube sees 2 million videos uploaded each day, 4 million films car-played each day, but for the final 14 months, the house web page of YouTube.Com has been out of inventory.

4. Once importing a video, employ the unfastened “hot link” by typing to your website online address since the first things In the description place.

This 4th tip is essential due to the fact most don’t understand the complete point of promoting with video is to force site visitors toward your internet site, ultimately letting you monetize it.

five. Keep the films under two mins wherever feasible,

except you’re supplying a schooling video in addition to your target market already is aware of you and additionally the worthiness that they going to get from spending time along with you.

6. Clutch people’s attention right out of the gate, by means of allowing them to understand regarding the exceptional fee you are about to deliver for them and get utilizing Without delay.

do not store the punchline ‘until the end… There is probably no-one there to concentrate on it! Then deliver concise, high fine, relevant information on your target audience, and they may be going to continue to watch your video thru toward the give up – in addition to your Advertising dreams could be achieved.

7. You need to inform humans Exactly what you want them to finish.

. And right here’s the second one, in reality, the important part: Permit them to adhere to that action NOW.

eight. employ a Real Individual.

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The instances of placing a soundtrack without all of us’s information and pasting pictures or snapshots on your motion pictures are done and additionally over with. people nonetheless make use of this lame tactic however no person buys concerned with it anymore. It is greater essential than ever nowadays to possess an Actual Man or woman do the speak on your video. This will either be yourself, a buddy, or a person you hire. The very first-rate Advertising with video tips will emphasize the requirement for legitimacy. Your video can come offloads greater valid having a Real Individual. Given the presentation is the first rate, the consequences will communicate on their very own in a success income.

nine. make use of a Real Digicam.

Basically, the reason via this isn’t to apply an internet Camera off your PC. You aren’t video chatting, you’re promoting. Certainly, mind boggling what number of marketers could have these flashy income pages, but they gift their motion pictures in this awful internet Camera style. If you are making plans to video marketplace, then still do it. Use at the very least a halfway decent Camera (it would not have to be an HD camcorder in any respect). This Truely suggests that you worry about what you, in reality, are providing and you’re Without a doubt now not only a few sloppy novice who flips at the cam. You’ll no longer market with terrible looking websites, so do not a marketplace with bad searching videos.

10. Construct your movies Quick and CONCISE.

The satisfactory video Advertising tips are going to be those that pinpoint the modern, relevant instances by which we stay. This isn’t the 90’s anymore where people might view 30 minutes of Tony Robbins infomercials. That is clearly the digital surroundings in which humans completely stay and consume the model of Quick and concise. Reflect consideration on it: texting, tweeting, Facebook, Google; fundamental necessities maximum popular tools of our digital environment plus they all cognizance around the sort of Short and concise communication. You need individuals to be cautious approximately your movies? Make them brief. Communicate quick interior an easy way.

11. You need to be CONVINCING. It is going along with the busy virtual environment which was centered on In the last factor. Believe your viewer has his mobile phone Inside the hand and it’s miles death to make a tweet or send a text. Now Believe what it’s miles probable to take to prevent him from doing this. That is the diploma of “convincing” that You need to take it to inside your Marketing films.

12. Use a VIDEO VIEW Increasing Provider.

Many people will marvel why I’ve not discussed Seo and all varieties of the opposite methods to reap views in your movies. Alternatively, I’ve pressured making excellent, concise and convincing motion pictures because of the maximum crucial Advertising and marketing with video suggestions. The motive being this ultimate point may be the principle key for buying site visitors or traffic to your movies. don’t use whatever however a Provider (one which uses “Actual human perspectives” to boom visitors in place of a bot program) to achieve your video views. Once you’ve got that preliminary upward push in views your video can rank higher than all the Seo paintings you would possibly have achieved. It’s incredible greater marketers haven’t realized this yet due to the fact this approach is such a clean and nearly automatic technique to generate substantial quantities of traffic on your videos.

thirteen. Shoot Your Video. K… don’t allow that scare you.

You don’t move buy a Canon 520 Collection to do this. In case your phone consists of a Digicam, it is straightforward to record yourself coaching humans, giving a seminar, giving a step-by way the of step guide to your PC screen, in conjunction with different interesting or how-to stuff. you may use software programs like Jing, or Camtasia to shoot on display video. they’re best for coaching humans and displaying them a way to continue on the Pc. To get the great effects, use best microphones and videophones with above 2.0-megapixel lens.

14. Give Your Video a Catchy Title. Advertising and marketing with online video are lots of other sorts of Advertising.

you have got were given to make the Identify and headlines catchy to be able to draw them in. Sincerely the usage of titles like Weight reduction pointers doesn’t work anymore. It’s to be specific and address people’s needs. For instance, rather than just Weight reduction techniques, you could Name the recording as three Cheap however Powerful Weight reduction tactics. So, when you are importing your motion pictures to YouTube together with different video SERPs, make sure to create the Title be counted.

15. Content material Should Be Wealthy and Informative. except you’re taking pictures a video of your 4-month-vintage daughter saying her first word, your video has to offer a big amount of value.

If you wish to get a few definitely outstanding results, growing an informative video will do the trick. Offer just as a good deal records as viable within the small amount of time possible and you may be all proper. One greater thing, do not permit your shows to exceed three mins. individuals don’t have enough time for tons extra in recent times. additionally, make sure to Maintain your URL visible the use of the editing alternatives on your video modifying software program.

16. Use HTML inside your Descriptions. most video websites provide you with a risk for a brief description of the video.

you’re capable of creating anchor texts and then depart your internet site link for your descriptions. This manner, people can sincerely click on through for your intended internet site without having to cut and paste.

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17. Keep away from income films. unless your video is a sales video or an infomercial, please Avoid selling at once.

human beings hate being sold to even if they may be fully conscious they need what you’re imparting. Alternatively, subtly nudge them In the proper route by asking these phones test a specific useful resource out. A very good manner to do This is continual to say the benefits of journeying the useful resource internal your video casually Once at the start and additionally on the end. You may also have the useful resource seen Within the video constantly.

To conclude, those 17 movie Advertising guidelines for internet marketer designated to be able to 2nd-wager yourself the subsequent time you spend cash which became now not well invested. Online Video sharing websites are typically free, however, the value of not using Online video to marketing campaign your message can be extremely high-priced.

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