#there are so many. good npcs that i did not have the pleasure of adding unfortunately

[demansiabites]

So, the 2010′s are over, what the fuck is up with that one? I spent more time in video games during the 2010′s than I probably spent in school, so I’ve naturally been trying to rank 10 games as my favorites of the decade. Of course, I’m a dumb bitch so I couldn’t think of anything past four or so games that I loved during the decade. So under the cut, here are my top 10 games that I played during the decade ranked in idunno an order I guess:

Number 10: Far Cry 3 (November 29th, 2012), aka the worst fucking game I’ve ever enjoyed. Far Cry 3 is a video game, that’s one of the few things I’m certain of, so naturally it has video game elements. Story, gameplay, characters, some vague semblance of doing something. If someone asked me to describe how well it did any of those things, it’d probably go something like this: “The story was fucking garbage, there was one good character that they killed halfway through, there was like one good mission in the entire game, and the gameplay was passable for a first person shooter”.  So then what the fuck, why is it this high up? I don’t know, but for some reason I kept playing this god damn game at least once every year for the past few years. Even though I had to use uPlay, even though the characters are unlikable as fuck, even though the story feels like it was written in one night long bender including some combination of Vodka and Red Bull that probably resulted with at least one person in the hospital, I kept playing this fucking game. And I think I might have figured out why, it’s just fucking stupid. There are very few games I would consider a “survival” game where it doesn’t actually have survival elements, and Far Cry 3 is one of them. The entire map itself wants you dead honestly. Including a cast of tigers, giant birds, pirates, bears, giant cliffs, and sharks, there’s no safe place on the map. Getting from one end of the map to the other will include at least one fight, no matter what you do. The game gives you the stupidest tools I can think of to get you across the map. There’s literally no reason for them to give you a flare gun, but they do because why not. A wingsuit? You get that shit like, 60% of the way through the game, and that last 40% is mostly me fucking around with the added mobility they should’ve given me from the start.  I fucking hate this game so much, purely because I enjoy it more than this game has the right to make someone enjoy. I give it a 4/10. If someone asked me of any good survival games, I would recommend something else then remember Far Cry 3 a couple hours later when taking a shower. Then I would probably play it myself, because it’s the guiltiest of pleasures.

Number 9: BioShock (August 21st, 2007), aka I never said all the games came out this decade, I just said I played them. BioShock is one of those games people consider a “masterpiece”. It’s got an amazing story, revolutionary gameplay, fantastic characters. I may agree with that, but that’s not why it’s here. I bought this game and for the following three days I stayed up playing it from 8 PM to 7 AM because I kept getting so fixed into the game that I lost my passage of time. If that’s not top 10 material I don’t know what the fuck is. BioShock is a 9/10 game, play it if you know you’re not doing anything for the next 3 days because you probably won’t realize how long you’ve been playing it. Also it’s actually pretty scary sometimes, so be warned.

Number 8: Mount and Blade: Warband (March 30, 2010), aka the game where I said I was going to take over the entire map then spent 60 hours getting 33% of the way through that goal. Mount and Blade: Warband is a perfectly accurate simulation of the days under the feudal system, because everything takes 8 years to fucking happen. Travelling across the map takes minutes at a time, battles take minutes, starting a castle’s siege takes 3 in-game days, then the siege itself takes anywhere from 10 real life minutes to an hour based on how mean the game is feeling. Do I dislike this? No, not at all, I love how large scale this game. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the largest scale games I’ve played ever. Battles can have hundreds of troops at a time, the world is dominated by kingdoms with actual politics, there are hundreds of named NPCs in the game almost every single one of which you can fight or ally with. It’s fucking insane. Mount and Blade: Warband gets an 8/10 from me, it’s not at all for everyone but it’s certainly for me.

Number 7: Resident Evil 4 (January 11, 2005), aka “wait the same person that played Leon Scott Kennedy also voiced the Merchant?” I don’t think I have anything new to say about Resident Evil 4, so I’m not really going to bother trying to critique this game. I will say I beat it at least 4 or 5 times throughout the decade, having only owned it for a few years, and that I also played it with my significant other during that time and after that they bought it to play it themselves. The only other thing I feel worth mentioning is god damn did they make Leon Scott Kennedy fucking THICC. You may think the artillery are the guns you’re carrying around anymore, but nah, them cheeks could fucking fracture a skull. Resident Evil 4 gets an 8/10 from me, I would buy it at a high price. Also I love Ada Wong.

Number 6: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (September 25th, 2014), aka the reason I would never recommend somebody to follow me on this fucking website. Danganronpa is by far, the best series I’ve ever seen have so many crippling flaws in it. Thankfully, Ultra Despair Girls manages to avoid those flaws by being just straight up a different game entirely. Most of Danganronpa’s flaws comes from how many characters they have. Ultra Despair Girls manages to fix that by not having as many characters, but expanding heavily on the characters that it does have. The motherfuckers literally made the hyperactive serial killer my favorite character in fiction, I don’t know what y’all expect of me at this point. Also, the game manages to have gameplay that is actually suited for someone such as myself. I absolutely adore the class trials in Danganronpa, but visual novels aren’t my thing most of the time. Danganronpa is certainly an exception, but Ultra Despair Girls’s third person shooter gameplay holds my attention like a vice, that shit was made for me. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls gets a 7/10 from me, it’s certainly not the best game but god damn if it didn’t ruin me.

NOW ENTERING, THE LARGE LADS, WHERE RANKING MATTERS

Number 5: Plants vs. Zombies (May 5, 2009), aka the sentiment from the memories I have playing it is enough to put it on here. I played Plants vs. Zombies one time in the past decade, and that was just last year. But, I played it with my significant other while I was in England visiting them. We bought it for 1 pound from a game store, and played it almost every. single. day. after we bought it. We beat the main story at least three times, and one of those times I played. Honestly, it’s still a really fucking fun game, and I wouldn’t go back and change a second of the time I played it. Plants vs. Zombies gets a 9/10 from me, it’s an incredibly polished game and the memories I have of it means it’ll hold a special place in my heart for a long time to come.

Number 4: Fallout: New Vegas (October 19, 2010), aka 234 hours of my life I will never get back. Fallout: New Vegas is a special experience that I’m certain will never have a replacement. It’s reached a place in my mind where if I ever want to experience a game like it again, there is no “other game” to go to, I just go back to New Vegas and play through it all again. I give Fallout: New Vegas an 8/10, it’s incredibly buggy, but I’ll never be able to escape its grasp.

Number 3: The Outer Worlds (October 25th, 2019), aka wait there’s another Fallout: New Vegas, damn that’s rad The Outer Worlds was introduced to me through this trailer, upon which everyone was hyping it up. The game was made by the developers of Fallout: New Vegas, it looked like it had way more polish, and it was a space adventure. So naturally, with all of these positives, I was fucking horrified at what we were going to get. I was so unbelievably afraid that Obsidian was going to release the game and it was going to be bad. Well, I bought it a couple weeks after release, and let me tell you what the days after were like: BioShock, it was fucking BioShock again, god DAMMIT. The Outer Worlds is a fun, amazingly written, anti-corporation, fuck you Bethesda, space adventuring, really fucking fun game. I’m pretty sure I did almost every side quest, only missing on a couple companion quests, and I did everything I could to get the ending I sought after the most. I wanted nothing more than to topple the Capitalist Assholes, so I did. Not only did the game let me do that, but it has LGBTQ+ characters, and holy shit are some of them comparable to the UV Rays the sun is trying to fucking end me with.  The Outer Worlds receives a 9/10 from me, and I should play it again.

Number 2: Fallout 2 (September 30th, 1998), aka wow this game is the most dated piece of media, can I play it forever? I honestly have no fucking clue why I fell so in love with Fallout 2. It’s got some real problematic elements, homophobic NPCs, some of the worst parts of society, literal slavers? Literal slavers? But for some reason, I’m happy playing a game with them, because there is almost no consequence to just wiping them the fuck out. Every time I play through this game, it’s just routine for me to kill the slavers, the drug producers, the Scientologists. It’s like, the most selective experience ever, I could probably do quests for these people, but nah, I wipe them out and the game just stands there with its hands in its pockets not saying a word. It doesn’t try to stop me, it doesn’t give me some stupid negative trait for what I did. So long as I survive the encounter, I’m free to just move on with my day. On top of that, it’s also got amazing characters, and an amazing story. You can tell the story’s amazing, because in Fallout 3 Bethesda tried to do it again, and failed miserably. Fallout 2 gets an 8/10 from me, it’s a buggy piece of shit, but with a mod that fixes it it’s a way for me to spend another 90 hours.

Number 1: OneShot (December 8th, 2016), aka the best video game experience. OneShot is one of those special game experiences where I have nothing that I dislike about it. The main character is one of my favorite characters ever, they are an absolute baby. Every other character in the game is likable, as well. I have honest to god tried to come up with something I dislike about OneShot and I just can’t think of it. I may not replay it multiple times, but I don’t need to. I’m so in love with OneShot, I don’t need to play it multiple times. As a matter of fact, I don’t need to play it. I don’t own OneShot, my significant other does, they bought it at my recommendation. OneShot will never stop being one of the most special experiences to me.  OneShot is a 10/10 game, and I genuinely, with all my heart, recommend anyone who has even slightly similar tastes to me to play it. It’s one of the most lovable games in gaming, has exclusively likable characters, and I will always adore Niko from it.

[loki-hvedrungr]

Common Guidelines for Roleplay

//Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, but trying your best to adhere to these basic guidelines will not only make you a better RPer, but it will better ensure that other people enjoy RPing with you. Anything that breaks away from this list should be discussed with your co-writers. Most of this list was taken from http://rsroleplay.wikia.com/wi... and just edited down to make it more concise, put it in more of an order of importance (per my opinion), as well as adding my own explainations/clarifications here and there.

DO NOT POWERPLAY

Powerplaying occurs when a player operates someone else's character without the other player's consent. The most blatant example of this would be a player writing, "Your character falls off the cliff when he walks up to it." You can ONLY pilot your own character, this should be obvious, but it happens all too often. Think of it a bit more like real life. It would be great if we could control the actions, words and thoughts of others...but we can't. We can cajole and manipulate, therefore your character can too. If you can actually manage to fool your co-writer and they do what you had hoped, that's fine. Otherwise you need only communicate with them and see if they'll play along before hand. Never assume and never write another person's character without consent. I'm including Auto-hitting with Powerplay because of the similarities.

Auto-hitting is when you are roleplaying a fight, and you assume success without allowing the other Roleplayer a chance to react; be it block or counterattack, or even choosing to take a hit...which all good Roleplayers are willing to do (within reason). It should also go without saying, that never, under any circumstances should anyone assume to kill off someone else's character without express consent.

(Of course if your character is a human and you're roleplaying with a supernatural character, you should probably assume the other character's success about 90% of the time. Then again if you're writing erotic material, you can usually assume the other character is going to allow your character to give them pleasure. But again, if ever you're unsure, just communicate with your co-writers.)

DO NOT GOD-MOD

Most RPers have at least heard of the term, if not understood it fully. Godmodding is when a character features god-like abilities (even when RPing a God or God-like character), such as invincibility or mind control, or other unfair powers. It's also considered godmodding to refuse to allow your character to take a hit/get hurt in fights, deflect any and all attacks, or ignore other role-players in scenarios in which said role-players are attempting to attack you. Nobody's good at everything; try and keep yourself in check. (It's also not much fun to RP with someone who does this, so if you do, don't be surprised if not many people want to write with you - including me.)

DO NOT MARY-SUE

A Mary-Sue is a specific kind of character that is usually considered literarily reprehensible and otherwise unpleasant for others to play alongside. For example, a character who’s too perfect, lacking realistic or logical flaws, or whose flaws do not affect them in real ways; A character who’s exactly like their creator, except idealized or made “better”. (E.g. more attractive, smarter, given skills, abilities & powers the creator wishes they could have.) Essentially, the creator is inserting themselves into the story, but without the flaws, quirks & limits that make them interesting and relatable.

DO NOT MIX OOC AND IC

Related to metagaming, it is considered taboo to "mix ic and ooc." That is, players are generally encouraged not to associate information and events that occurred between active, playing characters and events that occur between the role-players themselves. Most often, when players associate OOC information with their IC behavior, whether it be how they perceive another character or actually acting on information they wouldn't otherwise have, it's called metagaming.

DO NOT LOREBREAK

Lorebreaking is when a character breaks known/canon lore, but more specifically anything that likely affects a character or scenario. The basis for these commonalities is origin, culture, and known historical events, etc. Lorebending, a similar term, is when existing lore is lightly modified (Hence the term lore bending), but not significantly or in a way that detracts from the role-playing experience. Often this has to do with ideas that are neither supported nor contradicted by existing lore. I put this near the bottom of the list because people often choose to Roleplay "Alternate Universe" with a Canon Character, and change things up. Which is fine, as long as your co-writers are fine with it as well. Original Characters are not held as accountable for Lorebreaking, obviously...as they create their own. But they should never change their own lore on a whim in order to suit a given agenda. Roleplayers who choose to create original characters who are in any way connected to a canon character, should at least do their research regarding the canon characters lore, and stay as true to that as possible (or at least discuss that lore with the writer piloting the canon character). This rule overall can get a bit hazy when you have both book and film lore that do not entirely agree. In this case it is perfectly okay to choose either. As always, talk to your fellow roleplayers and figure out what works for both of you.

DO NOT METAGAME

Metagaming is when a player applies OOC-retrieved information to their IC character, such as participating in a war that you only saw was stated to be happening on a clan's thread on forums, or a character knowing what will happen because the plot was discussed before hand, and/or knowing a character's name because you saw their username. This is the most commonly broken rule of role-play.

//Some personal additions of my own:

- Please have patience and respect your co-writer's free time. I know that sometimes we're enthusiastic or just get bored waiting, but many of us work and have families as well as other real life responsibilities. Someone may also put a great deal of time and effort into replies, so they take time...and there may also be times when a RPer is having a bad day or just isn't feeling inspired. I know for me if you put the pressure on you're less likely to get replies, because it starts to feel too much like work.

- Be cautious of making an RP all about your character (particularly in group RPs). Your co-writers are not NPCs, nor are they merely supporting characters to your own. Trust me when I say, no one will want to write with you if you do this. RPs are collaborative. Either learn to interact and work as a team, or go off on your own...maybe write some fanfiction.

- I would also remind RPers that this is fantasy....anything can happen. So...please don’t play it “safe”. Yes, there are repercussions to RP actions and reactions, but they’re fiction. So go for it. Being too passive makes for boring RP. Don’t make your writing partner do all the work of telling the story and expect them to stay interested. It’s a collaborative effort, that’s why it’s fun. If you’re unsure about writing something, just ask OOC! If the repercussion to something your character did was too much, ask for a do-over (the worst that can happen is your fellow RPer says "no").

[deltaengineering]

Winter Anime 2019 Part 4: That’s all, folks.

Over already? This is a pretty thin season with not a lot of shows, so it’s not that surprising that there’s not many good ones either. Still, a weak showing. Oh well, let’s get it over with. There were a few decent ones in the last batch.

Circlet Princess

What: Dimwitted schoolgirl is good at some vaguely defined virtual fighting sport, changes school based on it, finds out relevant club has been abolished. Forecast says: 5 member plot incoming.

❌ I think it’s already clear this show isn’t very ambitious, and not very well written either. A game adaptation at its laziest.

❌❌ Man, this girl is STUPID. What the hell.

❌ The rest of the cast are less stupid (which isn’t hard), but that just means they’re so forgettable they might as well not exist.

❌❌ It looks cheap, and by that I mean really really cheap. The character design is ISO standard anime and it’s mostly on model, but that’s as good as it gets. The animation just sucks. That’s a death sentence for an action/sports show with terrible characters.

Bermuda Triangle - Colorful Pastrale

What: Japanese Spongebob, as in cute mermaids. Doing things optional.

❌ To make this quick, this is almost exactly Pastel Memories, only every problem is just a little less extreme. It has fewer characters, it’s looking slightly better, there’s a tiny bit more going on, the setting is mildly more interesting. That still means it is:

❌❌ 1. A boring mess in which a handful of samey girls do nothing of much interest in a location that should be unique, but isn’t.

❌❌ 2. Conspicuously cheap. It even has the same sightline problems.

❌❌ 3. Featuring a character model sheet that is “off” even under the best circumstances. This time due to the very offputting decision to give everyone blobby triangular irises.

❌❌ Unlike Pastel Memories (which was an ad for a mobile game) this is an anime original, so it really has no excuse being this lame.

♎ I find it amusing that Pastel Palettes are providing the OP for an anime, and it’s not the one currently airing that they’re actually characters in.

Endro~!

What: Kiraralike comedy thing in a generic JRPG setting.

♎ Namori character designs, so it’s like Spyce in that it just seems like the Yuru Yuri cast cosplaying a genre. But hey, Namori character designs do look good.

❌ I’m not as done with generic JRPG settings as with generic isekai settings, but it’s still a real problem since the former is now a subset of the latter. Mildly making fun of it does not improve things much either.

✅ The tone is cutesy and pleasant. I find this much preferable to something like Mahoujin Guru Guru, which is pretty much the same thing but with abrasive, high-intensity slapstick instead.

✅ It’s backing that up with generally high-quality, agreeable pastel looks.

❌ Not being annoying is a start, but beyond that this seems very middle of the road and predictable. I don’t get much out of the genre “parody” and simply being cute is still not an unique selling point in anime.

Grimms Notes The Animation

What: Did someone say JRPG? This is a mobile one, vaguely based on fairy tales as the title implies.

✅ This universe runs on the idea that every NPC’s fate is controlled by a preset story they’re aware of. You could make a good story about that if you took it seriously. It even does that somewhat, but only to the degree that you’d expect from a throwaway sidequest in a moderately well-written JRPG.

❌ And the reason for that is that it has to make room for being a JRPG, of course. Read: It’s irritatingly mechanics- and combat-focused. Stuff like the characters changing form when in fights just seems overly complicated and adds nothing.

❌ Said combat looks competent, but not good enough to make up for detracting from what could have been an interesting setting. Merc Storia did this aspect far better (by usually not doing it at all).

❌ So it ends up being better than expected, but then that only amounts to a disappointment.

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai / Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

What: Kaguya and Miyuki are in the student council of a prestigious school and HATE HATE HATE each other. Specifically, they hate the part where the other one won’t just finally admit their love.

✅ The joke here is that it’s operating on full intensity at all times, over the most simple matters. It’s pretty much Kaiji, only about dating - complete with hammy narrator. This is another one of those shows where I can’t say with certainty that it’s solid, but I had a blast during the first episode.

✅ Regarding Quintuplets, I made it clear that I love me some sparks in my romantic comedies. It doesn’t get much more explosive than this.

✅ The characters are comparable to Quints too: Smart scheming upstart vs. rich scheming ojou, with a simpleminded girl in the middle that ends up winning more often than not simply by not overdoing it.

✅ The visuals are just as over the top as the proceedings depicted. Occasionally a filter massacre, but mostly cool.

♎ The long-term viability of this show depend entirely on whether they can consistently come up with scenarios that work, which isn’t a given. Also, this is so intense it might become tiresome - I already felt some fatigue towards the end of the first episode. We’ll see, I guess.

Kakegurui ××

What: Some weirdos think they can crash the party at Hyakkaou with an intent to scare the daylights out of Yumeko and Midari, of all people. Let’s just say they were not as prepared as they thought.

✅ As you might have guessed by me watching the sequel, I liked Kakegurui. It has its problems, but if you’re down for some crazypants madness, this show delivers.

✅ This is one of the better episodes of it too, because it gets right into it and the game they play is dead simple. Kakegurui was never about smart moves or strong characters, so not having anything detract from our girls deriving the entirely wrong sort of pleasure from danger is a plus.

♎ Sadly, the OP is a step down (though still great) and the ED is simply an inferior, overcomplicated version of the magnificent original one. They seem to know this too, because they play the OP cut of Deal with the Devil in its entirety for a montage. The rest of the production is on par with the original though, so it’s fiiiine. Oh well.

❌ It got Netflix’d again and the subs situation is dire. Since this is one I actually like, I might have to wait for the official release.

Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai / The Magnificent Kotobuki

What: Piston-engined fighter plane pornography.

✅ This delivers where Girly Air Force failed: Close to zero exposition, the majority of the episode is just planes dogfighting with barely any talking either. And that part is executed really well. I think the plane startup sequence alone is as long as the total of Girly’s airtime.

✅ Guess what, it’s Tsutomu Mizushima, previously known for unbridled panzer (und girls) pornography, and boy can you tell. However, this cuts out a lot of GuP’s bullshit: A plane doesn’t have the cast of K-ON in it, it’s not over-the-top zany, and whatever this universe is, it can’t be as insipid as GuP’s. The classy milwank exists you guys, we found it.

✅✅ The music really helps here, sky pirates vs zeppelins just wouldn’t work without some classic swashbuckling orchestra background. Fat sound mixing on the dakka too. It’s great.

♎ Can’t really say much about the narrative because we kinda skipped that in this episode aside from the obvious, but Mizushima’s Shirobako collaborator Michiko Yokote is writing it, and that’s a good sign.

❌ Now we’re getting to the elephant in the room though: There’s no way the planes wouldn’t be CG in 2019, but the characters are CG too, and their animation is mediocre. Also, they did the KADO thing where they 2D-animated the side characters that aren’t important enough to model. This has the funny side effect that you can tell who’s going to die real soon by them looking better. It’s far from great, but probably a worthy tradeoff if the mechanical side is this extensive and also delivers.

✅ This is definitely not for everyone, since you have to have more than a casual appreciation for those magnificent girls in their flying machines. I do, though.

revisions

What: A chunk of Shibuya gets teleported to the dystopian future, local doomsday prepper gets handed a large robot because he’s special.

❌ A Goro Taniguchi joint being a poorly conceived scifi mess? Say it ain’t so! I especially dig the tryhard English jargon (mecha: “String Puppet”, monsters faction: “Revisions”, particular monster, I think?: “Civilian”, tacticool operetah: “Balancer”).

❌ Works very hard to characterize the main character, to the detriment of everyone else. A for effort, but you made an unlikeable asshole though.

❌ This is another full CG show, with the quality of the animation being curiously variable. Sometimes it’s well above average and sometimes it’s painful. There doesn’t seem to be much method to it.

✅ Tries to establish stakes by being mondo edgy and graphically murderizing some poor bystanders. It’s adorable.

❌ If you’re really jonesing for some mecha, you can watch all of this on Netflix right now. It’s not like you have any alte- wait, Egao no Daika has mecha too. Well there you go then. That’s a better show.

[ageofdragon]

DA4 Cameos and Companions

I wanted to address this, since I really liked this post by @quizzy-tielle​ but there are a few more notes that can be added. tdlr at the bottom, under the read more.

Origins

Alistair: Alistair will probably only have a Cameo since he has two different paths (Warden or King), but I could see him being plot relevant. Maybe only a Warden like in DA2, even if it is possible for him to “die” in DA:I. This is because DA:I leaves that open if they want to “retcon” it. The words used in the choice implies you might be leaving Alistair to his death, there is an open end there. Especially since we don’t see his dead body only what looks like him going down. On the other hand, it has been a while since his Joining and unless he is like his mother (or the dragon’s blood theory is true), then he is almost due for his Calling. So if Al is there in DA4, expect him in Grey Warden regalia.

Morrigan: I don’t think Morrigan will ever be a Companion player again, but she will be a major npc no matter where the game takes place. Not only is she headed where we are supposed to be, but she is now carrying some of the last remnants of Mythal whether in her head (depending on who drank the Well) or in her blood.

Leliana: If our game does actually take place in Tevinter, I think she might get a mention at best. Either by reminiscent characters or in the grand scheme of things. I don’t see her playing to much part unless some of the game returns to Orlais, in which case as a Divine she could very well pop up. As well as still being interested/running the Inquisition’s spies against Solas (I believe even as the Divine), so again a peripheral character. That said I’d really be interested to see if Lyrium Ghost Leliana pops up anywhere!

Wynne: Wynne has actually died by Asunder; leaving not a character no one cares about, but one that even if people wanted her she is unable to return. Unless as a spirit of course. That said it is not out of the question to meet her son Rhys and perhaps recruit him as a companion, along with his Templar sweetheart Evangeline.

Oghren: I could have seen Oghren returning when the team consisted of mostly the old writers. But with Weekes in charge and a few new writers around, I agree he is probably too lowbrow and overlooked (even among the writers) to pop up again. At the very most, if at all, it’ll be a quick mention somewhere.

Zevran: I agree that Zevran possibly being dead makes it hard, but honestly if I don’t get to see Zev once in this new engine. I will move to Canada just to stand outside Bioware studios and scream continuously at them till the day I perish. Zevran deserves more and if Leliana can resurrect, why not our favorite elven assassin.

Sten: Sten is actually a pretty popular character, only he doesn’t go by Sten anymore. Well at least not for most people. Which is where the conflict comes in. For anyone who earned Sten’s loyalty, he is Arishok now. Which big Qunari plot means definite appearance by the Arishok. However, I don’t see him being a companion, at best he would be a NPC ally. On the other hand, those who didn’t help Sten left him without the Qun...unless he went back and became Arishok later (after the Warden) which is a very easy work around.

Shale: I could actually see Shale being a companion. I mean they can reuse at least one (even in DA2, Nathaniel was going to be a return companion but they scraped it). Shale was a character a lot of people liked, but being a DLC character was underexplored. She was last seen heading to Tevinter to discover how to be a dwarf again. So golem, dwarven, or a mix of the two, Shale is a huge possibility.

Hero of Ferelden: Bioware has pretty much confirmed the Warden won’t be back in full capacity ever. Mostly because creating a unvoiced major character is very hard, when they once spoke (unable to make canonically mute) and finding a voice is no solution (they wouldn’t be able to appease enough people, no matter the actor). Which pretty much seals it as, if the Warden shows up, it is in a written or spoken about capacity and nothing more.

Dragon Age 2

Carver/Bethany: It would be such a guilt pleasure if they did show up, but I highly doubt they would and certainly not as a companion. They have too many outcomes and possible paths, it’ll probably be like in DA:I where they get a special mention. OR if Bioware was really clever, they’d make an obscure Warden in the background look like them but obscure enough they can handwave it as “no, but maybe”. Either way, might show up in the Weisshaupt storyline as a special mention, but not much more.

Fenris: I agree with the other post, that Fenris is the one person who would be the one most likely to pop up. I still don’t think as a companion, because he can die. But I do think he could be an ally NPC. Fenris either gets sent back to Danarius or has spent the past years hunting down slavers, so he is bound to be in or near Tevinter. I have almost no doubt we’ll see him, physically, at least once. Though I wouldn’t rule out him being a Weisshaupt too, if he romance Hawke and Hawke wasn’t left in the Fade.

Isabela: Isabela has been in every game so far and if they don’t continue this in DA4 I will be upset. Seriously, it’s like an expectation now. Every DA game is like sex, it’s fun, there is depth, and Isabela is there. Maybe as a companion, maybe as an NPC, or a extra to the cause. Don’t care, she just has to be there now. It’s a signature. Which...if we can get her in her sick Captain’s outfit again, more kudos to them.

Merrill: Hmmm, I don’t know about Merrill. She is such a good and well liked character, and I really need her to interact with Solas. BUT she had far more reason to be in DA:I, in a game that most likely will take place in Tevinter and surrounding area...I’m not sure where she’d fit. Not as a companion I don’t think. Maybe a cameo in Weisshaupt or when dealing with Solas stuff, but even then, her investment in those things seems a bit weak. The most likely place for me, would be dealing with the Eluvians or maybe even helping run an elven slave underground...kind of. But it would really depend where the game chooses to focus (on Tevinter, Solas, Weisshaupt, all 3 equally by some miracle).

Anders: I think at this point, everyone who loves Anders wants Anders back and safe, but also doesn’t want him to be touch by Bioware anymore. And anyone who hates Anders has either killed him or hoped that he was dead...so... Mixed feelings and mixed ideas. I don’t think he’ll ever be a companion again, Bioware learned their lesson (kind of considering Sera). But also being the entire world’s [of Thedas’s] scapegoat for the Mage War/Mage Split, I’m 99.9% sure we haven’t heard the last of some saying something bias, pretty much untrue, and absolutely scathing about him.

Aveline: She is helping run Kirkwall, which is where she belongs. If the game reaches out to the Free Marches, a glimpse or mention of her is sure to be heard. After all, she is the biggest badass there at the moment. Her days on the screen are probably over though, she was a good character but not one interesting enough to last past a single game of screen time. That said, I’d love to see her side-story with the Du Lacs actually revisited at some point, give us a deep Investigative story with her.

Varric: I mean I have to agree with quiz tielle, it pains me but his days as a companion are probably over. That said, I absolutely believe he’ll still have a large role to play. For starters, he is still our storyteller. Thedas’ storyteller and I highly doubt he’ll miss a chance to write out all of Thedas’ major historical events into eye-catching adventure novels till the day he dies. He may be a played out companion (can’t relate) but he isn’t dead and he is still an adventurer at heart, no matter how much he complains about the outdoors. All that aside, he is cousin to probably the most important, incredibly attractive magister in Tevinter right now, Maevaris Tilani (Tethras). I can definitely believe he’ll pop in to say hello and maybe scoop up a story or two, during DA4.

Sebastian: I’m not sure, I forget how his War Table mission plays out...but also not to offend any diehard Seb fans or anything...but he is shit and if he returns I’ll want to punch him. I mean he tried to overtake Kirkwall, for no reason than his own pride and probably a political move to strength his own country. It’s a Free Marcher thing, sure. But still, Sebastian Vael can get stuffed. That so awfully said, if he does come back I’ll still have a good time. Which serious for a moment, I don’t know why he would. Unless like I said we return to the Free Marches for whatever reason.

Tallis?: I have no idea if we have seen the last of her or not. I mean according to DA2 we haven’t and she was a War Table in Inquisitiion. So I suppose if there is a Qunari plot in DA4, you’d expect see her there. But I don’t know how there she’ll be...she could even be a companion. It’s a possibility, but I don’t expect it as a strong one.

Hawke: Hawke is definitely coming back, I don’t know when and I don’t know where but they will. I don’t say this as someone who loved their Hawke tho. I say this because Weisshaupt’s storyline seems to weigh on Hawke’s presence (if they escaped, they said that is where they are headed) and again, like I said in Alistair the decision to leave them behind in the Fade wasn’t final. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised in if in the obligatory Fade mission we ran into a Hawke that got left behind, half dead but still trucking along with that Purple Hawke smirk on their face. “You look like wyvern shit, Hawke.”  “You would know.”

Dragon Age Inquisition

Josephine: I think if the Inquisition is there, Josephine is definitely going to be there in some regard. Even if it is a few letters lying around. She’ll be less relevant that she was in Inquisition though, well unless you romanced her. She still has a family to take care of, plus all that new trade and a few diplomatic graces. A lot for her to take on, plus a maybe slave rebellion?

Cullen: Cullen time has come, I don’t think Cullen wants a thing to do with Tevinter cause mages and honestly I’m glad. I mean yeah, he was the white boy version of Isabela’s cameo, but far less entertaining with his anti-mage, but they’re sorta of okay rhetoric. A little salty, yeah. Cause Bioware had 3 chances to get him to a better place (aka make him a great character with growth), but never got there. So as much as I’d love to see them try and fail to make him a better person one more time, it’s time to let him rest. With his slightly changed notions, his lyrium detox facility, and his dog. That rant over, he could be there in the same capacity as Josephine. A few letters and a little something extra for romancers.

Blackwall: A hard one...in theory Blackwall could make a comeback during the Grey Warden plot, Bioware hyped up. He could even be a true Grey Warden companion this time. However, he has a lot of variables and that makes it hard to bring him back as a return character. He could have died, he could have been saved and hidden, or he could have been saved and made a Grey Warden. Not to mention adding romances and whether he got the Grey Warden epilogue or the “prison counselor” epilogue.

Cassandra: I think Cassandra will have the same role/handling as Leliana honestly. She won’t be a companion, but we will see her interacting with the Inquisitor. Divine or not, she is still helping them with Solas. Though we might not actually interact with her, unless Orlais. Again like Leli.

Iron Bull: Another difficult one. On one hand, he could be dead and that is the end of. On the other he could be with Dorian, who I’ll get to in a minute. I think it’ll be a bit easier though, because they can use him like they did Stroud. If he is alive and helping Dorian (or the Inquisitor) then he can show up, be his usual self. Make references to the past game and his Chargers. If he is dead, then he has a blank stand-in that we kind of get to know during the rest of the game, but never to the extent that we know/knew Bull. That said, he is definitely not becoming a companion. Only two characters with a possible death have ever became companions again after said moment, and I think the fact it happens in the same game leaves Carver and Bethany in a completely different category.

Dorian: Alright, if we were ever going to have a returning companion it will probably be Dorian. I have to agree with the assumption. Because Dorian is Tevinter. He’s the good, the bad. The parts that need change, but also the parts that should be praised. He was singled out for this in Inquisition. It was focused on heavily about him being the new Tevinter ambassador. Of him and Mae taking Tevinter by storm. Their reformation of the Magisterium. They even gave him a plot item, that seemed unnecessary and yet provided a link. Which I’m talking about his sending crystal/magic cellphone. It was endearing and also telling. Why need a crystal when letters work too? And I highly doubt it was just to introduce the idea for fun...I’m getting carried away on my favorite boy. What I mean to say, is Dorian, if not a companion, will be a huge player in the next game. Assuming they are still sending us to Tevinter as planned. Not just because he was so loved, which he way. Or because he is an utterly striking, handsome character, which he is. But because Dorian is a major player in Tevinter as is, trying to change his country and you don’t just go to a country and not meet the most influential of them all.

Solas: Oh boy, I have so much to say about this. First off, I don’t agree with the other post. I don’t think Solas will be the biggest villain this game, this time around. Unless Weekes is really enamored with getting that story out of the way, which he might be. I think he’ll be a smaller big bad in the grand scheme of things, whereas he was the big bad in Inquisition (literally all that happened because of him). I think it’d be interesting to see him as a return companion though. Like yes, we all know who he is. But to our new character? Maybe he is just a revolutionist, maybe he was the one who freed them (if they go the slave plot for the PC). Another chance for him to play the PC and we have to watch it happen. But also, we have to figure out why he’d help us with this rebellion (again relies on the slave plot being used) when he has no horses in the race. I don’t know, it is a possibility and a frustrating, but interesting one.

Vivienne: If she is Divine, I don’t see her doing anymore that Cassandra or Leliana in the position. And again, very dependent on if we go to Orlais. Maybe more so, since she wasn’t a founding agent of the Inquisition like Leliana and Cassandra. However, if the Mage College/Circles of Magi issue is more prominent than I think it will be in DA4, then she might show up a bit more than usual. Still don’t think she’ll be a big role or ally to the main character though.

Cole: I don’t agree with Cole not fighting people, but I do agree that he has other things to worry about that the PC in DA4. That said, when it comes to Solas I feel like Cole will be back instantly. Solas and Cole were incredibly close (for a few reasons I can theorize, coughelves=spiritscough), and he was one of the few who actually wanted to save Solas. So if he is there, he is there for his friends and Solas only. Which means no companionship from him.

Sera: I can’t see Sera giving it a try in Tevinter, for so many reasons. Unless the Inky asks her of course. Every thing from the elves, many who just accept their lives. To the magic, to the lack of friends due to brainwashing and fear. It’s just not an environment Sera would enjoy or even want to be it. But if Orlais is still playing a big part in the next game, I’m sure we’ll turn up the Val Royeaux Jenny eventually. Or like I said, if Inky needs her. I doubt she’ll have much to do with the main character though.

Inquisitor: They’ll be there. In some shape or form they’ll show up, that I have no doubt of. How or when will be a mystery. It might be in the form of speaking to Dorian through the sending crystal (removes the need for a CC) or it might be as a Major Ally (i.e. Hawke in Inquisition). I don’t think the story will center around them as much as we think or would like though. Since this isn’t another Inquisitor story, but our new PC’s story.

Tldr: 

As far as I believe, there could be a ton of cameos from almost anybody. Seriously, there are maybe 3 who won’t come back and none of them are the Wardens or Hawkes left in the Fade. 

The only one from DAO I could see being a companion is Shale, but Sten/Arishok deserves a mention if the Qunari War Plot is going to be as important as we’ve been led to think.

From DA2, I can only see Tallis as a companion, again due to the supposed Qunari War plot. But I’m sure we’ll see Fenris, Varric, Hawke, and Isabela again somewhere in DA4. 

Inquisition provides the most likely return companion, Dorian. I could see Solas or Blackwall returning as a companion, but I don’t think they truly beat out Dorian in the amount of importance and content we could get from a returning character by our side. Since Inquisition is the newest game, I especially see most if not all of the characters making some form of cameo.

Some Special Mentions I want to throw out there too. I imagine Calpernia will still be relevant in some way to the story. As she is also someone who wants to redeem Tevinter (in her own way) and could not be killed by the Inquisitor, even being a villain in their game.

Marius, Tessa, and Charter all seem to relevant, recurring characters in the extended media. I wouldn’t be surprised if they roles in the next game. Especially given Marius’s ties to Tevinter and Calpernia

If we don’t have Maevaris Tilani as a companion, after all of this, I will be shocked and scandalized. She has been another character that has both importance in Tevinter and seems to hold importance to the writers (though how this will go now that her main writer, David Gaider has left I don’t know. Weekes still has access to them and he should use it).

We haven’t yet seen the end of Valta...and perhaps Renn. I’m not sure Bioware will approach more dwarven concepts in DA4, but one can hope. Even more so, since I want to see what happened to Valta and just what is happening with the Titans.

[dickensmagnusson9-blog]

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[berryarmstrong]

Bare Snow

Just a snippet of some RP I did with Avenio and @nocturne-naichengeru last night! I got to play a throwaway character; a recruiter for one of Aven’s NEFARIOUS NEMESIS’ pleasure houses. 

His name’s Barasnoe and he was pervy and dangerous. My writing was awful, but that’s just how it’s been these days. Nevertheless, I had so much fun with him that I’ve been tempted to make him a permanent NPC or something! 

Roleplay stuffs under the cut!

Avenio Naemig || Apparently at random, the ship-steerer thunked his wooden pole into the riverbed, and the tiny dhingy eddied to a stop.  Avenio rose, and disembarked onto an apparently random stretch of rock that seemed to lead exactly nowhere.  He waited for Nocturne to follow.  Once again, the moment both men had quit the vessel, the 'captain' started off again, headed in the same direction and not looking back once.  No turning back now.  Moments later, Avenio began to scale the cliff-face. 

It looked as though they were into a difficult climb, but after a small hop or two, it appeared as though someone had hewn a set of rocks that trailed up the side of the otherwise inhospitable rock.  Certainly you would have to know this path existed before it could possibly be found, and to one side the daunting sheer drop below to the tiny "river" purported certain trouble.  But Avenio scaled heedlessly, hesitating only enough to ensure Nocturne followed without trouble.

Soon they reached the top of the cliff, and they came to..... once again, absolutely nothing.  They reached a ridiculously small clearing, populated by a few scraggly, tenacious trees, and.... a large, imposing-looking Roegadyn.

Nocturne Philomel || Climbing a sheer cliff-face was a simple task, Nocturne's eyes looking more towards the fringes for other things--traps, snares, alarums or eyes. And then--the vacancy.

Avenio Naemig || Nocturne's sharp and perceptive gaze certainly picked out a few points -- an uninhabited murder hole here, a scout deftly hidden in a tree across the river there -- but nothing that would be a cause for concern.  Yet.  Avenio cleared his throat as they clambered over the last of the rocks, his voice lowering in tone and attitude until it was the texture of melted silk, "We've arrived, sire."

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn || The Sea Wolf who stood waiting was a particularly massive speciment of a Roe. His long and wide frame was wreathed with musculature that seemed sculpted for aesthetic, his skin white as milk and just about as smooth. A few tattoos marked his left arm and what was visible of his legs, and well-styled blond hair swept upon his crown. He seemed a bit bored -- at least until Avenio made it up. A slow smile crept onto his oddly pink lips, topped off by a rather unsavoury and covetous gaze through ruby red eyes. "Well, well," He hummed in a bass rumble -- though something about his speech was a bit off, "We have an arrival. Greetings. My name is Barasnoe, and I will be happily escorting you to the...establishment as soon as I have deemed you satisfactory." His lower lip tugged under a couple pearly white teeth at the last word, slowly released under that scrutinizing stare.

Nocturne Philomel did nothing--and said nothing. He merely moved one half-step closer to Avenio and one half-step closer to the roe--Barasnoe. That was all.

Avenio Naemig had been prepared for this.  More or less.  He shot the imposing Roegadyn a brief, effete smile, and approached slowly, one foot placed in front of the other with all the care and exactitute of a professional dancer.  He approached Barasnoe, one hand moving up to touch the other's bare, milky wrist only long enough to illicit a sharp swipe of warmth.  He spoke in the same satin tones, and it seemed a playful grin was only barely able to keep from bursting onto his expression, "Certainly, my lord," he oozed, every pore leaking sycophantic charm, "We are prepared to meet any... 'stipulation' one might conjure.  Surely there's aught that keeps your mind busy all the way out here on your own, hmm...?"

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn ||Up close, the Roegadyn was an odd construction of juxtapositions that somehow...worked. His features were angular, handsome and masculine, but their colouring and radiance were -- beautiful...at least in a haunting sense. Perhaps it had aught to do with the colour of his skin. There was that smile again. A nasty pulling of the lips that spoke no good intent. "I'm sure you are. And I'm sure you will." His eyes flitted up to the other man. "Is this your handler?"

Nocturne Philomel took one more step forward, letting a hand move over the hilt of his blade and then nodded in affirmation. "Cyan." The thin, reedy voice that he was using instead of his usual cut through the air.

Avenio Naemig 's gaze was immediately lowered, apparently humbled by the mention of his superior, "Y-yes, my lord.  He's been hired to stay with me, I'm afriad I haven't much say in the matter," then he paused, and glanced upwards slowly, until he was only looking up at the roegadyn from below his lashes, the effect enhanced by the fact that the majority of one eye was occluded, "Though he's been at my back for some time, and he does naught but watch, I assure you.  Some even.... prefer this arrangement."

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn: "Cyan, eh?" Barasnoe rumbled, "Well I hope you don't mind, I like to take a hands on approach to the new ones." He stepped down from his perch and boldly set a massive white palm on Avenio's shoulder -- which remained there for only a tick before sliding down to his chest. It had no business resting there, but there it remained. It had even less business kneading and groping the way it was -- subtlety notwithstanding. "You'll keep me company from here on out, yes?"

Nocturne Philomel: "My company beyond watching is two-hundred for five minutes. Double if another is involved." All business and starkly set was his jaw. After a moment, he canted his head to one side, frowning in consideration before adding in a contemplative tone, "For you, I may make a discount." His hand never left his blade as he took a few steps back and sat down on the stone.

Avenio Naemig did manage to refrain from clocking the man, to his credit.  In fact, he barely moved, only to lock his gaze to the Sea Wolf's every moment, the barely-not-just-a-grin expression remaining as Barasnoe's fingers slipped over his bared skin.  The recent rains had left the pronounced musculature slick, the highlander's fighting form clearly in peak physique.  He might even be just barely flexing under that touch, as if daring the roegadyn further, "Why, certainly," he breathed, managing to allow a flash of his true eagerness to shine behind his cerulean stare, hoping the other would misinterpret to his desires, "I am at your command, my lord."  He flashed an altogether irritated glance over his shoulder, and rolled his eyes in such a way that would give a teenage sorority pledge goosebumps, "Ignore him.  He's not a fan of.... tongue-flapping."

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn ||Barasnoe chucked, his vast chest heaving with each lilting note of mirth. He settled quickly with a nod. "Fine, fine, Ser Cyan. Watch, then. One of the perks of this job is that I get to sample for free. I'm not about to start paying now." The Sea Wolf was smiling pleasantly as he set his eyes on Avenio once more -- residue from his laughter that quickly transitioned into lecherous regard. "You don't have to worry, boy. I'll more than make up for what he lacks with his tongue." That hand of his wandered. Laterally at first, then low for inappropriately lascivious appraisals that saw his lower lip once more slide beneath his teeth. "Gods be praised, you are a specimen indeed. He'll be pleased. Most pleased with this, yes...perhaps enough to reward me as well." The snowy paw trailed up again -- this time to take the blond's chin between massive fingers. "He gave me this job because I like what he likes, you know." He leaned closer, beard to jaw in order to speak softly into the Highlander's ear. His grip on the man's chin tightened to a painful vice, "So I'll be having my fill of you before he comes to collect. And if you even think of breathing a word of it to him, I'll know. I'll know, and I'll snap that thick neck of yours like a twig. Understand, boy?"

Nocturne Philomel didn't shift from his spot. His hand went to his mouth--well, not his hand. Just a thumb as he leaned in a bit from his seated position, eyes opening a little wider---just a bit. And the corner of his lip...twitched. Upwards. Nocturne Philomel smiles weakly.

Avenio Naemig curled in his lower lip and bit down, only barely stopping himself from biting right through and severing his own lower lip.  But he managed to still his body, but for the subtle flexes and leans into the man's hands.  He let his eyes drift half-shut as the roegadyn did his 'inspection,' looking unsurprised but perhaps a bit cowed when his azure gaze drifted back up to meet the wide-set ambers above, "Understood," he murmured, "I'm sure I've enough stamina to slake any thirst you may have."

Avenio Naemig caught a glimpse of Nocturne enjoying the show out of the corner of his eye, and made a mental note later to give him hell for it later.  But for the time being... well, in for an ilm....  Without turning away from the roegadyn's hand he leaned up, fingers deftly passing through the man's hair and tucking a few errant strands behind an ear, "I am, after all, here to do just that."  He breathed.

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn || Barasnoe drew back just a couple ilms to make eye contact with the Highlander -- there was murder written in those stark red eyes of his. Stern bloodthirst that bored and made a visual demand for compliance with an unspoken promise of grave consequence otherwise...and then it softened into a pleasant expression of delight. "Good. I like you already. I've had to fling too many upstarts from the cliffs this past turn. Come with me, yes? I'll lead you to where you'll be for a while. Cyan, you're welcome to come as well, and I'd beg the favour of your vigilance, if you do. There's always bloody opo-opos and coeurls about." That said, he gave poor Aven one last grope then moved to lead the way. The Sea Wolf possessed an odd stride. Half shoulder-swinging, swaggering gait...and half seductive sway. His hips performed a subtle roll as he walked. If gave his movements an imposing manliness that was accented heavily with feminine allure. By the looks of it he had worked his way up to being a 'recruiter'.

Nocturne Philomel rose and followed at a polite distance, his eyes watching for couerly and opo-opos and cut-throats and hide-aways and everything else too. Avenio Naemig was careful when he followed, giving the Sea Wolf a few paces' lead for several reasons - the majority of which being the effort with which he had to invest to not stride across the cliff-face like an armed SWAT team.  He knew how to make his footfalls silent easily however, and followed as Barasnoe led them down another little passageway cleft through the stone.  There they found tidy little private hot spring, tucked into a corner of the mountain with a breathtaking view.  Perched above the spring was a multi-storey hut that looked as though it had been thatched together with string and straw over a century or two, so aged was the wood of its time-petrified support beams.  When the roegadyn wasn't looking, Avenio shot the shinobi behind him a furtive but meaningful glance.  That was certainly their target -- likely the top floor, from what reconnaisance had divulged earlier.  Once he caught up with Barasnoe, the highlander made a pleased little noise.

Avenio Naemig: "A spring!  How quaint!  And you don't at all notice the smell!"

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn |Barasnoe stopped and stretched -- whether it was for his comfort or for the rather bulky, shifting, lifting and heaving display was left to guesstimation. "It's nice, isn't it? A little slice of the seventh heaven." When he lowered his arms it was with all the grace of a court dancer. The manner in which he fluctuated between masculinity and femininty was jarringly seamless, even with his massive, obviously male build. "He comes here to relax sometimes -- and that's where you'll come in. Until that time comes, I'll make you as comfortable as you can." The Sea Wolf glanced back and cracked another one of his filthy smiles. "Anyroad. The spring's there to use as you like -- you too, Cyan, while you're here. Everything you need to settle is inside." He swagger-swayed to the entrance of the building confidently.

Nocturne Philomel walked to the door, giving Avenio a moment and a hand gesture to 'wait'. The door was checked and the man looked inside--he was not going to risk his income, apparently. Once a once-over was given, provided there were no men with blades or Yellowjackets, he would give the all-clear.

Avenio Naemig of course followed the direction of his escort, allowing the man to check it for would-be enemies, all the while affecting the air of the 'tourist', gawping and making delighted noises at finding the various 'amenities' of the shack.  He followed the roegadyn within, "Oh, I'm sure we'll be quite comfortable here, won't we, sire?"

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn ||The Roegadyn allowed the inspection with confident expectation, then tilted his head back as Avenio spoke. "Oh, I like the way you call me 'sire', boy." He turned around to trap the blond Highlander between his bulk and the wall, and compounded the cage with an arm planted just above the other's shoulder. Up close there was an earthy musk about him with an undertone of flowery perfume. The combination was far from unpleasant, so effective was the blend. "Ye'll make sure an' call me that good an' loud when yer writhin' an' bleatin' underneath me like a bred bitch, aye...?" The request came out in a low, rasping and Lominsan-accented growl as the lantern light danced in his greedy eyes. It was a short lived thing; he blinked, turned to Cyan and then laughed with a hand rubbing at the back of his neck. "Forgive me. Your charge is mesmerising. Far too much so, I lost myself a moment. Please! Make yourselves at home. The journey here must have been taxing. Can I get either of you anything to drink or eat?"

Nocturne Philomel: "My charge knows better than to be anything BUT mesmerizing. As for food and drink, he will have neither--nor will I. Until I see this deal through to its end and the gil is in my hand."

Nocturne Philomel: "We learned our lesson in Kugane, didn't we?" He gave a bored glance to Avenio before looking back to Barasnoe.

Avenio Naemig 's surprise was genuine as he found himself genuinely trapped against the wall, suddenly so sweetly accosted.  He was a bit too stunned to reply, but the way it worked out, the awkward lean of his body played out as merely demure.  He reddened, and used it, affecting a coy grin, "Cyan's no fun, but he has the right of it.  And speaking of fun..." Avenio paused, then leaned forward and allowed the index and middle fingers of his right hand to trail along the pattern tattooed darkly against  milky white skin, "... Our contact did tell us that Master won't be 'home' for some time yet.  So unless I must needs cut out his wagging tongue for falsities, we've naught to do but wait, hmm?  Don't you have ways here to... pass the time?"

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn: "Plenty ways, boy..." He murmured. Still he backed off a bit and sighed, "But Cyan's got the right of it, there's business to be done." He reached into a pocket and relieved his trousers of a fat pouch of high-denomination coins. It was perhaps unfortunate that he could not quite relieve them of the other obviously obscene burden. Nevertheless, he bore it shamelessly and tossed the pouch to the hyur. "It's all there, maybe a bit extra. Nothing to write home about. You can sit here and count it if you like." Nocturne Philomel: "I will. And when your master arrives, I wish to discuss more business." The coin in his hand, he ran his fingers around it a moment--and the motion to the eye that cared and the mind that dared looked...obscene. Or maybe not... "I am needing work myself. But please, don't mind me. Be about your--time-pass."

Nocturne Philomel offers you a humble greeting.

Avenio Naemig tossed his 'guard' a wide smirk before he leaned back against the wall behind him, still having not moved from the spot since the Sea Wolf had forced him against it.  He managed to look bored as the necessary evil of 'business' took place, "Ugh, *must you* always ruin the moment?" he griped, rather convincingly, "I'm already falling asleep.  Hey," he reached out to grab Barasnoe's bicep, his touch lingering a bit longer than was absolutely necessary.

Avenio Naemig: "I hear Master has quite the selection of particular entertainment.  You wouldn't happen to know where he keeps his... 'best stuff', would you?"

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn || Barasnoe eyed Cyan for a moment, then looked him up and down. His eyes lingered on the hair -- that alluring yellow hair. "Well if you're sticking around, might be that we can come to an arrangement -- or you can deal with the boss. Either way there's opportunity here for you." The touch on his bicep drew his attention; he ostentatiously flexed it, while at the same time provided a dusted reciprocation of touch along the Highlander's skin. For a moment there was a cocky smirk on his face, though it melted into a soft expression that told all to well that the other's allure had done wonders. Still, a question had been asked. "Ah, yes. Come. His supplies here are actually quite well-stocked." With that said, he moved deeper into the hovel to begin his search behind some books on the shelf.

Nocturne Philomel: "I'll be bathing. Don't awake the neighbors while you have fun." He turned and made his way outside, stripping off his clothes as easily as if he were home, tossing them aside.

[23:48]Avenio Naemig lounged where he was until the roegadyn moved off, casting a brief glance in 'Cyan's' direction before he stalked off, then he made to follow Barasnoe, placing a hand on the man's shoulder as he approached, "Oh, goodie.  What do we have?"  He peered over the Sea Wolf's should--- nope, not gonna happen.  Rather he leaned around his side to have a look, hoping he wouldn't have to incapacitate the giant fool before he got too.... frisky.

Farrzwyn Ryssdaegsyn:  "Bit of everything, really," Snoe rumbled, "But all you get for now is moko. You'll get the harder stuff after you've done the work to earn it. And speaking of which..." One hand took a small box from the shelf, while the other sought to outright goose the man. "When you've got a nice head from using this...I'll take you to my bed, hm?"

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

((From there it went into NPC territory; poor Aven had to knock Snoe out so that he and 'Cyan' could carry out their mission unharassed. What became of him? Evidently...

He was last seen out cold and popping a boner. FUN STUFF. I enjoyed playing him a lot, my bad writing notwithstanding. I’m so tempted to use him for other stuff now! Hargh!! Thanks to Aven and Nocturne for the good time!))

[aion-rsa]

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Fixes Problems You Didn’t Know Existed

https://ift.tt/39mYjY8

The Cyberpunk 2077 team has revealed the full patch notes for the game’s recently released 1.2 update and all we can say is “wow.”

There’s no use trying to breakdown the entirety of this patch since it contains over 500 updates, fixes, changes, and improvements. I highly recommend that you check out the (mostly) full rundown of the update if you’ve been waiting for that massive Cyberpunk 2077 patch that will finally make the game significantly more playable. This won’t be Cyberpunk 2077‘s last update, but it feels like the first of the game’s updates that are trying to do more than just put out the biggest fires.

If you’re looking for the highlights, though, then I’ve got you covered. Here are the best, biggest, and weirdest patch notes that I’ve found in the Cyberpunk 2077 1.2 update so far.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The “WTF?” Fixes

“Player can no longer cancel fall damage by performing a slide action when about to fall from greater heights.”

If you’re like me, this is one of those things that you didn’t even realize was possible in Cyberpunk 2077 but now desperately want to try. Based on some videos that I’ve seen of this technique, it’s actually possible to survive some insane falls via this method but your survival is based on the specifics of the fall itself and your mastery of the technique. Honestly, they should just turn this technique into an official in-game modification ability.

“It is no longer possible to perform Gorilla Arms finishers against civilians.”

Cyberpunk 2077‘s latest patch notes make it clear that civilians in Night City have it kind of rough. I’m not entirely sure what the basis of this particular change is, but I kind of hope that they put it in there just to give the poor people of Night City a break by not letting you beat them to death quite so easily with your mechanical fists.

“Extending the sliding ladder won’t result in player’s death if they are below it.”

I’ve never actually seen this happen in Cyberpunk 2077, but the fact that it could happen is downright hilarious. Super-powered characters being killed by tiny bumps in video games is a guilty pleasure of mine, and I love the idea of being killed simply because your character is too stubborn to move out of the way of a ladder.

“It is no longer possible to use guns near the arcades during the Raymond Chandler Evening fistfight. // You can no longer pull an Indiana Jones in El Coyote Cojo.”

Ok, I’m actually a little upset by this one. As pointed out in the patch notes, it’s actually kind of hilarious that this was possible as it plays into the player choice element of the game. You could argue that too many of these glitches add up to be more than an amusing annoyance, but I think this one might have been funny enough to leave in the game in some form.

“Fixed multiple issues during sex scenes”

CD Projekt Red doesn’t give any additional details about this patch note, but I really wish they would. Just how many issues were there in these sex scenes? I’ve heard some people say the animations used in these scenes were awkward (which is true), but I’ve also heard reports that players were falling through floors and clipping through objects during those sensual moments. I’m sure fans will waste no time telling us everything that’s different about them when this update hits.

“Kerry’s bathrobe is no longer incorrectly attached to his lower part of the body.”

I had to look this one up, and I’m glad I did. It seems that Kerry’s bathrobe suffered from this strange glitch that made the bottom of it operate independently from the rest. I have no idea what causes it, but it kind of looks like it’s accounting for the proportions of a gentleman with much wider hips. Check it out for yourself:

“Fixed incorrect censorship when playing a copy of the game from a region other than Japan while the console region is set to Japan or language to Japanese.”

This isn’t the strangest patch note, but it’s one I didn’t know about. Apparently, the Japanese version of Cyberpunk 2077 censors some of the sex scenes and a few of the more violent moments. I’m genuinely curious how many people were accidentally playing the censored version of the game due to this issue and didn’t even realize it.

“Fixed an issue where pedestrians could get teleported after being hit by a vehicle.”

I still just want to know where those civilians went from both a design and lore perspective. I’m imagining that there’s a pile of civilian bodies lying around somewhere like at the end of The Prestige.

“In The Pickup, it’s no longer possible to trigger both scenarios at the same time: a peaceful deal with Maelstrom and fighting them.”

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The Oddly Specific Fixes

“Fixed an issue where dumping a body in the trunk started the vehicle’s engine.”

Ok, I ran into this one several times during my Cyberpunk 2077 journey and just convinced myself that it was a feature. At the very least, I feel like Elon Musk may make a car that automatically starts when it detects a body in the trunk for the convenience of the evil billionaire with goons on the go.

“The TV in Tom’s Diner can no longer be destroyed. If a player destroyed it before this update it will now be fixed and the news will be displayed correctly to progress Playing for Time.”

I also didn’t know this was possible, but it’s hilarious to imagine a player going around and destroying every TV in town only to find that they can no longer progress through the game as a result of their actions. Honestly, who discovered this one?

“Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to trip over other NPCs too often.”

It’s the “too often” part of this one that gets me. Who determined that the amount of NPC tripping going on was well beyond the acceptable parameters for such a thing?

“Fixed a rare scenario where the painting wouldn’t appear in the drop pod in Space Oddity/Space Oddity no longer spawns multiple paintings blocking the quest’s progress.”

I love the idea of largely useless paintings causing so many problems during one of Cyberpunk 2077‘s biggest missions. You just get the feeling that this is the little problem that made the team realize what a mess Cyberpunk 2077 was at launch.

“Fixed an issue where A Like Supreme could get blocked if player rushed to the toilet to take a pill before finishing a conversation with Nancy.”

This one just brings to mind a million instances in open-world games where you realize that QA testers should consist of trolls and video game speedrunners who are able to find absolutely every little thing you can do to ruin a game.

“Car lights will no longer stay on after the car battery dies in Ghost Town.”

How far down the list was this particular problem? Either this is a sign that the team is ready to move on to more minor fixes or this problem was a particular sticking point with someone on the team.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The Cat-Related Fixes

“Cat food needed to adopt Nibbles can now be bought at several food shops around Night City”

While I actually like the idea of specific items only being available in specific shops in Night City, the fact of the matter is that Nibbles doesn’t have time for such role-playing concepts. Nibbles needs food, Nibbles needs love, and Nibbles needs it on their time, not yours.

“Fixed an issue in Nocturne Op55N1 where petting the cat would play without dialogue. // V will now properly address the cat, even without Misty’s answer.”

You WILL properly address Nibbles, V. Thank you to the Cyberpunk team for fixing such a glaring omission. Clearly, this is the reason why the game was delisted from the PlayStation Store.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The Welcome Fixes to Strange Problems

“Fixed an issue where V could get stuck in empty buildings when exiting a vehicle parked close to a wall.”

This one happened way more often than it ever should have. This scenario is also common enough to really make you wonder how this problem escaped the testing process.

“Jackie no longer shouts ‘Nice shot!’ when V kills enemies while in stealth mode.”

Truth be told, I actually kind of love that Jackie couldn’t hide his enthusiasm during these instances, but it’s hard to deny that his piercing shouts did kind of ruin the immersion of these moments.

“Collisions will no longer fail to stream in randomly during driving, which could lead to V driving into buildings and falling out of the world.”

I get that Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t supposed to be GTA, but it sure will be nice to be able to collide with something without having to worry about disappearing into the void where those civilian bodies go.

“NPCs will no longer stay blocked on traffic lanes while in fear.”

Cyberpunk‘s poor NPCs will finally be able to move out of the middle of traffic which is good for you, good for them, and good for the city’s cleanup crew who have seen too many horrors.

“NPC hit by a car will now immediately run in panic/Added different animation variations for pedestrians running away from a vehicle.”

Some saw this problem as a sign that Night City’s NPCs just don’t care, but I think these patch notes make it clear that they wanted to run away and just didn’t have the ability to. It’s a real “have no mouth and must scream” scenario.

“V’s hands are now correctly displayed on a steering wheel while driving”

V gets a few animation fixes in this upcoming patch, but this is one of my favorites. I don’t know why it was so difficult to properly animate V using a steering wheel, but I’m glad we’re moving past the days when you’ve got to wonder what the character’s hands are supposed to be doing.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Fixes Problems You Didn’t Know Existed appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[entergamingxp]

CrossCode Review — Cross Out Some Time to Play This Gem

July 16, 2020 11:00 AM EST

Radical Fish Games has risen the bar of quality in terms of the experience you can get in a retro-inspired indie game with CrossCode.

Having initially passed on the PC release of CrossCode back in 2018, when it was announced that this indie title from Radical Fish Games was coming to consoles, I knew I wasn’t going to make the same mistake. Having now seen it through, boy, oh boy, am I glad I didn’t skip out this time around because CrossCode is without a doubt one of the most expertly-crafted retro-inspired games I have ever had the pleasure of playing.

“CrossCode is without a doubt one of the most expertly-crafted retro-inspired games I have ever had the pleasure of playing.”

The alien world of Shadoon plays host to players of CrossWorlds, a futuristic melding of an MMORPG, LARPING (live-action role-playing), and Disney World. Players who log-in, take control of a body, known as an Avatar. You play as Lea, an amnesiac, and mute Avatar seeking her past while working to discover the secrets of the Ancients of Shadoon. Lea won’t need to uncover the mysteries, though, as she will be able to party up with a cast of endearing and bombastic characters to aid her, both inside and outside the game.

I loved the one-sided small talk between Lea and your first party member, Emilie-Sophie de Belmond, a Pentafist (think a Monk/punchy class) who goes by the character name Emilienator. Even though Lea has a limited vocabulary in which to respond, Emilie has no issue going on about whatever is on her mind, from beating you in races through dungeons or how she got chewed out at work for being late to a meeting. Who looks in their spam folder in their email, seriously? I also found the justice-seeking Apollo, a fellow Spheromancer that strives to keep players honest and punish any that may be cheating in CrossWorlds, to be hilarious. He’s your stereotypical exaggerated hero of justice, but Radical Fish Games’ writing prowess takes him so much more fun than his similar archetype peers. He will challenge Lea multiple times throughout the story, pushing Lea and making sure she stays on the up-and-up.

The supporting cast I enjoyed just as much as the main party. Sergey, who acts as your support from the real world, helps to repair your voice module, adding in new keywords for you to use and interact with your new friends. Whenever he would randomly pop-in, more often than not, I would find myself chuckling at his remarks and quips. Rather early on, you will find yourself a member of a small guild, the First Scholars, whose aim is to be the first to discover the final secrets of the Ancients. Run by the sweet and motherly Hlin, and her stoic second-in-command, Beowulf, I was surprised how much I came to love these characters the more I spoke with them and learned their stories.

CrossCode does a good job making the in-game world feel like a popular hustling-and-bustling MMO, even though it is a single-player experience. NPCs of various classes are often running around the different areas in the wild, while cities and other social hubs are packed with vendors and other faux players to further sell the vibe. You can also join a guild, tackle tough bosses, and make friends with exciting characters.

Much like a real MMO, there is plenty of side business that you get yourself into in-between your dives into the game’s various dungeons which further plot. Townsfolk and other NPC Avatars offer missions that range from your standard fair of fetch quests and monster-slaying tasks to logging the local fauna of Shadoon. Crafting in the traditional sense is absent in CrossCode and in its place you will be trading items at specialty vendor stalls. You can expect to spend time running through the wild cutting down plants and hunting down enemies, which is reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda series. Luckily the rewards for trading are worth it, as the gear you can get is far superior to the stock you can find in the shops proper.

“CrossCode does a good job making the in-game world feel like a popular hustling-and-bustling MMO, even though it is a single-player experience.”

CrossCode gameplay balances between fast-paced hack-n-slash combat with intricate puzzles. Encounters with even generic enemies in the wild can become tense clashes as mobs can consist of five or more at a time, each trying to kill you. In some of the more frantic matches, finding the narrow passages between the bullets and dodging my way to safety reminded me of a SHUMP.

Lea, as a Spheromancer, is far from being powerless and has plenty of options to fight back. As you progress throughout the game, you will unlock multiple skill trees that let you improve your stats and unlock new skills and abilities for your close-range, long-range, and defensive moves. A particularly cool aspect is that you have you can quickly swap between specific sub-trees and unique move options from the menu system, without the need to spend your points on both.

There is an added sense of intensity and urgency in combat with the inclusion of a ranking system. As you defeat enemies, a small bar will fill and once you fill it you will gain a rank. The higher your rank is ( which goes all the way to S-Rank), the more chances you’ll have to gain rare loot from enemies. This rarer loot is incredibly valuable as many quests and the gear you can trade for at the vendors, require them. As soon as a battle ends, a timer will begin counting down, and when it runs out, you lose your rank and have to start over. This means you will have to grind items and it’s a good idea to plan out a route around an area that will let you hit as many enemies as you can, as fast as you can. A trick I found particularly useful was to leave one enemy and start scouting out the next mob while your AI companions deal with the final enemy. This will give you some extra time to explore and track down more foes.

To throw another little wrench into the situation, increasing your rank and farming for items you will also be tempting fate. As long as you have a rank and are stringing encounters together to build it, you won’t have any access to the experience you are gathering and you won’t be auto-recovering between fights. Will you risk taking on that larger mob, netting a bunch of good drops, or should you call it quits and get that level-up that’s waiting for you? It’s a nice mechanic that just adds another layer to an already rich combat system.

When you aren’t fighting snowmen, hedgehogs, and bunnies, there is a good chance that you will be hopping around the landscape or racking your brain to figure out the solution to a puzzle. Before playing CrossCode, I wasn’t aware of how prevalent puzzles would be, but color me surprised when I realized that not only were puzzles a big part of the game, but they are very well-done. Most of the puzzles I found to be the perfect balance of challenge and inventiveness, thanks mostly to incorporating mechanics that involved bouncing balls off the walls and mirrors to hit targets. Running around the open-world has an aspect of puzzle-solving, too, as you will see various chests and items out of reach, and you will have to figure out how to reach them by jumping over pits and navigating walls and plateaus of varying heights. This incentivizes exploration in a fun way, and there’s a sense of satisfaction and surprise when you’ve found that hidden route or you discover a secret area that just appears when you get close to it.

For as good as the puzzles are and as tight as the gameplay is, what blew me away the most with CrossCode is how breathtaking the sprites and pixel art are. Players familiar with the RPGs from Square Enix’s golden age on the Super Nintendo will recognize the much of the inspiration here, stemming from titles like Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. You will explore scorching deserts, wintery mountain peaks, dark, dreary mines, and advanced technological laboratories. Each location’s visuals are all done with such expert craftsmanship, that you could take a snapshot and hang it in your room, and it would look fantastic. Monster designs, especially the screen-filling bosses, are finely detailed and exude such personalities and charm. You’ll find yourself saying “awwww” the first time you see the cute bunnies before they then pounce to destroy you.

“You owe it to yourself to uncover the secrets Shadoon and CrossWorlds with Lea and friends in CrossCode.”

As you play, you will find more and more cute nods to other franchises that the developers clearly love. Items like the Phoenix Feather that come with descriptions that are a clear homage to the popular Final Fantasy curative item. Another that may seem familiar is the Salty Ice Cream that is, “Best enjoyed at sunset on top of a clocktower.” My personal favorites of these are the Metal Gears that are, “Just gears made out of metal, yepp,” and the Masterball, which “Heroes once used this device to capture legendary fiends.” I’m not going to lie, skimming the item descriptions turned into one of my favorite pastimes in this game, so be sure to check them out as you go, too.

The love that Radical Fish Games has put into CrossCode has resulted in a game that will be talked about as critically and with as much praise as other masterpieces like Shovel Knight or The Messenger. CrossCode’s mix of exciting exploration, chaotic yet tight combat, vast skill trees, and clever puzzles that all wrapped up in some of the most beautiful pixel art in the past decade is an experience any fan of RPGs should partake in. Some of the dungeons do go on a bit long, and I found it to be a little annoying at times (the first dungeon having ice physics was a bold choice). I also wasn’t the biggest fan of the exchange system with the item vendors and found myself wishing for a more traditional crafting system, but these small gripes did little to tarnish my overall experience. Every new area I found myself in or new items that contained a nod to pop culture or games from the past put a smile on my face.

In short, Radical Fish Games has raised the bar for retro-inspired indie games. You owe it to yourself to uncover the secrets Shadoon and CrossWorlds with Lea and friends in CrossCode.

July 16, 2020 11:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/crosscode-review-cross-out-some-time-to-play-this-gem/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=crosscode-review-cross-out-some-time-to-play-this-gem

[elstine-harboson]

Misconceptions: Power & Politics - Merchants

Hello, hello everyone!

It has been long while, perhaps even too long since we have posted a Misconceptions post but surely the wait is worth it. We have been very busy with all the inter-guild stuff, in particular the Gold-Stone Concordance... But that is in part why now is a good time to throw this gorgeous information out there.

It has been a good time researching all of this, and so without further pause let us jump into..

(Please note, the following is a matter of opinion (except for the facts, obviously) and is presented as suggestions, and an attempt at providing a different perspective)

Haha, how does a store owner have anything to do with politics or power?

Well, I am glad you asked Tom, my consistently inquiring friend. It is fairly simple, it comes down to only a handful of general factors. One being the idea of capitalism; is it a free or heavily regulated market? As a business owner, we would obviously want lower taxes on trade goods, and less red-tape to go through to set up a store and sell various goods so, we would influence politicians, Noble families, advisers, officials, etc to vote or act in such a way. With gold for days, arguably sometimes more than even the Nobles we can bribe like there is no tomorrow - there is even stories of entire Noble families having their wealth being made primarily from bribes, or “donations”.

When Civil War, political strife, conflicts, etc arise gold is what keeps things turning, making or breaking empires and kings. Gold has got Popes, and other religious figures elected/chosen - and has won entire battles, such as when Cesare Borgia’s army of mercenaries famously betrayed him and turned him over to the opposing army when the mercenaries were offered gold. It would be in our best interest typically to support a candidate in whatever situation that is in favor of the free market.

In addition, businesses like Nobles have money to spare and can typically make a positive name, and impact for themselves such as donating to the common folk and hosting public events to get their image out; much like running a political campaign it's powerful to have your name plastered everywhere.

Moreover, lets not even consider gold for a moment and instead thing about Trade, and Trade Routes. For example, if Business X is the -primary- supplier of medical goods and supplies to a Military Organization that’s currently in a war and/or warzone; what do you think happens if Business X decides to stop supplying that Military Organization? Clean bandages will be scarce, infections will rage, pain killers will be few and far in between, so on and so forth - not to mention food shortages. One of the primary ways to end a siege, or to siege successfully is simply to starve out your adversary.

Oh, hrm... Well, those are all very good points. But it also seems a bit overlooked, and powerful.

Well, yes - they are good points, and yes it is overlooked - that’s why we’re here, and yes it can be powerful, that’s also kind of the point. For too long, I believe it’s just been president burned into the minds of I’d dare say the majority of folks that if you’re not a Noble or a larger military group, then, there’s essentially no hope for power, no hope for political intrigue, and all you’re going to do is run a shop and sell things like an NPC. Selling items can be fun, a lot of fun - especially for folks that enjoy being charismatic, or enjoy practicing psychology and sociology. But, there is just so much more that can be achieved.

I think for one people generally are very, very, very, very, very, (very.) unwilling to even fathom the idea of losing, or hitting any kind of roadblocks. I, personally, have seen it many, many, many times - in both advisory roles, working with other groups on storylines, and even myself. Humans, people are not inclined nor wired to like the idea of defeat, or losses. However, I think it’s a very crucial step in adding a robust depth to any storyline, personal or guild wide. Does this mean we should just, lose all the time? Let folks roll over us? No - not at all; what I recommend and have always recommended and will continue to recommend is STRONG communication between X and Y parties. The Dungeon Masters of each group should communicate their ideas and workout an -overall- storyline that only they are aware of, and you can be as general or detailed with one another as you’re both comfortable with - but understanding who is winning and who is losing behind the scenes, while keeping everyone ICly out of the know is crucial. It creates suspense, and draws the crowd into an immersive situation. As much as you may think you, or your group would enjoy winning every time for months at a time - let me assure you, it gets old; it gets stale.

For your viewing pleasure, and just to get the ol’ brain oiled up and thinking; please look over these two short stories and tell me which of the two are more appealing, intriguing, and immersive:

1) “Yestermorn we approached the County of Duchem, we vastly outnumbered their army that had come to meet us out on the field. Their young king was bold, I’ll give him that much - standing out in the open with a flat-lined formation of the few hundred soldiers he had, holding their ground in the sight of our massive army ahead of them. Finally, we descended upon them but as you’d expect my Liege, they were no match for our armies and we quickly overwhelmed them, killed their King and took their Lands, while also killing all his heirs and supporters by daybreak. “

2) “My liege, your infiltrators were successful. They managed to kill the elder King of Mercia, leaving the inexperienced Lord to fend for the realm. In their weakness, we did as you asked and marched our forces to meet their army at the County of Duchem. But... The young Lord found evidence of your involvement in the murder, and subsequently rallied the local peoples to fight with him on the field. Fortunately, we still outnumbered our foes two to one... The young Lord kept most of his forces within the nearby forest, eager to be rid of him we attacked foolishly - learning quickly that he had kept half his units hidden, and flanked behind us - we were shaken by the sudden pincer maneuver. But, your skilled generals managed to hold the lines and push the the young Lord’s forces back... However, in the dust of the battle the young Lord managed to retreat from what was a looming defeat, we fear now that he is free he will have more time to rally a larger army against your rightful rule, my Liege.”

I see, so defeat can be a good thing? Who would have thunk it. So what do you suggest?

Well, I think one of the best things that we can do is treat the Merchant class like we treat the Nobility and Soldiers. Many, if not most folks do a decent amount of research into the lore and culture, and also do research on historical encounters or take influence from modern interpretations such as Game of Thrones. Why not treat the Merchants the same way? Venice, Genoa, the Silk Road countries, Moscow, and even the Vikings are all related to trade and merchant-oriented details; Moscow was just a small trade city when it first started. The Vikings were more interested in trading than they were raiding; they were -infamous- on all historical accounts for their Midas touched ways of Trade; not just raiding. Don’t even get me started on how fascinating Venice, a small island nation with practically no dry land, managed to influence most of Europe for a very long time.

You can see a lot of influence of such things within our own guild, such as the Patrician rank and Viceroy rank.

But, other than that I think it’s really important to not see competition as some OOC clause to dislike folks, to OOCly try to break up guilds or harm people OOCly. IC competition is good, OOC competition gets you on WrAsecrets; and no one wants to be on that place. But, if you see a fellow merchant guild pop up, why not say hi? Why not see if they’re interested in creating a Trade League, or opening a store together, or just trading, or creating a storyline. There’s so much potential out there it just hurts me.

So, so, so often I see shops, stores, merchants, etc pop up and disappear within a week and the majority that I’ve spoken to have said that it’s largely because they got bored of trying to sell things. To that, I’ll point to the above - expand your horizons, being a merchant is never just about selling things.

Hrm, this is quite a bit to take in... But, I do like what you’re saying.

I hope you do like it, otherwise this is a bit pointless - if not, I hope it’s at least informative. But, I want this to remain as an OPEN INVITATION to ANY, and ALL merchants, store-keepers, traders, business folks, etc - if any of you need any help, support, just want to vent, or bounce ideas; we will always be here to support the Merchant Community the best we can. It’s a small platform that a lot of folks don’t even consider, and we’d like to change that - and we can do that together a lot better than we can on our own. On top of all that, Tideguard (Co-GM) and I are obsessed with creating storylines that’ll never get used; so if you’d ever just like to talk to get a free storyline idea, again just hit us up and lets talk.

Thank you all so much for the read; I want to stress that this is all very opinionated and just suggestions. We have no intention to say this is wrong, and this is right - we just like to discuss things that folks may not have originally considered.

Thank you for all the likes, reblogs, comments, and feel free to hit us up on Tumblr or in-game at (Elstine.)

I hope you all learned something new!

@the-news-nerd @percy-dewdancer @risrielthron 

[tumblunni]

Gremp Review: Dr Herregods

Okay, today’s new grandpa that I adore!

I’ve been playing the remake of Sonny lately and TOTALLY having a nostalgia explosion! Its like a reboot of an old classic Flash game series I used to play a lot as a kid. The art, music, and everything has had a HUGE update, and they even added some new characters! Its a shame, however, that we lost the animated sprites and ability to see visual changes as you equip stuff. I’m guessing they just didnt have the budget to make it happen with the high res graphic update. Also some of the story changes are a bit weird, but an equally large amount of them are super good, so it all balances out. I just wish all the new characters didnt REPLACE the old characters, yknow?

At least Veraduz stuck around, and now he’s got a cool expanded backstory and reasons for joining your party. Its not just ‘we’re both zombies, lets stick together, i found a robot suit and somehow instantly knew how to use it’. Nah, instead now he’s a regular human who actually OWNS that robot suit, he starts off on the other side and joins you after seeing you’re sentient and deserve to live. Also he’s a disabled veteran whose robot suit is basically a mobility device to replace his lost legs. That’s instantly incredibly sympathetic and interesting! And still he’s our cool sassy giant buff healer dude and major BROTP with the protagonist. Woo~! ANYWAY, less rambling about loving that character, and more rambling about loving the new ones!

One of the best new changes to the plot was the addition of Dr Herregods, aka SUPER SCIENCE GRANDPA!

Further review below:

He’s actually the only new character who technically did exist in the original flash game, he used to be a tough bonus boss battle and got promoted to playable here. Obviously he took a huge power cut, but he’s actually still pretty damn strong! He starts off fragile but he gets A LOT of really good attacks. He can set up barriers and regen on his allies and DEAAAAR GOD am I happy that the ally AI is great in the remake, he’s saved me so many times! And his actual damage output isnt very good even if you buff him up, but he has Acid Element which bypasses defense buffs. Usually you have mr fragile grandpa dealing half as much as everyone else, and then when you face some overblown buffed up thing he’s suddenly the sole savior of the world! AND he can deal useful attack debuffs, so he frees up a move slot on your protagonist if you dont need to worry about those. Here I’ve got him very stacked up with defensive items at the expense of everything else, cos even if he’s buffed its not like he’s ever gonna be super fast or strong. Its best to just cover his fragility! Currently he’s actually one of the best defenders, I went with fragile speedster build for my other two party members Sonny and Kara. (Incidentally I love Kara! I wish Felicity didnt have to be replaced by her tho, is it some sort of rule that these games must only have one playable lady?) Tho the fragile build is fun to play in its own right! It just feels super in-character that he’d be like an overpowered useful buffer mage dude that you have to protect. The enemy still seems to try and take him out more often than not, even when he has enough extra defense to withstand it. LEAV GRANDPA ALON

Anyway, the Sonny games have never been super dialogue heavy or well written, tho the remake adds a lot of extra scene which has been nice. Its still kind of a crazy cliche storm, but its a sassy one with high production values and a SUPER well developed high difficulty battle system. The ways they make buffs and statuses and passives interact.. god, its beautiful! And in the remake you have a choice of way more elemental paths to customize, and can even ‘evolve’ moves mid battle. its like a limit break but you choose to turn one of your regular moves into a limit break and it stays that way for the rest of the battle! So you get advantages the longer the fight goes on, and the more damage you can take without dying. However the limit breaks are subject to the RNG so sometimes you get a bunch of buffs that arent actually useful for your selected move, and you basically waste your whole bar. Alas! ANYWAY LESS RAMBLING ABOUT HOW FUN THE GAME IS, YO

So yeah, nobody has a super developed personality or many scenes to show it off in. But still I LOVE NEW GRANDPA! He’s my favourite sort of thing: an evil grandpa that isnt evil. He’s your own personal mini evil! He’s got all the character traits of an evil scientist, apart from the bit where he’s on your side. And he gets to act as the comedic guy with all the vices, but still he remains loyal to you guys, and his whole moveset is supporting his friends, and i just LOVE HIM!!! *hug* I am a bit sad tho that he’s another different medic character, so you kinda have to choose between him and Veraduz. At least everyone still gets to appear in story scenes regardless of who’s in the party, so it doesnt really matter. Veraduz is still your super bff who gets the most screentime of everyone! OH, but actually ALSO a reason I love new grandpa!!! He becomes the guy who gets the second most scenes after Veraduz, and he’s like THE MOST IMPORTANT to the story! His introduction works REALLY well to make the early stages work a bit better. Before you were just journeying wildly with no real motive except ‘people are trying to kill me, keep running until this problem ceases to continue’. Now you meet a rogue scientist early on and he gives you a general goal and motive, you’re trying to find out what’s actually going on and he’s analyzing the different zombies you find along the way, showing you directions to find his laboratory eventually. He falls out of focus after he gives us this motive in the intro, but he still remains pretty useful in tutorialing how to use your new mutation specializations. And its justified that you get them cos he stuck a syringe of his latest crazy experiment into your neck. He’s helping!! In his own special way!! Seriously this is just WHY I LOVE HIM! He’s such a nice good hero man who 100% thinks like a sci fi villain, and the contrast makes for a lot of funny scenes. I legit thought he was gonna just be a temporary party member who backstabs you at the end of the chapter, i was SO GLAD that I was wrong! Ominous ambiguously evil man who never becomes evil ever is such a better trope! “Hey look that latest terrifying enemy is really damn cool, I’d love to cut it open. And genetically engineer a new and better zombie virus. And test it on you, specifically.” *does so* *and nothing but good things happen* *thanks grandpa*

FINAL GREMP RATING!

Personality - How much of a unique self this grandpa has, and how interesting. Stereotypical grandpa archetypes are still loveable, but it doesn’t exactly stand out above the rest!

Dr Herregods has the same sort of appeal as other fave characters of mine, like Charon. Except with even more appeal cos he actually does join the hero team! He’s a big eccentric that you wouldn’t usually expect for this kind of medic class gramps role! ‘Evil science man’ is kind of an archetype that’s often given to grandpas, but I mean you can’t say it lacks personality! I’m just... predictable!! I really love when the ‘mad scientist’ gets to turn good! ITS SUCH A GOOD PERSONALITY, DON’T LIMIT IT TO VILLAINS However Dr Herregods isn’t grumpy or sassy, he’s just more of a cheerful dude who really loves his job of making super zombies and is comedically oblivious to everyone else thinking its an evil hobby. That’s endearing in its own way! Nobody really gets a huge amount of dialogue or development in this game though, so take his rating with that in mind.

6/10

Design - How appealing does this grandpa look as a character? How endearing, how distinctive, how much does it suit him?

His design isn’t particularly new or interesting, he honestly just looks like the third stage of bugcatchers in pokemon.

However it’s still nice that he became a grandpa at all in this remake, when his original design was just this generic npc model.

3/10

Prominance - How big of a role this grandpa plays in the actual plot or gameplay.

This is actually where he excels! its so rare to find a good playable grandpa that isn’t like a super tiny plot role, or vice versa. And most of my faves are usually neither, and mad science grandpas especially tend to get the short end of the stick! I love him just cos he’s like if someone like Charon or Hojo got to be the hero of the story! Also he is REALLY USEFUL in a fight! Also DID I MENTION I LOVE THIS CHARACTER??

9/10

G R A N D P A -  Bunni’s very personal concept of what makes me want to adopt this grandpa. How well does he fill the void in the life of someone who had a shitty family devoid of loving guardian figures and projects way too much onto fictional characters?

OH MAN, I think if he was my actual grandpa we would have all sorts of crazy adventures together! And we totally have the same opinion on how monsters are HELLA AWESOME and it would be epic to gain super undead powers! Yo grandpa give me the super juice, I wanna shoot lightning from my zombie eyes!!! Also he’s just... like... GENUINELY GOOD! For once he’s not my guilty pleasure redemption fanfic dude who would never actually join the hero team in canon. This grandpa would legitimately be a caring friend! Even if he’s also a bit of an irresponsible space case. But seriously, DUDE, SAME! We’d be so bad if we became friends, nobody could stop us from making terrible life decisions to go poke giant monsters with sticks and chug mutagenic liquids

8/10  G R A N D P A

Literally the only reason he won’t get a 10 is the same as I mentioned above, nobody gets very much dialogue in this game so he’s just like a lil slice of perfection covered in a pile o headcanons.

Final Score: 26/40

[spicynbachili1]

A trip to Final Fantasy fan fest 2018

“Should you discover,” says the catfish, “everyone seems to be smiling round me.”

It’s true. This enormous fish individual has been waddling by means of crowds of people that grin whilst they duck beneath the beast’s large barbels. A number of individuals are taking pictures. I peer into the gaping mouth of the fish. Two human fingers immediately lurch out, gripping onto the creature’s lips from the within.

“I’m a namazu,” says Missy Allan, the 32-year-old girl within the costume. “It’s an enormous catfish… they usually’re usually actually dumb-looking, and I really like them… I assumed it could convey numerous happiness.”

Once I counsel that additionally it is barely terrifying, Missy is unfazed.

“That’s part of their pleasure.”

She stretches her hand out of the mouth to supply a parting handshake, her human limb showing from the maw of this googly-eyed creature, like a tongue.

That is the sort of unsettling marvel chances are you’ll witness on the Closing Fantasy XIV fan competition, a conference for the monster killers of the eight-year-old MMO, Closing Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. A get-together internet hosting 1000’s of gamers (though the passes round their necks insist they be known as “adventurers”).

The web universe that unites these followers is like many others. You discover enormous maps, go on world-saving quests, and band collectively to raid dungeons for loot. You dance round cones and circles projected on the ground to keep away from injury, a display screen busier than an Amazon warehouse staffed by bees. The story is drenched within the cheery anime tropes followers have come to anticipate from the sequence.

However this instalment additionally acts as a vortex for Closing Fantasy paraphernalia. Bits and items of the opposite worlds bleed into it. Kefka (the scary clown from Closing Fantasy VI) exhibits up for a struggle. You may play Triple Triad, the cardboard recreation loved by Squall and buddies in Closing Fantasy VIII. You may gamble within the Gold Saucer, a theme park from Closing Fantasy VII. This final crossover is thematically applicable, as a result of this 12 months’s fan fest is going on in Las Vegas.

Other than having an an overwhelmingly alliterative identify, the Closing Fantasy Fourteen Fan Pageant is equal components cute nerdery and fetishistic cat ears, a conference of moogles and magic. Cosplayers strut round like foam peacocks: a spiky dragoon, a vampiric elf, a moon goddess.

The primary corridor is a pit of noise and color. There’s an enormous cactuar. There’s an artwork exhibition. There’s a stage for internet hosting shows from the sport’s creators. And, in fact, there’s a chocobo racing recreation.

(Click on to play GIFs)

Within the very center of the corridor, surrounded by followers, there’s additionally a protracted wall the place gamers scribble their names.

Right here, for 2 days, a monk and a samurai who struggle side-by-side in a Free Firm (a participant group like a clan or guild) would possibly see one another for the primary time. However the massive deal of the weekend is the announcement of a brand new growth known as Shadowbringers. The primary corridor fills for the displaying of a brand new trailer. Afterwards, director and producer Naoki Yoshida arrives on stage, quickly joined by localisation chief, Michael-Christopher ‘Koji’ Fox, appearing as translator.

Yoshida is a smiling stage presence with a straightened fringe and fingers coated in metallic rings. The followers know him as “Yoshi P” and there’s applause between each small declaration he makes. At one level, the gang begins chanting: “Yo-shi P! Yo-shi P! Yo-shi P!” Till he redirects the reward to the dev workforce, and the chanting mutates. “Dev-team! Dev-team! Dev-team!” It’s the sort of viewers so charged with unbridled fanaticism that it’ll erupt into cacophonous applause at some good field artwork.

Yoshida goes by means of the upcoming options of the growth. There will likely be user-controlled farms. There will likely be dwarves and pixies and thrilling server redistribution (at this an unsettled murmur grips the gang). There will likely be dungeons and forests and cities and homes.

“And yet one more factor,” says Yoshida, in one in all his many crowd-taunting prospers.

“Blitzball!” shouts a person within the crowd, to in-joke laughter.

No, not blitzball. It’s a brand new playable race. The director reveals this by turning and displaying the again of his t-shirt to the gang. It’s a non-chalant Bugs Bunny. Everybody within the room cheers, as a result of it could possibly solely imply one factor: the attractive rabbits of Closing Fantasy XII, the Viera, are coming to the sport.

They’re placing on a present as a lot as making an announcement. At one level, the president and CEO of Sq. Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, comes on stage (to gasps and cheers) wearing a blue cape, wielding a mage’s employees. A jolly sketch ensues between the Japanese builders, one in all them taking part in an interfering CEO, the opposite a tight-lipped supervisor. The entire thing is sort of a pantomime. Did Matsuda simply announce a brand new blue mage class? Oh no he didn’t. Oh sure he did.

It’s a grand present, designed to tickle the feelings of precisely the sort of one who is keen to fly to Las Vegas and gown up as a moon goddess. However the bards and conjurers of this digital land weren’t at all times so completely satisfied. A few of them keep in mind darker instances.

Closing Fantasy XIV had a poor launch. Eight years in the past, gamers arrived (a lot of them migrating from the earlier MMO, Closing Fantasy XI) anticipating a wondrous new world of monsters and journey. As an alternative, they received a glitchy world of bugs, efficiency issues and complicated interfaces.

The elders of Sq. Enix ordered a full retreat. Naoki Yoshida turned the brand new director. They needed to reboot the entire thing. Three years later, it relaunched, sporting the subtitle: “A Realm Reborn”. It seems to have slowly recovered. At present, there are wholesome participant numbers, say Sq. Enix. Though the latest boast of “14 million gamers” is as deceptive as any studio’s massive quantity, because it contains trial accounts and inactive ones (“Be a part of an indeterminate variety of individuals unfold throughout 66 servers!” in all probability doesn’t lower it with the promoting division).

However these numbers matter little to the die onerous longears and cat individuals of the fan competition. They’re too busy racing chocobos to care, or getting into the “cactpot” raffle, or smashing an enormous hammer in a “take a look at your energy” carnival recreation.

A few of them are reaching out to the touch an enormous reproduction of the sport’s quick journey crystals.

This crystal matches in effectively in Vegas, town of facsimile. If there could be a 1:1 reproduction of Michelangelo’s David in Caesar’s Palace, why not an enormous shard of Aetheryte?

On the principle stage, there’ll quickly be a panel about lore, through which a whole bunch of individuals will assist create the flavour textual content for a brand new beast, with microphones handed round to take recommendations. The ensuing monster is a gargantuan liopleurodon with bone armour who eats tiny kings and wears their crowns. The gang known as it “the Vegetarian”, and based mostly on the laughs this suggestion obtained, I can report with confidence that it was a very good joke.

All of the whereas, that wall of signatures is changing into crowded. At first, gamers wrote their names beneath their server. Nevertheless it’s quickly change into a chaotic slab of cursive, with the severs – Cactaur, Hyperion, Ultros – misplaced among the many names.

On the foot of the wall, there’s a portrait surrounded by flowers and trinkets and snacks. A shrine to a long-eared warrior.

That’s unhappy, I feel, this MMO will need to have its personal Vile Rat, a useless participant commemorated by others. So I ask a close-by fan: who was this?

“It’s Haurchefant,” she says.

I frown. Her-osh-o-fan?

“Haurchefant!” she says once more, as if I had not heard of Jesus Christ.

Haurchefant Greystone wasn’t a useless participant in any case, however an aristocratic NPC knight. And amongst gamers he actually has a Messianic popularity. Within the story quests that pepper the MMO, he dies taking a magical spear for the participant character. And since everybody on this corridor performs the identical story, they had been all personally saved by him. He died, in order that we could stay.

Two Sq. Enix employees come to examine the shrine and its trove of goodies. There are Doritos, Nature Valley bars, half a loaf of bread, a handwritten letter (“I do know you might be with me,” reads one line. “I can really feel it”). There are even some greenback payments. I ask a staffer what they’ll do with all of it.

“We’ll take it again to the workplace,” he says, “and recreate it.”

As a lot love and enjoyable that’s bouncing between the partitions of the Rio, there are grievances too. Occasionally, an MMO will take in the issues of the actual world. In Closing Fantasy XIV, there’s a “housing disaster”.

In 2014, a patch added neighbourhoods full of homes to the world. A dungeon diver may now change into a house owner, as long as they’d about three million gil (the in-game foreign money) of their pockets. However on crowded servers, there weren’t sufficient plots to go round. Shortages imply that the paladins and rogues of this land now collect in residential districts each time a patch is because of add new homes. As quickly because the contemporary suburbs pop into the sport, there’s a literal race to purchase land. Two gamers informed me they solely received a home for his or her clan by exploiting an elaborate loophole. They purchased one other clan and inherited that group’s home, one thing you’re “not likely purported to do”.

“It’s important to nickel and dime,” stated one of many householders.

New suburbs full of homes have since soothed demand, and there are different measures to assist hold the housing market wholesome. Should you don’t log in for 30 days, for instance, your property will likely be repossessed. Nevertheless, it stays an issue, say these gamers.

This isn’t the one smudge of actuality to mark the unbelievable realm. Gamers are additionally working brothels in-game, as Kotaku reported final 12 months. There are pubs and houses populated with scantily clad cat ladies promoting naughty phrases to johns, and making artistic use of emotes to get busy.

“Huuuhh!?” says director Naoki Yoshida after I ask about this throughout a press Q and A. He appears stunned, however it’s onerous to consider the creators of the sport aren’t conscious of this most MMO of participant behaviours. I simply need to know the studio’s place on cybersex for gil. Do they quietly discourage this sort of factor? Or are they completely satisfied to show a blind eye to this erotic function taking part in?

“Can I make a really common response to this?” says Yoshida, through a translator. “In the beginning, earlier than you even begin taking part in the sport there needs to be a consumer settlement that pops up and you should have needed to test it off…

“So inside that consumer settlement there’s a clause that states that something that… breaks the legislation, any exercise or any remarks which might be made that should break the legislation or infringe on any kind of legal guidelines, for these gamers… there will likely be punishment… both that being your account being banned or… some sort of penalty will likely be imposed upon them.”

It’s a strict invocation of the legal guidelines of Eorzea, relatively than actual life legal guidelines (though maybe he’s reminding us of that too). Is cybersex actually that regarding? Even when it’s a consensual encounter between two grownup gamers?

“Regardless,” says Yoshida, “that’s nonetheless eligible for an account being banned.”

It possible doesn’t matter to roleplaying matrons and intercourse staff whether or not their methods are bannable or not, since it could take one of many individuals concerned within the attractive dialogue to report it. However whether or not it’s in opposition to the foundations or not, soiled discuss is one purpose why numerous roleplayers hold logging in. Nonetheless, it’s a really sober and severe reply from a person who, lower than 24 hours from now, will appear on stage dressed in a flashy Kimono and singing an indignant rock track. Sure, the competition’s finale was considerably surreal.

This rock live performance featured The Primals, a band made up of assorted builders. The sound director is on lead guitar. The top of localisation is on vocals. Yoshida appeared as a particular singer, wearing a Kyoto-made Kimono with a white tiger emblazoned on it. There’s something surreal (and but very Closing Fantasy) about seeing the pinnacle of a studio performing what quantities to a really costly session of karaoke. However the crowd loves it. They’re one massive holler, signing alongside, glowing batons swinging in unison to tunes all of them know from repeated boss fights. The entire state of affairs could be cult-like, if it wasn’t so adorably geeky.

With the live performance completed, the fanfest is over and the cat ears have to be put away for one more 12 months. Closing Fantasy XIV might be not the MMO for me. However there’s extra taking place on the earth of Eorzea than I may have imagined. The worship of useless NPCs, the housing issues, the strangers cyber-rutting within the corners of fantasy taverns. But alongside all that intricacy and intimacy is a recreation that calls for the love of holy knights, barbarians and even catfish. Once I consider Closing Fantasy XIV any further, I’ll keep in mind the namazu. It’s massive, it’s barely unsettling, and I don’t actually perceive it. Nevertheless it makes lots of people smile.

Disclosure: Sq. Enix paid for this journey.

from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/a-trip-to-final-fantasy-fan-fest-2018/

[doctordouzan-blog]

An Intro to Roleplaying: Douzan’s Advice

Good day, everyone! For the sake of convenience, we’ll pretend this post was written by Douzan, even though it was actually written by his Scholar, a nameless face behind a computer. (Kayla. My name is Kayla. Pleasure to meet you!) I understand that it can be difficult to seperate the IC from the OOC, even off-stage such as this, but I am sure we’ll manage. I shudder to think that I may accidentally godmod because of this post, but one can only carry on and hope that no retcons are required, a dastardly thought. Did any of those bolded terms confuse you? If so, that is precisely why I am making this post. I’ve been roleplaying for around 15 years now, and over that time, I’ve gained what I feel like could be some valuable insight* for newer players.  *Please note that I am not suggesting I am perfect. I still have quite a bit to learn, and every day I learn more.  Today, I’ll be writing a glossary of sorts of terms I’ve come across while role-playing that can be valuable for those who are just learning. Feel free to share this, and of course, send me Asks on any additional questions you might have, I’d love to answer them.  I should also note that a lot of these terms have changed and shifted since I started RPing. For example, OP/Godmoding/Power-playing have all been lumped into one definition nowadays, whereas I knew them all as separate terms. For the sake of convenience, I will be using the terms I am familiar with, but I HAVE cross-referenced a few terms with a couple of popular RP definition sites, and am aware of some of the changes. RP: Stands for “Roleplay”. I.. Must I really describe this term? You should know! Very well then. It is pronounced “ahr-pee”.  Roleplaying is acting as a character that is not you yourself. An RPer interacts with other RPers around the world to write out scenes from their favorite books, movies, animes, shows, games, comics, etc., or even original material. This can be done over text on mediums such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Proboards, AIM, Skype, text messages; or even through IRL interactions such as LARPing. It can be compared to acting on stage on a theater, except there is no script. The RPers build the story as they go, instead of following a script. RPing: Stands for “Roleplaying”. The act of participating in a roleplay. RPer: Stands for “Roleplayer”. Someone who participates in a roleplay. LARP: Stands for “Live-Action Roleplay”. It is pronounced as “lahrp”. An RP that takes place IRL, usually with props, costumes, etc. Obviously not necessary on Twitter, but since it comes up sometimes, figured I’d define it for you. LARPing: Stands for “Live-Action Roleplaying”. The act of participating in a LARP. LARPer: Stands for “Live-Action Roleplayer”. Someone who participates in LARP. IRL: Stands for “In Real Life”. Used to describe events that happen in reality, and not online. IC: Stands for “In Character”. This is the term used for when you are playing your character true to the personality, usually in events that can be considered canon to your story or growth.  OOC: Stands for “Out of Character”. This is used to describe when the person behind the account speaks instead, sometimes as commentary, sometimes to discuss direction for a scene, sometimes because you just fuckin’ feel like it. Often it is symbolized by: (( Speech )), ( words ), [ text ], #OOC more text.  Off-stage: A fun little term used in some RP circles to describe when RPers play their characters in an OOC setting, but IC. This is usually done as a joke and is often used to blow off steam or have fun. It is rarely, if ever, considered canon.  Canon: Something that is true to the universe. Some examples of canon events: Captain America underwent a super soldier program in Marvel; Yukimura accidentally felt up the MC in SLBP; Kari was the eighth child found in Digimon; Doctor Douzan was friends with the MC’s father in SLBP.  AU: Stands for “Alternate Universe”. RP is usually considered an AU as players create their own events that are not canon to the universe they take place in. Canon Characters: Characters that exist already within the universe. Examples include: Wolverine (X-Men), Doctor Douzan (SLBP), Ripley (Alien), Ash Ketchum (Pokemon), Sam Winchester (Supernatural), Evie Frye (Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate), Princess Zelda (Legend of Zelda). These characters are often played by RPers who attempt to portray the character as close to the canon material as possible, even when in AU events.  Custom Characters: Characters that have been created to interact with the canon characters of that universe, but are not actually apart of the canon events. Check out the links at the top of my page: Bio: The Merchant, Bio: Mirakire, Bio: Masami; for examples of custom characters. (More will be added soon.)  Cameo/Face-Claim: The act of choosing an unrelated character’s image to portray a custom character. Example: I use Arsene Lupin from Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth for Hajime’s cameo. (Please check out the bios at the top of my blog for more examples.) NPC: Stands for “Non-Playable Character”. A gaming term used to describe sprites/characters in games that the player cannot control, it is used in RP to describe inconsequential characters that are not necessary for long term. Examples include: The merchant your character interacts with in one post to buy bread; Bandits that attack your character while on the road; Templar soldiers who attack your Assassin character but are dispatched quickly; A random opponent in a children’s card game that your character is watching another character duel against. These characters are hardly ever played for real and are usually just there to set a scene or fill a necessity for a few posts. Scholar/Player/Mun: Slang terms for RPer. While many RPers on Tumblr and Twitter use ‘mun’, I’m old-fashioned and stick with Scholar/Player, as I feel it makes more sense. Plus, I’m old. (Plus the word ‘mun’ is to me like ‘moist’ is to others. I just can’t stand it.)   Ship/Shipping: Favoring a set (or more for polygamous pairings, as is common in settings like Sengoku) of characters for a romantic relationship.  Smut/ERP: Erotic RP. If you are under 18, please do not participate in erotic RP. It involves sex, and if someone is caught ERPing/Smutting with you, it can have grave consequences with them. Please do not participate in these unless you are old enough. Seriously. You are playing with people’s lives. People can go to jail for that shit.  FTB: Stands for “Fade-to-Black”. Often in television shows, comics, movies, etc., when an erotic scene was occuring, the camera would pan away, or the panel would turn dark, to avoid showing anything truly erotic. Performing a ‘FTB’ is required on public platforms such as Tumblr, Twitter, and Proboards, as it is against their terms of service to display openly sexual acts/sexy things like that shit there. It is also respectful to the other RPers, who may not want to see that sort of action on their feed. FTBs are usually picked up and continued in DMs/PMs.  DMs/PMs: Stands for “Direct Messages” and “Private Messages” respectfully. This is sending a message only to one party, or to a specific group, instead of remaining public. Used for casual conversations, discussing plots and spoilers, ERP/Smut, and more.  Public Feed: Everyone can see it, nothing is hidden, all is forgiven. (Except not.) So those are some of your basic terms. Every medium has their own set of special terms. Tumblr, for example, also has Magic Anons, Autoplay, Drabbles, One-Line. Proboards has One-Line, Admin, Mod. A lot of platforms have crossover terms as well, but we won’t be getting into all of them.  We will, however, get into some important terms: The bad ones.  Mary Sue/Gary Stu: A character that is perfect. They are good at everything. They are beautiful, smart, talented, flawless. They have powers, abilities or skills that normally are limited to canon characters. They claim that canon characters are attracted to them. They usually have a convoluted storyline that involves a relationship to a canon character that is not plausible. They rarely ever have character growth, never have real flaws, and are honestly some of the most boring pieces of shit ever. They are a virus, a plague and must be stamped out.  Self-Insertion: Creating a character solely to insert one’s self into the RP. Instead of creating a new character with their own ups and downs, the RPer creates a character that is a mirror image of their own self and tries to live vicariously through them. OP*: Stands for “overpowered”. An OP character is one who is far too strong for the situation, or for the type of character. It is a lesser version of godmoding, but is just as annoying, as these characters are nearly impossible to beat or best in a fight, and will go out of their way to ensure they can never be beaten.  Power-Play: The act of controlling another person’s character. A lesser version of godmoding, but still fucking annoying. A power-player will write the actions of another character outside of their control. This is often done accidentally by new players who are used to writing their own short stories, or have little experience in RPing. If an RPer is power-playing, a gentle reminder or request to stop writing your characters action is usually all it takes to end it. There are many players who don’t realize that writing actions for you is considered disrespectful and rude. Try to be gentle when correcting them. Unless they start godmoding. In which case, call that shit out. Godmoding: A character who’s powers are nearly impossible to limit. These are characters who claim they are invulnerable, impervious, impossible to destroy. They override other characters abilities or nullify them without the consent of another player. They fucking suck. Don’t be this douchebag. *OP can also be used for “Original Poster”, or the person who started the RP.  Roleplaying a great activity that can bring people together, as well as improving literacy and creative thinking for all those involved. It encourages teamwork, as you must trust your fellow RPers to come up with their own ideas and aid with your plots while you push forward with theirs. For novelists such as myself, RPing is a way to explore new characters in new settings and expand our knowledge of how different types of characters, personalities, and events can play out, leading to more realistic and believable writing.  RPing can also be therapeutic, as it can allow people to face issues they could not have faced on their own. Someone who suffers from a traumatic event can use a character in an RP to come to terms with those emotions, while many who suffer depression and anxiety use RP as a way to de-stress and cope with their problems.  RPing however, can also be addictive. It is an interactive story that is always changing, a constant new mystery around every corner. If you choose to RP, please be mindful that all your fellow RPers are real people with real lives, and that your life, your health, your work, come first. RPing is fun, but it is not a priority. If something in your life is beginning to suffer, such as your marriage, your work, your friendships, then it may be time to step back from the RP scene and focus on your life once more.  Got more questions, more terms you would like to see me define in my own uniquely Douzan way? Drop me a line here. I’ve decided to share some of my own stories about RPing, to share some life lessons. Coming up are:  -”The Gundam Regret” -”Kuroda, Tsunade, and the Best Boyfriend Ever (Not.)” -”When Your Demon from Dragon Age is Ivy from Soul Calibur (Wiki Edition!)” -”All My Characters are Besties and Text All The Time!” -”*Giggle* *Laughs* *Snorts* *Giggles* *Chuckles* *Laughs softly* (...What am I Replying to?!)” -”I Got Out of Hell and Turned Super Saiyajin! (All By Myself!)” -And many more!  If you’re interested in seeing one of these stories first, drop me a line here or Twit at me on Tweeter. Otherwise I’ll pick one at random and write about that next.  Until next time, drink your tea and don’t ask me medical questions! 

[nazih-fares]

NieR Automata is the kind of videogame project that a dream team salvaged from a pending doom. Determined to offer the series a sequel exceeding all the expectations of its fans, the experience is coupled with a solid gameplay capable of attracting the attention of newcomers and people who never even heard of NieR or even Drakengard. With creator Yoko Taro at the directing reign, the vision of producer Yosuke Saito (known form Dragon Quest) and the musical genius of composers Keiichi Okabe and Keigo Hoashi, all of them returning in their respective roles, this NieR: Automata already ticked the boxes for fans. If the original NieR of 2010 recieved mixed reviews, this sequel is led mainly by PlatinumGames (Bayonetta, Vanquish, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, etc.), and input from the original team mentioned above as well as Square Enix’s Akihiko Yoshida to handle character design (Final Fantasy). With all these Japanese talents, you would expect that they’ll bring all the needed ingredients to cook a really good game, am I right? Let’s find out in this extensive review.

The story of NieR Automata takes place on post-apocalyptic Earth thousands of years after the events of the first NieR game. Driven from the surface of the earth by an army of machines sent by a mysterious alien race, humanity has found refuge on the Moon. All hopes of regaining the planet are in the hands of YoRHa, led from an orbital base that sends battalions of androids to lead the front against the invader.

Nier: Automata puts you into the role of YoRHa Android 2B, sent on a mission to take back some strategic spots on Earth from the machines alongside the 9S reconnaissance unit. From the first minutes, 2B is exactly what you’d expect from a heroine (or hero as they are supposedly genderless): strong, assured and entirely dedicated to its task. The highly sexualized look and design of 2B, combined with the grace of its animations creates a successful contrast even with the lack of facial expressions (it’s an android after all). On the other hand, the more adolescent appearance of 9S fit its more enthusiastic and curious character, and helps solidify the relationship within this duo, with many dialogues and conversation which are sometimes humorous, but often philosophical on the origin of the machines. Despite the thick headband tied around their eyes, both 2B and 9S manage to show emotions and a sense of rare humanity in which I assume Yoko Taro enjoyed adding his touch. Plus on top of all, like its predecessor, NieR Automata is not a game to be stored away once you see the end credits, as the game has different storylines you can play as later on.

As soon as the game launch, you’re embarked in its constant identity crisis. If it looks like an action-RPG, NieR Automata does not deprive itself of becoming a Shoot them Up, a platformer or even a Twin Stick Shooter on many occasions. These variations of gameplay are achieved through camera angle with an absolute natural transition. From the variation of the game styles to the choreography of the combat and clashes, everything is incredibly fluid in the NieR: Automata experience, full of PlatinumGames’ know-how in terms tension and suspense. The Japanese studio manages to create a balance between a relatively simple handling and technical enough for lovers of the genre. Two buttons to attack, yet many combos to pull off, alternating between the two weapons of the characters, while managing the distance in terms of shooting, a gameplay that is a big part of the undeniable success of this game without being as demanding as of a certain Bayonetta in advanced difficulty.

Influenced by From Software’s productions, the death of your characters is handled by the transfer of his “robotic consciousness” to another body that is identical to the previous one. However, you will have to retrieve your chips left on your inanimate automaton or transform your empty carcass into an ally capable of fighting at your side for a short time. If you play online, it will even be possible to land in the “shoes” of other player’s corpse and help them out. Note that there’s many other references and ideas from Dark Souls as well, including the fact that you can send messages with predefined words to the game servers, for people to find when they see one of your corpse in their game.

While NieR Automata at first sight and impression makes you believe it’s an action game, the title slowly shows off its other RPG elements, including exploration of an open world filled with NPCs, quests, merchants and secrets to be found under the rubble of an earth with no human life. Once the introductory chapter ends, you will make your way to a small resistance camp stashed between two buildings in ruins in the middle of a city invaded by robots and mother nature. It is here that 2B and 9S pick up their first missions and come back regularly enough to stock up on consumables or improve their weapons with the different materials and loot collected around the world (and let me tell you that there will be a lot of stuff to pick up). Since everything refreshes during zone transitions in NieR: Automata, the game is perfect for loot-hungry players, in order to farm enemies, to find the best drops and materials, or just boost your experience and level up your weapons and abilities.

Nevertheless, don’t count on roaming a universe as vast as those of Horizon: Zero Dawn or even The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (the first two mighty open world adventure of 2017). The world of NieR: Automata is only a handful of open zones spread out around a ruined city full of robots with sadly a lot of empty space. Very early on, the player unlocks the ability to fast travel from one point to another on the map, accentuating all the more the feeling of evolving in a universe cut in the manner of a giant theme park. Nevertheless each of the environments has its particular charm: a desert in which you can surf down its dunes like Journey, a vast forest with mood of a certain Ico game, and abandoned and rusted amusement park, and so much more to fully emphasize on this post-apocalyptic Earth setting.

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It is enough, however, to play couple of main or secondary quests to really notice that this desolation is masked. The world of NieR: Automata is filled with an intelligent storyline, funny encounters and philosophical reflections on the nature and condition of machines. Prepare to laugh, get emotional, and to constantly question what you consider is right or wrong in this universe. If things are finally quite varied on the side missions side, you’ll still find some good old fetching quests that do are not necessarily the most interesting ones to play. On the other hand, the entire production shines much more during original activities more like urban races or even small puzzles to create variations in its rhythm of play.

In general, Yoko Taro and his team(s) deliver a real reflection of mechanical consciousness with these robotic figures capable of emotion, fear, and even love. Once the first storyline is finished in roughly 10 to 15 hours (depending on how much you want to accomplish), NieR: Automata invites the player to re-launch the game under the perspective of another protagonists. This is done throughout five different chapters full of surprises, with new variations of gameplay within a title that takes a delight to deconstruct itself. While not all of them are equal in terms of investment in character and gameplay, the one dedicated to 9S is a joy, and all in all rarely did an action oriented game made us think so much.

Now that the praise is over, it is now time to point the finger at some of the shortcomings of the title starting with its dated technical aspect. In general, it seems like PlatinumGames and Square Enix have made the choice to sacrifice many effects, shaders and other detailed resolutions of textures to aim for fluidity. Simply put, the game runs at 60 frames per second on both the classic PlayStation 4 and the Pro, but the difference will be noticed with a respective 900p and 1080p with a few extra effects. Even with that, NieR: Automata regularly seems to come straight from the PlayStation 3 era, with moderately poor quality settings, lower scale vegetation, elements popping in the distance, and much more. But on the pure technical side, the game succeeds in compensating for this weakness thanks to an artistic direction full of charm and originality, accentuating the strong sense of nostalgia for this world, which is certainly desolate, but also full of mystery and melancholy.

For those of you relying on modern days auto-saves in an Action RPG, you’re going to be let down. The game is quite traditional in that sense, with saving locations scattered all over the world, which can sometimes become frustrating when it comes to repeating an entire fight sequence that took you 20 minutes of play to finish. This is especially annoying as well when bugs arrive, with for example in my playthrough, some NPCs just wouldn’t continue on with their dialogue, forcing me to re-launch the game to remedy the problem and continue with the quest. The PC version of the game, confirmed for March 17, could refine certain technical angles but I don’t expect any sort of massive change in terms of quality.

What better way to conclude this review than evoking the thrill of pleasure felt when listening to the soundtrack of this NieR Automata. Already behind the magic of the themes of the first NieR and Drakengard 3, composers Keiichi Okabe and Keigo Aoshi gave use one of the most beautiful compositions of the modern video game. Borrowing classical music, lyrical fanfare supported by the soft tones of singer Emi Evans, the music is a massive player in terms of shaping the universe of the game. Sometimes soothing as the theme given to the resistance camp, it can become mechanical and brutal in other instances, reminding us of soundtracks from Ghost in the Shell, the first NieR and more.

  Nier: Automata was reviewed using a PlayStation 4 digital code of the game provided by Square Enix. The game is planned to release on PC this year. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published.

More than a successful sequel, NieR: Automata is a gem with multiple flavors for all sort of players. NieR Automata is the kind of videogame project that a dream team salvaged from a pending doom.

[entergamingxp]

Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection

The Ezio Collection is still a notable absence but Ubisoft continues to bring its back catalogue of Assassin’s Creed titles onto Nintendo Switch, this time with The Rebel Collection – combining the last two last-gen series entries into one release. Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and AC Rogue are now available on Switch with all DLC included. It’s a whopping 20GB install in total, so what does this actually deliver? Are we getting a mildly upgraded last-gen experience or a hybrid release with some of PS4 and Xbox One’s enhancements?

First up, I think it’s worth stressing that it’s a genuine pleasure to see these games again. Black Flag re-invigorated the series, adding an emphasis on ship-to-ship battling, taking the series from parkour to large scale naval warfare. Calm coral blue bay areas quickly turn to stormy seas – a battleground beholden to wave deformation. It’s exhilarating to watch and looks wonderful in both games, which are well-delivered on Switch and in many respects, superior in play compared to the PlayStation 3 version.

Yes, they are ports – but some thought has gone into the conversions. Quality of life improvements are made, for example. The HUD is adjusted, HD Rumble is supported and there’s also the ability to use the Joy-Cons’ motion controls for aiming. If you liked the approach to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 3 Switch port, this follows suit. In terms of basic rendering specs, that means you get an impressive upgrade over last-gen’s native 720p resolution, with both Black Flag and Rogue delivering a dynamic 1080p when docked. Standard 1920×1080 is the upper bounds there, but resolution will drop in intense scenes.

In naval warfare and in dense forest spots, the lowest I measured is around 1600×900 in Black Flag. For Rogue I’ve counted a little lower as the worst point, at 1472×828. However, on balance it’s surprising how much of the experience remains at the target 1080p. Also impressive is that the portable experience is mostly fixed at 1280×720 to match the screen’s native resolution, and while we didn’t pick out any DRS in the action, it may well be there in extreme cases. All round, the port is competent where it needs to be. The resolution improvement over last-gen is clear and the wobbly 20-60fps unlocked frame-rate of the older games is gone with a more preferable capped 30fps in place instead.

The full Digital Foundry video low-down on Assassins Creed: The Rebel Collection for Nintendo Switch.

Dynamic resolution scaling seems to be doing a good job here in stabilising performance. While it’s not a clean, locked, properly paced 30fps for the entirety of the experience (as it was on PlayStation 4) the performance level is mostly there and only drops sporadically – and even then, we’re still in the high 20s. Black Flag – the star of the show – is more stable overall than Rogue, but the performance outlook overall is sound enough. The same situation applies to the mobile experience, which is arguably better still. There seems to be a better lock to the target resolution and while performance is not perfect, it’s even closer to a stable 30fps.

In terms of visual features, the conversion team had two directions it could pursue. The final AC titles for PS3 and Xbox 360 were designed to be cross-generational in nature. Black Flag launched on all systems in 2013, with specific upgrades reserved for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One – so the question is really how Switch’s visual feature set slots in. Well, similar to the Assassin’s Creed 3 Switch port, we’re mostly in last-gen territory here – though it’s curious to see that the new conversion seems to have a less refined anti-aliasing resolution than PlayStation 3.

However, the Switch rendition of the engine delivers higher quality ambient occlusion, better texture filtering and superior shadows all-round. The textures are the same, as is vegetation quality, while NPC counts are perceptibly a match. Factoring in the additional resolution on top of that, we’re very much looking at an enhanced last-gen game in visual returns to the point where even reflection quality is a match between them, which was a distinct improvement with the current-gen console iterations of these games.

Only when we stack up the Switch games against PlayStation 4 do we start to see the limitations of the Switch port. The higher resolution textures are gone – which were likely too much for the 3.5GB of usable VRAM on Switch. Equally, materials on character models are a clear step up on PS4, as are the improved screen-space reflections, motion blur, and effects like rain. A form of tessellation is also used on rocks too, which Switch misses out on. Plus of course, the interactive plant-life of the remaster – with physics based properties – now sits idle Switch, just as it did on the last-gen consoles. The extra bling would have been nice, of course, but in all other respects, the Switch port is feature-complete and I’m happy with the package overall.

However, there is one noticeable cut-back that I do find problematic. Compared to all other releases, audio is compromised – just as it was in Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered. It’s mainly the compression on recorded dialogue that’s the problem: put some headphones on, as I did, and it sticks out as being of a lower bit-rate, more so than I noticed on other versions. This is something to bear in mind if you’ve a keen ear or if you play with Switch plumbed into a decent speaker system. Otherwise, through the Switch’s own integrated speakers it does hold muster.

All things considered, I’d call The Rebel Collection a win overall. The resolution is a huge increase on the last-gen versions, better suiting today’s living room displays, while performance is closer in nature to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases. The games themselves are excellent and Switch itself sees these great games reborn as excellent handheld experiences, where they still feel fresh and exciting. It’s also a new lease of life for Rogue in particular, which was overshadowed somewhat – for better or worse – by the other AC 2014 release, Assassin’s Creed Unity.

What lies ahead for the series on Switch is potent. For ports, the only way forward is backwards, towards The Ezio Collection – which has already made an appearance on PS4 and Xbox One. To see the whole Assassin’s Creed lineage on this handheld would be great, no doubt, but what I’d really like to see would be a bespoke Switch release, built from the ground up with the system’s strengths in mind. PlayStation Vita had its own moment to shine with AC3 Liberation and surely by this point, Switch has done more than enough to warrant its own series entry. For now though, The Rebel Collection is a great way to check out a rightly celebrated era of Assassin’s Creed history – a ‘remaster’ of sorts for living room play, but a release that really comes into its own as an excellent portable experience.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/assassins-creed-the-rebel-collection/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=assassins-creed-the-rebel-collection