#you can talk about how you're just supporting the devs all you want

[calldres]

its a little disheartening to remember how many people in my social circles, and even a lot of online friends talked about how they're never gonna touch an activision blizzard product again once the news about the insane workplace abuse broke out. even to this day they get more lawsuits and more news comes out about the horrific shit that happens in their studios.

and those same people are now talking about how much they're loving diablo 4. i see you

[paleopinesofficial]

An important update to our Paleo Pines Community🦖💙😞

Transcript Below;

Paleo Pines Needs Your Help

A lot of you have been asking what’s next for Paleo Pines and we wanted to provide our community with an update on the challenges we are facing. The sad truth is, the future is uncertain. 

For the better part of this year we’ve been working behind the scenes to create a plan for the next iteration of Paleo Pines, filled with stunning new regions, quirky new NPCs, plenty more adorable dinosaurs, plus eggs, babies and - yes - multiplayer. The job after launch seemed simple - listen to our community, provide a roadmap full of updates and DLC to ensure that our players can continue to enjoy the existing world… and double-down on that enjoyment with the plan for bigger, better, shinier Paleo Pines for you to enjoy with friends and family.

We've been searching high and low for a production partner, one that felt your love and passion to help us bring the next Paleo Pines to life. On several occasions in our journey, we were within a few small steps of the finish line, only to have circumstances beyond our control cause the future to fall through.

This isn't happening just to us. It seems the whole indie game scene is facing a sudden drying up of publishing and investment opportunities. Thanks to the unwavering dedication of our small team and the massive love from all of you, we've been able to support the first year of Paleo Pines on a shoestring budget. 

We’ve managed to keep the lights on… until now. Unless we can find a partner who is keen to see the Paleo Pines universe grow, we won’t be able to keep our team together for much longer. 

So, we’re making our situation public. Here's how you can help:

Do you know a publisher/investor who would be a great partner for Paleo Pines 2? If you're a serious publisher or investor and are interested in seeing a production plan, financial model, game design document and more, please reach out to kevin@italicpig.com. (By the way, Paleo Pines isn’t the only property we’re working on... Our talented team has a diverse collection of small, medium and large scale projects, for PC, console and mobile. If you’re looking for something fun and a little bit different, get in here.)

Can you help in smaller ways? Every little bit helps! Here are a few ways you can directly support the devs:

Have you got our DLC yet? We've just released our very first Halloween DLCs – a great way to support us while getting more gameplay for yourself.

Still playing the demo? Are we on your Wishlist? Please consider buying the full game today, or in the next sale. We promise it'll bring you hours of dino-tastic joy! 

Befriend a Paleo Pines plushie. These adorable creatures aren't just cute, our portion of the sales goes towards development. Our latest, Boo, the albino Styracosaurus, is available now. Our previous plushies helped fund our new Halloween DLCs and free update.

Order Paleo Pines merchandise. We’ve got dozens of fun items celebrating your favourite dinos available in time for gifting this year.

Even if you can't offer financial support, you can still be a hero! Share this post with anyone who might be interested in helping. Wishlist us, buy the game, talk about how it makes you feel, and share share share. The power of community is real, and every share brings us closer to making more Paleo Pines!

The team here can't express enough gratitude to the incredible Paleo Pines community. You've been with us through every step of this amazing journey, from the demo launch to the release last September, and through our adorable plushie collaborations with Makeship. You've become more than players and we couldn't have imagined building this world with a kinder, more supportive group.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us on this roller coaster of a year since launch, and your patience and understanding with our current situation. Hopefully with your help, this won’t be the end of the Paleo Pines adventure.

Lots of love, The Paleo Pines Team

[faeiri-tft]

PLEASE do the toontown online rant i want it so badly

this post kinda got away from me, and by "got away from me" i mean this 3000 word toontown rant is Part One. there will be a Part Two to this later in which i actually talk about the fanservers i wanted to talk about. anyway let's go

toontown online (tto) was a children's mostly-turn-based subscription MMO released in 2003. after a few years of obviously being on life support, disney gave a one-month notice that tto (and several other games) would be closing on september 19th, 2013. on the same day the game closed, the fan-run server toontown rewritten (ttr) was announced (with multiple other fanservers/fangames/reimaginings being established since), and is a few months away from outliving the original game

see, one thing about tto that allowed fanservers to crop up so quickly and easily was that it had, um, interesting choices. very interesting choices. like, "kids could use a code injector to turn their backyards into giant mashed-together nightmarescapes"-level choices

(loose video description: a rabbit toon running around a chaotic mismash of rooms, obstacles, and npcs that Should Not Be There. audio caption: Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life".)

but ok let's talk about the actual game first.

toontown online (tto)

the game starts with you creating your player character - you can pick from eventually-9 species, a couple body types, and 2 dozen preset colors. the gender code is a spaghetti nightmare but you won't learn this until the fanservers come about so don't worry about it. you're then taken to the Toontorial, which explains maybe 20% of the game's mechanics before setting you loose into the main game

the toontorial also gives you the basic "plot", such as it is: Toontown is suddenly* under attack by a bunch of boring businessrobots called the Cogs. their goal is to turn toontown into a dreary gray featureless corporate hell; their business activities are so boring that they're physically painful to be around. luckily, they can't take a joke, so the toons have figured out how to defeat them: by playing pranks on them until they laugh so hard they Explode

*originally, the game installer had a little animation giving a backstory for the Cogs' creation. this was never referenced in game, removed pretty quickly, and i think even the devs kinda forgot it existed

that's...pretty much the whole story! in that context, your toon progresses through all of toontown, helping some mostly-pretty-interchangeable shopkeepers, reclaiming buildings from the cogs, eating ice cream, etc. occasionally, the cogs would Come Up With New Tricks (read: major content update) and the toons would Find A Way To Fight Back (read: same major content update). that was the closest thing to Plot, unless you count "the devs scheduled a bunch of invasions of high-tier cogs right before the game's closure". but...i doubt most the kids really expected a Plot. mickey mouse was there

the gameplay:

the Free Account

there were two...pretty different approaches to playing toontown online. when the game launched, there was a 3-day free trial to the entire game, after which you got kicked entirely until you subscribed. at some point, this was changed so that the first area, Toontown Central (TTC), was Always Free - you could do all of that area's quests/"taskline" and limited activities, indefinitely, and in theory this would make you beg your parents for the rest of the game

i have no idea if this actually got more subscriptions or not. from what i can tell it just spawned more warrior cats

(source)

there were. a Lot of warrior cats. there were some other social activities, too, such as Fashion Shows (with your limited range of clothes) and Begging Subscribed Players To Summon Cog Buildings To TTC and Getting Chat Banned. ...however, as one of the subscription kids i didn't really interact with this side of the game, so i'm not the best person to talk about it

2. the Paid Account

mmm look at those crisp clear graphics. hell yes

a subscription account gave you access to this whole map, along with all these areas' tasklines. to progress through the game, you must complete a variety of "ToonTasks" for the Toon Resistance (it's called that. their catchphrase is "Toons of the World, Unite!". you were giving disney money for this). these reward you by increasing your max health (your "Laff Points"), slowly unlocking more combat options, and sending you to different, higher-difficulty areas of toontown

some of these tasks were...longer than others. generally, though, they all boiled down to: "just go fight some cogs"

combat:

(source)

toontown battles are turn-based: the players use their attacks ("gags") first, and then any surviving cogs attack you with, usually, office equipment and puns thereof (unless the cog is e.g. a Loan Shark, in which case they can just fucking bite you). if you defeat a cog, it explodes; if the cog defeats you, you "go sad" and are sent back to the safety of the playground, lose your gag inventory, and can't leave until you heal.

early on, most your battles are 1v1, but later on almost everything is a multiplayer 4-ish-v-4.

an...interesting feature here in the game's early days was that you could only Type Your Own Words to someone who shared their "friend code" with you IRL. otherwise, you had to use this thing:

(source)

you had a set list of phrases you could string together, which generally covered most the things you wanted to say. but it could get frustrating when you wanted to have a real conversation with your toontown friends! so...as the source above mentions, people obviously found ways around the system. turns out that if you let players move objects around their houses, they will use that to Draw Letters and pass their friend code along regardless

eventually - before the warrior cats, of course - disney presumably realized this system was pretty goofy (🥁) , so the game got a real chat, albeit one that functioned on a very strict whitelist. my favorite is that it didn't let you type numbers, however you could just say won too tree for hive etc. like. disney i really don't know what to tell you. anyway

(isn't he charming)

cogs come in levels 1-12, with levels displayed above their heads, and as you'd expect their damage output and HP increase with their level. however, the game doesn't...actually show you cog HP? instead they have a little colored light on their chest that fades from green to red until they explode. you see numbers on all the damage you do, and you see your own HP/laff, but never the cogs'. also lategame cogs are Too Tall For You To See Their Level once they line up for battle (which isn't actually that bad but it's funny). there's a formula for HP per level, but it's never mentioned in-game. i guess someone can teach it to you but then you have to watch them type "a level tin cog has won tree too health" and is that really worth it

(as you can tell i just…don't get this. "my kid is practicing arithmetic with toontown!" - marketing angle expressly denied by god. the stealth edutainment was right there)

anyway! in theory, you have seven base combat options ("gag tracks"), which combine in a variety of ways:

toon-up, which restores your teammates' health;

trap, which does guaranteed high damage but only if someone uses lure;

lure, which stuns the cogs for a few turns and is the only way to make trap work

sound, which does low damage to every cog;

throw, which does medium-high-ish damage to one cog; multiple throws combined give percentage combo damage, and hitting a lured cog will also add percentage "knockback damage";

squirt, which is exactly like throw but less damage;

and drop, which does high damage but cannot hit lured cogs, and has low accuracy unless you hit the cog with something else first

each gag track has 6 levels, which you unlock by using that gag track a bunch. you can't carry as many of the high levels with you - i mean, putting one piano in your backpack makes perfect sense, but two is just silly, right

a few years into the game's lifespan, level 7s were added - these were huge AOE that you could regain with every 500 track EXP. there was also something called "organic gags" to promote the please-log-in-every-day gardening system

every player starts with throw and squirt, and throughout the game you slowly unlock four more gag tracks. your choices are permanent: once you have your six tracks, you're locked out of the seventh forever.

in theory, all of this opens up a huge variety of combat options!

in practice, the battle strategy looks something like this:

use sound

as mentioned, almost all of lategame will be 4v4 battles, which means sound will almost always outdamage everything on earth. you don't even need four foghorns (the highest normal sound gag) to break 200 AOE damage, and the highest health a cog EVER has is 200*. and two of the boss battles can reward you with gag restocks and heals that you can use mid-battle with no consequences (other than having to grind for those rewards a bunch). and failing THAT, you can just...ration your foghorns and take 2 turns to clear a set of cogs, interspersed with healing.

(*okay there was something called "v2.0 cogs" but they were...strange, and we just used sound anyway)

sure, once level 7s were added you could use those occasionally. and you could fall back on lure+throw if you didn't want to use your sound restocks. but even then, for most of tto's existence there was something called the "knockback bug" which. well. just look at it

(link for transcript. it's tvtropes sorry)

if you are a target-audience eight-year-old this translates to "lure + throw will only do enough damage if the cogs Feel like it." like it's really just insult to injury at this point. this was the result of One misplaced variable and was not fixed until the game closed

in the tto era, if you didn't have sound, you were kinda doomed to be kicked out of every fight forever

(bonus fun fact: there were Four entire battle themes and they were 40-second midi loops. let me out)

the bosses:

each of the four cog departments has a Boss Cog. to face off against them, you have to assemble a cog disguise and collect enough merits/stock options/whatever to be allowed into the boss's office.

(pictured: your convincing disguise)

when you enter, your disguise pops off due to Reasons, and you have to fight through...a bunch of waves of normal cogs. it's basically a really long normal battle. once the minions are dealt with, you have to, inexplicably, do a live-action battle against the boss themself:

(loose video description: four toons defeating the CFO by using magnet cranes to hit him in the face with safes for 32 seconds.)

the live-action rounds aren't supposed to go this quickly, but it's still...kinda strange? certain reoccurring game areas require Parkour, but there are no battles like this outside of the Four bosses. the CFO's room is the only place you see these cranes and they have A Lot Going On. the other 3 bosses have their own unique weird mechanics. before the first boss was added we neither had nor needed the ability to Jump. it's just weird

once you've defeated the boss, you're given a reward of varying usefulness (the best/most unbalanced reward type is Unites, which are a free heal or gag restock you can do inside or outside of battle. essentially lategame toons can simply choose not to die. riv2u etc.)

and, um. then you get some more merits/stock options/whatever and do it again. and again. and again. and again. and agai

the grind:

so the thing is that tto was a subscription mmo. every addition to the game had to be measured, above all, in terms of "how can we best get kids to beg their parents to give us money." this especially shows in the suit grind:

(source/source)

you have to defeat each boss 78 times in order to get all their laff points - and as you proceed, you have to defeat an increasing amount of cogs to even be allowed into the boss (although once you max you get in for free).

by far the easiest way is to run through the designated HQ facilities - basically, cog fights interspersed with some platforming or minigames. you only collect your merits/whatever at the Very End of the facility. the only way to increase what a facility gives you is if your last battle ends during an "invasion" - a timed period where One Specific Cog replaces all street cogs, usually summoned with boss rewards.

the sellbot HQ grind isn't so bad. bossbot HQ - the endest-game HQ - frequently requires you to do an hour-long facility and on six separate occasions you have to do seven of them. if the invasion ends before your final battle, you have to sit around until someone summons another. if you lose your internet connection because it's 2008, or if your parents make you come to dinner, or if hacking or the game's general bugginess cause a server reset because you're probably in the busiest district for the invasion bonus, you have spent that Entire Hour On Nothing. the CEO (bossbot cog boss) probably also takes an hour because you and your fellow players are 10

this shit, combined with laff points locked behind gardening (time-gated), racing and golfing (multiplayer minigames with absurd requirements), and fishing (RNG-based with some fish being absurdly rare. i watched my mom fish for one every day for a month), meant that maxing a toon took Years, if you managed it ever.

it wasn't, um. it wasn't good

ok so what else is wrong with this game:

i had "aged out of the game" (lol) by the early '10s, so i'm not the best person to do a writeup of the hacking/scripting situation of those days. that said, what i'm going to do is give you a few examples, and i want you to just...look at them

(source)

(source). early '10s youtube was funny i'm trying to decide if i miss it

(source). fun thing to note here is that other players had collision, so a swarm of t-posing toons could just barricade the gag shop if they wanted to

(video description: toon who has Replaced His Head Model With An Anime Logo throwing thousands of jellybeans at everyone) (cw mild flashing just in case? and also the feather headband accessory)

i should note that the Bring Me To Life vid i started with was client-side, meaning only the player could see their technicolor hellscape. this guy's face was server-side. i do Not Think you should be able to do that

(video description: a player demonstrating use of a bot to get into the nutty river district, followed by other players using it to go to different game areas)

the above video was posted on august 17th, 2013. if you don't want to watch an Unregistered Hypercam 3 recording at about 5 frames per second, what's going on here is:

the player goes to a specific location and says a specific speedchat phrase.

a bot toon teleports to their location and provides some prompts on how to use it

the player tells the bot, via speedchat, to teleport to the (currently closed from the outside) busiest district so the player can follow

these "taxi toons" were server-sided, persisted across server resets, were made by a future fanserver dev, had younger kids referring to them as a "glitch" as if this were something that could Accidentally Happen, and stayed functional until the game closed

like...a lot of the "hacking" was just baby's first script download. this one - afaict also created by the laughing man head guy - is like...the fact that after years of no substantial game updates, someone effectively programmed their own "QOL feature" (note: not actually good for the poor mid-00s server being turned into a clown car) into a silly disney MMO and it just fucking sat there for a year is just. it's just.

i don't know what this is. this is not Playing The Game Toontown Online. this is nothing. this is everything. there are comments from 2013 on some of these videos saying stuff like "hackers killed toontown", but your game cannot have this happen if it is not already dying

and, like...it was. i'm not sure how many moderators there were by this point, but at the very end of tto, the number of active devs was One. the original devteam recently brought this up at the 20th anniversary celebration: devs just...slowly started getting pulled from the game, one at a time. there were a few updates after bossbot HQ - Field Offices, which i've basically never heard anything good about in their tto form ever; the Silly Meter, a yearly event...thing whose main function was to add unskippable dancing-inanimate-object cutscenes to your street battles; Parties, which...yknow parties were okay actually. i accept parties. but they weren't exactly a Major Game Update like the ones that had come before. in 2011 we gained the ability to Wear Hats. in 2012 the test server got some actual QOL updates that never made it to the main game; the final test server update was some maintenance in february, and then nothing for 18 months. disney was not providing enough resources to address the scripting because disney was not providing enough resources to address toontown. imagine being the last dev standing on an MMO that was older than some of its players, was losing its business model to mobile gaming, and spent most of its life falling apart at the seams. just imagine it, for a second

it couldn't have kept going, not like this.

on august 20, 2013, the closing announcement came: we had a month left of toontown online. the test server shut immediately; subscription refunds went out, and the game became actually F2P for the month; the part of the announcement that went like "we're shifting our focus to other games!" made a bunch of twelve-year-olds hate club penguin as if club penguin wouldn't also close in a few years; all the holiday events went off at once; and...

there wasn't a "thanks for playing!" popup. everyone online just got kicked, all at once. it was finally over

hey wait.

[yan-randomfandom]

Hello! We loved what you did with our dev ask. Wanted to know if you would do Yan! Irep headcanons? I'm a little surprised that Dale got a request before irep.

💘ficto anon

Yandere!Irep x GN!Human!Reader

warnings: hickey or biting mentions!!

just realized how right you are about Dale having a yandere request before Irep,,, woah— half bullet & half drabble!! lil square man

I feel like he'd easily get attached to you on the first day. If you somehow check all the boxes that catch his attention, at least.

For example, buying him ice cream. Surprisingly, it's simple enough to get him to stay with you.

When he heard you say it was your treat, the first thing he thought of was karma. He had done something good for you, and now you were returning the favor. This type of positive thing never happens to him.

Even if he didn't like sweets, he wanted to know what would happen if you bought him ice cream. A simple action, but to him, it felt like you were making up for years of his social interactions.

He's an anti-fairy. His species is feared and avoided. Irep doesn't have many friends, really—he's the second fairy born in a thousand years.

His family, while they love each other dearly, often don't have as much quality time as the originals. They're probably too caught up in their evil schemes.

Having said that, he'd nonchalantly reveal that he's a fairy to you the second you take his heart.

You're so kind to him. It's new. It's nice. Even his parents don't offer this much kindness.

So, if you think Peri is deprived, imagine how much more deprived this guy is.

Irep loves praise. Call him handsome. Call him stylish. Call him better than Peri—he's folded.

He would do anything for you. Literally. Da Rules can't stop him. A stranger is talking to you without acknowledging him? Woah. Where'd they go?

Clingy to a fault. Irep would show you off to the world; he has no shame.

His parents are confused about why he's mingling with a human, but they're supportive nonetheless.

Loves to tease you. It's the most evil thing he can do to you (in plain sight).

Much like Peri, he'd love cuddles. It's a funny thought, but he'd often rest his flat head on your chest or lap. At least he's comfortable.

With fangs like his, he might playfully bite you. He'd love nothing more than to give you hickeys, but he would never leave marks on your skin—unless you ask nicely.

While he's certainly confident, filled with his ego, sometimes there's an inkling of doubt in the pit of his stomach. He's still an anti-fairy, and he would hate to see you go.

This is where his manipulative side can come into play. He’ll make sure you see him at his most vulnerable, making you feel guilty enough to avoid even considering leaving him.

He may be a bit rough around the edges, but Irep can genuinely be good support. After all, that's all he ever wanted: to be useful and to have something for himself.

Irep was disguised as a human. This was the closest he could get to Dev and Peri without getting caught.

The duo were currently inside an ice cream parlor, with Hazel as their company. Irep squinted his eyes. Oh, wait, his reverse parents were there too. Of course they were, being Hazel's godparents and all.

A sneaky smile crept across his face. He had an evil plan brewing in his mind, but first, a loophole must be discovered. Maybe they'll fight right there and then, allowing Irep to reach Dev again.

So, all he has to do is... wait.

Wait.

...Until Dev or Peri decide to separate.

It didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon. They were happily chatting, smiles on their faces. Hazel offered a spoonful of ice cream to Dev, who grumpily accepted anyway.

...

Finger after finger, impatient tapping fell on the table. Has it always taken this long? Man, it feels like he's wasting his eternal life just... stalking them.

In fact... He's been having this weird emotion for some time. Irep unknowingly goes deeper into a space of his mind. Has defeating Peri always been his goal in life? Well, obviously. He won't ever deny that. But is that all there is?

Anti-fairies are despised as villains, bringing bad luck and destruction, yet still, there is a delicate balance. Something, something... Ugh... It's such a hassle to think about. Maybe all the time he spent stalking and brooding alone finally got to him.

Still, isn't there anything else he can do?

Hazel and Dev eventually stood up and began to leave the parlor. It was time for Irep to follow them again, as usual.

The anti-fairy stood up and trailed behind them, his hands shoved into his pockets. Huffing, he couldn't push back the restless thoughts.

"Shoot—!"

Someone suddenly bumped into Irep, but with his quick reflexes, he caught the person before they fell to the ground.

He stared at you with widened eyes.

"I'm so," you fretted, hastily adjusting your position. With a crooked smile, you sheepishly patted his clothes to straighten them. "Sorry! Thanks for catching me."

Irep didn't know how to talk to a human. He had only ever dealt with them when necessary, and in those times they usually catch him in the worst mood possible.

Perhaps this was one of those times.

"No matter. It's fine, fellow human," he remarked, adjusting his sleeves. By now, his future godkid and Peri were already at the terminal.

"Um, okay... I can buy you ice cream if you'd like," you smiled. "As an apology. Oh, wait, unless you've already bought one!"

"Ah. I don't like sweets. I have to go— Wait, did you say it's your treat?"

[askagamedev]

Shouldn't Overwatch also have the same problem then in regards to visual clarity? I'm sure if you were to give people Juno and Brigitte people would struggle telling what their role is probably confusing Brigitte as a Tank given she has a shield just like Reinhardt. Only Baptiste has said cross on his outfit which if he didn't people might confuse him from DPS since he carries a healing grenade launcher. Yet the only character design problem ive seen people talk about is Venture.

While this is true, it's a very different situation. Overwatch is an old game, it's been running for eight years now. When Overwatch launched, there wasn't anywhere near the kind of well-established competition that there is today. When Overwatch launched, there was no Apex Legends, Paladins, Deadlock, Quake Champions, or Valorant. Further, Overwatch's launch cast was designed with incredible visual clarity - nearly every character had a silhouette and visual design that both made them distinct and conveyed their style of gameplay. There's a pair of business terms for this kind of thing - Blue Ocean vs Red Ocean.

A Blue Ocean is mostly unexplored and pristine - you're entering a market that's mostly untouched and there isn't much competition. This favors the first-mover advantage - the first ones there have more time to experiment, set things up, and learn from their mistakes. The customers/players in that market don't have anywhere else to go if they want their gameplay, so you can afford to make mistakes, iterate, and improve. Since there aren't many other games to switch to, the players will likely stick with what they are already familiar with.

A Red Ocean is a saturated market, where the waters have been dyed red with the blood of all of the dead or dying competition. There's already a lot of competition, meaning that any new product must stand out significantly from its peers or it will soon die from lack of audience. In a Red Ocean, the initial launch is much more important because you never get a second chance at that first impression. Further, audience retention is also super important because of how much competition there is - a new product might be able to draw some attention just from the novelty, but novelty wears off quick and most of the players already know the genre and the other games available. If the new game doesn't serve their needs immediately, the players won't give it the time to improve - they'll just go to one of the competitors that already does serve their needs.

We can't really compare the two games in a vacuum, we must compare the full environment that the games launched in. Overwatch had the added benefit of significantly less competition in its Blue Ocean, meaning that the playerbase really didn't have anywhere else to go while they waited for Overwatch to improve things. Concord was unable to grab attention immediately in a Red Ocean, meaning any potential audience quickly dispersed themselves among the large number of competitors already out there.

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[randomnameless]

Sorry I need to send this about the "children of the goddess should not be allowed to rule" thing. Cause like, why shouldn't they. We, as humans generally appreciate the guidance of someone older and wiser. Wouldn't a nabatean's lifespan and experience make them the most "fit" to rule? Like, yeah, I trust someone with a millenia life experience to lead more than I trust someone with under 3 decades. And maybe it can be argued that Rhea didn't do a good enough job, but that doesn't actually disqualify the rest of them? Like, either they're truly godlike and should lead due to their inherent experience and wisdom, or they're just like any other person, in which case why shouldn't they get the CHANCE to lead. Like, is the situation that they live in fodlan, but have no rights to play a role in the future that they'll have to live in? They're not allowed to be in a position of leadership due to their race? Cause that's like. Pretty bad. But this is a question the game cannot answer because it might make homegirl look slightly morally questionable.

Go ahead anon, rant!

I think this issue could have also been raised in FE10 - but that game and "racism" is like... you believe you're eating a chocolate flavored peanut, and only realise you're actually eating a peanut flavored chocolate.

For all of the focus, in both games of the duology, Daien got as the laguz hating country, there's no line/zilch about them being happy - or not - with having a heron branded queen? Miccy will age slower than regular beorcs, will Daein peeps be okay with that? We don't know, but we sure know that legends will remember Ikey-poo fondly, just, don't give a fuck about the world or the other characters from the verse please.

As for Nabateans not being allow to do either X or Y based on their race... well, it was basically raised early in the fandom days by some people, myself included, but I guess being able to drink tea with Freezer overwrote that issue.

We could argue using headcanons all day long, for 5 years lol about what Rhea did or didn't - since the game loves to tell and show different things, but the fact that Nopes had to add Yuri and Dimitri discussing about common sense, like feeding people first before giving them education, I'm pretty sure the devs never believed people would seriously wonder what would Clout/Supreme Leader/Dimi's policies about "making a better world" would entail : both Yuri and Ferdie's supports are just here to, in a typical Fodlan fashion, sprinkle peanuts on your ice cream to make you believe you're really eating a snickers.

"We're a very serious game about having three political powers discussing about the future of the world and what should be done to reach this ideal !"

"And no one thought about food? People needing food to survive? Before doing anything else like getting a proper education or wishing to have a say in the politics of their respective states?"

"... Well, we also tackle very serious themes like isolationism and its effect of society and prejudices!"

"By depicting the foreign neighbours as MENA inspired people being bloodthirsty and deadset on pillaging or rampaging in cities? They attack for fun and let their orphans die as canon fodder? And the main lead who wants to talk about opening the borders and isolationsim never mentions this? At all? Especially since he's a prince of this MENA inspired country?"

"... but we hammer in 3 routes how this lady is evil incarnate, and in the 4 others, we say she sus!"

"Your point being? One person hearsaid to be wrong doesn't suddenly make the rest of your cast likeable, especially if their writing has glaring holes like the ones I pointed!"

"... we can sell super rad umbrellas?"

And you know what, it's a damn shame the devs didn't believe in their "homegirl" as you said it, because Freezer is somehow super popular, and that was even before the DBS retcons!

[coqvttes]

i hit 1k followers today and i just want to say thank you so so much, everyone. all the moots i’ve met on here are absolutely amazing and so so kind! i love every single one of them to bits and all the anons in my inbox are sweethearts too. thank you for making this a positive space for me so far. i really appreciate everyone and i’m so happy that people enjoy what i write and what i post, i can truly be myself on here. i truly love you all and i appreciate every single one of you. xx

i want to say special thank yous to some of my lovely mooties. (≧◡≦)づ ♡

@bearieio, spencerr, you were my first ever moot. you've just been so sweet and so so warm to chat with. you’re sooo pretty?? and really sincere! thank you for being my first friend on tumblr. (:

@dizzyntrr : maxine! my british bestie! i do LOVE seeing what you post on your blog and hearing about how your day went! your poetry is so lovely and so are you; i love your choice of vocabulary haha.

@yonphilia : you're truly amazing, mio! you’re always checking up on me and sending me lovely asks! you’re so so so energetic and kind and supportive.

@cigsnfilms : my supporterrrr. one of the first to interact with me and please we need to talk moreee. i LOVEE all the stuff you reblog i live for it!

@poisonedprose : you are such a talented writer, i remember reading a fic of yours before i even started this blog and i just remember it all. vira, you truly have a wonderful way with words and you’re just super nice!

@arthursgf1 : i love the aesthetic of your whole blog and everything you post and reblog (live laugh love arthur morgan). and dev, you're so so sweet! i'd love to talk to you more!

@konigceo : lala my love, your blog is SOO cute and pretty and pink and lovely and aheioshzh. your writing makes me blush and kick my feet up in the air literally!!

@solutopia : solana, i’ve always loved your name soooo much! and your blog themes are always gorgeous i love seeing your new ones. thank u sm for sending me asks often you’re really kind, darling.

@spiderst4rgirl : belle, you are just spontaneous and a big bundle of energy, literally, you make me burst out laughing so often. i love how pretty your moodboards are AND YOU ARE SO PRETTY TOO.

@starzu : you're blog is so so so lovely and so are you, you post nearly everyday and you work yourself so hard! i love all of your ideas in your fics and you deserve a big hug and i'll give it to you!

@norafaye : i just love how you've done up your blog so much! nora, you're so so creative and i love that so much! you're super supportive and real it's so nice to have a moot who loves f1 too!

@angedetoile : you're my bae, i love how you message me all the time and send me stuff all day. you are literally an angel and a total sweetheart. your goofy tiktoks make me laugh too omg.

@kasumitenbaz : kassandra! we've literally just met and all but i have to mention you. you are really sweet and your blog theme is so adorable and so are you. can't wait to talk 2 you more!

[fantasyinvader]

I was thinking about it some more, and the idea that Edelgard isn't merely some tyrant makes sense. There's one thing that puts Edelgard apart.

Remember how the Japanese script outright says that Edelgard is using an information campaign? That's what Seteth is alluding to. Imperial soldiers fight to the bitter end for her because they've bought into what she's been telling them. They believe that they're the good guys, but they don't think deeper on it. And this is what Edelgard does across Houses and Hopes.

She has made the commoners believe that she's fighting for them, but at the same time will also put her ideals ahead of those commoners. If her reforms don't benefit them, it's their fault. But we also get Ferdinand's paralogue, revealing that the Imperial troops were also conscripted and those who resisted were executed. Likewise, it's shown that part of the unrest in the Empire is due to Edelgard starving the civilians in order to feed her army, while Hopes outright says that the reforms Edelgard put in place largely favor the nobility and oppress the commoners. Meanwhile, Edelgard is also going around saying that any nobility who submit to her get to keep their positions. She has the Agarthans believing she's dancing to her tune, and goes around saying she's not attacking the faith. Meanwhile, Edelgard is also shown to keep her own allies in the dark, withhold information while at the same time blaming people for things they didn't do while taking credit for Byleth's leadership to make herself look good. Hopes has her going around saving the nobles who pledge themselves to her, despite how this conflicts with her ideals, simply because doing so make her look good.

Edelgard is still a tyrant, but she can convince people to join her by saying whatever she needs to. But this is where the Fodlan games misstep. Follow me on this: Part of Verdant Wind's message is the importance of getting to know people and clearing up any misconceptions you may have about them. In Claude's case, it's him realizing that the Church isn't the big bad he thought they would be and in fact would help him achieve his own goals. Hell, he'd probably cry tears of happiness over Seteth's solo ending and would be pissed at Treehouse trying to make Seteth look bad in their translation of it (they turned “Seteth became less strict” as “Seteth stopped being intolerant” before going into Seteth working to make Fodlan more accepting of other faiths). So with that in mind, look at what happens when we spend time with Edelgard.

We support Edelgard over Rhea, and Edelgard just keeps lying for the rest of the game, with the Japanese text having the information campaign and her manipulating TWSITD. At the end, it's telling us that Edelgard knows more than she's letting on, and to be worried about what she's keeping from people. She's depicted as a liar who then goes on to centralize power on herself and push ideals on Fodlan that run counter to her supposed hero speech while killing Rhea. And to top it all off, the devs confirmed that Edelgard being the villain seeking conquest was meant to be a twist, meaning the cute anime girl in White Clouds was the misconception of her character and all the negative shit we see later on is meant to clear that up.

So the game is trying to make me feel bad because I'm fighting someone who tried to manipulate me into ignoring the horrible shit she's been a party to and then who goes on to do horrible shit herself and spread a toxic ideology. You're trying to make me feel bad for fighting someone who will turn herself into a literal monster in her attempt to rule the world. That's not sad, that's tone-deaf and no amount of “uwu she wanted to walk with you and was even reconsidering her path” can excuse that because at the end of the day she choose to be a dickbag. And this ignores all of her victims, both current and would-be.

It basically reminds me of Miyazaki talking about how otaku ruined the anime industry. How they don't like looking at real people, they like looking at anime characters and go on to make more anime characters rather than realistic ones.

[devsgames]

The Art of Feedback

(This post cross-posted from my Patreon. Please consider supporting for access to my unreleased game prototypes, devlogs and blog posts just like this one. It helps me pay rent and supports the work I do!)

The biggest, most important ability anyone working (or hoping to work) collaboratively in gamedev should have is giving targeted feedback.

I'm not saying "you should be able to honestly tell people that their work sucks", but rather you should be able to elegantly and politely express in what specific ways their work could use improvement and, most importantly, why you believe the feedback to be valid.

In my opinion this is a lifeline skill anyone working in games needs to have.

Not being able to give polite and targeted feedback is something that sets apart an amazing dev from a competent one, and generally will make your critiques feel less like an opinion and more like a fair and specific analysis of a feature. It's what separates A Random Gamer Online complaining about a video game apart from an actual dev identifying pain points on a piece of work.

So how do you do it?

Consent

By far, the biggest thing to remember about feedback in my opinion is that feedback is all about consent.

When giving feedback you need to be positive that all parties are aware and on the same page about the feedback and its role in the conversation, and that the party receiving the feedback even wants it in the first place.

There's been countless times I've had conversations in the industry where it was obvious someone was receiving feedback that was not wanted and didn't consent to it - whether it was way too premature, focusing on the wrong part of the feature, not wanted in the first place or coming from someone who may not have been desirable to hear feedback from.

How do you navigate this? Simply ask for consent first.

A simple "Are you interested in feedback on [x] feature?", or "Is there anything you want me to focus my feedback on?" should usually suffice. If yes, give feedback. If no, don't bother!

Not only does this establish a clear line of consent, it also ensures your feedback is useful and you're not giving feedback that will fall on ears that don't want to hear it.

Empathy

Receiving feedback for many people can be intimately personal. Everyone has things about their work that aren't satisfactory, and entering into territory where you're pointing out these flaws can be devastating if not done correctly. There's an assumption that "honest" feedback is the way to go, but "honesty" can be a double edged sword and there's a lot of devs who deal real damage to others under the guide of "just being honest about feedback". Good feedback should be presented in a way that the recipient can take it to heart without feeling hurt. These are not mutually exclusive ideas.

To avoid this situation, the "compliment sandwich" is a time-tested method. Soften the blow of critical feedback by pairing it with compliments before and after, which allows you to deliver the feedback without it feeling like a direct attack. It's rather soulless to say "you should always talk like this", so of course this is not the end-all-be-all, but it's a good starting point for understanding how to deliver feedback in a way that doesn't harm.

In fact, I've found the structure of compliments doesn't matter as long as you're keeping the mindset of being constructive and in a 'building up" mindset about your feedback, and not a tearing down one. Usually I aim to incorporate one point of critical feedback with one compliment is often enough to soften the blow in many cases.

As an example, saying "I think your placement of the car needs work" feels colder and tonally more harmful than "I love how your use of trees to direct the player through the space, but I think the placement of the car needs work". See how those could read differently?

Additionally, you can change up your method depending on the person you're speaking to and your relationship to them.

For example, first impressions based around feedback are important. If you're giving feedback to say, a peer or student you've never talked to before, leading with complements is key. If you've been in a feedback session for a while the conversation might naturally veer into being more or less critical at certain stages, and you may find striking a constant balance of compliments may not be necessary. If someone seems defensive or upset, it might be wise to pile on some more compliments to make them feel more at ease. If you're giving feedback to someone you've know for a long time and given feedback to before it's possible you may be comfortable enough together that you may not even need to compliment at all!

TARGET

I really want to emphasize this point because this is how you make giving feedback an efficient task. If you don't know what specifically the person receiving feedback wants to receive feedback on there's a good chance you'll end up giving feedback on absolutely everything about the game, and ignore the elements that need feedback the most by doing so.

I've been in this situation plenty of times: a feature in your game is only half-implemented compared to the rest of the game, and instead of focusing on giving feedback about [x] new feature your playtester instead spends 15 minutes talking about the feature that is lacking despite the fact you already know it's missing. The feedback isn't about the thing that you as a developer need feedback on the most, and instead covers territory you're already well aware of.

As someone giving feedback, consent comes back into this. Ask "Do you need feedback on [x]?", or "What do you need feedback on the most?". This puts the ball in their court to identify what you should look out for, as opposed to you playing through and simply pointing out flaws in everything regardless of context. It also means the feedback session is going to be more effective at targeting what they need help with the most, and will be most beneficial to them in the end. In context like meetings and student feedback sessions where time is limited, this is vital to ensuring you're not wasting anyone's time.

Another way to improve the targeting of your feedback is to ensure you understand your subject's goals, and tie your feedback into that. Without this your feedback can be wildly off-base.

For example, if your subject is making a project to learn new implementation techniques, it's not going to be useful to provide feedback about their game's polish that would be more applicable to someone, say, trying to ship a game. Asking what your feedback subject's goal is with their project - or even just ensuring you address that and have a surface-level understanding about what those goals may be - is going to put you in a position of understanding what kind of feedback to give.

With this knowledge in your pocket you can now give feedback through a narrower filter that will more effectively improve their work.

"Why?"

"Why?" is the single most important question you need to attempt to answer when giving feedback. Answering "why" is how important changes get made.

Anyone can say "I think [x] feature needs to change", but not anyone can identify why it needs to change, or in what capacity. There's nothing worse than receiving feedback where a director says "I didn't like this feature" and they fail to address why they think that way. Especially as a designer, "why" is a fundamental idea needed to back up any approach you might have to changing or implementing designs - and it's why designers are often in a better position to identify changes than the average player.

Before you give a piece of feedback, ask yourself "Why do I think this?", and be prepared to include that with your feedback.

"I don't like the way the movement feels because it makes it hard to keep the enemies in my sights" is vastly more useful than "I don't like the way the movement feels". It gives what you at least believe is an actionable, and the person receiving the feedback now has a problem they may need to consider going forward.

There's truly nothing more aggravating than hearing - "I don't like this thing" without a reason why. That why needs to exist because if it didn't people would simply be making changes for no reason except "the vibes are off", and a vibes-based approach isn't exactly a sustainable one from a development angle.

Conclusion

The best feedback is when it addresses specific targeted points that are relevant to the recipient's context in a way that isn't going to be harmful to them! It's not a matter of simply saying anything that comes to mind however you want, but addressing relevant pain points that will best help them improve their work. ✌️

[hamofjustice]

I don't want to just painstakingly copypaste my triple-layered self-QRT thread about it on Twitter and any other ones floating around but

I am very emotionally invested in seeing Penny, Arven, and (personally) especially Nemona again in the Scarlet/Violet DLC, after GF followed up the best 3 hours of Pokemon game story ever by having to abruptly cut it off the second these lonely kids finish opening up to you and say you can hang out with them anytime. Which you never do. It was some pretty painful whiplash, and I was sure the main point of the DLC was to relieve that, especially when their arcs don't seem quite complete yet. Very clever, evil marketing! But uh... well... about that...

It is very worrying that aside from a little "the story so far" montage, they have not been seen or mentioned in promotional material/footage whatsoever. Y'know, DLC for the game that's about how the real treasure was the friends you found along the way (literally, in Nemona's case), and even if your family and support systems fail you, you still have each other? Written from the heart by someone who said Arven's story is inspired by their own life? With the sappy Ed Sheeran song about reaching out for connection with others, that also seems to be named after Team Star? The game where one of the features the devs seemed most proud of was going on adventures and into boss fights with 3 of your friends? The game that ended with a fully functional and quite immersive bonding adventure with these characters you'd gotten to know and care about, that basically everyone thought was the best part of the game by a mile, and were left wishing the whole game was like that?

Yeah, I (and everyone else) have been driving around alone in that game for 8 months ever since finishing that story. 8 months of minor updates with a ton of the beloved characters functionally or literally gone, while we go around doing online stuff with nothing else to do in the world, with a single player postgame more barren than we had on Game Boy Color (thank god for mints and bottle caps though). I'm left just... wanting to go back to the way things were before I beat the game. Not to be overly dramatic, but this world I supposedly saved feels like one I failed to save. And I'm getting really frustrated. (The framerate hasn't gotten any better, either, but this isn't about that.)

It's like Game Freak (or whoever forced this thing out a year early, or both) never expected you to boot the game up again once you got bored of the Ace Academy Tournament, which the game acts like is the entire total of what you could want from being friends and "rivals for life" with your squad (I mean I'm the sicko that loves Tera Raids, so I'm not that bored, but still). It makes a bunch of implications that your adventure is just beginning, and then it totally just... isn't. Why is the E4 building closed? Why do you only rematch the gyms once? And most of all, for me personally: Why did we get access to our friends' rooms if there's nothing to do or talk about there? (Besides look for character study clues, which they have lots of)

All they could come up with when asked to write a newsletter email about what you can still do in S/V and why you should still be playing it was Raids. That was it. Remember when you had an endless challenge in the Tower/Maison that you could optionally take on with a bunch of story characters as your partners instead of alone, that motivated you to keep getting stronger bit by bit? Remember rematching gym leaders multiple times and watching their teams grow and evolve each time? Yeah, there's none of that here, because that would take more than a week to implement. If you want friends and you want battles, you'll have to do it yourself online now. They're not allocating any budget for that.

Your rival for life, who's so excited you're on her level now, who seems to have the passion and skill to be the your Battle Tower gameplay loop by herself if she wanted to, who battles you for hours offscreen with multiple teams, whose whole character arc is that she finally has someone she can do this with... is fully static, with one kinda mediocre team that never grows or changes. She can't keep up with you and doesn't know what items or EVs are. You have to get lucky to even see her at all. She is no more your rival than your Home Ec teacher is (no offense Saguaro, you're cool too). I think it's really, really sad.

I'm left nostalgic and pining to go back, having to cope through fanfic because my character can't spend the day with - or even so much as take a new trainer card photo with - the girl who said they might be her greatest treasure, without resetting my save, because she and the others are standing somewhere that the camera and internet features are both disabled.

Like, legitimately, I want to keep being friends with these kids the way we were before, and have the ability to do post-game stuff with them, like being able to go out and adventure together whenever in some basic, non-story capacity, or just, I don't know, maybe give them more than one line of dialogue in their rooms? I don't want a new region or new characters. Not yet, anyway.

I thought I was preordering the continuation of their story and rewarding the company for making me care about Pokemon so much again.

But, uh... I'm really worried that the people who own these characters do not care. And as I said on the trailer's comments before they turned them off (lol), I'll be pissed enough to not buy any more games if I'm right, and we're forced to abandon these poor kids. At the very least, it's some pretty garbage marketing to leave the possibility of that up in the air. If nothing else, that is a frustration that I'm going to keep talking about for a while, even if it ends up being fine.

I thought it was impossible, and I was being silly. Why not have our friends in cute new outfits as promo art when the DLC was first announced, and all they had was promo art? Seems like an easy slam dunk. Oh, they didn't yet? Well, I'm sure it'll happen eventually.

And then they weren't in the trailer either, months later. Are they trying to sell us on it or not?

The whole reason I want the DLCs. Still not a single word acknowledging them, just that little opening montage. Still no hints of how the DLCs have anything to do with Area Zero's ongoing story, either. How is a sea turtle linked with a landlocked crater?

So like... At this point I have to assume both DLCs start with you making your friends cry as they're left alone again, arbitrarily excluded from events they're more than qualified to be invited to, to make room for some new dweebs we don't need, who won't be given nearly enough time to be as compelling as Nemona, Arven, and Penny were, because that makes the trailer look more like a new game, and that's the only way they know how to advertise. More. New. Buy. Consume. Throw away. Buy. Consume. Throw away. I should assume this so that whatever we get can't be worse.

But they're probably not (self-aware enough / allowed / both) to write that. Your lonely / orphaned / anime-binging friends might just cheer you on for getting to go do something cool like being forced to train a new legendary because the story said so, then go back to being statues with as much relevance to your life as an NPC in a third story apartment that tells you what a hold item is.

Can't I just live in Paldea with my friends, in the version of the game we would have gotten if it was finished, instead of being pulled into these adventures for the sake of looking good in a trailer? (which it doesn't btw lol) It's not an unrealistic thing to want when that's what it briefly was, and I was so excited that it would keep being that I've been thinking about it this entire time.

...

I hope I'm wrong about all this, and next year I can look back on this post, happy that the DLC did actually allow us to continue to take care of these characters, conclude Area Zero's mysteries in a satisfying way, fix up some technical issues, let us relive some things that are currently once-only (including letting us see that photo album our character made but we had to screenshot ourselves), and make it fun to keep playing for years afterward, and let that be the model for games going forward, but uh...

They really are not showing me anything I care about in the game I desperately want to care about, that I saw - and wanted to defend - the heart in, despite the circumstances it was produced under, and that really worries and frustrates me. The surprisingly many great things about this game got my hopes up for an awesome postgame full of warm fuzzy feelings and cool things to do 8 months ago that just didn't deliver, and now, I'm not sure if they'll even let me pay for one, at this rate, because they're not advertising one.

Just throw us a scrap. If whoever's in charge here stops caring about this story, I won't care about the next one.

Anyone else feeling this?

[selicyoats]

my thoughts on the persona 3 cast

SPOILERS BELOW (OBVIOUSLY) Junpei Iori Battle Rating: 3/10 Junpei was never doing anything too impressive in all honesty. He had Agi and he had decent Phys skills, but he began losing relevance once Akihiko joined and Character Rating: 10/10 There's one of his lines that really spoke to me, and it went something like: "The only reason every day has felt the same was because I wasn't putting in the effort to make every day different." It's really stuck with me, and in addition, him helping Chidori find reason to want to look towards the future and living was also beautifully done. Yukari Takeba Battle Rating: 9/10 She's pretty useful early-game and late-game, with a slightly weaker mid-game due to Ken and Mitsuru being slightly more useful. Character Rating: 8/10 Seeing her come to terms with her father's death and her resolve to end the Dark Hour was very beautifully done, and seeing her interactions with Mitsuru really helped her character a lot. Akihiko Sanada Battle Rating: 10/10 Debuffing and having ridiculous normal attacks made Akihiko a staple team member for me, and boy does he pack a punch. It's a shame he doesn't get any physical skills, but his normal attack is pretty good as is. Character Rating: 10/10 Just look at the scene where he talks to Shinjiro's coffin and you just know, man. I couldn't do his character justice in a description, but I can at least lament at how they murdered his character so he could be turned into "lol protein!!!!!" man.

Mitsuru Kirijo Battle Rating: 8/10 "haha marin karin" have you heard about FULL OFFENSE (or playing portable like i did) She's pretty good. Heals plus damn good ice damage is very very nice. Character Rating: 8/10 Similarly to Yukari, her character benefits a lot from having to come to terms with her father's death. I unfortunately can't give much say, as I didn't get to spend much time with her. Once I do replay P3, I'll go through her S. Link. Fuuka Yamagishi Battle Rating: uhhh/10 She's your support, so, uh. Yeah? Kinda hard to rate her in that aspect. Character Rating: 7/10 She had cute interactions with Natsuki. While her character don't go extraordinarily far, she doesn't really need to have a deep character. Aigis Battle Rating: 10/10 She is so fucking busted and she also provides buffs and can also HEAL??? And she comes with Orgia Mode to boot? The devs 100% wanted you to use Aigis. Character Rating: 10/10 Man. Seeing her come to terms with how she'll never be human the more human she gets really hits hard, but seeing her resolve to "live" as herself and not as who she was made to be was such a great scene it made me tear up. Koromaru Battle Rating: 8/10 dog. The Mudo and Agi support kind of just make him a better Junpei I guess? I used him a bunch while Aigis was out and he did a great job. Character Rating: 6/10 I mean, dog? It's hard to give him character, but it's nice seeing him come to terms with his former master's death. Ken Amada Battle Rating: 7/10 He comes with healing support like Yukari, and the Hama skills are nice too. Shame he overlaps Zio with Akihiko, but he's not bad if you're not running Akihiko. Character Rating: 8/10 Like with most Persona 3 characters, seeing him deal with his mother's death is a big showcase of his character. It's nice seeing undertones of his character in the S. Link, and how he wants to be older and how he likes superhero movies but deep down he wants to be taken seriously, and he wants to be seen as more than just a kid. That being said, if you romance him with FeMC, what the fuck is wrong with you. That's a kid. Shinjiro Aragaki Battle Rating: i dunno I never used Shinjiro, but from the looks of it, he seems to be heavily phys-focused which is good for bosses but not so much for Tartatus exploration. Character Rating: 8/10 He's got cute stuff going on with Koromaru, but he's mostly a wheel to move other characters than he is a vehicle himself, if you understand what I'm saying. That being said, he acts as a fantastic wheel for both Akihiko and Ken, being pivotal for their character growths. In general, the S.E.E.S. has some fantastic characters under their belt, and I couldn't be any happier Persona 3 was my first Persona game. I'll probably give my thoughts on the Investigation Team another time.

[just-a-carrot]

spoilers for arc 5 part 1 1/2

i haven’t seen that much people talking about scene where genzou apologised to orlam so imma tell you what i think about it personally

to be completely honest with you i didn't experience that many emotions when going through Arc 5. i still like it very much!! but it’s not the same kind of feeling that i had back in winter, when i played Our Wonderland for the first time. i can’t even explain what i’ve felt but it’s been soo amazing and powerful, my mind has been all over about your visual novel, i’ve spend nights discussing theories about it with my friend, and literally nothing else i've ever been interested in has awakened so many emotions in me as OW did. so when arc 5 came out, by that time i’d already cooled down and got into other things, and for some reason, i didn’t fall back to this kind of interest like i though i would, just had a nice nostalgic feeling while playing. including newest part.

i bawled my eyes out when genzou hugged orlam

i didn't expect it to have such an impact on me!! i had this deep and long forgotten feeling developing in my chest when genzou refused to speak about what he hates in orlam, and I was expecting something like this to happen, but only when Genzou proved my thoughts correct, BAM and I'm IMMEDIATELY in tears! it was like it’s winter all over again! and omg carrot i didn’t even get a chance to catch my breath, because genzou continued his speech and the animation just kept going and showing their interactions back in school, and i just cried louder and louder WHAT!!

i feel so so so sorry for orlam, he was so compassionate, kind, and feeling, and he didn’t deserved anything that had happened to him, and i can’t even imagine how much guilt regret and remorse is experiencing genzou. it was such an emotional moment, and now i’m actually really excited and looking forward for the future part(‘s ??) and seeing more of their interactions.

this part was great, i loved it! keep it up carrot you’re doing great!!

owowowowowo... 🥺💕 this is very sweet... thank you for taking the time to write up all your thoughts, i'm getting very weepy...

ahhh... what you talked about is one of my biggest points of anxiety and pressure/fear when making this game tbh (among others) 💦 that because it takes me so long to put out parts even those who might have played and liked the game won't care about it anymore 💦💦 ahhh... it's a big problem when you're a solo dev. i'm sorry i can't get stuff out more quickly 💦

i'm really happy you were able to find some of your past feelings when playing the new part though 🥺💕 it was also a very Important and Meaningful Scene for me (and by that i mean i cried even while planning it) so i was really hopeful that it would have a lot of impact and people might be able to feel things from it. i feel like so much of the story and the various character arcs having been leading up to it, so i wanted to make sure i put everything i could into making it. ofc hopefully the actual final finale will be what everything ultimately leads to LOL but like, this is the last stop along the way and something that's been building for a long time, so... i was rather nervous in general hoping that it could be impactful for people who have been playing the game

thank you very much writing all this up. this truly means a lot hearing something like this. i feel really grateful having people who can look forward to and enjoy the game and feel so much from the characters and story. thank you so much for all of your support and for loving the game 💕 i will keep working hard to make the finale as good as i can 💦

[askagamedev]

I've been employed as a senior game programmer for two years but I really need a new job and I don't think I'm good enough to compete as a senior, if took a salary decrease I wouldn't receive much less a year after tax. I don't wanna be stressed out being expected to do things I can't do effectively. How would you recommend getting a new job at a more junior position? My heart is no longer in this profession I don't have love for it anymore. I just want a job to provide for my family.

There seems to be a lot to unpack here. I'm reading several different elements that each warrants its own response. Here's what I'm seeing:

You aren't feeling job satisfaction with what you do any more

This happens from time to time and likely needs some soul-searching to seriously answer. If you just want to provide for your family, there's nothing wrong with doing what is expected of you and no more. If you really don't like game dev anymore, you could always try finding a job in a game-adjacent field - simulation, gambling software, user experience, education and training software, and so on. Most technical problems are fairly fungible.

That said, sometimes all it takes is a reminder that there are players out there who really do appreciate what we do. I get a tremendous amount of job satisfaction seeing players enjoying the parts of the game I made.

You're feeling some imposter syndrome in your current job

Imposter syndrome is very normal, especially for where you are in your career. It never really goes away, and it will always tell you that what you're doing is scary and that you can always give up and go back. If you're really concerned about your performance on the job, you should talk to your manager about it. Ask for a one-on-one and discuss it. If you're doing fine, your manager will tell you so. If you aren't, your manager will also tell you and likely suggest ways to improve. And, if you really want to take a more junior position, your manager should be able to help you transition to one of those too.

You want a new job with less responsibility

There's nothing wrong with this per se, but accepting a demotion will probably take a toll on your long-term career. At the very least, it is likely that you will be asked about it at any job you apply for in the field, and you may get passed over for roles because the hiring managers consider you too senior for it. This may not matter to you but you should probably consider your long-term vs short-term goals and what it is you want to do with the rest of your career and life. If you've taken the time to consider the ramifications (especially with your family) and still feel like it is the best choice, by all means do it. I caution against making such a long-term decision hastily.

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[beccasafan]

Just a casual reminder...ranting in posts and tags is not how feedback is collected. Submit! Actual! Feedback! That's what they monitor. That's what they create tickets from.

But don't just submit saying "I hate it f'ing change it back", that's not gonna be productive at all and is just gonna get deleted. Don't just bitch about "change ewww bad". Why is it not good? What specifically makes it hard to use? How can it be improved?

Remember that people use things differently, and what's obvious to you may not be obvious to someone else. That applies especially here, where people use Tumblr for wildly different experiences. Give!! Specific!! Details!! Pretend you're talking to a 5-yr old that knows nothing. They don't know what's on your screen or how big it is. Don't assume they know anything. Details and screenshots and specifics!

...which makes me think of this video hehe

If it helps, remember that there's a person on the other end of the support ticket. A dev too! "Be nice to the cashier!" "Be nice to service workers!" "Be nice to retail workers!" In a similar vein, "Be nice to the customer service rep reading this email!" hehe. Nobody wants a Karen bitching at them, whether it's on a retail store floor or their email inbox.

[valeffelees]

hii :)

7, 13, 28 (about simon) and 47 for the character ask game, about both dev and niall (will be sending other asks about them individually too)

!!! YOU'RE SO COOL FOR THIS !!!

7. Age/height/weight headcanon

Dev is 18 in Carry On, about 5ft 6in on a good day, and athletic in a lithe but solid type way. Niall is almost 20 in Carry On (he started Watford a year late and has an early January birthday), he's taller than Baz by an inch or two but it's kinda hard to tell for sure bc he's such a chronic sloucher, and a strong breeze could knock him on his ass.

13. Dumbest thing they’ve ever done

Niall doesn't really get up to shit on his own, he's way more likely to be caught in the crossfire tagging along while Baz and Dev get up to shit, like the dumbest thing Niall's ever done is be in the general vicinity of a Pitch at any given moment lmfao but ok, Dev? breeding ground for bad decisions. i have this headcanon that Niall has a twin sister named Signe and when she and Niall were children they were basically indistinguishable from one another, which wasn't Signe's fault, he knows, but it really rubbed Niall the wrong way and so he grew to resent her for it, and she grew to resent him for resenting her, and so now they just don't get on at all. and uhh, yeah, Dev hooked up with her for a while, and oh fuck was Niall ever hurt when he found out.

28. How they feel about [Simon]

i'm trying to think about this in a normal way, but you gotta understand i'm visciously enamoured with making Simon, Dev, and Niall friends, i'll jump through flaming hoops over tanks of sharks just to get that shit into my fics. but i don't actually think Dev and Niall had any particularly strong feelings about Simon one way or another in canon, we only ever see Simon actually interact with Niall, and just the once, at the very beginning of Carry On when he's going around the school like

and, yeah, Niall clearly doesn't want to talk to him. but all things considered, the entire interaction is actually pretty mild. i think Dev and Niall's overall attitude is pretty much like, "i'm not part of this circus, i'm just friends with one of the clowns", and any animosity they had towards Simon in school was just brand loyalty.

47. Their dream job

ok, so. context: i have a headcanon that Dev is a figure skater, and i will never shut up about this headcanon, ever, so yeah, Dev prolly wants to skate professionally but i don't think he'll ever be able to, like, he's been skating since he was five and don't get me wrong, Dev is good at skating, but i think with the hours he would've lost being at Watford, the type of pro skating he'd want to do is off the table. i can imagine him going to school for kinesiology or something instead tho. and Niall's plan was to get certified as a PSW (personal support worker) and move home to take care of his mother full-time, but he ends up going to school for nursing instead.

[characteroulette]

A study on prosecutors -- (previous) (next)

Simon Blackquill, the Twisted Samurai.

Simon was actually a bit of a hard sell for me, much like his contemporary. I'm not really into Dual Destinies or Spirit of Justice (and therefore I'm not able to remember all the details as well as I can the other games oop so sorry if I get some things wrong here), but there are things I enjoy about them. One of those things ended up being the prosecutors!

It's thematically appropriate with the whole "dark age of the law" setup. A prosecutor who's on death row is allowed to take on trials to help with the workload the prosecution's office is dealing with. (Don't mind the fact that there's enough wiggle room for Klavier to go out for an event.) We hear from Fulbright about this prosecutor and Athena seems to recognise him. The absurd of why are they letting an inmate have any legal sway whatsoever doesn't matter so much. This is the dark age of the law.

Then we meet him and he's appropriately a grumpy jerk.

We're not given the details of his crime really, just whatever we can glean from the animated cutscenes. (It involved blood and a sword.) But Blackquill's mannerisms are harsh and unforgiving. He's a psychological suggester, able to run circles around the judge and drag us along for the ride by the ear. I think this part of his schtick is kind of annoying to deal with, mainly because of how obvious it is that he's messing with all of us, but it definitely does make for a fun character. He really showcases how easy it is to become intimidating in this world of dumbasses when you're able to keep even a single braincell advantage. (The less forgivable act, to me, was his shutting Apollo down at every turn. He is so mean to Apollo! It's not like Apollo can help that his eyes are magically tuned to other people's body language, and yet Blackquill calls it cheating and cuts him down for it. Then he allows Athena to do her mood matrix things with very little argument! This was a huge jarring point for me for a long time and part of the reason why it took me so long to actually finish this game.)

The setup is there: something about this guy is performative, is softer when handling Athena. Yet he masks it all very well with his abrasive attitude and trickery. He forces us into a corner, forces the hand of our client, and we have to head back out into the investigation.

It's easy to explain away most of his attitude, in actuality. He's been in prison for seven years. He mentions constantly the different mates he's met in the clink. Fulbright may act like his only friend and supporter, but there's too large a gap between them considering Fulbright holds too much authority over him.

Blackquill has become unsociable from his time in the clink. His refusal to admit to the truth has him leaning into his belligerence, has him constantly acting the part of the bad guy. (When did it start to become a part of who he is? Perhaps he's always been a little twisted. It never rings false to anyone besides Athena, after all.)

His situation is intriguing and so we're hooked into wanting to know what the hell happened to make him like this.

Also, I gotta give a special mention to his talking sprites. All of them are really good, from him slamming the desk as he laughs (which is just how I see him in my head by this point) to his eye flashing as he glares down at you. He plays with a lot of the usual conventions, too, turning his back towards you and never actually having a full point. I may not like how his objection sounds (and this is a me problem, I only like about 20% of the actual objections in this series whoops), but his "Silence!" is pitch perfect. That really conveys more of his character than anything else, devs and his va did a damn good job with that one.

Anyway, second day of the trial. It's actually pretty fun to see Blackquill on the ropes, having him act as if we're the ones cutting him down instead of the other way around. He's just as annoyingly ruthless here, but it's easier to deal with when we can actually gain some ground on him. For all his posturing and intimidation tactics, he can't keep up the act while we're shutting him down.

Once we pull off our victory for our client, he's back to being a cool customer. He's a pretty graceful loser compared to so many other prosecutors we've seen. Compared to Gaspen, even. There's still a lot we don't really know about him and his situation, but he's made his character loud and clear for us to see. For that, I gotta say it's understandable if you started liking him by this point.

Case 3 is kind of a mess during the trial segments due to everyone trying to confess to the murder. Blackquill may be facilitating a bunch of this nonsense, but he's as along for the ride as we are. That makes things more fun and tolerable than it could have been, so hey.

It also showcases his softer approach with Athena; again, the hints are being put down. You can't quite pick them up yet because you don't have the full context, but you can notice Athena mention that she's fighting so hard in order to save someone not our client. (And Blackquill even addressed her as directly about it as he can, saying that she should know it's useless trying to reach him.) When Means puts Athena out of commission for a minute, Blackquill doesn't mock her or even take advantage of the situation. He doesn't help, either, he can't do that without giving away the whole game, but he allows her the time to come back. That's probably the biggest hint we get as to who these two are to each other and it's a subtle thing, too.

His dynamic with Athena is probably the most enjoyable, also. She's a real spitfire in court, owing to her youth and her energetic nature, while he's a steel wall with trickster energy. They work surprisingly well off one another, trading jabs and him always seeming to be a step ahead but never fully leaving her in the dust. He recognises her inexperience and she recognises his humanity; neither want to hold back against the other and yet their blows aren't as harsh as they could be.

He was, after all, made to be her opponent on some level. Seeing their dynamic work so well off one another, it's easy to stop finding him aggravating and start finding him endearing. A rough around the edges older brother type rather than a hardened criminal trickster type. (Though he is very much still both.)

An aside on the DLC case, I think it's very funny how Blackquill was the only prosecutor willing to try this case against an orca. Sure, he saw the underlying actual murder mystery beneath it all, but it's so easy to imagine him being presented this case, laughing his ass off, then agreeing to prosecute it. This man's as insane as Phoenix!! And that goes a hell of a long way to endearing him to us. To me, specifically. His mannerism against Phoenix is kinda not fun, considering Phoenix is hardly ever fun in this game, but it's such a wacky little character detail about him that I just adore. His devil may care attitude may come from a dark place, but it lends itself to such a fun time.

Of course, we then reach the fourth case and even more mysteries are thrown in our face.

For one, Blackquill is just as on edge and vicious concerning this case. We understand some of Apollo's beef, he knew the victim and is emotionally invested in his client, but Blackquill being just as invested is definitely strange. It definitely raises some alarm bells to keep in mind, right up until the courtroom is blown up and we're forced into a time skip.

Meeting Blackquill's older sister adds another piece to the puzzle. She's really nasty especially to Athena and you make a note of it, but still can't quite make out the whole picture. It's an easy detail to overlook, even, if you aren't really paying attention to the names, since there isn't a big fuss made over her being his older sister. It connects him to this space station, but not in a way that matters. Not yet.

Another piece is Fulbright's odd behaviour. They really have to work hard to start building enough clues for Fulbright's turn to make sense, but the important thing for us concerning Blackquill is that he seems more worried about Blackquill's rehabilitation than before. Fulbright himself is struggling in what he should reveal to us, where his sense of justice lies, and Phoenix presses him to share enough with us for the next day of the trial.

Of course, Blackquill continues the trial with his added fervour. It really feels he has more of the pieces to this puzzle than we do at this point, but we at least manage to hold our own until Fulbright returns with the decisive evidence to prove Starbuck's innocence. The problem then is that it implicates Athena.

And Blackquill goes into absolute panic mode.

This is what he's been trying to prevent! He can't have Athena accused of another crime, he can't defend her this time like how he did before. He's doing his best to hold his uncaring demeanour together, but he's slipped too much for it to be convincing. He's run out of time and his sister refuses to accept that.

This leads us into the final case and our impromptu trial to figure out just what exactly happened for Blackquill to land himself on death row.

How Blackquill guards himself while absolutely falling apart here is so heartbreaking. He's doing his best to protect Athena, to save the girl who's his mentor's precious treasure, and him and Athena going back and forth on whether or not the whole truth is worth exposing, no matter how painful it is, is excellent. I really feel Blackquill's desperation here, aided by one of the sickest Mood Matrix segments ever. Learning that Edgeworth asked Phoenix specifically to become a lawyer again to help Blackquill, having Edgeworth act as prosecutor on this trial, everything about this is so good. All of it really lends to showing us the player why we should care about Blackquill. It definitely got me good.

Only once we prove Blackquill and Athena both innocent does that weathered shield finally fall. Blackquill gets to show off a bit of his less guarded self, gets to have some fun as we leap into the next segment of the trial. He gets to finally, finally dig up the truth behind that terrible lie he's been keeping for the past seven years and confront this Phantom himself. If the Phantom reveal wasn't so slapdash, this entire segment would be a lot more powerful, I think.

All of it, though, is in service of the straight up satisfaction we get when seeing Blackquill at the end, able to live his life again. Seeing how he actually calls on Athena's help in the next game, then hops onto the bench with her to help her out is so good, there's so much growth that happened there. He's still his smarmy trickster self, but he's willing to show a bit of his caring older brother side! I love seeing it.

Anyway yeah hopefully this conveys how much I love Blackquill, wish he had that little extra oomph to his narrative to make him truly great.