#gameplay log

[katyspersonal]

After dying to Malenia for 71th time I've started to think back on how fundamentally wrong are people that complain Fromsoft is "gatekeeping" their games by making them hard lol

Like.... They always say that it is 'not fair' that they can't experience the story of the characters all because the games are "inaccessible" due to being hard, but how ELSE would anyone experience a story of the character that "never knew defeat" unless they actually CAN'T defeat her? Honestly, how hard it is to beat some bosses or areas IS part of the story that you just can't remove :pensive:

#gameplay log #soulsborne #elden ring #i am stuck with this woman for this whole night aren't i

[minty-plumbob]

time to move to a bigger house!

#“family log cabin” by plumbobkingdom on the gallery #oclery 19 #oclery legacy #ts4 #ts4 legacy #ts4 gameplay #simblr

[ladyotakukiut]

my completionist ass on Palia: o noooo this is too much funnnn

my social anxiety on Palia: PEOPLE TALK TO ME???

#Palia #palia closed beta #palia game #the only mmo i ever play is swtor & YES I NEVER STOP TO TALK OR SAY HI TO ANYONE #i dont know what came to me but i saw someone ask for help on how to mine copper so i offer some help #then i saw the same person in town & they say hi #went into panic mode struggling to find the emotes to hi back & ran away to log off 😭 #anxiety is not helping but i won't stop playing though #found some smoll bug here & there but mostly the gameplay was fun!! #random ramblings #myself

[soups-archive]

Thoughts on Purgatory Day 4:

God what a fun day, and yet funnily enough a much more relaxed one.

It's gonna be interesting to see what the ramifications of blue's logout strat are gonna be because it's definitely going to be banned, but, from my understanding, blue used this strat to prove a point: that red's strategy was unfair.

Which is true, or at least I think it was true.

Personally, I feel like it was mostly unfair due to how difficult it used to be to get to global, but I feel like the admins have pretty fairly counteracted that and balanced things with today's introduction of the spawn portals.

Because with red's strat players HAD to physically travel to global and turn in the contracts within at least the last 30 minutes of gameplay. The portals now easily allow other teams to show up and at least put up a good fight, and we actually got to see how effective they are today with cellbit and charlie's assist they pulled for roier. If they had been just slightly quicker, green might've been able to steal back the win.

Which I think brings me to the other potentially unfair part of red's strat that I've seen be brought up which is that it isn't fair for streamers in European timezones/streamers who play earlier. Which is a fair criticism, but honestly I haven't personally been able to think of a way for the admins to balance the contracts around that without either: A) completely changing how contracts work, or B) unfairly punishing later streamers.

I think it's complicated, and I feel like the main thing that's gonna result from today isn't going to be them banning turning in tasks late but instead banning logging out right in front of the global NPCs. Knowing the admins, they'll probably figure out something I hadn't thought of and make the whole thing more fair for everyone.

Competition and lore wise, tomorrow is gonna be really interesting as well. A small alliance might be blooming between red and green and that might have massive ramifications going forward. That and I think (???????) that players might be getting their eggs tomorrow (?????). I know they described a period in which they had to keep them alive and the actual event ends on the 10th so I'm guessing they're arriving tomorrow. If they are, that shit is going to be crazy.

(Side note: It was also a delight to see teams casually hanging out more together today. As much as I enjoy the competition, I missed them all just chilling)

Overall, congrats blue on the win! Cheesy as fuck and they knew it but it was absolutely deserved! They worked their asses off! And green put up a hell of a fight! I hope they get their chance to win as well tomorrow!

#qsmp #soup speaks #it could be perceived that way but this really isnt meant to be a discourse post #i just like thinking about strategy and gameplay balancing lol #this event has been so delightful for me i love disecting possible tactics and ways the admins can make things more fair #while still rewarding interesting and smart strategies #because red's strategy WAS smart #and with the addition of the portals its a lot more fair and opens up opportunities for some sick ass skirmishes over global tasks #i think it also opens up a lot of opportunities for teams to get creative #because all the teams DO have streamers who log in later #even if theyre not their pvp heavy ones #off the top of my head blue has tina missa and rivers #and green has bagi quackity and roier #and not all of those people are the best at pvp but thats where creativity and strategy come in #id love to see blue team come running in with a bunch of explosives or poisoned arrows or other ranged attack methods #to try and stop red team or green team without getting too close contact #like AHHH!!!! i wanna see teams get really creative with this!!! i love fun strategies!!!! #theres so much fun bullshit you can do in this scenario #like god i could sing red's praises so much theyre so tactical and think so strategically its fucking awesome #their cave base made specifically so that it would be less detectable using cave layers? and convincing people they still live at spawn? #delightful #and shoutout blue team for the way they've let people play to their strengths #they caught on to so many good strats early on like moving their base off island and tea being the best food source #and god the way green really came back together today was such a delight to watch #i hadn't caught much of their pov prior to today but i tuned in while they were grinding to fight blue and it was so much fun #i hope them and red actually commit to the little alliance they've formed and try to secure green the win tomorrow #god this event spawns such shit discourse but also im so delighted by it #sorry for the fucking essay in the tags i just have so much to gush about this event kudos to the admins this is sick #qsmp purgatory #really putting the blog back in tumblr blog with this one huh

[fore-seer]

i don’t think global devastation qualifies as a silly little prank, grima

#tactician's log #heroes #eva plays heroes #this game mode is so cute #and i don’t even have to do anything since it’s all auto-battle! #peak feh gameplay is when you don’t actually play it

[brinehater]

this is absurd (ft. @pawnguild's Hesperos and @edgier-than-a-diamond's Allen briefly)

#DD2 spoilers #the sequel to the last one #Raghnall @ trickster: “what are you doing” #least hinged shitpost I'm going to make here I swear #truly cringefail trickster gameplay #i am so good at biddy bame!!!! 8D #tumblr was so mad at me trying to upload this it logged me out that's the quality of content you're getting right now

[citrlet]

#ts4 #ts4 gameplay #ts4 legacy #*glc #sim: milo #i like to think he found the frog but put it right back in the log

[vyragosa]

STAB IN THE WATER BUT remember the "fruity" dragons i ask for clicks sometimes please if you want to play, it's just an idle game that you open once a day nothing intensive just chill but they implement more mechanics recently so it's getting interesting and i can send you insane dragons...use me as referral cause the referral dragon is making me insane i need it so bad...can't reach 25 people that's mad but 3 people at least evolving one single dragon ♡

https://invite.dvc.land/en/ua10486077c?t=1686823474&st=14

#weirdly liking how slow and not obsessive gameplay is it's seriously making you wait a few days so you just log in once per day or so just #just chill nothing hardcore like ok

[kiitkattie]

after the genshin announcement that they're only giving 3 free wishes after 3 years of people playing, makes me not want to play anymore. the game is too grindy, i love the storyline and characters but i actually hate playing it now

and i love playing exploration games! i love open world! but genshin makes it not fun cause there is so little reward for so much effort

honestly fuck the director of genshin, heard bad things about him so if that dude ever reads this FUCK YOU

#meow #genshin impact #genshin #im still gonna log in just to get rewards and do commissions and that's it #its way too hard to even level your characters up #hsr really is the better game at the moment #it's easier to get level materials and relics there than it is to get them in genshin #artifact farming is in fact the worst part of genshin that i don't do it EVER #im too adhd to do the grind #i hate it so much #fuck you for making me hate genshin #i still love the story but i hate the gameplay

[arolesbianism]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ONI EARTH HAD SMOG SO BAD THEY COULDNT EVEN USE SOLAR ENERGY??? JUST FOUND THAT LOG AND. HEY???

YEAH I KNOW RIGHT most of the oni logs are so stuck within gravitas that it's easy to skip over the random little bits of fucked up world building, with the smog being my favorite piece cause it implies a whole fuckton of other environmental issues and it's suddenly like damn these guys were rly just living their lives while half suffocating huh

#rat rambles #oni posting #like as a hashtag grew up in hawaii guy even mild smog already sucks I cant imagine what enough smog to block the sun would do #like you just know theres like a billion other crisies going on like at the very least with water #which in turn also means food #which means that water purification facilities are a must #which need power #its that full circle that also somehow manages to tie into the gameplay babey #luckily the smog doesn't as pumping gasses into space is a much easier option when you dont have an atmosphere #speaking of space and sky travel must have been obnoxious on oni earth #like if it was thick enough to prevent solar power it definitely was making the sky a smudgy mess at best #Ill assume that there was enough light to see but the sky itself was probably always just grey smog #and Im pretty sure in that same log its mentioned that nuclear power is banned or smth? so probably some incidents there #all in all I dont wanna know what a rainy day on oni earth felt like

[katyspersonal]

BUTCHER DIED IN A BALLERINA POSE XDDD

#dark souls #dark souls 1 #shitposting #dark souls 1 screenshot #gameplay log

[duusheen]

😮

#ts4 gameplay #random gameplay #ts4 #ts4 horse ranch #I didn't touch anything I just sat them on that log and Jerome started with all the autonomous romantic interactions 😳

[dykemerrilll]

re lrb in any case to me astarion’s arc is less about regaining agency than becoming aware that he already has it and has to act like that. there's a distinction between agency as a material fact, ie having the ability in theory to make your own decisions and act on your desires, and the awareness of having that agency.

i'm no psychologist, but in my experience one of the most helpful steps in recovering from mental illness has been the awareness of my own agency ─ yes, sometimes I feel as though my life is completely run by my intrusive thoughts, but invariably getting out of that place has involved a recognition that ultimately, I am the one in control of my thoughts and I have the agency to work through them. that doesn't mean that it isn't hard, or time-consuming, and sometimes I don't succeed in the way I'd like, but nonetheless the ability to at least try is and always has been in my power.

in baldur's gate 3, your companions appear with varying degrees of agency (aside, obviously, from the tadpole they all share). they range from gale, whose current situation physically and magically restricts him but who at that moment in time doesn't have many other immediate restrictions on his day-to-day actions, to wyll, whose every move is watched by his abusive warlck patron.

nonetheless, your companions benefit from being shown that they not only could have agency at some point in the future, if they break their pact/shar's curse/free cazador/free orpheus/fix the infernal engine/get the crown of karsus, but they have agency now and must therefore use it responsibly. wyll is already to some degree aware of this, i think, even if it's only because he is so morally forthright ─ he's one of your companions who remains actively trapped by their abuser during the game, yet he refuses to kill karlach because he knows that would be wrong. even within his severely limited circumstances, he makes a choice, he demonstrates agency. in the shadowfell, shadowheart ─ a cult victim subjected to extreme psychological and religious abuse ─ has the choice whether or not to kill aylin, and can make it either way.

astarion, at the point at which you meet him, has just been given freedom for the first time in, essentially, his life. it's no surprise that he doesn't know what to do with thise newfound agency, and doesn't recognise it for what it is, given that he literally cannot remember ever having control over his own life. that's deeply tragic, but it doesn't erase the fact that he has control over the things he does during the game. those actions (for example, given i am still talking about that last rb, talking about the children he kidnapped and gave to cazador as though they were nothing), are things he has agency over and is responsible for. nonetheless, he acts as though he does not, lurching from one attempt to gain power to another (killing the druids to suggesting you use whatever's in moonrise to your advantage), because his own self-perception as someone completely powerless is so overwhelming. he must accrue power because that is the only way he can make sure he's safe and can never be hurt again. it's just that that self-perception is not completely accurate, he does have agency; if he makes choices that result in moral wrongs, those moral wrongs are his to bear.

i'm not getting at astarion here, I don't mean to imply that he's at fault for this attitude. it is, obviously, the natural response to 200 years of enslavement and abuse. kind of the whole point of the game, of all of your companions' quests, is that if people are hurt and abused often they will feel as though their only avenue towards power is to do the same to others. but being severely traumatised doesn't make his behaviour okay; he doesn't get a free pass to do whatever he wants because of cazador. you can like him, literally who am i to say otherwise (i like him too!), but don't just excuse everything he does or get rid of the most interesting parts of his character because you're unwilling to grapple with the fact that as it stands in the game, he's morally incredibly complex.

i think there's a tendency to assume that a character either must or must not have agency, and to present it as a binary, because for some reason it's used as a shorthand for moral culpability, when in reality the relationship between agency and culpability is significantly more complicated. i haven't really been getting into coerced choices here because that's a whole other kettle of fish (though i will give the necessary disclaimer that my stance on this is quite clearly influenced by the fact that deep down i'm a bit of a virtue ethicist). nonetheless, while this is my pop philosophy take and i'm not trying to impose this overall moral framework on people, i think it's pretty reasonable to say that lack of agency does not mean that what you did was not wrong.

implying that astarion is at fault here would be indicative of the very attitude I am trying to oppose ─ the idea that people either have agency or don't, and if they do bad things with agency they are evil, but if they don't have agency they are victims. astarion is both ─ he is the victim of horrendous, harrowing trauma and yet he has done bad things and in fact visited that same trauma upon other people. there's no escaping this, and i think it would be bad for astarion to just brush everything he did for cazador under the rug because he did it for cazador. he still did those things ─ he might not be culpable, i do not think he can be considered as such, but there's no way you go through all of that and don't feel guilty for it.

notably, if shadowheart kills aylin and wyll kills karlach (if he can? i actually don't even know if he can do that, but hypothetically), they are still responsible for that action and it was still morally wrong. they have to deal with that: part of dealing with it can be to recognise the coercion they were subject to, but the fact that they lacked agency doesn't just erase the wrong or mean it was never wrong in the first place. likewise, astarion becoming the ascended vampire is still obviously a terrible thing to happen for him and everyone else, and is in no way justified just because it might finally give him the sense of safety and control he craves. the whole point of that moment is that even when he is being retraumatised, when he has returned to the place and person that hurt him, astarion has the capacity to choose, and to choose the right thing. acting as though his trauma means he has absolutely no agency whatsoever and so never has to address the fact that he can, at various points, greatly fuck up, just removes one of the biggest themes of his whole character.

tldr: astarion has agency, one of his greatest challenges is realising that he does and that he must use it responsibly, and acting as though that is not the case does a disservice to his character and the story it is trying to tell. also it is deeply deeply boring. the end.

#bg3 #i logged into tumblr on my laptop to type this out instead of learning how to use a pivot table #hence the abrupt change in capitalising I #i keep going on about this because it's a general attitude towards trauma and mental illness that drives me completely up the wall #yes life is hard yeah you gotta take steps to make that better #yeah thats tricky. sorry. gotta be done though #anyway i could literally talk about this all day like. gale or lae'zel and agency is a WHOLE thing and i could rant about those two for day #but this is getting too long as it is #also obligatory disclaimer that this is in no way a commentary on anyone's gameplay #im not trying to do a 'omg if u ascend astarion you're a terrible horrible person forever' or anything #i think it's great and fun that you can do that and explore his character that way #this is directed at people who just try to make him like uwu traumatised little baby who has never had any agency ever #in his whole entire life #and so cannot be morally responsible for any action he has ever taken

[cyber-phobia]

ultrakill..............

#why........ WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME....... #PLEASE..... THIS IS LIKE MY BRAND....... #screaming crying throwing up how could no one inform me of this #how have i gone on so long without hearing a single word of this game #ASKDJBAKFBJ #I HAVENT EVEN WATCHED GAMEPLAY OR PLAYED IT MYSELF YET IVE LITERALLY ONLY HEARD VOICE LINES #AND ITS DRIVING ME INSANE #HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE #HOW COULD I HAVE NOT FOUND THIS SOONER #gonna be absolutely psychotic #oh my GOD. #cybers log

[cynical-cy]

ill play arknights again when it's like 50% full furries

#cyspeaks #this is mostly a joke i do log in now n again #but im genuinely too stupid for the tower defense gameplay so i very quickly leave again #i do look over at posts from ppl that're rly into it and smile tho #like at least they're havin fun

[fore-seer]

FATES SUPPORT LOG IS COMPLETE. THE MISSION… THE NIGHTMARES… THEY’RE FINALLY OVER

#tactician's log #fates #eva plays fates #i can never let ANYTHING happen to this 3ds or my fates and awakening cartridges. i will not have enough free time to do this shit again #a very small evil part of me wants to do the 3h support log as well. i am resisting with everything i have #although it WOULD be easier since there are no child units. but it also wouldn’t be easier because i would have to tolerate 3h gameplay #plus i’d have to play through endgame for every byleth s support and ok yeah im not doing that