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rallamajoop · 3 years

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So, I've spent the last couple of months getting myself hooked on the Witcher franchise.

Believe me, no-one is more surprised than I am – especially when I made it through The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt mostly on the strength of the gameplay, but largely underwhelmed by the plot.

So you can imagine my surprise when I gave the Blood and Wine expansion a chance, and it hooked me, grabbed me right in the id and delivered on almost everything the base game lacked. I fell for Regis, I agonised over the endings, I have a million theories about the villains, I just... yes.

And then I tried the novels, and my god, I think I may love them even more than Blood and Wine.... but let’s start back at the beginning.

Up until earlier this year, I knew The Witcher mostly as that game that infamously gave you collectible cards for getting all the female NPCs to sleep with you – not a great first impression. I tried the Netflix series, but bounced off it quickly. And then youtube randomly recommended me Joseph Anderson's ridiculously long videos analysing the first two games... and found myself intrigued. The complex morality, twisted fairy tale mythology, the promise of decisions with real consequences and sidequests that only deepened the world and themes... that could actually be worth a play. Nothing may have come of this, but then The Witcher 3 was on sale on Steam, and I thought, what the hell?

Over 100 hours of gameplay later, I came away disappointed. Witcher 3 may have something to recommend everywhere except its overarching plot, which... honestly, just calling it a “plot” may be giving it too much credit, when so much of the main quest feel like meaningless fetch quests for NPCs who may be able to help you find some other NPC who can tell you about the real plot, which is mostly happening to other people. Very little can really change or build organically (tension included) since the open-world structure means the player may be doing it in any order. Then, at the end, you fight a generic dark-elf final boss, who’s had less presence or dialogue than many NPCs you can meet in in utterly optional side quests, then you avert the apocalypse somehow – which I knew might be imminent mostly because it kept coming up on the loading screens (you know, between other such sage advice as "sorceresses are infertile" and "Geralt can use his crossbow underwater"). How do you fill a game up with so much unnecessary padding and still leave the core conflict feeling so underdeveloped?

Don’t get me wrong: there is some amazing material scattered through various subplots along the way, but the setup and payoff in this thing is a disaster.

Still, the Steam sale had included the game’s two expansion packs, and the core gameplay was addictive enough that I gave them a chance – starting with Blood and Wine – and fell head over heels in love.

Everything about the expansion benefits from its smaller scope, delivering something shorter and tighter, with some great twists and surprises, no clear villain, and some truly agonising decisions towards the end once you realise you're not going to be able to save everyone. While the main game left me going eh, whatever, maybe I’ll youtube the other endings at some point, hardly I finished Blood and Wine once before I was reloading a save from the last obvious decision point and replaying the final chapter again (twice, in the same evening) because I so desperately wanted to see what else could have happened. Plus, Blood and Wine included Regis (Geralt's ridiculously mild-mannered uber-powerful-vampire BFF), whom I adored, and whose presence works wonders to tie the story and the mythology together.

(No, he doesn’t look like much, but his voice actor is perfect and his attitude to life and his friendship with Geralt only got me more the longer I spent with him.)

The base game’s inability to pull its plot together was all the greater shame considering how many genuinely brilliant characters you meet along the way (YENNEFER! Dijkstra, Thaler, Phillipa, the Bloody Baron, the Crones – the list goes on), but there were none I fell for the way I fell for Regis (and yes, I ship him with Geralt something awful, so help me).

(If you're curious, I found the a lot of the same strengths in the other expansion pack, Hearts of Stone, but felt it ended weakly, and was frustrated by how hard it pushed Geralt to romance Shani, who did nothing for me. Look, game, my Geralt already has Yennefer and his vampire boyfriend, there is no room for Shani in his busy schedule!)

Curious about the backstory (though certainly also tempted by the promise of more Regis), I gave the novels a try... and fell in love all over again. The first book (by far the weakest) is a bit of an introductory hurdle, but the second quickly sucked me in with its wit and humour, then ended with a series of magnificent gut-punches that ensured I was well and truly hooked – and hooked I remained, through the five more novels that followed.

This is not a series I can say much more about without also telling you how the ending broke my heart – suffice to say that it's not for nothing that so few of Geralt's companions from the last three books ever appear in the games, or that the world thinks Geralt and Yennefer are dead before Witcher 1 (they aren't, even ignoring the games, but whether they ever see Ciri or any of their surviving friends again is left hanging). But the games, for all their flaws, certainly do their bit to offer happier endings, and having got this far, I found myself almost immediately buying that one last prequel novel I'd skipped (Season of Storms), because I just wanted to spent more time in this world, with these characters (even knowing so many faves from the later novels wouldn't be present). And I think that's the sincerest rec I can give the series: I earnestly cannot remember the last time any fantasy novel series sucked me in nearly so hard. I’m left comparing its characters and world-building to Discworld, and that’s about as high as my literary compliments go.

I could ramble on for ages about everything that does and doesn't work about the games, and their convoluted relationship with their source material (so much of the story is woefully under-explained without the books as context, so much expands on leftover plot points that the books never properly resolved – while so much more contradicts the books in wildly irreconcilable ways). I have as much to say about all the great and fascinating things in the books that didn't make it into the games. And I probably will at some point, given what an absolute sucker I am for all that kind of analysis, but that's fodder for other posts (and competing for priority with half a dozen different Geralt/Regis fic I seem to have already started. Or possibly Geralt/Yennefer, or Geralt/Yennefer/Regis, or even Geralt/Dandelion – look, dude is shippable, I don’t know what to tell you).

In the meantime... I may have already started rereading the novels from the beginning again. And Blood and Wine ain’t gonna replay itself.

#The Witcher #Blood and Wine #The Wild Hunt #Witcher Novels #Emiel Regis #Geralt of Rivia #do they have a ship name?#geregis #regeralt #?#look #even if it's just for tumblr tags #they could really use a ship name

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asoiaf-source · 4 years

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Fighting Hate with more Hate. That always works, right?

“Sansa’s fans are so defensive of her because of the rest of the fandom demonize her and hate her for no reason.” - helenakey

So then the answer is to demonize the other women characters for no reason?

Of course there are going to be ‘fans’ that hate on a character for no reason, I’ve seen people post unnecessary and unreasonable hate on many of the characters, not just Sansa, and they can be as annoying, but they are not representative of the entire fandom. Not ALL fans are hating on her, and some are just looking at the character critically. I’m new to the tumblr metas (avoided for a long time due to the toxic reputation), but i’ve been on ASOIAF forums for a long time and there are plenty of Sansa supporters, even if she is still quite a polarizing character due to how people wish to interpret her... but Sansa stans on tumblr take it to the next level!

I’ve never seen this side of her fans before, or at least so much nearly every day, and subsequently the many rebuttals! And how often they like throwing other characters under the bus, often for hypocritical reasons. Like the OP yendany said, they ignore the trauma in other characters or dismiss it as not as bad, when it is often much, much worse. They criticize and attack other female characters to prop up Sansa ‘better’ survival skills, or attribute qualities to her she doesn’t possess (I see this a lot in fanfiction, before I realized the self-insert aspect), or use her age as excuse when all the main characters are young or even younger than her. The line porcelain to ivory to steel... can really apply to any character that has to grow up and face the harsh realities of the world... so it is really hypocritical to think Sansa is special in some way for overcoming her situation, all the characters are going through the same struggle, and many have it much worse. That is where I think so much of the anti-sansa stans come from, the hypocrisy and the tearing down of other just as deserving of sympathy/empathy characters, especially other women characters. It is a weird juxtaposition, that anyone with a reasonable sense of objectivity can pick up on and often do.

I mostly see it done against Arya and Dany, the two more prominent female characters in the books (thus the 2 who draw more focus than #3 Sansa?). The two female characters GRRM is telling a lot of his story through and spending a large amount of the text (right from book 1) to develop their growth as characters and showcase their strengths, intelligence, determination, fortitude, agency, cleverness, resilience and so much more. It’s as if because the other women are not ‘pure’ or see themselves that way and stronger in personality and character that somehow their suffering doesn’t affect them as much because they are tougher and didn’t let anything that happened to them stop them from growing stronger. They aren’t dwelling in victim-hood too long before they pick themselves back up and move forward.

And yet, they cheer when Sansa starts to grow stronger... Sansa’s growth has been much slower, we are moving into book 6 and she is just starting to gain a bit of agency, but she is still heavily under the tutelage of Baelish. We will see how far she gains in the next book and if she will break with Baelish by the end of it and be a fully independent player. But her development isn’t nearly on the same scale as Daenerys and Arya. That isn’t to imply that she isn’t going to be important, but it is clear from the text that she is not one of the main focuses for GRRM, or he would have developed her faster and given her more to do. We will see how much ground he can cover in 1-2 books, but there is only so much he will be able to accomplish and have it be believable, especially with so many POVs and story lines that he needs to develop.

I actually think their attempts to (over) defend her backfire, as so many feel the need to point out the falsehoods and misinterpretations, especially when they are wildly mean-spirited and completely refutable by the text. As I traverse through the ASOIAF metas I often come across fans metas writing rebuttals to other posts, to ‘correct’ their conclusion or ‘facts’. I’ve read so many of these they are starting to get repetitive, I also read some of the Sansa-stan posts they are rebutting and, yeah I can see why so many get upset. If you don’t like it when others tears down or dismisses Sansa, why do you think fans of the other characters wouldn’t comment when you go after their favs, especially so mean-spiritedly.

I don’t think I ever felt so much negativity towards the Sansa character until I had to read so many skewed and biased metas turning her into some kind of saintly YA Disney princess type that is just too good for this cruel world. That kind of character has no place in a series like this. You can’t help but want to point out the wild inaccuracies, and it makes me feel a negativity towards a character I didn’t feel negative to before. And I don’t want to feel negative towards her, she is a Stark and I root for the Starks, especially the kids. I often defended her against those who (I feel) just don’t understand what it is like to be a preteen girl, I relate to a lot of Sansa’s weaknesses and how she feels, especially at that age, and that is her appeal (to me) - the fact that she starts off very weak.

Sansa is weak both physically and mentally, she cares too much about rank, privilege, and what others think about her, her desire to conform, for everything to be proper, and properly in their place. She has the luxury to think that way because she is a rich, pretty, noble girl who ranks at the top of society, of course she sees life as great and never questions it... she is already at the top and winning from birth. This is why (I think) she is so hard on Arya, she messes with her idea of what is proper/good/right. Arya isn’t pretty and doesn’t try to be, she acts more boy than girl, she plays with dirty, smelly, poor children, etc... Those are all an embarrassment to Sansa and go against what a proper lady of her rank should do and care about. Once they head south, all the things Arya gets away with at home will stand out even more and reflect badly on Sansa, by association. So, she criticizes and distances herself even more, because she wants to join the elite glamorous world of the nobility.

The other girls don’t have those weaknesses, that is why they are seen as better able to cope than Sansa does. They grow quicker and stronger faster because they are not as inhibited by what the ‘rules’ are. This isn’t a criticism of Sansa, this is an observation and I think it is the entire point of including a character like her in the story. GRRM could have followed the original outline for her, but he wanted to ‘reform/rescue’ her character and give her (I hope) a better path back to her family and happiness. I think it is GRRMs way to show how young girls should NOT romanticize noble life or being pretty will lead to a ‘perfect’ life. That thinking of yourself as a lady or being a princess/queen isn’t what is important. That marring a ‘title’ (lord/prince) or a handsome face is not enough to lead to happiness. It is what you do with your life, and how you care about others and who cares about you - that is what is important. But some Sansa fans seem to miss that and want her to have all those thing and more... they want it both ways, her to learn all those things, and yet still get all those things... a beautiful princess life clear of the harsh actions to gain it and also a happy family married to the best, more heroic and honorable man - a fairy tale ending. And that is not ASOIAF.

They are reducing her entire arc to becoming a nicer, more pure, and pretty, prize for a man to love, marry and make their queen. If so, GRRM will botch the ending of his series and all the points he *seems* to be making thus far.

A major theme (to me) in Sansa arc is her lack of value in her home and family. Sansa (to me) is like the small town girl who can’t wait to leave her family / Winterfell behind and to move to the big glamorous city (King’s Landing) and become royalty. But once she got there wasn’t able to accumulate with its more complicated and corrupt realities of the court. Even setting the cruelty of Joffrey aside (he is an aberration, not a normal example), how everyone else ostracizes or ignores her (except the hound, and to some extent Tyrion - although he isn’t all that great). The way the Tyrells treat her before and after her wedding is much more representative of how typical court life and nobility behaves normally (I think). Sansa never saw the true value of being surrounded by people who love and care about YOU and whom you can trust and rely upon - until that is all taken from her. She slowly sees how the people at court are corrupt and deceitful under all the beauty and glamor she so aspired to only after being fooled more than once, and (to me) no longer wants any part of it, but is forced to play, thanks to Baelish.

This is a point I find many of her fan miss, they think Sansa is going to learn to play the game, destroy everyone with her cunning and beauty and rise to the top to be queen or a ruler - a path which will ultimately lead to down a very dark and cynical path... but somehow they think Sansa will be different, and her rise will be more like a Disney princess story, one where she will gain power without having to sink low to do it. That is NOT the kind of book GRRM is writing.

”I’ll make them love me.” - another childish statement, you can’t make people love you, you earn love and respect. And Sansa hasn’t done that once the entire series, she hasn’t made a single friend. No one is looking to follow or fight for/beside Sansa, save Baelish, and we all know that plan is doomed to fail, as he isn’t to be trusted or relied upon and wants to use her. I would even question her friendship with Jeyne Poole as it is clear she never saw them as equals, and that is not real friendship... more like Jeyne was a companion/lady-in-waiting type.

The few people who care about her (other than family) either are working on behalf of an oath to Catelyn, or have their own ambitions/sexual desires/pity for her and not necessarily care about her for herself because she was a good and loyal friend to them. Maybe this will change in the next book, but with Baelish keeping close tabs and guiding her, who knows how well she will be able to make any genuine relationships with others given all the secrets she has to keep.

Her only realistic path to leadership is through marriage and that is hardly giving her agency as a heroic rise to a leader of a men... more like sleeping her way to the top. Not something I want for Sansa, and I hope her ‘marriage’ to Tyrion works as plot armor against her being used like that.

Besides GRRM has kinda stressed that ‘real’ leadership comes from understanding people, observation, and experience, and not just from strategics marriage (Margaery, Cersei) or inheritance (Joffrey, Tommen, Cersei - she could prove the point all on her own :). Every leader in the book so far has to make compromises, make hard decisions and even make harsh, sometimes very bad decisions and live with those consequences. None of the characters in the series have escaped this as much as Sansa has, since so much of her story thus far is about her lack of agency, and being a pawn used by others (and to some extent she still is with Baelish). For her to make it to the end w/o doing anything and staying ‘pure’ and that is how she ends up on top, by essentially not taking many large personal risks, allowing others to do all the heavy lifting morally, mentally and physically. If winning means standing on the sidelines watching everyone else do the WORK, and just giving suggestive nudges here and there to have things turn out in your favor so you can just coast to the top (that is the Baelish way)... well, that is kinda the worst message GRRM could leave us with.

If GRRM wants Sansa to become a leader, she will have to get her hands dirty too, she will have to take great personal risks to gain power and accept the consequences good or bad that result, learn from them and move forward... otherwise it defeats one of the main points of his series and turns her into a simplistic cliche version of a character. Every character with a POV has gone through this, it is one of the major themes in ASOIAF, a more realistic, less easy way of looking at how you obtain power and learn by experience and a series of victories and defeats. Thus far Sansa has also avoided examining her actions and how they have affected her, she either never thinks about them, changes the facts to suit her better, or blames others without seeing the part she also played... I’m not blaming her, but her action did contribute to the situation... she never seems to realize this and I feel it is going to eventually hit her hard, she has to mature and grow out of her ‘unreliable narrator’ eventually, and it must lead to something for GRRM to make it such a large part of her narrative of coping with her trauma. I assume he wrote her this way for a reason and is going to do something with it.

I’m looking forward to a darker more realistic Sansa who has more agency and understanding, and I expect her to make her own mistakes and moral compromises (well she already has, but there was some coercion - but it also means she is capable of doing so) just like all the other POVs have had to do. I also look forward to her finally owning up to her past actions and how they also contributed to where she is now. If she can’t take some personal responsibility she will never grow. That is a part of having agency, understanding how your decisions and actions affect you and others.

I wish all the back and forth would stop, cause I’m tired of seeing it in my feeds, but I guess it has been going on for years - the same arguments/rebuttals - so I guess it will continue, even after we get the next book... I think only the completion of the entire series will end some of these arguments, but who knows - after some of the meta I’ve read, there will probably be even more, lol.

Well, I wanted to comment and give my two cents, but it ended up being longer and I guess for me all this is still new and offsetting. I guess I had more to say that I thought, even though I edited A LOT out because I wanted to keep it focused. I’ve just started to dip my toes into this crazy platform, so I’m sure this is just the tip of the toxic metas that I heard can be found here... can’t wait to read the anti-dany metas... that is sure to fill me with a sad rage as well, i know the show did her no favors, sigh....

#topic anti-sansa-stans #topic toxic fandom #topic sansa stark stans

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losangelesvalorant · 4 years

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interesting things from tactical crouch’s interview w fusion assistant coach chrisTFer on 1/21

christfer talks abt hero bans, why fusion underperformed in s2, and why their roster is what it is. ill update this post w the youtube link once its out

On hero bans

Christfer thinks hero bans would change EVERYTHING, every team would have to be able to think on the fly, strong ingame leadership, makes coaches' jobs a lot harder, have to practice every hero on every map. you'd have to coach fundamentals into players a lot more and more focus on quickly IDing win conditions and the enemy gameplan. very seriously hopes they aren't gonna drop it this season

if the goal is to have genuine diversity in hero pool, bans is the way to achieve that, but christfer thinks itll fuck up the competitiveness, level of play will go down. but any aspect that helps spectators is better for league overall

volamel thinks hero bans will excite and drive the audience bc banning players specific heroes would be hype as fuck. lotta strategy, lots of analysis. however he's skeptical bc if it happens midseason it's gonna fuck over coaches

christfer thinks if theyre gonna do it they gotta do it today. there's no other good time

yiska thinks it would be bad to implement it midseason bc the # of games teams play across the season is sooo spread out. teams have different amts of games every month

on why fusion underperformed in s2

Internally, fusion was kinda "naive" coming into s2, thought they were the 2nd best team and acted as if they were 2nd best. rarely felt happiness after scrims bc theyre "supposed" to be winning all the scrims. losing scrims also was hugely negative for the same reason

smaller roster makes it harder to kick people into gear, so lack of motivation was a big thing. they were just waiting for goats to die

thought goats wouldnt continue into s2, stage 4 was where they finally got motivation, fusion never completely understood the goats style of play or the fundamentals goats taught teams, they lost games they shouldnt have as a result. Not one big issue, lots of small issues

fusion held themselves to such high expectations that when they failed them and weren't enjoying the game as much so morale fell. (paraphrased) "as long as my players enjoy playing the game, it makes my job easier"

Christfer says fusion changed a lot for playins, changed coaching structure, overwhelmingly positive result. best theyd looked all season

shanghai had very particular strengths on certain maps. fusion was winning brawl comps vs brawl comps. got nervous and dropped maps they were supposed to take, but theyd given away too many of "their" maps to be able to lose shanghai's maps.

felt like they hit the ground running on playins, but other teams levelled up across playins and christfer believed other teams wouldve developed more than they would have

even if coaching wasnt problem if team is in a slump you need new coaches to re-fire everyone up, which is what happened w fusion.

on carpe and sado

carpe was able to play heroes he excelled at in s1, in s2 zarya was entirely different in elements of what makes a player good at the hero. carpe holds himself to a very, very high standard and playing zarya killed his morale because he wasn't so good at it. christfer considers it a failing of himself as a coach that he didn't help carpe work through that more

nobody on the team is worried about carpe’s performance. Christfer confirmed carpe wont play if he isnt up to standard (in response to reddit worrying abt how long his contract is and how much sway he has over coaches)

christfer is very upset about how people treat sado. sado is the "single nicest person you will ever meet." every single player/coach had 1 on 1s with tucker, everyone said they wanted to keep playing with sado. yiska emphasized how important it is that every player on the team wanted to keep playing sado bc for example eqo and carpe want to win more than anything and if they thought sado was the problem they absolutely wouldve said so

Other teams came to fusion wanting to sign sado

christfer said sado wasnt the greatest main tank player last year, but playing rein in a "dysfunctional" team makes the rein player look bad.

christfer thinks this is the "season of sado." has complete faith in him

the complaints abt sado’s rein "[he] can understand," says to remember sado had never played pro before s1. he doesn't have as much competitive exp which hits him hard but he's grown wildly in the last year.

sado's ability to hit every halt at the right time is incredible. compares him to alarm in how good his instincts are. excellent player in a team environment, kinda a big brother to some of the players on the team, sado is very important to the team

christfer agrees that if meta shifts and sado is sick, theres a problem, but says this is not a problem unique to fusion

on fusion’s new acquisitions

heesu surprised christfer the most. he’s “very, very, very very, very good.” hungry to learn, easy to talk to, they got a very good deal and christfer is surprised more teams didn't try to get him

heesu has a lot of respect for carpe, heesu said its a + for him to work under carpe

theyre trying to scrim w heesu daily, sounds like they intend to play him if the opportunity presents itself. excellent signing theyre very happy abt

the point of the chipsa signing was that they didnt need a 5th dps, their lineup is already perfect, they had to find someone that "made sense" from many levels. wanted a specialist. Christfer thinks chipsa understands the raw mechanics of doom better than any owl players, thinks he could legit play in a doom meta. also thinks chipsa could teach eqo doom in a doom meta. chipsa provides advertisement, no need for scrimming with him. if the situation is right he can play and if he's not playing he provides income, publicity, etc. christfer again restated he was originally against the signing. when tucker explained why hed be signed, christfer came around to the idea

having 2 way players is a headache in christfers opinion, so that was another reason why they didnt pick up a contenders player instead of chipsa.

chipsa has not had a scrim yet because he’s not in philly bc visa stuff, but christfer did not clarify whether or not he will scrim.

of all players signed, funnyastro was by far the most in demand. they had to fight for him, almost every team wanted him. he's a "sponge" where he remembers whatever coaches tell him, incredibly coachable, very mature for his age, needs to adjust his playstyle a bit to fit into the team (bc he's going for plays he shouldnt sometimes) but if they can "tune him back" a bit hes great. want to find a middle ground bc astro's ability to kill everything and doing his job (brought up moth as the "glue guy" who enables everyone by doing his job perfectly)

alarm has insane awareness, has natural affinity for positioning, understands ovw instinctively. zero attitude issues, the nicest/perfect teammate. "the whole package."

yiska said ivy has a "special type of character," quickly clarified that it’s not a “problematic” character, but needs a dif type of coaching (christfer agreed)

thinks things got difficult for ivy on toronto bc he was moving roles so much, kdg puts a lot of stock into him, a lot of kr players do too. people from toronto think ivy is insane mechanically. volamel thinks ivy should have been toronto's standout

fury wasnt signed bc of bad synergy btween sado and poko. poko wasnt the problem. fusion is very serious abt winning everything and fury is a statement of that intent. fury/poko cover every base

on new coaches

Christfer really respects seita and kdg, happy to have gotten them. has worked w both of them in the past, considers kdg similar to crusty. they signed kdg like the second he became available, christfer asked for him specifically.

seita will stay remote

yiska says mobydik is nuts in terms of game knowledge. Christfer agreed, says he thinks abt the game in a very unique way, outside of the box

misc

Fusion has a system where all 3 supports are rotating in the current meta. nobody is benched. had main support play bap originally when bootcamping, but theres places u can play 2 flex sups, so fusion has a lot of flexibility. who plays depends on situations where you can always play zen/bap vs where you might have to flex to lucio

Christfer thinks main sups doing calling/single caller system is a bit outdated and more of a western concept, trying to build comm system where everyone communicates, everyone calls their own ults. can have ingame leaders, but wants everyone to call what they need to call. in this meta everyone has to make the plays and call their own ults bc its split second and only the person w the ult can see the optimal situation

Christfer thinks the positions where you need stability in ovw is main tank and main support. subbing dps players in and out is fine but you need consistency at mt and ms.

really really think they dont need to fill their last roster spot

Christfer calls this season a "rebuild season" for fusion. if they dont do well this year christfer thinks it would be the fault of the coaches. too much talent to fuck it up.

not taking home a title is not exactly a failure, but anything within the top 4 fusion is happy with

#notes #these r barely edited so if theyre incomprehensible thats why

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weareallfallengods · 4 years

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Chapter 1, continued

This thing tossed us like a couple of rag dolls thrown from a child’s stroller being kicked by a football player. Or at least it started to go that way. Somehow, as the bike ground across the pavement, with just my left hand managing to keep any kind of hold on the bike, I managed to swing myself around it like a gymnast on a gold-medal winning vault-horse routine, snagged Grace’s bar apron with my free hand, and with sheer desperate strength, yank all three back together, right as the beast’s slavering maw snapped shut on empty air where Grace’s head had been just milliseconds before. Through pure accident of positioning, my toes raked across it’s eyes as my leg swung around and I slammed them back down on the pegs, jammed the throttle all the way open, even as Grace somehow managed to complete the circle I’d pulled her in, ending by straddling my hips, arms and hair akimbo while we slid sideways, fortunately tires first.

Grace’s eyes were wider than a kid who opened their eyes to Disneyland on a Christmas morning as she slammed into me, and I used our momentum to get the bike fully upright, only barely escaping a second snap from the beast as it lunged again, trying to tear us apart.

That near miss, and the sigh of relief I almost let happen, didn’t get a chance to last long.

Her damn hair was in my face, which at any other time, wouldn’t have been a problem, really, but just at that second, was incredibly, blindingly, distracting. And it might have saved our lives.

Something hot burned into my shoulder and face as the sound of crashing metal and people yelling slammed into me. Hm, spicy.

“Shit! Watch out! Sorry!” Grace called to the one lady who wasn’t running for the hills as we smashed through her food cart. Can you get third-degree barbecue sauce burns? Food trays, sauces and meat all went flying as we dervished our way right through the middle of her street-side restaurant, sweet and spicy and sticky all at once, all over the ground, and all over me and Grace as well. I couldn’t think of anything more than just keeping everything together and moving forward. Run. The only thought occupying my mind. Just run.

“Hey.”

The softness of her voice is what brought me back to the girl squished up against me and out of the rabbit-instinct flight mode I was in.

I don’t know why but for some reason, my brain decided that was the perfect moment to notice that I’d never realized how captivating the color brown could be. Grace’s eyes were less than inches from mine, and I froze for a second. Again.

“I think it’s stopped.”

I glanced back. The beast had been right on top of us when we hit the food cart, but now it was standing there in the middle of the sidewalk, sniffing around for all the world like the biggest, dumbest, glowiest dog you’ve ever seen. OK, a dog that could tear a truck apart like a box of tissues, but still.

“What the hell is it doing?”

“Maybe it’s hungry.”

I didn’t realize I’d said that out loud. I’d never seen one of these things just...stop like that. It didn't make sense.

No time to think of that right now, just enough time to dart down another alley, blocking the beast from view as it sat down to lap up all the spilled barbecued beef at its feet.

As we weaved and darted through alleys and parking lots, squeezing through sidewalks and darting across small streets, I started to recognize where we were now, and had the barest inkling of a plan besides ‘get away without dying.’

“Whatever that thing is, I think it likes barbecue.”

Grace’s whispered comment snapped me back to what was right in front of me, the whole reason I was in this kind of mess again in the first place. .

“Hunh?”

“I think it stopped to eat at the barbecue stand we knocked over. It’s not chasing us anymore- look.”

I tried to check the mirror again, only to find they’d both been ripped off by now, so switched to glancing over my shoulder quickly, and saw no ominous glow behind us, other than the few street lamps on the small boulevard we were going down.

“Barbecue?” I was still pretty confused. Probably drunk too. But definitely confused.

Grace’s laugh was carried away on the night like fireworks swept away in a light breeze. “Well, I dunno what the hell that thing was, but I haven’t met anyone yet who wouldn’t drop everything for good barbecue, honey.”

Raising an eyebrow, I laughed, “Well it’s good to see I’m not the only one here who can make wildly ridiculous comments with horrible timing!”

“Funny the things you think about when you should be focusing on other stuff that’s a little more important, hunh? Like right now, all I can think about is a nice rack of ribs.” Grace grew quieter as her head sank back down on to my shoulder. “Where we headed, sugar?”

“Somewhere close. Safe. I think.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The old loft was just as dank and dirty and run down on the inside as it looked on the outside. Probably worse. No diamonds in the rough here, that’s for sure. Broken glass scattered on the beat up industrial floor scattered the glow of the streetlight through the mist that filled the space. Definitely not up to my usual standard, but hey, we couldn’t really complain too much.

Throwing an old, discarded, and probably moldy, but definitely more disgusting than I wanted to ever touch again, mover’s blanket over the plate window helped to at least hide a little bit of how gross this place looked. Plus, privacy. A quick scan around and I found a pile of old tarps and a couple skeezy mattresses that I definitely wasn’t going to think about where they’d been or who’d done what on them for how long. It’d have to do. A dirty mattress was a small price to pay for still being alive.

"It's not the Four Seasons, but it'll do for now. It's kinda cold- I don't think the building even has heat, but I think we can keep warm enough to make it through the rest of tonight at least."

Grace flopped down heavily on the mattress, exhausted, shoulders slumped, staring vacantly at the floor.

"That was...was that...I don't even know where to start. My brain's been turned to oatmeal. What…? What happened? What in the name of all fucks just happened?"

“Yeah, there’s kind of a lot to unpack here isn’t there?” I just crumpled down into one of the old blankets like a sock puppet being dropped into its nest. “I’m not even sure where to begin.”

“Ya think? Like one minute, I’m trying to mind my business, working my shift at the bar, wondering whether I’m going to have to give another statement to the cops after another bar fight breaks out, and the next I’m getting tossed around like a hot sweet-potato, almost get eaten by a glowing, walking catfish that got beaten a little too hard with the ugly stick, get covered in barbecue sauce, do-si-doed by a goddamn motorcycle ninja, only to wind up in some place that looks like it was lifted straight out of Zillow for Crackheads!”

A snort of wry, tired amusement escaped me. “Yeah, I guess it really does look that bad here. I mean, I’m surprised this place is even still standing after all this time, but you’re right, it definitely looks a bit sketchy.”

“Way to avoid the point, hun.”

“Yeah, I know.” Not sure why, but she kept making me nervous, and the way she was sort of frowning while pinning me down with those sparkling coffee eyes definitely wasn’t helping. Probably just wasn’t used to people making eye contact. Which was the whole reason I was in this mess to begin with. Another sigh.

“Alright. I’ll explain as much as I can. You deserve that much.”

Grace flopped down on the edge of the mattress, chin propped in her hands for all the world like a kid during goddamn story time. How the hell was I supposed to concentrate when she’s doing things like that? Look away! Only way to save myself for now.

“OK, here goes. So the thing you saw? Well, it’s a…” I scowled. “It’s a...sunuvabitch, I don’t really know what it’s called. Alright, further back then. The basics. Got it.

“Supernatural things exist. Like you believe that humans are the highest species on this planet and that you’re all alone in the universe, and no one can quite agree on whether there was anything before or after this life or what happens when you die, right? Well, a lot of what most people believe to be myth or religious superstition is actually, um, real.”

So she hasn’t tried to run away just yet. That’s a good sign, right?

“From what I’ve been able to piece together, from the bits I can remember, what you would call ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ are real places- they’re just not really visible to mortals. Most of the time. ‘Angels’ and ‘demons’ are real things too, but they’re a little bit different than most people tend to think of them from what I’ve seen.

“I don’t know how many there are, but there’s angels and demons walking around, living just like you and me, every day. The thing is, that mortals like you can’t see them. And that’s where the problem is.”

“Like me?” It wasn’t really a question. Her tone made that clear enough.

“Oh boy. OK, here’s the big one- because with the heaven and hell stuff, most people can be like ‘meh, it’s all superstitious nonsense anyway’ and brush it off. This? Not so much.

“I’m not human. Or mortal. I can see angels and demons walking around plain as day, just like the ones I’ve met can see me. Mortals...see something else.”

“Like the creep at the bar earlier? Did he see...something else? In you?”

“Yeah. On the outside, at first glance, I look like any other girl. But look closer? Well, you saw what happened. People just aren’t ready to see my real nature.”

“But that didn’t happen to me.” Now Grace was looking a little bit confused- but the kind of confused you get when a teacher is explaining something that you know should make sense, even if you were having a hard time getting it.

“No, it didn’t. And it took me way too long to pick up on that. I should’ve realized right away. If I had, maybe I could have gotten you out of there faster and that whole ‘sweet potato’ thing wouldn’t have happened.”

“So what should I be seeing? When I look into your eyes I mean?”

“Probably something along the lines of falling through an eternally expanding universe, a sense that you’re tinier than a piece of sand in the scope of the cosmos, that sort of thing. At least, that’s what I’ve heard from a couple of the ones who were able to be slightly coherent afterwards. There haven’t been many of those over the years.”

“Wow. I definitely don’t see that.”

“And that’s the problem, really. I’ve never heard of something like that happening before. I don’t know what it means, or why you can, or anything! All I know is that something is very, very different, and very, very wrong, otherwise that thing wouldn’t have been after us. And right now, I don’t know if what’s wrong is you, or me, or both of us. But we need to find out if we’re going to not be looking over our shoulders for...what did you call it again?”

Grace laughed. A genuine laugh, not weighed down by worry or terror. “A glowing, walking catfish?”

“Ha ha, yeah, that got beaten too many times with the ugly stick!”

Grace sat up suddenly, nodding sharply to herself. “Alright, well, you’re either batshit crazy, or I owe my gran an apology.” Grace was still half chuckling, but looking very intent.

“Your gran?”

“Yeah, she was super religious, always prayin’, talkin’ and singin’ about god. She must’ve gone to church three times a week! Boy, would she have loved to hear all this.”

“I’ll bet!”

“So, I just wanna make sure I’ve got all the stuff you said- angels are real, and something’s wrong with the fact that I can see your real eyes, and not like, the fires of the Big Bang or something, but you don’t know why that’s a problem or what caused it.. Right?”

“I’d say that about covers it for now, yeah.”

“Alright, I can live with that much for now. I’m clean tuckered out, and you look like you’re about to just fall over any second now. Whaddya say we call it a night?”

“Yeah.” I really could barely keep my eyes open at this point. I guess pretending my motorbike was a juggling pin kind of took it out of me.

Grace popped up, suddenly all business.

“So doesn’t look like this place has a big ol’ tub to dump you in, so we’ll have to settle for a couple of wet wipes. Here, help me get these blankets on to the mattress here. They’re gross, but it’s better than freezing to death.”

“You’re the boss!” Those wet wipes were a pocket-sized blessing, wrapped in foil paper. I’m more of a Chanel and gunpowder type, not so big on the earthy, barbecue scents.

I was starting to stumble a bit as we plopped the discarded blankets down as well as we could in the relative darkness of the loft.

“Probably better to stay dressed with how dirty these blankets are.” Grace frowned as she watched me struggle to pick up one of the heavier blankets a couple of times.

That didn’t even register until much later.

“OK, you, lay down. No more for you tonight. Sleep.”

I couldn’t even argue with her. I just curled up in a ball on the bed, barely aware of Grace pulling a couple of the blankets over me, but I thought I could just make out her arm resting on mine as we both drifted off into the heavy, dreamless sleep that comes when you’ve been pushed to your limits. At least, I kind of hope it was.

#flight from grace #angelic fiction #demonic fiction #chapter 1

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isolaradiale · 5 years

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THE FANTASIA WAR: WORLD INFO

Before reading this makes sure you read the event post!

FIBONACCI: THE KINGDOM OF YELA ALORA

GENERAL The towers of Fibonacci have been torn down and rebuilt as The Kingdom of Yela Alora, featuring grand cobblestone structures, shaped like rook chess pieces, with intricately designed walkways connecting them at many levels, and the spires extend far beyond cloud level; dragons circling around them are not an uncommon sight. This section of the kingdom is kept impeccably clean. The exterior and interior design of the structures get more lavish and expensive as you go higher, with the upper-most layers being the most royal looking of all. That is where the highest ranking nobles live, and access is extremely limited. The Kingdom of Yela Alora is ruled by Queen Deyana, whose care for her citizens decreases the further they are from her level—speaking both societally and literally.

The castle-like structures are surrounded by wide moats of bog, with various reeds, twiggy bushes, and other swamp flora sprouting from the murky waters. That expanse of the mire is what separates the inner kingdom from the surrounding town, Sterlow. Much shorter in design but no less complex, the people who live there do so in sturdy buildings made largely of stone, wood, and brass. Miles of metal piping and more gears than you can count are used for both infrastructure and aesthetic enhancement. Steam power is the main source of energy here, with only basic magic filling in where steam is not enough.

PLAYER RACES

ELVES: the primary humanoid race that fills both the streets of Sterlow and the inner portion of Yela Alora. Most elves are quite tall, with 6 feet being the average height, and all of them have ears that come to a rounded point. Ear length varies more than height, but don't feel self-conscious if you draw the short end of the stick in that regard. Elves also have better night vision than normal, and if you ask an elf, better taste in interior decoration, too.

UNHOLY: Though elves may rank nobility too high sometimes, they are not necessarily evil. The same cannot be said for most of the unholy folk who stay in the kingdom of Yela Alora. Demons, vampires, dhampirs, ghouls...all find it relatively easy to live either on the fringes of Sterlow or hidden in the swamps. You may find a kind vampire, or perhaps a devil who is more interested in playing tricks than bartering souls, but always keep your wits about you.

COTES: THE KINGDOM OF AIRAISAL

GENERAL The Cotes ward has been completely transformed into the Kingdom of Airaisal, a nation led by Queen Aleida. A bustling land of forests and magic, the other kingdoms have a tendency to look down upon Airaisal as land without development. But that’s hardly the case. In the depths of the forest rests the city of Diapool, a bustling fantasy town constructed predominantly from the oak of the surrounding brush. Much of the city is powered by magic supplied by its high mage population, from magic torches to rail cars that allow you to quickly traverse the area.

The surrounding forests themselves are thick and varied, and short of the few paths leading to and from Diapool it’s very possible to get lost. Because these paths are few it’s common for bandits to set up ambushes along the way. Regarding the species of flora: there seems to be no real trend to what appears. Tropical, temperate, boreal; depending on the area you’re in the atmosphere might vary. Be wary of the various man eating plants that lurk within as well.

PLAYER RACES

BEASTKIN: a humanoid race that predominantly occupies Airaisal and calls Diapool their home. Beastkin appear predominantly human in appearance but are liable to show physical traits of animals - specifically mammals. Ears, teeth, tails, paws; the variations are vast and span many different animal species. Beastkin generally have enhanced senses for navigating the forests and double the strength of a regular human. Attuned to nature, many possess a strong affinity for magic.

ALRAUNE: a monster race that, while having the shape of a human, is actually a plant at its core. These monsters come in many shapes and sizes, often decorated with different flowers with skin of green and hair of vines. Those that live wildly on the forest may prey upon passersby, but those that pursue a domesticated life in the cities are exceptionally intelligent and adept at utilizing magic. While they aren’t physically stronger than a regular human, they are capable of extending strong vines from their bodies.

GOLDEN: THE OPALARIAN EMPIRE

GENERAL The bustling streets and ritzy architecture of Golden have been amplified tenfold in this coastal city. The cobblestone roads have been replaced with smooth, sturdy sandstone, peppered with colorful shells and sea glass to represent the kingdom’s long and fruitful relationship with the ocean. Government buildings and important political landmarks are clearly marked by ornate mosaics, featuring precious materials like gold, ivory, and shimmering opals--the signature gemstone of Opalaria. Merchants in particular are fond of this kingdom, as its residents and visitors are too happy to spend their coin on the finer things in life.

Alongside the roads, one would find clear, deep channels of water carved through the city. These serve as paths for the aquatic residents of Opalaria, and like the buildings on land, several sunken wells and chasms feature those same beautiful sandstone structures. Opalaria is the very picture of opulence, made not with magic, but with ingenuity and hard work... ...Or so most people think. While the city is pristine, its politics are less so. There is no set ruler of Opalaria; instead it’s governed by a council of big family houses, all strangling each other for power. Bribes, assassinations and corruption run rampant and unseen in these few factions, with the families all-too-happy to hire hands that don’t mind getting bloodied. This is especially true of House Karliah, who is both one of the great families and the backbone of the Thieves’ Guild, which has more members in it than one would be even remotely comfortable with.

PLAYER RACES

HUMAN: Due to their relatively short lifespans, humans are capable of incredible potential, determination and arrogance. They slightly outnumber the other populations in the Opalarian Empire. Many of them have migrated here from other kingdoms to live out their dreams--others come regularly to trade their wares. The individual cultures of these human colonies are represented all around the kingdom.

MERFOLK: The second biggest population of Opalaria are the people of the sea, and are the native species of the kingdom. They can travel both by the flooded roads and the streets above by growing legs when needed. Their naturally curious minds welcomed the humans as a social experiment and a business opportunity, and live (mostly) at peace with them. You can tell a merperson apart from a human by their skin, which is slightly translucent and iridescent due to their scales. Though they breathe with lungs on land, one can easily see a merperson’s gills if they’re exposed.

SIRENS: Not everyone you meet in the waters are friendly. Bearing a grudge on both races for casting them out as ugly and inferior, the sirens embraced their monstrous nature and found work in espionage and dirty tactics. Though the colony lives in the shoddier outskirts of the kingdom, they venture into Opalaria for work... or draw budding criminals and justice-seekers to them instead for an easy meal. Though they can disguise themselves for a short while, there will always be something unnervingly off about a siren posing as another race. In their true form, they resemble the strange and terrifying creatures of the deep (anglerfish, vampire squid, gulper eels), and their bio-luminescent freckles betray their true form when the sun sets.

ARCHIMEDES: THE KINGDOM OF XALPHINA

GENERAL Entering Archimedes Ward will reveal that it, too, is no longer how it once was, transformed into what is now known as the Kingdom of Xalphina. Rather than pure white and light blues, the grounds of the ward, now known as the city of Eriol, have become a smooth, silvery gray, pulsating with white and faintly golden lines which appear more like laid stone that are imbued with grandeur magic, some leading to pools of a concentrated energy of magic that people can either draw from by resting beside or dipping themselves into to replenish themselves, all free for access to the citizens. While many other kingdoms are not lacking in these arts, many regard this kingdom as the one most adept in fueling the “technology” of their time through magical means and creatures alike. Even if there are those who will take up arms when necessary, it is easy to tell that this is where many come to study upon the arcane arts and hone their latent magical abilities than physical force. Though many offer themselves to study, there are also many places one can find a good pub or two to let themselves relax after a long day of work and education.

Streams, albeit fewer and more thinner than those now within Golden, flow through to channel magic throughout the city, thus empowering it upon a magical level, while the natural veins in the pathways are considered high powered leylines which have become conduits for mages and other means. Homes are also powered this way, casting magical barriers around public places and private estates and caverns, so long as the flow of the essence is reinforced daily and does not run out. Rustic creations known as Artifactus are magically created and imbued while being fueled by potions, serving as familiars, companions, and workers with various forms that keep the kingdom pristine and proper. Following any of these lines will lead you toward the outer edges where a large fortress resides upon the steep ledge, safeguarding the very castle from a frontal assault while also maintaining a general sense of protection from the climb behind where the twins Princess Aalis and Prince Aaren both preside in lieu of their mother and father, who have gone beyond the age of rule as dictated in their political practices.

When night falls, the white and faint gold leylines and pools illuminate the entirety of the kingdom, the residents needing no form of light to see when travelling, usually requiring special curtains for their homes in order to block off the overwhelming glow of the magic particles that ooze from the magical sources.

PLAYER RACES

DRAKEN: latent with inherent magical abilities, many people born of this race are likened to dragons which have a lifespan roughly twice as long as humans, if not longer. Their appearances vary by far, some looking more humanesque with only scales to discern their heritage, while others look as if they are dragons in human form, covered completely in natural scaled armor and possessing fangs and claws, even those with a more human like complexion having wings or tails. There is no wrong combination in looks as a Draken, all of them regarding each other as the same. Being considered as dragon reincarnate, some are able to breathe fire while others can spit frost and ice instead.

FAEKIN: contrasting Draken, the Faekin are ethereal beings which exude an otherworldly beauty and deep sense of arcane heritage. There are many types, such as Dryads, Nymphs, Xana, and even the malevolent Erlkings. Seeing antennae on one or even butterfly wings on another is not uncommon, while others might have branches as horns or fissures of magic that crackle along their skin every so often. Though some may be scholarly and composed, it is not foreign to find that you have been pranked by one of this kind, many using their magics for harmless jests and good times. It’s always good to keep an eye out, just in case you might have a Reeking Potion dumped on you as you innocently pass through an area...

FAEKEN: differing from Faekin, Faeken are a combination of Drakens and Faekin heritage through parents of each coming together, creating an almost enchanting creature of magical aptitude and draconic means that seems beyond this realm. While some feel as if they have no place to belong being born of both races, there are those who are well regarded and accepted. There have been rumors that the royal family are amongst those considered Faeken, though they have never been confirmed nor denied.

#isola event: fantasia war pti

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mmercurii · 5 years

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Kusanagi Izumo’s natal chart

I wanted to make Izumo’s time of birth a reasonable time. That’s why I picked 12:05 pm, because why hte fuck not.

Sun in Aries 9th house:

One of your dreams is probably to travel around the world, to see all there is to see and learn about different cultures. Since Aries likes to be the pioneer, you prefer to go where there is no path and leave a trail behind, so others can see what you have seen. Your adventures must always be packed with action and adrenaline for you to fully enjoy your travels.

Moon in Aries and 10th House:

When a native has natal Moon in the 10th house, he is feeling rather emotional about his public image and is overly concerned about how other people perceive him. This placement can be quite good for all female type jobs, while can also bring fame, even temporarily. The Moon in the 10th house can act exceedingly well in charts of people that interconnect with masses and audiences. It is very positive for politicians, spokespersons while also artists who perform on stage.

You are likely to feel at your best when you involved with exciting, challenging or new experiences – anything that lets you express your pioneering side. Aries is also a Cardinal sign, highlighting the need to act. You may experience yourself as a dynamic, pioneering individual, and enjoy getting things started – lifting them off the ground. Your need for independence suggests you may be happiest when left to do your own thing, and will detest being told what to do.

Mercury in Pisces and 8th House:

With Mercury in Pisces, you’re more sensitive and touchy. Your emotions tend to get the better of you and your actions are mostly motivated by your feelings. Logic and reasoning just aren’t easy to come by now, and verbal communication doesn’t always go well.

When Mercury is positioned in the 8th house, the native’s intellect receives Plutonic traits, making his mind over-analytical and able to go deep into every subject it concentrates on. Such kinds of people are very focused and have amazing abilities to uncover secrets. They adore solving mysteries both from the material realm and the occult.

Venus in Taurus and 10th House:

Romance is not a big thing for Venus in the tenth house, for you are more concerned with your career and social status. When you do fall in love, you want someone as serious and devoted as you are. This can be difficult to find with your sometimes high standards.

If your Venus is in Taurus, you have a distinct solidity about your presence. Your caution makes you appear reserved, though, and you're not the type to rush into relationships. You don't want high drama and will shy away from players. Back in the day, it was all about "going steady," and that remains a consistent Taurean attitude about love. It takes a while for you to feel sure of people, but when you do, you're usually very loyal.

Mars in Capricorn and 6th House:

This is one of the most intimidating Mars signs in the Zodiac. Mars powered by Capricorn has a quiet strength that you sense, and know not to mess with.The will of Mars is strong, this being a cardinal sign. It's also one with a lot of patience, and the ability to deny short-term gratification, in favor of something mega substantial.Capricorn is a sign that's seeking what's enduring and may live on. There's a strong sense of legacy, and handing down a business, estate or world for future generations.Mars Capricorn acts strategically, especially when it comes to career moves. I know a Mars Capricorn gal that has spent years involved in associations related to her field. She's building up an impressive resume and making important contacts along the way.

This native is never lazy and can become very frustrated when he sees others procrastinating. His patterns are rather structured, even of a militaristic type. He will wake up very early, spend a lot of hours working and most probably will impose to himself a very strict routine. In addition, he will eat and sleep at the same time every day, follow special diets for a long time, and will prefer clothes of a certain style and will stick to it. These people know how to make things done and can accomplish a lot more in a work day than nearly anyone else. Indeed, Mars in the 6th house can give superpowers at work. It will also strengthen the leadership abilities of the native; what he says will be done by the ones under his authority. Quickly and correctly, because if they do not do it as they should, the native will explode towards them. The type of leadership the native develops usually isn’t the one that inspires, but the one that induces fear.

Jupiter in Pisces and 8th House:

You may also have a gift for music and dance—anything flowing and non-linear is right up your alley. Jupiter is in its power position here since it is the secondary ruler of Pisces, along with ethereal Neptune. With that mystical mojo, people will see you as a wise guide and counselor. Supporting others just comes naturally for you, and you may “hold space” for folks during intense passages such as illness and death.

People who have their natal Jupiter positioned in the house of death can benefit through anything connected with death, metaphorically or literally. Usually, this natal position brings big inheritances, which will pass to the native without any problems if there are no harsh aspects falling on the Great Benefic.

Saturn in Sagittarius and 5th House:

Saturn in Sagittarius is serious when it comes to philosophy, education and religion. They are highly principled, believing that people earn their achievements through hard work. Reputation is very important to them. They may not have been able to get the education they desired, so many are self-taught to a degree. Intellectual capability is important to them. They may be skeptical and need to prove their theories.

Making friends in childhood may be tough when you have Saturn in the 5th. During recess, you were hesitant to just get in there and play. Instead, you may have wanted to just sit on the sidelines and read or do some homework. It’s not to say that you didn’t have any friends as a kid. But, you may have felt uncomfortable in other children’s company because you just weren’t as lighthearted as they were. As a result, you could’ve preferred the companionship of adults. In fact, Saturn in the 5th House children fully enjoy pretending like they’re adults, taking it so seriously that you end up being quite convinced. They know how to play house very well and often get joy from imagining the days when they’ll finally be a grown-up and get to pay the bills and have a house of their own.

Retrograde Uranus in Sagittarius and 5th House:

Retrograde Uranus indicates that during previous lives the individual may have struggled to express his rebellious side. His innovative ideas had found quite a lot of opposition from conservative people, and his utopian beliefs of better societies had collapsed under the weight of reality. The native had experienced disappointments from the inability of his surroundings to accept his pioneering traits or had suffered due to his individuality. He probably had to act like the masses did, hiding some of his weird activities or ideas. This natal aspect shows that the individual had to suppress his bizarre or crazy ideas, mostly because of the fear to be ridiculed.

Those who have a 5th House Uranus possess a charisma that is out of the ordinary. To have this planet here means that you are capable of shining in ways that are brilliant as well as unusual. Uranus’ house placement shows us where things do not unfold in the so-called normal or conventional manner in our lives. The 5th House, meanwhile, symbolizes the special talents and attributes that earn us the admiration of other people. Having Uranus in the 5th House, therefore, can indicate someone who is wildly, almost freakishly talented. But, the dilemma here is figuring out what to do with those gifts and how to express them in a way that will gain you the recognition you deserve. As special as you are, you are as equally unconcerned with being special, which is something that can baffle your many admirers.

Retrograde Neptune in Capricorn and 6th House:

We were taught, in one way or another, that we could do anything we wanted to do when we grew up. The whole “work hard and be on top of your game and you’ll achieve” mantra of Capricorn affected those of the Neptune in Capricorn generation in a profound way. It was the message of all the major adults in our lives, whether it was our parents, teachers, coaches, or role models. Everyone was so busy climbing to the top and striving for the ultimate image of success in the 1990’s. It was a very capitalistic era, thanks to all of the long-running Capricorn transits. Kids look at adults and fantasize about life vicariously through them. In many ways, Neptune represents how the generation, as children, projected all of their fantasies on to the adults around them. With Neptune in Capricorn, it was fantasies of success, recognition, prominence, authority, even fame.

Retrograde Pluto in Scorpio and 4th House:

If you Pluto in the 4th house, you should try to break its cycle. Forgive your parents and your ancestors, and do not become similar to them. This might be difficult, as these subconscious writings started while you were of rather small age and are buried deep in your subconscious as reactions. Nevertheless, by understanding the whole process and how your childhood can affect your behavior towards your own children, you can heal yourself and create a better surrounding for your offsprings. Dig deep in that darkness, embrace it and shade some light in what has scared you in the past. Do not allow yourself to create the same shadows in your own children’s childhood.

Rising Sign in Leo:

With Leo rising, the need to develop power, authority and creative self- expression are necessary in order to gain a sense of individual selfhood. With Leo rising, your task in life is to shine! The unique and special ways that you will seek to do this need to be developed and allowed to grow. The sign and house position of the Sun in your chart will give many clues. When found, this describes the area in life where love, admiration, applause and effectiveness will be sought.

#Izumo Kusanagi #Kusanagi Izumo #k project #K #Project K

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tatakatte · 5 years

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obviously, this episode was rough. Mad Queen Dany, the assassination of Jaime Lannister, the unsatisfactory death of Cersei Lannister, the improbable survival of Arya, Jon Snow being completely ineffectual (oh wait), the incredible adept player of The Game Varys caught in traitorous acts. All of it - what the fuck.

Now, i’m here for mad queen dany. I agree that there has been foreshadowing for it. we’re constantly told nearly all Targaryens go mad, and Dany’s father and brother were both mad. The vision in the House of the Undying shows a throne littered with ashes. Dany herself has burned many people, and the past few episodes she’s been growing increasingly angry and frustrated with her circumstances.

But the main question you have to consider is this: why?

Game of Thrones isn’t a documentary. It isn’t about real life or real life consequences or what not. It is a story, a plotted piece of fiction that must adhere to the rules set therein. Everyone freaked out over Ned Stark dying in season one, but it established the first, and most important, rule of GoT: the Game for the Throne is the only game that matters, and playing it poorly or abstaining leads to death.

It’s why I didn’t have a problem with the Night King storyline ending in episode 3. The supernatural stuff is only there to SUPPORT the Game. It’s there to complicate the political machinations of the characters. The Night King sets up a variety of things: Cersei as unreasonable & not caring about common folk; Dany being in the North & getting allies; the dragons as vulnerable; Arya fulfilling her prophecy (legitimizing prophecies);

They set up Cersei as the big bad. Good. She’s survived everything, Aerys and Robert and Joffery and the Tyrells. Cersei has survived not because of any supernatural means (other than The Mountain), but through her skill with The Game. She’s the big bad because she is winning at the only game that matters.

Cersei as the big bad sets up a lot of problems. What will Jaime do? Will the North go fight for Dany in the south? Can a mad Targaryen overthrow the ‘rightful’ Lannister? If legitimacy matters so much, will Jon have to take over? There’s actually very little hard evidence that Jon is Aegon Targaryen (but that’s a whole different thing)

I don’t even have much of a problem with episode 4. The aftermath of the battle is fairly... predictable. Everyone relaxes, celebrates; characters that haven’t seen each other in years meet up to reflect on how they’ve changed. And they have all CHANGED. I shouldn’t forgive writing gaffes, but even Sansa saying she survived Ramsey et al because of her strength is confirmation that characters Change and Stay Changed.

Here’s where the first problem started in re Dany. They show the Northerners fawning over Jon and how amazing he is. They highlight the great thing he’s done, all things Dany has done, usually to a greater degree. You see her growing frustrated. The writers are trying to establish Unreasonable Mad Dany, and doing it poorly.

Jon Snow has repeatedly shown that he is a poor leader, doesn’t think things through, trusts the wrong people, and is generally unaware of everything going on around him. Jon Snow Fails at The Game. This is why he was killed.

Jon Snow will most likely end up on the throne, even though - maybe especially because - he doesn’t want it. He has the ‘best claim’ and is a male, so he should be on the throne. But because of the established main rule, Jon should not be king and he will fail because he doesn’t understand The Game.

The writers try to set up that Dany will abstain from rampant death if she has good advisers. But ultimately, Dany can do whatever she wants (Stannis didn’t listen to Davos, arguably the most practical character), and she always chooses to save people. The people she’s burned to death are slavers or oppressors. She goes against her advisers often to protect people, even at her own detriment. Dany wants to HELP people; she has ALWAYS shown mercy if possible.She’s made bad decisions and suffered and LEARNED from those mistakes. She has Changed.

So.

Dany, through an unreasonable amount of awfulness, has maintained herself. She’s been betrayed over and over and lost people over and over and she still comes out strong. She does not mindlessly murder and she even chained up her dragons rather than see them hurt innocent people. Missandei’s death hurt her, of course it did, but don’t act like either it nor the (frankly, unrealistic & poorly done) death of Rhaegal would make her lose her damn mind. Why would Dany wait for the bells to signal a surrender before attacking King’s Landing? She wouldn’t. Her actions beforehand were necessary and brutally efficient.

What purpose does this serve the story? If Dany has gone through all these things, gone through literal fire, what is the point of her becoming just like her ancestors? We bring her to the precipice, we show her the means to become exactly like all those before her, and the POINT of WRITING - the POINT of her going through everything - is that she is not a victim to destiny. She can - she should- chose to be different. It makes narrative sense. Otherwise, there is NO POINT. The writing takes the easy way out, and her character is meaningless.

It is so fucking boring to setup the Mad Targaryens, the devolution of their dragons, the men being evil & awful, the Silver Princes all dying, the elimination of the entire family except this ONE GIRL, and then have her act like the rest of them. To have her fall into her expected outcome. Why? WHY give her these obstacles and expectations and then NEVER have her overcome? THAT’S THE POINT. THAT’S WHY YOU’RE WRITING THIS. To CHANGE the STATUS QUO.

Dany would never burn innocents like that. She would destroy the Red Keep without someone to stop her, yes, but she would not ruthlessly and callously murder everyone.

Varys was an expert at The Game. That’s why he survived so many kings/queens, that’s why no one killed him, that’s why he was the Master of Whispers. Varys, unlike nearly everyone else, cared solely for the people and all he did was to protect innocents. The show constantly has him protecting children, arguably the most innocent, and giving them purpose. Varys has survived 8 seasons of actively working against bad rulers because he is so good at maneuvering around people, at keeping his actions secret. Declaring his intentions to Jon Snow - the stupidest fucking person in Westeros - is wildly amateur and NOT typical of Varys. Varys would identify the Jon Snow problem INSTANTLY especially because of how trusting & open Jon is. For Varys to expose himself unnecessarily - poor writing. Varys would’ve sent those notes out a long-ass time ago, and he would’ve pegged Tyrion as untrustworthy long ago as well. He has no reason to confide in either Tyrion or Jon, and to show him doing so was wrong. His death is extremely unfortunate, because he could’ve shown Dany how to play The Game better than anyone.

Cersei - this is her ending? She is the big bad and she.... dies in the tombs below King’s Landing with rocks falling on her? I love that she got emotional - and Lena Hedley deserves all the awards - but she’s always been strong enough to get shit done. She watches Dany burn down King’s Landing, sees the whole Keep fall apart and then just... surrenders? Really?? What the FUCK. I know they never mentioned the valonqar prophecy on the show, but it can’t meant nothing. GRRM wouldn’t put it in there if it would never amount to anything. I’m seeing comments that Jaime had his arms around Cersei and... that counts? Fuck you. Prophecies are already confirmed to be Valid, and the valonqar prophecy has to count for something.

Shoutout to Arya for going blind, getting lost in Braavos, nearly dying, learning the difficult art of Changing Faces, and then.... never doing anything with it. Excellent. Every time I saw a character I was like “Its Arya! She’s that dude! She’s that lady! She’s Jaime! She’s Euron!” and she was NEVER ANY of these people.

And lastly, I - Jaime - how. Jaime Lannister has one of the best characters arcs of any character - ever. He is utterly despicable when we first meet him. He is smug, arrogant, beautiful, undermining his king, and screwing his sister, whom he’s had three children with. He throws a child out a window to protect his incestuous relationship with his sister the queen. He’s a terrible guy. He’s blase, and it makes him obnoxious.

And then we learn about him. We learn about him through his relationship with Brienne. Jaime loses the best part of himself (so he thinks) because he’s trying to protect Brienne. He helps her play The Game as much as they can while they’re prisoners of the Bloody Mummers and the Boltons. He feels safe enough with her to confess what actually happened with Aerys, and why killing the Mad King was his greatest act. When he’s released, he goes back to rescue Brienne by jumping into a pit with a bear. He tells her he’s “dreamed” of her. Later, he takes the Valyrian steel sword his father gave him, gives it to her and names it Oathkeeper. He enables her to keep her quest. He places his honor in her and when he acts, its with her on his mind. Even when he’s with Cersei, he’s noticeably changed from before. He - and as a testament to Nikolaj CW - constantly seems disapproving or doubtful, you can see his trust in Cersei waning. He’s hurt, because he cannot acknowledge his children even as they’re dying, and he sees Cersei growing more ruthless with power. When the danger of the Night King is shown to be real, he believes (like an idiot) that Cersei will aid the North. He’s especially motivated by seeing Brienne again, as she seems to remind him of how he’s Changed. When Cersei refuses to send her armies North, Jaime confronts her. And the utter betrayal when she tells the Mountain to kill him cements the end of his relationship with her. He goes North to help defend mankind, in opposition to his sister.

And at Winterfell, Jaime is ridiculous. This is the most obvious sign of his Change. He is visibly, painfully, in love with Brienne. Every time he sees her, he lights up. He leaps to his feet whenever she’s around. He cannot stop staring at her if she’s in the room. There might as well be cartoon hearts circling above his head. The scene where he knights Brienne is the most romantic, emotional, charged scenes in the entire series. They fight against the dead constantly at each other’s sides and save each other again and again. Once the battle is over, they are still together and eventually consummate their relationship.

They continue this relationship over a decent period of time. We don’t know exactly, but it’s long enough that Sansa notices, that Jaime “officially” decides to stay in Winterfell when everyone else heads south. Cersei sends Bronn down to kill Jaime and Tyrion, confirming to Jaime that Cersei no longer cares for him, and would rather see him dead.

The scene at the end of episode 7 seemed - to me - to be the culmination of where Jaime has come. He is obviously in love with Brienne. When he hears that Cersei is winning in King’s Landing, he knows that he can get close to her, that he can turn the tide of the battle. He may, in fact, be the only one. Being with Brienne - who represents pure honor - has reminded him that he can do good, and in order to do so, he has to leave. He reminds Brienne of all the terrible things he’s done in an effort to prevent her following him, as she would most definitely do. In fact, I half-expected her to pop up and kill Euron or Cersei this episode.

In episode 8, it’s like we we’re back with season 1 Jaime. He will sacrifice anything to be with Cersei. He fights Euron in the stupidest fight ever (Jaime can defeat endless amounts of dead, but one cocky asshole gets him???), and seems near death. He finds Cersei, and does not strangle her, but tries to lead her out. They die crushed by the collapsing Keep. Jaime says that the two of them are the only thing that matters.

Like. Why? What is the point? Writing fiction has to have a point, it has to lead somewhere, it has to form some sort of logic that makes sense. Jaime has Changed. People are arguing that Jaime is always selfish and does what he wants and has never betrayed Cersei. I don’t know where that’s coming from.

Let’s look at Jaime’s greatest act. He calls it that. He watched Aerys rape Rhaella and burn the Starks alive and seen the atrocities committed by the Mountain and has had to stand by the whole time. It made him sick. But when Aerys threatened everyone, when he said he would burn the entirety of King’s Landing, all those innocent people, Jaime couldn’t stand by any longer. He broke those oaths - ones he’s struggled to keep since he was seventeen (a baby!)- and 20 yr old Jaime kills Aerys. He lives with the insulting epithet Kingslayer, the ridicule, the besmirching of his honor, all because he knows he did the right thing. He saved thousands of people. He didn’t do all this to save himself, to save Cersei or his father. He killed Aerys because it was the right thing to do, because allowing Aerys to kill all those people would be too far in these ‘oaths’ he took.

But when Tyrion speaks with Jaime, Jaime flippantly says that he doesn’t care much for the innocent people anyway??? The thing he has lived with pressing on him his entire life was to save innocent people. He never tried to change this view of him, never tried to clear his name. The act was enough.

We’re supposed to believe that he doesn’t believe that anymore? That he abandoned Cersei, rode up North to certain death, acted like a completely lovesick fool with Brienne, and in the end, nothing changed. Why would he tell Sansa he’d stay up North, if he wanted to go back to Cersei? Why would he maintain a relationship with Brienne over several days/weeks (at least!), if he was still in love with Cersei?? Why would the impetus for returning to Cersei be because she was winning??? Everything about Jaime’s evolution has been the realization that Cersei wants power, she will do everything she can to acquire/maintain it, and that he is disposable to her. Even the baby is a tool. When she asks the Mountain to kill him, it solidifies his realization. Note how when Bronn comes at Cersei’s orders, Jaime doesn’t even seem particularly surprised or upset. He knows this is who Cersei is now.

The episode ended with Arya, the fucking Faceless Man who not used a Face in several seasons, finding a horse in the middle of a fucking fire-ridden graveyard. A pale horse. Like the one death rides. So. I guess she’s - coming for Dany. Or whatever.

I am so fucking disappointed. I hate everything they’ve done, and unless this is some cheap-ass vision Bran had and tells everyone about so they can fix it all, I will not accept this as canon. Which is insane, but I’m there.

#game of thrones #got spoilers #jaime lannister #daenerys targaryen #arya stark #the bells #fuck this episode #fuck this shit #i hated all of this #character assassination #completely undermines eight seasons of development #the worst ending #let it all be fake #i will deal with it #even if its cheap #i'm okay with that at this point

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warburtonstoryaddict · 6 years

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Adapting to Adaptations

Some people say this is the golden age of television. Netflix Hulu and Amazon are developing their own original series to much critical acclaim and much of what spring-boarded them into success was adapting pre-existing works from other formats. House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and Hemlock Grove, some of Netflix’s earlier and more successful series were all based on books, and more and more cable networks are optioning scripted series to compete with streaming services and the likes of HBO and Showtime. Others say that we’re in an endless age of recycling the same thing over and over. That the lack of originality is killing more creative works by sucking all the oxygen out of the room. When Disney, a company already astute at milking series for all they were worth, acquired the mega-franchises of Marvel Comics and Star-Wars, they guaranteed that both creative universes would live forever. This is great news for the fans, who can now look forward to reboot after reboot of their favorite stories, but when theaters have to compete for every hard-earned dollar an increasingly selective audience will spend at the box office, rehashing the same blockbusters repeatedly means that other, more esoteric movies will not even be shown. Despite the challenges these trends present for new writers, I feel that overall, the proliferation of adaptations and the fragmentation of the media market are good for creators.

Let me explain why.

When I was growing up, three media franchises had a profound effect on me. Looking back on them now, I realize they each had their own unique gifts to give me, not only as a consumer of stories but as a student of storytelling.

FRANCHISE 1: Pokémon - Video Games and World Building serve as a springboard for fiction.

Featuring a video game world of lavish detail and intricate mechanics for its time, the Pokémon franchise was created by a game journalist named Satoshi Tajiri as a passion project. Pokémon has turned into one of the most successful video game and media franchises in the world.

The concept of the games is simple, Tajiri wanted to capture the spirit of insect collecting that he had enjoyed as a child, but with a fantasy angle. In the game, children go on quests to capture and train “pocket monsters.” Elemental beasts that inhabit the world instead of wild animals. Pokémon trainers can trade their Pokémon with each other or pit them against one another in (kid friendly) gladiatorial battles. The battles are turn-based and much of the strategy, like in other RPGs requires you to play to the monsters’ strength or weakness types and stats. For example, Fire beats Grass, etc.

My first experience with Pokémon though was not the video games, but with the Trading Card Game, which brought the idea of strategic collecting and battling to the real world. I became interested in the show and games shortly after that, but if it weren’t for adaptation of the Pokémon games into other media, my experience would have been different.

The exploration of the created system inspires the player to imbue the tasks they undertake with added meaning or drama. Building on the fundamental plot of the video games, the player enhances the addictive gameplay with personal meaning. Fans of the series, loving the world, creatures and concepts Tajiri created, went on to adapt the world of Pokemon into Manga (comics), Anime (animated TV series), Feature Animated Films, a Wildly popular Trading Card Game. The scaffolding provided by Tajiri provides the basis for players, myself included, to attach their own epic quests to the repetitive strategic tasks of the gameplay. The video game mechanics lend themselves to replay value and inspire storytelling through other media, in the same fictional world.

FRANCHISE 2: Harry Potter - Addictively good fiction leads to empire building franchises; If you tell a good story, they will come.

I don’t need to tell you what Harry Potter is, or how huge a phenomenon it is. Really, Harry Potter and Pokémon need little to no introduction. Still, the fictional world of Harry Potter is compelling on multiple levels. It’s compelling because it follows the typical hero’s journey in a unique and more modern way, drawing on other classic fantasy works already in the collective cultural deposits and making them accessible to everyone. It’s compelling because author J.K. Rowling’s world-building is as in-depth as Tajiri's, allowing fans to immerse themselves in her created space and stake out their own nooks to explore through fanfiction, and cross-media adaptation. Third, the story of Harry Potter is compelling because, in many ways, it mirrors the journey of its creator. Harry Potter is a rags-to-riches, coming-of-age story about a young boy who rises out of a lowly situation to become famous and beloved. Similar to the eponymous hero, J.K. Rowling brought the story of Harry Potter to life as a struggling single mother who was rejected by multiple publishing houses, only to turn it into one of, if not THE most successful book series in the world. The smash success of the books spawned adaptations to film, video games and various additional merchandise, such as board games, clothes and toys inspired by the “Wizarding World.”

Rowling’s modern-fantasy reimagining of the Hero’s Journey has captured the imaginations of millions. Like Pokémon, Harry Potter is an excellent example of world building. Unlike Pokémon, the mechanical structure of media like video games was not the main driver of its success but contributed to that success and was further built upon as created works proliferated, inspired by the excellent fiction writing skills of J.K. Rowling.

FRANCHISE 3: Middle Earth – World building at an unparalleled level, coupled with excellent fiction writing and adaptation skills, leads to the creation of a classic.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s story-universe Middle Earth, the setting of famous The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings tales as well as many other stories is one of my most beloved worlds to explore. I first encountered Middle-Earth because of adaptation. I was first introduced to The Hobbit through a radio dramatization of the book. After that, I read the novel and later, The Lord of the Rings. I listened to the audiobooks, watched and own all of the movies, and have played several of the video games. The video games that I felt were the worthiest contributions to the franchise were the ones that were either direct adaptations of the source material or entirely new works based on the same world. In recent news, Amazon will be creating a new series based on the world of Middle Earth.

Tolkien’s world-building has inspired many. Aside from the various adaptations mentioned already, it is also credited as the inspiration of the popular tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons, not to mention the countless “high-fantasy” or “sword and sorcery” titles that have followed and owe it a debt. Tolkien did not create The Lord of the Rings in a vacuum, however; he borrowed heavily from Anglo-Saxon mythology, Norse Mythology, and Judeo-Christian Mythology. Interpreting and compiling them with his love of languages, Tolkien labored to create his own languages and build the world and peoples that would have created them. The point is, that Tolkien himself was an “adapter,” in fact, he translated one of the versions of Beowulf that we have today. Tolkien’s adaptations spawned other adaptations of his work and inspired many others. The reason his works are so beloved and of such high quality is because of his fantastic world-building abilities, his ability to spin a tale, and his own skills at riffing on the cultural heritage available to him. This combination ensures stories that a wide audience can engage and explore.

The idea that this increase in rebooting or adapting of existing works is a new problem, or even a problem at all, is a fallacy. There is “nothing new under the sun,” as the saying goes. The increased reimagining of work is to be welcomed. It provides an opportunity for new creators to flex their muscles while paying tribute to the works they admire. It could be a problem if, as stated previously, adaptations were all that was being created at the expense of all other content. Fortunately, though, the media market is shifting, and there are now more ways than ever to produce and publish content. So, let the major production companies rehash the stories that we already know and love. They have money to do it right and to do them justice. The rise of new streaming services and original television or web-series programming empowers creators to produce their own original works and expose them to the public eye in due time. I, for one, am glad to be along for the ride.

#full sail university #creative writing mfa #adaptation #transmedia #mediaconvergence

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stompsite · 6 years

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The One About Dark Souls

This piece was originally slated for another publication about a year ago. It didn’t get published. So here it is.

This time, I’m confident I have him. Father Gascgoine has been plaguing me for weeks, but I’ve got it all worked out. I enter the arena, pumped up and ready to do this. For a few minutes, everything’s fine, but then I feel that telltale twinge in my hand. Before I know it, the pain’s burning up my arm and into my neck. I have to put the controller down. My poor health has betrayed me again. I’ll never be good enough to beat a Souls game.

Dark Souls is hard. That’s what it’s known for. In a world where the biggest and most successful games are built on promises about playing your own way, Dark Souls is brutal and unrelenting. FromSoftware’s magnum opus demands you take it on its own terms, a strategy that has proved wildly popular; few games can lay claim to a fanbase as passionate and loyal as Dark Souls.

A debate has raged for years over whether or not Dark Souls would benefit from an easy mode. Fans will tell you that no, difficulty is an essential element of the Dark Souls experience, that much of the game’s fun is found in its difficulty, and they have a point. Others, people who have wanted to embrace the series, but derive enjoyment in games from anything other than challenge, believe that Dark Souls would be better off with an easy mode.

Dark Souls joins all-time greats like Doom and Donkey Kong in establishing its own formula. Indie and AAA game developers alike have borrowed heavily from the Souls series, with games like Salt and Sanctuary, Lords of the Fallen, and Nioh. Before we ask ourselves whether Souls should have an easy mode, we need to understand how Souls games work.

Souls works like this: you, the player, have to travel through the game’s world, conquering its challenging bosses. Whenever you defeat an enemy, you earn a currency, called ‘souls,’ or ‘blood echoes,’ or something similar, which you use to purchase upgrades. If you die, you drop your collection of souls and respawn at the last save point, usually a physical location like a bonfire. Crucially, you cannot bank souls. This means that as your power grows, so does the need to explore world, putting yourself at risk, until you have enough souls to purchase more powerful upgrades.

The combat requires you to play thoughtfully. You must keep an eye on your stamina bar, which drains based on your attacks and movement. Draining your stamina at an inopportune time could result in an unfortunate death. Your attacks are usually animation-driven, which means that when you press a button to attack, you cannot break out of the attack animation until it has completed. A properly-timed attack means the difference between life and death in a Souls game.

These mechanics are then set in a world designed to accommodate them. Souls mechanics would never work in a game like The Witcher 3, where players could simply observe enemies and circle around them, avoiding the confrontation entirely. Souls maps, on the other hand, are built with explicit encounter design in mind. An early encounter in Dark Souls 3 features a dragon that will easily roast unsuspecting players. You rush up some stairs, get roasted, die, and start back at the bonfire, wiser now than you were before. As you progress, you discover shortcuts that make traversal significantly easier.

Over time, you learn about the game’s world. What seemed like cruelty at first is playful and mischievous. The world becomes more readable. Dark Souls thrives on initial surprise and eventual mastery. “Git gud,” the fanbase’s mantra, isn’t so much a statement of derision as a description of the player’s evolution. The more you play, the better you become.

One of the big appeals of turn-based games like XCOM and Civilization is the way they convince their players to keep going. “Just one more turn,” you tell yourself, and before you know it, it’s 5 in the morning and you’ve been up all night and have nearly liberated Earth from an alien menace. The Souls games are like that too, but they use difficulty to accomplish the same thing. Get instakilled by a cleverly-placed boss? Before you know it, you’re back at the nearest bonfire. “That was a cheap death,” you tell yourself, “I can totally get past it.”

Dark Souls is a game of mastery, expertly crafting an emotional narrative to accompany your growing skill. Overcoming that seemingly-impossible boss is thrilling. Laughing along at the designer’s jokey ambushes is enjoyable. Souls engages you, draws you in, and delivers some of the best emotional highs in gaming.

It’s unfair to say that Souls is just a hard game; there are thousands of challenging games out there. Dead Rising 2 creates challenge through time management. Ikaruga’s difficulty is based on player reflex. Souls is a game that uses its difficulty tuning to help establish its compelling formula. Without the difficulty, so much of what makes Souls such a brilliant series would be lost.

Despite this, I wish the Souls games had an easy mode, because I can’t play it like you. I want to share in the stories and strategies. I want to beat Father Gascoigne with a Donkey Conga controller and put the video up on YouTube. I want to master the game’s systems. I want to be a part of this passionate and vibrant community so much, but I can’t.

I can’t because my body is shutting down.

Twelve years ago, I got sick. At first, it was just mild fatigue. Doctors said it was some bug that would pass. Family thought it was teenage laziness. Then it got worse. Prior to getting sick, I’d been learning to fly planes. I used to climb regularly at the YMCA. I loved boating--whether it was a 50 mile camping trip or whitewater rafting, I was there. Within months, I’d almost completely lost my ability to function. One doctor told me that, after looking at my lab results, she was amazed I had the strength to get out of bed at all.

It took four years to get a diagnosis, but instead of having some name to give my illness, like cancer or lupus or something, I was told that some genes just didn’t work right. It was a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it. As a result, I suffer from chronic pain and chronic fatigue, and I also have all the symptoms that come with a severe lack of magnesium, because my body doesn’t absorb it properly.

Chronic fatigue is a deeply misunderstood disease. People don’t get it. If you get cancer or multiple sclerosis, there is some degree of understanding there. Chronic fatigue is much harder to explain. Many people don’t believe it’s real. Some countries classify it as a mental disorder, rather than a physical one. Everything I ever wanted to do in life has been ripped away from me by this illness. Without games writing, which I’m fortunate enough to be able to do from home, I don’t know how I would survive.

During her TED talk on chronic fatigue, documentarian Jennifer Brea pauses and simply states “my brain is not what it used to be.” I know what she means, because I’ve been there. I was so much more than this. Chronic fatigue consumes everything. I’m lucky because for me, there is some degree of hope. With regular treatment, I could go back to living something resembling a normal life, but since the illness limits what jobs I can take, my income is limited, which limits my ability to pay for treatment for my illness. Dealing with my illness is as simple as a potential employer taking a chance on me so I can earn enough to pay for treatment. I don’t know how I’ll ever get to a place where I can afford regular treatment, but I hope that one day I will.

In the meantime, I play games, which are an incredible escape from chronic pain and chronic fatigue. A physical therapist once told me that people like me spend 90% of our attention on keeping pain at bay. Playing games helps offload some of that stress. But, as you can imagine, playing Dark Souls style games for me is a lot harder than it is for most folks, which makes escapism challenging. So many of my friends love finding their Dark Souls groove and playing the game for hours. I’d love to experience that too.

Most of you aren’t likely to have your hands seize up after playing for half an hour, much less be drained for an entire weekend after trying and failing to take down Bloodborne’s Father Gascoigne. An easy mode for me would mean that I could enjoy these games at the same level of effort that you do.

But it’s not that simple. Disability isn’t something most of us talk about openly. Discussing it has a tendency to make people uncomfortable; some even resent having to deal with it. It’s hard to leave the house most days, knowing that most people don’t have the compassion or patience to put up with my illness. Worse still, many people go out of their way to make things worse, justifying it with some weird, self-righteous slant I’ve never understood.

I’ve had employers force me to work in conditions that exacerbated my symptoms because they thought they could convince me that my illness was all in my mind, never mind what the doctor’s notes said. Heck, I got kicked off a podcast; two of my fellow podcasters told me they were doing me a favor. Apparently, cutting off all ties would help me magically get over my illness and manage my life better. When it comes to disability, otherwise good people can do terrible things, going to great lengths to justify their abuse as “for your own good.”

Playing games with my friends or chatting about games on forums, twitter, and Skype gives me the ability to socialize with other people without having to worry about my illness getting in the way. As long as I remain untreated, I’ll be a shut-in, but I can still have human contact through the internet.

While I can talk about my own experiences in great detail, I am far from the only person whose health issues limit gameplay options. Many disabilities limit gameplay. I have a friend with severe arthritis that makes gaming on a console impossible. Two of my friends have epilepsy, which can be triggered by playing certain video games. I’ve met people with color-blindness and deafness; all of these things impact their gameplay experience.

How far should a developer go in ensuring their audience can enjoy their work? Generally, I think it’s best to err on the side of accessibility; if a game can support a color-blind mode, it should. If a designer can ensure that hearing impaired players have good subtitles, their game would benefit from its inclusion.

With my chronic pain and fatigue issues, rapidly mashing buttons in games like Bayonetta or God of War can be physically draining; alternate QTE options would go a long way towards making games more accessible. I was delighted to discover that Dragon Age: Inquisition, a huge, open world game, had an auto-run toggle button. Splatoon offers players a wide variety of playstyles, allowing players to contribute, regardless of ability.

At the same time, I recognize that not every solution is a perfect one; shoot-em-ups like Ikaruga are built to be bright and flashy. Projectiles have to be big and bright enough to dodge. These games can trigger symptoms in epilepsy sufferers, and I don’t think there’s a way to avoid that without fundamentally changing the game’s design.

There is no easy answer, but offering multiple difficulty modes, vision modes, and allowing control customization all go a long way towards keeping games accessible.

Some developers and publishers are going the distance to make sure that disabled gamers are cared for. Microsoft has recently introduced copilot mode, which allows two different controllers to control the same game. The Xbox One Elite controller is great for players with disabilities thanks to its extensive customization options. Unfortunately, Sony does not offer similar disability support, but thanks to devices like Cronusmax Plus, you can use the Xbox One Elite controller on the Playstation 4, or even a mouse and keyboard.

As my health has deteriorated over the past few years, so has my gaming ability. Destiny’s Trials of Osiris event is a competitive multiplayer event where players must win nine matches of five rounds each against an opposing team. I went on a flawless run back in 2015, but I haven’t been since. Controllers are awful for me; playing with them often results in hand cramps and muscle spasms. It’s much less painful to aim with a mouse, so I’ve been eyeing a Cronusmax with an intent to use its mouse and keyboard controls to play Trials of Osiris again.

I was deeply concerned to hear that Jeff Kaplan, Vice President of Blizzard, had argued against the use of these devices. If Kaplan’s shortsighted suggestion became a reality, disabled gamers using assistive technologies would have their consoles rendered useless, not just for Overwatch, but for all games. Kaplan also suggested letting all consoles use mouse and keyboard controls natively, which would be fantastic for disabled gamers, but it’s frustrating to hear that he would even consider the first option.

How would an easy mode in Souls work? It’s simple: let players take a lot more damage before dying. It’s a blast to watch my friends take on the dual-boss fight of Ornstein and Smough, but that fight requires some flawless timing that I can’t always pull off. I tense my muscles when I’m trying to time things perfectly; not having to worry about timing would help me avoid triggering severe pain later on.

Obviously, there are better ways to adjust difficulty, but they would require a lot more work on the developer’s part. Tweaking enemy animations to provide longer ‘tells’ prior to attacking would be a great step. Dark Souls’ movements are animation-based, rather than input-based, which means that once you press a button, your character has to follow through with the animation before making another move. Giving player input priority over animation would let players correct mistakes a lot easier.

To a hardcore Dark Souls player, I’m sure this all sounds like heresy. The suggestions are moot, of course--From is done making Souls games, and it’s unlikely that they would ever patch in an easy mode. Souls is just an example, something I hope that future developers can learn from. I would like to enjoy your favorite game as much as you do, but I can’t, not as it is.

Playing video games literally saved my life. On my worst days, games make life bearable. Games give me community and distraction. So, when it comes to the question of whether Dark Souls have an easy mode, I think the obvious answer is yes. For me, an easy mode would let me play the game like it was meant to be played without worrying about crippling muscle spasms the next day. I just want to enjoy life and spend time with friends; games I can play without agony let me do that.

Ultimately, developers are welcome to do whatever they want to do with the games they want to make. My hope is that this piece initiates a conversation about how to open doors to everyone who wants to play or make video games. Living life with disability is hard mode, and there’s no option to change difficulties. If you have the ability to help us, would you?

#dark souls

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commandertheory · 7 years

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Commander 2017: Overall Thoughts

Now that the set review is up and the decklists have been spoiled, I think we have all the information we need to talk about the set generally. Here are what I think the biggest successes and failures were from this year’s Commander precons.

The Successes

Tribal was a good choice for a theme

Tribal decks are an opportunity to expand the diversity of decks available in the format. There are plenty of creature types that have a common mechanic and a few dozen Commander-playable cards; for these tribes, all that’s needed to create a viable archetype are a few focused tribal effects and a decent commander that rewards you for committing to the type. I think this is a really promising vein for precon design space and I hope we see more tribal decks in the future.

Edgar and The Ur-Dragon were home runs

I think both of these commanders did a great job addressing the weaknesses of their respective tribes. Vamps have gotten a lot of lords over the years but relatively little token generation, so it was difficult to make use of those tribal bonuses until Edgar came along. The Ur-Dragon’s cost reduction effect was also very appropriate, as Dragons have historically been pretty expensive.

The Failures

Wizards was a poor choice for a tribe

I was pretty skeptical about Wizards when they were first announced as the fourth tribe, but I withheld my judgment until I could see the decklist. Now I’ve seen it, and it does nothing to address the problems inherent in using Wizards as a tribe. For starters, there wasn’t a need for it. The format already contains many individually strong Wizards, powerful tribal effects, and one commander that supports the tribe in the color with all the best Wizards. Was it necessary to make a precon solely to give Wizard tribal access to gratuitous colors? More importantly, was it worth denying a precon to a tribe that did not already have a powerful commander to support it?

Another problem with the choice of Wizards is that they don’t have a clear mechanical connection to each other. Wizards are a bit of a catch-all tribe, riding the typeline of cards as disparate in their effect as Trinket Mage, Glen Elendra Archmage, and Snapcaster Mage, and their only real commonality is their small size. Azami was able to build her deck around the fact that most Wizards don’t want to get involved in combat, but the remaining design space that cuts across most of the good Wizards is punishingly small. In contrast, Cats have an affinity for equipment, Dragons are almost always huge, expensive flyers, and Vampires tend to center on lifegain, +1/+1 counters, and sacrificing creatures. Those traits are a little easier to design commanders and decks around than “small and weak”.

Gavin Verhey, the Head Designer of Commander 2017, admits that Wizards didn’t fit the tribal mold very well:

[Wizards] gave us a more controlling deck, which gave it a unique feel, and also was a deck that could excite someone who didn't want to play a heavy tribal deck. In the end, Wizards probably feels the least tribal of the four decks (though there's still plenty of tribal, don't get me wrong!) to help make sure it was appealing to someone who just wanted to play their blue control Commander game. Good ol' blue-black-red control!

With only four decks being released each year, I disagree with the idea of saving one of those precious few slots for players who don’t like the overall theme. It’s not like they diluted last year’s theme by making a deck for people who don’t like four-color (like me!), so why make a tribal deck for people who hate tribal?

The Cat deck is built around a weak strategy

The Cat deck’s issues are minor compared to all the problems with Wizards, but the deck is not very cohesive, since the Cat mechanics are strategically opposed to each other (and in some cases the contradiction is present on the same card). Going tall with equipment lends itself to a Voltron strategy, but most of the Cats that want you to play equipment give you rewards that encourage you to go wide with lots of small creatures (see: Kemba, Raksha, Nazahn).

Voltron aggro and token aggro are both totally viable strategies, in part because they’re both somewhat resistant to the board wipes that are common in this format: Voltron strategies always have access to the one creature that matters, and token decks tend to lose fewer cards to a board wipe because they can make a whole army with a single card. Unfortunately, Voltron and tokens don’t blend very well, and I think the fact that the Cat deck encourages you to lose out on the strength of both archetypes by running a bunch of equipment to throw on your weenies is bad design.

Arahbo kind of just compounds the problem by being unable to target himself and pumping only a single Cat instead of all your Cats; with him at the helm, you are discouraged from both dealing Commander damage with Arahbo and building up an army of Cats; you’re forced to commit to non-Voltron, non-token aggro and enjoy lower damage output and increased vulnerability to board wipes.

I don’t think there’s an easy solution to these problems; there aren’t enough Cat token generators to make a full pivot to token aggro and pure Voltron would render all your other Cats kinda unnecessary. If the Cat mechanics don’t work well in Commander, then maybe the correct answer would have been to choose a different tribe. There are plenty of creature types that are popular and also have cohesive, powerful mechanics, and R&D should have chosen the one that would lead to the best product, even if it meant the cat lovers would riot.

There were a lot of missed opportunities for reprints

I understand that reprints are limited by WotC’s desire to keep the precons in the hands of players and keep people from buying them purely for the monetary value. However, there are a few cards that fit the theme of the precons so perfectly that their omission is kind of baffling. Hunting Cheetah is a Cat that generates card advantage, making it a great fit for the Cat deck. Furthermore, the Cheetah was only printed in Portal: Three Kingdoms, which means it’s both ugly (white borders and bold text) and hard to find (its $15 price tag is almost certainly due to scarcity and not high demand). So why didn’t they reprint it?

The Dragon deck is marked by very high CMCs, which WotC tried to ameliorate by designing an eminence trigger that reduced costs. Why not go a little further and throw in Urza’s Incubator? It would fit the tribal theme and the needs of the deck perfectly. Since its omission from the precons has become public knowledge, speculators have seized the opportunity to grab up as many copies as they can, causing the only version in the Modern frame to triple in price.

Other headscratchers include the absence of Shared Animosity, Riptide Laboratory, and Patron Wizard, the latter two of which have never been printed in a Modern frame. The lack of good reprints might be an unforeseen consequence of the drop from five decks per year to 4; even though the number of new cards in Commander 2017 has stayed the same, the number of slots available for reprints dropped by over 40 cards.

Development dropped the ball on Inalla and Mairsil

Both Inalla and Mairsil have access to one-card combos, with the former using her token production to take infinite turns with Wanderwine Prophets, and the latter throwing Mirror-Mad Phantasm in jail so he can mill out and win via a Dread Returned Lab Maniac. Inalla also generates infinite mana pretty easily by doubling up Trophy Mage to find Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith, combining Ashnod’s Altar with Bloodline Necromancer or Champion creatures, et cetera, while Mairsil has plenty of two-card combos to his name, as well.

I have no problem with combo decks in general, but I don’t think one-card combos are healthy for the format (I’ve been lobbying for Tooth and Nail and Ad Nauseam to be banned for years), and I think Development should treat precon commanders with extra care since they tend to be more popular than other commanders (according to EDHREC, 15 of the top 21 commanders of all time are precon commanders) and thus have an outsize impact on the Commander metagame. Every player who buys Arcane Wizardry is one dollar away from infinite turns, and even if most resist the temptation, the interaction is still going to create a lot of combo kills.

Eminence was not balanced between the tribes

Eminence is inherently broken because you can’t really interact with it, but the three of the four C17 commanders were able to use it effectively because the power of the effect was kept low and committing to those types was enough of a handicap that it was unlikely for the Eminence to get too far out of hand.

For example, both the Vampire and Cat Eminence triggers were worth about one mana, and there are relatively few creatures of those types in Magic; ~150 Vampires in Mardu and ~120 Cats in W/G. Consider the fact that most of those cards are limited chaff and you can see what a cost it is to be restricted to those types. So: weak ability, restrictive types, but the nature of Eminence makes those commanders powerful anyway.

The effect on the Ur-Dragon is a bit stronger (worth approximately two mana), but it’s saved from being broken for two reasons:

Most Dragons are wildly expensive (the average CMC of the ones in my Ur-Dragon list is just over 6), which limits the tempo boost you’ll get; it’s still going to take a lot of time before you’re able to cast more than one Dragon per turn.

There are only ~165 Dragons in Magic. Given that they tend to be rare or mythic rare, the average Dragon is more likely to be powerful than the average Cat or Vampire, but it’s still a pretty shallow pool.

Wizards also got a 2-mana effect, but to say it is equally powerful to the Ur-Dragon’s cost reduction is to draw false equivalence. Unlike Dragons’ high CMCs limiting the impact of the Ur-Dragon’s cost reduction, the nature of the average Wizard doesn’t make Inalla’s Eminence any weaker; in fact, the ETB triggers and activated abilities on most Wizards make a copy effect much more valuable than it would be in most tribes. Getting a second Archaeomancer or Trinket Mage represents a lot more value than knocking a mana off of your Hellkite Tyrant.

Wizards also have a huge advantage over all the other tribes in this precon: their numbers. WG Cats, WBR Vampires, and WUBRG Dragons range from 120 members to 165 members, putting a major deckbuilding restriction on those who hope to make use of the Eminence triggers for those tribes. In contrast, UBR Wizards has over FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY MEMBERS. Assuming Cats, Vampires and Wizards have the same ratio of limited chaff to playable cards, Wizards have a much wider array of cards to choose from when building their deck to take advantage of Inalla’s Eminence. Dragons probably have a higher proportion of playables than Wizards, but I think Wizards beats them out for sheer numbers of playables.

So basically, the tribe with the most playable cards also got the strongest Eminence ability. Somebody at Wizards seemed to realize there was an imbalance and threw a mana onto Inalla’s trigger, but that really doesn’t solve the problem. The nature of the copy ability is what gives Inalla so many free cards and (essentially) free mana, as well as a combo win condition; tacking on one more mana will briefly postpone the moment her merfolk stretches out time to land a million punches on you, but it won’t prevent it from happening.

If Wizards ever tries to bring Eminence back, I really hope that they:

Look for obvious combos. If there are any, change the damn ability.

Weigh the number of playable cards in a tribe when deciding on the power level of their bonus. Less restrictive should equal less powerful.

Weigh how much the chosen bonus matters to the tribe. Cost reduction is less powerful for an expensive tribe; copying is more powerful for a tribe with lots of ETBs.

Stick to one-mana effects, if possible. Don’t try to cheat this rule by adding on costs.

Wrapping Up

Overall, I’m pleased with most of the decks and new cards, and I really hope this set sells well so we can get more tribal offerings in the future. Quoth the Gavin:

And also, if your favorite tribe is not among these four: there's definitely enough design space and beloved tribes here that we could do this again. If you all like this, we'll almost certainly return to this well.

As far as the set’s problems go, I think some of them are more fixable than others. The Commander decks are unlikely to go back up to 5 per year, so fitting enough reprints into fewer slots may be a chronic problem going forward. However, I do think the other changes are a lot more likely; Development can easily pay closer attention to the precons (especially if they get a lot of feedback, so make sure to complain loudly to many people if somebody cheeses you with one of this year’s commanders) and Design can avoid using decks as insurance policies in case the year’s theme isn’t popular.

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junker-town · 4 years

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SB Nation reviews: ADOM, a 25-year-old hard-as-hell computer game

Art from ADOM.de, by Krzysztof Dycha

Style 9.5

Content 10

Overall 10

I have a new friend. His name is Sammy, and he is is a Hurthling. Sammy has had a rough life. His miserable parents tormented him throughout his childhood. But eventually he escaped their clutches and trained to become an assassin.

Was he planning to one day train his dagger against his cruel parents? He didn’t say. But then, he didn’t say much.

I met Sammy at the entrance to the Drakalor Chain, a mysterious mountain range that seemed to be the centre of an invasion of otherworldly powers. Monsters thought long-extinct overflowed its passes. The orc clans, contained for generations, were on the warpath. There were even reports of ogre armies arrayed for battle. Like many adventurers, Sammy was drawn to investigate.

Entering the pass, Sammy’s first stop was a village named Terinyo, where he was asked to find a missing carpenter. Sammy sought him out in a dungeon to the southeast, where he battled through a horde of goblins ... and then died of acute blood poisoning when bitten by a viper.

Art from ADOM.de, by Krzysztof Dycha

I have been playing Ancient Domains of Mystery, better known as ADOM, for more than 20 years. It took me 13 to close the Chaos Gate and end the invasion successfully, and I’ve long-since lost count of how many heroes died in the process. ADOM likes to kill you, and it does this a lot. As far as I can tell, there are hundreds of ways to die. You can execute yourself, for instance, with a bouncing magic missile. You can be crushed by your own backpack when an annis hag curses your bracers of lifting. You can starve to death in the wilderness. You can be electrocuted by a lightning lizard, or sacrificed to a teleporting pixie’s god, or straight-up beaten to death by an angry troll (all trolls are angry).

You can also, assuming you haven’t found a spider corpse to give you resistance, die of acute blood poisoning.

Since ADOM is a roguelike, when you die, your character is erased. No coming back, no recording saves. Gone. (Farewell, Sammy. I barely knew ye.) This is what makes the game both so difficult to beat and so compelling. Once you get past the very early game, when progress is in large part determined by luck, each death will (slowly) teach you how to navigate deeper and deeper into the Caverns of Chaos, where you will eventually stem the infernal invasion threatening the realm. Or die. Probably you’ll die.

But if you don’t, you may find strength beyond your wildest dreams. My most recent winner, Orodreth, was a high elven duelist who became a paragon of virtue (much like myself) and befriended the Cat Lord. The rewards for doing so let him shred even the more formidable opponents with ease. Before that, I won with a beastfighter who specialises in hand-to-hand combat (with a boomerang or two thrown in, mostly for style). I reckon that now, with two decades of experience, I can probably win somewhere between 10-20 percent of the time on a random character.

ADOM has changed a lot in those 20 years. For most of its existence, it was an ASCII-only game, which meant it looked like this:

The orange @ is my character, the grey B a giant bat that is trying (unsuccessfully) to fight me. I love everything about this look, from the hashtag corridors to the one-square monsters. I’ve learned to be terrified of brown “&”s (GREATER MOLOCH), capital-“D” dragons, and black-“L” emperor liches. I’ve learned to look out for yellow-“d” blink dogs, which grant the important intrinsic of teleport control when eaten. And I’ve recently learned to be on the alert for the glowing green cloak Venom Mantle, denoted by a sickly green “]”. Venom Mantle grants, among other things, acid immunity. Very handy.

Modern ADOM now looks very different. A few years ago, the game’s creator, Thomas Biskup, led a successful crowdfunding campaign to reboot development, and part of that campaign included modernising the graphics to be more welcoming to new players. Now that same fight against a giant bat looks like, well, a fight against a giant bat:

For me, ‘tile mode’ loses rather a lot of the game’s charm, but that’s probably because I grew up playing the ASCII version, and therefore tiles annihilate all of my familiarity with the game. But the rest of the new content is fantastic — Thomas and his co-developers have pumped new locations, quests, baddies and items into an already deep world, breathing new life into the ADOM community. (They’ve currently paused development in ADOM itself to work on the sequel.)

Style 9.5

As I mentioned earlier, ADOM is a roguelike, which is a type of game mostly associated with the player character dying a lot. Roguelikes are also associated with procedurally generated content, which means that significant parts of the game are randomised each time you start. Almost every dungeon is reset with each game (the extremely weird infinite dungeon gets randomised during play, which makes it a fun challenge to deep-dive). The pool of special items varies as well, which means that you never know what character build you’re going to end up with.

ADOM contains enough secrets that I haven’t managed to exhaust them in all the time I’ve been playing. Some say that the path to becoming a Chaos God begins in the Drakalor Chain, for instance. Others rumours suggest that the legendary Trident of the Red Rooster can be found somewhere deep in the mountains. Let’s not even get into where one might find the Scroll of Omnipotence (I think I came close, once, but had to retreat). The story might be on the shallow end, but, really, you’re here to explore and kick ass. Plot mostly gets in the way.

Art from ADOM.de, by Krzysztof Dycha

Meanwhile, each class of characters plays wildly differently from the next. I favour duelists, which are powerful and very fast melee fighters who are mostly useless at range or with magic. This makes them vulnerable to enemies you really don’t want to fight at close quarters, which vastly changes your approach to, for instance, an ultimate doppelgänger. A wizard, on the other hand, would simply fry said doppelgänger with an acid bolt (or whatever else), but would have a significantly more annoying time against a diamond golem, which are immune to most forms of magic.

ADOM has 22 playable classes, from farmer to mindcrafter. (These are wildly unbalanced, as they should be. It turns out it’s easier to save the world when you’re a powerful elementalist than if you’re a traveling merchant who likes to sell scrolls.) You can pick among twelve races — I like hurthlings and elves — which all have their own unique traits and styles. If you play as a troll, be prepared for hunger to be a constant problem, and to run like hell from any monster with an aging attack (trolls die young). If you’re a Mist Elf, born during the song of creation, you may be less stressed out about encountering a ghost lord.

With essentially infinite build variety and style, you can keep playing ADOM for decades and still want to come back for more. Trust me, I know.

Content 10

When ADOM came out, it was ‘postcardware.’ If you enjoyed the game, Thomas asked you to send him a postcard from wherever in the world you happened to be. I never got around to this, because teenage boys are the most inconsiderate people in the world. Thomas, if you read this, I don’t know if this post makes up for the lack of postcard, but thank you from London for keeping me entertained for so long.

Ancient Domains of Mystery is available on Steam (there’s also a free-to-play version with fewer features).

Overall 10

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twylaymaa727-blog · 4 years

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We describe the PC game Grand Theft Auto VC

Last year, Grand Theft Auto III took the world in surprise. While the first two games in the chain had a small, hard-core monitor, their basic 2D artwork and lack of a focused narrative structure control the request. On the other hand, GTA3 featured a massive, clockwork world which was really remarkable to consider, and it refined its predecessors' free-roaming, nonlinear layout also swollen a far more compelling story in the process. Those improvements, coupled with amazing vehicle physics, a bombshell amount of class in the gameplay, also a great perception of cut, made Grand Theft Auto III a fugitive hit and one in the extraordinary match that happens acknowledged by both great and relaxed game players similar. But as good as GTA III is, the next game in the sequence, Grand Theft Auto VC, improves after it. Vice City expands on the designs and strategies found in Grand Theft Auto 3, fixes some of the teenager issues in the last game, then adds many new powers and items to tease with. It all comes together to form one of the most stylish and most enjoyable games ever released.

The new Grand Theft Auto game is set in a fictional take on Miami, Florida, known as Vice City. The season is 1986, and Tommy Vercetti say now happened announced by jail after accomplish a 15-year stretch to the mob. The mob--more particularly, the Forelli family--appreciates Tommy's refusal to cry in exchange for a lower sentence, so they send him into Vice City to launch some fresh business. Tommy's first sequence of subject with Vice City is to gain a greater amount of cocaine to operate with. But Tommy's first drug trade goes sour, causing him without money, no cocaine, and no idea which wronged him. The mafia is, naturally, angry on the entire situation, now Tommy has to make up with the decline before the gangsters come down from Liberty City to clean in the mess. As Tommy, you'll surprise the investigation, decide that flew people down, take care of responsibility, also create store with Vice City in the big, big way. Oh, and you'll and make taxis, get involved in a turf battle between Cubans along with the Haitians, befriend a Scottish rock group named Love Fist, become a pizza delivery boy, smash up the local mall, demolish a form to real estate prices, hook up with a biker gang, run an adult film studio, remove a level, and much, much more.

While Grand Theft Auto has become a violent, mature-themed series, it has always calculated the chaotic crime with an total volume of tongue-in-cheek humor with cut. Vice City is no different, providing the exaggerated picture in the 1980s that makes use of many the loud pop-culture stereotypes found in tape with television from the decade. The drug-laced tale recalls such records as Scarface and tv program like Miami Vice. The comedy comes mainly from the radio, that really gets home the type of form-over-function mentality which many people link with the '80s. Some of the game's main characters are a spring of comic relief, in the Jim Bakker-like Pastor Richards to the Steven Spielberg-like porn director Steve Scott. The playoffs large cast of appeals is interesting and remarkable. For example, local drug kingpin Ricardo Diaz is always hilariously breaking something and cursing wildly each time anyone eventually tell him. Ken Rosenberg is the fidgety coke-fiend lawyer pal, next he receives you started in area by getting you connected with the city's key players. Lance Vance, appropriately said by Miami Vice alum Philip Michael Thomas, becomes your associate of persons, as both of you chase vengeance for your own reasons. Your Cuban gang contact, Umberto Robina, is regularly reminding you how much of a man he is, and most of the Cuban team members you'll face are likewise inclined.

Stylistically, the game shows an exact description of your normal '80s crime saga. Like here Miami Vice, many of the identities are wearing pastel becomes. The game's vehicles and right the tab, with a lot of basic sedans combined at home with vehicles which aspect enough like Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris to leave behind to the real thing. Nothing in the vehicles are passed, of course, though in the good touch, some of the cars are earlier models of vehicles which happened in Grand Theft Auto 3. Fans of the past game can undoubtedly appreciate little stuff like this also one other occasional ties on the earth of GTA3, that really help this another Grand Theft Auto game feel like part of a consistent universe.

As large as the game's presentation and using its foundation ideas survive, without a collection of gameplay improvements, that would experience lived little more than a mission group with a touch-up work. But Rockstar North has definitely been tough at work in this field. The most obvious addition is the inclusion of types of motorcycles among the many cars on the road. There's a decent variety of two-wheelers from the game, including mopeds, street bikes, dirt bikes, and massive hogs. As you'd think, the cycles feel a lot differently in one another. Your basic street bike is a good mix of fly with maneuverability. The immense choppers are harder to drive, yet give ludicrous top speeds. You'll get tossed off a motorcycle in virtually any impact, which costs you a small amount of strength or armor. That gets them pretty much useless in any situation that interests dodging the police. But they're incredibly handy in any vision that demands speed, with since you can influence a lot of fancy tricks on them, they're also many fun to drive around.

You'll also perform bit of rushing into Vice City. Like go through a number of major piece points, you'll available the western half of Vice City, which is locked apart on the dawn due to hurricane warnings. After that, you'll encounter vision to let anyone escape a seaplane around the city. You'll also get a few different helicopters here and there. Travel throughout the city is attractive impressive, and it show off the playoffs engine quite well--you may visit for miles when you're up inside air. While some of the city's skyscrapers are extremely tall to get on top of, you can settle the choppers in most from the game's buildings. Expect to find a few of the game's hidden items stashed away into these forms of difficult-to-reach areas.

Some new person cases have been included in the game as well. Pressing L3 will lock Tommy in a crouched put. That permits people suffer cover behind reasons and looks up the speed accuracy. You can also dive out of step vehicles, which helpful for ditching cars or bikes to the ocean, escaping a shed vehicle, or just ramming empty cars in different vehicles for kicks. Like wrecking a bike, bailing from a car causes some bodily harm. You can and enter certain buildings now. While the interior situations are few in number and mainly extraneous, they stare good and are used to effectively create a city that's more realistic than Grand Theft Auto III's Liberty City. You'll be able to go into your hotel then run right upstairs to help ones bedroom. You can also get into a nightclub, a reel club, the Vice City mall, and a few other buildings. There are load times associated with entering certain buildings, but they're pretty simple.

Many of the game's story missions are more involved than those associated with GTAIII. GTA 3 had many missions where you needed to get great before bring someone somewhere and return to your reward. You can get those types of assignment with Vice City, yet many of the novel game's missions are multiple-part business which include more than now shift by heart A to position B and then to spot A. Some positions are basic extensions, like because possibly having to break a respray look after moving a job. But, other missions are more required also involve the use of more-advanced strategies. For order, one mission requires you to hide a bomb in the mall that takes place swarming with cops. To do so, you'll first have to get a miniature heat chasing after you. You'll then direct the cops into a garage, where you'll ambush them also haul one of their standards so you can pose as a cop, which makes stepping into the heavily guarded mall possible. After you've taken trouble of company at the mall, you'll then should escape and get all the way time for the hideout.

The objective live fortunate designed for the most position. The noticeably longer average mission length is great, even if this could become a supply of unexpected frustration, since failure in a mission means having to replay every piece until you have it right. Moving back to a quest district becomes easier than ever before, even though. In GTAIII, you'd restart in a clinic or watch station and be compelled to bargain a car and hightail it back to a quest area, which could take a Grand Theft Auto Episodes from Liberty City Download while. Wearing Vice City, a cab appears close your respawn stage, with, instead of a tiny price, it will need people back to the last mission briefing question you visited. Unfortunately, since you're generally going to want to pick up some section along with several armor before heading back into most missions, you'll even have to get up to the local Ammu-Nation opening. This would have become fine if you could have treated the cab to handle this phase of the development as well. At any rate, while the game definitely has the portion of difficult missions, the average mission difficulty looks a level or two easier with Vice City than in GTA III, and so you ought to have to repeat too many missions too often. Though, overall, Vice City's amount of sweat is a lot like which with the earlier game, because of increased tenacity on the part of the police of their hard work to help impede you.

Alongside the cash to the missions themselves, the game's mission design is sweet different from that of the earlier GTA match. In prior installments, you were given a pretty clear-cut path to follow--you could have had multiple mission choices at any present period, and you consistently knew just what to do then plus for who. With Vice City, you'll spend the first piece from the game undertaking vision for people, much like in GTA3. But once the city is yours, you'll be working for yourself, going and go on your safety racket into collection and identifying yourself as the town's new boss.

Eventually, you'll even be able to go out with hold various properties, that begins up another missions. For example, when you buy the taxi company, you'll open up a series of taxi-related vision to occur separate through the edge missions to you can handle by entering any taxi. Once you've achieved a property's missions, to property may launch making money for you. This information means that money eventually turns into a nonissue--as it should be for any self-respecting crime lord--since your various properties will also have some cash for you. All you need to do is run around to all advisors with gather from time to time. There are several other properties to purchase, including the film studio, the Malibu Stick, with a car dealership. All the secondary-mission types from Grand Theft Auto 3 have returned, like as vigilante missions, taxi missions, fire truck vision, and ambulance missions. New to Vice City is the ability to do on a special type of scooter and transport pizza. Pizza is given while in motion using the same mechanics you'd normally work for drive-by shootings, only in this case you throw pizza pies on customers.

While the inspection in Vice City is mostly the same as which of Grand Theft Auto 3, the trading of the game's various cars feels really different, because game's frequent driving sequences seem much more exciting and dangerous. Perhaps in part due to the adjustment of point period, a lot of the cars feel a lot looser on the road and manage to find hit in a good bit easier. This presents much on the game the form of car-flipping, explosion-filled quality you'd expect via a great instance in the A-Team. And when you consider the new ability for you--or other in-game characters--to burst out tires, handling becomes an even bigger question. Cars with blown tires are really hard to control, making car chases to very much tougher when you have a flat (or many). And as if cars weren't dangerous enough, a motorcycle with a blown wheel is nearly useless, as it usually spins exposed next puts people over the handlebars whenever you try and attain any significant speed. One of the tougher vision gives people trying to get a cycle with even tires returning to a motorcycle bar while remaining pursued by angry thugs.

Cars split apart in an even more spectacular fashion now around. Along with holding away tires, you can hit up cars with your melee weapons now. Reaching winning and caving in a car's hood with your baseball bat is usually a good way to make the tenants to quit the vehicle in a hurry. You can also run out car windows and even hit the people inside car with your shots. That becomes an enormous difference when it comes to taking away cars, as you can now aim at the rolls to slow down the vehicle down and then take away the drivers with a well-placed rifle shot.

As revealed, the police have become a much more powerful risk than they were in Grand Theft Auto 3, especially since they have the ability to get the wheels about your own getaway car. Attempting to jump in a auto then run off the picture of an crime usually gives the cops enough time to take out among the wheels. In higher levels of response, the police force set up spike strips to take off every the tires. Of course, they'll and set up standard roadblocks also act all of the things the Grand Theft Auto 3 cops did, including ignore most common traffic violations. Though, in Vice City, stirring up a serious ruckus will get both the rob and the FBI in the situation. Helicopters will also chase after you. This time in, SWAT players will in fact rappel out of the helicopters, making them more dangerous. If you can manage to get a good shot with a chopper's cockpit, although, you can rent one overcome with individual strike. On the supreme level of law enforcement answer, the multitude once again rolls tanks on the street, doing your own chance of success slim. All this means that, as in GTAIII, many encounters with the conviction with Vice City can be extremely exciting. Yet, one mark for the police record is the fact that the policemen still do not deal with elevation changes remarkably so. If you come across a square garage then effect the first or back ground, the police officer aren't wise enough to get the system around deal with you. They'll even hold firing in your general direction, even though there are several blocks with ceilings between a person along with the specialists. But you'll encounter such a thing really rarely amidst many, many wonderful and powerful chases and shoot-outs.

While there are a lot other systems in Vice City, the free arsenal gets really changed that significantly overall. The most obvious additions are in the melee weapon department--or, somewhat, the hardware department. You can visit a hardware collection and grab a screwdriver, a strike, a trusty baseball bat, or a machete. You'll and learn other melee weapons in different measurement on the city. Knocking the course, for example, gets it easy to find a golf club. You can also make a chainsaw, which is large with principle, but surprisingly unsatisfying in action. Weapons are destroyed upward in another styles. Your main attack rifle will be a Ruger, but later on you'll manage to obtain the M16. You can have one weapon in each grade, so picking winning an M16 can return the Ruger, getting a golf club can change your baseball bat, and so on. The choice of weapons closely mirrors GTA3's set, only now with more types of pistols, submachine guns, rifles, shotguns, sniper firearms, and confused explosives.

You'll work your way upward from central weapons up to deadlier versions. For example, the Tec-9 is a good submachine gun, but later on you'll be able to obtain a MP5K, that includes a much faster measure of passion. Later still, you'll be able to wield rocket launchers, a flamethrower, an M60 machine gun, or even a Gatling gun. Different weapons have different weights, and your movement rate may suffering from the bat you're holding. Wielding a gun or a submachine gun lets you throw at full speed. Busting away the shotgun or rifle prevents people through sprinting, but you may move normally. Also the deep weapons cause you to land around slowly. The ending system by GTA 3 has been reworked a bit for Vice City, making it easier to target opponents and house the video camera by obtaining too crazy when you're locked on a goal.

Vice City also increases on GTA 3 graphically. The only trouble with the image is the body rate's movement toward bog down after you've grew a mess of law swarming all over you, doing escape to very much harder. But considering that problem is no worse in Vice City than it had been during Grand Theft Auto 3, and that the game looks a good bit better overall than Grand Theft Auto III, it's not really a huge deal. The entire glimpse on the game is quite different from their predecessor overall, but technically, that modern Grand Theft Auto game owns a radically cleaner appearance. The character examples become superior gaze, and the animation--some of it reused from GTA3--looks great. Some of the highlights include jacking a bike in the top, which affects Tommy to complete a wing jump end that beats the condition dust away the bike. Jack a cycle in the wall, with misery give the elbow to the look with the condition.

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The draw distance is a lot farther away this time about as well, meaning you can see a greater distance down the road than you can in GTA 3. This is even more apparent when you're flying high preceding the city and can see most the way across to the new part of it. But you'll still see when simply driving in the street, especially when you give up a cause car and watch this cruise off outside with its. Outside which, the playoffs surfaces are lively with bright, properly considering what '80s-era Miami should look like. Nearby shops are mixed with neon that glows nicely at night. You'll also see whole lot of large little touches, such as the flicker of sunshine down the openings of community cars.

GTA 3's sound played a crucial cut with establishing the tone to the overall game. The voice acting used throughout the history segments effectively shared the offense lie, and the air offered the soundtrack to go with the action. Vice City's sound is a dramatic increase on GTAIII's already amazing good. The sport cast is top-notch. The main variance from the words run becomes which, unlike in GTA III, the advanced spirit in Vice City speaks. Tommy Vercetti's expression is given by Ray Liotta (Blow, Muppets By Area), who does an excellent post of produce the character to life. The rest of the voice talent--which includes Gary Busey, Dennis Hopper, David Paymer, Danny Trejo, Luis Guzman, Philip Michael Thomas, and retired adult film actress Jenna Jameson--also does a very good post. The playoffs positive effects are top-notch. Everything from explosions to gunfire just sounds outstanding.

The radio classes with Vice City are extremely well done. The '80s music found on the posts really helps settled on the tone to the entire game. You'll find plenty of

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randomguywholikesstuff · 7 years

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The Start-up of You Chp4: It Takes a Network

“Quite simply, if you want to accelerate your career, you need the help and support of others. Of course, unlike company founders, you aren’t hiring a fleet of employees who report to you, nor do you report to a board of directors. What you are doing—what you should be doing—is establishing a diverse team of allies and advisors with whom you grow over time.”

“Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford, has marshaled evidence that shows that when it comes to getting promoted in your job, strong relationships and being on good terms with your boss can matter more than competence. This is not nefarious nepotism or politics (though unfortunately sometimes it’s that). There’s a good reason: a slightly less-competent person who gets along with others and contributes on a team can be better for the company than somebody who’s 100 percent competent but isn’t a team player.”

“Finally, relationships matter because the people you spend time with shape who you are and who you become. Behavior and beliefs are contagious: you easily “catch” the emotional state of your friends, imitate their actions, and absorb their values as your own.2 If your friends are the types of people who get stuff done, chances are you’ll be that way, too. The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.”

“But tidy narratives tend to be misleading....

As tempting as it is to believe that we are the sole heroes of our own stories, we are enmeshed in cities, companies, fraternities, families, society at large—collections of people who shape us, help us, and yes, sometimes even hurt us. It is impossible to dissociate an individual from the environment of which he is a part. No story of achievement should ever be removed from its broader social context.”

I to the We: You and Your Team

“Your career success depends on both your individual capabilities and your network’s ability to magnify them. Think of it as IWe. An individual’s power is raised exponentially with the help of a team (a network).”

Context Matters: Relationship Building in Professional Life

BUILD GENUINE RELATIONSHIPS

“Networkers focus on tactical ways to meet new people. They think about how to dominate a cocktail party or how to cold-call an important person in their field. Relationship builders start by understanding how their existing relationships constitute a social network, and they meet new people through people they already know.”

“When you’re deciding whether or not to build a professional relationship with someone, there are many considerations: whether you like him or her; the capacity for the person to help you build your assets, reach your aspirations, and position you well competitively, and for you to help back in all the same ways; whether the person is adaptable and could help you adapt your career plan as necessary. And, like with dating, you should always have a long-term perspective.”

Empathize and Help First

“Discovering what people want, in the words of start-up investor Paul Graham, “deals with the most difficult problem in human experience: how to see things from other people’s point of view, instead of thinking only of yourself.”

1. See the world from the other person’s perspective.

2. Think about how you can help and collaborate with the other person- not what you can gain from them.

“A study on negotiation found that a key difference between skilled negotiators and average negotiators was the time spent searching for shared interests, asking questions of the other person, and forging common ground. The effective negotiators spent more time doing these things—thinking about ways the other person would truly benefit as opposed to just trying to drive a hard bargain out of pure self-interest.”

“In a sentence, as you meet your friends and new people, shift from asking yourself the very natural question of “What’s in it for me?” and ask instead, “What’s in it for us?” All follows from that.”

THE STRUCTURE AND STRENGTH OF YOUR EXISTING NETWORK

“The first is professional allies. Who would be in your corner in a conflict or when you come under stress? Whom do you invite to dinner to brainstorm career options? Whom do you trust and proactively try to work with if you can? From whom do you solicit feedback on key projects? Whom do you review life goals and plans with? These are your allies.Many people can maintain at most eight to ten strong professional alliances at any given point in time. The second type of relationship we’ll cover is weaker ties and acquaintances. With whom are you friendly but not full-on friends? With whom do you email occasionally? Of whom can you ask a lightweight professional favor? Can you recall a conversation with this person from a couple years ago? There’s quite a bit of variance in how many of these weak ties you can maintain; you may be able to maintain a maximum of a couple hundred or a couple thousand depending on your personality, your line of work, and the nature of your relationships.”

Professional Allies

“What are the general characteristics that make their relationship an alliance and that define your own? First, an ally is someone you consult regularly for advice. You trust his or her judgment. Second, you proactively share and collaborate on opportunities together. You keep your antennae especially attuned to an ally’s interests, and when it makes sense to pursue something jointly, you do so. Third, you talk up an ally to other friends. You promote his or her brand. When an ally comes into conflict, you defend him, and stand up for his reputation. And he does the same for you when times get tough. There’s no such thing as a fair-weather alliance; if the relationship isn’t load-bearing under stress, it’s relationship isn’t load-bearing under stress, it’s not an alliance. Finally, you are explicit about your bond: “Hey, we’re allies, right? How can we best help each other?”

“Seeing what someone’s reading is like seeing the first derivative of their thinking.”

“These “volleys of communication and cooperation” build trust. Trust, writes David Brooks, is “habitual reciprocity that becomes coated by emotion. It grows when two people … slowly learn they can rely upon each other. Soon members of a trusting relationship become willing to not only cooperate with each other but sacrifice for each other.”

“Ideally, the notion of an exchange dissolves into the reality that you have intermingled fates. In other words, as the score keeping becomes less and less formal and as the expectation for reciprocal exchange stretches over a longer and longer period of time, a relationship goes from being an exchange partnership to being a true alliance.*”

Weak Ties and Acquaintances: Expand the Breadth of your Network

“Granovetter accounts for this result by explaining that social cliques, which are groups of people who have something in common, often limit your exposure to wildly new experiences, opportunities, and information. Because people tend to hang out in cliques, your good friends are usually from the same industry, neighborhood, religious group, and the like. The stronger your tie with someone, the more likely they are to mirror you in various ways, and the more likely you are to want to introduce them to your other friends.

“But from an informational standpoint, Granovetter argues that this interconnectedness is limiting because the same information recycles through your local network of like-minded friends. If a close friend knows about a job opportunity, you probably already know about it. Strong ties usually introduce redundancy in knowledge and activities and friend sets”

“Weak ties can uniquely serve as bridges to other worlds and thus can pass on information or opportunities you have not heard about.”

“Weak ties in and of themselves are not especially valuable; what is valuable is the breadth and reach of your network.”

“Whichever way you introduce diversity and breadth, it’s especially important during career transitions. When you pivot to Plan B or Plan Z, you’ll want information about new opportunities. ”

Your Extended Social Network: Second and Third Degree Connections

“When you reach out to someone, be clear about how you intend to help the person to whom you’re being introduced—or at least how you’ll ensure it’s not a waste of that person’s time. Figuring out how you can help the person you want to connect with—or at least figuring out the tightest point of mutual interest—does take some legwork.”

“You can conceptualize and map your network all you want, but if you can’t effectively request and broker introductions, it adds up to a lot of nothing. Take it seriously. If you are not receiving or making at least one introduction a month, you are probably not fully engaging your extended professional network.”

The Best Professional Network: Cohesive and Diverse

“Strong connections optimize trust because there’s likely overlap in belief systems and communication styles. Weak connections help find creative solutions by introducing new information and resources from other social circles.”

“Prize diversity, though don’t resolutely seek it out in a way that can come off as calculated. When you hit it off with someone who is meaningfully different from you, know that the relationship has the potential to be both genuinely enriching as well as a way to expand the breadth of information and creativity that flows through your network.”

“The value and strength of your network are not represented in the number of contacts in your address book. What matters are your alliances, the strength and diversity of your trust connections, the freshness of the information flowing through your network, the breadth of your weak ties, and the ease with which you can reach your second- or third-degree connections.”

“Your approach to your network should be unique to you. When you’re young and exploratory, many weaker connections in disparate fields may be especially valuable. When you’re midflight, perhaps you want to shore up alliances and make deep connections in certain niche areas. Whatever your priorities, nurture the network you’re building. Your professional life depends on your being smart and generous with the people you care about.”

HOW TO STRENGTHEN AND MAINTAIN YOUR NETWORK

“Helping someone out means acknowledging that you are capable of helping. Reject the misconception that if you’re less powerful, less wealthy, or less experienced, you have nothing to offer someone else. Everyone is capable of offering helpful support or constructive feedback. To be sure, you’ll be most helpful if you have the skills and experiences to help your allies.”

“To give helpful help you need to have a sense of your friend’s values and priorities so that your offer of help can be relevant and specific. What keeps him up at 2 a.m.? What are his talents? His interests? Asking “How can I help you?!” immediately after meeting someone is overeager. First you must know the person.”

“Finally, once you understand his needs, challenges, and desires, think about how you can offer him a small gift...

We mean something—even something intangible—that costs you almost nothing yet still is valuable to the other person. Classic small gifts include relevant information and articles, introductions, and advice. ...

What specific things do you know or have that the other person does not? The secret behind stellar small gifts is that it’s something you can uniquely provide.Finally, if the best way to strengthen a relationship is to help the other person, the second best way is to let yourself be helped.”

“A good way to help people is to introduce them to people and experiences they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access. In other words, straddle different communities/social circles and then be the bridge that your friends can walk over. ”

“Can you develop skill sets, interests, and experiences in two or more domains and then act as a bridge for your connections in one circle who want to access the other? If so, you will be enormously helpful.”

In Touch and Top of Mind

“It’s not technically hard to stay in touch with people. Though you wouldn’t know it based on how frequently you hear someone sheepishly explain months of no contact with, “Sorry, I’m really bad at keeping in touch,” as if dropping someone a quick email were an innate aptitude like sense of direction. In fact, all it takes to stay in touch with the people you know is a desire to do so and a modest amount of organization and proactiveness”

Your’e probably not nagging

“Until you hear “No,” you haven’t been turned down.”

Try to add value

“Check in with someone when you can offer something more than a generic greeting or personal update. It’s unimpressive to send a note simply asking, “How are you?”

If you’re worried about seeming too personal, couch your staying-in-touch as a mass action

“This reduces some of the potential awkwardness. Once you’ve eased back into personal contact, then personalize your message.”

One lunch is worth dozens of emails

Social media

“ Because many people do not respond to every status update, tweet, or shared article, it can be easy to think no one is reading. But they are. The drip, drip, drip of short, regular updates—even if some border on the frivolous—creates real human connection between you and your online connections. Use LinkedIn to post professional updates; Facebook to post personal updates; and Twitter for updates that may appeal to both groups. If you’ve fallen out of touch with someone, be the one to reconnect. ”

Set up an “Interesting People” Fund

Setting aside money to periodically reconnect with interesting people OR to meet new ones.

Navigate Status Dynamics When Dealing with Powerful People

“Status refers to a person’s power, prestige, and rank within a given social setting at a given moment in time. There is no one pecking order in life; status is relative and dynamic. ...

A person’s status depends on the circumstances and on who’s around.”

Everyone is Equal, and yet Everyone is not equal

“Remember, even if you aren’t trying to signal you are more powerful, an inadvertent power move is still a power move, and it can irritate decision makers you’d rather impress.”

“The social terrain at the highest levels of power and influence can be treacherous. If you wish to cultivate and strengthen ties with your boss, boss’s boss, top officials, or other people in high places, think about how the power imbalance affects your expected social behavior. A little bit of conscientiousness in this department goes a long way.”

“Certainly you should do something, because you won’t have the time or energy to cultivate new friendships if you relentlessly hold on to old ones. It’s that digital camera again: you won’t have the space on your hard drive. But unlike with a digital camera, the right move isn’t to actively “delete” friendships you wish not to keep up. Rather, it’s okay to simply let those friendships fade. This is a natural evolution of some relationships. Unlike romantic relationships, with friendships there’s rarely a reason to have a full-on breakup. Even if people go in different directions and the friendship slowly peters out, trust can endure. And unlike most exes, it is possible to rekindle/reactivate friendships later on when your lives are more aligned. Many relationships fade unknowingly and unfortunately. Actively maintain the relationships you value, and consciously let fade those you do not. ”

Reid Hoffman. “The Start-Up of You.”

#reidhoffman #casnocha #startup #career #life #quotes #startupofyou

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elizabethrobertajones · 7 years

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Yesterday I finally caught up with probably half of Tumblr and finished watching Sense8 (*hugs my new Netflix account*)...

I really enjoyed it and I guess it lives up to the hype, though waiting forever to watch it kind of took the edge off, since I was curious enough to examine every gifset on my dash for the last... couple of years? since it appeared. I really like how everyone’s so in love with the characters and their dynamics that despite learning a great deal about almost every character and their relationships, I 1: didn’t even know Naveen Andrews was in it and 2: had no idea what the main plot was and assumed it was mostly just a great big action/romance romp with random soulmate dynamics thrown in to spice it up. :P

And it’s brilliant as a soap opera ignoring the main plot, as several characters have pretty much nothing to do with it (yet? I started off trying to analyse the plot and linked up Capheus, Kala and Sun as the most important players in an epic biomedical scandal involving the businesses and such they’re tied up in that must surely link further back to all the sinister stuff with the real bad guys, and then of course nothing’s come of that yet in a season + Christmas special...) and definitely one of its main strengths is the characters and their relationships and interactions, especially as with so many ways to sort them, and some plots with a lot of one on one cross over, characters you’d come to know and love were still meeting each other for the first time fairly late on.

Anyway, Daryl Hannah floating around being the fridged woman with a remarkable resemblance to Mary Winchester aside (I feel so sorry for actresses whose entire role is wearing a dirty/bloodstained nightgown while making spooky appearances for the sake of the main characters :P) the actual plot seems like Orphan Black in many respects, and the more I think about it the more connections I make, aside from the obvious of Weird Science bothering a group of seemingly normal people who then discover they’re actually clones/soulmates with a whole bunch of other people they have uncanny connections to. By the end of the current season of Orphan Black, our protagonist clone is even having sustained visions of the clone who started the series with the suicide of one of their own who, like Daryl Hannah, kicked off the entire plot for the main characters, and her daughter seems to be psychically connecting to the other clones through the same Weird Science as Sense8. There’s a strong focus on life and death and altogether too much childbirth stuff on screen :P

I think Sense8′s advantage is that it’s much less confined by the format not just that it can be absolutely openly as diverse as it wants to be, but because without having to be somewhat procedural or else fitting the regular format of TV shows, you can get the really long, weird sequences which aren’t really doing anything except quiet, meaningful stretches of character stuff. There are story arcs per episode, but the entire thing moves incredibly slowly. I swear Orphan Black made the same progress through the plot in a handful of episodes as Sense8 has done so far in its entire run.

Obviously neither show is finished yet, and in several important respects Sense8 blows Orphan Black out of the water, with OB being included in the great Onscreen Queer Women Massacre of the start of the year it only just bought my interest but not my trust back by backpeddaling that... and even if they always intended to bring said murdered queer woman back, they’ve not allowed the couple in question to just exist happily and unapologetically, and inflicted that trope on us in the first place... they also DID apologise while at the same time doing it, admitted they were aware they should use a trans actor to play a trans character but because of the clone thing, still used Tatiana to play a surprise brother clone they threw in for one episode basically, I guess, to show something about variation etc, and at this point I don’t know if it’s for the best he’s not in a ton of episodes, although weird they never mention him again after that.

Sense8 has a much clearer sense of these issues, though its attempt to portray a broad stroke of human existence world wide has netted it a lot of criticism for stereotyping & racist tropes in those portrayals, which I’m not equipped to comment on, but as someone who wearily watches a lot of media, certainly none of the non-western, white, stories felt particularly unexpected or not like something I could see elsewhere... Orphan Black has mostly stayed clear of those issues by just not going near them; the actual cast when you narrow it down away from the character list is still very white. Throw in the dozens of versions of Tatiana and the other clone guy and they’ve got endless room to add in as many more characters as they like, obviously all versions of the same white actors dressed up differently.

... in any case, Sense8′s plot gave me a fair amount of deja vu to the show I’d already watched, but because OB put me off several times (and yet I kept coming back to it :P) I don’t have a very clear memory of the first season’s plot to make a stronger side by side comparison. I’m mostly intrigued by the sense of the huge terrifying rich biotech and medical corporations, doing Weird Science juuust beyond the range of what we can understand now, or with a slight science-fantasy element to it, relying on real world conspiracies or Fortean Times level suspicions of what might possibly be real if you wanted to believe tales of precognition, telepathy, etc. In Sense8 there’s a few mentions of ~real~ stories of such things, but I can’t remember if OB went over it yet.

Certainly in both there’s a sense of unity and impossible but unbreakable family bonds, and a lot of exploration of who the Self is vs these huge faceless corporations. OB cycles through several villains or weird cults and such as the bad guys, each one in turn unknowable but powerful or embedded in a way with science or military or religious connections that make them dangerous to go up against. It’s hard to tell exactly what message Sense8 has about it because so much less plot involving it has unfurled but it’s obviously not good news with the big corporations, definitions of humanity, and secret conspiracy to police what is human and what is not. It even sets the entire viewing audience against the Sensates as part of a mass of non-sensate people who lack the emotional connection and empathy to feel like they do, implying the whole lot of us are murderous and cold as a result... In this way the evil scientists out to get them are only the very personal version of ALL the struggles they face, represented by that moment in the Xmas special where they all see the writing on the wall at Lito’s house transform into the worst things they have been called.

It takes a much colder view of humanity, making it us or them, and for us, switching which of those groups we identify with by way of sympathy to the main characters. OB is less personal in that way but focuses on the dangers of science trying to create a better human, and while the clones are supposedly all “improved” humans, they have enough flaws, physically and emotionally (although yikes, Krystal makes me sure they have latent super soldier genes none of the others have properly unlocked except maybe the unkillable Helena :P) that they don’t come across as totally othered for more than the unfortunate circumstances of their births they obviously didn’t ask for. Rachel as the only one raised in the know ends up the most dangerous of them all, perhaps for having her sense of humanity denied to her and knowing for most of her life that she was only an experiment and property of the company. What makes the rest of humans human isn’t in question so much as how much the clones might belong with humanity, and that they could grow up oblivious and fit in emotionally, and still have human values even when they discover they’re “only” property and experimental prototypes who’ve been living almost Truman show lives. In that respect, Sarah as the narrator is the most free and human because she was raised outside of the program with no influence from it whatsoever - narratively it’s not coincidental that she and Helena are also the only clones who are fertile and can have children.

... I’ve been making connections all day but this post is really long now so I’m going to stop here. I want to rewatch Orphan Black now, since I noticed it on the Netflix menu and I’m having a bit of a cackling wildly, world at my fingertips moment here. :P

#...#long post for ts #really long post #I really hope that mobile user thing isn't still true #I thought it was only when viewing blogs directly instead of on the dash #okay that's all the tag padding :P #sense8 #orphan black #just some thoughts comparing them at great length #I really want to analyse the ethics they're trying to convey better but I need to A: rewatch orphan black and B: wait for season 2 of Sense8

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zidanesleftfoot · 4 years

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Like many kids before, of, and after my generation my love of football came from my father. I remember he had a collection of so many great football video tapes. Growing up in the 90′s the Liverpool one’s consisted of season reviews that saw Robbie Fowler and Steve Mcmanamann tearing it up and just winning one trophy. One video was a bit more special than the rest, it had “PELE” printed on the side and it was about the footballing life of the player who, at the time, was considered the greatest of all time. This journey of a Black man that started in Greyscale and ended in technicolour glory, racism didn’t exist to this child.

You grow up a bit, go to school, someone calls you a paki, start buying your own music, discover hip-hop and you realise that maybe what you saw in that video wasn’t the full story. About the same time, another Brazilian is breaking the ceiling of what we thought was possible as footballer. Ronaldo another idol, another player you love as a football fan. Another Black man.

You start secondary school, the education system consider you someone they can start challenging and so do your family, telling you the history of your ancestors. Your history teacher tells you about the enslavement of Black people, Public Enemy explain the emancipation never happened and your family say they were never considered citizens. Luckily at school we Black, Brown and White kids realised our strength lay in togetherness.

You’re edging towards being an adult, Ronaldinho is the latest great to light up the world, Brazilian and utterly untouchable. You’re a bit older, listening to the way pundits describe players, I even heard someone describe Ronaldinho as an incredible athlete, no utterance of him also being possibly the most skilful player to ever play the game. Oh and let’s not forget the greatest African player of all time, Samuel E’too, the clinical edge of the fantasy Ronaldinho and their greatness on the pitch realised by a cerebral and legendary player turned coach, Frank Rijkaard. Three black men from three continents showing the globe the best football in the most competitive industry in the world. Imagine thinking people were less than you based on the colour of their skin.

At this point in life you listen back to albums you were told are legendary and suddenly have the ability to start understanding them beyond the banging beats. I went back to the golden era of hip-hop; 36 chambers, The Infamous, Low End Theory, 3 Feet High and Rising, Ready to Die, All Eyez on Me, Aquemini, ATLiens and of course Illmatic. At the same time we had the first real generation of Black stars in the English league. Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Patrice Evra, Patrick Viera, Gilberto Silva, Jay Jay Okocha and the greatest Premier League player of all time, Thierry Henry.

My Dad took me to my first Liverpool game in 1997, a 1-0 home loss to Barnsley, how times have changed both on and off the pitch. Little did I know that my Dad had found it hard to go to games in his lifetime. The stardom of the Black players I've listed above signaled a change in times. Being black and playing in England, let alone playing for England, was now acceptable but before my time it was a contentious issue. The brilliance of the players of my teenage years was allowed because Black players from the 70′s and 80′s (John Barnes being one of my dad’s favourite players) defied the racist chants, bananas thrown on the pitch, to dazzle the crowds with their brilliance. So the overt racism had largely evaporated but the subtle tones of Black players being different never left the airways.

Leave school and now at University, young man in the big city, think I know it all and also exposed to more ideas, cultures and music than I could ever wish for. This period of fulfilment met with the most successful national football team of all time starting their success with Marcos Senna being the calming elder head of a midfield and also the only black man in the Spanish team. At the same time the greatest team of all time started their story by beating Manchester United in the Champions League Final. Barcelona had an injury crisis in defence that night in Rome so their manager decided that the best solution was to put Ivory Coast Midfielder, Yaya Toure, in the heart of the defence. A demonstration that the best manager of our generation saw that he had the intelligence and ability to play an unfamiliar position in the biggest match in club football. A commanding performance and then a transfer to England.

Yaya is an important story, he came to England primarily playing as a defensive midfielder, just turned out his most iconic performance in defence and ended up being one of the most beautiful players to play in England. It shouldn’t be denied that the first thing you saw was that he was an incredibly imposing figure, but so was Branislav Ivanovic, as soon as the match started you realised he was also probably the best footballer on the pitch. He controlled midfield with intelligence, assuredness and striking the ball in such a caressing way. So that’s why it was questionable to see pundits, old and young, describe him primarily as “powerful”, “a specimen” and “a beast”. Sure he was famous for some rampaging runs through midfield but let’s be honest, he saw a picture unfold in front of him before it happened and I'm sure Lionel Messi will tell you that dribbling the ball 30 or 40 yards is more about immense technique than it is about being fast and strong. He is one of an incredibly small group of midfielders to score 20 league goals in a season, hardly just an athlete. Yaya saw it as much and even came out saying that African players aren’t respected as players because of underlying prejudice.

At the time the story wasn’t picked up much, just another black man complaining? And why should we really worry? Yaya is African, our society is past these things in Britain (sound like empire much). Unfortunately for people of this mindset, things were about to hit a little closer to home, Kendrick released To Pimp a Butterfly, a revolution in Hip-Hop, an empowering record and a few years later Raheem Sterling turned the mirror on British society by slamming newspapers for fuelling the racial hatred of the social media age.

Kendrick released that album towards the end of the Obama presidency, before the Orange Man decided to start his racist rhetoric, it spoke of the destructive power of fame, his feeling of worthlessness as a black man in modern America, his pride in the roots of his community, policy brutality, depression, hope, the importance of family, the importance of understanding yourself. All this whilst America was being run by a Black President. Nothing changed. 8th of December 2018 and Raheem Sterling was racially abused by a couple of Chelsea fans as he went to take a corner during a league game, his face actually dropped as he heard them but he stoically continued. A few months earlier England had just reached the Semi-Final of the World Cup. All of the players put in a valiant effort, I get home and Raheem Sterling had apparently played poorly, my friends say he was good but the team just didn’t work out. Why is he being hated on? Are people still raging about the gun tattoo he got which actually had its provenance in denouncing gun violence? Probably not, as Raheem pointed out in an Instagram post, media stories about his personal life and that of other Black players, contrasted wildly to that of their White counterparts. Raheem buys him Mom a house, what an extravagant purchase. White Manchester City youth player being a house for his family, “a family man”. England Hero but nothing changed.

Raheem will always go down as an important part of English football and societal culture for me because of this. He sat in a position of power, saw that some things were worth the blow back and decided to risk his own comfort for those that come after him. This last weekend Jadon Sancho, the next star of the England team, had one of the best days of his career to date by scoring his first hat-trick but he decided to put the focus on George Floyd by displaying a message of support after he scored. So if you love football and struggle to understand why the events of the last week should bother you, or even worse, why you shouldn’t be opposed to them, then I hope I've given you an insight as to why our community is built and relies on the gifts of Black people.

Peace.

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