some-random-ghost

[some-random-ghost]

To all of that, I agree and i can only add this:

IT'S TIME FOR DIVORCE!

The divorce papers have already been filled out and signed.

No reason to stick around when one is clearly not being appreciated, heck, even detested for being around.

Some things are meant to be remembered; for the right reasons.

i've posted this review on steam, but i think that i want to say it here, too.

Here is my review of the 'promotional' material (according to steam) Secrets of the Machine

What I liked: the art appeared to be a true return to form; the style had its original charm with updated lighting techniques and slightly better optimization than previous games in the Bendy series. The audio design was also nice, with good ambiance and nice composition.

And now, the jank.

The game handles reasonably well; but it is clearly slapdashed together and is missing important components. There is no starting menu. There are no loading screens; and it is very jarring. There are no options in the game menu - you cannot minimize the game, you cannot brighten the game, you cannot make the game run any better on your computer, and it is incredibly laggy. If you have a potato laptop? Nah, get out. No game for you. There are no subtitles that you can enable, and voices are very muffled. Additionally, the game is very dark, and as mentioned, you cannot adjust that in the settings of the game, nor in steam settings. You have to do so from your computer.

Controls are extremely janky, as you cannot run, you cannot jump, and there is no indication for interaction with any objects. There are no control settings for remapping, and you cannot even see which keys do what.

Puzzles are boring and confusing; with no guidance. There were no hints, no rhyme or reason. There was more puzzle in the BATIM chapter 1 demo release. This thing is very confusing, especially when you cannot see anything at all. You will spend a long time walking back and forth between two rooms, wondering how you can progress, because you've done everything you could: you smashed cutouts; you hit targets; you opened and closed hands; you found posters for future games, but nothing that could move forward the one you were playing at the time. If you look at the community page, you will see that most people simply spent their time clicking on the soup can dispenser to see how many cans they could get.

Puzzles are boring and confusing; with no guidance. There were no hints, no rhyme or reason. There was more puzzle in the BATIM chapter 1 demo release. This thing is very confusing, especially when you cannot see anything at all. You will spend a long time walking back and forth between two rooms, wondering how you can progress, because you've done everything you could: you smashed cutouts; you hit targets; you opened and closed hands; you found posters for future games, but nothing that could move forward the one you were playing at the time. If you look at the community page, you will see that most people simply spent their time clicking on the soup can dispenser to see how many cans they could get.

If you have epilepsy, nah get out. Oh? I didn't mention the flashing lights? Well the developers did not either. Not only did they not mention the flashing lights, not in the game nor in steam, but they included TWO car crashes without warning - one audio based, and another that was directed at players. This is not only rude, but it is dangerous. Warnings exist so that people can make educated choices whether or not to interact with content that may be sensitive to them. Warn people appropriately. This 'game' did not take any measure to protect its players. There are many instances of sudden loud noises, flashing lights, and jarring location switches (not to mention the car crashes).

The story was lacking, and has nothing to do with the puzzles that a player is faced with. It feels like three disjointed tracks, and none of them align, all of them crashing together in a discordant, unsatisfying, confusing mess. It brought in more new characters that had nothing to do with the original story nor interested players, and had content that went against previously established material. It was (as you can tell, from a writer's perspective) a bad story.

It was less of a demo, less of a playable trailer, more like a tech demo with a few morsels for fans to pick apart and wish there was more of, wish there was more effort put into, wish there was more love and care for them, the players who arguably were the foundation of this game. There were teasers for games that, honestly, lacked the soul that the very first game had, and here's a point to prove it: there was an easter egg that if you clicked something 414 times (very funny.) it would rise in the air and then fall down without further ado. In the game files, the name for that sound effect? Sting. Yeah. It did. Games are a collaborative work; between the creators and the players. Blatant disregard and flippancy towards half of the collaboration is not acceptable behavior. This is a development team that mocks those who once loved them most, those who poured over their coding and carefully crafted world to marvel at what they had made, and coaxed in others with the rich promise of a delightful story that anyone could engage with on any level. The spite the creators have shown for the individuals who, essentially, had given rise to their stature in the first place, is painful.

Finally, by the time that I got a chance to sit down and actually play the game- I personally could not. The developers, by constantly updating a clearly unfinished game, had made their final update - that of a wood board blocking the actual place where gameplay takes place. You cannot go to any of the places shown in the screenshots, because the game is locked on the opening area. I've seen many people complaining of it; hoping that they can play the game.

Now, in the fashion we've seen common of JDS, they have rescinded their terrible design choice - but without notifying players that it is now possible to play the game; without telling players that this was purposeful; without telling players anything aside from a big old screw you. It is entirely possible that the only reason they put the game back into a playable state was the torrent of negative reviews that spawned after their. interesting. choice. regardless, those who care about their playerbase would have informed those who complained that it was a temporary gesture for storytelling reasons. They, however, did not, and there are a multitude of reviews marking the game as unplayable.

No matter what, the bottom line is this: This is not okay.

I'm not sure how much more eloquently I can put the fact that I'm heartbroken. This game, unlike any other, shows how much scorn that a developer can have for their own fans and playerbase. I am glad that there are people who enjoyed it, but I wonder - what did you really like about it?

Is it the memories?

#control critique #secrets of the machine #bendy #batim #bendy secrets of the machine #bendy and the ink machine #bsotm #bsotm review #game review #fandom musings #srg with her opinion here #it is time for divorce

[some-random-ghost]

Decided to reblog this chain specifically for some of the tags I ended up seeing.

Hope you won't mind: I feel this

I feel that.

Oh HECK, do I feel that

And boi do I appreciate this from half (hope you don't mind me repeating this in here again)

And boi do I just love how this gives off "we about to get divorced, let's do that together" vibes to me.

Oh the new bendy game, if only you weren’t confusing for the sake of being confusing and made us do something other than bashing our heads against the wall for half an hour

#bsotm #bsotm spoilers

[some-random-ghost]

Made a new blog, thought I might as well pick up a habit of just thinking and musing about fandoms in general...

With potentially lots of pretentious bs thoughts.

Feel free to join, Imma head and out and be there

#new blog #lemme invite you in there #that wasn't a request but a command #i need nonsense musing and someome to participate in that

[some-random-ghost]

if I may add to that for those not getting the disappointment:

if it were ANY INDIE game that isn't in the batim franchise or related to it in one way or another, that would ABSOLUTELY NOT FLY or be a good practice at all!

Would you enjoy it as much, would you theorize as much or make still fanart as much if it were literally just its own independent indie game thing?

would you still come up with the same reason you come up for, for why it still is somewhat good or genius?

if not so, ask yourself, why do I do that for and with bendy? Why is that the exception I make to that?

If it is just because it is the thing that introduced you to horror and find something that you can like about horror games, then that is more than fine.

If you are still young and still trying to form and discover your opinions and tastes, then that is also fine.

Just staying at the same opinions and tastes however... without ever allowing anything new to it or even yearning for something more or of higher quality later on... to be polite: I just don't get that.

Especially for those longer in the bendy fandom: What do you see in that, that I don't, which still keeps you there?

I personally got drawn in and stayed in there at first, because of that initial hidden secret ending in the Batim game. I was actually the one along with my friend Dreamfisher who ended up finding about that and also uncover it. It was the feeling of uncovering a secret, something exciting, something that told me and many more in my today friend group that there was something more going than what was just given on the surface, that wasn't just the aesthetic of the game.

Another story below it that was worthy enough to be uncovered and searched for! The very reward for trying to find it in the first place!

Then bit by bit, cracks formed, grew further, things fell more and more apart, decisions in the follow up games have been made that started to feel more and more like a mockery of what we liked about it, what we saw in it that appealed to us.

And on a far more personal note, the patterns related to the bendy franchise started to remind me at least way too much of the patterns of narcissistic abuse and manipulation there.

A pattern of events and behaviors uncannily similar/related in my mind to what had eventually previously leave the hp fandom and franchise behind. (Not that those two are necessarily the same or related otherwise, those reminding me of narcissistic abuse and manipulation is just the type of connection I ended up seeing as a result).

I have more than a lifetime enough of that kind of thing having gone on in my real life. I have enough of that kind of thing uncritically going on in the fictions I digest and the fandoms that are a part of those and revolving around them as well.

It may kinda make me like the starving artist from that same story, but remember: The artist in that story didn't starve out of dedication to that art, they starved because they couldn't find anything edible enough for themselves to eat.

I don't intend to starve in that way either. So...

Next best thing I have now is trying to do my own new things that aren't bendy.

Oh the new bendy game, if only you weren’t confusing for the sake of being confusing and made us do something other than bashing our heads against the wall for half an hour

#bsotm #bendy #bendy and the secrets of the machine #batim #fandom musings #personal musings #I started this out with the intent to ask all reading it what they still find appealing to that #I did not intend to end up at this #but... here I am #and here we are... #I guess it's kinda sad #but on the other hand I think it is better for me at least to move on #and help encourage people who feel conflicted and hurt to also move on #as difficult as that may turn out to be and is right now #just know... you CAN still create new stuff #you CAN still create new stuff with other people #things that very often may even be tastier and more fullfilling than what you've gotten served so far #things that you may not even have considered to try otherwise or that you might like it #but if you still like what you currently have... I guess I can't convince you?? I have no power to your change your mind then #Just know that I won't get what you still like about it #and yeah I used to be in the hp fandom back when I discovered bendy for myself #and earnestly I'm glad I was able to move on from that #now I should stop writing my further thoughts in the tags and post my reblog!

[some-random-ghost]

Because I had no luck finding it elsewhere or otherwise I have decided to make myself an aro coloured costum dress.

Took me of course a while to get the things together and to get a hang of the sowing machine, but in the end I’ve managed to finish it

I will go into depth about how I made it step by step in a reblog but here it is for now.

It’s gonna be one hell of a long one at that too…

#aromantic #queer #aro dress #aro #aro ghost menace #aspec #sewing #dress #aro coloured dress #pride dress

[some-random-ghost]

… you‘ve got a point.

I don’t like that you do, but you‘ve got a point.

Well… scheet.

#i guess I’m done for #might as well dig this grave even deeper #or somehow make this weirder #eh let’s see what that’s gonna be

[some-random-ghost]

reblog if your name isn't Amanda.

2,121,566 people are not Amanda and counting!

We’ll find you Amanda.

#reblog #world heritage post #heritage post #time to continue the neverending cycle~ #my stamp on it all probs won’t go as far :/ #yeah… reblogged it from another blog i have cause why the hell not

[some-random-ghost]

Decided to make a new blog for purely aromantic stuff and things to do called aromantic-ghost-menace.

Link: https://www.tumblr.com/aromantic-ghost-menace

I mean, I am not really doing bendy stuff anymore nor do I have much of an interest in bendy anymore. :/

So I thought, might as well.

#new blog #aro #aro ghost menace #yeah better than to just… have randomly bendy and aro content further mixed up there #let’s see where this will go

[some-random-ghost]

So… i started making myself an aro flag striped dress for pridemonth and so I can later wear it for CSD in my country.

I was planning to document it all with photos of the progress and all and then post it all in one piece after I was done, but today I ended up breaking the sewing machine mid sowing there.

I mean it was an old one about to break anyways and I still have a second one with me thankfully to continue, but…

Idk I‘m just… grieving about it. Poor sewing machine, I didn’t mean to wreck you!

#aromantic #aro #reblog #arospec #aro dress #might just as well mention that this blog is now my going to be my aro blog #self reblog in a way?

[some-random-ghost]

So… it’s midnight now where I live and I am invisible again… I hope y‘all other aros will still have fun being a now visible menace on society in the meantime >:3

HAPPY FIRST EVER INTERNATIONAL AROMANTIC VISIBILITY DAY

#aro positivity #lgbt #aromanticism #aromantic #aro #aro visibility day #hell yeah! #but it’s over for me now so I am invisible again #>:/

[some-random-ghost]

New blog, new menacing, new having an overinflated aromantic sense of self that is inevitably going to stay dormant for ridiculously long amount of times.

Anyways, aro visibly day. Woooo!

[some-random-ghost]

The day is almost over at the time I found this out where I live, like there are only 1 hour and 15 minutes left, but here is my reaction to having found out about this:

HELLL YEASAAAAAAHHHH LETSA GOOO! I AIN‘T AN INVISIBLE GHOST ANYMORE!

And you cannot ignore me anymore either. I just will not allow it.

HAPPY FIRST EVER INTERNATIONAL AROMANTIC VISIBILITY DAY

#aromantic #aromantic spectrum #wooooo #aromantic visibility day #aro #reblog #arospec #my aromantic aura is too powerful to just be ignored! #there is no escaping that random aromantic ghost anymore

[some-random-ghost]

Psst.

Loving garlic bread can only work so far as a cover up.

And garlic breath can only deter so much.

giving aros permission to bite anyone who tells them they'll find the right person someday

#bite #aro #aromantic #I totally do not already have vampire fangs #Btw. is someone else here smelling blood?

[some-random-ghost]

Let me put it this way: the very short answer is that there is almost always urgency and pressure for an empty job position to get filled.

The (far) longer answer incoming, because the short answer alone just is a massive understatement out of context:

I almost always only heard „wir suchen dich“ or „X (m/w/d) gesucht“ (X being the job position and the m/w/d part kinda being a way of saying „whatever gender“ since m = männlich (male), w= weiblich (female) and d= diverse (for when it is neither for whatever reason)). I have maybe heard the term „wir heuern an“ twice in my life there.

Additionally there is also following to keep in mind there about how the ages within our population.

I took that image from our population website statista. The percentage of people living here under 25 has been on December 31 in 2021 in total 19,96% over here in Germany. Meanwhile the percentage of 60 and over years olds is at around 24,43% and for the 40 till 59 years old that would be 23,07% as you can also take it from there.

And this here is a population pyramid of Germany from populationpyramid.net for the year 2022:

Let’s just also say that while compared to other countries Germany may or may not be a better place to raise children in (I definitely heard this very often from the perspective of vloggers who were from the US and moved to Germany), for many if not most people in Germany, they end up working so much more to make up for that gap, so that it ends up becoming just too difficult personally and financially to also get children and raise them in the meantime. Which then in turn worsens the original problem massively, leading to even less children being born and raised and fueling this vicious cycle of working more to make up for the lack of young people even further, leading to even less people being born.

Hence you can also guess that a lot migration into Germany nowadays is to actually fill said empty job positions in here and that said migration comes from both within the EU and outside of the EU.

The amount of people who have either immigrated into Germany or have at least one parent that did so is at around a quarter of the population (as in not having been born with a German citizenship and not looking into wether or not you‘ve did become a citizen by now in the meantime). I took this from destatista (short for „deutschland statista“ = germany statistics for those that don’t know yet that Deutschland is how Germany refers to itself, because I don’t trust not giving further context on the internet yet) on their page about immigration and couldn’t exactly instantly find while writing this reply more exact percentages or statistics explaining this further or showing how much is from within the European Union or outside of it. Though from what else I did find so far it alluded to most of the immigration from outside the EU being for filling those empty job positions and/or for seeking asylum from war and political persecution and so on.

And from what I do remember from, when the refugee crisis was going on and a big topic in mainstream politics, a big argument that was being made for just in general accepting the refugees, was that it would make up for the deficit of needed job positions, which already was a result of too many of the people holding those positions going into pension back then.

Which kind of is of course a point you would make if you want to get votes within a country where there just are that many people in pension or about to be in a few years in pension, worrying about wether or not they are still going to get the same amount of worth of money they’ve put previously into the pension system for their elders also out of it.

The rate of inflation over here as of the 10th of may 2023 from April is at around +7,2% (also taken from destatista). Just mentioning it, cause that is currently extra adding to that particular stress financially for many people doing work and looking for work and hiring for work.

Additionally I also think that it would make sense to add that from within the EU especially young people from southern European states tend to move to germany for the better job prospects, due to that same deficit. In the meantime within their own country they just do not find any work and end up being jobless (at the very least, last time I checked, this was the case, which has been quite a while). Someone else can probably add more context and more accurate information to that particular avenue of this topic, if I don’t end up coming back to it later, but basically Germany ends up taking younger working people out of other countries into the German workforce that way.

But to go back again to the question from @archaardvarkarchive about the use of that particular phrase „Wir suchen dich“ relying on the urgency on wether or not a job position needs to be filled:

Because our elders have neglected making enough children in their time and have since then also neglected to make it generally even just financially able or otherwise convenient enough for those after them, to make more and enough children, because they started instead try to ensure their own pension instead… those pensions are nowadays also low and we are in this mess of empty job positions always being in need of being urgently filled.

I‘m not even sure if there even exists an empty job position that isn’t in an urgent need of getting filled. It is just there is a job position or there isn’t. So why would you even bother with an not urgent enough seeming phrase? Hence why there is also always the phrase „wir suchen dich“ or „X (m/w/d) gesucht“.

Anyways, personal sidenote for now: I plan on moving out of Germany.

I still may add more to this blog later on though.

[some-random-ghost]

Reblog if you’ve made amazing friends online and are grateful for their existence

[some-random-ghost]

#consequences?! #nah #you‘ll never find me! #i fucking dare you to!

[some-random-ghost]

Why did I just now realise how „Wir suchen dich!“ looks like to English speakers?