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ncroissant · 1 month

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chilchuck tims x bimbo! reader x laios touden

summary: how your poly relationship with your little lock picker and blond himbo would start<3

wc: 1.6k

content warning: sfw (for once???), looottts of fluff

author's note: surprise!! i'm writing both lmaoooo bc i love writing sm u guys. also i saw @ququoquaw post about how they wanted more laios x reader and laios x chilchuck, so here's all of it combined teehee!! hope u enjoy !!

(alt nsfw ver. here)

it was a slow day in the dungeon today that you all decided to just set up the camp and retired for the night. you, laios and chilchuck were the only ones up, playing cards around the warmth of the fire.

"i won again," chilchuck chuckled, already anticipating his win. laios threw down his cards in defeat while you gave him a little applause, yawning quietly.

to be honest, you were already dozing off mid-game. chilchuck and laios were the real night owls. you just had fomo and didn't miss out on the fun with the "adults".

"you feelin' tired, (name)? wanna head to bed?" chilchuck cooed, pushing off his knees to stand up. he noticed the way you were eyes would close for a second to doze off every time you blinked.

"mmnn...i dunno," you yawned even bigger this time, cupping your mouth with both of your hands.

"c'mon (name)! you gotta stay up with us, we're gonna have so much fun!" laios chuckled, shaking you awake. you gasped, trying to keep your eyes as open as possible. but you only had the energy to slump against laios' shoulder.

chilchuck stifled a laugh. you reminded him of his kids when they tried to convince him they weren't tired. "no, i think someone sounds a little tired," chilchuck walked over to kneel in front of you, brushing away the hair that fell over your eyes with two fingers.

"nu-uh..." you whined, rubbing at your eyes. "'m awake, chi." you were so not awake right now. it was way past your bedtime and you couldn't even bother to open your eyes.

"okay, okay, we're bringin' you to your room, squirt," laios nodded, lifting you into his arms. your arms and legs were securely wrapped around his body, your face stuffed into his neck.

"'m not a squirt, jerk," you mumbled, landing a weak punch against his back.

they both laughed at your deliriousness, placing you in the warmth of your bed, cocooned your blanket. "she looks like a caterpillar," laios slapped a hand over his mouth, hiding a loud laugh.

chilchuck didn't say anything in response, but his shoulders were shaking from laugher.

you were almost asleep, your arms splayed out on the bed and your head lulled to the side. you were breathing shallowly, feeling sleep slowly overtake you.

"alright, time for another round, chil!" laios silently ushered chilchuck towards the door, but a hand wrapped around chilchuck's wrist. the boys looked down at you with your eyes still closed, tugging his wrist towards you.

"can you guys stay 'n sleep with me?" you brought chilchuck's hand against your cheek, nuzzling against it. both boys had a fat, soft spot for you. like they could never resist you when you asked for something.

laios didn't understand his feelings at first. he thought he had some sort of "brotherly obligation" towards you like falin, but he quickly realized it was a lot different than that.

chilchuck, on the otherhand, was in denial for so long. he just thought you were ditzy and clingy. he didn't have the energy to deal with you at first. plus, he didn't even have any desire to date anymore. unfortunately, there were many times when you could be stupidly cute like this.

"y-yeah...we can. right, chil?" laios rubbed his neck awkwardly, looking at chilchuck for approval.

chilchuck bit his inner cheek in contemplation, looking down at the way you were leaning against the back of his hand like a puppy. "yeah, we can," he nodded, giving laios the same look.

they'd be so awkward slipping under your sheets, laying on either side of you to sandwich you in the middle. they kept a reasonable distance, not too reasonable since the bed was small and laios was a giant in comparison.

it would be so quiet. your eyes were still closed but your heart was racing. even if you opened your eyes, you wouldn't be able to see anything since it was so dark. you just laid there with your hands clasped on your chest.

"ummm...." laios started, cutting the silence. "am i taking up too much space?" he was nearly falling off the bed, just balancing on the edge of the mattress.

you pulled him closer towards you and chilchuck. "c'mere, lai," you nestled yourself safely into laois' chest, while pressing your back against chilchuck's chest. you could feel both hearts beat rapidly along with yours.

"thanks," laois mumbled, carefully putting an arm right above your head on the extra space of the pillow. his free arm was loosely wrapped around your head as he lightly patted the back.

chilchuck would grumble something about wanting more attention, wrapping his arms around your waist and placing his chin on your shoulder.

he was so close that you could feel his breath tickle your ears. it made you feel so tingly. "is this okay?" chilchuck pouted with puffed cheeks as you nodded, flushed. "i think it's time for us to sleep now, hm?" he rubbed your hips softly, lulling you to sleep.

"sweet dreams, (name)," laios hugged you tightly, ruffling your hair gently. chilchuck would be already asleep and laios would lay awake thinking about how small you felt in his arms.

the next morning, you and chilchuck would be well-rested, looking like babies fresh out the womb. laios would have the deepest dark circles, devoid of any rest.

"slept so well!" you were already sitting up, stretching out your arms with a hearty yawn. "what about you two?" you looked at them expectantly.

"that's good to hear. i slept like a rock honestly," chilchuck chuckled, combing through your messy strands of hair. "can't say the say for him though," he looked down at the way laios was trying to hide under the blankets from the bright rays shining through your window.

"uuuughhhhh....." laios whined, stuffing his face deeper into the pillow.

you pouted at his sorry state, lifting the blanket to reveal a very tired laios. "aw, you didn't sleep so well, did you lai?" you frowned, carding your fingers through his blond locks.

"no. i was too scared that i was gonna roll over and kill you in my sleep, so i just stayed up all night," he groaned, clutching his throbbing head in a tight grasp.

you stifled a laugh, covering your mouth with your hands. "you're so silly, lai," you giggled, biting back your smile. "'m tougher than you think," you flexed your arms, patting them lightly with a big smile.

laios looked at you with his mouth agape. he didn't know if it was because of the rays of sun or if you were just naturally this beautiful, but you were extra pretty smiling like that.

"i am so in love with you." he'd blurt out, thinking with his heart and not his head.

you lowered your arm, mirroring the surprised look on his face. chilchuck smacked his forehead, sighing. "what he meant to say is-"

"no, i meant it, (name)," laios cut him off, clasping your hands in his and looking up at you with serious look. chilchuck didn't expect him to be so bold, emotions stirring up inside of him. he didn't know if should add his piece into this mess.

"oh." you looked at him, not a single thought behind those eyes.

"i'm sorry if i messed things up between us, but i just had to tell you. i didn't mean to just blurt it out like that," laios apologized, removing his hands from your hastily.

"no, 's not like that, lai," you put your hands up, shaking your head. "'s just i like chi," you bit your lip, cheeks flushed.

both boys looked at you dumbfounded. one heartbroken, one with an equally flushed expression like yours.

"but i like you too, lai!" you reassured him, placing your hands on his. "i like...both of you," you frowned, feeling embarrassed from your confession.

it's not that you only liked one of them, but both of them. and you were having a hard time choosing which one you wanted, knowing both would be too greedy.

it was silent for a moment, but not for too long. both boys had figured out a way to ease your predicament. one look at each other and instantly figured out a solution.

"well, i like you. and chil likes you too, so," laios started, rubbing his neck.

"would you be open to dating us both?" chilchuck mumbled, his neck completely flushed. chilchuck was familiar with sharing since having kids, but sharing a lover with his best friend was completely different.

it wasn't that he was against it at all, it was just new. it flustered him. knowing he'd be dating both of you if you agreed with their proposal.

naturally, your eyes lit up at their suggestion. "really?" your smile was almost blinding, your cheeks flushed in excitement.

"yeah," the two boys looked at each other, nodding.

your squeal was almost deafening. you wrapped an arm around each boy, pulling them in and kicking your feet under the blanket. the happiness you felt was fathomable.

"you're both mine, eee!" you sung, rubbing your cheek against chilchuck's amber hair. "and you're both each others' too!" you gasped, looking at both boys.

"that's so cool!" you cheered, hugging them both tighter than before.

as tired as laios was, he could only indulge in your happiness. and as much as chilchuck didn't want to admit, you were the prettiest when you were happy.

the entire morning consisted of you goofing off with your himbo + dilf boyfriends !!

#chilchuck #chilchuck x reader #chilchuck tims #delicious in dungeon #chilchuck tims x reader #dungeon meshi #chilchuck tims delicious in dungeon #laios #laios touden #laios touden x reader #laios dungeon meshi #laois delicious in dungeon #chilchuck delicious in dungeon #fluff #x reader #ncrescent

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cerastes · 3 months

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With the exception of Arknights what are your thoughts on gacha games?

I don't feel like I need to exclude Arknights from the statement, I can criticize things even if I like them.

In general, I don't like that their widely accepted and even defended business model is "Capitalize on FOMO, exploit gambling addictions, create dependent users". I also think that the use of the "game as a service" model, and one that needs to keep pumping content forever and can't risk to alienate the player, severely limits what can be done with the medium in terms of creativity, because you can't kill off playable characters nilly willy (I actually think Epic Seven was cooking with this, Epic Seven will kill off playable characters and remove them from the plot if it feels like it, or at least used to back when I played, don't know nowadays), relationships and dynamics with characters tend to be limited because otherwise your audience can feel like you are cucking them, and I wish I was kidding but just look at the absolute dumpster fire of a drama going on as we speak (22nd of January, 2024) in Girls' Frontline 2 over in China over one of the characters having interactions with a male NPC, and you can't ever bring a true sense of finality to any given arc because everything ends up having to be foreshadowing, set-up, build-up and so on and on and on. In many cases, you also have a mold cast of Must Have tropes in your playable cast: The Maid, The Idol, The One That Worships The Ground You Walk On, The Underage And Underclothed One, The Underage (But We Treat This One As A Precious Child!) One, Foxgirl, The Cold And Highly Analytical One (But Actually, Loves You), Chuuni, etc, so it feels like in every game I kinda already know at least a third of the cast minimum already and I'm kind of primed to not really want to know them, even though there's subversions I end up liking sometimes (Fenny from Snowbreak is an example of an Idol-type I ended up loving despite not liking Idol-types).

On the other hand, even with these negatives in mind, having a game that periodically updates and adds content, and that you can discreetly play pretty much everywhere on the go due to smartphones being their main 'console', games that foster community and something to talk about with your friends that also play and that will always have something new every couple of weeks, as well as inspire fanart, fanworks, analysis, and commentary, and that tend to be more risque and interesting with their designs is honestly good to have. I personally enjoy the community aspect of gacha games, I consider it one of the two most important aspects for me, because I know I can come here, for example, and see people talking about the story, the characters, the music, the gameplay, and more, every day, and the other important thing to me is how discreet they are, since I can just play a few maps or stages in my phone real fast midst a social situation at work, and then hop back in with a renewed social battery or when a topic I like comes up.

I fully get when people showcase their disdain for gacha, yeah, but if we really want to be nitpicky, the majority of the game industry is kind of a cesspool of toxicity, which is not to say "stop bashing gacha" and instead say "bash the whole thing if you're going to be bashing it anyway" (and we should! Game devs and other personnel in the industry have been crying for better conditions for years now!). Either way, if someone decides to sit at the gambling den, it becomes their responsibility. I want there to be more safeguards for people with actual addictions and to protect them, but with this in mind, if anyone still decides to sit at the den, it's assumed they are going to take responsibility for their actions and financial decisions.

So all in all, yeah, predatory games that suffer in quality due to their own trappings, but also good sources of community, inspiration, and effective at being discreet games you can play anywhere and that get periodic updates (this isn't necessarily exclusive to gacha but it is an aspect of them that bears mentioning, which I point out since no doubt people will want to point out there's good non-gacha smartphone game options out there)

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raisengen · 10 months

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Reporting in as a holdout who never got a twitter account: as of today (30th June 2023), twitter has started blocking access to everything on their site unless you’re logged in. (Embedded posts still work.)

I don’t know how bad it’ll get, but I worry this is going to cause whole pile of problems.

The big one: twitter has become the place where governments, politicians and institutions communicate. These are the sort of messages everyone in their country should be able to see, forever. You shouldn’t have to enter a contract with a private company (who could then permanently ban you anyway). You also shouldn’t be denied access because you’ve got some issue with email or phone verification.

On a more mundane level, a many people and companies rely on twitter as a noticeboard to communicate with their audience, even when those audiences aren’t focused on twitter. Twitter has ~300m active users, which is a lot, but nowhere near being everyone.

You want to check on the latest from your favourite twitch streamer, or your live-service game, or your hobbyist brand? You check their twitter profile, even if twitter has nothing else to offer you. How many people are going to set up an account just to keep on doing that? Are you really going to convince them now when they never signed up before?

For a more tumblr-specific issue, we just saw the sourced-art-repost system take a big hit. Any source links back to twitter now say nothing unless you log in. No display name, no links to proper art sites like pixiv or deviantart.

I can’t think of another major social media site that locks you out entirely without an account. If you can’t even see the site, why would you sign up? FOMO, name recognition? If you start choking the audience, will there be as much to see there anyway?

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koyoriin · 5 months

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So I have once again chosen to obtain this Series Pass reward through Frontlines, and I have some more thoughts on the matter!

tl;dr: The issues that existed before have only been made worse this time around, largely due to huge groups of players that game the system and openly mock others for not doing it.

I have some thoughts on “precons” and a postmortem on the whole situation, and will talk more about it through the cut!

Just as a disclaimer, I’m also vividly aware that Frontlines (FL) is one of the most side pieces of side content imaginable in this game; even I only really engage in PvP for FOMO rewards (which bothers me, but that’s a whole other thing), but my main focus is generally the story and raiding. So all of this primarily bothers me as a community issue as well as a game design issue.

Anyhow! So this pass contains the third armour set glamour since the PvP overhaul, Crystalline Conflict (CC), and Series Pass launched. I’ve once again avoided doing CC for it because of my poor experiences with it in the past (see previous post if you’re curious!), but I only do the Series Pass if there’s an armour or emote reward.

Since last time, here are the changes:

The Pros:

- A daily Series XP boost means that it’s now more feasible to get through it with FL only, and not having to grind CC if you’re not in a rush

The Cons:

- Pretty much everything else

So one big “phenomenon” this time that people have brought up elsewhere, are “precons”; groups of people who queue together, both within the 4 person per party limit…and then some. They coordinate in a linkshell or Discord, queue with enough people to fill multiple full parties (up to a full faction at times), and they have set roles of the most frustrating combos that SQEX hasn’t patched out yet (DRK + DRG + SMN are their bread and butter).

This was always a thing since the PvP overhaul and has never been addressed, but it’s only gotten worse. A single “precon”? Well, usually it’s feasible to deal with; I’ve seen them try very hard but still lose. The current trend of “precons” where it means multiple parties of people queuing at the same time, enough for a whole faction or at least close? Well…throw in more than one precon into a faction and it becomes exponentially more difficult to deal with for each one.

As of the last season pass, I noticed a large group of people gathering to run FL together, and I saw them queue back to back all day, daily or at least on Seal Rock days. I assumed this was to get the Seal Rock coat glamour, and I assumed correctly as a large number of them did obtain it after that and left. The fact that Seal Rock has a notoriously difficult 100 win requirement, and SQEX gave people the opportunity to play in the most irritating and broken way possible pretty much goes hand in hand.

In part, I would also blame SQEX for not altering the achievement in some way or even changing the reward structure as it not only incentivizes but rewards this kind of behaviour. In any case, I didn’t play much of last pass so I paid them little mind, and I consider the Seal Rock coat out of my means to obtain anyhow.

However, as of this pass, the “precons” are still running daily, and are now present in every format other than Seal Rock too. The idea is pretty simple; get a group of people together in a community who can coordinate their DRK/DRG/SMN (and AST/RPR/DNC if you want to get fancy) LBs and movements, and you can easily steamroll the other factions, get an easy win. Everyone (cough) has fun, you get the maximum payout of XP/points/whatever. It sounds pretty innocuous and everyone moves on with their day, for better or for worse. Right?

Well, it’s unfortunately grown a bit beyond that at this point. Even if it began as a group of people who gathered together to make getting the Seal Rock coat "easy", it’s become a group of people who exploit the system and then openly mock the people who complain about them; an exercise in punching down on people who aren’t in the clique and sabotaging people who aren’t in on it. Making people miserable has grown beyond just steamrolling them in FL, and occasionally include arguments and mockery.

Essentially, what goes on is:

- The group gathers on a specific DC; locals, Wanderers, and even Travellers, and they queue at the same time. I’ve seen up to 24 and beyond queuing at the same time, enough for a full faction and then some

- They gather in multiple parties of 4 (the current maximum per party) and queue at the same time to get matched in the same game

- If they don’t get into the main group/faction, they intentionally feed the biggest one; I’ve witnessed multiple cases of people just running into combat and not hitting a single skill, repeatedly, just to feed kills and Battle High for an entire match

- The group with the most people will follow one of the group’s shot callers and use their DRK/DRG/SMN LB exploit, with multiple of each back to back to make it impossible to shut them down effectively, since control abilities don’t work that way and are easily cancelled out

- They steamroll the other factions and win with a huge lead because no one else has nearly two dozen people coordinated in that manner, and are just in randomly assigned groups and playing other classes

- Then they gather and queue again; and if they’re called out on it, they begin to mock and argue with the people who called them out, quoting inane things like the “spirit of the solo queue” to imitate people who aren’t in their group, while ridiculing people for losing or not playing DRK/DRG/SMN like they do.

It’s awful. I don’t care about PvP as I only really do it out of FOMO on the rewards so my engagement is not for personal enjoyment—but it’s beyond a chore when a large group of people have fostered a community that’s actively gaming a system SQEX has failed to balance and then openly encouraging unmitigated contempt within their group towards people who aren’t in with them. I love this game, so it especially hurts to see it happen, when the rest of the community has been great.

> Can anything be done about this? Well, probably not unless matchmaking is adjusted, or instances are intentionally staggered for people who queue in the same window, or SQEX finally decides to adjust FL separately from CC. The only times I had matches that were at least somewhat more fair, was when I queued intentionally when these people were not around.

A similar issue existed years ago when PvP used to be based on your Grand Company; Maelstrom was the go-to for PvP, and if you were not in Maelstrom you would essentially expect to lose. Then they made the Freelancer system (joining a random faction when queuing) and it almost dissolved that aspect of it. But even back then, there weren’t unbalanced combos that exist now where you can annihilate an entire faction with your light party in 4 seconds. In addition, the group I witnessed doing it is a mix of people from other data centres. Freedom to queue for PvP wherever you’re visiting has also enabled this kind of behaviour.

The most baffling thing is; there are no leaderboards. It’s not a competitive thing where you get ranked (unlike CC), and by now they have cleared the Series Pass and then some—so I can only assume the group does it for their ego and the joy of ridiculing others, and it’s really so disappointing to see and experience.

Unlike last time when I wrote about the Series Pass, I have no solutions to propose beyond the typical “DRK/DRG/SMN/AST need to be re-balanced”, and FL as a whole needs to be re-balanced separately from competitive CC. “Precons” in general make the experience awful for everyone who isn’t in one, and the even larger ones are just miserable.

And if you’re reading this and my description of that large group sounds like you, I’m sorry you’ve become this way and that this is somehow a point of pride for you. I hope you can find some other way to be have fun that doesn’t involve ruining others’ experiences.

tl;dr: FOMO continues to make people feel like they need to do PvP, and extra large "precons" are ruining the experience for everyone due to a drastic imbalance in specific class combos such as DRK/DRG/SMN/AST, some even going as far as mocking people in public chats.

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askmerriauthor · 9 months

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I said the game demands microtransactions, not that it requires them. That's not just me being pedantic about wording, but rather a big indication of how the developers designed the game to work. Pokemon Sleep doesn't want you to play for free and is designed to make playing-without-paying a worse experience.

Like many free-to-play games out there, they operate on the idea of monetizing convenience and "fear of missing out" (FOMO). Such games will either create a problem in order to sell you a solution, or rely on a rotating/limited availability of enviable items to encourage impulse buying to avoid losing the chance to have the item. Pokemon Sleep does both of these.

Despite Pokemon Sleep being presented as a passive "something in the background while you sleep" kind of novelty, that's not the actual gameplay at all. The game actually wants you to be extremely active and paying a lot of attention to it non-stop, along with encouraging you to get others involved as well. Up to 500 potential invitations with a 50 individual approval list of contacts, specifically, and the system "helpfully" lets you link to your Google, Apple, or Facebook accounts in order to facilitate that and further scoop up lots of personal data for advertising.

The basic gameplay cycle of Pokemon Sleep is that you have a 7-day period in which you can power up your Snorlax as much as possible, with a higher power score equaling a greater variety of visiting Pokemon for you to catch. Visiting Pokemon will appear in a variety of sleeping types, of which there are at least 415 to collect (with individual Pokemon having multiple sleeping types). These Pokemon can also be "befriended" by giving them a sufficient number of items, which means they'll then join your team and help you boost Snorlax's power score over time. You can further boost Snorlax's score by feeding it, which the game encourages you to do three times per day within a given time window. Your Helper Pokemon will supply you with ingredients to make meals for Snorlax at different intervals, and the meals you make have different potencies based on the ingredients used.

So, to summarize, you have a limited period in which to get a number as big as it can be, with various randomized factors able to improve the rate of progression, before it all resets and you're back to square one.

Yes, you absolutely can play this game without spending any money. But the game itself is designed in a way that urges you to spend money at every turn. Every element of gameplay is improved if you spend money, and will actively degrade in effectiveness and quality if you don't. Remember how you can befriend Pokemon to help you out with getting Snorlax's score up? That's faster and easier if you spend money. Those same Helpers who gather ingredients for you? They lose Energy (an arbitrary limit put in place by the game system) the longer they're around, and become worse at gathering ingredients the less Energy they have. But, good for you! You can just buy more Energy for them! Rather, you have to make two purchases - the Energy-restoring item only gives back 50% of their Energy, so you need to buy two in order to max them out again. And you can just buy a box of random ingredients too! How convenient! And if you really want to get the most out of sleeping, you can buy the monthly auto-renewing (until you manually cancel it through Google or Apple, not the game app itself) Premium Membership! Which literally makes your sleep more valuable than the same - or even higher quality - sleep of people who aren't Premium members! But you better buy fast, because all of these items for sale are on a rotating schedule and will swap out of the shop at different 15 or 30-day intervals. You wouldn't want to miss your chance, would you?

A core facet of microtransaction pricing is that it's intentionally and carefully designed to never be enough. You'll always be in a position where you need to buy just a little more than the minimum, and it always comes out at odd numbers that never fit exactly where they need to in order to maximize your purchase, and are priced in unorthodox values specifically to trick the buyer's brain into thinking it's a better deal than it is. With that in mind, it pays to look at the minimum and maximum amounts the game wants to try and charge you since that gives a good idea of their intended range of interaction with your wallet, and how far a given amount of paid microtransactions will take you. Because, remember, such games are built around the idea of NEVER giving you enough. They ALWAYS want you to be in a state of wanting a little more and being tempted to dish over some more cash for it.

In Pokemon Sleep's case? The minimum buy-in for "Diamonds" - their premium microtransaction currency - is 60 Diamonds for $1.19. Their maximum? 7000 Diamonds for $97.99. So what this says outright is that the game is designed in such a way that it expects 7000 Diamonds to NOT BE ENOUGH to maintain a player's best experience. Because, again, such games will NEVER give you a value sufficient enough to deter the need for further purchases. This is a game that wants players to spend $100 multiple times over throughout the lifespan of their interest in the game. Will the majority of players do this? No. There's absolutely going to be a number of whales who will, especially among influencers and content creators on social media who make their own career off these sort of things. But what Pokemon Sleep is relying on is that there will be a far greater abundance of players who think "Oh, it's just a dollar..." or 'Oh, this item is going away... it's not even $5, so why not?" on a very regular basis.

And I haven't even touched on the overt security/privacy issues and the personal info scraping the app has potential for as well. So, yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and sleep on Pokemon Sleep.

#pokemon sleep #pokemon #game development #game design #microtransactions

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astraltrickster · 1 year

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Saw a post about gacha addiction earlier and I didn't want to Get Into It with the OP because I fundamentally don't disagree with them but it left me raging internally at the counterproductive approach.

Listen. Gacha addiction is real. It's fucked, the companies that pioneered the softcore gambling-lootbox-gacha model straight up bragged about how effective it was. If you have never spent money on gacha, ideally you really shouldn't start, because the only way to determine whether or not you'll get addicted to any specific thing is to fuck around and find out even if you know for a fact that in general you do or do not have an addictive personality. The most dangerous gamble to take is the first. If you DO decide to spend money anyway, you should have a comprehensive strategy in place to keep it from slowly consuming your entire budget. Also, even if you don't spend real money it can still become a problem, because it can also end up consuming all of your time - any game can do this, any hobby in general can become toxic in fact, but gacha games in particular have the FOMO factor of "I have to keep grinding so I can save enough for my blorbo's next banner". If you play gacha games - even on a free-to-play basis - you should be aware that you are taking a risk and you should be willing to admit to yourself if it's become a problem. If you find your gacha budget creeping upward despite your income not doing the same, or you find yourself regularly trying to grind out pull currency even when it's overall not fun anymore, you should take a hiatus from the game/s, and call a therapist or gambling addiction hotline if that proves to be difficult.

And if you have concerns about other people developing gacha addiction...shaming people or downplaying what they like about the games or characters helps literally no one; if anything it only sends them further into denial for your smug sense of superiority.

Thing is? Gacha games are games. Most successful ones, despite the obvious comparisons, are a lot more than just slot machines to fill out a gallery of blorbos to rotate on your screen instead of in your head. They tend to have genuinely compelling lore and characters and enjoyable gameplay - the gacha is not the game itself; it is a recruitment and power-up system in an actual game. This only becomes more true as the market becomes more competitive - like, FGO shows its age with its slow start; you can really tell it launched at a point where all one needed for success was to tie to an existing big fandom and give you a little new content with your faves, but even then the appeal was the lore and the characters far more than it ever was the summoning system, and it's kept up as time goes on, intensifying both the story and the strategy as it's come into a life of its own. Genshin Impact, at 2 years old, is as "real" of an action RPG as a Kingdom Hearts game, with intense strategy elements involved in team building. Arknights is a tower defense that I'd love to play were it not for my medical phobia because what I know of the setting and lore is some POWERFUL social commentary that is right up my alley.

I could list more examples, but it's not really the point. The point is that gacha games are real games, with real lore, and real characters. These games don't have playerbases composed exclusively of victims of predatory monetization unless you REALLY stretch the definition; in order for a game to be a good gacha game, first it does need to be a good game. It's easy to say "oh, they don't really care about the story or characters or gameplay, it's just an elaborate ad for the slot machine, it's just a cash grab" - but...even accepting that as true (which is debatable), so what? What's the difference between that and the latest big studio movie? The latest Netflix original series? The latest "conventional" "one-and-done" AAA game? Do you think the CEOs greenlit those out of nothing but the love of art and storytelling?

People are going to get attached to these stories and characters, and mocking them over it isn't ~taking a brave stand against predatory marketing strategies~, it's not ~waking people up to the fact that they've been duped~, it's just being a fucking asshole.

#media #gacha #serious tag

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triflesandparsnips · 7 months

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An abbreviated list of the many, many reasons I love that the season 2 OFMD episodes are being released more closely to a regular television schedule than a single huge binge drop:

1. It allows for this cumulative building wave of meta and art and conversation to develop between episodes, growing higher and higher, yes, but also wider, broader, bringing in people who might have otherwise been missed in some big there-and-gone surge, creating (when in any fandom where new canon drives enormous fan engagement and creativity) an experience that I consider to be the greatest benefit of being in a live, active fandom: immersive fannish compersion.

2. It gives time for people to come up with theories based on one ep, and then have those theories absolutely smashed with the next (an important part of learning to play in the tidepool of media analysis rather than making oneself stationed there).

3. It gives time for us to literally feel time-- as Stede and Ed must spend time apart in the narrative, we must spend time watching them apart in real life, providing an element of emotional consonance that heightens our understanding of the characters and our engagement with the text. (In game design theory this is called ludonarrative consonance, btw, and it's fucking fascinating.)

4. And relating all this together, the slower release helps with the long tail effect, where the longer OFMD is out there and being actively engaged with, the longer there's space for new fans to enter into the fandom while fan activity is at its most FOMO height-- thereby increasing the show's overall reach (in terms of accessibility to new viewers through word of mouth and shared experience) and depth (through fan engagement and iteration on the canon and one another's work).

#our flag means death #ludonarrative consonance #media analysis #media literacy #the long tail of fandom growth #immersive fannish compersion #too many M sounds in that but it's got the spirit

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duchessdepolignaca03 · 2 days

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Thanks for the tags @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @sparklepocalypse @taste-thewaste @bigassbowlingballhead @onthewaytosomewhere @tailsbeth-writes @priincebutt and @firenati0n

I don’t have a lot to share and my brain is eating me. I’m torn between FOMO and feeling like this whole business is futile. But I remain as always grateful for those who think of me in these tagging games ❤️

So here’s some paragraph from Rule Britannia that I’ve already decided to delete and will therefore never see the light of day anyway.

Research was what Alex did best.

But whether out of respect for Henry, or because of the depths of his denial and fears of the truths he might uncover if he persistently dug, Alex had never properly utilised his best skills to help him unravel the mysteries of Henry’s life.

He was also acutely aware of how incomplete a picture the public record painted of the inner lives of public figures, having been one for the majority of his life. He knew that even when there was a mountain of information about a person from relatively trustworthy and less-biased sources, the information could still be misleading. He pictured Nora crossing her arms and reminding him that not all data was useful, and that some of it was just noise obfuscating the truth.

But Henry was a noisy fuck (in every sense of the word) and in the absence of any straightforward answers from the arseholes in Henry’s orbit, Alex felt as if he had no choice but to give in to his most curious impulses. With a few fortifying shots of liquid courage, Alex set about researching the trail of dead men left in Henry’s wake, and the living shadows that haunted him.

Open tag, if anyone still hasn’t done theirs!

#red white and royal blue #rwrb #henry and alex #rwrb fanfic #firstprince #rwrb au #several sentences sunday

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thesims4blogger · 13 days

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The Sims 4: New Game Patch (April 16th, 2024)

EA is releasing a new game update for The Sims 4 ahead of the release of the two upcoming kits, Urban Homage and Party Essentials.

The Sims Direct Communication shared a tweet that the patch will resolve the issue with an error message that is being shown to some players. See it below.

If you have auto updates enabled in Origin’s “Application Settings”, the game will auto-update once you open Origin. If you have auto-updates disabled, you will need to manually update by clicking the game in your library.

To ensure your game is up to date, check the game version found in Documents > EA > The Sims 4 > GameVersion.txt. Your game should now read: PC: 1.106.148.1030 / Mac: 1.106.148.1230 / Console: 1.91

Sul Sul Simmers!

In just a few days, you can get your hands on a fresh fit to wear to the best party on the block. The fun doesn’t stop there; we’ve also

The Sims Team

Bug Fixes

Base Game

Plants that are alive and well will no longer emit green “stink clouds” as if they were dead. Translations related to this fix will be available in the next release!

After enforcing regulations with the Landgraab Power Company, power on a Sim’s lot will no longer be unexpectedly shut off when bills are paid in full.

What an identity crisis! Simmers playing in any language besides English will no longer see the First and Last Name panel blank in CAS for Sims that have selected pronouns.

Um, wasn’t this supposed to be a group activity? When doing Group Cooking, all Sims will now participate.

Gallery Server

We have been continually reviewing your Gallery profanity reports, which can be submitted through the The Sims 4 Gallery Profanity Filter Feedback survey, and we have been updating the ruleset to allow Simmer freedom while keeping others safe. A couple of highlights include:

Reducing the strictness of how hashtags were handled when listed in specific orders

Maxis-created Sims, even from past Sims games, should no longer be prevented from uploading if you choose to recreate one or more

Eco Lifestyle

We fixed an issue where The Dew Collector was not collecting any water. Now, it will correctly collect water, and the water level will continue to rise.

High School Years

Timestamps are now updated properly on the Social Bunny App. Phew, talk about FOMO!

Horse Ranch

While admirable, Sims will no longer express a desire to level up their Nectar Making skill, when that skill is already maxed out.

Yipee, Horse Riding now helps Sims lose weight!

For Rent

In this economy?! The maximum available rent value will no longer lower after evicting a tenant during a grace period in 11C Sungai Point.

Yikes. Now, this is going to require an audit! Landlords who own a Residential Rental Lot and own a business will no longer have fund transfer issues. Transfers from the business to the household will no longer fail, and money will no longer duplicate household funds when transferring to a business.

Crystal Creations

The shawl sweater from Crystal Creations is now visible when selecting a “Fashion Choice” in CAS filters. Please be advised that wearing this shawl did not grant the power of invisibility.

Realm of Magic

What a conundrum! When aliens abduct Spellcasters, they will now become pregnant and give birth to an alien baby instead of a Sim baby.

Werewolves

Tastes like kibble! After taking the ‘Wolf-B-Gone’ drink, Sims will no longer have a fury glow still showing.

Updated a series of CAS accessories that were originally showing up for werewolves, even though those accessories were not applicable to werewolves.

Grunge Revival

A texture issue with the chipped nails in Grunge Revival has been updated.

Poolside Splash

Textures on one of the tank tops have been updated to remove some texture bleeding.

Castle Estate

Hear ye, hear ye. All Castle Estate Windows have been updated to show up in the correct wall height categories.

The arrow slit window has been updated to show that it can be placed on curved walls.

The “Heraldic Crest of Yore” and the “The Eavesdropping Llama” have been updated to appear in Outdoor Wall Sculptures. Your castle has never looked better!

#news #the sims 4 #ts4 #sims 4 #sims 4 update

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thefirstknife · 9 months

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What do you think about the season of the dawn mostly our guardians gravesite do you think it will come to fruition? I think it would be cool if they just killed us and had us come back someway. But I wanna know what you think.

I think about that very often. I think about Season of Dawn very often in general.

For those that weren't there, Season of Dawn had a community event that allowed us to explore the Corridors of Time. It was one of the most complex things that ever happened, only lasted for two weeks, and the solution to the whole puzzle led to a room called the Timelost Vault where we could see our own grave and hear Saint-14 saying an eulogy.

youtube

One of the most fascinating places we've ever seen tbh. The whole Corridors of Time were incredible to me, but that final room that took the whole community working night and day to find was something else.

We still to this day don't know what it truly means. In the eulogy, Saint says that we've died and that there was some sort of "final confrontation" and that he left a weapon we used there, shattered. And he also says that if we come back and aren't truly dead ("you've performed miracles before"), that we can take it.

Is this a prediction of the future? Is it some alternate timeline? We have no idea. The nature of the Corridors of Time is such that we just can't know. And of course, this was referenced in Season of the Splicer in one of the Expunge missions where Quria talks to us through our HUD:

The area in Expunge where this happens is very reminiscent of the Corridors of Time, the only are that doesn't have colour:

Corridors of Time:

But Quria was a Taken Vex mind so Quria saying this also doesn't help us. It could still be talking about an alternate timeline and not necessarily a prediction of the future. I think that as an alternate timeline, sure; it's absolutely possible there's a timeline where we died in any of the numerous battles for the system.

As a prediction for our own timeline... Hard to say. The Vex can't simulate paracausality, though the Corridors of Time aren't something the Vex made; they are just able to visit it and use it to move through timelines. So can the stuff we see in the Corridors of Time be a real prediction of our current timeline? It's definitely possible, but not something we can either prove or disprove for sure. I personally think it's most likely not a prediction, but it's definitely something to think about. Corridors of Time in general, as well as any timeline shenanigans, the Vex, the Sundial and the rest of the stuff that happened in Dawn.

I can see a scenario that mimics what Saint implies in the eulogy; that we "died" but that we're secretly still out there somewhere and can return. A story like that could make the grave and the eulogy true, but not have any impact on the playability of the game. But how likely that is? Unclear. I think that this ominous setting of our grave is a really cool setpiece that basically constantly looms as a possible threat in the background and we can never tell if and when that might come to pass.

One of the best setpieces in the game for me, but one that was unfortunately only there for 2 weeks. This definitely gave it an extra air of mystery and intrigue, but also it was highly inaccessible from the time when FOMO was much worse than it could ever be now. Even if you played this season, you could've easily missed this event. I almost did, as I was away on a vacation for a week when this happened and only got back for the few days after it was solved to run through it. This short availability definitely made the whole event feel much more ominous than perhaps intended so it's really unclear what this meant exactly and how relevant it still is and whether or not it was a meaningful prediction or just the consequence of being thrown into exploring millions of timelines. If anything, I would really enjoy seeing a reference to it in some way!

#destiny 2 #season of dawn #corridors of time #young wolf #ask #long post

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imperatriceauxdiamants · 2 years

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Review of my past dopamine detoxx efforts, so you can learn from my fails and wins, just cuz I love you

YOUTUBE - I simply uninstalled the app off my phone. Some think it is simply unimaginable, that they can't handle it without YouTube, but Istg it's all lies your mind is telling you. If you're spending so much time on YouTube Shorts, just uninstall. It's like, so easily accessible via the YT app. On the desktop website version it is not as accessible (important keyword!), and thus, you're less likely to binge so hard. Every time I installed YouTube, Shorts was my bane. So I was so much off just uninstalling it. I also unsubbed from all my channels, I used to only have a few subs but I realized I just didn't listen to any of their content. I liked the IDEA of those people, their aesthethica, their whole mood, etc. But their content didn't help me. So out the window it goes!

FACEBOOK - That was a easy one to be quite honest, I used to post a few pictures a month, mostly food or hike trips, stuff like that. I just kept my Facebook going on for the professional groups and school group chats, otherwise it would be completely shut down. I now just don't post anything at all, nothing at all. People don't need to know every minutiae of my life. Shoo shoo.

TUMBLR - This one bit my ass hard. I unsubbed from every single blog, even my favourites, and saved the list in an archive sideblog. But it turned out I just didn't visit those blogs that often, and thus, I wasn't as active on Tumblr as much. So I'll concede, because I love my blog and Tumblr so much, I'll subscribe to a few blogs, but be very strict about my curating. One of the issues I had with Tumblr was the endless scroll of aesthethic pictures without any informative and thought provoking content... it just annoyed me to no end having to scroll and NOT MISSING THE "IMPORTANT" STUFF. (FOMO in a nutshell). Later on I'll reexamine my use of Tumblr. Maybe I'll just unsub again, maybe I'll curate it even more, to be seen. That's the beauty of this process, you can make mistakes, learn from them, and correct your shot as you go. No need to get it perfect from the start.

REDDIT - Despite deleting my account, I noticed I kept coming back to Reddit, because I lacked things to occupy my mind (veryyyyyy important to me else I'll go rabid). I found solutions that engage my mind, without absorbing negative vibes. Yeah as you might've noticed, Reddit is like so negative, and so irritating. No bueno. I installed a very simple sudoku game without ads, and downloaded a big fat bunch of boosk to read into my ebook. A massive quantity I can't ever finish them all. Smart babes gotta maintain their brains!

INSTAGRAM - It has been like YEARS since I ditched this, but I still remember very well my lesson: I obessively followed accounts of influencers, and artists and those home decorating accounts, to a point it took like a hour to check every single account's posts. Spending so much time over this, because I ASPIRED to become those people, but DIDN'T do any sort of effort. I did save pictures of artist's art, thinking I will do something inspired by their stuff, but I just did nothing. I just collected and collected and collected. It was exhausting my precious time without any good return, and as the wastage went on, my guilt became heavier. A guilty mind will do shit. It won't do stuff. It will procrastinate. So I decided to just quit, it was hard at first, but later I realized I just didn't miss it, and I was happy to have my productive, creative mind back. So yeah, good riddance

#digital minimalism #levelup #glowup #hypergamy #dopamine detox

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ask-zaukodar · 2 months

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For those who don't particularly follow gaming, there's currently a hot new game out in the field called "Helldivers 2" and it is making hype train waves like very few games have before. There is also a lot of discourse about why it's doing the kinds of numbers and having the popular support that it currently has, and while I know this may not reach a lot of people I still want to drop my thoughts on things.

Just to recap briefly: "Helldivers 2" is the sequel to the titular PC/PS4 game "Helldivers" where you play satirical Starship Troopers waging a war of aggression pre-emptive strike on alien powers who were content to be left alone dangerous enemies of humanity and democracy in the name of subjugating these powers to steal their resources and technology liberty, freedom, and defending our way of life. It was developed by Arrowhead games, who in addition to the original Helldivers previously made Magicka (not Magicka 2) and Gauntlet (2014), and the devs very clearly knew what they wanted to make in regards to all three games and hyperfocused on making those elements work to make the game the best possible experience.

Yes, there are live services aspects such as a rotating armor shop and a "seasonal pass" in the form of something called a War Bond, but the game has gone to impressive lengths to ensure that you aren't pressured into buying stuff through old tactics like FOMO and the like. And yes, the dev team has been in crisis mode addressing the server issues and fixing bugs and (hopefully) addressing the cheater problems, but they have a clear vision and have been working hard to make sure everyone can enjoy it. But it isn't the no-pressure live service, or the on-the-up-and-up dev team in and of itself, or even the chaotic and satirical nature of the game itself I spotted after playing as long as I have.

Helldivers 2 is a perfect (and perfectly-timed) B-game.

For anyone who never owned a console before the seventh generation (Playstation 3, Wii, and XBox 360) I'll explain briefly: every console had its "big title" (later known as AAA) games: Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Metal Gear, and all of the other ones an elder millennial can name off the top of their heads. But there also used to be games that very explicitly weren't that big-named that were still amazing games in their own right, like the Legacy of Kain series or Jak & Daxter series or Wild Arms or Guitar Hero or Pikmin or Overlord or Saints Row, there's lots of examples of "great games that didn't have mega-bux budgets". These games were the backbone of any console you owned, ever, and some of the best times you had with friends. They were not priced or marketed like AAA games were, but were the kind of game that kept you going back to any video game store of your choice.

For reasons I still don't fully comprehend these types of titles started drying up in the seventh generation, I don't know if it's because of the always-online culture that started appearing in gaming or if it had to do with the emergence of "indie games" or if it was manufacturers wanting bigger slices of the pie or whatever, but for whatever reason these games eventually fell into obscurity, and everything started to fall into "indie dev" or "AAA studio" with little exception. The few games of this category from this time period that were saved in PC ports are old and clunky and not as enjoyable to play, so people don't appreciate just how satisfying these games could be.

The thing about B-games is that they were incredibly solid. Yeah they might have reminded you of other games that were more mainstream or older games that you played on lesser graphics, but even if you didn't always enjoy the game you couldn't deny that it was decently made and it was the kind of game the devs wanted to make so you could play it. They weren't always the flashiest, highest-poly-count, or biggest marketing budget titles ever, but it still left an impression on you that could make you think back to it even now.

Flashing forward back to the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Four and the landscape has changed so radically that the concept of a mid-level game that sets out to do something it wants to do is almost alien. But this is what Arrowhead started doing back in the 2010's when they made a dopey magic game where spells were based on your controller input that could friendly-fire (or outright troll) your friends. They used to be indie, but now they've grown enough to be a legitimate mid-level developer making the kind of games they know they want to make.

And because the gaming community is starved for something remotely original or fun they piled on it like sharks on bloody meat and they are eating it up wholesale. Which is great for the devs! And hopefully great for the gaming community at large, because maybe we'll get a return of some of these "not quite AAA games but still very solid and definitely not basement-developed" games.

#helldivers #helldivers 2 #arrowhead #b games #gaming #video games #honestly i'd kill for another legacy of kain game

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dcminions · 20 days

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more rp ideas from me and my overactive imagination

a group inspired by all the country music that is constantly playing rn, just like a small town in a southern state where denim jackets with fleece collars and rodeos reign supreme. you could even throw in some yellowstone inspo with there being like one large ranch in town that sorta has a monopoly on like business for the region??? anyways it feels like the type of group that could go a lot of ways, even have a crime element or undercurrent maybe?? either way it’d also be a great opportunity for people to play more people of color in these settings but esp black, latinx, and native people who are traditionally sorta left out of the narrative - now yall could bring them into it :)

a star wars inspired rp, set on a planet that is like the central hub of activity idk listen i do not watch anything star wars related but i play the journey to batuu game on the sims and honestly it made for a nice three hours i think but im also easily entertained either way it could be cute!!just like a central hub city planet place idk it doesn’t have to take place in the sw universe that would just probably be a really great starting point ya know? it also lends itself to a good basis for any magic or technological systems right yall get it yall see the vision it would just take place mostly in one place but it would also be a place for people to get missions, jobs, etc

a city rp with the twist that its like a city from a superhero universe idk ive been on gothamtok for a month now i feel like gotham/metropolis/central city would be so funny like it’s just a regular city rp but you could intersperse it with like news alerts that like deadshot has just killed the mayor or the riddler has taken seven people hostage and is hiding them in a maze that poison ivy created in the center of the city park shit like that idk. your character can even work for them love a henchperson omg it can be the more fantastical versions of the cities like from the animated series or the 90s movies or the more grubby, sad ones from the recent movies or tv shows either way it’d be a nice twist on a classic city rp

BRING BACK BIKER GANG RPS THANKS

college rp centered around a hockey team idk i just love the coho fics that’s just a personal thing

summer is coming up so a summer house/houses rp would eat. maybe like a community omg it just hit me as i started writing this but a community of houses that was built almost specifically for the purpose of it being a party haven??? and it’s like on an island or an two hour drive out of the city and everyone goes up from the city (of your choice) every thursday and leave on sunday/monday (obv some people can stay behind) but either way, the big community aspect could be if you want it to be a bigger group with several houses but if you wanna keep it to 2-3 houses with like 6-8 people per house, that works for smaller groups too omg that would be cute

im watching the valley which is horrible tv but i think a group centered around people that live in a town just outside of a major city would be cute like just far away enough for it be a different county but not so far away that it takes more than an hour to get there and the concept hinges on these being older people who maybe are done living faster paced lives in the city but have a bit of fomo so they wanna settle down out there, idk it feels like a cute idea for a 30+ muses rp esp if you wanna have characters with like full blown relationships, careers, kids, etc

the 30+ idea but inspired by friends / sex & the city where it’s people in their 30s but still living in that major city, trying to ease into somewhat settling down while maybe dealing with the fact that they are getting older??? could be cute i like it

another show/movie to draw inspo from : the gentlemen. i think just a crime rp set in london is actually what im saying here actually, nothing more <3

any city rp set in a city that is not usually highlighted, especially places like rio, mexico city, dublin, singapore, lagos, istanbul, buenos aires, mumbai, etc just to switch it up ya know???

actually this would eat so bad a group in the vein of the gotham idea but actually set in wakanda??? listen i would love that and it could take place before the first movie so it’s still isolated OR OR OR after the second movie so they’re a little bit more open and there’s more people just now moving there, etc. i just love the idea of a wakanda rp and it seems like it would be so much fun as well as give people an opportunity to play more underused black fcs actually thnx

said this last time but a rp set in the 1920s or the 1940s right after ww2 would also be very fun esp the roaring twenties like cmon yall, great gatsby hello???

ive seen a couple of these and they have been so cute but more bridgerton type rps with preset families and shit those just seem very fun and also remind me of jane austen novels/movies JUSTICE FOR THE BRIDGERTON RPS

that’s all i got for now, make some new rps, see yall in 6 months <3

#rpt #rph #pls enjoy and make some of these heart hands emoji

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