#I plan to play this IMMEDIATELY

[merrigel]

I want it back = I drag its dead weight forward

#artists on tumblr #animation #in stars and time #isat #illustration #in stars and time spoilers #isat spoilers #like for real #anyway I'm still thinking about Siffrin Instarsandtime #shoutout to tumblr user jb-blunk for the words from the caption which inspired this whole deal #literally finished the game and had those words looping (haHA) in my head like 'how do I use this what can I do to match this feeling' LMAO #if you haven't played ISAT well. first of all stop looking don't glean anything from this shhhh- but also GO PLAY IT IT'S EXCELLENT #heavily based off the astronomical clock in Prague! I love that thing so it was really fun to try and make it more ISAT-like #bc the themes are already there yanno!! Stars n' whatnot! And then of course the craft types instead of the astrological signs! #Loop and the King for the sun and the moon!! #can you tell I thought about and planned this one for like. A while. Longer than I usually spend LMAO #so yeah go play it immediately come be absolutely ILL and SICK and PLAGUED about the secret boss with me #fanart #pic

[sassytheturtle]

GOTG 3 SPOILERS

I don’t think anyone has pointed this out yet but the soundtrack playing in Vol 3 when the Guardians all stood in a circle and announced that they were going their separate ways and Rocket was named captain was the exact same soundtrack that played in Vol 1 when Peter gave his 12% plan loser speech and Rocket said they were a bunch of jackasses standing in a circle.

It’s a parallel of the moment the team officially united to when they officially split.

#I love listening to movie soundtracks #so I immediately recognized it when it started playing #I’ve seen the movie 3 times already and I have plans to see it 3 more with other people #guardians of the galaxy #gotg #gotg 3 #gotg 3 spoilers #spoilers #marvel #marvel spoilers #mcu #rocket raccoon #gotg rocket #rocket gotg #89P13 #gotg vol 3 #guardians of the galaxy 3 #star lord #peter quill #gamora #nebula #mantis #groot #drax #drax the destroyer #gotg vol 1 #gotg 1 #guardians of the galaxy 1

[artharakka]

Tested some new brushes on my Baldur's Gate girl Viivi 🌿

#kinda half assed this in the end because I realized I wanted to do some things differently but it was too late to turn around #anyway I decided that Viivi is deaf and turned all character voices to zero and the game got so much more enjoyable immediately #sorry to everyone who enjoys the voice acting #Viivi #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #durge #(plan was that artist-rat does regular tav and I do durge round for us) (let's see how much patience we have to play)

[rqg179]

holy shit did kipperlilly kill buddy so that if kristen died no one would be able to bring her back and the only member of the church of cassandra would be gone

#i mean there was a lot at play here #it sounds like buddy wouldn't have been able to revive them even if he hadn't been murdered because the gems weren't in his bag?? #unclear whether he knew that or not - currently i'm inclined to believe he was being genuine about reviving them #but someone had stolen the gems so he couldn't. i might be giving him too much credit idk #but i think kipperlilly's original plan was to kill gavin pundle to sabotage their exam - buddy wouldn't have been able to bring him back #w/o the gems and neither would kristen. so their grade would be significantly impacted #and if neither cleric can bring anybody back and the proctor isn't there to oversee the fight the monsters might have just kept coming #until the bad kids really did all drop #but idk why kipperlilly would suddenly switch to killing buddy if that wasn't the original plan and if he already couldn't revivify them?? #unclear also how much oisin knew of this. rn im wondering if he was onboard w sabotaging the exam but didnt know she was going to kill budd #& the plane shift was an immediate shock reaction #or i did see someone suggest he wasn't even there to see it which. is also possible #idk just. many thoughts. head full. what the fuck was up with that preview also #my post #d20 #fantasy high #fhjy

[monsoon-of-art]

It's funny, I dreamt about regional variants of the Lake Trio (or maybe victini) that was an ice type...

And I woke up to this!

No hidden ability, which is a bummer, but I think she has perfect special attack IVs?

#mons plays pokemon #im not a master of IVs but i know if i immediately plug her stats into a website it can tell me #i dont plan on using her in battle amyway (not yet?

[st4zia]

Marina, where are you?

#splatoon #splatoon side order #splatoon fanart #marina ida #off the hook #no description #okay..can i...rant a little bit because i.... have so much to say about side order #first of all i love LOVE the concepts like bleached coral a menacing dark goop futuristic dystopia TABI SHOES & agent 8s new uniform?!!!!!! #its giving margiela which btw i feel was the inspiration behind toni kensa & that entire brand BUT THats for another post #its like the devs catered side order TO ME.....LMFAO like im obsessed with everything about it so far and the intrinsic horror that comes #along with this concept its just... #immediately after watching the trailer i thought if marina is the final boss~ how would that play out whats going on #so ofc i had to draw it out and like the idea of marina possessed by some sort of mega computer obsessed with order like you get my drift? #you know how fucking cool that would be i just feel like since everything is up to speculation right now im going haywire #i read in the jpn version of some article translation marina was becoming disillusions with oth cuz pearl mentioned she was #getting bored with their music hence the damp socks collab and ghosted marina for some time SO WHAT IF..... #feeling like she was discarded / ghosted...her resentment lingered and she turned to whatever was creepin in that dark goop #to maybe find some reasoning as to why pearl was getting bored with oth (or marina...) #like we were all joking that side order will be the off the hook wedding planning DLC but like WHAT IF IT WAS THE BREAK UP......... #also i mentioned toni kensa earlier what if side order is actually his doing like the color scheme red white and black its all there in the #trailers WHAT IF?!!! so many possibilities im gonna explode #anyway thats just my theories anything is game until nintendo destroys all of our expectations come this spring #this is so long if youre reading this thank you like genuinely thank you for taking the time to read this incoherent rant about a squid gam #have a lovely day <3333 #oh & high five to anyone who knows what poster i used for reference here hehe..

[yharnams]

Happy Birthday to the Only video game: Bloodborne (2015) developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment

#a true and fun story is that when I first played bloodborne I thought they had announced a sequel #and I was so excited unpon beating I immediately looked up when it was supposed to release #and realized there were in fact NO plans for another game 🤡🤡🤡 #bloodborne #soulsborne

[thewhitehairedwitchgirl]

So this might just be wishful thinking on my part but I get the feeling that Leander's story is going to remind me a lot of Asra's Reversed Ending (which was my favourite in the whole game, yes including the Upright ones).

Spoilers for Asra's route (in a game that came out 5 years ago) but his fatal flaws are that he prefers to avoid problems rather than confront them, and cares so much about the MC that he would do anything to keep us safe. So in the Bad End, the Devil grants both wishes by tossing the MC and Asra into a pocket dimension to live out an eternal domestic fantasy with absolutely no memory of anything or anyone else.

To return to the current game, all the other Touchstarved LIs are visibly or implicitly inhuman in some way. Leander is the only one who appears perfectly, ordinarily human, death and rebirth symbolism aside, but considering the trailer his 'monstrous' qualities are probably going to be related to jealousy (green-eyed monster).

Leander's whole deal is that he is literally "too good to be true", being the only one capable of actually touching us and potentially breaking the curse. In addition to that, the second he met us he was already prepared to give us drinks, food, a bed, whatever we need. Furthermore, if you speak kindly of the other LIs, he will find some way to subtly badmouth or warn you away from them.

Hence, I believe his bad ending(?) is going to involve encouraging that possessiveness until we end up even more isolated. Perhaps part of his route will have instances where he tries to tempt us not to break the curse, after all we have him now so why bother?

#in conclusion this man is a walking red flag and i love him #touchstarved leander #touchstarved #touchstarved game #him immediately showering them MC with attention/affection/material goods feels like bait #like he's trying to lure us in #and it is working tbh i plan on playing his route first

[skitskatdacat63]

These sketches are dedicated to everyone in the tags of my original post agreeing with my vision 🙏 but especially to @tinyweltmeister for the little snippet you wrote!!

+ silly sketches

#actually in the tags of my og post i said 'I want to put a laurel crown in his hair' well...look! look! laurels are indeed in his hair #f1 has genuinely fundamentally changed me as a person no joke #like you guys need to understand that i basically never draw fanart or real people #but i jumped on drawing this immediately and it lowkey banished my art block #(actually funnily enough i think the last fanart i drew was humanized twink lightning mcqueen as a joke and this isnt that dissimilar) #but thats all to say: i didnt plan on drawing this #i wasnt even gonna color these but what seb wants seb gets i guess! #rennaisance era muse!seb just came and gripped me by the throat #i actually was trying to draw martian fanart like 2 days ago and it was not. working. but im actually super proud of how these came out??? #these are all rennaisance era au but that silly titanic ref one can be seen as modern martian role-playing #btw can you guys tell i have absolutely no interest in drawing 1500s clothing? I HATE IT #that is why seb is mostly naked- #sebastian vettel #mark webber #f1 fanart #f1 art #martian #sebmark #f1 #formula 1 #we do a little bit of f1 #sv5 #catie.art. #renaissance muse au

[bumblingbabooshka]

If 'Resolutions' happened with Chakotay & Tuvok they would have made a beautiful home down there on that planet. It'd be Better Homes & Gardens material by the time they left. If it happened with Tuvok & Janeway it'd just be the captain running around barefoot chasing a monkey while Tuvok grew flowers and made comments about her not tracking dirt into the house after he just cleaned the floors.

#Chakotay & Tuvok basically get married down there but there's no discussion about this they just start acting like that #Meanwhile Janeway is just kind of slowly losing it while her surroundings get steadily cozier. How did you even make tea down here Tuvok??? #Tuvok who spent all day gathering herbs and starting a fire etc etc: Easily. #By 'basically get married down there' I mean that Tuvok accepts their situation pretty much immediately contrary to Janeway and focuses #on long term comfort and survival with Chakotay #It's still sad - especially for Chakotay who thinks he'll never see Janeway again (incorrect: Harry came to her with a plan #and she said 'I like your attitude Mr. Kim!' so they're rushing to the vidiians) but they're surviving...maybe even living #mostly their deal is focused on learning to like one another interpersonally #Meanwhile Tuvok with Janeway is more just trying gently to get her to calm down (she feels extremely guilty that this happened - #that Tuvok's never gonna get to see his family again) and they talk in depth for maybe the first time about the very real possibility #that this is it for them - on Voyager they at least had hope...but maybe that hope was an illusion the entire time...maybe- Oh! Chakotay's #here!! We're saved!!! #Chakotay #Tuvok #Kathryn Janeway #st voyager #voy #out of the potential pairings who's having sex first? #Janeway is playing don't starve & Chakotay's playing harvest moon & Tuvok is playing like...oxygen not included

[forcedhesitation]

...just heard about the upcoming perk changes...hmm...yeah. the only good one definitely is the adrenaline nerf. I've wanted them to take away healing off hook forever.

the other perk changes are ass.

ultimate weapon is still outrageously unfair, even if you take away the screaming! to me, it feels like they just saw the uptick in people using calm spirit following the addition of ultimate weapon, and decided "hm, the way to deal with this is to remove the screaming." no! this perks needs to be reworked differently! given a longer cooldown, something! it does way too much for just one perk!

DS buff isn't going to stop tunnelling. strong killers don't care if you stun them, and weaker survivors likely won't even have DS because it's licensed...waste of a buff. just as they should do with off the record, they need to spread out these important anti-tunnel strategies to general perks. it's so unfair that something this important be gated behind a DLC. and no one perk should ever be too strong!

also, I saw otz's commentary on the changes. I could not agree more that certain killers should be nerfed directly, rather than trying to just balance perks generally. not all killers interact with different perks the same... nurse, wesker, huntress, blight, etc do not care about a stun, even if it's increased in length. you need to change them & how their powers work in relation to stuns, so survivors have a chance to get away from them, rather than buffing the perk so that old man ghostface has an even worse time in this dogshit meta lmao.

#dbd #thoughts about media #I haven't been on twitter in a while. I'm sure survivor mains are crying real hard about the adren nerf. #as if it was fair that the perk would heal you off hook like that. again: one perk should never do THAT much. #like. steve has a perk that heals you off hook. but it does ONLY that and you have to heal another survivor FIRST. #that feels fair! it does one thing and there's a trade-off! and the heal isn't immediate. #it's 16 seconds and then you heal. and you have base kit BT for 10 seconds to get away from the killer. #tbh- a slight buff to second wind would have been better than a DS buff. like. idk. reduce it to 12 seconds to heal off hook? #but second wind is a licensed perk again. so they should rather focus on making some general perk that does something like this instead. #there are sooo many survivor perks that are total dogshit and do nothing. including MANY general perks. REWORK THOSE!!! #I can't imagine this DS buff going to be a problem for hux because he's kind of a way more fair version of nurse. #he's very mobile. he just requires a lot more patience and skill to play. #I haven't seen anything about his planned changes yet. I'm hoping so badly that it will be a slight buff. #and by that I mean PLEASE MAKE SOMA FAMILY PHOTO BASE KIT!!!!!! #or even partially base kit!!! he should NOT be so dependent on one add on. #making it fully base kit wouldn't even be a problem because that would not impact kill rates at all. #this total hottie is only played by myself and a total of 5 other people worldwide. #making soma family photo isn't going to change that LOL. #like...some people might TRY him if he gets buffed. but I assure you- it would take a miracle to make more hux mains.

[darkdragon768]

Have to do one of those again.

I'll try to finish the Games I've started and then go on for one of these.

#dragon's stupid thoughts #please vote you'd help me a lot #there are other ds and wii/u games I could offer buuut didn't feel like it #i have planned to go to this retro gaming store on Wednesday again #so either this poll will be useless then as I found a game I immediately want to play #or it still matters if it's a mid or no game haul #it really is a shame I haven't played some of them yet #poll #video games #nintendo #<- idfk adding those for a wider range???

[lavampira]

haunted by the delay between closed position enacting and my macro text going off in chat as I switched targets because it sure did ask pandaemonium if he’d like to dance instead of the dragoon that I partnered.

#and the 4 members of my fc in the raid saw that!!!!!!!!!!!!! #is it a big deal? no. but i did immediately log out after instead of leveling pug/mnk like i planned before bed shdhsh #dani plays ffxiv

[pyrriax]

pyrr pyrriax is significantly less productive when it spends several hours just bouncing between vcs in pursuit of human interaction

#haunted ecosystem #i spent the last several hours just chilling muted in a vc with a few people i dont really Know but we're friendly so it works #bonus was playing on an mc server at the same time and immediately making it my goal to harass jack #i got caught in a self-instated death loop trying to get him to free my corpse from his claim PDVNDJK #however: i now have an area where i get to set up a farm and become a beast (spend several hours lost in farmer's delight) #its okay its better than the average of like 11 hour calls #i write significantly less when i'm being social and not just in my little hole in the wall scribbling random concepts #also i need to read more fic to get my brain going again since currently i am lacking in things kicking around in my skull #aside from a concerning amount of oc stuff that will likely never see the light of day beyond ocassional snippet posts #im planning to work on a few projects i just also need to. not have things i need to work on #im working on a gift fic thats a little late but i just need to Come Up With Something

[battle-subway-ghost]

// would you guys forgive me if i played through the entirety of Black and White 1 and 2 instead of writing for this arc? I need to get a refresher on the lore :((((

#ooc #ooc post #This arc boring ahh hell [image of me playing splatoon and B/W at the same time] #Anyways fr uh this is gonna go on longer than planned because we (including teachers) got jumpscared with midterms on a 3 day school week #Naturally I am exhausted. augh. gotta un-mush my brain </3 #(funny thing is that every time ive tried to do some planned event on this account the universe immediately pulls something) #(Frosty reception? I out of nowhere got so sick I was doing nothing but sleeping. Gone fishing? POP EXAMS! its just funny at this point)

[bellshazes]

my first two jobs ever, in order, were "board game teacher" and "university library assistant," so tho I've never formally studied games (I have been dropping out of college on and off since 2015, and was a freshman in 2012 lmao) I've been casually exposed to games and the people who make and play them in a professional context, as well as having the research skills to help close the gaps. i actually kind of hate playing board games but i loved GM-ing the coop arkham horror and watching my players, which i did for seven years straight.

my current fixation is the result of several years' fucking around on YT watching all kinds of game content, from LPs to specific game dissection to video essayists. jacob geller and folding ideas are kind of gold standards, but this week I've been really enjoying errant signals in particular. Sometimes I'm introduced to concepts this way - ludonarrative dissonance, ergodic literature, the magic circle, etc. that, and getting recommendations from friends or accidentally stumbling into game studies via other research (such as the paper i wrote a few years ago on theater-as-games in prison contexts). most of it though is having thoughts and opinions on things and letting it percolate until i am dangerous enough to find someone who's already explained a concept better than I could, and then running with that. find something that cites its sources, and then chase the ones that seem interesting.

my syllabus post is very much not a reclist, though i do in varying ways recommend everything on that list and it might be of use. here's some stuff I think would be great starting points:

Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals, Salen and Zimmerman. This book is an excellent resource, as it introduces a wide variety of scholars who you can dive into as it is relevant to your interests as well as providing tons of useful frameworks and vocabulary to go hunting. It's an easy read with concise bullet-point summaries after each chapter, and the PDF is hyperlinked for easy navigation. I might have found this via Wikipedia, honestly.

A Play of Bodies: A Phenomenology of Video Game Experience, Keogh. What I'm currently liveblogging - it is firmly a literary/philosophical work, rather than by/for designers, and correspondingly it's a little more difficult without at least passing familiarity with cyborg theory or any brand or offshoot of post-modernism, but still fairly digestible and a great read so far.

My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft, Nardi. Found this during my theater-and-games paper, and MMO anthropology is not really my thing, but it's a nice complement to the other books as an explicitly player-theorist perspective. Also provides a more approachable introduction to a variety of theorists and sources. (Open access on JSTOR!)

Draw Your Weapons, Sarah Sentilles. I'm biased because I discovered this book by accidentally attending an author event at my local museum, and the games portion is incidental, but if you can find it I think this analysis of the relationship between depictions of violence and violence itself is worth your time. Memorable re: games for its discussion of Press F To Pay Respects.

here are some videos which I offer as examples of channels you might enjoy diving into, looking for additional jumping-off points:

Playing as Anyone in Watch Dogs Legion, Errant Signal. I really appreciate Errant Signal's thoughtful, personal approach to analysis and especially his highlighting of buried gems in his Blips series as well as his non-self-deprecating reevaluation of some of his older analyses over his decade plus career making videos.

Controllers Control Everything, Game Makers Toolkit. Discovered via the Boss Keys series highlighting the souls games, and although I think his channel is (increasingly) geared toward devs, these are well-constructed, thoughtful videos about many aspects of game design. Even when I don't personally get what makes him enjoy Zelda dungeons in that specific way (I'm an outlier), I appreciate his analysis.

Mega Microvideos 2, Matthewmatosis. Perhaps better known for his extremely long-form essays, I love Matthewmatosis' series of microessays framed like Wario Ware minigames. They are brief but don't pull punches, and the format is uniquely delightful. (See also this microessay mixtape.)

Making Sense of Catherine Full Body, SuperButterBuns. She doesn't do much essay content, I guess, but I she loves Catherine and the Persona series, and this dissection of Catherine Full Body is an absolute treat.

Jon Bois. Okay, mostly not about games, but like - come on. 17776 and Breaking Madden, alongside everything else he's ever done, fit because I feel like they do. If nothing else, I think Pretty Good and his general use of Google Earth as a medium for storytelling have a lot of utility in talking about digital media. He's good for the soul.

The Future of Writing About Games, Jacob Geller. One of the gold standards for a reason - and especially if you're looking for further solid recommendations for other writing/creating about games. This video in particular discusses & links to some really great pieces, but his Big List of Other People's Video Essays is also a great way to spend the next month of your life. (You might notice some crossover between this list and his, only some of which is coincidental.)

if i have any conclusion, it's that my current fixation on digital literalism is me finally finding an outlet/academic match-up with a fascination i developed in 2015 when studying gonzo lit. i think the utility of academia and the long history of scholarship on a given topic, as a non-academic, is to help you express ideas or reinterpret beliefs or experiences you've had to others without having to reinvent the wheel. i always become most energized when i stop worrying about knowing all the bg and chase whatever is useful and affirming or enlightening to me. and you can get pretty far if you think about why you like what you do, and just - enthusiastically also consume non-academic stuff. maybe this is a note more for myself! but thank you for the opportunity to monologue.

#peter answers #metanarratives #rules of play #masterpost #i almost talked abt some Classics like huizinga & juul & piaget etc. but frankly. if you decide you want to read those you'll find citation #when someone inevitably (& frequently) references them & you can chase them if you like. i've read piaget it's not relevant MOST of the tim #and. man i do love monologuing but also!!! i think i could stand to be more plan language - i want to. #learning always happens in dialogue for me. even if it's ask-and-answer. so i'm always v grateful when people indulge me. #ANYWYA sorry i posted this and immediately privated it bc i meant to draft it during work yesterday. #long post