#and that is a huge problem on a lot of levels

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Hi! I was wondering if you knew anything in particular about the Lincoln Park Zoo- I think it’s the only zoo I’ve ever been to that’s free/no admission! Especially considering the scale. The only thing that concerned me was that their polar bears seem to have a history of stereotypical behaviors (pacing, primarily) which I saw while I was there, but again, I’m a total outsider to the actual inner workings of the facility. Sorry if this is too vague, haha.

There's a couple city zoos like that with free entrance! It's a cool option, and indicative of the city providing enough funding for the facility to operate without the need for income from tickets. (Sometimes the way things are set up, I think they can be required to stay free). The St. Louis Zoo is another!

I don't know a lot about the Lincoln Park Zoo beyond what I've seen as a guest. I've gone a couple times and haven't seen anything that stood out to me as major red flags, but that's just from a public perspective and not a comprehensive assessment. They're AZA-accredited and have been for a long time, which is an indication of their general ethos and operations. I can't speak to more than that about their quality, unfortunately.

You're right about the polar bear stereotypies - that's a thing I've seen for myself. The thing is, with stereotypies - and especially with polar bears - they're not necessarily an indicator of current welfare or quality of life.

For folk who are new to the blog or unfamiliar with the concept, in animal care, a stereotypy is a "repetitive, invariant behavior pattern with no obvious goal or function." Examples often seen are repetitive pacing, head-bobbing, licking or chewing, and rocking or swaying. (It's important to note that not all repetitive behaviors are stereotypic behaviors - e.g. animals may pace when excited and anticipating the arrival of a keeper). Stereotypies can be an indicator of chronically poor welfare, under-stimulating enrichment, or inappropriate captive environments, but the important thing to know about that is that they often persist after the problem that caused them is resolved. So you can take a polar bear or an elephant that picked up a stereotypic behavior in one zoo and move them to another, much better situation, and they may still continue the stereotypy.

(The fact that stereotypies can be indicators of previous, but not current, welfare problems is a really important nuance that is often left out of discussions. Sometimes they're called "zoochosis", which anti-captivity folk define as "the psychosis induced by captivity"... but that's a very unscientific approach, and doesn't facilitate productive discussion or attempts to identify causes and alleviate the behavior. Zoochosis is nothing but a useless manipulative buzzword, folks.)

Bears in general seem to be prone to stereotypies in captive situations. I've seen some recent research that hypothesizes it's likely due to a lack of ability to engage in normal behavioral sequences, such as foraging. Polar bears seem especially prone to it. One 2013 study found that of the 55 polar bears in North America they assessed, 85% engaged in stereotypical pacing. It might be because they natural cover such a huge range in the wild that older, smaller exhibits haven't allowed them to move as much as they need to; it could also be due to a historical lack of appropriate enrichment. We don't really know, because there's so many potential factors, and the long lifespan of polar bears means longitudinal studies of multiple generations take a very long time.

These are both things the industry is working on fixing: newer polar bear exhibits are built to be much larger and more complex, and there's been a heavy focus in the literature for at least a decade on finding ways to reduce stereotypies by providing engaging enrichment and increasing bears' activity levels. Lincoln Park Zoo's polar bear habitat was renovated in 2016, and - while it looks rather boring to me, as a guest - it was apparently designed to allow for a lot of activity range and polar bear-specific needs.

Their current bears are both about 20 years old, and were transferred to the Lincoln Park Zoo after the new habitat was completed. It's entirely plausible the bears arrived with stereotypies from their previous facilities, given that the emphasis on improving polar bear care is younger than they are. Here's a photo I took there a couple years ago, of Talini (I think), engaging in a repetitive head tossing behavior. It's definitely hard to watch, as a guest, and I don't remember if they had signage up about it.

That all being said, I wouldn't judge the whole zoo based on the polar bear stereotypies, because there's so much at play there in terms of history and the evolution of care for the species. What's important is how they're handling it, and what they're doing to help encourage more normative behavior from the bears. Given the amount of research and effort the zoo field has put into addressing the topic in polar bears for the last decade, it's highly probable that a lot of staff time goes into helping reduce the amount of time those bears spend engaging in stereotypies.

#lincoln park zoo #polar bears #stereotypies #stereotypical behavior #zoo animal welfare

[kragehund-est]

hey, not to make this your problem, but my adhd is kicking my ass. what systems do you use that work for you?

here are some of the things i use to help myself. everyone's different though, so see what works for you. @ anyone else, feel free to chime in with what you do.

study/work:

do NOT have your phone in the vicinity, and also put it on do not disturb.

dedicate a clear space to work in, don't do other things in that space.

set a timer for 25 min and study til it runs out. take a 5 min break. repeat 3 times. then take a 40 min break. (pomodoro technique) plan ahead of time what will happen in each of those time slots.

it's fine to fidget or doodle, but do a periodic check that that's not becoming your main focus. i use a grip strengthener because i don't have to look at it to use it.

if you listen to music, either set a playlist or accept whatever music comes on. if a song you dont like comes on, simply accept it and let it pass. DON'T PICK UP YOUR PHONE TO CHANGE IT.

if you find your mind drifting while you're studying/working, don't stay in the same place, get up. get a glass of water, stretch, get a snack, whatever. come back once you feel you can focus better.

memory:

a lot of people will tell you to set up a morning/nightime routine. instead of putting in steps like 1. brush teeth 2. take meds, etc., my routine is to force myself to walk along a predetermined path in my house. it's much easier to remember to do things when i SEE them

if you have something you misplace often, like you wallet or keys, give it a home. i have a little box on a table by my door.

if you have to remember to bring something with you (like a backpack, gym bag, or gift for a friend), place it directly in front of the door. you cannot leave without looking at that thing.

also, you can get carabiners and clip things together. i used to always forget my water bottle. well now i physcially cannot do that because i clipped my car keys to it.

write things down! "nahh i'll just remember it" <- no you will not. bring a notepad and pen.

in that same vein, don't put anything off when it takes two seconds. pay for something with your card? immediately afterwards put the card back in your wallet, lest you drop it in your pocket and then forget it there when you wear different clothes the next day.

i have a huge whiteboard in my living room that has my calendar and my to-do list.

on my calendar, i put not only the event, not only the TIME of the event, but also i include the time i need to leave in order to arrive on time, and list anything i need to bring with me.

the to-do list has completion times and priority level next to it. i will NOT start a low priority 40 min project when i have high priority 5 min project. even if the 5 min one sucks.

general tips:

everyone with adhd knows routine is important, but if you find part of a routine difficult, find the root issue and adjust it. problem: i take too long to get dressed in the morning. cause: too tired to make a decision, uncoordinated because of sleepiness. solution: lay your clothes out and loop your belt through belt loops *before bed* so you don't have to do it half asleep

don't mix stimulants. caffeine or adderall alone: cool. caffeine and adderall mixed: twitchy sociopath behaviors and shaky hands.

don't worry about maintaining "normalcy", if something works for you, do it.

limit phone use, especially short form media like reels. it has been proven to both induce and worsen adhd-like symptoms.

i know this is cringe but maintain your physical health. exercise, sleep well, drink water, eat balanced meals.

[buddiebeginz]

That scene with Eddie and Kim dressed as Shannon is that supposed to be the big emotional scene that was being talked about leading up to this episode? If Tim is expecting me to be invested in a scene like that he's sorely mistaken.

I love Ryan and Eddie but there was too much wrong with that scene for it have any kind emotional impact. I honestly just left it being confused and angry.

In the first place the scene initially came off looking like a dream especially since Kim was styled almost exactly how we saw Shannon talking to Chris in 701. I thought okay Eddie is going to say all these things to dream Shannon that he wanted to say (even get angry with her) things he didn't get to say before she died. Except here's the other problem Tim is trying to prop Shannon up and make her into a better person than she was. He's also trying to make it seem like Eddie had all these huge feelings for her that were never shown previously.

I definitely believe that Eddie loved Shannon and of course he had a lot of history with her and she's Chris' mother but I don't believe he was in romantic love with her. Eddie was always running away from Shannon even in s2. The only reason he even asked her to be with him again is because of Chris and because they thought she was pregnant. And really because Eddie has always done what he thinks he's supposed to do not what he truly wants to do especially when it comes to relationships.

I really can't stand when shows try and rewrite history like this. Shannon was important to Eddie but the show keeps trying to make her relationship with Eddie into something it wasn't and it really makes me hate when they bring her up.

Back to the scene with Eddie and Kim like I said I thought it was a dream so I really wanted to see where they were going with it. But as soon as they kept having Eddie talk about how he can't move on from Shannon because of how much he loved her I'm like nope I'm out. Let this man move on. Let him finally admit to himself that his relationship with Shannon wasn't perfect and let him stop comparing every relationship he ever gets into to something that never even existed.

The bigger problem I had with this scene though is that it wasn't even Shannon. If you wanted the audience to have some kind of emotional response to Eddie grieving his dead ex wife maybe don't have some woman he's cheating with dress up as her. It was all so bizzare. I also fail to see what Kim's motivation is for even doing that. She barely knows Eddie and she knows now that he was only even seeing her as some kind of replacement for his dead ex yet she's still interested in him. Then to top it off we had Marisol and Chris walking in on the whole scene. Having Chris see this woman who looks like his dead mom is just really cruel. I love Eddie but I really hope he's going to have to answer for that. I don't want to see the show just brush this off with some kind of talk between them because the level of so not okay that was is off the charts.

I just wish I knew where Tim is going with any of this because it's all so weird. I thought this Kim storyline was going to be about helping Eddie get closure and move forward but now I don't know what they're doing. I really hope that both Marisol and Kim will be gone by next season. This isn't even about Buddie neither one of them would make a good love interest for Eddie at this point.

Also why give Kim a birthmark like Buck if it's not supposed to make us think of Buck? Far as I can tell it's not a birthmark Devin has or her real hair color so what even was the purpose of that?

What is the purpose of bringing Buck into this storyline? I know Buddie are friends and they had most of the characters busy doing other stuff but I do wonder if Buck will play any more of a role in what's going on with Eddie.

I mean I'm glad they had Buck confront Eddie but tbh I wanted to see him get angrier about it. Buck said something to Eddie like have Marisol and Chris met her because Eddie was saying Kim was only a friend. I just feel like Buck would never want Chris to meet this woman. He just talked to Chris in 701 about how much his mom's death is still seriously affecting him. Why would he want Chris to meet this doppelgänger of his mom?

I know it's a shorter season but some of the writing choices this season feel messy and rushed. I honestly don't anticipate this Vertigo storyline having a satisfying conclusion. As it is they should have started it earlier and now it's being crammed into two already over stuffed episodes. I just hope that Eddie is going to get some better storylines next season because I haven't really been a fan of anything they've done with him on his own this season. Like first the nun and now this. What kind of vendetta do you have against Ryan Guzman Tim because these storylines are awful.

#911 spoilers #911 7x09 #buddie #eddie diaz #911 buddie #911! #eddie s7 #buddie s7

[note-a-bear]

On the one hand, it's really positive that family/community members who are caregivers are increasingly being offered compensation by Medicaid and Medicare.

On the other: the developing and growing 'funds' for largely untrained and unsupported non-professionals (said entirely without judgment, because lack of training doesn't always equal lack of knowledge or experience) to be caregivers suggests an ever shrinking pool of available professionals to do and/or aid in longterm care.

#tldr: all caregivers professional or not should be fairly compensated no ifs and or buts #but a knowledgeable non-professional will never have the resources that a professional will #and that is a huge problem on a lot of levels #the answer isnt necessarily professionalization as a rule but just throwing some pocket money at the problem isnt the solution

[burinazar]

:( patheticposting

nearly literally reduced to tears rn by how overwhelmingly it feels like nobody cares what I make or like or think about and how meaningless any of my creativity and love and effort is

[smute]

big epiphany you guys. big. huge.

#cliffnotes for context: smute almost finish masters. smute think oh‚ maybe phd not crazy wacko shit‚ maybe i can try #but smute also low self esteem. with any small setback - smute think oh what is point. smute bound to fail #problem is: smute genuine self doubt = smute quotidian frustration #ok normal english now #so thats what i realized today. a lot of the ''small'' things i dream of (financial independence‚ a nice little apartment etc) are #expressions of some low level frustration with my nomadic broke student life #rather than genuine desires. and as dumb or as #duh #obvious as that may sound rn #its actually huge for me that i was able to recognize the difference today #this question of what i will do after i graduate has been haunting me for the past year #and i am now realizing that a lot of my own arguments have nothing to do with what i want #just because they're things i don't currently have doesn't mean they would be fulfilling #and #again. duh. #but like. between this debilitating self doubt and certain external pressures 🤨 it was hard to see the difference #anyway i basically just explored some alternative scenarios today #like specific scenarios. went on indeed found some really good stuff and tried to imagine my life a year from now if i took this or that jo #and the end result was that i fucking hated it. they were all great options on paper but the takeaway was that i would never forgive myself #if i didnt give this a try. if i prioritized some vague notion of independence or this idea of ''settling down'' or whatever the fuck #over the one thing that ive got going for me #like i still don't know if the academic path will be any more fulfilling than some other job #god knows my entire academic career so far has been an insane uphill battle. but it's also been so fucking rewarding. like nothing else #and i also still dont know how genuine this wish is #if it's not maybe still about proving myself to some imaginary authority #but like. how long can you psychoanalyze yourself before your goddamn head explodes #no matter how pure my motivation is im beginning to understand that i dont want this to be the end of the road #and maybe that's enough #&

[apricote]

officially done with act 2 time for baldur's gate!!!

#everything will be new for me from this point on hehe #i had problems last time because i got instakilled for being underleveled lmao #but now i'm halfway to level 10 and had no trouble fighting ketheric at all #last time i just tried to keep someone alive long enough for the nightsong defeat him sjskaksksj #i LOVE playing as a paladin it's a lot more fun than a sorcerer #because you get to have a huge sword and sexy heavy armor <3 #also i just adore my tav sirius so much as a character and feel connected to him #anyway!!! yay act 3!!!!! #💬 #bg3 ramblings

[orionsangel86]

Every day I am reminded how spoiled I was in SPN fandom for the amazing amount of creative work that was shared over the years. The reason the SPN fandom is infamous for having a gif for everything is because talented individuals spent years of their lives devoting their time to giffing every single second of that show. I remember in the week following each new episode airing there would be hundreds of new gifsets circulating on tumblr documenting every single scene in the episode. It was wonderful.

I wish we had that for other fandoms. The Sandman is a beautiful show and if I had the skills and the knowledge I would gif every second of it myself, but I don't.

If you are a Sandman gifmaker please tag me in your gifsets. I will reblog them over and over again I promise you. I wish modern tumblr was more like old school tumblr, where creativity was applauded and people reblogged everything.

#the sandman #gifmakers #gifmakers are gifts to fandom #and they often dont get the same level of respect as fanartists and fanfiction writers #because ppl dont realise the level of work that goes into giffing #i miss old tumblr for that #i worry that giffing is a dying art #i dont see anywhere near as many gifsets for new fandoms as i did for the older ones #even ofmd didnt have a lot of gifsets circulating and that had a huge fandom #sigh #fandom problems

[sevens-evan]

something that's really starting to bother me abt elden ring is how many bosses have like. That One Attack that's just wildly unfair/undodgeable/possibly oneshots you. like of the two (2) bosses i disliked in bloodborne, one was ebrietas who i disliked specifically because it has a grab attack that oneshots you. and it's very annoying to see fromsoft leaning into that kind of artificial, unfair difficulty when the real difficulty is so much more interesting

#evan plays elden ring #like a HUGE problem with demon souls and ds1 is how much of the difficulty is kind of bullshit #is o&s hard or is it just a matter of running in circles and waiting for rng. #is shrine of storms good level design or are there just five skeletons in a corridor you can't swing your sword in #y'know? #and then bloodborne is so fucking good because the difficulty is Earned #even orphan of kos like. the attacks are All telegraphed and dodgeable/parryable #it's incredibly fucking hard but it's not bullshit #whereas i was fighting the big skull scorpion guy in elden ring earlier #whatshisname firstborn of the whatever #his grab attack Is bullshit #so is margit's dagger move #idk it's just very disappointing to see #bloodborne feels in a lot of ways like the Pinnacle of their games (that i've played) #and idk why they would backtrack from that

[shiroselia]

Thinking many a thought about how SSE consistently invalidate their own systems and claim they’re “Updating them” when they’re. actually just. regressing them??

(Vagueing the fact that appaarently horses will now hit “peak performance” at lvl 13, invalidating the two last levels, lvl 14 and 15, that have been implemented since, 2012? 2013? And as far as I can tell there’s Absolutely nothing on those last two levels that a player would have as an insentive to even bother so. why. tf. do they still exist? Like dude you’re reverting this system a whole decade in a sense, why do the last two levels still exist if they don’t mean anything to the player at all??)

#If something doesn't have a use it is not fucking useful and Should Not Exist To Begin With! #If you as a video game have something in your game which serves absolutely zero purpose that is a BIG FUCKING PROBLEM #And this is AN INTENTIONAL CHANGE???? #Surely the plan is to add something to those levels later but what the hell is going to be more lucrative and insentive #than #Hey you're faster and quicker now #And even then maybe that should be communicated cause now they're just looking incompetent #Hate to break it to you SSE but #Oh it looks nice to have a finished leveled horse #Is not making your questionable game design look better here #Cause like that's the only plausible explanation Right Now I can imagine because #There MIGHT be something in the future is #Not important to the now #Especially when it's a feature that you're putting a Lot of effort into making a big deal out of #And that already is having Huge issues allover with regressing previous systems and locking previously #free content behind grinding that Really shouldn't be there #Or well no it isn't even free cause you Pay Extra for gaits and moves btw #Hi can you tell I fucking hate the horse progression system? #Saying consistently because some of us haven't forgotten Halloween 2022 #I'm watching you SSE #Twice is a coincidence #Don't make it a pattern

[fingertipsmp3]

Ah yes, my favourite time of year: the time when we figure out what the hell to get my grandma for her birthday

#it isn’t until august but it requires careful planning in advance #the woman is.. particular. about her tastes. and she is VERY vocal if she doesn’t like something #yes even if it’s a gift #she can legit be so rude.. she told the sales assistant in a car dealership ‘i don’t like coffee from these places’ #like ma’am what the hell does that MEAN #but she’s also the only reason i have any level of financial security. she helps me out a lot and i do love her even though she’s ridiculous #so we (me and my mom) have got to figure out what to get for her. especially since my uncle (only other descendant) is useless #he is going to give her a card and some random item someone gave him that he doesn’t want. guaranteed. #best case scenario is that it might be edible. worst case scenario it’s a repeat of the ugly bird clock incident of 2020 #(my granddad got rid of that thing by giving it to a recently bereaved neighbour. as if they didn’t already have enough problems) #anyway. so my usual go-to is to buy her jewellery of some kind but i’ve sort of bought myself into a hole with that #because she absolutely loves the bee necklace i bought her for mother’s day last year and hasn’t stopped wearing it since #and she also keeps wearing the opal earrings from christmas. so i’m a bit like.. what do i do now #my mom suggests ‘book’ but my grandma reads more than anybody and neither of us volunteer at the library anymore #so we can’t find out What she’s reading without committing a comedy heist or possibly bribing my old supervisor #i’m in favour of picking a random slightly lesser-known murder mystery author; or maybe buying her the new ruth ware since we know for sure #she’s never read ruth ware & she’d probably like her & also she can’t physically have read a book that’s not out yet #so. that. and probably some dark chocolates from her favourite chocolate shop #and i might knit her a case for her glasses since she really liked the one i made for mine and was making a huge fuss of it. idk though #i just want to do right by her since my uncle is an idiot and also she’s literally just bought me a trip to america. so. #i’ll think on it #personal

[serialunaliver]

there was a tiktok I made a while ago basically saying "your abusive ex boyfriend is more likely a misogynist than a narcissist" and while most people agreed some said I was victim blaming(?) and that I couldn't know what their ex is like, and while obviously I don't, every fucking person describing their narcissistic ex is describing a typical misogynist. ask yourself, is this behavior you associate with narcissism directed at women or does he treat his male friends the same way? is his general functioning in life impaired?

many people don't seem to know this, but a mental disorder is NOT based on symptoms alone, it's based on how much the symptoms actually impair you in daily life. most people could look at a list of mental disorder symptoms and identify either themselves or someone else with them. as far as a narcissistic personality, we all know people who appear more self absorbed than others, but this is typically subclinical narcissism (presence of narcissistic traits without significant impairment of functioning) which is not a disorder. there is also a misunderstanding of what npd is. a narcissist is not a supervillain invincible to emotion. npd is a defensive reaction to trauma that lead to deep insecurity and fear of being seen as weak or vulnerable. so narcissists aren't actually "in love with themselves" at all and often are diagnosed when seeking help for other issues such as substance abuse resulting from their struggles.

this focus a lot of abused women in online pop psychology have on narcissism is particularly concerning because it completely glosses over misogyny which is literally a huge factor in violence against women. people really only know misogyny as a surface level thing. they don't know it can lead to family annihilation, for example, and is one reason most family annihilations are committed by the husband. it's always "this man is a sociopath" "this man is a narcissist" when the man's behavior is driven by ideology. I am so fucking tired of everything being tied to mental illness and left at that. you know what this leads to? courts "fixing" abusive men by...giving them anger management therapy. guess what? it doesn't fucking do anything because the problem isn't mental instability leading to anger, it's targeted, purposeful abuse. we are getting nowhere

[thewritingpossum]

the way i don't want to do that one paper on tolkien...

#that's the one paper worth 5% that i'm seriously considering just not doing lmao #like my opinion on tolkien's work has always been positive leaning indifference #but this one prof is pushing it so hard down our throat that it kinda makes me resent the poor man even if it's very unfair #like i get it dude tolkien is your god and your hero i can respect that but i still don't care! #btw i know a lot of my mutuals are huge tolkien fans (probably on my prof level tbh) and i have absolutely no problem with that #like why would i? #i'm just sick of talking about him in class #like it makes sense that he would be mentionned in the context of this particular class but we don't need to go on and on and on about him #last class he and two students spent like 5 to 7 minutes talking about some lotr video game thing and i was sitting there like... #i'm paying for this shit smh

[friendshiptothemax]

I was on a plane this weekend, and I was chatting with the woman sitting next to me about an upcoming writer’s strike. “Do you really think you’re mistreated?” she asked me.

That’s not the issue at stake here. Let me tell you a little something about “minirooms.”

Minirooms are a way of television writing that is becoming more common. Basically, the studio will hire a small group of writers, 3-6 or so, and employ them for just a few weeks. In those few weeks (six weeks seem to be common), they have to hurriedly figure out as much about the show as they can -- characters, plots, outlines for episodes. Then at the end of the six weeks, all the writers are fired except for the showrunner, who has to write the entire series themselves based on the outlines.

This is not a widespread practice, but it has become more common over the past couple of years. Studios like it because instead of paying for a full room for the full length of the show, they just pay a handful of writers for a fraction of the show. It’s not a huge problem now, but the WGA only gets the chance to make rules every three years -- if we let this go for another three years and it becomes the norm? That would be DEVASTATING for the tv writing profession.

Do I feel like I’m mistreated? No. I LOVE my job! But in a world of minirooms, there is no place for someone like me -- a mid-level writer who makes a decent living working on someone else’s show (I’d like to be a showrunner someday, but for now I feel like I still have a lot to learn, and my husband and I are trying to start a family so I like not being support rather than the leader for now). In a miniroom, there are only two levels -- the handful of glorified idea people who are already scrambling to find their next show because you can’t make a decent living off of one six-week job (and since there are fewer people per room, there are fewer jobs overall, even at the six-week amount), and the overworked, stressed as fuck showrunner who is going to have to write the entire thing themselves. Besides being bad for me making a living, I also just think it’s plain bad for television as an art form -- what I like about TV is how adaptable it is, how a whole group of people come together to tell a story better than what any of them could do on their own. Plus the showrunner can’t do their best work under all of that pressure, episode after episode, back to back. Minirooms just...fucking suck.

The WGA is proposing two things to fix this -- a rule that writers have to be employed for the entire show, and a rule tying the number of writers in the room to the number of episodes you have per season. I don’t think it’s unreasonable. It’s the way shows have run since the advent of television. It’s only in the last couple of years that this has become a new thing. It’s exploitative. It squeezes out everyone except showrunners and people who have the financial means to work only a few months a year. It makes television worse. And that is the issue in this strike that means everything to me, and that is why I voted yes on the strike authorization vote.

#writer's strike #wga #television writing

[prokopetz]

I think a lot of folks in indie RPG spaces misunderstand what's going on when people who've only ever played Dungeons & Dragons claim that indie RPGs are categorically "too complicated". Yes, it's sometimes the case that they're making the unjustified assumption that all games are as complicated as Dungeons & Dragons and shying away from the possibility of having to brave a steep learning cure a second time, but that's not the whole picture.

A big part of it is that there's a substantial chunk of the D&D fandom – not a majority by any means, but certainly a very significant minority – who are into D&D because they like its vibes or they enjoy its default setting or whatever, but they have no interest in actually playing the kind of game that D&D is... so they don't.

Oh, they'll show up at your table, and if you're very lucky they might even provide their own character sheet (though whether it adheres to the character creation guidelines is anyone's guess!), but their actual engagement with the process of play consists of dicking around until the GM tells them to roll some dice, then reporting what number they rolled and letting the GM figure out what that means.

Basically, they're putting the GM in the position of acting as their personal assistant, onto whom they can offload any parts of the process of play that they're not interested in – and for some players, that's essentially everything except the physical act of rolling the dice, made possible by the fact most of D&D's mechanics are either GM-facing or amenable to being treated as such.*

Now, let's take this player and present them with a game whose design is informed by a culture of play where mechanics are strongly player facing, often to the extent that the GM doesn't need to familiarise themselves with the players' character sheets and never rolls any dice, and... well, you can see where the wires get crossed, right?

And the worst part is that it's not these players' fault – not really. Heck, it's not even a problem with D&D as a system. The problem is D&D's marketing-decreed position as a universal entry-level game means that neither the text nor the culture of play are ever allowed to admit that it might be a bad fit for any player, so total disengagement from the processes of play has to be framed as a personal preference and not a sign of basic incompatibility between the kind of game a player wants to be playing and the kind of game they're actually playing.

(Of course, from the GM's perspective, having even one player who expects you to do all the work represents a huge increase to the GM's workload, let alone a whole group full of them – but we can't admit that, either, so we're left with a culture of play whose received wisdom holds that it's just normal for GMs to be constantly riding the ragged edge of creative burnout. Fun!)

* Which, to be clear, is not a flaw in itself; a rules-heavy game ideally needs a mechanism for introducing its processes of play gradually.

#gaming #tabletop roleplaying #tabletop rpgs #game design

[battywitch]

$300+ ANC over-ear headphones can't be that much better than under $200 ones... can they?

#i have sony wh-ch710n only because they were accidentally marked down about 90% lmao #but they malfunctioned for a few hours and i was almost ready to spend the like $300+ for some wh-1000xm4 or bose qc 45 or bose 700 #and damn the consequences of spending that disgusting amount #i thought i only had a minor problem with sounds until i got these #now i literally have them on almost all day every day whether I'm listening to something or not #and they've made a huge impact on my quality of life (more bearable anxiety levels and it's easier to focus etc) #but holy shit that is a LOT of money and especially for something that isn't a necessity #but my partner thinks it is a necessity for me because of how much they've helped #but damn i can not imagine the difference between the 710N or 720N being so extreme as to justify a $200 higher price tag