#but the joy of my friends enjoying my art far far far exceeds any joy I could get from a popular post

[baconpal]

pokemon isn’t for us anymore

ya that’s right it’s time for a daytime juvenile rant cus i’m angry and finally think i can put my thoughts to words, 

if you like the new pokemon then this isn’t really for you, cus pokemon is still for you. enjoy it while you can. otherwise click that read more

i’ll start by making my opinion and background immediately clear, so you have something to compare to and such. I loved Pokemon as a child, and for a long while afterward. I think the series’ highest moment was black and white in terms of art and story, and the gameplay was at its best in black and white 2. Gen 5 is also the gen where I have the most competitive experience. 

And my opinion is that every single thing that’s been shown of pokemon sword and shield is really, really bad. Not even as a hyperbolic statement of “wow i hate new thing!” but as a fan who wants nothing but for the series to realize its potential, not one thing they’ve done has made feel anything besides disgust and disappointment. But this is not a normal thing, this isn’t what everyone thinks, i’m not preaching to the choir by saying i hate sword and shield. I’m the contrarian, i’m the one whose saying shit nobody agrees with, and I’m the voice who will be ignored. And that’s because pokemon is no longer being made with someone like me in mind. 

The question then becomes, what is pokemon now? What did it used to be? What should it be?

POKEMON AS A BRAND

Pokemon today is not a game series. It’s a brand, a franchise, something that has weight simply by existing. Of course pokemon has been more than just games for forever, the shows, the toys, the side games, everything about it is marketable and marketed. But the main line games were separate from that to an extent. They were the new bits of source material thrown out into the world without concern for how it would all fit together. A video game was made first, and was then marketed to whoever would buy in whatever form hey wanted.

Today pokemon games themselves are a tailored product. People of today don’t care about the actual video game, many wont play it, and many won’t even realize when it comes out, but gamefreak doesn’t need the game itself to sell (though it will), they just want everyone on earth to know about pokemon and to be excited about it, it’s advertising for their brand. As long as people know pokemon exists and is out there, it will make money. 

So instead of holding their cards and releasing a video game to let people mess around in, the entire game is drip fed to us on social media before it’s even out. The days of korokoro leaks and blurry photos of pokemon are over, the discussion of what they might be or do is over, and a joy in the exploration of the unknown is gone. Instead, a trailer will be split up in to a chain of individual tweets, all tailored to be as easily digestible as possible. Videos or photos that require seconds of attention, and descriptions of characters and pokemon that make it easy to form a shallow attachment, enough to repost it and say “oh that’s so me” or “love this kind of character”, and that’s free advertisement. the kinds of people who live on social medias will translate genuine advertisements into a form of speak their friends will appreciate and thus engage with the advertisements further. The job is done and pokemon is making more money than ever. 

POKEMONS ART DIRECTION

Again, something many disagree with, the art is fucking awful in the new games. But that’s because its not art meant to impress me, an artist with his own design sense and standard of quality, the art only needs to be serviceable, enough for someone who can’t draw to appreciate. The standard of what will be accepted is never actually very high, but pokemon no longer makes any effort to exceed passable. Fanartists will be essentially forced to draw better versions of all their characters since pokemon is once again the hot new thing, so the actual quality of the original art will not be reflected in peoples perception. The model quality as also awful, every design manages to look even worse in motion and in game. But since the goal is not to make an enjoyable game, this is again not a problem. 

POKEMONS SETTING

This extends to the clothing the characters wear as well, but pokemon no longer is its own universe. It is doing all it can to act as if it takes place in the real world, and making the clothing its characters wear bastardized versions of modern aesthetics, instead of the unique and simple sudo-sporty aesthetic the other games had, where clothing was cohesive and sleek, looked fit for various kinds of weather, and seemed generally comfortable. The new gym leaders for example, wear horribly messing and unneeded sportswear based mostly on real life soccer clothing, but without any of the benefits, as they are also loaded with unneeded accessories that go in direct contrast to what they’re supposedly doing. Nessa is the worst offender to me (and what do you know she’s the most popular), compared to misty’s attempt at being part time swimmer part time trainer, nessa looks absolutely ridiculous, and not prepared to do either swimming or pokemon battles. She wears a swimsuit, but not an actual swimmer’s suit, and she’s covered in jewelry, accessories, makeup; things that would ruin any attempt to go swimming even casually. And yet she doesn’t look like she could comfortably go on an adventure or catch and raise pokemon. She is a bland aesthetic mess of what people want a cute swimmer girl to be.

Custom trainers are a whole different problem in that no game with custom characters actually has good ones. The best result you can have is funny looking characters, which is actually a pretty good goal, but gamefreak still wants everything to be samey and appeal to broad aesthetics so people can post their own characters and share some feeling of attachment. 

POKEMON THE VIDEO GAME

the quality of sword and shield from a technical standpoint is clearly very low, and this is one of the few things people have been willing to call out. The model quality hasn’t improved, the animations are sparse and bad. The wild areas are a mess and run terribly, the game crashed trying to handle multiplayer bosses live on stream. The national dex has been removed for literally no reason. The gyms have been completely gutted and reduced to just the fights (which are still nothing but bland checks for type advantage) and the new gimmick is just “make your guy strong” and is obviously best used in response to the opponent using it. the pokemon wonder around the open area and yet wild grass is still there, there’s no option to approach pokemon peacefully and capture like in let’s go, so even the few out there things they’ve tried aren’t going to be used in any meaningful way. But repeat after me, the game doesn’t matter! As far as gamefreak is concerned, the game could crash 40 minutes in and they would have done all they needed to do.

THE GOAL IN POKEMON

so i’ll end this stupid rant with something the new pokemon games don’t have, even the ones I really like don’t have em. Multiple goals to achieve, multiple ways to approach the game. Even the originals didn’t truly have multiple ways to play, but they started you off by presenting you multiple goals, which were tangled together to start but by the end of the game would become 2 very seperate things, becoming champion and completing the pokedex. Johto did it best, to complete one goal, you had to make a pretty good chunk of progress on the other, it was impossible to not “beat the game” if you actually wanted to accomplish either goal, but after that you were free to tie up whatever goals you had left. It was primitive and mostly meaningless, but it was there. The shows and the manga also put a lot of emphasis on the fact that every trainer can do something different, and their own ultimate goal is completely different from everyone else. 

The closest the games come now to this idea is having your rivals go off and do something else other than fight the elite 4. Some of them aren’t even actual rivals and just like pokemon, like lyra from HG/SS. But there is no pokemon game in which you, the player, are presented a goal other than to beat the game, winning the elite 4 and defeating some evil plot along the way.

For me, an ideal pokemon game would be about giving complete freedom, start off with some explanations of what all the possible goals are, completing the dex, becoming champion, winning all the contests, defeating the evil organization, exploring the world, anything. And once the player gets an idea of what they want to do, they’re set free into a world where they can find pokemon and do whatever they want, working towards whatever goal they want. Other aspects will naturally come into play, battling pokemon and making them stronger would help you catch more pokemon, learn moves for contests, explore more dangerous areas, beat stronger trainers. So no matter what goal you have, you’d still interact with many of the systems and areas in the game, and make progress on all goals at the same time, but ultimately feel satisfied when you accomplish your own, personal goals, instead of following the straight line gamefreak set for you.

Obviously that sort of thing will never happen. That’s just what I think pokemon has the potential to become, but pokemon isn’t made for me, anymore.

Thank you for reading.

#juvenile rant #pokemon swsh #pokemon #and ye that's that feel free to disagree but atleast take a moment to really think about what pokemon is to you

[destiginterviews-blog]

STAJ OLSON - IGNEOUS interview in DESTIG Magazine 

Tell us about yourself and background. I need something worth doing, because I find not doing things right to be intolerable. So, if my plan is to do it right, it must be worth pouring myself into. It cannot be a mundane reproduction or regurgitation, simple and easy might kill me. Simple and easy would probably be the hardest thing I ever tried to make myself do since it would be so insincere. If other people can do it better, why dedicate my time to it? I applaud them for their gifts, while searching for my own challenges and relevancy. ​ ​Tell us about your work. Once I have a worthy target, design (a sexy word for my concrete engineering) begins. These are the greatest days for me, challenging my own straw men, fleshing away anything that isn’t nailed down or doesn’t fight back. It’s a joy ride to chase the dragon holding onto its tail and not giving up until it is tired. In each functional art piece I create, my private satisfaction is to argue with the concrete about what will remain.   What makes your work and approach unique? Concrete is amazing. It holds onto its true nature and will not allow its character to be erased, only enhanced. Stubbornly I erase every mark or flaw that looks man made to me. This wonderful fight brings out the best qualities of the concrete. When changes can no longer be made, the concrete and I have come to a happy truce. Everything left is what was always meant to be. A wonderful collaboration between medium and artist, it will become anything I ask of it but concrete will always have terms and conditions, it leads me to the correct conclusions I just have to be willing to finish strong and stick with it to that very last moment. I wouldn’t have it any other way.   Why is your work a good investment? I have invested my life in learning the best industry practices known. I have applied years to R&D in this field to discern the limitations and potential. I approach every task as a fiduciary for the end user. Finishing strong is an obsession, a key component of who I am. Everything I make is not finished until it is heirloom or legacy quality that can affect the lives of my patrons for generations. Tell us about some of your achievements. I have discovered methods and means that allowed me to create “luxury concrete”. Luxury concrete, while living and embracing life is extremely resilient and difficult to damage. It is able to be maintained as is for generations. It can be as thin as 1/8 of an inch and I am pleased to have been able to innovatively incorporate many new advanced technologies. I have been blessed to be supported, welcomed and appreciated by those far above my starting point.   What are your sources of inspiration? The concrete inspires me, the way Bruce Lee advocates “be water my friend” and lists the qualities of water I bleed grey. No matter how much time I spend with concrete it’s potential still exceeds me, it encourages me to dream more, imagine more and attempt more. I deeply enjoy manipulating human interaction with light, water and sound.   What  you are passionate about? I am passionate about people, finding places I can make improvements to their lives. I believe we all exist with unique skill sets meant to better the lives around us. I am hurt by the concept of “sheeple” telling everyone to conform and be the same, deny their true gifts. I deeply desire to ​provide a path for myself and others to be genuine and considerate. I desire to create a corporate culture that encourages those around me to be themselves and provide their unique skills to improving others lives.   Tell us the back-story of some of your projects. The first free standing shower I created was an act of faith by my patrons over 6 years ago. Their faith in me was transformative. They shared a desire for me to recreate a slot canyon where they had fallen in love when they were children. From the stereo typical napkin sketch to the final unveiling the master piece was exactly what they wanted because they were allowed to walk the course with me for 28 days from tear out to first shower. The result is magnetic, when visitors glimpse this private space from the entryway they cease speaking and just walk towards it and start touching it. To have created something that calls so strongly to people is the highest compliment of my efforts.   Share with us your upcoming projects. I debuted my newly incorporated Bluetooth sound systems at WestEdge Design Fair in Santa Monica California. My displays allowed visitors to see, feel and hear these innovations personally. Everything about my craft beyond the aesthetics is challenging to convey when not in person. I deeply enjoy introducing everyone to unimagined improvements, and nearly unlimited potential. ​ Tell us about where you are based. My private studio is at my home in a high mountain valley near Bozeman Montana . . .it is transcendent. A wooded hillside, babbling stream with multiple waterfalls providing the music of life and an expansive grassy meadow. Day or night just stepping outside is a salve to whatever I am facing. Having the opportunity to be present in my family’s daily life, picnics or hikes at lunch with them is unashamedly the number one “why” for what I do now. ​ More images from this interview: https://www.destig.com/olson.html ​Website: igneousbath.com

#art #artists on tumblr #architecture #artist #awards #luxury #luxury bathroom #concrete #concrete bath #luxury bath