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ottogatto · 9 months

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I would like to submit two ideas because I think I'm poking something but not going in fully, so I would very much like your opinions and additions about it (of course, as long as they remain in good faith *side eyes possible antis viewing my post*).

Marauders and surface-level rebellion

I've finally put to words something that really bothered me with the Marauders, though I don't know the name for it.

It started when I read a reblog that said:

I remember Brennan saying “laws are just structured threats made by the ruling socioeconomic class” during an episode of D20 and we truly just had to stan immediately

This is something dear privileged white woman Rowling didn't realize/understand well, since she held a high socioeconomical status even during her """poverty""" stage. It's known that, despite seeming to be defending ideas of fighting against fascism and "pureblood" supremacy in favor of acceptance of the other, her books reek of colonialism/imperalism. The story of the Marauders, a gang of privileged boys like her, is an in-world replica of that problem where Rowling betrays yet again her actual mindset.

The Marauders adopt the "bad boys who break rules" to get style, while completely losing/staining the moral sense in it.

Let's take piracy.

Some people pirate stuff because they consider that the stuff they'd like to get comes from unethical companies that abuse their employees or use modern slavery, or people who spread harm against certain minorities (like Rowling against trans people and thus the LGBT+ community), so while they may want to access the content, they don't want to give them money and might even encourage pirating their stuff to make them lose money.

Some pirate stuff because otherwise it's lost due to unfortunate "terms of use" -- see video games companies like Ubisoft (deletes gaming account after a while), Nintendo (does not bring back old games), etc.

Others pirate stuff because they just don't have the money but they still want to try the stuff that might make them happy and forget that they're poor -- reasoning that the company isn't losing any money anyway, or not much, since they wouldn't have been able to pay for it in any case.

Others pirate stuff because they consider the price ridiculously high or they consider it shouldn't be something to pay for at all. (Like education stuff -- isn't education supposed to be free for all, so that it can actually uphold everyone's fundamental and unconditional ( = not conditioned by wealth...) right to have an education? Oh and before anyone asks: I've DEFINITELY bought the ~15 expensive books that's roughly worth 500€ in total and that my uni asked I buy to study and get my degree...)

Rowling's Marauders is a group that would pirate stuff just because they'd think it would give them an edge, because they'd think it would make them cool to be seen as "talented" hackers who "defy" companies. Companies... that their own friends and families would own, and as such, would find that kind of behavior funny and entertaining (while they would trash other people around for considering it).

Another example. In society, in history, it's been proven time and again that breaking rules -- going against the law -- is an eventuality that's important for everyone to consider, if they want to defend their rights. Anti-racism, feminism, LGBT Pride, etc, advanced because people broke rules. In USA states where abortion is currently being banned, women and minors (+ their close ones) must now consider breaking the rules to get an abortion. (Privileged people don't give a fuck about those people, and if they suddenly decide that (moral) rules don't apply to them and they will get an abortion, they will just take a plane ticket to a country where abortion is legal, fiddling with legal stuff if necessary thanks to the lawyers their fortunes can afford and the lobbies that they're instituting.)

Revolutions happened because people broke rules too. I particularly like the 1793 Constitution in France Because it asserts that the people have the right to break rules and riot if the power in place threatens their fundamental rights:

Article 35. - Quand le gouvernement viole les droits du peuple, l'insurrection est, pour le peuple et pour chaque portion du peuple, le plus sacré des droits et le plus indispensable des devoirs. Article 35. - When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of rights and the most essential of duties.

(Of course the power in place would state and enforce and make use of propaganda to say that it's completely illegal and illegetimate and that those who riot for legitimate rights are terrorists!)

Breaking rules is at the core of anti-fascism, anti-dictatorship, anti-totalitarianism. Breaking rules is essential when those rules are abusive. Too often, those who put those rules in place really are only setting their rules of the game to establish their power over the others. Or as the reblog says: "laws are just structured threats made by the ruling socioeconomic class".

Rowling's Marauders break rules because they are the socioeconomical class in power. As such, no one can do anything about it, no one will really tell them down for it. They get excused and justified and romanticized by their peers, just like billionaires & politicians are excused by their peers and notably mainstream media (which is owned... by other billionaires). They break rules -- not because they think it's necessary and the morally right thing to do despite the dangers it puts them in -- but because it makes them feel powerful, important, invincible, which for them is very fun. As Snape says: James and his cronies broke rules because they thought themselves above them:

“Your father didn’t set much store by rules either,” Snape went on, pressing his advantage, his thin face full of malice. “Rules were for lesser mortals, not Quidditch Cup-winners. [...]”

They break rules because they're allowed to.

Which is why, in reality, the Marauders aren't really breaking rules or defying anything or opposing an actual big threat. They're a bunch of jocks who are having fun in the playground that's been attributed to them thanks to their status and family heritage (others wouldn't get the same indulgence because they don't get that privilege).

They break rules because they want to look cool, to be the "bad boys". The message has been compleyely botched. Especially with Lily actually finding this hot.

Because Rowling finds this hot:

[...] I shook hands with a woman who leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, 'Sirius Black is sexy, right?' And yes, of course she was right, as the Immeritus club know. The best-looking, most rebellious, most dangerous of the four marauders... and to answer one burning question on the discussion boards, his eyes are grey.

(Anyone has an eyes washing station?)

Another quote:

"Sirius was too busy being a big rebel to get married."

(Nevermind the eyes washing, anyone's got some bleach instead?)

Stanning James Potter for being the leader of a gang that prides itself on breaking rules and always getting away with it -- it feels like stanning Elon Musk for being "innovative" and "a daring entrepreneur" despite being a manchild who exploits workers and modern-world slavery to play with his billions while always getting away with it.

They're not being "rebels" -- they're being bullies and flexing the fact they can get away with it thanks to abundance of privilege. Those are the tastes of a posh British white woman. She wanted the facade -- not the substance (that is, if she ever understood it).

You might say that they did oppose a big threat, the Death Eaters, but again, it's botched because:

they target a lonely, unpopular boy who's best friends with a Muggleborn Gryffindor, rather than baby Death Eaters like Mulciber, Lucius, Rosier, Avery, Regulus, etc.

The leader sexually harasses the Muggleborn Gryffindor because he's sexually jealous of the unpopular boy who dared not take the insult about his chosen House and shut up. Lily is treated as an object, they don't listen to her, and they barely speak about her later. (Lots to say to show that, which I won't do here because this is not the main subject.)

When the Marauders do join the Order, they do it... because they primarily want to adopt a rock-n-roll style and play the "bad boys" again. Or at least that's the message that's given to the reader:

They seemed to be in their late teens. The one who had been driving had long black hair; his insolent good looks reminded Fisher unpleasantly of his daughter's guitar-playing, layabout boyfriend. The second boy also had black hair, though his was short and stuck up in all directions; he wore glasses and a broad grin. Both were dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with a large golden bird; the emblem, no doubt, of some deafening, tuneless rock band.

(God, the Prequel is so cringy.)

They don't choose Dumbledore as the Secret Keeper, they don't tell him they changed to Pettigrew -- even though he literally was their war leader -- James uses the Cape to fuck around even though he was supposed to be hiding with Lily and then Harry (until Dumbledore takes the Cape from him)... and eventually, their group exploded, with James killed off, Sirius thrown to Azkaban, Peter (the traitor) hiding as a rat and Lupin going off to find jobs to survive.

Why did that happen? Because they thought of playing their part in the Order like going on a teenage adventure rather than engaging in a resistance organization. It was, first and foremost, about playing "the bad boys" and having fun.

(Harry half-inherits this. While he doesn't break rules just to look cool, and actually has several moments where he does break rules because it's the right thing to do -- like under Umbridge or, of course, when Voldemort takes power -- he does often get pampered when he breaks them in his earlier years. By Dumbledore, but also McGonagall, however much Rowling tries to sell her as a "strict but fair" teacher. Or by Slughorn, now that I think about it. That's something that enraged Snape, as it brought up memories of Harry's father -- Snape's own bully -- getting the same treatment.)

It's not a coincidence that Rowling not only failed to properly convey through the Marauders the true value of breaking rules, but also lusted over them for adopting that "bad boys" trope. It speaks to her own privilege -- she who never had to put herself in danger and go against the law in a risky attempt to protect herself or other less privileged people.

(Here's a useful read to expand on those worldbuilding issues.)

2. Dark Magic, obscurantism and conservatism

For context: Opinion: The Dark Magic/Light Magic Dichotomy is Nonsense (by pet_genius).

The idea of "Dark Magic" as something that's repeatedly told to be "evil" magic and where you cross the line of the forbidden, while hardly putting in question that notion that was (for some reason) enforced by wizard society, is another blatant example of Rowling betraying her mindset of privileged British white woman.

Rowling couldn't put herself in the minds of a society of "outcasts (witches & wizards) deeply enough to consider they would not see any magic as "Dark" at all (being a ""Muggle"" concept), or that Dark magic is only magic that requires something unvaluable to be traded off -- like one's soul or health or life or sanity. Instead, she has Dark Magic defined as "evil" magic, even though her own books show that you can do evil stuff with normal magic, and that you can do morally good stuff with Dark magic. This thing happened because Rowling could not think past her own little world and instead she poured a conservatist mentality (+ typical "Muggle", anti-witch prejudice) into the HP (wizard society) worldbuilding without considering that there could, in fact, be fundamental differences between the two worlds that include thinking of magic differently. (This has a lot to do with Rowling's wizard world being a pro-imperalism fest.)

"Dark Magic" feels like a lazy, badly-executed plot device to tell the reader who's a good guy and who is not. Because of course, that's how things work in real-life, huh… (Did she ever hear of "don't tell, show"?) It's used as an excuse to define who's evil (teen Severus) or not (James), who's worthy or not -- not how their magic was used. Which is a BIG problem:

“I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” The intensity of his gaze made her blush. “They don’t use Dark Magic, though.” / “Scourgify!” Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape’s mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him —

Even worse, Rowling doesn't follow her own in-world moral framework. Dark magic is acceptable for some people (Rowling's partial self-inserts: Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione to Marietta...) but not for those that Rowling hates (Snape, who ironically represents the closest thing to rebelling by unapologetically obsessing over the Dark Arts). Again, this is at best unadressed in-world hypocrisy, at worst an expression of in-world and out-universe privilege (I get to do this and stay a good guy, but you don't).

There could have easily been rightful criticism of whatever could be defined as "Dark Magic". What if Dark magic was just something defined as "Dark" usually because the power in place doesn't want the people to touch it? Is abortion or contraception or a sex-altering or a goverment-threatening spell, Dark Magic? Is foreign or ethnicity-specific or female-centered or queer-centered magic, "Dark"? How about showing why (Muggle-raised but also neurodivergent) Severus thought Dark magic was so great, showing his point of view, while also establishing where the true limits are? If Lily can't be the one who sees past the "fear-mongering anti-intellectualism/propaganda", how about Harry being the one who does, thanks to him relating to Snape on a personal level? How about making Hermione go from someone who condems Dark Magic, to someone who entirely changes her point of view and understands that this is all bullshit -- effectively showing the dangers of only following what the books say, without putting them into question or thinking by yourself? How about a nuanced view of Dark magic as something that requires a significant sacrifice, which is conceivable for something they see as equally or even more important [Lily's life for Harry; Snape's soul integrity for Dumbledore]? How about making the Death Eaters, people who deviate that legitimate interest, rather than just evil guys who thrive in Dark magic for its supposed added evilness? How about showing that Dark magic was just a notion invented by Muggles to throw "witches" (real or not) to the burning stakes -- later taken by the witches and wizards in power to define, in the magical community, what was okay or definitely forbidden because it's the trademark of those who represent a threat to the magical community (understand: people who riot or strike or protest against the ruling socioeconomical class' politics)?

But there was none of that.

"Dark" magic in HP merely seems to be a weird concept that at best accidentally takes the form of an in-world obscurantism, at worst is just the trademark of someone who cannot imagine a "hunted, ostracized" community with a different culture and mindset than her own. Aggravating is the fact that she used "Dark magic" as a plot device to magically cast some people as good and others as never bad – again, probably reflecting her own questionable mentality.

The fact Rowlnig invented the notion of Dark Magic and had her world consider it seriously as an evil thing instead of being open-minded seems to be less telling of her wishes to show a wizard society that can be as prejudiced as the muggle one, and more of her own bizarre world where you must be evil if you are knowledgeable in or interested in certain "taboo" things (RIP neurodivergents).

Rowling glorifies the Trio and the Marauders for breaking rules. Yet when it comes to actually breaking expectations and norms, notably in the wizarding society -- like the use of another magical species as slaves, or the blatant anti-Muggle prejudice held by everyone including "good guys" (or anti-centaur while we're at it), or stupid anti-knowledge prejudice like "Dark magic is evil" -- there is none of that. At best, it's surface-level opposition that comes out as white savior syndrome. At worst, the protagonists make it their noble code to enforce those norms, and "sinful" characters (Snape, for one) are punished for not conforming. Too often, those sinful characters are punished by the "good guys" with the very thing that they apparently oppose so fervently.

Without ever adressing the fact that those characters were ("morally") allowed to do that because it was just, in the end, a matter of who gets the privilege to do that, and who does not.

There.

Do you have anything to say to develop on those ideas? I feel like I'm reaching my knowledge limit and I'd like to see if those ideas can be expanded.

#pro snape #severus snape #harry potter #dark magic #sectumsempra #anti marauders #anti jkr #fuck jkr #classism #imperalism #colonialism #hp #hp books #hp prequel #obscurantism #bad boys #piracy #virtue signaling

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shuttershocky · 6 months

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Who the closest R6 has for a medic? And how would they translate into AK.

I kinda want one for a more balanced full R6 squad

Rainbow has three medics actually!

This is Doc. Armed with a dartgun that heals allies (and even enemies if you shoot them for some reason), Doc's got a long and infamous history of toxic gameplay in Siege lol.

You see, Doc doesn't heal you, not really. He boosts you. That means if you have full health, Doc can boost you beyond that. This meant that Doc and the tankiest guy on the Defender team (usually Rook) would often wait next to the doors or windows for round start, then Doc boosts himself and his ally and they run into the enemy spawn guns blazing to take down as many of the Attackers as they can before going down in a blaze of glory. This shit was incredibly fun (I did it a lot) but was also toxic as fuck, so Ubisoft nerfed the hell out of runouts lmao.

Doc's gun can also coax allies who are down but not out. Under certain conditions, an operator can be KO'd but not killed. Doc can boost them to bring them back up. He can even do it to enemies! One of my friends would go over to a knocked out enemy, revive them, then shoot them as they woke up just for the memes.

Doc in Arknights could be a medic that creates a DBNO (down but not out) state for allies, like when they are knocked out in SSS. Activating his skill could revive them to half health. However, he only has 3 shots of the skill before he has to retreat, making him a poor choice if the ally gets knocked out easily.

Now this is Finka. In a plot straight out of Metal Gear Solid 4, Finka injected every Rainbow member with nanomachines that she controls, enhancing their physical strength, boosting them with adrenaline, healing their wounds, and reviving all DBNO allies across the map. Before this was changed, she even removed recoil from all her allies temporarily. I never played Finka myself, as my friends would complain the nanomachines removing recoil would fuck up their aim.

Finka sounds like an Abjurer to me more than a medic, but it's still a healer class!

And finally there's Thunderbird. Unlike the others who keep their healing gadget on them, Thunderbird puts down a sentry gun that shoots heals at nearby allies instead, allowing Defenders to barricade themselves in a room under heavy fire and sustain repeatedly as long as they don't get headshot, or provide a heal to passing roamers who took some hits while flanking the enemy.

We already have a medic with a deployable heal in Silence. Thunderbird could be an alternate take where the healing drone doesn't go away, but actually has to attack and only heals on ally at a time rather than in an AOE. Thunderbird could also be an Artificer whose deployable comes with a heal for allies.

#arknights

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jiniwae · 5 months

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According to LoreMaster (the person on the Just dance team who answers the lore of some dances) Chitsuki (Kill Bill) possessed Michiya (Zenit) to purify his soul. Night Swan probably learned from Chitsuki how to have coaches

I really like the lore in general, so when I saw the story of 24 I was very happy, but at the same time with a feeling of trepidation And honestly, I hope the ending is a season, I don't want to wait a whole year to see how it ends -

WE ALL KNOW THAT DISCOBALL IS THE MONITOR NANNY THAT TRAVELLER MADE TO MONITOR WANDERLUST, AND AT THE END OF CANNED HEAT NIGHT SWAN TAKES CONTROL OF DISCOBALL AND STARTED MONITORING THE OTHER JUST DANCERS

I think that in Just Dance 2025, Jack Rose will somehow try to contact Wanderlust's father (since Traveler can travel through the Danceverse) to warn him of what happened to his son and they will both go after the mother of Wanderlust and a few other Just dancers.

I still think that if wanderlust's parents stay together for too long their power could collapse the danceverse they are in (which didn't even almost happen in save your tears)

I literally couldn't sleep with this hook that Ubisoft made in JD2024. I imagine that in JD2025, Jack Rose will actually be able to find someone to help him save everyone. But here come two of my theories: Either the story ends in JD2025, or Ubisoft makes another cliffhanger in JD2025, continuing the end of the story only in JD2026. That's what I say

I had understood from the director's interview with Dina that she tore up the poster at the beginning because only she and Nightswan have the ability to use flow, but Nightswan decided to use this for evil, which disappointed Mihaly, implying For me too, in the past they were united in some way

I think that Night Swan was actually famous in the Danceverse, and that's why Jack rose there has this desire to be famous, because his mother inspired him by being

famous

I have to say the betas Sweet Dreams and Lose Yourself that were removed would have gone well with the lore

PARALLELS BETWEEN SWAN LAKE AND JUST DANCE 2024

-Usually, Odette (white swan) and Odille (black swan) are played by the same dancer. Sara and Night Swan are played by the same dancer

-The wizard Rothbart bewitched Odette to become a swan. In you should see me in a crown, Night Swan bewitched Sara to become evil

-It might just be a coincidence, but Sara has four letters and starts with "S" (swan)

-Sara in Hebrew means "lady, princess, noble woman". Odette is a princess

-Odille pretended to be Odette to deceive Prince Siegfried and get his hand in marriage. In Canned Heat, Night Swan pretended to be Sara to trick Wanderlust (who also has the title of prince) and steal the Discoball.

DEPENDING ON THE VERSION, SWAN LAKE HAS DIFFERENT ENDINGS (from the saddest to the happiest):

Ending 1-Siegfried dies trying to defeat Rothbart and Odette remains with the swan curse forever

Ending 2-Odette and Siegfried drown together, their souls are freed from the curse and they can finally be together in the afterlife

Ending 3-Siegfried defeats Rothbart, Odette has her curse broken and they get married

Which ending do you think you will choose for Just Dance 2025?

I would choose 3, the happiest ending. Night Swan defeated once and for all, the Danceverses at peace, and Wanderlust abdicating his responsibilities as the

"Chosen" to live happily on Earth with Sara.

So, I think a song that would go super well with some music for 25's lore would be 'Swan Song' by Dua Lipa, it would be awesome

Yesssss! This song is an anthem, one that Ubisoft could use. I imagine it as being a new solo map for Siha Nova, sad and horrified by what happened with Wanderlust but little by little finding the courage to face her own son and break Night Swan's spell over him.

I still can't believe that the rock your body coach brutalized the levitation coach and left

Went to get a cigarette and disappeared lol

Next year the story should start with lose yourself and after this song he tries to recruit more people in eternyx even maybe

think that in jd25 the first two songs will show that jack rose became a drug dealer lol with lose yourself and the next one (or even before lose yourself) is sweet dreams showing the past of night swan and the next ones I don't know

which is also part of the story, but this song is the beginning of the future, so I don't know if it will be in the continuation of the next game or if it is part of this one, because there are also 2 more songs from the lore

I saw a theory that says that in Just Dance 2025, Jack Rose will save the other coaches with the help of The Traveler (Rock Your Body) and Si'Ha Nova (Levitating). Or maybe with a new coach maybe Jack's father

speaking of which, another theory is that Jack Rose's father is Crimson (Sail).

-They both have red hair

-They have similar dance moves (Jack may have learned from his father)

-Probably he and Night Swan had a very troubled relationship and they separated....

I have a theory that's a little heavy but it's valid, at the beginning of sail Crimson wakes up tied to the ground and following this theory maybe the night swan trapped him in the boat and also towards the end of Sail the boat starts to pick up and he wasn't the one who put it since he was dancing so maybe the night swan wanted to kill her own

what happened to Night Swan trying to kill her own husband?

I think it's because Crimson and Night Swan had different dreams and goals and he didn't agree with her plans to dominate the

Danceverses and create a perfect universe

What I think could happen: Jack Rose finds three more powerful coaches to defeat Night Swan

I've seen two theories:

-The Traveler (Rock Your Body) and Si'Ha Nova (Levitating) will help Jack

-Jack will have the help of his father (probably Crimson de Sail, but it has not been confirmed until now who his father is)

I think Wonderley's father will come back The way Ubi likes to recycle, they will probably come back

#jd si’ha nova #jd the traveler #just dance 2024 #just dance 2023 #just dance 2022 #jd wanderlust #jd mihaly #jd sara #jd brezziana #jack rose jd

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raylex · 7 months

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obviously, this is pure speculation - we won't know for sure until the show is out. but...

this is a ridiculous thing to fear and I'm terrified of coming across as dumb or overdramatic for it but I just need to get off my chest that I'm slowly coming to the realization that, when the producers of laserhawk spoke to ubisoft about 'are you sure we can do this with rayman', combined with the whole setting, every other ubisoft ip, and knowing the animation studio, bobbypills, I know they're not gonna shy away from gore, characters WILL die, and that's gotten me to start fearing. oh god are they gonna kill rayman off. especially seeing as more than likely he's a villain/bad guy. that seems to be the main speculation of the fandom, too; that rayman is gonna die.

it didn't really bother me much at first, but I've been thinking more about it and I. know for a fact if that happens it's gonna take a serious emotional toll on me. I've never been so in love with a character before, he's literally my soulmate, if I have to watch him get killed off on screen I don't know how I'll react… but it probably. won't be great.

I know captain laserhawk is just an au and a huge mishmash of ubisoft properties and ips and it has nothing to do with any of the franchises' actual canons but, still… that IS a version of rayman. even from another universe, that's still the love of my life. ;w;

again, again, we don't know for sure if they're gonna kill him off - who knows, maybe the whole 'can we really do this with rayman' thing is related to just him being a villain in general, or I dunno, nsfw scenes (lol), again it's bobbypills so who knows 😆 but once again I have no doubt in my mind there will be a ton of violence and gore... not a squick for me personally, but I just really don't want to have to see my husband in such a potential state! 😭

#nevertheless I'm still SUPER hyped for this show please don't get me wrong!#self ship #💜☀️ray of sunshine☀️💜#mine

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itbe-jess · 6 months

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So out of curiosity, I've decided to watch Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. Here are my thoughts:

The following contains spoilers!

The Pros:

I will admit. The show does have a beautiful art style. I loved all the neon, cyberpunk landscapes. They even threw in some clever video game styled gags.

And I'm also relieved that Rayman didn't turn out to be the greedy, alt-right dictator as I thought he would be. He's the same nice guy. The reason why he started out as a bootlicking TV personality, spreading false propaganda on the rebellious heroes, was because Eden gave him a pedestal, and a place to call home. It's understandable as to why he would fall under their influence. He felt that if he did his job as told, they would continue pleasing his desire to be heard out to the public, all while not providing him the full truth. I loved how his life before fame kinda represented how Ubisoft left him in the shadows for so long, despite his potential. I could really feel his pain.

It was fun seeing Rayman do mundae adult stuff, such as drinking, swearing, drug use, and sexual acts. (I'm sure eating sushi off of a naked human cow hybrid lady counts.) But the most satisfying thing to watch is Rayman turning back to his heroic instincts in the end. Go get 'em, Ramon!

The Cons:

We all know Ubisoft is obsessed with capitalizing adult themes. The edgy factor is explosive diarrhea here. Just about every scene includes swearing, violence, yada yada yada. The show even pulled a "Bury Your Gays." (Something I knew that would happen from the start) Look, Ubi, I know you wanna prove that your show isn't for kids, but you guys seemed to be overdoing it a tad too much. Everywhere, the edge is just shoved into your face.

Rayman swearing is sexy, but the fact that I hear someone swear every second, it's become oversaturated too quickly. What am I watching here? Helluva Boss?

And Rayman shouldn't be wearing sleeves! ...or pants! I detest Rayman to wear pants. Alien? We all know damn well he's not an alien! The Rabbids, yeah, but Rayman is just Rayman! C'mon, Ubisoft, how could you forget how your own character works? Also note: He only uses his powers for one episode. ...during one scene. I don't know. This Rayman doesn't feel much like Rayman to me. Breaking into an Eden conference room with guns? I'm not saying he shouldn't get violent with them. He has every reason to, especially being used as their tool to hurt innocent lives, but they could've at least been more creative with his character. Like beat them to death with his telescopic fists, and slash them all with his hairicopter.

In Conclusion:

I'll admit: Needless to say, CL impressed me in some ways, but it's still another mediocre piece of media from Ubisoft. I will happen to stay tuned for the next season, though. However, my expectations of Ubisoft accepting criticism is very low.

#Rayman #video games #adult cartoons #Netflix #review #Spoilers #Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix

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theconstitutionisgayculture · 4 months

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The far cry 5 confused me, like ever played Assassin Creed 3? Like they did a good job showing the difference between American ideals vs what Congress did.

Like they outed George Washington historical orders to burn down native villages during the Seven Years War and how Congress screwed over the natives after the revolution

But like there was a subset of side quests called the Homestead missions, that showed the American dream. People from different walks of life coming together to make something different, something better, second chances and such.

And journalists was surprised that the normal town folks wasn’t racist to you if your character was non white? I mean, they would be weary of you regardless of race or gender as you are a Marshall so still an outside. Also one of the first marketing for 5 had a black priest show he getting armed to protect his town from the cult

But…the game humanized American townsfolk better than Hollywood been doing for the past decade.

Like a parade of American gun control…despite a French Canadian company executing our ideas better our own entertainment industry.

When you have a chance can you answer this anon? I’m a black American and I thought they did it well.

I've played Assassin's Creed 3 and I didn't really like it, but AC3 really doesn't have anything to do with my point about Far Cry 5 other than providing more evidence of Ubisoft's political leanings.

Ubisoft is a French company run and staffed by mostly left wing people. When they make political statements in their work, those statements are always pushing the left wing side of an issue. Far Cry 5 is very clearly supposed to be a game making fun of rural, religious life and American gun culture. They have two different characters who are large parts of the story who exist solely to make fun of Southern Americans, one of whom is a blatant MAGA stand in. The other is that character's son, a stereotypical stupid redneck who only gets some character development beyond that when he starts going against his father's beliefs. The bad guys are all white and religious and mostly male, while the good guys are multicultural with a lot of female characters. The main character is a federal Marshall and it's that main character who is the catalyst for the good guys finally pushing back the cult. It's not too difficult to see the message there being something along the lines of "rural prepper types who pride themselves on being self-sufficient need the government's help to protect themselves". The intent with Far Cry 5 was very clearly, at least in part, to mock "right wing" ideals and American rural culture.

But what they actually ended up doing was writing a love letter to those ideals and that culture. They ended up portraying most rural folk as accepting and competent people who just want to be left alone to live their lives, and who will do the right thing when they come up against a difficult situation. They ended up illustrating why the second amendment is so important by showing how an armed populace is necessary for fighting against tyranny when the police/government/etc can't, or won't. And yes this tyranny was a cult and not the government, but the point still stands. The fact that Ubisoft ended up "executing our ideas better our own entertainment industry" was by accident because they really don't understand the issues they're commenting on. They're a bunch of left wing French people who have never experienced rural American right wing culture trying to portray that culture from within their own left wing echo chamber, while also needing to tone down the political commentary to sell a video game to the very people they're trying to mock. But even the mockery that does get through ends up backfiring when the metanarrative overrides the written narrative. They focus so hard on making their bad guys out to be right wing religious nuts that they don't realize they're making their good guys out to be a much more numerous population of normal right leaning people fighting back against the extremism on "their" side.

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teecupangel · 11 months

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Hey there!

I don't know if you take requests for character analyses (if you don't just ignore this), but I would really like to see your take on Desmond Miles since, for some reason, I can't really seem to wrap my head around him, which has resulted in me finding him almost boring, and I would like to remedy that.

I'm particularly interested in what you believe to be to be his biggest flaws and where they come from, since that's what usually compels me the most about a character, and also what I have trouble with finding in Desmond.

I’m fine with any analysis requests that get sent my way :)

Although, I do wonder if I’m the right person to analyze Desmond since character analysis is meant to be as nonbias as possible but I’m me and y’all know how much I love Desmond at this point. XD

I will do my best though but it is my duty to remind you that this analysis is written by someone who loves Desmond so, yeah, some of that love will bleed thru in this analysis.

Also, as this would get pretty long if I do a complete character analysis, I’ll focus on what compelled me to Desmond which, I believe, is connected to your question about what his flaws are and where they come from.

What compelled me to Desmond:

Nolan North’s Voice

He’s voiced by Nolan North and I’ve been in love with Nolan North’s voice since I played Spec Ops the Line. Haha, no, that’s half a joke and my obligatory “Nolan North fangirling” out of the way. Also, no joke, Nolan North was able to give Desmond a compelling voice that helped mold his character in my eyes and ears. I never once heard Desmond speak and thought "oh, that's Nathan Drake" which is funny since Nolan North uses similar voices for the two of them. With what he's given, Nolan North was able to make Desmond unique from his other characters, making him a charming and adorable dumbass with more depth than he usually shows.

Endless Potential

This was what compelled me to him because his part in the series felt like it was building for something more. If we were to believe what Nolan North said in this video (around the 33~34 minute mark), Desmond was meant to have a bigger part in the story. The ultimate Assassin with the ability to time travel, most probably to help change the past and tragedy of his ancestors and to usher in a brighter future for the Brotherhood and mankind. The one who will finally end the endless war between the Assassins and the Templars.

But then Ubisoft screwed that up and wasted Desmond’s potential.

But from their actions were born endless potential. For as long as there are fans who create new stories with Desmond in them, Desmond lives up to that endless potential. By destroying Desmond’s potential, Ubisoft unintentionally created a character with endless potential given to him by those who create stories where he is resurrected or never died in the first place.

And that endless potential is what brings new ideas and scenarios for our dear poor Desmond to get involved with. XD

Desmond and His Ancestors

Kenway-Patented Daddy Issues

So let’s start with Ratonhnhaké:ton because there are some people who say that Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton are quite similar to one another but, let’s be honest, most of those comparisons stem from their similar ‘tense’ relationship with their father. Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton mirror each other because of that relationship and they showed two contrasting ‘endings’:

Ratonhnhaké:ton had wanted to build a bridge between himself and his father but ended up killing Haytham because of their differences and their stubbornness to yield to the other’s wishes and demands.

On the other hand, Desmond let go of whatever animosity he felt for his father and made up with him in the end even though there have been hints of how deeply Bill mistreated his son (either thru neglect or actual abuse is up to interpretation) that should have been given more time to talk about than... two-ish voice messages.

This is more my opinion but Desmond forgiving his father and trying to make amends is because he wished to grant Ratonhnhaké:ton’s wish in some form. Perhaps even his Bleed of Ratonhnhaké:ton is the reason why he felt the desire to make amends because he’s seeing a lot of Haytham Kenway in Bill. In his Bleed-’corrupted’ mind, this could be counted as Ratonhnhaké:ton getting his wish.

The Legend Everyone Wants Him To Become

Lucy said it herself, they’re using the Bleeding Effect to jumpstart and cheat their way into making Desmond an Assassin. But is that really their end goal? Sure, Lucy had the ulterior motive of the Templars wanting to get the POE that had been under Ezio’s care but the Assassins themselves want Desmond to become an Assassin as quickly as possible.

We can even make an argument that they want Desmond to not be an Assassin like Ezio Auditore but to be Ezio Auditore.

Because Ezio Auditore was seen as a success story by the Assassins. They didn’t know how he had almost been so close to giving up the Creed during his later years, they didn’t know how he left the Brotherhood because he had enough…

They remember Ezio Auditore as this great man, this legend.

And the Bleeding Effect gave them the tool to try and recreate this legend in Desmond Miles.

Also, the way Lucy, Shaun, and Rebecca supported Desmond is similar to how Mario and the members of the Italian Brotherhood in AC2 supported Ezio.

In some ways, they were using Desmond/Ezio to get what they want. Desmond and Ezio are the ones risking their lives the most (either in the field where anything and everyone can kill him with Ezio or in a high-tech device that could destroy his mind with Desmond) while their allies kept information from them “until the time is right” (mostly Bill and, by extension, Lucy) and supported them from the shadows instead.

The Distorted Mirror

For me, Desmond is actually more of Altaïr’s foil and a distorted mirror image of Altaïr because:

Both of their mothers are quite the blank slate with Maud only known as a Christian member of the Levantine Brotherhood but never confirmed to be an actual Assassin while Desmond’s mother has never been officially called an Assassin, only a member of the Brotherhood like Maud.

Both were born and raised in Assassin ‘strongholds’, isolated from the rest of the world. How similar their upbringing was is open for interpretation but, considering how Desmond never talked about any specific children from the Farm and didn’t talk about his life as a bartender or any of his coworkers and the only person that treats Altaïr like an old friend was an informant in Damascus (if we do not count Rauf who looks like he’s friendly with everyone and Kadar who is more on the side of hero-worship for Altaïr than being a friend of equal grounds), we can safely assume they were both lonely (especially after Abbas and Altaïr’s friendship went to hell).

Both of them were trained to be Assassins at an early age but where Altaïr thrived and became one of the best Assassins in the Levantine Brotherhood (and, later on, in history), Desmond saw himself as a failure.

Speaking of which, they both have father figures who trained them to be Assassins but where Al Mualim succeeded in creating a valuable weapon, Bill failed.

Both of them, at some point in their lives, thought about running away. Altaïr had been ready to leave Levant with Adha but stayed instead after her death. Desmond, on the other hand, actually ran away and created a new life out of the reach of the Brotherhood.

Altaïr is known for saying “How can I regret the only life I have ever known?” which echoes Desmond’s regrets of running away from his Assassin lineage.

Desmond had talked about how he wished people had told him things, had explained things to him, and given him information that would have made him understand that the Assassins and Templars were real. He even tells Shaun that he would have loved to have been a know-it-all in the Desmond_01.WAV in AC Valhalla. Altaïr is known to hoard knowledge (his library) and is a scholar as well. They both desired knowledge but where Altaïr sought and hoarded it, Desmond simply… wished for it.

There are other comparisons of how similar they are but distorted in some way to make them unique from one another (like how their canon love interest (sorta in Desmond’s case) died because of them in some form or another) but those are some of the major ones in my opinion.

So, you might be wondering, why did I focus so much on Desmond’s ancestors when this is meant to be a character analysis of Desmond himself?

Because that is one of his flaws.

Desmond has and will always be compared to his ancestors, both in universe and in meta. One can only imagine how Desmond felt about being compared to his ancestors.

Well...

We can actually guess how he felt about that because...

Another one of his flaws is how he saw himself as a failure and his feeling of being never enough, of being a failure stems from, you guessed it, William Fucking Miles:

I—I had failed you, and you KNEW it. But you said nothing. I stayed mad. For weeks. I thought you were...you were patronizing me. I thought maybe you decided right there that I was never going to be the man you wanted me to be... (Noob’s Personal Files: "Subject Zero" - audio file 3)

The rest of the audio file talked about how Desmond had misunderstood Bill’s actions but what kind of upbringing would he have to have had that his first thought when he was praised was that it was a lie? Instead of immediately believing the praises given to him by his own father, he assumed that he had failed and his father had given up on him?

Desmond couldn’t even see his own accomplishment:

Desmond: I wanted out. I wanted my own life. To live my own way. Sixteen years old. And where was I going? No idea. Just away. That's it. That was the plan. Not much of one. They never guessed what I was doing, because I didn't know what I was doing. I just walked right out. Someone realized I was gone. They shouted. I started running.

William: Desmond! Desmond!

Desmond: I just ran and ran and ran. All that training was finally worth something. God, it was so dark when I left. And the forest... endless. I didn't dare take the roads.

Mother: Desmond, where are you?

Desmond: Mother, calling out. Begging me to stay. But I wouldn't. I followed the hills down. Down until I hit a stream. I followed that to a river, and from the river to an old access road. I walked for hours that day, the summer sun keeping me warm well into the evening. Found a clearing after dark. Fell asleep beneath the stars. Never had a quieter night. Not before or since. Walking, too scared to hitch a ride. What the hell was I doing? Lost in the badlands for a day. Felt like a week. Endless ocean of wrinkled earth. Can't believe a place could look so dead. (AC Revelations Escape)

A secured location run and protected by adult Assassins couldn’t catch a 16 year old kid? Even if it’s just his parents who went after him, two adults with more experience couldn’t catch him? This only shows that Desmond had the skills. A sixteen years old who had NEVER left the Farm further than what his training and his parents had allowed was able to evade those who were training him his entire life.

Yet, he still thought that he had been a failure. That memory of Bill praising him for doing a good job and him believing that Bill had given up on him stayed with him and made him believe he was a failure for a very long time.

And this was a man who stayed out of the whole Assassin and Templar business for nine years until he grew complacent and tried to treat himself with a motorcycle license (which might show how bored he was with his life as a bartender and wanted some excitement in his life… like a really fast vehicle)

Bill described Desmond as:

This... boy had no ambition. No direction. No plans for the future. What he DID have was a heritage. One he chose to deny. (AC3 Intro)

But then you get to Desmond’s audio files in AC Valhalla where he talked to Shaun about what the Creed means and he says this:

Anyway, my dad has mellowed over the years. But he was strict when we lived on the Farm. He ran a tight ship. I never got the impression that I was free to choose my path forward. Our creed, our tenets, they were drilled into my head. By the time I was a teenager, I was following these rules out of a sense of duty. This was... just what we did. (Layla Hassan’s Personal Files Desmond_01.WAV)

Just like Altaïr, the life of an Assassin was the only life Desmond had and he felt like he never had a choice. He was envious of Shaun who decided to become an Assassin out of his own free will.

But running away?

Denying his lineage?

That was the very first ‘choice’ he ever made for himself.

And this brings us to what Desmond desired most of all:

His “I wanted my own life.” in AC Revelation’s Escape is another excuse he tells himself. Because what he truly wanted was:

A Place to Belong.

After nine years of being away, my old bitterness was back. I was tired again. I didn't want to admit that moving forward might mean taking a step back. But the shine of the city had faded. The freedom I felt was hollow without old friends, without family. (AC Revelations Regret)

But then Desmond started saying these lines:

And suddenly, I wanted it all back. All that training, all that time. But I couldn't. Those days. They were gone. (AC Revelations Regret)

Not until you guys found me. Yeah. It wasn't until I met you and Becs and Lucy that I knew... I knew I wanted to be an Assassin. (Layla Hassan’s Personal Files Desmond_01.WAV)

I know my easiest days are behind me. But I don't want them back. Not now. My name is Desmond Miles... and I am an Assassin. I AM an Assassin. (AC Revelations Regret)

But then compare that to how Desmond was in AC1:

Lucy: Why'd you run away?

Desmond: I could never leave the compound. You have any idea what it's like being trapped in a place, knowing there is a whole world out there I'd never get to see?

Lucy: Don't you miss your parents?

Desmond: No. Far as I'm concerned, they weren't my parents. They were my wardens and I was their prisoner.

Lucy: It sounds like they only wanted to protect you.

Desmond: With all that's happened... I don't know. I guess they were right. (AC1, after the first memory block)

What changed?

Is it because Desmond knew what it was like to be part of a team? Of what it’s like to be an Assassin?

Yes but it’s a little bit more complicated than that.

Desmond felt like he belonged with the Assassins but he made one big mistake: he thought he meant the Assassins as they were are right now.

But what he truly desired, the place that he believed he could belong was the Brotherhood of olds.

The Levantine Brotherhood under Altaïr as the mentor.

The Italian Brotherhood under Ezio as the mentor.

Those were the 'memories' he had of what it meant to be part of a Brotherhood.

Then he started reliving Ratonhnhaké:ton’s life (one who did not have a Brotherhood, instead a village that left him behind and an old man too jaded to truly guide him without letting his past and guilt drive a wedge between them) and those messages he left for Bill? The acceptance? The forgiveness?

They were created after experiencing the pain and loneliness that Ratonhnhaké:ton went thru. It was created after he felt the sorrow of having a father that will never accept him for who he was.

They were left by a man who felt the regrets of someone close to him, could feel himself be him at times, and wished for another ending.

A… happier one.

Desmond’s line of

My name is Desmond Miles... and I am an Assassin. I AM an Assassin.

Becomes bittersweet because, yes, he had accepted who he was meant to be from the start but, thanks to the Bleeding Effect, we never got to know if the kind of Assassin he was ever meant to be was one that was truly Desmond Miles or…

Someone trying to live up to the memories of his ancestors.

#also i love screwing up desmond with the bleeding effect #i apologize if this became rant-y at the end #i wanna say sorry for having too many altaïr in this desmond post #but it’s me #you were bound to get altaïr anyway #i swear if one of you sends me ‘pls analyze altaïr’ request #i’m gonna make it a ‘why i love altaïr’ post instead #assassin's creed #desmond miles #ask and answer #teecup analyze more than necessary #i guess also #headcanon: assassin's creed #character analysis: assassin's creed

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fridge-reviews · 9 months

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Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Developer: Monolith Productions Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment Rrp: £15.99 (Humblebundle and Steam) Released: 30th September 2014 Available on: Humblebundle and Steam Played Using: Xbox One Control Pad Approximate game length: 16 Hours

I doubt there is a single game genre that the Lord of the Rings franchise hasn't been 'officially' pushed into (fan games don't count). However there was a time when open world wasn't one of them. That seems really strange now given that it seems like such an obvious choice, but things are always obvious after the fact. I do have to admit though, the open world genre really does suit it.

The game is set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. You play as Talion, a man who has been cursed to be 'banished from death', meaning that until the curse is lifted he cannot die, not truly. This might seem like a benefit (and mechanically speaking it is) but thematically it's a fate worse than death for Talion who was forced to watch his family be slaughtered by invading Uruks and is unable to join them in the afterlife. A part of this curse also links Talion to the soul of a long dead elf and this is when I start to question how this is a curse rather than a boon, because this elven wraith grants you a lot of abilities that are most certainly positive.

Scattered around the world are Forge Towers, these are towers that you have to scale and activate to reveal the missions and collectibles that are within a region on your map. Essentially these are the equivalent of radio towers in the Far Cry games (or most other Ubisoft games). As was mentioned before, Talion is 'banished from death' which means that when he dies he gets respawned at a Forge Tower (I believe its the nearest but I'm not entirely sure).

Handily the icons on the map tell you which missions advance the story and which are side quests, meaning you can avoid the main mission and go explore the world.

In typical RPG fashion killing enemies and completing missions gains experience which will eventually lead to gaining ability points. As you would expect with ability points, you spend them to unlock new powers.

Finding collectibles, completing side missions and challenges earns a resource called mirian along with awarding you with experience points. Mirian is used to to purchase upgrades such as increased health etc.

You can use your wraith powers to stun enemies, interrogate them for intel and later on dominate their minds so that they fight for you.

Information gained through interrogations will reveal the name, location and power rating of the selected Uruk Captain within Saurons army. Further information can be attained by interrogating 'worms' which are specific Uruk's that will reveal a Captains strengths and weaknesses. This power rating is an indication of how powerful that Captain is and the more powerful a Captain is when defeated the greater the reward is for doing so. A Captain that survives a fight (or even an interaction) with you will increase in power, they also will make a point of mentioning how you died or ran away last time.

Combat in this game is pretty similar to that of Assassin's Creed or the Batman: Arkham games (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight). It's all a matter of keeping an eye on the button prompt that appears above an Uruks head so that you can counter them or dodge away. The best part of combat though for me was performing the combat executions, which you can only do when you breach a specific hit streak amount. They're just so visceral and very impressive looking.

Of course, you don't always have to kill these Uruks in huge group melees, you can be subtle about it and sneak in bushes taking them down one by one. Or snipe them from a distance with your bow. Or you could combine all three, which is likely how things will go because it's rare to find an Uruk all alone.

Uruks that kill you can challenge existing Captains within Sauron's army (or fill a gap left behind by a Captain you've killed), if they win the challenge the become promoted to Captain. You can even assist in their ascent if you wish by going to 'challenge' events and killing their opponents. Now you may be wondering why you would want to assist in their ascent, the answer is actually simple and relates to a previous paragraph, the more powerful a Captain is when they are killed the better the reward is.

I've mentioned that killing Captains gives you a reward a few times now but not actually said what the reward is, well now is the time. The reward for killing an Uruk Captain is a rune, either for your sword, bow or dagger. At the start of the game you can only equip one rune on a weapon at a time but if you spend mirian to upgrade the weapon it will be able to hold up to five runes. These runes have all sorts of benefits and there are a great many to find, some will heal you upon each successful kill, others increase the damage you cause etc.

I found the default field of view to be too close to the character, this meant that sadly I did have to mod this game slightly to increase it. Normally I would be against such an action, however, it seems that this is a peculiar quirk of the PC release for this game, the console versions apparently had a wider field of view on release. Because of this I've determined my slight modification to the game as a fix rather than an alteration.

In all honesty its the nemesis system that raises this game from being a fairly standard open world game into something more special. A great example of this is while I played I was killed by some random Uruk, that Uruk was then given a name, a title and became a Captain. I was so incensed by him killing me that I specifically hunted him down. Sadly I failed to kill him in three separate occasions so I saw what was once a random Uruk eventually reach the highest echelon he could. With each fight he would taunt me and I was so immensely satisfied when I finally killed him that I actually cheered. It was a totally unique and organic experience which caused me to completely ignore the main plot until I had finally killed him.

This game is definitely worth its current asking price and you don't even need to be all that familiar with the Lord of the Rings franchise to enjoy it. I highly recommend this game. Now I just have to see if the DLC's are worth their salt.

If this appeals to you perhaps try;

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Assassin's Creed 2 Batman: Arkham Asylum

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If you’d like to support me I have a Ko-fi, the reviews will continue to be posted donation or not.

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duckyfruitbat · 3 months

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So Ubisoft Says we Need to Get Comfortable with "Not Owning" Our Games

Well that's a hell of a statement if I've heard one. The very statement alone is not just an invitation to piracy, but a giant neon sign with pyrotechnics and a symphony orchestra playing a fanfare as Blackbeard's ship pulls into port.

This article by Kotaku has all the details and even points out major issues with the very idea including game preservation, and the longevity of these subscription services. The Ubisoft director of subscriptions Phillippe Tremblay was the man who spoke those words, he compared it to how we're comfortable with not owning our DVD or CD collection. Here's the problem though, we all still own a CD and DVD collection, enough of us still buy these things to justify a DVD, CD, and a vinyl record section in all the big box retailers. No one has accepted the idea of not owning their collection, they only accepted the streaming services as a replacement for rental stores.

Circling back to the older games, there's the problem if the games are even going to be preserved in ten years. That's a problem that Nintendo had with the virtual console, that's a problem Nintendo still has with all of its retro games. The games that aren't available can only be played either on the original system or through piracy. Game services are also littered with exclusives that can be deleted at any given time. Something that video streaming is struggling with right now, if something gets deleted from a streaming service, and it was only on streaming, that's it you can only pirate it.

In the same interview Tremblay talked about gamers not owning their games he also floated the idea that services will remain. That is something that is not true, only a few services have bested the test of time. Keep in mind that Blockbuster also had a service that could be compared to Netflix. If these services go down, I can't trust that any of the games would have a backup. For example remember all the live services that started popping up a few years ago? Remember how they started dropping like flies? This is the eventual outcome of an all digital future.

So will this idea survive the next decade, this is actually a resurgence of the idea, someone said something similar with the idea of buying a game is actually just purchasing a licensing agreement. This resurgence is already getting massive backlash, the points I've made have already been made by people bigger, better, and hotter than me. As I've also subtly alluded to, this will cause a massive surge in piracy with just the statement alone. Given the lack of preservation that these services already have, I imagine that piracy was already pretty rampant and it has only been emboldened further.

Welp, thems are my thoughts! As always piracy is a crime, I don't endorse it, and pineapples do belong on pizza!

#rambling #duckyfruitbat #piracy #ubisoft #live service #kotaku #gaming

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misfit-lunitic · 1 year

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One of the adds on my google this morning.

Don't even get me started, google.

We know.

We hate it.

Ubisoft failed us.

Ubisoft failed Evior.

And I have no desire to touch any other Assasin's Creed games, Mirage especially. (Except Odessey was pretty sweet. I loved that one.)

Thanks Ubisoft. 👌

#ac valhalla #assassin's creed valhalla #assassin’s creed #assasins creed mirage #assassin's creed odyssey #ubisoft #eivor varinsdottir #misfitmusings

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swearingcactus · 5 months

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pleeeeease tell us more about jamie i already love him soso much

oagh anon you've done it now. jamie started as a joke in the distant yell discord server when we (okay, mostly me) were talking about wacky far cry 7 possibilities:

the idea was that he's another jay-name from America (like Jason and Ajay), and Jamie could also work as a girl name so if they pulled another Dani Rojas-esque protag it'd still work. here's a few doodles I've done of him when I was figuring out how he'd look: ranging from crypto bro, to your average American backpacker, to bbno$:

eventually I thought it'd be cool to just lean into the whole "you're not the hero you think you are" formula of Far Cry and finally have a protag that is treated as a villain of sorts. (hence why he's wearing red! which i talked about here as a theory that ubisoft sticks with the red is for villains, blue is for friends dresscode) a 'protag' who's so engrossed in having fun and causing chaos for any revolutionary local group that asks him for help, and for the real-life players to enjoy... and remains oblivious that his actions wouldn't hold up in the long run. It'd be somewhat hilariously tragic that within 20-30 years, an American called Huntley came in a failing state, wreaked havoc with his actions, and left. Truly his daddy's son.

The snake charmer nickname/inspired look is just something from a Saint Motel song. I figured he'd be a little snake-like as a character, inherently cunning and slips through cracks by nature. Also, the 'snake eyed' thing is funny because snakes (and Jamie) have poor eyesight, and my idea of FC7 would include a mission where he loses his rose-tinted glasses and the game makes it 240p mode for the duration of the mission.

some other trivia facts i dreamed up about him includes: his mom (Willis's ex-wife he mentioned in Far Cry 3) remarried, and he has twin step-sisters. He is also Down Bad, and is even hornier than Jason but that's neither here nor there, because you don't really need to manipulate him to get him to do your dirty work.

Also I made a playlist for him because of course I did. 🐍

#jamie huntley #far cry #thank you for asking anon mwah mwah #askingcactus

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saltypiss · 7 months

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Elden Ring is genuinely one of the least fun of all the souls games. It's just empty. It's hollow. Not in the joking manner but literally, it's just such an empty, checklist of an experience.

For one thing, it's a stupid fuck idea to make it so if I get knocked down, if I don't Dodge Roll back up, I'll get hit again, but then make enemies, that punish this, when you're literal only alternative, is to just take the damage, and hope they don't do it again.

It's just bad. Like every "hard" base enemy in Elden Ring wasn't designed. It feels like the developers themselves only played Dark Souls 3, and not even that much. They didn't get anything from it. Not that DS3 is even good, they'd honestly been better off with DS2, DS3 just fucking sucks, every encounter is ridiculous.

In Elden Ring you never know if you're attack will hit. I'll admit it's cool how many attacks you can jump over, but the fact that's practically apart of their design just forces you to play one way, and that way is fundamentally one that is not fun. Not intuitive. Not worth it.

Every. Fucking fight, feels like I'm not playing Dark Souls but a Unity knock off. Enemies feel both like jelly, and like I'm clipping through them, not damaging them but telling the engine "tell em to take damage" Poise break is utterly random, my strongest move doesn't break poise, but my weakest, at pure random, does.

They spam enemies like it's DS2. It's not fun fighting hordes of enemies when they didn't even fucking solve the problem that was getting ganked in a corner.

Don't get me started on flying enemies, no no, please, make them stupid hard to hit, unfun to follow, and have them do stupid shit like shoot fire. Why not. It's not like it's genuinely just a frustrating experience and not a single thing else.

Exploring is pointless. You want good equipment? You have to grind in late stages of the game. You're only option is to grind enemies, who drop pieces of their armor, randomly, and just pray, pray to god they give you something that doesn't look like a fucking joke, or a piece of shit.

Honestly whoever made the armor designs should be fired. Same with weapons, is there a reason 20% of the weapons look and act bout the same as each other, and you get them the most often? Just boring getting yet another shoe or glove or helmet, they look like shit, have varying stats of worth, and overall you're still getting one hit killed by enemies with attacks that do 3 fucking hits in one go.

Or, the aforementioned "dodge roll or get hit when knocked down, except sometimes not where we'll punish you for this god awful mechanic, and we didn't remotely plan or make anything for that situation."

It's genuinely, just a bad game. There's very, very little content. Whatever you do in the first 10 minutes, you'll be doing for the rest of the game. And it never, ever, feels good. It always feels like a slog. This fuck off massive open world with Absolutely Nothing In It.

The more you play, the more you realize it's a checklist of dark souls, bare minimum for each. Slapped into an Open World.

Elden Ring feels like the Farcry of Ubisoft. A completely, hollow, experience, with nothing but checklists. The only difference is there's a layer of professionalism that Ubisoft never displays without coming off completely insincere. Elden Ring opens the door for you, but doesn't offer you a drink or place to sleep, let alone a blanket.

it doesn't reward you literally, and I can't stress this enough, it Literally, Never. Rewards you. There's no point in fighting most enemies, just run through til you reach the next checkpoint. It's boring. It's so. So. So hollow.

And to be clear here, While DS2/3 were technically my first Souls-like, I hated them, didn't really give them much time, DS3 is genuinely a piece of shit. DS2 at least, has some artistry. Doesn't feel completely phoned in.

ER was my first true experience. And I enjoyed it, but very, very quickly, my opinion of it dwindled. It's just...another fucking checklist open world game. Not checklist as I meant before where they just looked at their catalogue and put whatever memorable in at the bare minimum of effort.

No, it just became dull as fuck. I kept having armor from the beginning of the fucking game because it Never fucking gave me anything else to wear worth a shit. I had to stick mostly to 2 weapons and they fucking sucked but were the only weapons able to fucking break past the garbo this game gives off.

It became obvious that dodge-rolling wasn't that great, you HAD to time them, and even then it wasn't worth doing, because they punish you for learning. It's just so bad. It's so fucking bad fighting the birds, the giant dogs, like fuck off. Give Me a REASON to fucking bother. They never do. They attack fast as shit, run miles away, you can't hit them, you have to wait, forever, and just dance around. It's fucking boring. It's so. God Damned Hollow.

Genuinely, Elden Ring's status will only diminish. Because it gets worse every playthrough. Nobody. Not one soul, can tell me it remotely matches DS1.

Fun Fact, DS1 was the last in the series for me to have played. From DS2, to DS3, to Elden Ring, then to DS1. DS1 is still, despite being a garbage bag with a handful of gold inside it, is still the best in the entire souls catalogue. Because it gave a shit. Elden Ring didn't. They put Absolutely Everything into the visuals, and they're not even good, because they're Grey as fuck, Have Chromatic Abberation, continually force Anti-Aliasing back on, RTX hardly looks better and runs terribler.

Honestly, After playing every souls like other than exclusives, I can safely say that Fromsoft had a Fluke. But one. Dark Souls. They've never tried since then. DS2 was fundamental proof they didn't know what they had, nor what to do with it, they threw literally everything, every, god damned thing out, and it failed because some absolute dumbshit put everything into the god damn lighting that didn't even work or stay.

Then DS3 comes around and I can't even remotely think of one good thing to say. What. The Grey visuals again? Once again a fucking Grey Filter? Awful enemies with too much health and do too much damage, it never feels like they're made to be bosses, it feels like they made you a bottom tier NPC with infinitely less at your disposal than any other game in the series. You're fucking called the Chosen One all the god damned time, don't get me started on the fucking store bitch utterly killing the entire vibe of the game calling you "Ashen One" in that obnoxious delivery. Yes please make me feel like a Saturday Night Cartoon Superhero. That totally doesn't Utterly Destroy Everything About The Game and Artistry.

Then here comes Elden Ring. Where they boiled every aspect of Dark Souls 1 down to a fucking checklist, a format that offers less than every subsequent game, just made more convenient. I swear to god when I saw the barrels with fucking dudes throwing bombs I vomitted. Because it was handled so, so much worse than every game before it. It's not even debateable, it feels like a checklist. That's the game. "Gotta have the explosive barrel section" and "gotta have the enemy behind the wall section"

it's so boiled down it becomes as empty as an Ubisoft game, and it literally never stops going down that rabbit hole. I desperately do not want Elden Ring to be the new formula. I really, fucking hate their open world format. It's as empty as their shitty world. No story to push you, no characters of interest that feel like actual characters in the world but instead a shitty scripted event.

All this to say: I don't get the Fromsoft loveboner. At least from a Souls-Like perspective. I really, really don't. They made 1 good game, and forever abandoned it for shittier and shittier boiled down to their bare minimum components versions. It never, improved. It got worse somehow every game.

They looked at the sheer number of options Dark Souls provided, they looked at the exploration and fun traversal of many areas, they looked at the interconnectivity, they looked at the combat, and they said "How can we simplify it further, how can we not improve, how can we not itterate, how much can we abandon."

they focused on combat, the worst part of dark souls, abandoned exploration for linear stages connected via shitty teleports, hallways, and elevators. They took NPCs that lived and breathed in the world in some manner, and boiled them down to set pieces, pointless stories with no greater purpose. They took the charm of the visuals and lighting and put a fucking grey filter on it. They took the online elements and kept shrinking their scope into nothingness.

I genuinely, can't believe how experimental DS1 is, and how much they abandoned to be this overtly streamlined, meant to get the greatest audience, garbage, that has never been capable of reaching the 7/10 that DS1 was.

Simply put: It has to be embarrassing to be a fromsoft fan. Sure, their quality has only dropped slowly, but it's dropping. And next game i guarantee, will be the one that makes people realize. Oh. They really were just a fluke. A One off, a Once in a Lifetime. That's it. Congrats on the fake legacy propped up by exactly one game.

#Elden Ring #Dark Souls #fromsoftware

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