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kiingocreative · 3 years

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If you’re familiar with my self-publishing story, you’ll know that I made a lot of mistakes when publishing No Pain, No Game. One of these was not getting Beta readers and ARC readers. I’ve learnt since that skipping those steps can seriously hinder your book’s chances of success, whether you self-publish or go down the traditional route.

What’s What?

But what, I hear you ask, is a Beta reader and what is an ARC reader?

1. Beta readers are people who will read your manuscript early on in the process (and before your book is published) to give you feedback and help identify any areas that may need to be reworked. A Beta reader goes beyond saying whether or not they like the book. It’s all about providing constructive feedback on specific parts of the story the author wants to test.

2. Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) are free digital copies of the ready-to-publish manuscript you provide to people (ARC Readers) who commit to reading it within a certain timeframe and to posting a review of the book ahead of release day (on Amazon, Goodreads etc.). The review snippets you see on a book’s front or back cover are often extracted from ARC Reviews.

What Happens When?

Beta Readers and ARC Readers come into the process at different stages, and since I’m a sucker for a good visual, here’s some of my latest diagrams to look at the full process from end to end.

Let’s think of the journey to writing a book as having two main parts:

3. Part 1: getting your manuscript ready

4. Part 2: the road to publishing

Working with Beta readers

You can use Beta readers at any time whilst you’re working on your manuscript (when you’re writing, before or after the book has been checked by a professional editor, before or after different rounds of revision etc.). It’s entirely up to you, based on what you want to get out of the Beta reading.

There are a few things to consider when working with Beta readers:

How many Beta readers do you need?

This is all a matter of personal preference, though the general advice is to aim for between 5 and 10 Beta readers, bearing in mind some may drop out during the process.

How to find Beta readers?

5. You can hire paid Beta readers on platforms such as Fiverr.

6. You can also find Beta readers through Bookstagram, especially if you have started making connections and have come across people who read your genre and whose feedback you would trust.

7. You can leverage people around you (friends, family) if they are your target audience and you trust they can give you honest and unbiased feedback.

How to get organised?

1. You can give them the entire manuscript at once, or drip feed them a couple of chapters at a time. That’s purely a matter of preference (yours, and theirs)

2. Either way, make it constructive for YOU: note down questions or points you’d like the reader’s feedback on at each stage of the story (what should they focus on? Dialogue, pace, characters, plot, inconsistencies, typos etc.)

3. Make sure Beta readers understand the commitment they’re making when they sign up to Beta read for you, for instance:

4. When do you need them to provide their feedback by? Are you working to a specific deadline? What will their reading pace need to be?

5. Do they understand they’ll need to provide detailed feedback as they read?

6. Do you want them to also write a review of the book that they can post online when the book releases?

Working with ARC Readers

How many ARC Readers do you need?

As many as possible! The more reviews you have ahead of launching (and later on in general), the better.

Not having ARC readers can damage your book’s chances of success when you release it. Research shows that, when shopping online, 75% of consumers are looking for the products with the best ratings and reviews. According to Jungle Scout, `increasing reviews is also a leading indicator of increased Best Seller Rank(BSR), which helps your product appear in more Amazon search results and earn more clicks to your listing`.

How to find ARC readers?

8. Leverage your network: If you’ve started your social media channels and started building a network you might have already come across people who may be the right readers for your book. Your most active followers on Instagram are also a good place to start.

9. Spread the word: You can post an announcement on your channels and through your newsletter to let people know you’re looking for ARC readers.

10. Use relevant hashtags: use hashtags to identify readers of the genre and find fellow indie authors who write in the same genre and may be interested.

Are ARC readers free?

You shouldn’t need to pay for ARC readers, especially if you’ve built a network you can leverage. My own experience has shown that paying for reviews tends to be a waste of time and money and that the quality of those reviews is often sub-standard. I recommend investing time in finding the right ARC readers for your book rather than throwing money at the problem and only half-solving it.

What you can do, however, is offer people incentives such as swag (if you have it), a complimentary copy (or even a signed copy!) of the book when it releases ,or offer to do read-and-review swaps with other authors.

How to get organised?

11. As with Beta readers, make sure ARC readers understand what’s required of them and what the deadline to read the book is, as well as the date they’ll need to post their review.

12. If you like, you can have your ARC Readers fill out an agreement form, which cements the understanding you both have about their commitment to the task.

13. Ask whether readers have a preference in file format (generally sending an ePub or Mobi file they can load to their e-reader is fine, but some may want a PDF).

14. Set up a spreadsheet to keep track of all ARC readers, and set up reminders to reach out to them closer to the deadline to make sure they’re progressing with the reading.

15. Give ARC readers plenty of time to read and review the book (several months before release)

Using Beta and ARC readers: The Hidden Bonus!

An added bonus if you work with Beta and ARC readers, is that you have a great list of contacts to build your Street Team. What’s that, you ask? Your Street Team is a group of people who agree to actively assist you with promoting your book release, and therefore help you widen your reach.

What does the Street Team do?

They can help with posting/reposting cover reveals, release day posts, character art etc. and spread the word about your book release.

How to get organised?

16. You can provide the Street Team with a schedule of these posts ahead of time so they know when and what they should post about and share.

17. You can create a group on Instagram or on Facebook with your Street Team members to get them coordinated.

18. Just like with Beta and ARC readers, be clear on what you’re asking of them. Be clear on timelines and make sure you should provide all images, captions, hashtags etc. for them to use.

19. You can offer incentives: offer to swap so you assist them with their launch when the time comes, offer swag, or arrange special events for the Street Team only (pre-release party, book signings etc.)

Last But Not Least: Make sure to say thank you!

Beta readers, ARC readers and members of your Street team give their time to help you make your book and release the best it can be. A common gesture is to send them a complimentary copy of your book when it releases. Needless to say, at the very least send a personal message to thank them when they’re done.

Skipping Beta readers and ARC readers can seriously hinder your book’s chances of success, whether you self-publish or go down the traditional route. Let's look at how to take full advantage of this important part of the publishing process.

#writingtips #screenwriting #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writers #writing #writerblr #writing advice #writing community #writing resources

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silvanable · 4 years

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Tag Game - Get to Know Me

Answer the questions below and tag 11 people you want to know better!

i was tagged by @moody-typos and it looked like fun so i thought why not.

. • . • . • . • .

1. What do you prefer to be called name wise?

silv, silvy, or silvana. i don’t particularly mind as these are all technically the same. so all of them i guess are my preferred name.

2. When is you birthday?

june 26th!

i like to remark that’s the day the US legalized gay marriage in all 50 states back in 2015 so i was born to be gay. 🏳‍🌈🌈

3. Where do you live? (You don’t have to give city, you can give the state if you’re USA or country if you’re overseas)

US if the previous statement wasn’t obvious.

another hint: it’s hot and it rains too much here. good luck finding me~

4. Three things you are doing right now?

writing ( non-fanfic work ), listening to music ( FEEL NOTHING atm ), & working on headcanon requests from my inbox.

5. Four Fandoms that have your peak interest right now?

my hero academia, ikemen sengoku, mr. love queen’s choice, & castlevania. these are currently my most consistent hypes that won’t let me go.

6. How has this pandemic been treating you?

at first i thought it would be great but i’ve been stuck inside ( i literally have not been passed my mailbox or even near it ) for 3 months or so now. i’m ready for it to be over because i would like to enjoy my summer while i still have the opportunity.

overall i’m stressing myself out and unmotivated to do a lot of things.

7. A song you can’t stop listening to right now?

Contagious by NIGHT RIOTS, been obsessed with it since February of 2019.

but i also recommend:

Fashion Forward (Acoustic) by The Home Team

I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die by Waterparks

8. Recommend a movie.

Birdbox. Sandra Bullock is in it ( reason enough for me ) it’s a great sort of horror/thriller movie that really builds suspense by your imagination. if you’re easily scared i do not recommend it because your mind will definitely work against you.

A milder movie ( that isn’t horror ) would be Mad Money. it is a hilarious movie about 3 women from entirely different backgrounds that work at and rob a high security bank ( and all for different reasons ). the characters are quirky and well put together.

both are on the US netflix but i’m not sure about anywhere else.

9. How old are you?

not old enough to drink yet. yet.

10. School, University, Occupation, Other?

i’m in university. i’m studying to become an accountant ( but so far my business classes have only taught me how to destroy the economy in my favor while jumping through legal loopholes oof ).

11. Do you prefer heat or cold?

definitely cold. i hate both if we’re talking weather but i can cope with cold. i tend to get even more tired in the cold and it helps me sleep ( hibernate technically ).

12. Name one fact about you that others may find unusual.

well... if i’m being honest, i have very horrible eyesight ( i’m almost completely blind in one eye ) and people seem more than a little worried when i tell them i can incapacitate a humanoid target from a 100 yards ( ~92 meters, at least ) and i have the target poster to prove it.

i won’t get into it but if you want to know how that poor poster is doing just let me know.

13. Are you shy?

relatively. if i know you, i’m the loudest damn person you know, or if it’s a matter of discussion, i tend to have a very powerful persona ( or so i’m told ).

generally i will not talk to people and keep to myself though. people make me nervous and i struggle to cope with anxiety so i don’t go out of my way to talk to people ( so i just end up sneaking glances if you pique my interest but i can’t say anything to you ).

14. Do you have preferred pronouns?

i prefer they/them, however, i still align with female attributes so she/her is legit too. whichever, i’m not picky about it.

15. Biggest pet peeve?

slow walkers. this might not be #1 but it’s definitely up there. i walk incredibly fast ( especially for a person with short legs ) and have long strides. if you’re in front of me and blocking my way, you can bet i’m going to mow you over. i will not slow down.

16. What is your fave ‘dere’ type?

the first one to come to mind was yandere and it’s probably true. it’s the mindset of the yandere that draws me in. if they’re written and played out well they become people who we’re teetering on the edge of becoming if we aren’t careful. i love that terrifying feeling of “i could be that if i just step wrong”.

17. Rate your life 1-10, 1 being really crappy and 10 being best it could ever be.

i really don’t want to do that, because i’m in an okay place and sometimes i’m in bad or good, but really it depends on the moments, people, and little messages that make it better. just depends on the time of day.

18. What is your main blog?

@moonsirens

haven’t honestly decided what i’ll do with it so it will probably just be a repost and dump?

19. List your side blogs and what they are used for.

one of them is private that i can’t tag & it’s used for roleplay stuff ( aesthetics, character files, images, etc ).

@spellbound-doodles which is my art blog i am still to chicken to post to. i should but sharing personal works, stories, & art is really hard for me ( a best friend had to make an instagram for my art for me to get me to start posting! )

20. Is there anything you think people need to know about you before becoming friends with you?

expect me to bother you about my dog and the horrible jokes my brother made that i absolutely have to share because they made me laugh so hard i cried.

also, footnote, i’m satan soooo-

but that’s a story for another time.

. • . • . • . • .

tagging : most people i’m vaguely familiar with have been tagged, so i guess whoever wants to snatch it up and give it a shot? i’ll tag you then-

#tag game #what's a silv

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notajinn · 4 years

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Top 10 Games I Played in 2019

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am finishing this at nearly 2 AM in the morning, so I did not proofread. Excuse any typos.

With 2019 closing out the decade, I want to make a "Top 10 Games of the Decade" list, but first I have to point out my favourites of the year. I actually played over 10 games this year (which is very unusual), so I chose my top 10. As usual, these are not all games that came out in 2019, but I played them for the first time this year. I'm not ranking carried over mobile games this time, although at this point the only mobile I play is Dragalia Lost.

Let's go.

10. Untitled Goose Game (Switch)

There's a lot to love about this game concept alone even though I ignored it for the longest time pre-release.

Pros

The entire goal of the game is just that you are a goose and also an asshole. I've talked many times about how I think being unique is overblown in place of being high-quality, but this is a unique take that really works.

With a vaguely open-world that you're thrown into with no real purpose, you really capture the feeling of just setting out that day to be a jerk. I appreciate that there is a progression system with a list of mischievous tasks you have to do to reach the next area, but it's still presented in a very free way. You'll do some of them accidentally just trying to be a jerk, and others you'll really have to think about. Eventually there will come a clear end goal, which I was pleasantly surprised by.

Controlling the goose is also perfect in how unwieldy and overconfident you feel. You don't exactly move quickly, and there's no attacking, but you still feel better than the humans around you.

The minimalist art design helps sell the really low-stakes nature of the goose's quest. Sound effects are also pronounced thanks to this, and sound is very important for the goose. I also like the slight stealth gameplay that's not at all punishing, as someone who enjoys but is bad at stealth.

Cons

Even for a budget game, it's quite short to reach the "end goal". It's very much a game you can continue to mess around in, and there's a "New Game+" set of tasks you receive, but as far my "have to reach the end" mindset...I was expecting it to take a little longer. I'd say it was maybe 3 hours max, including lots of goofing around.

I also found that I VERY much don't enjoy being a jerk to children (see screenshot), and very begrudgingly did the minimum mean things to get past the kid. Luckily there is only one kid.

Final Thoughts

Honestly the lower ranking is not so much because of negatives, but because I played so many good things this year combined with this being mostly a fun little novelty. I feel like people who are interested would have already played it (if they have the console). Really you can go with your gut instinct of whether or not being an asshole goose sounds fun for you.

9. Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)

If you told me Kingdom Hearts III wouldn't even make my top 5 in the year it was released, I'd think you were crazy. But here we are with the long-awaited game.

Pros

So much of this game is fanservice for the series, and I had fortunately caught up on the spinoffs enough to enjoy it. Seeing the 358 crew and the BBS crew, all the Organization members...there's a lot of love here.

KH3 also has some of my favourite worlds in the series in Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates in particular managed to scratch that Wind Waker sailing itch just enough. Meanwhile Toy Story going for a unique plot really helped pull me in, and there's that now infamous Woody scene that I love. Even other worlds like Monsters Inc get some great scenes (like Vanitas and the doors). Tangled is also one of my favourite Disney movies, so while the world itself was pretty average, I was happy to be in it.

Combat-wise, I appreciate getting so many options like dodge roll and blocking right off the bat regardless of your initial choices; previously I always forced myself to take the Shield so I could start with the super-useful dodge roll.

The music is as stellar as ever, although they loop far too quickly given how much time you'll spend in a single area sometimes (looking at you, Toy Story). I especially love Don't Think Twice, which had the bonus of being a complete surprise.

Cons

KH1 was the first Aladdin. KH2 was Return of Jafar. So logically KH3 should have been King of Thieves. Instead we get no Aladdin at all! Just the Genie as a summon I think?

For all the character fanservice, it still feels like only the main trio, Riku, and Mickey are really useful. I can't believe how poorly Aqua does as a Keyblade Master. I can't believe Kairi and Axel's training basically amounts to nothing. I know it's Sora's game, but it's still so frustrating.

And the final fight with everyone is very much so "good idea, bad execution". It just feels so messy. The entire climax is just not paced very well.

The Frozen world is one of my least favourites in the series. Nearly nothing interesting happens (outside of one good Larxene scene), you don't get Elsa as a boss or a party member, and the progression is just "got to get to Elsa's castle, oh no we fell" repeated three times. Also did they really need to put the full Let It Go song in there? I say this as someone who likes the song. This whole world is just a mess, and I think we'd be better off it was cut. And replaced with ALADDIN 3!

Where is the Wreck-It Ralph world? You know, the Disney movie about video games?

The combat somehow feels less smooth than KH2, possibly because of so many things constantly going off. The Park Attraction skills are fun at first, but later they take so long and often aren't worth bothering with. But I think HP of the enemies assumes you'll use it, because some enemies get really spongy later on.

There was also literally no reason not to end Sora's plot with this game; they had a very easy chance. But they also had an easy chance to end at KH2 and they didn't. I don't know why they're so afraid to use a different protagonist. Even if they don't want to make one, there's so many other potential-protagonists in the game already. Some of whom are also technically Sora!

Also the stupid Toy Story music loop is like 10 seconds long. Stop it.

I was actually originally going to put this at 8, but after typing out these Cons I moved the ranking back.

Final Thoughts

For as many pros and cons as I wrote out, the biggest thing about this game is that it's somehow incredibly forgettable. Kingdom Hearts 3, the game we waited over a decade for, is forgettable. And that really hurts.

The ReMind DLC has some real potential to help with this, but it also costs $40 CAD. If you're on the fence for KH3 as a whole, maybe wait and see what people say about the DLC fixing stuff.

8. Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)

It really hurts to put Cadence of Hyrule this low, because there's so much I love about it. And I want to see more third-parties work on Nintendo IPs.

Pros

You can finally play as Zelda in a proper Legend of Zelda game! Yes there's the rhythm mechanic and roguelike nature, but you're ultimately still going around a 2D LoZ overhead map in the same way you would a mainline game. But now you can have Zelda go around and play a little differently. For example, you have no regular shield but you have the Nayru's Love barrier which can work defensively in a different way. I appreciate that the characters all play differently when the developers could easily have easily given you three different sprites with one moveset.

The rhythm mechanic of moving on the beat works very well with the LoZ map style. Being able to see the bar speed at the bottom also helps a lot to learn in the first place. Most importantly, you have the option to completely turn it off to play this like a classic LoZ. Obviously the soundtrack itself is full of great LoZ remixes.

The difficulty is just right without being too rough or too easy with only occasional exceptions, and the game is fairly forgiving about respawing when you do die; it usually doesn't feel like a BIG deal. There's tons of LoZ equipment to use, which I really appreciate after how barebones Breath of the Wild was in that regard.

As with any roguelike, you also have a lot of replayability with the map changes and different characters and equipment to try out.

Incorporating classic bosses with musical instruments is also really fun.

Cons

It's as short as you would expect a budget game to be, but it's more expensive than your average budget game. I'm going to chalk that up to using a first-party Nintendo IP, but the price fools you into thinking the game will be longer.

I also personally don't really care for roguelikes, so the selling point of replayability isn't for me. It's a bit unfair to judge the game for something the genre is supposed to do, but I don't think it's a bad game for being like this. I just think it's a game I like less because of that emphasis.

There's also one boss in particular that was super frustrating, and I think it's because I didn't understand the "trick" to beating it.

Final Thoughts

I do honestly recommend this if you like classic LoZ, but just know what you're getting into; something that emphasizes multiple playthroughs and won't take too long on a single run, but which executes the LoZ formula itself really well.

7. XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC)

I can't believe how long it took me to play XCOM: Enemy Unknown given that Fire Emblem is my favourite series. I also owned it for years on Steam, but it was just this year I finally booted up this strategy RPG.

Pros

You want a challenging SRPG? Here you goddam go. This game is punishing as hell, but as long as you don't play Iron Man mode it's still reasonable to deal with. I don't usually care for games that sell on difficulty, but I've played enough SRPGs that I don't mind more difficulty in the genre that's not cheap. XCOM very closely skirts the line of difficult and cheap, again if you are not playing Iron Man (which prevents you from restarting missions).

There's so much dumb RPG numbers to gloss over and spec, and I love it. Things to research, order to research, facilities to build, equipment to craft, skills per each character to learn. If you like pouring over resources like me but don't like the real time nature of an RTS, this is perfect.

I also like the idea that you start off so overwhelmed against an absurdly powerful alien force, and everything you're doing is basically just trying to survive while looking for a way to hold your ground. There's a real desperation in the gameplay that captures the feeling of war in a way that Fire Emblem struggles with.

Cons

I haven't seen RNG that hates me this much since Fire Emblem: Sealed Sword. And it seems to be a universal experience that the RNG is more stacked against you than it leads you to believe.

I've also seen many people online suggest Iron Man for a person's first run, but that is AWFUL advice. It's why I almost quit the game twice, but ultimately just made a new file without Iron Man. It sounds fun for a second or later playthrough, but there's so many unknowns happening constantly in your first run that it just feels unfair to go Iron Man.

The aesthetic is sci-fi apocalypse; two designs I generally hate. Everything is so gloomy and blue and tech. It's all very forgettable to look at.

Healing options are so limited, at least in the relatively early sections I'm in (I did not beat this). Actually this is one of the very few games I started but did NOT beat before playing something else, which in itself means there's something that I really disliked. At this point I can't remember what that is.

Final Thoughts

If you like Fire Emblem gameplay but want it to be even more resource management based, and can deal with a drab aesthetic, absolutely grab this. Especially since it gets really cheap on Steam. Just do NOT start on Iron Man mode.

6. Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within (PC)

There was a Joker live-action movie this year; an entire movie dedicated to him. And yet Telltale managed a better Joker.

Pros

I am one of those weirdo people who considers Joker one of his favourite comic characters. I'm a sucker for a good villain, and it was probably Joker in Batman: The Animated Series that is responsible for that. So I love seeing a good fresh take on the character, and Telltale delivers. This is season two of Telltale Batman, and we briefly got to see "John Doe" in the first season as a proto-Joker who's definitely a violent jerk, but not necessarily a villain just yet. While there are many plot threads in Enemy Within, the main one is about how John grows among the mess that is Gotham. Depending on how you play, you can actually push him to become a vigilante and ally of Batman instead of the villain. This is itself not only a fun take on the character, but also the most uniquely any Telltale game has branched.

I remember explaining once that Telltale is not so much "choose how the story ends", but more "choose how your character's relationships with others changes". But there, you get a wildly different final chapter depending on whether John is a vigilante or villain. I really appreciate the effort it took, but it's also bittersweet since this was one of the last games the studio worked on before being closed.

Telltale gives us other character portrayals that range from standard to occasionally good. They have Harley play the big mob boss who has John wrapped around her finger this time, and they do a good job selling it.

You'll get some great dialogue options, and it seems almost impossible to please everyone. Being forced to make hard choices that will inevitably make someone mad at you is what this genre is about, and it's often not exactly clear cut what the consequences will be.

Cons

Like other Telltale games, action sequences are done with QTEs. These are relics in this day and age, so I really didn't care for them. It's a good way to get around a probably costly combat engine, but it's ultimately filler to me to get back to the plot. Since this is a Batman game, it has more action sequences than the average Telltatle game.

Other sequences like searching for clues are less annoying, but still not really fun. I did not grow up on point-and-clicks, but it seems the developers did.

You also can't easily restart sequences if you selected an option by mistake; you have to restart that entire chapter. And a chapter is multiple hours. I get the implication of "you have to live with your choices", but when it's an actual mistake because I'm using a PS3 controller on my PC mapped to Xbox buttons...I get a little annoyed.

Final Thoughts

It's a little weird to start at Enemy Within if you didn't play the first season, and it will retroactively spoil things, but you honestly could. It is more fun than the original (which is also good). Easily the big selling point is being able to shape John the proto-Joker; if that doesn't appeal to you, this may not be for you.

5. Super Metroid (SNES Classic)

Not only is 2019 the first time I played (and completed) Super Metroid; it's also the first time I completed a Metroid game at all! I had played a decent amount of Fusion and the first Prime before, but fell off both of them. This time, I absolutely saw Samus reach her goal.

Pros

How do you talk about such a beloved game? First of all, the SNES era is still visually my favourite in video games. This has a lot to do with nostalgia since I grew with the SNES, but also because it was the height of sprites before the industry turned to 3D models. And as amazing as N64 and PS1 graphics looked back then, they did not age well. The SNES, however, still holds up so well visually.

For a game with a sci-fi aesthetic that heavily takes place underground, I loved the variety and colours Super Metroid offered outside my expectations. This is definitely up there as one of the most beautiful games of the console.

Where I think the game excels the most is Samus' controls. The level of precision they built into her abilities is nuts. Obviously there are games where characters have larger movesets (such as fighters), but for a platformer I love how well you can maneuver Samus. For example, when you do a moving jump. If you hit the D-Pad and then jump, you do the Spin Jump. If you jump and then hit the D-Pad, you do a more standard jump. It may not seem like much now, but I feel like for the time it's very impressive.

There's so many fun abilities you get, and the majority of them can be used simultaneously for some really fun platforming.

You also learn very quickly even without text based on the way power-ups and obstacles are laid out. Even storytelling is done well simply through gameplay; no cinema scenes or text explanations needed.

The bosses feel stressful but almost never too cheap; you always feel like they're possible to deal with. Occasionally you may need more missiles or energy, but it's usually learning and countering patterns.

Music can effectively be atmospheric or lively depending on where you are, and I retroactively wish we had a few more Metroid tracks in Super Smash Brothers.

Also even though I'm not a 100% completion-ist type of person, I appreciate when I do find some secret missile tank by really examining the area.

Cons

When you're not used to the controls early on, it can be tricky to handle Samus. Mostly those spin jumps. The wall jump also never really got easier.

Weapon switching is a weird situation. I appreciate you can do it on the fly with the Select button, but the fact it always goes in a certain order means it can often take a while to get to what you want.

Personally I also thought Ridley was a hell of a difficulty spike, and the game actually calmed back down in difficulty afterwards? Maybe I'm just bad at fighting such an aggressive and fast boss.

Phantoon was also a tough boss made tougher by the fact the closest working Save Point was a good 5+ minutes of platforming away for me. I like that the nearest Save Point doesn't work because the electricity is off, and it builds on the haunted ship atmosphere, but boy was that frustrating to jump all the way back nearly four times to fight that boss.

Final Thoughts

If like me you've somehow not played Super Metroid, you really should. It still holds up, and it's relatively short (my time was about 6 hours). It may be a little weird at the start with the limited abilities and getting used to the precise controls, but if you stick with it you're in for a good time.

The reason it's number 5 and not higher is not due to any particular negatives, but simply because the next few games left me with more positives.

4. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4)

The fact that this game exists is incredibly stupid, and I love it.

Pros

Persona 3 is not a happy game in a traditional sense. There are happy moments, but most are bittersweet. It's a game about dealing with and overcoming tragedy, and has a dark visual atmosphere to match.

So the fact we get to see that cast dancing around with bright colours is nuts. But not at all in a bad way. These characters go through so many difficulties; they absolutely deserve to have a fun dance party where they don't have to think about anything else. This isn't the happy kids deciding to dance; this is a bunch of stressed out people who need a break. And as someone who loves Persona 3, it makes me so happy to...well, see them happy.

The majority of the original voice actors were brought back (the main exception being Elizabeth), and they do just as good a job as in the old days.

We get mostly great remixes of the P3 songs, and the original versions of others. Each song has a particular character assigned to it so they can more effectively match their dancing style. The models look amazing.

There's also minor Social Link elements which are used in place of a story, and their personalities are mostly intact. There's certainly some Flanderization, but it's not as bad as Persona Q.

You also get a decent progression system of unlocking songs in batches, and needing to beat them to get the next songs. The Social Link requirements help make repeating the songs fun while giving you something to work towards.

The rhythm game itself is hard to judge since I play very few rhythm games. I found it fun once I got the hang of it on normal difficulty. There's tons of modification options to make it easier or harder depending on your preferences.

Cons

As with every modern Persona game, the DLC is awful. Tons of Day One DLC, and they even locked Shinji to DLC! Does he not also deserve to have fun without paying extra? There's also a few songs I would have liked, but not at those prices. Otherwise DLC is mostly costumes and accessories which I both don't care about, and which are overpriced.

I also hate that we had an EASY chance to get the FeMC Minako in this fun low-stakes plot game, but didn't. It's not like Atlus forgot about her either; she was in Persona Q2 which came out a little later. If anything, SHE should have been DLC and Shinji should have been in the base game.

The jump in difficulty between Hard and All-Night is absurd. I can beat most songs on Hard with good ratings, but I can't beat the first song on All-Night at all.

Koromaru is not in the game, which inherently prevents it from being perfect. He could have jumped in during Fever Time at least!

Final Thoughts

This game is only for Persona 3 fans, but boy is it some great fanservice for us. If you're a Persona 3 fan that at least slightly enjoys rhythm games, this is for you.

3. Indivisible (PS4)

As of writing this, I have not actually beaten Indivisible. If I had to guess, I'm at the 2/3 mark? A big plot thing just happened, but it's clearly not the final plot thing.

Since this game is less known, it's a platformer/fighter/RPG hybrid with a heavy South Asian influence.

Pros

It's a platformer/fighter/RPG hybrid with a heavy South Asian influence.

Look at that sentence! These are all things I love!

I grew up on platformers and RPGs, and I have a lot of fun when I get into a fighter. And as someone who always desperately tries to find even one brown character in most video games, I'm all about a cast that is mostly South Asian!

The combat system is really fun. It utilizes something similar the classic Final Fantasy ATB style system, but at a very quick refresh rate and tons of fighting game elements thrown in. For example, a key is doing combos with your various party members. Each character has 3 standard moves, and knowing when to use what depending on the enemy's position is where the strategy comes in. There's also one party-wide meter that everyone dips into to use Supers. It's a very aggressive and offense-oriented battle system, but they manager to incorporate healers and support units comfortably. But yes, everyone is basically a fighting game character in an RPG battle system.

The platforming starts off very basic, but you get access to so many moves and can use them all fluidly together. There's some really fun platforming segments that really force you to use everything Ajna can do.

The character designs are top-notch, even removed from how ecstatic I am about the diversity. Again, they are designed as fighting game characters who have to be distinct and high-quality. Everyone also feels extremely unique in combat.

I wouldn't say the overall story and writing is amazing, but there's some good moments here and there. It also follows a somewhat less traditional path for Ajna so far, even though I'm expecting a fairly traditional climax.

Cons

Okay, so this is in some ways a fighting game. Which means you should have a move list you can look up. While you get a brief explanation of each character's gimmick when you recruit them, there's NO MOVE LIST!

That sucks, but you can go into Training and figure out the moves for yourself, right? Yes, except you don't unlock Training until almost 10 hours into the game! Which means for the early part of the game when you're still learning the mechanics of the system as a whole, you also have more trouble learning what each character can do. Combined with a very high rate of recruiting new characters early on, this can be overwhelming. If they didn't want to make a move list, they should at least have made Training available from the beginning.

Backtracking can be a bit of a pain; there's minimal fast travel points. Ajna doesn't cover as much space as Samus relatively to the game world, so it really takes some time to go around. Enough that it sometimes discourages exploration, which is not good in a platformer.

The sense of progression is also pretty slow once you get past the 1/3 mark. You don't get new characters quite as quickly, and it's not as though your characters learn new moves (they shouldn't, based on how the battle system works). You also only have levels for Ajna, which in my experience don't make a huge difference. And there's no equipment or items give you that sense of growth. What you have are the Ringels; collect enough of them and you can get a major defense upgrade, or add an additional attack slot per turn to every character. They're great upgrades, and fun to explore and find, but it's a long time between upgrades.

I also feel like healers and support are tough to use well in such an aggressive battle system, which is unfortunate because I traditionally love support-type characters.

Final Thoughts

Despite liking it more than most of the games on this list, it's a tough recommend. It's very specific to what it is, and there's nothing to really compare it to. However I really like it, and I especially love the South Asian influence.

2. Celeste (Switch)

If you showed me a 10-second clip of Celeste gameplay, I'd dismiss it as some easier Super Meat Boy clone.

I'm so glad I didn't.

Pros:

In many ways, Celeste can be called a long series of platforming challenge rooms. Basically once you clear a distinct "screen" and die, you move forward. You die, you restart on the same screen in seconds. There's infinite lives and no timer. You take as long as you need, and you keep pushing forward. It's a compromise of making a classically difficult platformer that removes all elements that make the classics feel cheap. And it's also a great representation of the story Madeline is going through.

Having a young-life crisis, non-mountain-climber Madeline sets out to climb the famously difficult mountain Celeste. There's a few other characters to deal with, but the majority of the game is spent with Madeline and the reflection that represents another side of her. A side of her that's always bringing her down and trying to force her to turn backIt's a short and well-written story, and absolutely worth experiencing. I love the weaving of the "keep trying" gameplay and story, and the fact an Assist Mode to make the gameplay easier is available from the start is important.

The music also nails that Super Metroid feeling of atmospheric or lively depending on what's happening.

Controls are similarly precise but reasonable, and the incredibly low stakes of failure make even the cheaper platforming segments doable. Some of the platforming is legitimately annoying, but being able to try again in literal seconds makes it less frustrating than easier platformers.

Cons

I don't care for the character sprites. They are small and faceless. You understand what they're going for, and I know they have to be small in relation to the area of the game. But it's just not visually appealing.

...I can't really think of any other cons.

Final Thoughts

I feel like Celeste is an important game that will stay with me, far beyond just a good game I played in 2019. It's short, it doesn't cost much, and it's absolutely worth your time if you have any sort of anxiety or self-esteem issues.

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch)

My favourite series finally returns to a home console after nearly a decade. And boy does it deliver.

Pros

There's two critical things I look for when judging a Fire Emblem game; the cast, and the core gameplay.

The cast in Three Houses is nearly fully presented to you from the start of the game. You have your three separate houses with their individual students, and you choose one to lead. Fortunately you can recruit most students from other houses with some work, so you don't have to worry too much about mutually exclusive units. You will see a few new faces over the course of the game join your team as well, so there's still some surprises. At first glance, many of the characters can be relegated to anime tropes. Claude is the charismatic schemer, Marianne is the quiet girl who likes animals, Hilda is the lazy high-confidence girl, etc. But as you progress through the story and the Support conversations, you'll find that nearly every character has a lot of writing effort put into them. I do not want to give any examples because it's better to get to them yourself throughout the game, but don't take the characters at face-value. Don't expect a full 180 personality shift, but do expect lots of depth to explain both currently personalities, and being able to see the growth of these characters. There's some very relatable issues some of the characters face.

Honestly, it's not a stretch to say Three Houses has some of my favourite characters in the series. It's a big plus that one of the main Lords is dark-skinned for the first time in series history.

Then we have the gameplay. Off the bat we're into some very non-traditional Fire Emblem stuff with the academy system; you use things like lectures to build the weapon levels of your students. Also Cavalry, Heavy Armor, and Flying have their own weapon levels now? Also you don't buy spells, you learn them with weapon levels? There is a LOT that's different.

But what remains the same is the core formula of the strategy-RPG battles. Your process to build your units may be different in many ways, but you're still using the tactics you would expect in an FE game. There's just a few other things to consider now.

Basically I feel that Three Houses' new systems are a good compliment to the classic system as opposed to being a full replacement. Which is why even as an old FE elitist, I absolutely loves playing out the fights. Also they brought back Fog of War!

I really love the incorporation of visible agro lines. Basically when you move your character within enemy range, you actually see direct lines from the enemies so you see who will attack you. Combined with ability to go back to a previous turn, this helps make bad RNG feel less frustrating.

The story is also hands-down the best of the modern Fire Emblem era (everything from Awakening and beyond). It may start off as anime high-school, but having a cast of characters from entirely different countries attend school together as teenagers and then skipping forward to when they are leading their respective countries to war against each other...it's a lot to take in. And you have four different ways to experience the game, all of which are fairly distinct.

New gameplay elements like the lectures and academy activities are actually pretty fun, and dip into a bit of that Persona itch. You also get a better feel for the cast as you see them going about more normal activities. And it's all done in voice acting. Even every generic NPC dialogue in all four routes. Honestly the level of voice acting is incredible for a first-party Nintendo game. Voices also help the game feel so much more alive.

As always, the music is wonderful. The main theme Edge of Dawn is up there with Kingdom Hearts songs among my favourite video game vocal tracks.

Seriously, listen to it:

youtube

The option to freely change class so long as you can pass certification is weird, but feels far less busted than Awakening and Fates due to skills taking longer to learn, and mostly being less overpowered. It's also great aesthetically. Being able to use any weapon with any class was also an interesting change.

Also we have gauntlets as a weapon in Fire Emblem now. Which means you can run up to a goddam Wyvern Rider and punch them in the face. This is amazing.

Another plus is that despite incorporating a time skip, there is no child system. Which means Support is not longer a means to getting a perfect gene child unit, but instead to see how characters grow together while also getting a slight stat boost.

Cons

I kind of miss the Weapon Triangle. I know it's not even the most important thing in the old game, but I have nostalgia for it? You can sort of get the Weapon Triangle abilities once you raise your respective weapon levels enough.

As for more of a real problem...gender locked classes. It's very frustrating that there is only one class that focuses on Gauntlets, and it's locked to males. Like, have you seen Leonie? She's made to be a puncher! And I made her one, but I had to make her a Warrior.

Similarly, the only Master class that focuses on magic is locked to females. It didn't present a problem for me in the Golden Deer route, but I'm sure at one point during the other 3 routes I'll want to make a male magic user. Oh, the Dark Mage line is also locked to males, but doesn't have a Master class.

Master classes in general are a problem. Nearly all of them are Cavalry or Flying, and it's visually annoying. Also because most of my Advanced classes were infantry, so my characters didn't really learn Cavalry or Flying with certain exceptions.

I wish there were no gender-locked classes, and more infantry Master classes.

Also I know it doesn't make sense story-wise, but I wish I could recruit Claude to Blue Lions or Black Eagles because I really don't want to hurt him when I play those routes.

Final Thoughts

I mean, it's number one on my list. Obviously I love it. But it's important to note this is my favourite Fire Emblem game in a long time. I feel like I need more distance from it (and to play the other routes) to really compare it to my favourites, but for now it's at least my favourite game of 2019, and my favourite Switch game.

#games of the year #games of 2019

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takesontaps-blog · 6 years

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Beer Blog One

Beer! Beer! Just the word, is happiness to my ear. Greetings, friends! As a “beer connoisseur”, per say, I find joy in trying all different sorts of beers. From Stouts and India Pale Ales (IPA) to Pilsners and Porters, there isn’t a beer on the face of this Earth that I wouldn’t be willing to try. As I make my way through the bubbly world of beer, I’d like to share my take on taps, bottles, breweries and virtually everything beer with you. So, where can I start? Hmm, how about by sharing with you where my love for beer first began. I had my very first beer last September, when I turned 21 years old. Well, okay… maybe I had a beer or two before then. I was born and raised in Wisconsin, after all. Although Wisconsin is considered the Dairy State, any proud Wisconsinite would be able to tell you that beer could rival that nickname. It would be more than fair to say that my love for beer is due in part to my citizenship to Wisconsin. After all, I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, right next to the world-renowned Miller Brewing Company. Beer comes from all over the world and has been brewed using various techniques, tools and ingredients as far back as 3,500 BC! With over 5,000 years of history, I will have plenty of information to share on the wonderful world of beer. I’d like to start by paying homage to my birthplace and the place that makes me proud of where so many great beers come from today, Milwaukee.

As I had mentioned, I was born in Milwaukee and would go on to spend the next 18 years of my life living there. The city is spackled with brewers, some of whom are smaller microbreweries specializing in craft beers and others who are making a name for themselves outside of Wisconsin. However, there is no bigger name in the modern beer business than the Miller Brewing Company.

To provide some history on how Miller Brewing became the company it is today, I’ll start with the companies’ foundation that dates all the way back to 1855. Miller Brewing Company was founded by one Mr. Frederick Miller. Frederick Miller had emigrated from Germany in 1854, bringing with him a special brewer’s yeast that would set him apart from all the other breweries. Like most businesses, Frederick Miller started small by purchasing a local Milwaukee brewery named Plank Road Brewery. The brewery was located in an area called the Miller Valley. Due in part to Frederick’s last name, as well as the location in Miller Valley, the Plank Road Brewery was renamed and the Miller Brewing Company was born. The Miller Brewing Company would then go on to remain in the Frederick Miller family for over 100 years until the eventual sale to W. R. Grace and Company in 1966. The brewery swapped ownership yet again in 1969, 2002 and most recently in 2015 when Anheuser-Busch Inbev reached a full agreement to purchase the company for a whopping $107 billion dollars. The 2015 agreement was the most recent sale of the Miller Brewing Company, but it is important to note that the company merged with fellow beer behemoth MolsonCoors on October 10, 2016. When Frederick Miller founded the company in 1855, Miller Brewing Company had one facility with a staff of 25 employees who brewed 300 barrels of beer. Today, Miller Brewing Company operates: six breweries, five manufacturing plants, four distributorships, a glass bottle production facility, a label factory and several gas wells which employ roughly 9,500 people. Altogether, the company now brews more than 40 million barrels of beer per year. No, that’s not a typo, more than 40 million barrels of beer per year! This makes Miller Brewing Company the second largest brewery in the United States. I think it’s safe to say Frederick Miller would be proud of where his company is today (well, apart from his great granddaughter selling off the company in 1966).

*Miller High Life Logo*

Now the fun part, beer! MillerCoors (Joint name of Miller Brewing and Molson Coors) offers more than 50 beers. You might have heard of a few, such as: Miller Lite, Blue Moon, Leinenkugel’s, Redd’s, Coors, Miller 64, Red Dog, Smith and Forge, Sol Cerveza, Steel Reserve and Olde English 800. While I could go on and on about the many great beers MillerCoors has to offer, I’d like to stick to the original beers that the Miller Brewing Company offered prior to the merger in 2016.

One of the more notable beers you might have heard of (especially the college kids) is Hamm’s and Hamm’s Special Light. While I do admit it’s not my favorite Miller product, it is one of the best beers in terms of bang-for-your-buck. A 30-can case of Hamm’s can run as little as $10-$12 dollars if you go to the right stores. With a light flavor that goes down easy, you could find yourself ten Hamm’s in by the end of the night. The best part? That could cost you as little as $3 or $4 dollars, talk about efficiency!

Hamm’s might not be your first choice, and that’s okay! Miller Brewing Company also offers classics with much more flavor like Mickey’s. Mickey’s is a fine malt beverage with moderate bitterness and lots and lots of malts. One of the neatest things about Mickey’s is the innovative 12-ounce “grenade” bottle they can be found in. You may have seen a grenade-style bottle before, and that style all originated with Mickey’s! In a world of standard cans, you can keep it classy with a Mickey’s grenade bottle. However, if you’re looking for a little less class and a little more fun, virtually every gas station in the Milwaukee Area will offer a Mickey’s 40-ounce bottle. The 40-ounce bottles are a nice, cheap snag but I wouldn’t recommend making Mickey’s your first choice for drinking games like “Edward 40-Hands” (A game in which you tape a 40-ounce beer to each hand and begin drinking). This is because Mickey’s contains so many malts which will fill you up much faster than light beers like Hamm’s.

*Mickey’s famous 12oz. grenade-style bottle and 40oz. bottle*

Miller Brewing Company also has products you may not have heard of before, such as Miller Fortune. This product was brewed in lesser amounts than other Miller products which is why you may not have heard of it. Another reason why this beer is often unheard of is because production has come to a halt. There are still select stores, bars and restaurants that offer Miller Fortune so if you’re lucky enough to come across the jet-black Miller Fortune bottle, I’d give it a try! Part of what makes this beer so unique is that it was brewed with caramel malts and cascade hops. The malts and hops create the perfect balance for a smooth swallow, but this product is known to follow with a minor “bite” as it has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 6.9%, a bit higher than standard light beers.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Miller Brewing Company and part of the reason I’m such a big fan is because they brew my all-time favorite beer. I decided to save the best (in my opinion) for last. Miller High Life. The “Champagne of Beers”. Miller High Life is a classic American-style lager that dates all the way back to 1903. High Life was launched to be Miller’s flagship beer and to this day serves as a staple to the Miller name. I’m not sure if it’s the classic glass bottles or the fact that they use the original 1903 recipe, but something about this beer makes you feel authentic. In my opinion and in many others, there is nothing classier than a Miller High Life in a bottle which is why so many people gave it the nickname it has today, the Champagne of Beers.

*Miller High Life’s Iconic “Lady In The Moon”*

As a beer lover, I am very fortunate to have been born and raised in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is home to so many great beers and the Miller Brewing Company products I’ve mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg for Milwaukee brews. The Miller Brewing Company paved the way for dozens of other brewers hoping to make a living doing what they love in Milwaukee. Even if beer isn’t your style, you’ll find the Miller name everywhere around the Milwaukee community. One of the most iconic instances is on the home field of the Milwaukee Brewers’. This major league baseball team plays home games in Miller Park, a renowned stadium that is positioned just three miles away from the original Miller Brewery that Frederick Miller first opened in 1855.

I’d like to thank each of you for taking the time to read my first blog and if you’re interested in some of the resources I used to create this blog or just want to know more about the Miller Brewing Company, please see the links I have posted below. Cheers!

https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/miller-brewing?hashedNID=#1G22840500106

https://www.millercoors.com/beers/great-beers

https://www.millercoors.com/breweries/miller-brewing-company/brands-we-brew

#mkt400uwl #beer #beerstagram #beergeek #beerlover #milwaukee #beerblog #everythingbeer #anythingbeer

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boredom-solved · 7 years

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Game Review – Code: Realize

Game review for an otome game called Code: Realize Guardian of Rebirth.

This is just my opinion and thoughts on it so if you have an issue with it then TOO BAD! IT’S MY BLOG.

Please note: I am not a gamer. I am just some person who somehow got into otome game and visual novel type games. Also note that I have an art background so I am a bit of a stickler of design and aesthetics and may talk more about that than I need to.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

“Let’s see what the hype is all about and see if this is worth my morning commute!” Legit, that’s what I thought and was super excited to know why in every website I came across named this game as in their top 10. The are seems pretty and was excited to start it because it’s my first handheld otome game.

STORYLINE (maybe spoilers)

The overall storyline follows a girl named Cardia (or whatever you want to name it but you only have 6 characters) and her path to finding our who and what she is and learning about LOOOOOVE along the way. She starts off as this very naive boob-showing girl who know nothing but somehow can read and talk english but still know nothing about the world kind of girl to one who is steadfast and fights for her beliefs.

But don’t get me wrong the game isn’t and valiant as I make it sound. It’s an otome game so don’t expect anything.

I took the path of Victor Frankenstein > Van Helsing > Saint-Germain > Impey Barbicaine > Lupin and Lupin was last because you have to play the other four dudes to unlock his route.

Victor Frankenstein - a route where you are closer to Cardia’s want to get rid of her poison

Van Helsing - a route filled with so much blood and gore that you need to prepare yoself to be a little bit traumatized.

Saint-Germain - a route the questions the existential life and one’s morals.

Imply Barbicaine - light and simple ..... TBH i found it boring and annoying.

Lupin - ANSWERS (almost) ALL QUESTIONS! But also leaves you with just as many.

OPINION (definite spoilers)

The game was great! I loved every minute I played and was far better than what I had expected. The art was beautiful and I loved the fluidity of the expression changes in the characters and the flow of the story. I’m a bit of a stickler for design and ease of use (I work in design so yeahhhh) and it was very intuitive to play and understand the flow of things. Granted all you really do is press X but still the menu was easy to understand, especially for someone who doesn’t game at all. The only downfall was all the typos, man, but who knows maybe my job has to do with me being a bit picky with typos and grammar issues on products that are release as final.

I personally loved the story for Victor Frankenstein and Saint-Germain. So I don’t understand why so many people prefer Impey Barbicaine or Arsene Lupin. It was kinda boring because the Cardia is kind of a rude to Impey and way to damsel-y in Lupin. I like a man who knows what he wants and is a good leader in all, but I am not a damsel that never learns! Also, in Impey’s route the love seemed a bit forced and out of place.

FOR SURE SPOILER - What I really appreciated about Frankenstein and Saint-Germain’s route is the fact that it somehow addresses the dilemma of Cardia’s poison and a bit about her origins and why her dad did what he did. I really like things that are bittersweet so I really liked that about these two stories and just thought it was so lovely that they were finally be able to touch!

Many will say that Lupin’s does the same thing, but I think his backstory and why he came to be who he is, is what really threw me off a bit. His connection to Cardia and why he came to steal her was so forced and a bit of an afterthought that it wasn’t as fluid as the two I personally like.

Well all in all, loved the game and would re-play it just to see the sweetness of it all. I definitely recommend it to others, but would not recommend the way I played it in terms of characters play because I had to do a lot of piecing together than I probably needed to. LOL

#game review #otome games #Code: Realize #Guardian of rebirth #victor frankenstein #saint-germain #van helsing #impey barbicane #arsene lupin #game spoiler #my thougths #my own opinion

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justanearth-boundmisfit · 7 years

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Rules: Always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, then write 10 questions of your own, and tag 10 other people.

Note: posting this again because the first time I did it wrong. Lmao! Sorry. Hope this time it’s ok.

Tagged by @flyingcatstiel - thank you darling!

1. How many languages do you speak? List them, even if still learning or already forgetting.

I speak 4 languages, spanish, english, french and portuguese. Spanish and english I think I know them well especially the first one I hope! Although I’m always learning more english every time I can because I tend to type whatever comes to my mind really fast and I’m full of typos (sorry). I’m still learning Portuguese, and I’m starting to forget French sadly, I can read it and listen to it and understand a little but speaking it is becoming hard.

2. Favorite Dean/Cas moment on the show?

This is very very hard, I used to love them so much on the show! And now I found them so ... nothing..... so depressing. But well to answer the question I guess I like all the little moments from season 4 and five. Like them sitting on that park, having Cas confessing that he has doubts, the phone conversation on My Bloody Valentine when Cas appears at the morgue, Cas letting Dean know that an archangel is protecting Chuck, almost all the moments from “Free to be you and me”, the “Cas, personal space” moment, the fbi badge incident (the first time, the second was just lame writing to make Cas appear dumb). There are a lot! But from those two seasons mainly, I have a few faves from season 8 (the hug in purgatory of course), but it’s all tainted by how Dean treated the whole crazy!Cas debacle. Let’s say that after season 6 I became the bitter Cas fan that I am today.

3. Favorite fanfic tropes in destiel fics?

Ohhh, I love rom coms! I only read aus so the rom com trope is on my top five. I love misunderstandings like in Peanut Butter-Pumpkin Wedding Cake by Sparseparsley. I love Au!angel Cas, gedry on LJ has a lot of them, they are old, buy sooo good, it’s a shame we don’t have more from her. And above all I love bamf!Cas give me give me give me! Example: The Team by palominopup.

4. Fruit or vegetable you don’t like (mango is not an acceptable answer, pick another one)

Mmm I don’t know. Maybe avocado? Don’t kill me! But I tried it so many times, and was like meh! Mango, I love though.

5. Tell me about a destiel fic you’ve read recently and really enjoyed. [please include title, author and link]

I’m re reading old ones lately because I couldn’t find anything new to really enjoy. BUT, you rec Angel Cookies by noxsoulmate and it was such an amazing surprise! Everyone go read it, it was great!

6. Which one of your own (recent) fan works (fic, art, gif set, vid, side blog, etc) you are proud of? If you don’t have any, give a shout out to a (recent) fan work that you really loved. [any fandom, please include title, creator and link]

I love 99% of the fics by palominopup, she is amazing, I’m waiting for her to finish her last one to read something new, because I don’t read wips.

In art I fell in love with Cas with Brilcrist work, sadly she deleted a lot of her spn stuff, but what you can find is amazing. But she is my favourite spn artist, although it’s not recent.

7. Recommend me a new TV show to take my mind of SPN. Tell me why it will help.

I will always recommend Brooklyn 99, it’s not new, and it’s a comedy, but it’s amazing imho. Out of the really new tv shows, not much to recommend, I watched a lot of pilots and it was all meh. I watch two realities that I always come back to, because it takes my mind out of things, Face Off, about fx and make up artists, zero drama and only work. And Project Runway, that yes, it has some drama, but I love Tim Gunn and the new season is amazing.

8. Are you going to watch season 13 of Supernatural? If not, when did you stop watching the show? (I’d love to know why but you don’t have to justify your decision)

Idk, and if I do watch it would only be the episodes when Cas is in, so I guess not a lot to watch there. I only watched spn for Cas tbh, I stopped watching mid season 6 when it all became too painful, after that I stopped watching for a few months again and then returned but only for the Cas’ eps. I hate the show. I hate what they did to Cas, what they did to deancas, and I hate how out of touch with reality the writers are. They are writing a two mains show, when 99% of the shows now on tv are ensemble casts. Above all things I hate the homophobic, misogynist, racist that is Robert Singer, and how his views translate into the show. Spn had the opportunity to be epic, now is just some show everyone complains about.

9. Cats or dogs?

I like both, but I’m a cat person forever and ever.

10. What is your happy ending for Cas on the show?

Cas in a motorcycle, being human or not, happy with who he is and putting himself first, riding into the sunset :D. But seriously though, Idk, the show surely destroyed Cas, I don’t know if there can be a happy ending for him at this point, sadly. But if something that I’m sure I want for Cas is to be at peace with his decisions and to find a place to love, and people to love him back.

My questions, mmm let’s see...

1.What other shows you watch?

2.What is the most amazing place you’ve been to? It doesn’t have to be somewhere exotic, but a place you felt happy to be at.

3.Do you think deancas still have a chance to be together? Or the ship is already dead, killed by the writers and producers (and you know the actor that says it doesn’t exist? (skip this one if you don’t care one way or another)

4.Please recommend me some books? Fanfiction has taking my life, I need to read other stuff too.

5.Pet peeves?

6.What movie can you watch over and over without ever getting tired of?

7.If you could have a soundtrack for your life, what songs would be on it?

8.Where do you think spn stands now? Is still a good show? It entertains you? Or gets you more mad than happy?

9.If you can have a superhero power what would you choose? Why?

10.What movie/tv show did you think was going to be amazing but turned out to be horrible?

Tagging a few people, @zeeimpalaangel @lldyj @bitemyholyass @haven3333 and Idk if you guys want to answer anything about spn but I’m tagging you because curious! if you do @goldmetalvictor and @deathtwonormalcy

#tag game #this was an exercise in everything #lmao #but it was good #I'm bad at tag games because I take an eternity to write stuff #without an edition capability It's difficult stuff #thanks for tagging me #about me #personal #sorry about the typos #here we go again #lets see if I got it right this time

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anewenfartist · 7 years

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Writing Critique for the ENF-Sports Contest

Writing Critique

The following are judge comments on the writing submissions (for people who wrote, and agreed they’d like to see the critique on their work from the judges). The critique isn’t meant to reveal what judge placed you in what spot. The comments and submissions will be in no particular order. Judges were not required to provide comments, but they were allowed to if they felt they wanted to share their thoughts with the contestants.

Even if it’s not your entry, I encourage any artists to look at this critique and consider it. Reading critique of someone else’s work could give you good insight what to do with your own art too!

If your stuff isn’t listed here, but you want it to be, let me know. I can edit your stuff in.

There is an exception to the writing comments. IGankMid did a great job of organizing their thoughts, but some tie into other critiques. Sorry if there were writers who didn’t want this public, but this one has to be posted as a whole. So everything from Gank will be here:

sta.sh/015aopok87ht

princebuffoon.deviantart.com/a…

- The start's nervousness and build up is great with such nice little details and observations as she prepares. As it continues, it's clear word choice is definitely a strong suit of yours, fantastic vocabulary and ability to paint little moments. There are some grammatical errors here and there, though very few, and probably not as noticeable to a reader who isn't scouring it critically. The buildup continues to be great, my heart racing along with the stories character. I'm of course left wondering 'why' she entered of course, but that seems to be less and less important as you're so wrapped up in the events. A fantastic entry!

* * * A creative and effective combination of the main contest themes. The story is well-paced, managing to keep things constantly moving while still fully explaining the premise, and held together by a view from Six’s internal narrative. A great entry!

kinkyquill.tumblr.com/post/160…

- The grandiose start with the competitors on stage made for a good scene set up. The variety of events and characters allowed for a couple of different angles to be covered. This has the risk of some parts feeling a bit lacking in depth though. A bit of a more careful eye should also be considered for editing, some errors did seem to slip by. The characters seem a lot of fun, and it seems like a lot of stories could be told with them, as groups or even individually. Interesting risk with the ending, leaving it up to the reader.

* * * This entry was very on-theme, good job! Since there were so many characters in a relatively short story, there wasn’t much time to get invested them all. I wasn’t previously familiar with any of the characters in the inter-narrative, but their personalities came across quickly through their actions and reactions. I didn’t expect the cliffhanger ending, but it won me over.

anonenffan.deviantart.com/art/…

- The start is a bit slow and stilted, but things pick up with the clever idea of a song from her past inspiring her. The character's personality I feel were well thought out, her want to win and do better fueling herself to push herself in other risky ways. The vocabulary at points feels redundant or too reused. You do a well enough job avoiding grammar and spelling errors. The ENF was on the light side as well at the start, but you do eventually pay off that risk with some true proper conflict and worry.

* * * This story had one of the simpler settings, which allowed the character and plot to take center stage. The slow build of tension worked well, finishing strongly with an exciting conclusion. The details were well thought-out too, from “Run to Cure the Common Cold” to “Average Jill’s Gym.” Quality writing, as usual from Anon!

ldnnld.deviantart.com/art/Bare…

- A fierce rivalry of events with mischief abound is a good set up. The embarrassment aided upsets were a nice touch. Characters were a bit cliché and lacking much depth, but were still fun to see sabotaging each other. I feel some scenes could have used a bit more focus and descriptions, just to add a bit more zest. Still a fun little story with some classic pranks.

* * * This story had a nice symmetry to it. It was predictable, since you knew that one section would very likely build and reverse on the next, but I still found this structure aesthetically pleasant. The competitive spirit of both characters showed strongly, but I didn’t pick up much else about who they are. There were a few technical mistakes, but they didn’t get too much in the way of the story. (I’d suggest getting someone to proofread next time, though.)

- ewong247.deviantart.com/art/Ka…

- I found the story to be fun, good use of determination to play to get her to stay so undressed. Your descriptions were good too. The biggest crippling issue with the story though is that you at times seem to really get the wrong word put into some sentences, sometimes to the point where I wasn't sure what it should be. The story would do well from a proof read where the lines are spoken out loud I believe.

* * * This took a kernel of reality and expanded it into a whole story. Katelyn felt like a real character (although none of the background characters resonated with me particularly). There were a couple of typos (e.g. “ur was useless” instead of “it was useless”, “they naked fighterfeel” instead of I think “the naked fighter fell”?), but overall the story was still well-written.

www.asianfanfics.com/story/vie…

- I like the set up, and felt the girl's dynamic was cute. I think Eunjung gave in a bit quickly to give up her panties though, there could have been more time spent with that, to clarify it being such a big deal. Some of the dialogue feels a little stilted too. Pacing could be stronger as well I feel, but overall the story was fun. The romantic angle was also very sweet. Oh, no points were docked for this, but hosting your story on a site that won't censor it to non members is probably best in the future for contest entries. Don't want to make it tough on judges and readers to get to your content.

* * * Definitely a cute concept. The sports and ENF are mostly confined to the first half of the story, with the second half being more romance. My main problem was that a lot of the characters’ actions felt somehow hollow to me, not really meshing with the personalities I was seeing in their words and reactions. It might have helped me follow along if the story spent more time to highlight their motivations for all these hijinks. The hijinks themselves were fun though, and the general story structure was solid.

divides.deviantart.com/art/Ane…

- Another entry with a very unique setting, taking full advantage of the openness of the contest! High stakes game that forces players to play along with ridiculous whims is definitely a great concept as well, and it's handled in as fun of a way as the fun that the princess and such seem to have with it. Only thing I feel the story lacked was getting to know a few of the characters better or focusing on some moments more. * * * A lovely take on alien Calvinball! There was a humorous undercurrent throughout the story, with plenty of cute moments from the protagonists. There were a bunch of characters, but each of their personalities came across clearly during the short story. Congrats on a fine ENF sports story!

tyvadi.deviantart.com/art/Goob…

- I would have to say this is one of the more original sports for the contest for sure. I loved the fascination of our main girl as she is so transfixed on her petrified schoolmate. A shame to see it end in such a "To Be Continued" but that's a shame because I do want to read more, and that's a sign of a good stoy for sure. Your grammar and spelling seem to be quite well done. Yet really, it doesn't feel criminally short and unfinished, so probably your greatest flaw.

* * *

This was definitely an unexpected and unique setting, compared to the other entries. Though this judge was completely unfamiliar with slime/petrification, they were integrated in a way that didn’t unduly distract from the main contest themes. The structure and details of the story were well-crafted, and it had plenty of sports and ENF elements.

rrrrrricossssssuave.deviantart…

- The setting of course stands out as pretty original, don't see many stories like this set in ancient Greece! There are few small tense errors or missed spellings, especially as the story goes on. The contrast of the many men around her, some so intimidating as our antagonist, is a strong contrast to our ENF star, which works I think for adding to her sticking out more. Very happy to see her win as well.* * *A very interesting entry! The setting and tone both match with a sort of “ancient legend” feel, which was a different take than most on the contest themes. It made for an effective story! The core structure was simple - a hero overcoming an obstacle - but it’s a classic one! The style made the story very immersive. (I didn’t notice any big English problems, except an occasional strange tense. E.g. “Clyo has never seen a more magnificent temple” was a sudden present tense.)

http://lunagold1.deviantart.com/art/Strip-Basketball-683619069?ga_submit_new=10%3A149619

- The story's biggest problem is that it's a tad straight forward. Events followed by events without much highlighting or focusing on any subjects. The overall premise is a great set up for a story. With a bit more polish and spice added, you'd have a great tale.

* * *

I could see this working well as a script for actors - it’s dialogue-focused and has the main beats for actions. I liked that there was a surprise ending. The spelling/grammar mistakes were somewhat distracting, so I’d really recommend getting a friend to help proofread.

http://pokemorphomega.deviantart.com/art/contest-Stripshooting-680527642

- The sport is definitely a fun idea. Girls shooting and making other girl's clothes vanishing is fun. A few inconsistencies in terms of personalities and rules I felt. A few grammar mistakes like missing words cause a bit of a delay in understanding a sentence or two. The characterizations feel a bit forced and sudden without much build up too. The tonal difference between cute exposure and death is a bit stark as well.

* * *

The repeated character death really made this story hard to read for me. I had to read it at an emotional distance to get through it at all, which hampered any impact it could have had otherwise. I'm sure there's a target audience for this story, but at least for this judge, the casual killings got in the way of everything else.

http://jawolfadultishart.deviantart.com/art/Melty-Times-at-the-Pool-Contest-Entry-682799317

It's interesting to know so clearly ahead of time what will happen. Suspense surely does build, wondering when disaster will finally strike. Really enjoying some of the attention to detail you give. Your vocabulary is definitely not a weak point either. There are few grammar hiccups I noticed as I went. Especially thought your description of the suit coming apart was pretty great. A very fun short tale overall.

* * *

A pretty simple ENF story, with a typical setup/reveal/aftermath structure. I couldn’t really get a feel for who Amanda was as a character, apart from a bit at the end when interacting with her friend. I liked the content of the two descriptive paragraphs: the one starting with “Her lungs burned” and the one starting with “The judge raises a hand.” However the first few words weren’t very representative of the paragraphs’ contents, so they would have been easy to accidentally skim over if I weren’t in contest-judging-read-every-word-mode. It might have helped to split them up into two or three paragraphs, to let the reader know which beats are important. (Erotica readers can be impatient, so you have to guide them!)

http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=58894;article=58654;title=The%20ASN%20Story%20Board

You have some really good atmosphere to the story, that's for sure. Nice angle part way through as well with using commentary as an alternate way to narrate the story partway through to change it up for a bit. Good job capturing the excitement and action too. The main flaw I'd say is the story could have focused more on some ENF themes. So a bit of a miss with the theme since so many other types of emotions take over the story, and ENF was supposed to be a big deal of course.

* * *

- Cool world-building! Kate has a good character arc over the course of the story, which is the main strength of this entry. (I didn’t connect very much with Maria or the other background characters while reading, but maybe others did.) The sci-fi setting was a cool backdrop for a “dangerous racing” story.

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danasukontarak · 5 years

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Dana’s Travel Diary: How to Do the Exumas

Billy McFarland was the young, white sociopathic entrepreneur that ripped his way through the small chain of Bahamian islands known as the Exumas, to defraud countless workers, business owners, and investors, all with washed up rap legend Ja Rule in tow. Together, they were certainly “living it up” (DO I DO?), selling a dream they’d christened “Fyre Fest.” McFarland’s lofty promise to eager attendees was an overtly lavish music festival laden with celebrities and influencers, gourmet catered meals, and exclusive, stylish beachfront accommodations. You've probably seen at least one by now, but there are two documentaries about the man and this farfetched, fucked up plan: 'Fyre' on Netflix and 'Fyre Fraud' on Hulu, which were released within days of each other.

I watched the Netflix documentary on my first day in the Bahamas, a trip I planned for my 30th birthday. I would have watched the Hulu one, too, but I discovered that Hulu isn't available in the Bahamas. I traveled with B and we were staying in Nassau, but the highlight of the trip was definitely going to be the Exumas. Seeing Chanel Iman and Bella Hadid play with the swimming pigs in the Netflix documentary did a bit to rejuvenate my overall excitement for the exotic excursion. Our first two days in the Bahamas were all about the fish fry (a strip of restaurants and bars that come alive with locals and tourists alike at night), beautiful beaches (like Junkanoo, with the bomb conch fritters), and getting adjusted to driving on the left side of the road (which is especially weird, because there are cars in Bahamas with the steering wheel on the left, and also cars with it on the right).

Prior to the trip, we’d booked a boat trip from Nassau to the Exumas through a company called Powerboat Adventures. For the two of us, the total was $441. Not long after our arrival in the Bahamas, we received a cancellation email from the company, saying that a mechanical issue with the boat would prevent us from going that day and that our money would be refunded. The email was riddled with typos and errors, which made me feel slightly like I had vertigo. Was this really happening? We attempted to rebook through another company, and were told that the tour was not available on our requested day.

At this point, B launched into research mode and found the optimal option. Firstly, he discovered that all the boats used by different companies for the Exuma tour come from the same place. Also, though the boat rides are cheaper, they were also 2.5 hours long each way, on semi-choppy waters in a small boat. The plane, on the other hand (which was tiny and a bit scary but oh-so-fun), gave the option of just a 30-minute flight, which would allow us 3 to 4 additional hours of enjoyment and exploration. Flamingo Air, a local airline, offered flight and tour packages for $500 per person. B then inquired about the individual price of a flight, and the individual price of renting a tour guide. In the end, we paid $188 apiece for the flight (discounted from $220 for paying in cash), and $175 apiece for the tour (paid in cash at the end, directly to the guide). Our grand total was $726, which is a lot more than $441, but also a lot less than $1,000.

Our tour guide was Kuenson Rolle. This felt significant to me because the woman in the Netflix Fyre documentary on Great Exuma that lost $50,000 at the hands of McFarland was named Maryann Rolle. We didn’t want to ask about the festival at all, since we thought it may still be a sore subject, especially seeing as though most of the workers are still unpaid for the labor they provided in 2017. Kuenson was an amazing guy and almost a local celebrity. We’d been told that everyone in the Exumas knows each other. Having given tours for over 30 years, he was still as enthusiastic, helpful and kind as we could have hoped for. [NOTE: You should definitely contact Kuenson directly if you plan to go to the Exumas. His company is named Papa Pig and I have his phone number -- there is no website.]

The first stop on the tour was a beach full of lizards. When we arrived, the sandy strip was mostly empty. As Kuenson pulled out his bag of honey wheat sandwich bread, lizards of all sizes started to emerge from the shrubbery. We fed them by stick.

The second stop was the famous pig beach. As our boat pulled up, a pig swam out to greet us. Later, we saw that they do this to each new boat, in hopes of securing new food. The big pigs were aggressive, running the smaller pigs away whenever it looked like a meal was coming their way. One of the more aggressive pigs bit my thumb as it attempted to snatch a slice of bread from my hands.

After saying bye bye to the piggies, we headed to Compass Cay, where we had to pay an additional $10 each to swim with nurse sharks. They lay in wait, nearly on top of each other, on a small pier where workers hack up big fish and toss it to the sharks for a snack. Meanwhile, we pet them like puppies and swam amongst them like guppies. They were harmless and actually kind of sweet, swiping their caudal fins against our legs as they passed by, kind of like how cats slyly impart their scent on adjacent humans.

The next stop was a sand bar, which was essentially a tiny desert island, no more than about 25 feet across in any direction. While riding in the boat, we noticed that the water elevated and depleted rather quickly, sometimes making it tough for our guide to navigate through very shallow areas.

From the sand bar, we went to the Thunderball Grotto, an underwater cave system teeming with all sorts of colorful fish and creatures. This is where a James Bond film was shot in 1965, and the entrance is a small dip that we swam through with scuba gear, life vests, and flippers. Neither B nor I are the best swimmers, and it was tiring even just getting from one point to twenty feet away. But the underwater view was absolutely incredible, and Kuenson dove in with us to babysit and make sure we didn’t somehow drown.

In the hour or two we had before catching the tiny plane back to Nassau, we ate at a restaurant at Staniel Cay with an Italian couple we’d met during the tour. I had the fresh catch of the day, which was mahi mahi. We ended up smoking with them on the beach and discussing travel and Bahamian politics until it was time to go. She showed me her hairy legs and underarms, and called me a coniglio (Italian for “rabbit”) for shaving mine.

The rest of our vacation we spent at the Atlantis Cove resort, which was almost depressingly nice. I tried sky juice for the first time there, which is a traditional Bahamian cocktail made of coconut water, condensed milk, gin and spices. After the first sky juice, I drank only sky juice. Our room was big and beautiful, overlooking the water park at the resort and a sliver of beach with waves crashing against rocks. We played roulette at the casino and ate cracked conch at Nobu (which you can ONLY do at Nobu Bahamas). It was a manufactured paradise, but paradise nonetheless. I’m not usually a resort type of gal, but since I’m turning 30, I had to increase my bourgeois-Z-ness a few notches.

The Exuma excursion is what made this trip spectacular, and I couldn’t imagine how I may have felt about the trip had we been unable to go. Billy and Ja weren’t wrong; a music festival there would have been amazing (albeit physically damn near impossible). I would recommend the Exuma tour to anyone who is going to the Bahamas and has a day and $460 to spend, even if it means forfeiting a few nights in a fancy hotel to opt for an Airbnb, which there are plenty of in the area.

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pinelife3 · 5 years

Text

Businesses I Worry About

When thinking of get rich quick schemes, good ideas might include:

Dropshipping

Chill hop radio streams on YouTube (there has to be some money to be made, right?)

Automating the set-up of Wordpress sites (actually cool themes, basic pages, get rid of shitty blog post format so a business can use it, etc.) and charge ~$20/site

ATM skimmers

Buy the domain www.jetstor.com and make it look exactly like JetStar’s site. Sell fake plane tickets. Use elaborate VPNs and darkweb security stuff to avoid detection. Once the scam ceases to be profitable repeat with virgon.com and any other business where a user might mistype the website’s URL. I’d suggest this scam works best for businesses with a ‘u’, ‘i’ and/or ‘o’ in the name as these three letters sit beside each other on the keyboard (facilitating fat-fingered typos) and also people tend to pay less attention to vowels

Not high at the top of anyone’s list: opening a restaurant.

You may not think this wandering through Chinatown, perhaps on account of the the hand-written BYO WINE ONLY signs or perhaps because of the waiters killing fish in the alleys*, but the choice to open a restaurant is indicative of the kind of pure human energy which has nothing to do with wanting to get rich.

(*I swear they do this at New Kum Den - when someone chooses one of the depressed barramundi from the tank, they fish it out, put it in a bucket and then sneak off to kill it in the alley so the kitchen doesn’t get all fish’d up.)

Just think of everything that could go wrong:

Ruinous upfront and ongoing costs

Unfair reviews

Unreliable twenty-something staff

Think about how much chairs and plates and mops and cutesy pot plants and signs cost. How many tea towels do you need? How many forks? Think about how hard it must be to find a full staff of people you trust. Think about opening for the first day and no one buying anything. Same deal on the second day. Your vegetables start to go bad in the fridge. Did you make a mistake?

This is basically my opinion on restaurants: they are risky investments, shouldered by the courageous so that the whole community has places to go where they can eat delicious ramen or dumplings or fried chicken with blue cheese sauce. With that in mind, why would anyone risk it all to open the establishment pictured below?

Falafel Place opened on Smith Street around 6 months ago. As you can see, it is not stylish - that’s why they called it Falafel Place rather than Palace. It already looks tired and it just opened. It doesn’t beckon. It doesn’t repel. It just exists (for now).

The Smith Street area is already home to many kebab/Lebanese cheap eats joints:

The only angle I can see that Falafel Place may have is that they specialise in vegetarian food (i.e. no kebabs here - only falafel, tabbouleh, etc.) but there’s nothing to recommend this place beyond being vego-friendly.

Something about this place has really gotten under my skin. None of the kebab joints (with a possible exception of Lamb on Brunswick) I’ve highlighted above is especially creative or adventurous in what they’ve opened. I don’t feel a glow of human courage and pride emanating from those businesses - but they do have one thing going for them (beyond the meat): the baked-in grease in the walls, the ravaged staff who have become canny to the ways of the local drunks (getting your kebab is like a hostage negotiation - you’ll have to hand over the cash before you get your food). There’s just something grotty but dependable about the local kebab joints. Like the raw onions in a kebab, it brings a tear to your eye. Not so with Falafel Place. I feel so much pity for the owners. Why would you risk so much money (Smith St rent can’t be cheap - how much fucking falafel will you need to sell to make ends meet?) on a place which looks so disinterested - disinterested in falafel and disinterested in selling us falafel. Do you people even like falafel? Nothing about this place suggests even a passing interest in falafel. Falafel PLACE?!

INTERVIEWER: Excuse me Mr. Proprietor, could you tell us something about what inspired you to open this establishment?

PROPRIETOR: Huh?

INTERVIEWER: Could you spare some time to -

PROPRIETOR: Are you talking to me?

INTERVIEWER: Yes, aren’t you the genius behind this fine falafel restaurant?

PROPRIETOR: Ah yeah.

INTERVIEWER: So, could you tell us a bit about what inspired you to open such a -

PROPRIETOR: Look lady, falafel just spawns here. Every morning we come into the office and find all our desk drawers full of falafel.

INTERVIEWER: You mean you don’t lovingly cook this using a recipe your great-grandmother left you in her will?

PROPRIETOR: No we don’t cook it. We’re accountants. We just sell falafel out of the office reception so it doesn’t attract ants where we’re trying to work.

INTERVIEWER: But why not just eat it yourselves - I don’t understand.

PROPRIETOR: Eat the falafel? I can’t stand the stuff. So dry. It’s awful.

INTERVIEWER: I have to say this is one of the more candid interviews I’ve conducted for Made Up Falafel Magazine. Could you explain the thinking process behind the name?

PROPRIETOR: Falafel Place? Well, yeah we didn’t want to lay it on too thick with superlatives or -

INTERVIEWER: Or even a name which wasn’t a statement of fact.

PROPRIETOR: Look, this is a place where there is falafel. Buy it or not - I really don’t care.

Meanwhile... not too much further along Smith Street, is another newish business: Sen Storm, a Veitnamese fusion restaurant. This premises used to be occupied by a New Orleans po boy joint which seemed to be perpetually closed. A few months ago, I saw that they were re-tiling the shopfront - like so, I think it actually looks really nice:

(It’s closed in this pic - it normally looks a bit more welcoming)

Maybe it’s because I was dimly aware of the failure of the po boy place, but I am very stressed for Sen Storm. Every time I walk past, I look in to see if they have enough customers. Are the staff busy? Are people eating there? Is it being enjoyed? I desperately want the people of Sen Storm to have made a good investment. I can feel the care radiating out of this place - they want it to be nice, they want people to enjoy it. They’re trying something new. Vietnamese food is typically pretty cheap in Melbourne: $12 bowls of pho, $4 banh mi on Victoria Street. Sen Storm is edging their way into fancier restaurant prices ($25 mains, nice cocktails) - there are not many other places in Melbourne doing nice napkin Vietnamese.

I read this interesting article on why noodles are cheap compared to pasta - it has a lot to do with our biases relating to the hierarchy of cuisines:

The other issue in all of this, is us, the dining public. What prices are we willing to pay for pad Thai, ramen or a plate of dumplings? All the chefs interviewed acknowledged a cultural hierarchy that makes noodles cheap and pasta expensive.

"Why would people pay $30 for cacio e pepe, which is really just pasta, black pepper and cheese, but they won't pay more than $10 for three amazingly made har gau or xiao long bao, which probably require a whole lot more skill than making pasta?" asks Dan Hong.

Narada Kudinar, co-owner of Sydney's Yan, sees this play out in his Chinese-style smokehouse.

"We get people who walk into the restaurant, after Googling we are the top-rated Asian restaurant in the area and walking out after seeing the menu prices."

Mr Bayad feels the same frustration running his inner-Sydney Filipino restaurant.

"Customers frequently come in claiming they ate the same food for 43 cents at a street market in the Philippines.

"I deal with that fairly often here and it's an old conversation — I'm just sick of it. The production [of food] here is completely different."

It's an expectation rooted in mainstream experiences of Asian food — from chicken chow mein in suburban Chinese takeaway restaurants with the lucky cat figurines to $1 pad Thai on Bangkok streets.

Even those with Asian heritage can hold the same prejudices. "The easy stereotypes are very ingrained — the idea of yum cha being a 'hangover food' and Chinese being a 'quick, cheap option' — that is ingrained in me as well," says Dr Lee.

^^ This graph is from an Atlantic article from a few years ago which also looks at our biases around food, like why we will pay more for Japanese and French food than Chinese or Thai. Anyway, I do believe tastes and expectations are changing, but the point I’m trying to make is that Sen Storm is part of a new wave - they’re taking a risk and they care.

After months of anxiously peering into Sen Storm, wondering what it was like, I finally went with Matt. We ordered:

Duck curry: orange duck leg curry with egg noodles

Pepper venison: venison seasoned with Vietnamese mountain pepper served with parsnip puree and chilli chutney

Nice, right? I did photograph the food but my pictures were awful (my proud tradition of producing vomitous food photographs continues) but you can see a bit of the venison in the pic below and a corner of the curry as well. Both were very tasty and it felt like a surprising meal. Again, they’re trying something new.

I can understand why the people at Sen Storm took the risk - they had an idea, something to share, and they opened a restaurant which is still not bustling but is slowly accumulating positive reviews and will hopefully grow into a successful business. But if restaurants are risky investments - does it make sense to gamble on something you care about? Is Sen Storm more likely to do better than Falafel Place because the Sen Stormians are passionate? Maybe - but the margin by which Sen Storm has to do better is huge because building something special has cost them a lot more. Falafel Place is built on a foundation of plastic takeout containers.

In short, I am still worried about Sen Storm.

#Smith St #Melbourne #Sen Storm

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