#this gives me proper comparison mechanisms

[chezgender]

Cha cha cha / It's crazy it's party comparison

@tmrwds post and @izpira-se-zlato addition gave me brainworms. @kylla-kylla also saw the connection between ICIP and CCC and I saw their post after I started writing this. So I'm definitely not alone in being insane. Thus here is my own rant about It's Crazy it's Party.

Notes:

ICIP lyrics transcript taken from @koppitules on twt, translation taken from a Käärijä discord

CCC lyrics and translation from lyricstranslate.com

Disclaimer: This analysis is purposefully exaggerated/dramatic in order to highlight contrast. I do think Jere loves his job and career, ICIP is definitely a fun song in which you can find (or not) a deeper meaning, it's up to your interpretation. I just love angst lol please don't come at me I'm sensitive 🤡😭

(ps. sorry to all the people I tagged. You don't have to interact with this, I just wanted to give proper credit)

Let's start. Bear with me being cringe.

First verse

At the beginning of CCC, we see how partying is reserved for the weekend - it's something cathartic after a long week of responsibility and worries, it's an outlet for stress and negativity. The world can't scare him no more, as he mentions later in the song, now that he's having fun.

In ICIP, people have pointed out how the first verse reminds them of CCC, musically wise. This is definitely on purpose, the main difference lies in the lyrics. Here Jere reveals that partying now it's an everyday thing. It's an endless circus of traveling despite everything, he's the cog in a machine bigger than him. The world that seemed so tiny compared to the fun, is now scary - the party is now and tomorrow and 365 days a year, in Finland and even abroad. As if there was no safe place. He can't escape it and it's overwhelming to the point "you'll feel it in your hair and your ass" (honestly, weird phrasing, but it gets the point across I guess?). Either way, this party is almost ineluctable.

Chorus

In the CCC chorus he says he wants to forget about the pains of daily life by getting wasted and drinking with both hands on as many drinks as he can hold, until he won't even be able to get up. Honestly, although this doesn't seem like a healthy coping mechanism (but I'm none to judge), it does look willing and deliberate - he makes the choice of getting drunk on the weekend. He's in control of when the party happens.

In ICIP instead the chorus is shorter, and quite tautological: crazy is crazy, party is party, and life is life, you know? (see @tmrwds for a cultural insight on the "elämä on laiffi" phrase). There's a different feeling in this chorus, the singing is soft and maybe even a bit sexy but the lyrics hold a touch of resignation in between. This party is not a deliberate choice anymore, Jere doesn't get to choose when his life is crazy/party and when he gets to rest.

CCC 2nd verse / ICIP Tommy's verse

Without need for lyrics, also because most people have a hard time understanding what Tommy was singing live, I'll talk about this in brief. I chose to include it because Jere himself sang some parts of it during the live - mostly echoing, but still.

In CCC, Jere parties almost alone. Well, it's implied that there's more people to that party but the song is about him, his own liberation from stress and whatever thing was keeping him bound and off the dancefloor. There are no explicit references to other people.

In ICIP instead, Tommy sings about a club in which they enter and people go crazy. They talk about sex in a rather crass way, probably for kicks, but as mentioned in @tmrwds post, it could definitely hint at the wrong kind of attention Jere is receiving. People in his DMs and probably even in person are making more or less explicit advances on him, surely unsolicited, but it's part of the party.

And Tommy invites Jere to party with him (that modulated voice parodically reminds me of the beginning of Barbie Girl by Aqua). Jere says yes, of course he wants to party with him, right here right now (no matter the day, or his condition, does he really have a say in it?)

Another thing I'd like to point out:

Jere in CCC mentions "it's hard to talk when this different side of me does its part" / Tommy in ICIP mentions how the alcohol makes it hard to think (obviously, but I'm clinically insane and I see intertextuality everywhere) - so, basically, the "side of him" Jere talks about in CCC renders him carefree, maybe happy, definitely free of burdens. In ICIP, this "part of him" seems to have taken complete control to the point Jere can't tell himself from it.

Last part of ICIP

"Let's go party" leads to a countdown - inexorable and short, leaving everyone little time to get ready. The song explodes like a bomb, reminds me of a breakdown in a Korn song. The bass hammers hard and everyone is jumping, hearts bursting, everything is out of control. To quote @izpira-se-zlato , there's an apocalyptic feeling to it. Jere can't do anything but let himself be engrossed without a chance to escape. Which he can't, lest he gives everything up.

Where CCC was party metal with a touch of eurodance, ICIP definitely belongs to an insane rave. It reminds me of Dutch hardstyle, dubstep and a touch of eurodance until the end, which screams industrial/nu metal to me, only adding to the concept of hammering and exhausting work/lifestyle.

We could say that It's Crazy it's Party is the Välikuolema to Cha Cha Cha's Viuliunkieli, in a way.

Jere is a storyteller in most of his songs, and it's clear he likes such narratives to carry on between different tracks (i.e: I think the Viulunkieli/Välikuolema narrative carries on to Morgan), so it's only fair to assume the two songs combined tell a whole story.

Further speculation: Jere has often said he's really tired in this precise moment - the relentless touring throughout summer is obviously taking a toll on him, no matter how much he can love what he does. It would be exhausting for anyone. Plus, the "ghost" of ESC follows him everywhere: sometimes I get the feeling many people perceive him as the CCC-guy rather than the complete artist he is, so maybe he's trying to change this.

As many people already said, the story Mikke posted with the grave being dug could hint at the burial of green-bolero-Käärijä. I don't believe Jere is denying the fame and good things it has brought, but he's probably willing to turn the page and carry on with something new (and probably take a long, well deserved break). Or maybe the MV will just be homoerotic softp-rn featuring a grave, WHO KNOWS. I just know I can't wait to see what's next. I love ESC-Käärija (without CCC I wouldn't even be aware of his existence, so I'm forever grateful) and that love will forever be a part of me, but I also welcome this change with open arms in hopes to see him grow more and more.

Conclusion: the speculation is very real and material and I am very very cringe <33

#käärijä #jere pöyhönen #kaarija #cha cha cha #it's crazy it's party #ccc #icip #meta #song analysis #music #eurovision #tommy cash

[arkus-rhapsode]

Let's Talk About Fire Emblem Supports: A Discussion on the State of one of Fire Emblem's Iconic Mechanics

So I'm sure if you are someone who is keyed into the Fire Emblem community, something that has been discussed for some time is the current state of the support system. Arguably Fire Emblem's defining feature which in recent years has almost come to eclipse other facets of the gameplay.

However, with that has come some pretty noticeable backlash. Lets back it up for a second.

This is not going to be a "This is the right way to do this and if you disagree you are wrong" post. This is me as a long time fan of the franchise giving my honest opinion on how I feel about these aspects of the game and why I think they are the way they are and what I think could be improved and what I think works as is. I don't think Fire Emblem or InSys are gonna go be "diluting" themselves if they don't make these improvements, nor do I think someone who has different interests in how the support system should be implemented is wrong. I'm just a fan with an opinion.

So Fire Emblem's support system has been with us since FE4 in a primordial state, but its modern day form really started in FE6. While entries after that varied in terms of things added to it, it was around Awakening with the franchise on dire straights did making it so every character could support and marry for their prime future baby. This pairing mechanic brought on a bunch of new fans that enabled them to get a bunch of character interactions that resulted in loads of content for fans to then take into transformative properties. But the thing is that a lot of Awakening worked in context. What was assumed to be the last FE means its flaws were less evident and were built with the child mechanic in mind.

Now, Awakening's supports are seen as okay supports plagued with a bunch of redundancies due to the fact that one character interacting with everyone character can only produce so much dialogue. That and each support's length could also lead to loads of padding. The child units were also discarded after Fates basically proved that the mechanic without some proper context can feel more intrusive. But that still leaves us with games with many many characters and a lot of interactions.

The criticism of modern FE Supports can vary but the general points are

Too many characters

Too much repetition in interactions

Length of each support

Separated from the events of the narrative

The supports themselves are just poorly written

This is also not ignoring the ways this has been shaken up like Shadows of Valentia's use of memory fragments, the base conversations of the Tellius games, the monastery scene of Three Houses etc. So any discussion of how these support systems could be improved often calls back to other variations of the support system. And that's at least how we will be trying to examine FE's support system, using its other systems and variants for reference and comparison.

So firstly, I think the stance people take on this will actually be different depending on what aspect of the game you value most. If you are a gameplay fiend your focus will be more on integrating supports into the gameplay the way a Persona game might. If you are a more narrative fan of Fire Emblem you would more take the stance that the supports are relevant and reactive to the plot. And if you're a character fan, you likely want the content of the supports to be plentiful but endearing to the characters. So I want to at least establish that where you fall on how supports are implemented will be of personal preference.

As this is my post, my personal stance is Fire Emblem is a narrative game with supports acting as ways to elevate the characters. As such, that is why I feel confident in saying that I am personally not a fan of the idea of making every FE character support relevant to the narrative. The narrative is important to me, but critical world building and character motives shouldn't just be buried in the supports or battle conversations. I shouldn't need to play with certain character combinations to find out vital information for the plot you are writing. In my personal opinion, the best remedy for this was the creation of the base convos. These were interactions the played out when certain conditions were met at certain points in the story.

This had allowed for a lot of side characters to feel as they had some relevance even if they weren't plot relevant. To contribute to how far along this journey has been and how a map scenario may relate to them. A small version of this was done in Garreg Mach Monastery where each chapter would allow for Byleth to walk around the hub world and speak with characters who would provide their thoughts on the previous chapter or what might be coming in the next chapter. These weren't as long as base convos, much shorter. But it still gave the idea of everyone contributing a new insight. That said, as much as I think base convos are good in games like FE9, they should not be a replacement for the current support system but rather an enhancement. These I would consider as narrative moments that often hinge on events that happened in the narrative. With character commenting and interacting off of it. But I feel that if we were to remove the support system and only have base convos we would be distancing a lot of the casual fans of FE who want to see characters interact, but not always as serious. And because FE is often a war story franchise, the tone of base convos are often serious in subject matter.

With Engage and the implementation of the somniel and even walking around defeated battlefields, I actually really would have liked base convos to be implemented this way. Perhaps after a battle you may be able to walk around a camp and see an indicator of who you can talk to about an event that just happened that would trigger a more fleshed out cutscene. I say camp, because while I appreciate the monastery, but one of the issues I have is that it is a stationary location and makes FE not so much a journey but rather just able to fast travel to certain conflicts. Making the world feel smaller and repetitive.

Most likely than not, you will not unlock every support in game on your first try. This to me adds replayability and an incentive to grind with characters you may not regularly use. However, in the case of base convos, unlocking them often hinges on them just being alive at the time. So if you were someone like me who impulsively starts over even on casual mode to not lose a character, when you see all base convos, you have seen them all. You can only walk around the Monastery and ask Sylvain what he thinks about fighting Miklan only so many playthroughs before you just don't bother. The replayability will then come from difficulty spikes and not character or story incentives. So I do believe base convos should return but as an enhancement not a replacement.

(Some may suggest that one could implement a support system lock like FE3H did with its time skips, but that suffered from an issue of not accounting for everything interaction when the time skip happened. So it actually feels very bizarre to watch Ashe and Petra have a lunch time excursion in Faerghus when the country is apparently under occupation. So I think weaving supports with narrative dependency for some supports but not others will actually be more confusing.)

In fact I daresay, supports that are disconnected could actually add levity. Mia and Ilyana's support is almost completely comedic, and it feels more endearing than watch the two of them brood over Daein and Crimea.

Speaking of repetition, lets talk about support redundancy. This is part of another issue in FE's supports which we will get into, but let me at least try to establish what people mean by redundant. I find saying FE characters are "too anime" rather lazy and dismissive. At their core a lot of side FE characters are stock characters with some limited traits. So when you hear Sully talking about working out, or Rosado's obsession with cute things, or Raphael loving food, a lot of the supports they have can come back to or revolve around these topics. And when you have games with the other issue of many many characters hearing them have these convos around these topics again and again can be very boring.

Some could say that this is an easy fix by simply reducing the number of characters. Focus more on say the size of a persona cast. Well the difference is that FE is a tactical RPG with permadeath while Persona is an RPG with a focus on time management. The smaller sized cast benefits the player in ways that help them interact with every character, but not having to worry about one becoming unplayable after you spend a lot of time on one. FE however as a tactical RPG where the mass amount of characters is so you have options to solve strategic map scenarios. Reducing the number of characters to only plot relevant ones would be very difficult. Hypotethically, if we reduced Engage to the characters who have to be around for the plot that only leaves you with Alear, Vander, Clanne, Framme, Mauvier, Veyle, Alfred, Ivy, Diamant, and Timerra. Not exactly a plethora of options for making interesting maps.

Now InSys seems to have begun implementing changes to this already. No longer are we going full Awakening or Fates with supports. Supports are much more limited in scope but not quite as anemic a line up as Shadows of Valentia did with who could support who. 3H and Engage have honestly made far more strides in lowering the number of supports and honing in on who may be relevant for a character to interact with and who outside of that circle could they interact with. Three Houses often relies on the house members each being to support each other with maybe one or two students from other houses or the monastery staff. Engage seems largely to focus on characters from countries having the same interactions with a few from others. This is a good thing, honestly if we were to get a remake of Radiant Dawn, I would love for something similar to be implemented between the Ike, Elincia, and Micaiah casts with some crossover supports when you get to the back half of that game.

So if this is already something InSys is improving, why is it something people are still critical of? Well I think what some may miss is that even if we compact a cast to more manageable interactions, that still leaves the interactions themselves.

Remember how I said Fire Emblem characters are stock characters with some limited traits? Well that is often done with identifiability. When you meet L'Arachel as a holy women but she has a snotty attitude or Sylvain the noble who hits on every woman, its done so you can recognize this character. But when you get into their supports, you often see that there might be reasons for why they act this way or it makes them more fleshed out and rounded characters than how they may seem at face value. This is where I think some Fates fans will often argue that Nohr's cast is very compelling in their supports even if the game's narrative had made many come off as one note. But you can see the flippside with Engage where its supports are more manageable, people didn't think supports were elevating the characters in ways that you had known them. That's not to say all of them, Yunaka is a stand outing how her supports both inform her as a non plot relevant character but also endear her to the audience. This to me is a sign that supports will ultimately be cases of writing. And there can just be poor writing and utilization of characters. This can also hinge on context as well as 3H has recruitment of characters far different from any FE game and just hands you your house with the expectation your interactions with them will make you learn more about them rather than just playing and recruiting on a quest like some may want.

I may have been a bit snide to Shadows of Valentia as even by the account of wanting less quantity of supports, I still found it almost too small. But even then some of the supports are the best in the franchise. Particularly Python and Clive's. But I don't think this was good because SoV had less character supports, I think it was good because the writers had looked at this pairing of characters and what each one was about and what depths could the reveal about each character. I would very much like to see that for a majority of supports.

Last point is length, and honestly we've seen this improved with games like 3H. Some supports can just be short. In fact some people can have only two support chains. Honestly, just doing more of that would've probably led to less issues overall and hope for that to cut down on padding.

So with all this in mind, what is my final take away. Well I ultimately think it comes back to what I usually want out of a Fire Emblem game. The narrative should be all there in the campaign with characters arcs for plot relevant characters, but the supports should be used as a way to enhance these units. Adding dimensions to characters who ultimately don't factor into the plot as a whole. I think 3H did make a lot of these improvements particularly because it was made with the social aspect in mind with that game practically carried by all of its characters and their depths. But I did feel as the narrative of 3H had suffered and wasn't all that tight. Post Engage, I think we are seeing a system I'd like to maintain, but I think what was lost was some of the added depths to cast members that supports can provide as well. Yes, Engage was made with a lot of celebratory fun in mind so it wasn't all that serious, but it would be nice to get more Yunakas and Pandreos in that case than say Ambers. Another aspect is the pairing, and I really hope that pairing characters without the need for child units returns as well.

I am all for the return of base convos like FE9, but I don't think it should be a replacement. Again it is another form of enhancement not replacement for supports. I think completely junking supports in favor of the base convos would be a bad idea especially with newer fans of the franchise. Overall, FE supports I feel are where they should be, but there are plenty of minor tweaks that could be implemented, if just more utilization of the characters beyond their face value.

#fire emblem #fire emblem supports #fire emblem fates #fire emblem awakening #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem engage #fe3h #fe awakening #fe engage #analysis

[artbyblastweave]

Every watched anything by overly sarcastic productions on youtube? Been marathoning their detail diatribe videos and they seem like the kind of thing you'd be into, especially the ones that touch on comics/superheroes.

If that’s the one with the red and blue people, I think I watched the video they did on Frankenstein when I was reading that book for a history of horror class I took. I remember enjoying it. And I like their little avatars. Very cute.

The other thing of theirs I’ve encountered is that “If your Batman can’t comfort a child, you’ve written Punisher in a funny hat” tweet that went viral on here. I didn’t want to litigate it in the thread proper, but that delineation irked me because it conveniently elided how one of the most common methods of trying to make Punisher likable is to have him try to comfort children. In point of fact it’s kind of a boilerplate trait to give a hard-man character to make them likable. And from there you can sort of outline the differences in how it’s implemented with each character, because while Batman’s approach is rooted in empathy born from once having been that child, Frank’s is rooted in an ongoing sense of guilt at having previously failed to protect his daughter. And smarter works drill down the extra mile to point out how, for all his grief, you can infer from his chosen coping mechanisms that he probably wasn’t a particularly competent parent, and that Frank is painfully aware that he’s completely inept at addressing any problem a kid has that can’t be resolved via colossal violence, that he can provide the momentary catharsis of seeing your abuser or your torturer butchered, but nothing actionable in terms of rebuilding your life or moving forward, which is where the bulk of the work happens. All to say I thought the tweet was kind of flattening The Punisher in service of the immediate rhetorical point. But it is, like, twitter, so it’s a little bit like getting mad at your carrier pigeon for having a hard time ferrying War And Peace. Fundamental medium limitation, I’m sure I’m besmirching the depth of their consideration. I’ve hijacked your post in order to unpack this, I’ve been spinning these comparisons like gerbils in a washing machine ever since I saw the original tweet and boy did you finally pop open the lid to see if the colors were done.

#ask #asks #thoughts #the punisher #Batman #frank castle #meta #media analysis

[mappinglasirena]

Awesome job!! What is the cargo tonnage and expected price? Thanks!

Thank you so much for the compliment! And I'm very sorry I'm only getting around to your message now, I hope my answer is not too late to be useful.

Though I'm afraid it might not turn out terribly useful in general, since I can't give a precise answer to the first part of your question - and I'm not entirely sure what you mean with the second part 😅

But let's start with the first: It's really difficult to say what the cargo capacity of La Sirena might be, given that we've never seen her cargo bay. Nor even a proper sketch of what her cargo bay might have been intended to look like. The closest we get is this cutaway from the "Set Me Up" featurette:

On the left-hand side of the cutaway, you can see what is likely supposed to be a cargo bay at the bottom, leading to the big cargo doors. But technically, the space above that is the engine room, and given all the slightly arbitrary geometry in there, I'm not sure any of these spaces in the model were fully thought out by the production team or should be used to draw conclusions about the in-universe ship.

And even taking this model at face-value, it's still really difficult to evaluate the size of the cargo bay. The set of the front part of Sirena, as it was designed and built, is too large to fit into this model. You'd have to make a bunch of adjustments to either the size of the ship or the size of the interiors, and that would have more or less drastic impacts on how large the cargo bay would turn out to be in comparison.

Also, it's very much a question of how the ship is loaded. In an early design phase, all the open spaces along both decks of the ship were supposed to hold modular cargo containers.

Quoting from the Eaglemoss Official Starships Collection Special Issue on La Sirena:

[Art Director Rob] Johnson gave the interior an exposed framework that modular rooms were designed to fit into. The cargo would have done the same job, with different-shaped containers made to fit in the voids in the bulkheads. The cargo was never added and Johnson says what you see is “a skeleton without the organs.”

This is an early design of what this modular cargo might have looked like, also from the booklet.

When we meet Rios and La Sirena in season 1, the only cargo we see are a number of crates strewn around the upper and lower decks.

It stands to reason he wouldn't have too much freight on board, since he has just been hired to ferry Picard to destinations unknown, which doesn't really combine well with any scheduled cargo run. But whether there are these sort of modular containers somewhere in-universe that might be fitted in between the ribs of the ship is never answered.

Apart from storage space inside the ship, though, there is also the fact that Sirena was conceptualized as a tug. Some of the assembly at her back serves as a tether for cargo modules that can be strung together like the cars of a freight train.

At that point, the cargo tonnage of the ship expands dramatically and becomes a question of engine power and warp mechanics that nobody can answer in any meaningful way.

So, the answer to "how much cargo can Sirena transport?" is "almost impossible to answer"it's pretty much impossible to say". Depending on how much you want to bring production design intentions into it, the available space varies between "as many of the sorts of crates we see used in the show stacked along the two decks we know exist for certain" and "that plus some unseen cargo bay" and "densely stacked modular cargo containers designed to slot into all parts of the ship alongside the living quarters and holodeck, plus the same in cargo bay, and a train of freight modules hitched to the back of the ship."

As for the "price": I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here. How much this sort of ship would cost to acquire? How much you would be charged to have your cargo hauled by one of these freighters? What we think Picard might have paid Rios to take him on his little adventure? Something else entirely?

Money is always tricky in Star Trek, but the core of the United Federation of Planets is supposed to be a moneyless, post-scarcity society. If we go by the strictest interpretation, if Rios found Sirena on Earth, he wouldn't have had to pay anything for her. Same goes for shipping costs. If a Kaplan F-17 freighter were operated legally anywhere within or near the core of the Federation, I assume you wouldn't have to pay to acquire their services.

Now, once we move into the further reaches of Federation space, where people do still use money for the exchange of goods and services, things get even more complicated.

According to the designers' original intent, the Kaplan F-17 is fairly old. It was suggested that Sirena was built anywhere between 50 and 100 years before the start of season 1 (which is set in 2399). Acquiring such an old-fashioned ship might not have incurred a huge cost. Then again, she has souped-up engines and weapons, which either Rios or some previous owner added (same with the modular cabins, holodeck, transporter, etc. inside), and which might all affect the price.

And if we're talking about shipping costs, Rios, of course, is operating outside the typical post-capitalism norms of the Federation (and outside Federation space often enough to know e.g. the political situation in and around Vashti fairly well). But it's unclear whether he'd be paid in gold-pressed latinum or some other currency, and the value of any of those are pretty much impossible to know, anyway.

I think in beta canon, i.e. Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller, we also don't get an exact number for what Rios pays for Sirena, though the down-payment is made in gold-pressed Latinum, and it takes him months to work off the rest of the price. But it's been a while since I've read the book, so I can't give you any more details on that off the top of my head.

Perhaps I might be able to give you some better suggestions about price and cargo if you let me know in a bit more detail what you want to know and what you need it for? (i.e. just out of general curiosity, or for story-writing purposes, or to size a 3D model properly, or....)

I hope I understood your question correctly, and I'm sorry if this answer isn't particularly satisfying 😅 If you're looking for info for a specific reason or project (just out of curiosity, for story-writing purposes, to size a 3D model of the ship more accurately, ...), maybe I might be able to offer more insights or at least point you to some other places that might be able to help?

EIther way, I hope that this was at least a somewhat informative read, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to write about this bit of design history!

#star trek picard #star trek la sirena #la sirena #cargo spaces #design #eaglemoss #rogue elements #rob johnson #mark yang #long post #asked and answered #@voightkampffsblog

[tanadrin]

Almea is interesting because, despite being fantasy--originally of a very classic mold; it seems to have started out as much of a place for Zompist to set D&D campaigns as anything else--its author is clearly concerned with the mechanics of history: although there is no simple 1:1 comparison (Verduria is not an allegory for France; Ctesifon was not Rome; Xurno is not Russia), the way the world is presented, and the way in which the author explores it, meshes well with the major trends of our own world and how we understand them. Almea is a world you can make historical atlases of; it is a world with its own history of colonialism and international relations and a similar technological arc. It is, in short, a set of fantasy starting conditions (”what if three million years ago aquatic elves and swamp orcs fought an apocalyptic war, and in the aftermath a new hominid civilization tried to re-run Earth history”) whose consequence are worked out in a fairly Earthlike way.

You might contrast this with Middle-Earth--for all that Tolkien had a pretty good head for history and language, he’s much more interested in exploring his fictional history through the framework of legendary narrative. Zompist has the Historical Atlas and the Almeopedia; but Tolkien’s big work is the Silmarillion, a work of history which is primarily concerned with telling that history in the epic mode. You can’t really make a historical atlas of Middle-Earth--for one, it’s not detailed enough. Corners of the world which fall out of the story, like the outer provinces of Arnor after the collapse of the northern kingdom, basically just disappear. There might be something in the big gaps in eastern Rhovanion and Rhun, but it’s clearly not relevant to the stories Tolkien wants to tell, so we have scant sense of what that is.

Comparing different approaches to worldbuilding is interesting to me, because once you start doing that, you really expose how shallow the imagination is of people who think of worldbuilding as, like, a secondary accessory to “real” storytelling. It is a fairly common position that worldbuilding is, I don’t know, basically a second-order activity, an indulgence at best, and that the real purpose of worldbuilding is to provide a good foundation for “proper” stories, which the ends of worldbuilding ought to serve. To me, though, worldbuilding has always been an interesting activity in its own right. Often a much more interesting activity, because how you design a world, the internal and external logic you approach it with, and how you present the results of that design, will not only, as a matter of inevitable consequence, cause certain stories to emerge from that world, in a way that feels as natural as breathing, but will give a strong scaffold, a supporting superstructure that helps those stories fit together in a way that transcends their individual arcs and themes.

For example, all stories that you might tell about Almea are part of an analytic history of a fantasy world that is About what it means to approach a fantasy setting with the tools of modern historiography, political analysis, and sociology, as much as they are About the individual themes of those stories. All stories you might tell about Middle-Earth are About reclaiming the epic mode for modern fantasy, and the possibility of redemption in a world marred by suffering, as they are the Silmarils or the One Ring. Bad worldbuilding often is merely an adjunct to storytelling--and that’s how you get shared settings that feel like a hodgepodge whose elements have no coherent relationship to one another, because the story someone wants to tell comes first, and, well, they’re going to force it to work in the setting whether it’s natural to it or not. And even good writers can build (or contribute to) lousy, boring worlds using this approach.

[essektheylyss]

5 & 33 for the ask meme!

I have hit another thousand words, so I return for the memes!

5. Meta you would write if you did not fear people would be SUPER weird about it. This is also an invitation to write that meta and block the haters.

Everyone and their mom has said the "Caleb moved on from his crush on Jester and so should everyone else," so I won't say that one. Honestly, where to begin, though...

I touched on a lot of things I would like to write longer pieces on if people wouldn't be weird in the recent behemoth of a Caleb meta that I posted, but I think the primary one that I'd love to write is a proper discussion of just like, how weird Essek is for an NPC, because it's genuinely VERY important that he's an NPC and also functions as one while simultaneously being a truly bizarre NPC.

He cannot be treated as a PC nor given the same narrative weight as one, and he is very much an NPC (rather than falling in the distinct category of DMPC), but he is in such a strange position due to his shift from potential enemy to ally, because enemies, in d&d terms, get a lot more agency than allies. But if an NPC starts as an enemy, particularly with one that has influence over the plot (as Essek does, having at least played a part in starting the war) they will maintain some of that agency even if they become an ally.

You can kind of see this in how accommodating Essek is in 124 in comparison to the kind of lukewarm aid he gives them prior to 91, because at this point, the Nein have virtually no allies in Eiselcross, and many enemies. And narratively, this can be chalked up to guilt, but structurally, it is necessary from a mechanics standpoint.

But since he is a character with agency, he can have moments of challenging Caleb, even when the rest of the PCs don't, and that's also what makes him more viable in this format to be a love interest, because as we know, NPC romances are in fact difficult to play.

At the same time, he is a mouthpiece of the narrative, so it's genuinely important that he is an NPC for moments like "It's not fair," in 140, where a PC is going to try to take an action, but an NPC only gets to be the Greek chorus lamenting the tragedy of chance.

Aaaand I didn't actually mean to write the meta, but here we are. I'm considering counting this toward my word count.

33. You may ask any member of the cast one, and only one lore clarification question. What do you ask?

The cast member for both is Matt, because I am typical. It's a toss up between "Did the scourger make that shiv herself, or did someone give it to her, and WHO?" and "What the FUCK was Essek's deal with Adeen?"

[ask me Weirdly Specific Critical Role Questions!]

#of course my lore questions are about essek but like. WHAT WAS UP WITH THAT SCOURGER #I don't think it was essek to be clear but enough people have suggested it that I wanna know #I wouldn't put it past him but I am curious! #I'm not gonna put it toward my word count but I did consider it. #critical role #ask game #cr meta #I GUESS??? #I do have many many feelings and opinions about how the game structurally impacts the narrative and essek is my fave like. #SPECIFICALLY because he is particularly an exemplar of that

[sophierequests]

go to sleep, love

Navigation┃Main Masterlist┃Request

Pairing: David Kostyk x gn! Reader

A/N: This is very short and very random, but I haven't written anything for David in a hot second, so I thought it would be nice to have something sweet and short to show that I haven't forgotten about my boy. Also, @juneberrie is celebrating 100 followers (go follow her, she's very swag), and since she was the first person to spark my love for writing about David, I think it's only fair to dedicate this to her <3

Summary: A brief glance into the life of a workaholic and his tired partner.

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 708

Warnings: None

“Darling, do you have any idea how late it is?” The heavy safety door to the workshop clicked shut behind you as you sauntered towards David, who was still busying himself with the outlines of some new - and utterly extensive - project that Nikolai wanted to be finished as soon as possible.

“Kuwei ‘accidentally’ destroyed our only working clock last week, so actually I don’t.” He mused, carefully adjusting a piece of metal to fill a gap between two other metal disks. You had always been amazed by how delicately he managed to work with such harsh and unwelcoming material.

You walked up behind him, wrapping your arms around his body and putting your chin on his shoulder as you watched what he was doing. It almost looked like a mechanical part that one might find in a steam engine of some sort, however, knowing Nikolai, this probably had something to do with one of his newest flying ship projects - which you admittedly hated, yet never dared to say out loud.

“Love,” He turned his head to press a faint kiss on your cheek. “As much as I enjoy your presence, you’re not exactly giving me much space to work with.”

“David, it’s almost midnight, don’t you think you should give it a break and continue tomorrow?” You sulked, giving him the best puppy eye impression you had in stock.

“It won’t be too long, Y/N. Just give me fifteen minutes more and I’m done.”

“The last time you told me that you’d only work for ‘fifteen minutes more’ you continued working for three hours.” He knew that you were right - keeping track of time wasn’t necessarily his forté. And he also knew that you wouldn’t give in until he was done. “And the bed is so cold without you.”

“Alright, I’ll just finish adjusting these two components and then I’ll join you.” You seemed to be satisfied with that answer, halting your attempt at lovingly smothering and giving him a bit more space to properly finish his work.

The additional parts were rather small, seemingly merely as big as the nail on your thumb. In comparison to the rest of the mechanism, they seemed more or less minuscule. But of course, every single element played an important role in the proper function of the machine.

David turned them over in his hands multiple times, checking for any scratches or impurities that might impact their usefulness. However, tiredness seemed to have taken a slight toll on him too, because before he was able to set them back down again, one of the parts slipped from his hand, falling onto the floor with a brief metallic clink.

“Wait, I’ll get them for you.” You offered, already leaning down to reach for the part under his desk. He wanted to disagree, very well aware of your, well, clumsy disposition. And before you could dive back up, he put one of his hands over the sharp corner of his wooden desk - which you would have definitely hit your head on. Instead, the back of your head only slightly bumped against his hand.

When you noticed what he had done, you couldn’t help but give him a playful grin. He knew you so well.

“I thought you might appreciate not going into the night with a headache, my dear.”

“Oh shush.” He took the parts from your hand, wiping off some of the dirt and continuing to align them with the rest of the engine. A satisfying click told you that he had successfully merged the components with each other.

“Done?” You asked cautiously, observing his hands while he let them hover over his creation one more time.

“Done.” David smiled, taking your outstretched hand and allowing you to drag him off his creaky office chair. Upon standing up he realized how tired he actually was, his legs already wobbly as he tried to regain his balance.

“Someone is in desperate need of a nap. Or a coma.” You considered, enticing a small breathy laugh from your partner.

“Let’s just say I’m in desperate need of sleep.”

“You should be glad that you have me to annoy you into developing healthy habits. Well, healthier habits.”

“I’m always glad to have you, dear.”

Taglist:

Grishaverse in general: @yesshewrites1 @dal-light

David Kostyk: @juneberrie

#david kostyk x reader #david kostyk #david kostyk imagine #shadow and bone imagine #netflix shadow and bone #shadow and bone x reader #grishaverse x reader #grishaverse

[rlyehtaxidermist]

“If any other game had half the complaints that Pokemon did on release, it would be boycotted! People are too soft on Pokemon!” to me is sort of missing a part of the critique and counter-critique, which is that most of the issues that allegedly make SV unplayable are... honestly not that severe? Like I have a busted ass Switch with a broken fan and while I’ve noticed the occasional lag, it’s never been enough to really impact gameplay unless I go specifically looking for it?

Reviewers are proclaiming the game “inexcusably shoddy” because of things like objects in the background having lower framerates, or crappy-looking textures. Sure, it can be a bit visually jarring and looks unpolished, but it’s hardly game-ruining. Could they have fixed those things by throwing money at them? Sure. Did they have the money? Absofuckinglutely, TPC is loaded. Should they have? Probably. But they’re not fundamental flaws in the overall game design or gameplay - just the visual design.

That’s not to downplay that people do have legitimate gameplay issues that I haven’t seen in my personal experience, or that it’s wrong to dislike the graphics. I place basically zero weight on graphics over gameplay for everything I play, and if the graphics are a dealbreaker for you that’s fair enough - but don’t act like this is universal, or that buying a game despite poorer graphics is some indicator of blind brand stanning. I know it doesn’t look great, and it’s not that “I don’t care because it’s Pokemon”, I don’t care because I’ve spent like six thousand hours in Dwarf Fortress and I don’t give a fuck how it looks as long as I have fun actually playing it. (Which I have, so far - I’d rank SV pretty high in terms of the mainline series’s gameplay, though I wish they’d brought a few more LegArc mechanics along - like throwing balls outside battle.)

Like, I’ve played unplayable video games from nominally AAA studios. (And TPC has AAA money - even if they’re not Nintendo proper, they make more than enough on the franchise to merit comparison to the big leagues.) For all Pokemon’s launch should probably have been delayed a couple months for QA, it’s far from the worst launch product a major publisher has put out, and I think it’s weird that a lot of people are singling it out as such. Go play Sonic 2006 or the original PC port of Dark Souls. “Needs work” is not “unplayable”, and I think a lot of people only care because it’s Pokemon.

[schwender-exe]

Devlog #3?-ish

Hey all! it's time for the monthly devlog update! Well, kinda..

What have I done since my last post? A whole lotta planning, a whole lotta scrapping and.. to be honest I shelved the project. There! I said it! Last Letter is a promising concept but one that I clearly need to think on and tackle once I have more experience under my belt. As someone who has finished a total of.. 1 game, one which is a fraction of Last Letter's size and was able to be made without any prior planning other than "penguin" as the concept and the 'feeling of loneliness' as its core emotion.

Last Letter on the other hand is a huge undertaking for me, it's something which clearly I need to re-approach and properly plan. I'll be honest when I say, I don't think I'm able to do that with my current experience. A majority of my prototypes have been very 'one note', in that they are made with a basic concept of what I want it to be with no planning whatsoever and is more of a blind march forward approach, stumbling into fun things I can do with said prototypes.

I want to do this project justice and be able to approach it when I have a bit more experience under my belt with planning, structuring and developing something of its size. Because of this, I've shelved the project for now and will re-approach the concept/project once I have a few more finished projects of at least comparable size to Last Letter.

So now comes the question of "what have you been working on in the mean time"? And for that, I have an answer! Though in its current state, I don't have much to share outside of maybe a small work in progress gif to give you a taste, at the least.

Yes, those are final fantasy 14 plushies I'm using as placeholder sprites and yes, they are adorable. They're something I'm putting there until I have some proper sprites in place.

What is this? Well, it's something I feel would make a fun project. It's a small project which takes inspiration from Monster Hunter, Idle games, and of course "Desktop Pets". I wanted to make a non-invasive desktop pet which would sit around and could help you feel productive while you do some menial task, play a game, or something you can boot up every once in a while. The "idle game" aspect comes in that you'll send your 'guildie', as I'm calling them, on quests to gather and hunt and possibly bring back some collectables which will give you some insight into the world they come from. my elevator pitch is essentially "Send characters out to collect things while you work/play/etc. and learn about their world from what they bring back."

I always enjoyed how the Monster Hunter series portrayed the monsters you hunted as having a place within a larger ecosystem and thought I'd try my hand at something similar. With the game being an idle game, it also will let me focus specifically on storytelling and world building (something I don't have nailed down) rather than gameplay systems and mechanics (something which I definitely have nailed down, in comparison). On top of that, it forces me to work on UI, something which I also could use some practice with.

to wrap back to Last Letter, I hope my shelving of the project isn't too upsetting and I hope my reasoning is enough for any who were looking forward to it to still look forward to the game when I re-approach it with more experience under my belt.

Thanks to everyone who read through, hope this new project is something to look forward to!

#gamedev #godot engine #pixelart #pixel aesthetic #pixel #art #indiedev #gaming #artists on tumblr #devlog

[ciitrinitas]

fire emblem engage.

finished it last night, so brief revival to log it whilst my thoughts are still clear.

okay, i don't want to lean that hard into comparisons with three houses, but damn, engage was distinctly different from fe16 in such a good way. while there could be some insane clipping (SOMBRON, PLEASE!! THE ENDS OF YOUR HORNS ARE IN YOUR CHEST MORE OFTEN THAN NOT!!), the models were much cleaner and crisper than fe16's. the static backgrounds used in cutscenes also felt correct in regards to perspective. (i still don't understand what happened with that in fe16! the static backgrounds were consistently warped at the wrong angle and looked wrong.) the gameplay was much sharper and with better variety. and alear bepis--i actually like bepis! renaming them as "bepis" had me giggling at the Divine Dragon Bepis all the way to the end, but i grew fond of them. i really prefer when fe does a proper, albeit very typical, character for a protagonist instead of the weird hybrid character/self-insert thing byleth got. i like shipping bepis whereas i recoil from byleth ships.

the gameplay in general...chef's kiss! it had great fe game feel. units felt individual while still being heavily customizable. i really enjoyed the new mechanics like engaging and the break system. the maps were nicely varied, and nothing ever felt like a slog in the way replaying fe16 four times for every route did. i played on normal classic (per usual!), but i might do hard classic on a replay due to how fun and balanced the game felt to me.

engage is definitely more ambitious in the gameplay department than in the story department. fe16...tried to do something more political and involved, but sort of fell flat on its face due to the wonky world building for me. blue lions/azure moon was a borderline euphoric high for me when i played! but it can't carry the rest of the game when it's a more contained narrative about dimitri and isn't as reliant on the mysteries and world building hitting home. so, i'd definitely put bl/am above engage, i would also put engage above fe16 as a whole. i'm leaving engage feeling much warmer about it than i did towards fe16 by the end.

that last chapter was such a delightful cheesefest! i wish it had leaned into that more at times and developed the main royals and bepis' group dynamic more, but the cheese really worked for me. engage's story has all the subtlety of a shounen friendship speech being thrown as a brick at your face, and it goes whole fucking hog into that. bepis gives so many friendship speeches! it's great. not at all perfect, but i had way more of a blast than i expected.

sommie, my beloved. hortensia, my best girl. and goldmary...the unit i decided to feed every permanent stat-boosting item to once i realized Boob Big and who became a nigh-unkillable tank for me.

edit because oh my god, i have to mention lumera. she managed like maybe two scenes that weren't dripping in incest subtext between her and bepis. i didn't expect to ship them as much as i do lmao.

#engage was SO much fun and im really glad to have come away from it smiling as much as i did #era.txt #2023 media #fire emblem engage spoilers ///

[viscountessevie]

The Hellions of Halstead Hall Quick Review!

Okay so having read all the Hellions books here are my quick spoiler free thoughts on them (in order of the books):

1) The Truth About Lord Stoneville

Oliver & Maria - Having read all the books, I can safely say this is one of my favourites! It was an excellent first book and introduction into my new favourite HR family. Ollie and Maria were simply marvellous and a pretty Kathony coded to be honest. I would say less mentally ill - well Maria is, Ollie is actually chock full of even more intense trauma than Ant tbh. I won't say more, yall gotta read to find out!

Honestly everything from the couple to the plot, side characters (Freddy my beloved) and conflict were perfect and entertaining to read. Just the best start to a series!

Kinda rereading it again with Triv @hptriviachamp: I gotta say I love how well it sets up the future siblings’ stories and books and we pretty much get introduced to 2 other in-laws. So the set up and pay offs were really good tbh! 

2) A Hellion In Her Bed

Jarret & Annabel - I liked Jarett and Annabel well enough but I think they paled in comparison to a brilliant first book with Maria and Oliver. Still it was enjoyable, a good calm breather of a book after the excitement and drama of Maria and Ollie. I did love their romantic scenes - it's always more fun with a more experience heroine and Annabel and Jarret delivered on that front!

Tbh this ^^ is the nicer version for Goodreads but simply put: they were pretty boring. The sex scenes did make up for it; we really need more experienced heroines in HR. Funny clueless virgins are fun but for me personally, it's hotter and easier to get into sex scenes when the teaching doesn't take up most of the time.

Also despite being boring, I will give them points for staying consistent tonally and being a straightforward story (unlike Book 5 but I digress, I'll expand on this when we get there!)

3) How to Woo a Reluctant Lady

Minerva & Giles - Honestly I would say read the previous book just for the build up of these two, it’s absolutely delicious. I love how unashamed Giles is in his attraction to Minerva and their history together. Minerva was just a delight and fun character to read from Book 1 so I was definitely excited for these two. I mean she’s A GOTHIC WRITER AND HE’S A SPY! Exciting shit and for most part they did deliver! Can I also say that Minerva is the funniest virgin ever because when feeling him up she mistook his erection for a pistol. I CACKLED so hard reading that I literally cannot make this shit up. They were also very hot and I loved them sneaking around to uncover truths about Minerva’s family. 

However, I was a bit disappointed in their Act 3 - it might just be a me thing so if yall have read this series or are going to, lemme know what you thought of Act 3! I just think there was a secondary plot point that could have been the main crux of their Act 3 rather than the one Sabrina chose to go with. Other than that, I adored this book and is high up on my ranking (which I’ll be listing below after all my short reviews of the books) 

4) To Wed A Wild Lord 

Gabriel (Gabe) & Virginia - (I’m calling her Ginny cos I can’t with her name) I absolutely loved this one and I think a big part of it was because Sephy is a horse girl and Gabe provided the best inspo for me to write for Sephy’s horse scenes in the future. Also I knew I would enjoy their book when we got the inciting incident in Minerva & Giles’ book - the drama was d e l i c i o u s. I loved how funny Gabe was in the previous books and this book delivered on that while giving us depth and a proper exploration of both of their traumas. I like how Sabrina showed Gabe’s comedic side is moreso a defense mechanism and how despite Ginny’s hostility to him, she’s actually kind and sunshine incarnate. 

Similar to Book 1; the plot was great, I loved the racing scenes, the tension between Gabe and Ginny was on point - though I do wish we gotten to see them interact more during their ‘courtship’ scenes. I adored Freddy as my fave cousin side character but Pierce takes the cake! I am SO glad he gets his own book (which I will talk more about below!) Overall, it was a brilliantly written book and I loved it!

5) A Lady Never Surrenders 

Celia & Jackson - This book man, had so much build up but left me so confused in terms of tone, characterisations and the progression. It was the last piece of the Sharpe parents’ murder mystery and also Jackson and Celia had FOUR books of build up. I liked that I was right about the murderer and I loved Jackson and Celia’s scenes in the last four books. Yet the first part of the book was draggy with the suitors plot and while it did come back around - it could have been written tighter. Celia seemed so badass in the other books but fell trap to the tomboy/NLOG trope in the way she was written even though she’s not?? It was really weird. There was a disconnect between the Celia in the last four books and in her own one. Like even with Gabe’s exploration - it still felt like him but Celia felt all over the place for me. 

On top of all of this, I especially despised the racist treatment of Viscount Basto and it honestly put me off the book. I had to take a break to calm down and finish the series because I HAD to know what happened to the Sharpe parents. And the racism/xenaphobia gets worse because (skip past the caps if you don’t want spoilers): 

🛑 MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES 🛑

I hated how Sabrina used the one foreign guy and made him a secondary villain. It made sense for the character and I suspected him and his wife from the start but why you gotta make him the SINGLE foreigner. It just came across extremely xenophobic. She could have made the Duke of Lyons or Jackson a MoC too, just to offset it ya know. It was just frustrating to see him singled out and villianised. 

🛑 MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES END 🛑

Though for all its faults, I did enjoy the romance and how the mystery was solved. That’s why the book confused me like there were bits that were SO bad but then parts that were written SO well I was like ‘Am I reading two different books cos what the fuck??’ But yeah its not my favourite and while I did enjoy the good parts of it better than Jarret and Annabel’s book, at least the latter book was consistent. I will recommend pushing through this to see the reveal and also Jackson being a simp is great. 

6) ‘Twas The Night After Christmas

Pierce & Camilla - It’s so funny that this is my #1 Hellion book (honestly tied with Book 1 but still) because Pierce isn’t even technically a Sharpe, he’s Ginny’s cousin but god I loved this book and honestly my one complaint is that Sabrina montaged their courtship week instead of giving us more scenes with them falling in love. Also could have been sluttier to offset the deep Mommy Issues kjdshkdj. 

But yes if you like your HR heroes riddled with Mommy Issues, Pierce is the one for you! Camilla is also such a vibe, I love her so much. She’s lowkey a “I can fix everyone” person but it did not come across as annoying at all. But yeah reading this, heads up it gets sad and not enough horniness to make up for it. Overall, also a great Christmas time story! 

Final Book Ranking: 

1) Tied - The Truth About Lord Stoneville, (tbh pretty perfect to me)

‘Twas The Night After Christmas (needed to be sluttier and Pierce to be more quippy like he is in Book 4 and 5)

To Wed A Wild Lord (Ginny isn’t my fave heroine - I like her but like Maria and Camilla a lot more)

2) How to Woo a Reluctant Lady (Act 3 should have been better)

3) A Hellion In Her Bed (Not exciting of a storyline for me)

4) A Lady Never Surrenders (Confusion over the way the book was written and also the xenaphobia :/)

Overall as a series, I loved how well-connected they were and the overarching plot of solving their parents’ murder was great and I LOVED how each sibling had a piece of the puzzle that added up together and it was all very satisfying at the end because I love being right and called it. I did not expect the twist in Book 5 which would have been better if not for the spoiler I mentioned above. Also I love how close knit the family is and I LIVE for the ensemble moments in the books they just bring me extra joy because everyone is so likeable you’re excited to see them all interact. Mentioned this before but the set up for the future books were BRILLIANT (even if Book 5 didn’t pay off as well as the others). 

Hope yall enjoyed reading this and might want to give this series a shot because I need more friends and people reading this and gushing to me about this family. Truly my new favourite comfort family! 

#The Hellions of Halstead Hall #The Truth About Lord Stoneville #A Hellion In Her Bed #How to Woo a Reluctant Lady #To Wed A Wild Lord #A Lady Never Surrenders #HR Blogging #Miss Maria Butterfield #Lord Oliver Stoneville #Miss Annabel Lake #Lord Jarret Sharpe #Lady Minerva Sharpe #Giles Master #Lord Gabriel Sharpe #Miss Virginia Waverly #lady Celia Sharpe #Jackson Pinter

[mass-effect-galaxy]

Games I Tried To Love But Failed

You know this, games you looked forward to because they were hyped, or because they seemed to be interesting, or because they had something to do with other games you loved, or whatever? And then you quit them because... reasons.

Here are my latest:

Greedfall

from 2019. Total playtime 3.8 hours.

I was quite intrigued by the setting: a fantasy game not set in some Middle-European 13th Century setting but in a colonial 17th Century, complete with sabers, pistols, monsters, and magic.

To me, it failed to deliver. The graphics and animations look like a game from the Dragon Age 2 generation, which is some 8 years earlier. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I love DA2. However, DA2 even got the facial animations better.

Controls are wanky with no way of changing them on the controller and causing issues, like not being able to complete the tutorial, when changing them on the keyboard.

The worst thing, and the reason I quit, was the voice acting. Everybody was speaking very slowly (probably a result of issues with the facial animations) without any emotion or even emphasis to speak of. Given that in the first two or so hours you are delivered the lore by endless monologues, it bored the crap out of me.

Tomb Raider

from 2013, total playtime 4.4 hours

After doing a lot of Tomb-Raider-ish stuff in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, I wanted to give the Tomb Raider series a try. But I quickly learned that these are not my kind of games. Jump-and-run, shooting wolves with arrows: okay. Sneaking around and shooting bad guys with guns: okay. Cutscenes without dialogue choices, tons of NPCs I don't know but expected to care about: hmmm. Endless action without slowed-down exploration or such: no fun.  Quick-Time-Events that don't really work on PC and force me to play through those sequences a good dozen times: no way!

Control

from 2020, total playtime 2.6 hours

Control is the one game that I quit because it was too good: too good in creating a horror atmosphere. I felt uneasy the whole time and happily quit (and never returned) after a jump-and-run sequence I kept on dying  time and again.

The Witcher 1 and 2

from 2008, total playtime 5.2 hours, and 2011, total playtime 16.6 hours

(for comparison, total playtime Witcher 3: 344.8 hours)

I bought both games mainly because it annoyed me that, in The Witcher 3, I kept on running into NPCs that I was supposed to know but didn't. I expected them to be characters from the other two games, so I dived into them. Wrong assumption: Those characters mostly were from the novels and they pulled the "memory loss"-card in The Witcher 1. This can work, as it did in KOTOR, but it didn't here.

The Witcher 1 really is a bad game with graphics that weren't up-to-date even back in 2008, painful-to-watch animations, awkward mechanics, and sometimes hilarious voice acting. A streamer once called it "suffering through that game". It's basically what you should expect when buying a 14-year-old Eastern European B-game.

The Witcher 2 turned this upside down by showing graphics that were too much to handle for most PCs of that time and (mostly) reasonable game mechanics. I quit because I found it too difficult. We have extremely hard boss fights early on, and no proper quest logging, which often leaves you running circles with a vague "somewhere to the south" for hours. In general, this game broke my number 1 rule for games: "the moment it stops being 'fun' and starts becoming 'work', I am out."

So, what's your Hall of Shame?

#greedfall #control #witcher 1 #witcher 2 #tomb raider

[alln64games]

Mission: Impossible

JP release: 14th July 1998

NA release: 27th October 1998

PAL release: 6th November 1998

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

N64 Magazine Score: 91%

Being a movie tie-in to an action spy film gives Mission Impossible a lot to live up to, as it was always going to be compared to GoldenEye. Like GoldenEye, Mission Impossible had origins on the SNES before being made for the Nintendo 64 instead, as well as offering objective-based gameplay, this time from a third person perspective.

The first mission impossible takes a lot of goes to get used to how the game works, form movement and the camera (in the first level, it’s a very high camera, but you can change it to behind Ethan Hunt, who is not based on Tom Cruise). You have to find a certain guard, knock him out and use the face maker to use his image as a disguise – it feels a lot like an early Hitman game.

After the “cold open” levels, you the need to rescue some fellow agents and recover a list form an embassy. The stating level is great, although very much trial and error, as you are undercover and have to lure people to the correct places. It’s a very strong start to the game. There is only one correct way to do things, but it creates the Hitman film really well for its age.

Then the game suddenly becomes a strange corridor-based shooter as you blow up crates and jump over pits of acid. It feels completely at odds with the previous levels and just comes across as padding.

Thankfully the following level is much more like the Embassy level, and I was even able to mess things up and fix them without failing the mission, which is a nice touch. If there were more levels like this in the game, it would be great, but unfortunately, this is the last proper mission in this style. There’s a few small touches of stuff like this throughout, but unfortunately no levels that fill like living areas.

Instead, the rest of the game is some linear corridors, a lot of shooting (with really terrible aiming) and some platforming sections with floating platforms. The friendly AI that follows you is also terrible and makes Natalya look like AI by comparison. On one level, Candice claimed she was fine, before walking right to a guard looking at her, saying “he snuck up on me” and getting shot.

While the rest of the levels aren’t great, there is a surprising amount of variety as missions feel quite different. There’s one where you use spray pain to block cameras, one in and then on top of a train (which look quite impressive for the N64), a sniper mission, the famous laser scene from the film and navigating a tunnel by jumping on trucks.

There are a lot of frustrating aspects. Sometimes you’ll try punching a guard, but they’ll automatically arrest you – but that only happens on some levels and even then it doesn’t happen all the time. The game is also very picky about what you do, so you’ll often try something only to fail the mission.

After a very strong start, Mission Impossible loses its footing, although even then it’s still mostly a decent game from that point onwards.

The actual ideas behind the game are fantastic. Spraying blue paint across CCTV cameras, dodging searchlights, knocking people out in the bogs and disguising yourself as them, picking up clues from conversations, working out which gadgets go with which situations, Mission, at heart, does actually feel like a spy sim. It’s just that the executions is so lacklustre, it’s hard to see the positives.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #19

Remake or remaster?

With some refined gameplay mechanics, a remastered version could be a lot of fun.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Mission Impossible

#n64 #n64 games #nintendo 64 #mission impossible #retro games

[greentowingart]

Benefits Of Choosing Car Towing Services

Imagine what it could be like if your car broke down while you were driving on your own and you were unable to get assistance. You'd likely be in a panic such an emergency situation and seek out help immediately. Towing services can save the day and assist you with any car-related problems.

Emergency towing services are just a call away when you're stuck with your faulty car. They are among the most trusted options you can employ to alleviate your stress and be back on the road quickly.

Nobody can anticipate the problems that a poorly maintained car or an older model can cause during a drive. Therefore, staying in touch and keeping contact details of a towing service is essential. They can be reached anytime. Action Towing provides a wide range of services within Edmonton and is able to assist you with any electrical or mechanical problems that might cause problems for your vehicle.

If you're considering hiring heavy duty towing Santa Clara company, you can read this blog. Finding a trustworthy towing service has many benefits. This blog post will highlight many benefits of choosing the best towing business.

Rapid Roadside Assistance

One of the traits of a reputable towing business is their speedy and efficient roadside assistance. They are available to discuss your issues and determine the best solutions for them. They provide speedy and effective roadside assistance.

Towing services come to help you with all the necessary equipment regardless of whether you're on the highway in the streets, or in the ditch.

They are available 24 hours a day.

A truck towing service near me also comes with an incredible feature: it's always on hand. However, not all companies have 24/7 accessibility. Certain towing companies in Edmonton, such as Action Towing, offer 24 hours towing services.

Furthermore some companies may charge you more at night or on holidays in comparison to normal days. But, the constant availability of these companies could be a great relief. So, you can call them any time during the day.

They have a reasonable price

Towing isn't as expensive as you might believe. In fact, they're a suitable solution to safely transfer your vehicle for cost-effective prices. There are two factors involved in setting the price for towing service, which is the hook-up fee and the cost per mile.

The first price is the price for attaching your car to their tow truck. The latter price is one they charge you per distance. It might include the amount of time it takes to get your vehicle to its final destination. Each business will have its own rates but these services are usually inexpensive.

They're Much More Safe

Towing on your own using only ropes or cables could be very risky. A tow company can safely tow heavy-duty vehicles. This is among the greatest benefits to hiring them.

This is safer than attempting to pull your vehicle by yourself. A lot of people choose to use the DIY tie and pull method rather than making a call to an expert Santa Clara towing company. This could put stress on the chains that tow and may cause damage to the vehicle itself.

Towing companies, on the other hand have the proper equipment and tools to safely tow your vehicle. Flatbed trucks can also be used to transport larger vehicles. Towing services are secure because they provide a variety of tow trucks.

They have the necessary insurance and permits

Towing a vehicle on an open highway or road requires you to have the necessary permits and insurance. This can only be done by a professional company with many years of experience. To ensure that your car is safe and secure insurance is vital.

To legally tow your car anywhere you wish permit is required. So, having a valid insurance policy and permits give you peace of mind on the road and ensure that your car is safe hands.

Santa Clara Towing

1361 calabazas court #2 Santa clara, CA 95051

669-228-5951

[dagnedoodlin]

These are all of my humanoid species so far in digital! I've talked about all but the humans, but humans are humans y'know?

Anyways this is a size comparison chart basically! So fair the fair folk/maenads are my tallest species, clocking in to about 9/10 feet in height, and gnomes are my smallest, with the tallest of them coming in to around 2 feet. I feel like I keep drawing them too tall to be accurate, but that's also me conflating them with house spirits.

The Fair Folk/Maenads are godly spirits that are functionally immortal in that they age at such a slow rate they basically don't age at all. They are either forest spirits or wind spirits, I haven't decided, and they tend flow apart and then together again. This is their society? I don't think I can call it that, but I think they tend to live alone in the middle of nowhere and spend their days learning and preparing for the next 'gathering of all' (I should probably read more traditional folk tales I know there's proper names for this stuff) where they all basically throw a giant party/rave, get lit, and run around enjoying themselves; sometimes making extremely advanced magical. Things. And generally making the laws of the world just a liiiiittttleeee bit bent.

I do wanna do a story with one of these guys, where a prince goes and asks one of these folk to give him an out for becoming king. But he wakes them up or interrupts them or just plain gets on their nerves and basically curses his whole bloodline to always be on the throne for as long as it exists or a certain area will always be in conflict. It's basically gonna be a prequel to ANOTHER story abt a country that hasn't been able to have a government in like 100 years cause of shenanigans and tomfoolery from the royal's marriage.

Since my story basically stretched out into the galaxy they're in I have thought about whether or not they've left the planet to colonize somewhere else, and my only answer is the mental image of a spaceship version of a van or even a minivan with lights flashing out the window with rave music in the background. Idk if it's them tho.

I don't have a lot of extra stuff to add for the elves? I've mostly covered all the details that make them special to my story. I will say that my elves average out to about 7 ft tall! Because fuck you dnd being shorter than humans my ass.

Also I don't think there's gonna be a systematic hatred between the elves and dwarves. Certain elves might feud with certain dwarves, but there's not gonna be like. Fantasy racism hatred feuds.

Also also I haven't put this anywhere else yet but I've been noodling on Dierdra's mom cause her mom's a diplomat, but the only thing I know about the place she goes to is that it's largely mechanical in infrastructure while the elves she represents have, for the most part, an infrastructure based largely on magic and how it affects the world. Dierdra's mom's job is to be a sharer of ideas, communication, and discoveries. Anyways I say all that to get to the point of: I think the society Dierdra's mom diplomats to is a dwarven one! I've been playing with this idea for a while, and it's basically down to a steampunk based human society (easiest, boring), a dwarven society (harder, people always assumes there's bef between the two species, there's the logical problem of 'dwarves make magical tools on the regular, why do they need elves help?), and a gnome society (a best of both worlds? I'll have to continue thinking on it).

Humans! Not much to say about them. Uhh there's no species divide relating to magic, although some species find using it easier. Humans are a middle ground for most things, not the best but not the worst either. Also! Given that there's more humanoid/sentient species than our world it's kinda given that there's less humans overall and they aren't EVERYWHERE. Or that they are, but at different concentrations.

My dwarven society isn't all that fleshed out in my mind-brain, so I've got more than a few holes in their society. However! Given that they are beings more connected to the earth and dirt they almost never wear shoes! It's sort of a negative feedback loop wherein wearing shoes feels off and wrong so they don't wear shoes so they get less used to wearing shoes so those emotions pop up again. This also happens to gnomes!

My little gnomes~ I love my little gnomes~ I still have some tumbling around in my noggin scheduled for their society, just to flesh it out more. I will say that I think my gnomes are gonna be on the whole a lot more superstitious than most species. And I don't mean in a religious way, more of a 'broken mirror, not walking under a ladder, knocking on wood' sort of superstitious.

I do think that gnomes live higher in the earth then dwarves. Mostly to aid in a quick escape via phasing into their cities. Oh! I had an idea that because basically all of them have the ability to phase through rocks and earth they probably don't have a door or such to enter their cities and houses. 🤔

#dagne doodles #my characters #miscellaneous doodles #digital art #original species #species design #gnome #dwarf #human #elf #maenad #worldbuilding #fantasy writing #long post

[coinprojects]

New Post has been published on https://coinprojects.net/resilience-risks-cryptocurrency-and-blockchain/

Resilience risks: cryptocurrency and blockchain

Particulars Printed: Friday, 20 Could 2022 12:46

Resilience and danger professionals, significantly these from a non-IT background, must develop their total understanding of rising applied sciences says Luke Hen, FBCI. How else are they going to have the ability to totally admire the magnitude of dangers probably going through their enterprise? On this article Luke offers a backgrounder on cryptocurrency and blockchain within the context of danger.

Many resilience and danger professionals who’re much less in contact with the world of expertise will say, “My IT people will inform me,” however past the ‘techy’ descriptions you’re solely ever getting their particular person and specialist perspective. Are your IT specialists conscious of all of the enterprise processes that depend on that expertise and in several methods? Or maybe even the attainable affect to buyer expertise if the expertise was misplaced? Or, the way it would possibly affect the long-term management technique as to why they’ve the expertise within the first place?

To assist contextualise the danger it’s subsequently very important for resilience and danger professionals, who face off to a spread of senior stakeholders, to have a primary understanding of the expertise that has been applied of their group.

This text goes to try to take a look at the extremely fashionable however extremely complicated world of cryptocurrency and blockchain expertise however from a danger lens.  Nevertheless, earlier than that may be completed, one must attempt to perceive what it’s…

And therein lies the problem. Let’s give it a shot!

Cryptocurrency and non-financial danger

Cryptocurrency is now in every single place you look. It’s within the information; it’s on-line and your family and friends are in all probability discussing it and are probably investing in it.

In a latest article, the European Central Bank reported that the crypto market is now bigger than the sub-prime mortgage market was when price USD 1.3 trillion (earlier than the crash). It’s subsequently no shock that some elements of economic companies are starting to have a look at how they could become involved.

As resilience and danger professionals, we have to have an consciousness of what that is, the place it got here from and the place it’s probably going. The problem, as with something new, is that it’s coated in jargon and thriller!

The place did it come from?

The origins of cryptocurrency, when it was invented, and who it was that made the invention are nonetheless up for some debate. Nevertheless, it’s unique rise in reputation is in little question attributed to the creator of a kind of cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin in 2009, by somebody known as Satoshi Nakamoto (or quite the software program builders utilizing that pseudonym as a result of no person is aware of who this individual is!).

That is already too difficult for me – what’s it? the place do I begin?

With out taking place too deeply down into the rabbit holes of the mechanics behind cryptocurrency and shedding you with phrases like cipher textual content and uneven cryptography (which is an article in its personal proper). The place ought to one discover the fundamentals?

There are infinite streams of books, podcasts, YouTube and tutorial content material on-line that cowl the fundamentals and origins of cryptocurrency proper by to extremely technical cryptographic element.

Nevertheless, a YouTuber by the identify of ‘Crypto Casey’ has kindly and clearly put collectively a 30-minute rationalization for anybody wanting to grasp the fundamentals, utilizing Bitcoin for example. She even goes one additional to make comparisons to the present international monetary system, which for a lot of will assist be a part of the dots.

One other very helpful and simple to grasp article was additionally revealed by Forbes in April 2022 which says:

“Cryptocurrencies are likened to a digital type of an asset akin to gold, the place a perceived retailer of worth is then topic to the legal guidelines of provide and demand.”

Provide and demand of the digital asset (on this case Bitcoin, which is actually a string of numbers and letters that give every Bitcoin a singular id) requires a safe transaction and report of that transaction however with out the involvement of a central social gathering.

How is Bitcoin transferred securely between consumers and sellers?

The clue is within the title – ‘crypto’ foreign money referring to cryptography, which is the examine of safe communications strategies that permit solely the sender and meant recipient of a message to view its contents. That is achieved by way of an alternate of private and non-private encrypted ‘keys’. Keys are mathematically generated codes, developed in such an excessively difficult means that it’s nearly not possible to copy. As soon as the meant consumer receives that key it may be used to decrypt the message.

Finally, that is solely a part of the safe course of behind transferring ‘cash’. The transaction must be recorded on some form of ledger and that is the place Blockchain expertise is available in.

Blockchain

Blockchain is finally a shared database. Every consumer has a dwell copy of the database which could be up to date and distributed dwell, offering the credentials of the consumer making the change could be verified by the vast majority of the opposite customers. Blockchain isn’t checking the content material being up to date however quite the integrity of the consumer who’s doing the updating.  That is completed utilizing what they name a consensus algorithm. That is achieved by way of encryption i.e., checking the suitable mixture of private and non-private encryption keys. 

There’s a nice 30 minute Mckinsey podcast on blockchain which is price a pay attention. Additionally, a barely extra technical 10-minute sound-bite is offered from the Data Scientist podcast as effectively.

One such extensively used blockchain platform that’s described as a digital ledger for crypto foreign money (in the intervening time no less than) is the Ethereum.

You might also have heard of Bitcoin mining. That is primarily these people who carry out the aforementioned authentication to the ledger (i.e., fixing extremely advanced mathematical puzzles utilizing their computational energy) and as such are rewarded with Bitcoin funds.

Why would banks need to become involved in cryptocurrency?

There are a selection of the reason why monetary companies is likely to be cryptocurrency and blockchain. Not least due to its motion and worth available in the market with the likes of Bitcoin.

Additionally, the monetary market is held up by one thing known as monetary market infrastructure. These are central organizations that carry out important capabilities as a part of the monetary ecosystem. So, clearing homes and exchanges, for instance.

One such use case for blockchain could be that it removes these central our bodies for quite a lot of actions which might permit for transactions to be carried out in different methods that are probably extra aggressive. The entry to this knowledge may have main business benefits to avoid a compulsory a part of a commerce’s journey. 

Examples of non-financial dangers to contemplate

Tech, knowledge, and cyber danger – the sooner referenced podcasts discuss how blockchain is actually good at authenticating a consumer and validating a change however not so good on the particular factor being modified. This evolution brings with it new knowledge, hardware, software program, and entry necessities and with that comes vulnerability and danger.

Local weather danger – the attainable non-financial dangers are a lot wider than some would possibly think about. As an illustration, blockchain expertise poses some important local weather danger give the sheer quantity of computing energy it takes. There are many articles on the market however this one from the Columbia Climate School talks about how Bitcoin now consumes extra electrical energy in a 12 months than the whole nation of Argentina!

Regulatory danger – there’s undoubtedly a rising regulatory focus on this area. In Europe for instance, the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) Regulation is presently within the proposal stage and regarded as dwell within the coming 12 months or two. This represents the numerous progress regionally on this area. There’s a actually good HSBC 10-minute digi-talk podcast on this actual subject. A ‘Expensive CEO’ letter got here out in March 2022 from the UK Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) – Existing or planned exposure to cryptoassets. The letter is a comply with up from a high-level positioning letter in 2018 about managing danger on this area.  It factors to a newly revealed 40-page focus doc from the BoE on Cryptoassets and decentralised finance and extra particularly the BoE’s responses from the discussion paper on new forms of digital money. There’s a lot of content material to digest however a number of preliminary observations:

Higher Focus – a two web page letter in 2018 in comparison with 86 pages of content material in 2022 – the PRA is recognising the fast progress within the area and that banks are starting to make a significant motion.

Higher danger administration – the PRA don’t formally endorse crypto property however the place companies do have exposures, they’ve expectations round danger administration and measurement towards the prevailing prudential framework. Banks are anticipated to take full account of their whole danger and adapt current danger administration methods and danger administration techniques to swimsuit the various danger profiles of crypto actions.

Worldwide coverage nonetheless excellent – e.g., BCBS are but to launch finalised place on crypto property which can alter the PRA place sooner or later.

Operational danger vs resilience – there is just one point out of resilience particularly within the letter with a higher give attention to operational danger as a key space to deal with. “Operational dangers are significantly related to sure crypto-related actions. As an illustration, some actions will expose companies to higher ranges of fraud or cyber dangers.”

Remaining ideas

You don’t should be a expertise wizard or an energetic investor in Bitcoin to understand the attainable danger right here. In essence, you have got a brand new foreign money that circumvents international monetary infrastructure and is quickly turning into one of the crucial helpful markets on the planet. How will this now finally turn out to be a danger to your group?

If you happen to assume that is only a banking-world factor, then assume once more. That is simply the place it begins. Each group might quickly be utilising crypto property or distributed ledger expertise (blockchain). There are such a lot of use-cases for non-financial sectors. If you happen to take heed to the podcasts referenced earlier you’ll hear a number of: from title deeds registers to weak individuals logs. That is actually scalable so take word!

The creator

Luke Hen FBCI CRISC  is a world award-winning continuity and resilience skilled with 12 years’ expertise of danger administration in public sector and monetary companies. He’s presently specializing in expertise. Learn Luke’s weblog at https://resiliencerewire.co.uk

Source link By admin

#Altcoin #Bitcoin #BlockChain #BlockchainNews #Crypto

#Altcoin #Bitcoin #BlockChain #BlockchainNews #crypto #Blockchain #CryptoPress