#bad technology UI

[kraniumet]

least spirited extortion campaign

[punk-in-metal-detector]

Well I can quite assure you that is bullshit 😌

Everyone I know has a computer/notebook at home and allows their younger siblings/children to use it, often these kids even have their own older pc/notebook. And I have never met anyone with a Chromebook in my life.

this can't be true can it

[raymurata]

Just scroll (or go ahead and block my #dav critical tag) if you don't wanna read me whining abt Bellara's Archive choice again, but I'm not done with the salt.

What bugs me isn't that the choice to destroy the archive exists, it's that the game frames it, through its UI (which is the closest thing we have to a nonbiased narrator in this medium), as equally weighted against the opposite choice.

If they had worded it like this:

"Free the archive (the knowledge will be lost)" x "Keep the archive (the knowledge will be kept)"

With no extra commentary, then that would be better. If you got to be openly racist against the Dalish or openly in favor of the Dalish, period. Just like in previous games.

Bellara says "(the archive would help us) get back what made us who we were," and "With it, we could be that again."

Which is funny because... People don't study history to return to the past. It's fine if Bellara is idealistic and saying whatever unrealistic, grandiose dreams she and Cyrian had, but the Dalish would never (could never) become like the ancient elves again. For starters there is a Veil now. So what it would in fact do is help them understand where they come from, what they've been through, and trace the changes in their culture.

Of course our modern historians and scientists have tried to reclaim lost technology, too. They've figured out how the Romans made their extra sturdy concrete, and scientists in Brazil have long been trying to replicate the extra fertile Terra Preta from indigenous peoples that lived in the Amazon basin, and several South American historians would love to know how exactly the Inca used the quipu as a writing system aside from counting tool, etc... And that's super cool!!! And maybe (but that's a big maybe) the Archive could give the Dalish a technological edge to carve a corner of the world for themselves without the constant struggle with Tevinter trying to enslave them or Andrastians trying to subjugate them.

But I personally don't think anyone's reading Aztec accounts of human sacrifices to replicate the same practices in modern cults, or that there is an army out there utilizing Roman decimation as a method of discipline. We're using different horrific methods of control now, lol.

But let's say a modern general does decide that the best way to punish a battalion for one man's insurgence is to force every group of ten soldiers to violently murder the 10th man.... Do you really think that the fault would lie with the historian who unearthed that information and put it on Wikipedia? Or the insane general that decided to do this? Would modern morality and laws allow for that punishment to be executed? Do you think that the existence of that article online is inherently dangerous and controversial, and that it should be taken down? Do you think this general would have been a good and non-violent general if he hadn't ever read about Decimation? Or is it clear to you that violence and ingenuity are both inherent to mortals as a whole and can't be so easily blamed on the spread of knowledge?

Because it's not clear to DAV. The game (not Bellara, not Varric) words it very unambiguously as a dichotomy: The only safe way to deal with this Archive is to destroy it. Keeping it is inherently dangerous because the knowledge could fall in "the wrong hands."

What Bellara says is "Cyrian is gone because of what that thing knew," and "what about the bad side, the other things we did?" and "We stole the dwarves' dreams."

Again, she gets to say whatever she wants because she's a character and she's an anxious, idealistic mess. Love her for it. I like that she feels guilt here too because she has been established (through her way of dealing with Cyrian's first death) as someone who takes the blame for mistakes she didn't even commit (She certainly isn't responsible for Solas' actions). She's someone who drives herself sick cooking up the most horrific scenarios in her mind, and she's so compassionate she can't stand the thought of being the one perpetrating violence against innocents. Her misplaced guilt and dread are the emotions that lead her to consider destroying the Archive.

But no matter how guilty a young german may feel about the holocaust, destroying knowledge about gas chambers is not what will prevent other genocides from happening around the world. Individual guilt is barely productive.

Furthermore, Corinne Bursche says that DAV gives you a choice between "destroying" or "sharing" elven knowledge, which is not how the game worded it. But the point still stands even if the Veil Jumpers, for some condescending plot reason, completely lost control of this knowledge, or were so flippant as to put everything on Thedas' wikipedia without curing it at all.

Let's accept, too, that the Archive contains knowledge of how to build something equivalent to nuclear weapons, which one could argue is in fact truly dangerous, but... Well. Do you think it's fair that the countries that have nuclear arsenals are some of the most vocal about the dangers of other countries ever developing their own?

Because that's what it feels like, to me, when the game calls elven knowledge dangerous without ever allowing you to question -- what about Tevinter rituals and magic? Tevinter's millennium of slavery, still in practice at present day? Should we destroy all their libraries too to keep the world safe from dangerous magics? Why do we only get to tell the Dalish, the nomad nations severely subjugated in present Thedas (If you ever played the previous games and have the context, at least, since this game that happens in Tevinter somehow manages to completely gloss over racism against elves as if it never existed) to destroy a one-of-a-kind, ancient trove of knowledge? And have it be framed as good and safe? As "moving forward"?

If you choose to free the archive, Rook says "The elves deserve the chance to chart their own course" to which Bellara answers "Right. Define ourselves by who we are, not who we were," but once again that writing just makes me question Bioware -- Do they not understand the point of history at all? Do they think indigenous peoples are monoliths stuck in the past if they choose to study the history they lost to colonialism? What purpose do they think that keeping that history and culture extinct serves? Who do they think it benefits?

If you step outside of what the game is telling you as fact and think for yourself, with the context of the other DA games in mind, do you still agree that it's inherently dangerous to keep the Archive? Do you still think these are equally morally weighted choices?

Or would you agree that DAV has to subtly convince you, out of character, that keeping this knowledge is inherently dangerous to make this dichotomy make sense?

Again. This wouldn't bug me if they just owned up to the fact your protagonist can, once again, genocide elves/their culture, just like in previous games. And scapegoat present elves too for the sins of their thousand-years-old tyrants, now suddenly returned (it would make so much sense for characters in the narrative to scapegoat the elves, and for us as heroes to fight against that. But no, they don't even go there except through Bellara's guilt.). It's just bizarre to have an elven historian guiltily agreeing with destroying the Archive and then telling us "The Evanuris broke us and kept us broken" without anyone, either Rook or her, ever mentioning a thousand years of Tevinter slavery and several centuries of Andrastian persecution and subjugation.

No. The Evanuris are the be-all and end-all of evil and everything bad that ever happened in Thedas, ever, can be traced back to them.

[artsekey]

I'd been seeing videos on Tiktok and Youtube about how younger Gen Z & Gen Alpha were demonstrating low computer literacy & below benchmark reading & writing skills, but-- like with many things on the internet-- I assumed most of what I read and watched was exaggerated. Hell, even if things were as bad as people were saying, it would be at least ~5 years before I started seeing the problem in higher education.

I was very wrong.

Of the many applications I've read this application season, only %6 percent demonstrated would I would consider a college-level mastery of language & grammar. The students writing these applications have been enrolled in university for at least two years, and have taken all fundamental courses. This means they've had classes dedicated to reading, writing, and literature analysis, and yet!

There are sentences I have to read over and over again to discern intent. Circular arguments that offer no actual substance. Errors in spelling and capitalization that spellcheck should've flagged.

At a glance, it's easy to trace this issue back to two things:

The state of education in the United States is abhorrent. Instructors are not paid enough, so schools-- particularly public schools-- take whatever instructors they can find.

COVID. The two year long gap in education, especially in high school, left many students struggling to keep up.

But I think there's a third culprit-- something I mentioned earlier in this post. A lack of computer literacy.

This subject has been covered extensively by multiple news outlets like the Washington Post and Raconteur, but as someone seeing it firsthand I wanted to add my voice to the rising chorus of concerned educators begging you to pay attention.

As the interface we use to engage with technology becomes more user friendly, the knowledge we need to access our files, photos, programs, & data becomes less and less important. Why do I need to know about directories if I can search my files in Windows (are you searching in Windows? Are you sure? Do you know what that bar you're typing into is part of? Where it's looking)? Maybe you don't have any files on your computer at all-- maybe they're on the cloud through OneDrive, or backed up through Google. Some of you reading this may know exactly where and how your files are stored. Many of you probably don't, and that's okay. For most people, being able to access a file in as short a time as possible is what they prioritize.

The problem is, when you as a consumer are only using a tool, you are intrinsically limited by the functions that tool is advertised to have. Worse yet, when the tool fails or is insufficient for what you need, you have no way of working outside of that tool. You'll need to consult an expert, which is usually expensive.

When you as a consumer understand a tool, your options are limitless. You can break it apart and put it back together in just the way you like, or you can identify what parts of the tool you need and search for more accessible or affordable options that focus more on your specific use-case.

The problem-- and to be clear, I do not blame Gen Z & Gen Alpha for what I'm about to outline-- is that this user-friendly interface has fostered a culture that no longer troubleshoots. If something on the computer doesn't work well, it's the computer's fault. It's UI should be more intuitive, and it it's not operating as expected, it's broken. What I'm seeing more and more of is that if something's broken, students stop there. They believe there's nothing they can do. They don't actively seek out solutions, they don't take to Google, they don't hop on Reddit to ask around; they just... stop. The gap in knowledge between where they stand and where they need to be to begin troubleshooting seems to wide and inaccessible (because the fundamental structure of files/directories is unknown to many) that they don't begin.

This isn't demonstrative of a lack of critical thinking, but without the drive to troubleshoot the number of opportunities to develop those critical thinking skills are greatly diminished. How do you communicate an issue to someone online? How do look for specific information? How do you determine whether that information is specifically helpful to you? If it isn't, what part of it is? This process fosters so many skills that I believe are at least partially linked to the ability to read and write effectively, and for so many of my students it feels like a complete non-starter.

We need basic computer classes back in schools. We need typing classes, we need digital media classes, we need classes that talk about computers outside of learning to code. Students need every opportunity to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to self-reflect & self correct, and in an age of misinformation & portable technology, it's more important now than ever.

[izicodes]

Hi, Hello! It’s me, Izzy and I am back from a very long break!

For those who don’t know who I am and just saw my post, I’m Isabelle but Izzy for short (and even shorter, Izi)! I run a Codeblr blog which I post about anything coding! I try to strictly only talk about coding, programming and computer science, but frankly, I ramble on about something else eventually! Hope you’re doing well!

Now, I know I said I wouldn't come back, but that was because I suddenly became stuck on what to post about and wanted to give myself a break and figure out how to do things on my blog and my online presence in general!

So, in summary, I am back from my break very inspired and eager to help more people get into programming / get better at programming! I will go on to talk about exactly what I have been doing during my break later on in this post, but wanted to say thank you to everyone who messaged me throughout the months and saw how I was! Very thought and extra blessings from God to you, please!

Working at my new-but-not-so-new job!

Yes! So, obviously, as a 21st Century girlie, I am working! Still at the music company that I started back in January! Now that I am 8 months into the job, I feel now I am fully immersed in the job and the projects and not feeling like an outsider! I went on multiple out-the-office events with the whole company and it was nice! Some I couldn’t attend because of religious reasons, but I still had fun! I got to meet a lot more girlies at my office that I don’t usually talk to (because I’m still the only girl in the frontend engineering team but there is a backend girlie but we don’t work close together so… distance)! Cheatingly, I am always ticking the box of “code every day”! However, work has made me do more UI/UX designing + frontend programming websites which I love! Always wanted to be both and not just one or the other! We are allowed to have 2 job titles, remember? (But make sure the salary is in accordance, of course, ~)

Learning new technologies! (for fun, obviously)

By “for fun” I mean personal reasons, the technologies I learnt on a whim were not for work but because I needed to learn them for personal projects I wanted to learn! I stress again; it’s more fun to learn something because you want to and not because you have to! So, I have been learning how to create desktop applications using ElectronJS and ReactJS (React has become my best friend!). Me now compared to me when I started my break is 10x smarter I feel like! My brain has definitely expanded somewhere…!

Latest project?!

Inspired by study productivity apps and wanting to track my Korean language progress, I am making a desktop application called ‘eStudySpace’! It would be my own personal app, but I want to see if I can actually pull something like this off! Right now I have not coded anything because I want to work on the design aspect first (which is smarter and a time saver in the future), so I have been on Figma for the last 2 weeks coming up with designs!

(It looks bad, I know this is like idea no.3287368 ugh...)

Miscs

I have been learning Korean for 4 months now. 

I have plans to move to a South-Eastern country, The Philippines? Singapore? Unsure!

I do have plans to switch to a new career but that’s more like 5 years into the future! But right now, I’m happy where I am at!

[cinderella-ish]

If you know anyone who writes music, today has probably been a very crappy day for them.

Finale, one of the most dominant programs for music notation for the past 35 years, is coming to an end. They’re no longer updating it or allowing people to purchase it, and it won’t be possible to authorize on new devices or if you upgrade your OS.

I’ve personally been using Finale to write music for about 20 years (since middle school!). It’s not something that I depend on for money, and my work should be compatible with other programs, so I’ll be fine, but this is very, very bad news for lots of people who depend on this software for their livelihood.

(cut added so info added to reblogs doesn't get buried!)

The shittiest thing is that this was preventable. From a comment on Finale’s post:

As a former Tech Lead on Finale (2019-2021) I can tell you this future was avoidable. Those millions of lines of code were old and crufty, and myself and others recognized something had to be done. So we created a plan to modernize the code base, focusing on making it easier to deliver the next few rounds of features. I encouraged product leadership to put together a feature roadmap so our team could identify where the modernization effort should be focused.

We had a high level architecture roadmap, and a low level strategy to modernize basic technologies to facilitate more precise unit testing. The plan was to create smart interfaces in the code to allow swapping out old UI architecture for a more modern, reliable, and better maintained toolset that would grow with us rather than against us.

But in the end it became clear support wasn’t coming from upper management for this effort.

I’m sad to see Finale end this way.

Finale also could allow people who own the software to move it to their new devices in the future, but Capitalism. It’s a pointless corporate IP decision that only hurts users.

There are three main options for those of us who are having to switch: Dorico, MuseScore, or Sibelius.

Sibelius has been Finale’s main competitor for as long as I can remember. It currently runs on a subscription model (ew). The programs are about equal in terms of their capabilities, though I’ve heard Finale has more options for experimental notation. (I’ve used both; Finale worked better for my workflow, but that’s probably just because I grew up using it.)

Dorico is the hip new kid and I’d personally been considering switching for quite a while, but it’s ungodly expensive (about twice what Finale cost at full price). Thankfully, they are allowing current Finale users to purchase at a price comparable (well, still 50% higher) to what Finale used to cost with the educator discount. It apparently has a very steep learning curve at first, though it is probably the best option for experimental notation.

MuseScore is open source, which is awesome! But it also has the most limitations for people who write using experimental notation.

I haven’t used MuseScore or Dorico and will probably end up switching to one of those, but it’s also not an urgent matter for me. Keep your musician friends in your thoughts; it’s going to be a rough road ahead if they used Finale.

[solomiracle]

hi im bored. complaining rambling about nightbringer's visual design like a nerd below

nightbringer's art direction (mainly with nightmare and the homescreen) will always feel... unreal to me because it's just so cliche. the company becomes more and more obsessed with money and "upgrades" the product, but the original value and unique visuals become lost in the process.

of course nightbringer needs it's own visual identity, but i'm just surprised that they decided to make it look more advanced/modern for a game about going to the past. but i know that comes from how it's just following the set up the OG game had, of giving you a DDD. i have some gripes with that, but i can understand why they didn't want to completely change the UI. too much change would obviously be bad for the existing playerbase.

but if they didn't have to worry about this constraint, i think it would've been cool to have nightbringer's UI be more ancient or mysterious, or at least have less technology. perhaps it could've been structured like a book (maybe a gimoire), or even a full library. the apps could be tabbed bookmarks or books on the shelves. don't know about the book idea, but your homescreen character could sit in a chair in the library.

ok im done

[amphibimations]

Hello, I am sorry not sorry in advance but I just need to rant like a madman about Canto 6 and Heathcliff because OH MY GOD.

so, I forget if this was mentioned by anyone else but a major part of Limbus Company is Mirror Technology. Basically Multiverse Tech, allowing multiple versions of characters called Identities across multiple potential universe (It's how the Gacha is explained, it's a major part of the over-arching plot, you git the jist.) Well what do we see for the first time ever in Canto 6 Part 2?

THAT'S RIGHT, WE GET FUCKING BOOK HEATH!!!!

LOOK AT HIM! LOOK AT HOW FUCKING HAUNTED HE IS! Turns out he's travailing the multiverse to kill every Heathcliff because he considers himself Cathy's Murder and that she is destined to be miserable because of Heathcliff! Every like third line of his is a quote from the books it's great!

The best Part is that this man's a Boss fight in this part too! And He's really Hard! You really gotta manage his sanity well since if he wins too many clashes things can go bad really quickly, especially cause he will always full target Heath and get even stronger if he manages to get any hits in. Made even worse by the fact that if Heathcliff dies it's an instant loss so you really play this fight on a knife's edge.

And look how hard my boy is taking it! Throughout the entire fight Heathcliff is completely silent. no combat dialogue, no voice lines, no nothing. Even E.G.O's, this game's equivalent to limit breaks, which usually come with a unique voiceline, are completely silent for this fight. What's more, and I'm so upset I can't do this justice with images so you'll have to watch this after but each character has their own special story E.G.O with Heathcliffs being "BodySack". so at the end of the fight Heathcliff just starts wailing on Book!Heath over and over again and again to the point of breaking the UI while vowing to just tear down everything and everyone that shoved him down and got in between him and Cathy.

and it all culminates with a scene of Heath Distorting through his perspective. Now Dustortion is the other side of E.G.O's coin. they're the two options you're given when your entire world and psyche collapses, you can either move forward and gain an E.G.O or give into your despair and selfish desires and become a Distortion. For reference Hindly becomes a Distortion in this same part (which I will talk about later!). The whole process also has a bunch of lore connections to PM's other games but unfortunately this ask is already way to long and I won't be getting into those but yeah, as a long-term PM fan I have chills.

And this is all still just Part 2! we still have a whole other part to go!

woah.................................... this is really cool. <3 i love the picture of him crying <3 <3

[loosesodamarble]

Hi, can you make an dating sim recommendation list from beginner level to hard for everyone who wants to start playing them and maybe give us all some tips too if you are okay with it.

Hello lovely, Anon.

I’m flattered that you would ask me for dating sim recommendations since, to be perfectly transparent, I’m also pretty new to playing dating sims. I’ve only been playing dating sims for about 4 years now and the list of games I’ve played through is limited.

Still, you came to me so I’ll answer to the best of my abilities!

For reference, these are the games that I consider to be part of my current library (some are completed and some aren’t but they are ones that I actively play at this time):

Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth (+ the fandiscs Future Blessings and Wintertide Blessings)

Cafe Enchante

Collar x Malice (+ the fandisc Unlimited) [note: shortened to CxM for the rest of the post]

Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo

Radiant Tale (+ the fandisc Fanfare) [note: shortened to RadiTale]

Variable Barricade [shortened to VariBarri]

Virche Evermore: Error Salvation (+ the fandisc Epic Lycoris)

Piofiore: Fated Memories (+ the sequel Episodio 1926)

This second list is dating sims I’ve played to completion but aren’t ones I actively play at this time (either due to issues with technology or a lack of interest).

Cinderella Phenomenon (+ the fandisc Evermore) [shortened to CinPhen]

Nameless: the one thing you must recall

Dandelion: wishes brought to you

Backstage Pass

Royal Alchemist

Taisho x Alice [shortened to TaiAli]

Cupid Parasite [shortened to CupiPara]

In total, I’ve only really played 15 dating sims. (Also, none of these are titles available on mobile devices so anything I say in this post, I can’t guarantee also applies to mobile dating sims.) I also have a bit of knowledge about other dating sims from looking at discussion threads and researching the games to see if it was something I’d be interested in. I’ll just be using whatever information I do have about these games to answer.

If anyone just wants a straightforward recommendation list, just skip to the end, but if you want to read me explaining at length various aspects of dating sim difficulty, just keep reading from here.

So to me personally, there are three main factors that can contribute to a dating sim’s difficulty: gameplay mechanics, UI, and the story/writing of the games themselves.

.....

Part 1: Difficulty from Gameplay

The easiest level of gameplay would be dating sims which are purely choice-based visual novels. You read for a while and then you’re given a choice and that choice will affect character affection or scene progression. Most of the dating sims I’ve played are pure choice-based ones. To name them all, they’d be: Code Realize, RadiTale, Cafe Enchante, Winter’s Wish, TaiAli, CinPhen, VariBarri, and Virche. It really is as simple as choosing what to say or do.

The next level of difficulty when it comes to gameplay in dating sims are games with some kind of interactive element other than choice-making. I’m not just talking about minigames but the general idea of interacting with the game that isn’t just making choices. Granted, in some cases, the interactive element is a minigame. In CxM, the minigame is pressing a button in time with a visual cue on screen. Nameless has a card matching game in a majority of the routes (it’s either 3 or 4/5 routes, I don’t remember exactly). I’ve also heard that the dating sim Jack Jeane has a rhythm minigame that comes up during each route.

Games like Piofiore and CupiPara have interactive elements that I wouldn’t consider minigames. Piofiore has a mechanic called Meanwhile Stories: at certain points during a route, the story will cut away to other characters and what they’re doing while the heroine isn’t around. Some Meanwhile Stories play automatically but others have to be selected by the player to be viewed. From my own experience, skipping out on seeing certain Meanwhile Stories will direct you to a bad ending in Piofiore (no joke, I was stuck on Orlok’s bad ending for so long before I realized I was forgetting to play the Meanwhile Stories). In CupiPara, the player is asked to answer a series of “Yes or No” questions to determine their Love Type; and depending on the Love Type result a player gets, that will determine the route ending one gets. Piofiore’s Meanwhile Stories and CupiPara’s Love Type test aren’t minigames but they are parts of the game that the player acts on and affects the story. And, well, some people might not want to deal with added elements.

The third level of difficulty for dating sims are the ones with stat raising elements. Of the games I’ve played, that would be Backstage Pass, Royal Alchemist, and Dandelion. You have to manage your beauty, stress, intelligence, etc on top of making choices to raise affection levels with a given love interest. Sometimes, you don’t even know how high you need a certain stat to be to pass a checkpoint. Those three titles in particular at least give players a few dozen save slots (as well as quick saves) so they can save scum and retry their stat grind. However, it can get tedious reloading a game over and over to get the optimal stat spread. So unless someone is comfortable/skilled with handling this kind of gameplay, I’d say a stat raiser is a harder type of dating sim.

The final and most difficult level of dating sim are games with much more intense/involved gameplay mechanics. I’ve never played games such as this myself. However, I’ve heard that games like Rune Factory and Boyfriend Dungeon have both dungeon crawling and dating sim gameplay as part of them. Action games aren’t inherently difficult but compared to purely choice-based sims, dating sims with more active gameplay could come across as harder.

.....

Part 2: “Difficulty” from UI

I use quotation marks because I haven’t played dating sims more demanding than a stat raiser and so the difficulty I’m talking about is subjective. Really, I’m talking about certain UI/quality of life features in dating sims that make them easier to play/complete. Those exact features are a skip ability and a love catch system.

Dating sims are games that take a long time to play. They are visual novels and so have a lot of text to read. A player probably doesn’t want to re-read every single text box when replaying routes to see all endings. All dating sims have the ability to fast forward through text that’s already been read; there’s even the option to fast forward through unread text (you know, for the folks who don’t want to button mash through bad endings). However, more recent titles give players the ability to not just fast forward but jump ahead in a route to either the next instance of new text or the next choice that a player needs to make. It’s a nice feature to have for those who want to save time on completing all endings or don’t want to put up with a route they dislike. It also helps since a player doesn’t have to worry about accidentally disabling fast forward in the middle of it and pausing their progress for a second. Having to wait as you fast forward through a game isn’t the worst thing in the world, but sitting and waiting for choices to come up in the game can be a drag.

Still, if you’re the type that wants the convenience of a “skip to next choice” feature, then CinPhen, TaiAli, CupiPara, Virche, VariBarri, RadiTale, and Winter’s Wish all have that feature.

The second UI feature I brought up is the love catch system. The term refers to a feature which gives players indications of when they make good choices and increase the affection level of whichever love interest they are pursuing. This can take the form of a status screen. Or the game might give players a visual or audio cue (sometimes there both) when they make a right choice to increase affection. Several of the games I’ve played actually do both, giving players cues when they make good choices and letting them check a status screen to see how much affection they’ve built. A love catch system is a valuable tool for decreasing game difficulty since it guides a player to the good ending the first time around. It’s also helpful for players who seek out bad endings first, for those with an “earn your happy ending” mindset (it’s my preferred playstyle). Not to worry for those who want to play blind and be surprised by what ending they get, the games that give the “good choice cues” allow players to turn off the cues (although the affection status screens still exist and one just has to ignore it to the best of their ability).

But then there are games that neither give a cue for good choices nor have a status screen to check in on. In that case, a player has to go in blind and just pray to the dating sim gods that they don’t accidentally get the ending they weren’t aiming for. The lack of a love catch system is especially frustrating in games with long common routes, the part of a game where the player is interacting with all the love interests and not playing the story of a specific character. Unless the choices are blatant like “talk to Character A” or “talk to Character B,” then it can be difficult to tell what choices will set a player on the character route they want to play. Then on a character route, the choices can still be vague and hard to tell which is good and which is bad. The only other choice is to play using a guide written by someone else to get one’s desired ending.

Games with no love catch system: Code Realize (and the fandiscs), Cafe Enchante, Nameless, TaiAli, CxM: Unlimited

Games with in-game cues but no status screen: CinPhen (and Evermore)

Games with no in-game cues but a status screen: Piofiore (in Fated Memories, it’s kinda difficult to understand; it’s easier to follow in 1926)

Games with both in-game cues and a status screen: Winter’s Wish, CxM (yeah, I don’t get it either; why have a love catch system in the original game but not the fandisc?), RadiTale (and Fanfare), Virche (and Epic Lycoris), VariBarri, Royal Alchemist, Backstage Pass, CupiPara, and Dandelion.

Again, as I said at the start of this section, the “difficulty” I talked about here is subjective and the features are more quality of life than actual gameplay complexity.

.....

Part 3: Difficulty from the Writing

Just like Part 2, this aspect of a dating sim’s difficulty is subjective.

What I mean by a dating sim’s writing making the game difficult is that the content of the story might be too dark or heavy for some people.

Dating sims, like any genre of game, tell a wide range of stories. They can be goofy, dramatic, horrifying, and so on. Some stories are realistic while others are off-the-walls bonkers. If someone is looking for pure, unadulterated fluff and romance, that’s going to be hard to find. Just looking at my own experience with dating sims, the stories have a variety of tones and a wide range of topics that they cover.

I made a tier list to visualize what I feel the tone/intensity is for each game. Remember, this is my personal opinion regarding these games.

Fuck you and your happiness tier: Virche and Piofiore Gets heavy but it's not soul-crushing tier: CxM, Code Realize, Cafe Enchante Heavier topics have a presence tier: Royal Alchemist, Winter's Wish, TaiAli, Nameless More happy than sad tier: RadiTale, CupiPara, CinPhen, Dandelion Honestly not much to worry about tier: VariBarri, Backstage Pass

Let me also provide a general list of potential triggers and content warnings for each game. I’ll work my way up in intensity.

Backstage Pass: Depictions of anxiety. Sexuality, age gaps, and public perception are topics that come up depending on the route. At worst, there are strained family dynamics in a couple of routes.

Variable Barricade: Arranged marriage is a plot point. One particular routes includes attempted sexual assault and threatening suicide.

Dandelion: Mentions of terminal illness, depiction of emotional abuse, inferiority complexes, obsessive partners, and threats of violence.

Cinderella Phenomenon: Mentions of a past war, depiction of political corruption, murder, child abuse. It should be noted that one romantic interest is the heroine’s step-brother but they weren’t raised together and are hostile acquaintances at best before the game’s events.

Cupid Parasite: There’s kidnapping, romantic obsession, stalking, and attempted sexual assault. It’s also a bit more sexual than the other games I’ve played; nothing outright explicit but simply more sensual.

Radiant Tale: There’s fantasy violence and a lot of emotional baggage. Emotional trauma, terminal illness, political corruption, enslavement, and self-sacrificing mentality.

Nameless: Self-loathing, school bullying, physical abuse, attachment issues, emotional manipulation, and sexual assault.

Taisho x Alice: Topics include financial debt, arranged marriage, obsessive lovers, eating disorders, child abuse, mental health, suicidal ideation, kidnapping, and substance abuse.

Royal Alchemist: human trafficking, political corruption, assassination, human experimentation, brainwashing, concerns over war, and mass murder.

Winter’s Wish: Mild fantasy racism, kidnapping, violence against children, sex work, description of a corpse, attempted suicide, dubious consent, and terrorism.

Cafe Enchante: Age gap romances but are, for the most part, unrealistic (centuries old nonhuman characters). Depictions of self-sacrifice, unwanted bodily transformations, brainwashing, cannibalism, kidnapping, and mass murder.

Code Realize: genocide, chemical warfare, psychological conditioning, terrorism, emotional abuse, kidnapping, attempted murder, and attempted suicide.

Collar x Malice: The police, as an organization, play a large role in the plot but they are not wholly good and even get blamed for multiple tragic incidents. The game has terrorism, online bullying, alludes to bullying in a school setting, kidnapping, murder, stalking, and brainwashing.

Piofiore: The mafia in this game don’t play nice. There’s revenge, gun violence, murder, human trafficking, weapon trafficking, drug trafficking, religious indoctrination, abuse of faith, kidnapping, and sexual assault.

Virche Evermore: This game has a lot of dark content. This review includes a visual indicating all the potential triggers. Though I do believe it should be mentioned that Mathis’s route’s bad end does also heavily imply sexual coercion.

If you are sensitive to any of the heavier topics that I mentioned, I would have to advise against playing these games or to play those games with caution.

Subject matter can make a piece of media difficult to approach or enjoy. For a genre like dating sims, it’s largely marketed as romance games, but the stories the games tell aren’t always romantic but rather dramatic and emotional.

For easy to digest dating sims, I would suggest anything from the lowest two levels of my tier list. But for something darker or more plot heavy, the higher levels are there too.

.....

Thank you, Anon, for sending in your ask. I’m sorry if my reply is longer or more confusing than you thought it would be. I just wanted to give my honest and thorough thoughts on the matter of dating sim recommendations.

Let me finish my post by giving my top five dating sim recommendations based on the factors I mentioned before and some other factors.

#5: Cupid Parasite. Despite my own lack of overall interest in the game, I can still point out what makes the game worthwhile. It’s got the quality of life features that more recent dating sims have. It’s got a fun blend of fantastical and modern elements. It makes interesting use of mythology in places. The cast is colorful in design and personality. The side characters actually get up to some interesting things too, depending on the route you play. Overall, it’s a comedy but it can still provide the soft, sweet moments of romance as well as more intense drama scenes. There is a fandisc but I’ve never touched it and even without it, Cupid Parasite on its own feels like a complete and fulfilling story.

#4: Code Realize. You don’t have to get all three games but at least the first, Guardian of Rebirth, is worth a recommendation. It is one of the heavier games but even with the sorrow and drama, there’s always a happy ending where the heroine and love interest are able to be other and work towards a brighter, happier future. This game doesn’t come with the nifty UI features that make ending hunting more convenient, but with how many charming little gems are in the story, I think replaying routes from the beginning is the way to go.

#3: Royal Alchemist. I’m not terribly fond of the stat raiser element, it was still a very charming game to play. Everything is drawn beautifully, it’s very easy to get into the flow of the game, and all the characters were pretty interesting. Not just the main character and love interests but also side characters helped build the world and made it feel genuinely lived in. The political intrigue plot in the game is ever-present but it doesn’t loom so heavily over the player that they can’t have fun. It’s an indie project and is $20 on Steam so cheaper fare than the dating sims from a studio like Otomate.

#2: Variable Barricade. Although one route touches on some heavier topics, it’s generally very light-hearted and goofy. The love interests are presented as problematic weirdos but they’ll hopefully grow on you as you play and you’ll see there’s more to love than a picture perfect image. The game has a good skip feature and easy to follow love catch system. What’s nice is that the one game is a complete package (other titles have fandiscs where, while not necessary to get a complete story, you might be compelled to buy a fandisc to get more content of the characters). Also, it’s one of the few dating sims out there with a voice heroine.

#1: Cinderella Phenomenon. This was the game to really get me hooked on dating sims. I will never not recommend this game to people. The art is cute and feels kinda timeless to me, the characters are charming and lovable in their own ways, and the routes are uniquely compelling (from the more interpersonal drama of Rod’s route to the trauma-fest that is Fritz’s route). I kinda rag on the step-brother route but the character himself is actually a good guy and I can’t hate him beyond the awkward position the game put him in. Evil gets defeated every time which is cool to see. The game’s heroine is one of a few who get to join in on the action, depending on which route you play. It’s a straight-forward choice-based dating sim with UI features that makes it easy to get the good endings and easily replay to see the bad endings. Also, it’s free to play on Steam and itch.io. And the fandisc Evermore is only $10. It’s pretty accessible price-wise for anyone who plays on PC.

If my post helps anyone in their search for dating sims, I’d be happy. But I’m also happy to just talk about this somewhat understated passion of mine.

Once more, thank you Anon for your question. And thank you to anyone who took the time to read this post, either in part or in full.

To everyone, have a love day or evening, and take care of yourselves.

[twilightknight17]

Today on P3R

LOOK AT HIM

LOOK AT HIS BOXING GLOVES, OMG, I DIDN’T REALIZE THEY’D BE LITERAL JACKS.

Also we take exams I guess.

Turns out Ikutsuki is not going to help me study alone, he’s going to wrangle everyone into one big study group. Dunno how effective the studying is when he and Junpei get into a pun-off, but whatever. It’s nice to have everyone together and not fighting.

...This is on my exam? For real? This school, man…

Once exams are over, we make plans to go do something fun. While Yukari leaves to get Fuuka, Junpei and I have a little chat.

I love that you can play Minato as a completely oblivious airhead. But I do not.

On our way outside, Ikutsuki introduces us to our new dorm-mate, Ken, who will be staying with us over the summer. He has potential, so he might be a good candidate for joining SEES!

...Ikutsuki, recruiting teenagers with attitude is one thing, but you’re crossing the line towards “child soldiers”, my guy. I know Wild Cards have awakened at age 7, but they didn’t actually have to do stuff til they were 16 or 17!

He’s gonna be staying in the dorm, so we’re not allowed to mention shadows or fighting or whatever in front of him. Even though Ikutsuki just mentioned “the potential” in front of him. Akihiko also looked really uncomfortable around him, and it’s clear he knows Ken somehow, so… Yeah.

Ikutsuki sends me off to the antique shop that’s now open, because the antique shop can help me. The same way the police officer helps, apparently.

This lady runs the weapon fusion menu, and also where I can exchange all my gemstones I’ve been getting. She knows Officer Kurosawa, and ALSO explicitly knows about shadows?? What has Ikutsuki told you, ma’am? Were you involved ten years ago? Do you know about Tarta--

Oh I want that megidolaon skill card so bad. God. Don’t show me that when I know I won’t be able to afford it for ages.

Anyway, we are off to Yakushima, and Mitsuru’s vacation home is enormous. I wish we got to actually run around in it, but what we do see is pretty nice.

(Wait, wasn’t Ken moving in? Did we just leave him at the dorm alone??)

Mitsuru I didn’t realize your dad was Big Bos-- *shot*

Junpei wants to go to the beach right away, so we put our stuff in our rooms and book it down there. It’s gorgeous.

...

...Akihiko, uh…

Thank you, Junpei.

Akihiko doesn’t get it. He just wore them because they’re “better” for swimming. Because of course he’s gonna train on vacation. *sigh*

Why is Mitsuru so pretty I’m gonna die

Yakushima really is beautiful and I’m kinda sad I couldn’t cut off the UI for a minute.

Elizabeth asked me to bring her back something from the beach. I found a pretty shell, some driftwood, a piece of weird seaweed, and…

...she will LOVE this crab. I have to.

Mitsuru talks to her dad, and I have made an exciting discovery: A living, onscreen parent who does not suck!

He wants her to open up to others more and work together, because…

That’s a pretty good motto, actually. It would help if people playing this game knew what the Nanjo Group was. And despite being in green, meaning it has a definition in the glossary, the glossary just explains the motto again. X’D

The Nanjo Group is where the Kirijo Group got all it’s psience tech from, because they bought out SEBEC after Kandori tried to become god back in 1996. SEBEC had the original prototypes for anti-shadow suppression weapons, and PROBABLY also the teleporter technology from the DEVA System. I think I mentioned before that I think that’s what the teleporters in Tartarus are based on.

Plus, the Nanjo family is all about being Number One, so “two in harmony” is a pretty good shot at them. And that’s definitely lost if you don’t know anything about them. X’’’D

Mr. Kirijo gathers everyone together, because he’s going to tell us the truth. And the truth is, his father was trying to create a time manipulation machine. So it makes sense that their research fucked up time so badly that there’s an extra hour of the day now. But apparently, that attempt to create time manipulation warped into something worse over the course of the project, and Yukari’s dad caused the explosion to stop him.

Yukari is completely freaked out by this realization, because she’d always maintained that the accident wasn’t her dad’s fault. So hearing that he caused it on purpose sends her reeling, and she runs off. Minato follows her to the beach to talk, and it’s a good conversation, actually.

Thanks, it’s the trauma. ^_^

Thank you, P3R, for actually letting me hug people when they’re upset. Looking at you, P5, as Futaba and Sumi just cry in front of me and I can’t do anything.

The next day, the girls are on an awkward nature hike (because Mitsuru and Yukari aren’t speaking), when they get a call from Ikutsuki.

“Vehicle”????

There’s a lab on this island?

Sir you have one job how are you so bad at it??

The boys, meanwhile, are once again at the beach for Operation Ba--

Oh. Are we not calling it Operation Babe Watch? Okay.

It’s playing the Tartarus music. I’m trying to lead my team into the ocean and it’s not working.

We manage nothing but failure all the way across the beach. We’ve got girls who aren’t interested, girls who are pissy that high-schoolers are at the island resort (who then get even more pissy when they find out we’re at a friend’s summer home, because THEY had to save up to come here), girls who humor us for like ten minutes before revealing they have boyfriends…

And then one last lady, who has been observing, and reads us all to absolute filth about how our tactics are all wrong.

She might be interested, though. And she wants us to help put on sunscreen!

...300K yen-a-bottle sunscreen.

To protect from artificial sun rays…

Because…

Time for a tactical retreat. Thank god the last girl on the beach is so pretty.

She doesn’t want to talk to anyone, though. Except Minato. And runs off when the others approach. They seem to think she ran away because I said something to her, and want me to follow her and apologize. Which, guys, I don’t think chasing girls you don’t know into the woods is the right answer here, but okay. Here we go.

There’s a waterfall up here and I can’t go near it. :(

...believe me, Yukari, I have no idea what’s happening either.

Apparently this is the “vehicle” Ikutsuki lost.

I’m okay with bringing her home with us. XD

Speaking of home, back at home, Shinji is trading information with those three weirdo assassins in exchange for some kind of pills, which can’t be a good sign because he looks like he’s in actual pain. Weirdo Squad is angry that we want to destroy the Dark Hour because they like having special powers.

They also call Tartarus the “Tower of Demise”, though, so like obviously they realize this is a bad thing.

After we get back from Yakushima, Aigis tries to stay in my room, including waking me up five minutes before my alarm. Which. No. You cannot stay in here. Oh god. My new robot has separation anxiety.

My social links may not be deals for things that can help in battle, but they do make me feel warm and fuzzy.

I go out with Akihiko again because he still owes me food for last time, and we get accosted by the punks from before, who have returned with an even bigger group, because apparently the best way to win is by fighting a guy eight-on-one. Are you proud of yourself, dude? Does that make you feel cool?

We didn’t actually fight because we distracted them long enough to get out of there, so no police this time. But I did learn that Akihiko does have parents! He has foster parents that love him and send him enough expensive snacks to share with the whole dorm. It’s nice. ^_^

My online friend in my MMO is definitely a teacher at my school, based on her complaining about "Mr. E". Which, you and me both lady. Dude thinks he's a wizard or something.

Speaking of Mr. Edogawa, he mentioned Carl Jung in class! While talking about alchemists, because school is still insane. Literally we’re going on summer break tomorrow, give it a rest.

Which I guess is why Ken hadn’t moved in yet, but… Did we miss like a week of school while we were in Yakushima? Hot damn.

Ken is officially moved in now, though, and despite not being able to discuss shadows or the Dark Hour around him, he apparently knows Aigis is a robot. So… Uh… How secretive are we supposed to be being?

And it FINALLY let me go back to Tartarus and check out the new area, which is very industrial. It’s cool. Very different vibe from the big faces. I actually like it.

New portal doors that lead to Grand Clocks now have a chance to show up, so I can boost teammates’ levels to match Minato’s? Which is interesting. And more importantly, new “Monad” doors are appearing that lead to stronger fights.

Calling it Monad makes me a little weirded out, but hey, it's not a mandala and there’s good treasure in here. So we’re probably going in headfirst every time they show up. XDD

Saved back at the Tartarus entrance, so next time is probably just going to be some more fighting. We’ll see. ^_^

[hellyeahheroes]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

Those are words of Arthur C. Clarke, but I do not think he was exactly right.

We now live in a world where every one of us has a personal device that allows them to communicate with the whole world, if they wish so, read and research any piece of information, watch from endless well of content. And yet how many of us can actually explain how exactly does it work? If it gets broken, how many of us can open and fix it?

We're now slowly coming to terms with the fact that Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which everyone assumed will be more tech-savvy than Millenials, are technology illiterate, having to learn from the basics any UI that isn't the touchscreen tiles.

Both of those are by design, as the corporations do not want us to be able to repair or tinker with their product, just buy a new one whenever something goes wrong. The way young people have been taught to operate a smartphone and an ipad was purposefully designed to discourage learning past the basics, or they'll "mess around" in the programming or see past the marketing guy's bullshit when he is selling them new one. Hell, so much of grift of NFTs crypto and AI relies on people not understanding how it actually works. This is why AI bros love the "you say AI is bad but can you explain what it actually does?" defense, trying to lord over how smart they are over "the masses", rely on ignorance to push through the scam.

In one of the Witcher stories, I forgot which one, Geralt mocking asks a wizard to explain the difference between menstrual blood of a teenage virgin struck by lightning in an open field of dandelions under clear sky at midnight of the winter solstice, and blood of old peasant matron that drunkinly stumbled and fell off a cliff last thuesday, and what makes the former necessary for magic rituals in the way the latter cannot substitute for. The wizard, smugly, admits he's actually using pig's blood. But if any peasant would know that would suffice, they would be doing magic themselves, instead of paying him. And if too many people would be doing magic, the profession would be far less prestigious. And far less profitable.

Clarke was, fundamentally wrong. It's not advancement that makes technology indistinguishible from magic, at least not on it's own. it's how much work wizard from Silicon Valley put into obsctructing its nature and making sure no one but them understands it.

-Admin

[01shiho-hinomori08]

"You wouldn't survive old vocaloid"

YES THE FUCK WE WOULD??? Hey, so, fun fact, being gross and a loli isn't fucking cool. "YoU wOuLdNt SuRvIvE tHe AsYlUm ThEy RaIsEd Me" YOURE EXCUSING CREEPY BEHAVIOR WITH THE PHRASE "BACK IN MY DAY?!??!"

MIMUKAWA IS CREEPY !!! ZAKO IS CREEPY!!!! Guess what, just because this shit existed before doesn't mean it was okay.

The old vocaloid Fandom, saying you wouldn't survive, what message does that give off? Like, oh, you think this song that paints lolis or even literal children in a good or fun light is normal? YOURE THE ONE MAKING IT NORMAL?

Back in my day 👴 we had World is Mine, we had songs about yanderes [not even the sexual ones, just the yanderes that are doing it for passion and insanity, not to get off in the blood], we had love songs, heartbreak songs, and every now and then we'd get a song that was talking about how great lolis were. Guess what? There's a reason nobody gives a crap about those anymore.

Plus boy and fucking Rotten girl are NOT THE SAME AS LOLIBAIT?!?!??! THEYRE TEENAGERS BEING LIKE "omg men kissing and boinging" and "omg I'm going through puberty" not "Hey, I'm a child so I'm gonna tease a grown man" like, Plus boy shows cleavage, I will say, but the lyrics and the video are just kind of, there, it's clearly not a fetish thing, it's a vibe.

Fujo Miku is also just a teenage girl that actually feels bad for reading Yaoi. But she still does. Again, it's a silly SONG, SONGS CAN BE DIRTY BUT THERES A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SILLY DIRTY SONGS AND SONGS THAT ARE PROMOTING STUFF

"Lolibait" It's not lolibait, it straight up either is loli or is a child.

Zako was made using the voice of a child. Doesn't matter if she doesn't sound like it, she's a child. And even when they change the voice, it is still a schoolgirl teasing someone and it's meant to be romanticized. When that's a kid.

Mimukawa is literally not meant to look like an adult at all. The oversized clothes and the childish demeanor, it fits into the type.

These things are promoting harmful behavior and feeding further into the people it's targeting, those that get off on little girls calling them gross, just like Shigure Ui did when they made the fetish song for her fans that everyone thought was against those people when ui is a LOLICON THEMSELVES

Fiction doesn't affect reality in the sense if I play a shooter game I'll do something bad. It affects it in the same way p0rn does. If you're looking at gross material of things that look like kids, you're normalizing that in your brain and it will eventually lead to worse. And if you think I'm being dramatic, think of the real cases of predators who got tired of fiction or even just seeing bad things happen to kids

It's not an issue of "hah, snowflake" it's just... no? Just don't engage and normalize these things? I get things are different in Japan, but the thing is, this is still appealing to a degenerate group in some way. But that's there. They have terms for that that are incorporated. Here, i expected so many people to not engage but no they're obsessed with these things and not in a "Oh, it's interesting to see the controversy" NO, P3OPLE ARE DEFENDING THESE THINGS!!!

Bring back old vocaloid but not the stupid loli songs that, like, one person has heard of, no, bring back the disco, the cringe videos, the vine as vocaloids. Our technology has gotten way better, so isn't it a good thing vocaloid isn't the same as before? Can we please just stop acting like old vocaloid fans will turn a blind eye to weird crap. And no, not normal weird, like, degenerate criminal weird. Sorry for this rant but Jesus christ

Anyway, more Gakupo songs plsplspsplspls

Love, your mom's bf

[Ps, the voices for the Kagamines, Miku, and a lot of vocaloids and cryptons are adults but the issue isn't there, the issue is when you're trying not to portray them in a way that is distinguished from a child to pander towards weirdos]

[eldritch-elrics]

i started playing the silent hill 2 remake!

uhh... buckle up i guess, because i have a LOT to say. probably too much to say. (and probably will have even more to say in the future - i will make a liveblogging tag!)

i got as far as the entrance to the woodside apartments and then stopped. overall, i'm really enjoying it!

i think that what surprised me most - as someone whose experience with game remakes admittedly comes most from nintendo games and the 2018 shadow of the colossus - is how much this is not an attempt to redo sh2, but to rework or remix it. i knew this would be the case to some extent, but it both surprised and excited me how little of the original game's finer details of progression are left intact. i thought i would know where to go, which paths to take, which items to look for, and then... i didn't! this is very fun! it means that even though i played the original about a month ago, and it's still fresh in my mind, i'm still getting the "new player" experience to some extent. on a meta level, it feels like the town's ever-shifting nature has caught me off guard. it's leading me to doubt my memories of the original game, and that's just very cool!

side note: there have been a handful of moments so far where the screen pixelates a little and james clutches his head. i wonder what those indicate! i know that one of these moments happened when i tried to get onto the road where you get the radio/plank in the og, so perhaps they're little hints like "hehe, you're remembering the wrong game!" (i also love all the new little mysteries: new memos, new strange photographs that have their own space in the inventory...)

even with the changes, it feels like, so far, the new/remixed levels are in keeping with the spirit of the og. for one, you've got displaced iconic moments from the og that have been inserted into new contexts - such as the "james sticks his hand in the suspicious hole" bit, which also has a fun little difference in the fact that you have to make him stick his hand further in. (does this indicate that remake!james is less unhinged?)

overall it feels like the game is taking full advantage of the fact that it has a ton more processing power to work with. it is legitimately so cool to see silent hill rendered in such realistic detail. it makes it feel like a real town! it's so beautiful, even when it's gross and run-down. i looooove being able to enter into so many of the buildings around town. i love how much it feels like people really did live here. i love the rendering of the fog and how much consideration has been given to even the smallest, most mundane of visuals. i LOVE being able to smash windows and interact with objects inside display cases. it's like a whole new layer of the town has been unlocked. that's exactly what a remake should do - reimagine the original game with new technology.

speaking of new technology... my god are the autosaves a welcome addition. by far the aspect of the og that felt the most dated!

the acting is also very good. don't have much to say on that front yet. james undeniably feels different - a little more open, vulnerable, cautious, certainly more emotive - but i still completely accept him as a version of james. there's lots of good additions here, such as the way he clutches his side when he's hurt (had me going "poor baby..." out loud way too many times, to which my friend who was watching responded "that is a grown ass man.") or the way he looks in the direction the camera's pointing. the one James Thing i sorely miss is the way he comments on random objects he interacts with. even if it's not a lot, it's a great way to learn about him as a character, and i'm sad to lose it.

i'll use this to segue into some of the game choices i don't like:

the ui decisions are for the most part quite bad. i haaaate that the main font looks exactly like the default font in microsoft word. doesn't fit at all. i also hate the way the screen goes red around the edges when james gets hurt. it's way too unsubtle an effect, and it makes it suck ass to run around at low health. (i turned it off pretty quickly - james's slow pace and stumbling at low health are more than enough incentive to keep him healthy.)

i will begrudgingly accept the general "tutorialization" of the whole game; that's probably a necessary addition to a modern game that doesn't come with a manual, even though one of the things i enjoyed about the early silent hills was how little they explain themselves to you. some parts of the remake veer close to encroaching on the "fuck around and find out" spirit of silent hill - i didn't appreciate the reminder (like 2 hours into the game) that you can break windows to find pathways and items; that's something the player can figure out from earlier tutorials. but it's probably for the best.

another "probably for the best" decision is the little dot that turns up on screen to indicate an interactable item. it's a change that i'm definitely grateful for, but it does ruin a little bit of what i might call the "rpgmaker spirit" of running around trying to interact with every item in case james has some funny dialogue about it. (hmm, maybe that's why they have less environment-thing-description dialogue now?) but overall, in a world with this insane level of detail and realism, you kind of have to find a way to signal to players what they can interact with. maybe that could have been done in a more elegant or diegetic way? maybe they could have preserved that feeling of "oh man, the protagonist could potentially have something to say about anything!" or "whoa, anything here could be important" somehow? but who knows. it's an interesting dilemma regardless.

i'm not a huge fan of the combat so far. it seems too fast-paced. wish it were clunkier. i'm sure i'll get used to it, though.

by far i think the worst decision in the game is the "over the shoulder" camera perspective. i know that this is ultimately a holdover from resident evil 4. i know that it probably makes combat easier. i do not care. it makes james feel too separate from his environment. i want to see his whole body in the frame! i want him to feel small! like he is just one more character in silent hill! it's unfortunate but understandable that the remake had to do away with the iconic fixed camera angles of the og, but, if they were willing to make that change, i don't understand why they couldn't be more lenient with player camera control. ugh.

my final thought for now is a bit of a larger scale question. as i wandered through the town, listening to the familiar, spooky akira yamaoka ambiance, i had a very strange thought: why is there silent hill music? which is obviously a silly question, but i phrase it this way for a reason. despite everything, despite all my positive feelings on it, there is some significant way in which the remake, at least so far, does not feel like silent hill. i'm not sure what it is. it might be the slight surfeit of ui. it might be the fact that there's no grainy filter, that i'm playing it on my friend's 4k monitor. the extreme level of detail creates a fundamentally different type of realism than that which was achieved on the ps2 in 480p - a world that was uncannily realistic because you could see light and shape but little detail. honestly, it might just be the fact that the lighting and shading is so, so different. the original trilogy has an incredibly strong identity, and this remake just... doesn't fit in with a lot of the hallmarks of that identity.

there's a bit of the "shadow of the colossus 2018" question in here. i've talked before about how i think the sotc remake creates a beautiful but ultimately uninspiring atmosphere because it goes for a very generic sort of video game realism, as opposed to the bright, stark emptiness of the original game. it's hard to say that sh2r doesn't benefit from the particular aesthetic it's got going on. the level of detail legitimately does so much for it. but it also loses some parts of itself too. loses some of the spookiness for sure - i talked earlier about how much it looks like it could be a real town, but there's also some important affect that's gained from the og's feeling of stylistic wrongness, the ways in which it doesn't feel as real as it should. just something to ponder...

[silkendandelion]

Thoughts…

The sequel to My Own, Distant Home has become a huge, complicated project, and I wanted to ramble a little bit about some things to expect

- a lot more horror, considerably less smut (mostly due to the POV changes, I’m experimenting with first person, and first person smut makes me go 😵‍💫), but that may change if I can get the hang of it

- surprise minor characters (including a cat that is actually plot relevant)

- more Jack being pathetic, overly neurodivergent, and unintentionally funny

- heavy backstory stuff for Connor

- I don’t care if the game’s UI has an iPhone, that’s just for the player’s convenience as far as I’m concerned. I’ve written it to take place in 2006 bc the technology works best for my purposes

- also the analog romance is too good

- “I won’t make you relive Ironbark—I can’t.”

Im mostly nervous about how this project is almost completely original

I want to find the right balance of bringing elements back from the first fic, paying homage to the source material, and justifying the sequel by expanding on the world and its characters in a way that feels organic

No pressure

I just want it to be finished already, and be done well, so then I can frame it above my desk for when I’m feeling bad about my writing

“Look, you took an indie horror video game with 2 hours of content and 5 named characters and wrote thousands of words about it—and it didn’t suck”

Coming to you from the writer’s desk, dehydrated and wrists hurt—but I love it

Anyway, here’s wonderwall:

[cowbot-lumberjane]

is it weird to feel like you're living in the corpse of the world you grew up in? I know nostalgia is a slow and insidious killer if left unchecked, but just, let me try and describe this. I was born in 1998, I grew up through the 2000s and 2010s, particularly in the tech/video game spaces (go figure) and it feels like everything I used to know is just, dead now. My life used to be filled with how wondrous and new technology could be. Things had weight and worked with all sorts of wires and metal parts. Even the cheap things still felt like they were a part of it. It really felt like you were a part of something special when your hobby was computers. But I don't know about now. I don't just want to be sad about it all the time. I know that in the right places those bustling tech avenues from a time when the web was a place and not a monolith, and computers were appliances and not our entire lives, I know those still exist. But theyre so tucked away. So hidden under mountains of consumerist trash full of bad plastic and bad user design and no user fixability and just, I don't know. All the hobby shops had to close, or raise their prices so high they might has well have. All the old video games are owned by youtubers and techies that rip the consoles apart to make ANOTHER backlit LED button gameboy advanced that they dont play. The world I knew so fondly has been hollowed out and is now worn by black suits and minimalistic white and grey squares with rounded edges. I just, get sad sometimes. I feel like I was too young to have truly been a part of it, but I might also be too old to try and get into it now. Or at least too poor. I miss it. I miss those off whites and beiges, compressed audtio 480p video please insert disc 2 "why did the developers spend so much time on the UI and menus". I miss it so much sometimes. Everything feels the same now. Maybe I'm just tired. Maybe I should get into linux or something. I don't know.

[gorochuva]

Iiiiiit's another @magireco-minibang WIP Wednesday, here's what I have of chapter 2 so far!

“Healing your little sister of her disease,” Kyubey mewled. “So that was your wish. And you say you just suddenly remembered it?”

“Well, it’s more like it was- revealed to me in a dream, or something.”

“Is that so?” Kyubey and Madoka gave each other a knowing look. “Aren’t you going to tell her?”

“I thought you would’ve told her.”

“She may not be able to pull from our memories, but her mind is still connected to us Incubators. So under normal circumstances, I would have told her, but…” He looked back at Iroha. “Who exactly is this Ui Tamaki? It’s very strange. Are you certain you have a little sister?”

“I know, it sounds crazy, right?” Iroha admitted. “It’s like she doesn’t even exist anymore.”

“Erasing all traces of someone’s existence would take great power, equivalent only to that of a Magical Girl’s wish. Which begs the question, who would want to erase “Ui Tamaki”? It’s far more likely you had false memories implanted in your mind, and only think you had a sister.”

“I can’t explain why, but I know these memories are real. The empty hole I’ve had in my heart is where Ui used to live…”

***

Something inside Madoka hurt, hearing Iroha speak so passionately about these memories. She couldn’t say the same for sure for Ui, but Iroha Tamaki certainly did not exist. At least, not before she made her wish.

“That stuff Homura was saying, is it true?”

“It’s true enough that I can’t deny it.”

“Then you turn us into Magical Girls… just so we’ll become Witches?!”

“Please, don’t misunderstand our intentions. We don’t do this out of ill will towards the human race. Everything we’ve done is to prolong the life of the universe. Madoka, do you know what the word “entropy” means?”

Even if she did, she couldn’t open her mouth to speak to the vile creature.

“Here’s an example: the energy a bonfire gives off is not equal to the energy it took to grow the wood that fuels it. When energy changes form, some of it gets lost. We found that the amount of energy in the universe is decreasing at an alarming rate, so we began searching for a form of energy that wasn’t bound by the laws of thermodynamics. That’s when we found the energy created by Magical Girls.”

“What are you?” Madoka croaked.

“The civilization my species comes from developed a technology that converts the emotions of sentient lifeforms into energy. Unfortunately, we don’t possess the capability to experience such things for ourselves. So, we searched the universe, studying all of the various species, until we finally found you humans. With the size of your population and the rate at which you reproduce, we saw how the amount of emotional energy generated by a single human is greater than the amount used between their birth and growth. The soul is the energy source we need that counteracts the effects of entropy. The most effective energy came from females in their second stage of development, when they have the most intense fluctuations of hope and despair. At the precise moment your Soul Gems flare out and become Grief Seeds, an enormous amount of energy is created! As an Incubator, my job is to gather up that expended energy, and put it back into the universe.”

“That’s all we are to you? Disposable? You want us to die for you, and you don’t even care?!” As the word left her mouth, the thought lingered in Madoka’s mind for only a moment. Disposable… Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad…

“Do you know how many civilizations there are in the universe? Can you even comprehend the amount of energy they use each second? There will come a day when you humans figure out how to leave this planet and join the rest of the universe. When that day comes, you wouldn’t want to find it to be empty and desolate, would you? If you consider the long-term, this is a good deal!”

“How can you say that? You really think it’s okay for Mami to die? And for Sayaka to suffer? For some crazy reason like that? That’s not right! That’s- so mean…”

“But we always ask for and make sure to receive your consent before making the Contract. That alone should show you that we don’t mean any ill will.”

“But you do that by tricking us!”

“We don’t understand this concept of “tricking” you. Why is it that when humans regret a decision they made based on their own misunderstanding, they feel resentment towards the other party?”

“I can’t do this,” Madoka sighed. “You’re not saying anything that makes sense. I don’t understand you at all…”

“We’ve had a hard time understanding you humans and your values as well. With a current population of 7.8 billion increasing by a rate of 10 every four seconds, it’s a mystery why you care so much about the loss of a tiny handful.”

“If that’s what you think of us, I guess you really are our enemy we’re like… your military, right?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Bodies fill the fields I see,” Madoka solemnly hummed, “hungry heroes end. No one to play soldier now, no one to pretend. Running blind through killing fields, bred to kill them all. Victim of what’s said should be, a servant… ‘til I… fall…” Taking a deep breath, Madoka pulled herself up out of bed. “Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll die for the sake of the universe or whatever, because I wish…”

“I wish you could understand how they felt.”