#combat engagements

[stop-war-ukraine]

Over the last day, 245 combat engagements with Russian invaders took place on the frontline, most of them in the Pokrovsk direction, GenStaff of the AFU reports.

#RussiaUkraineWar

📷: Facebook/GenStaff of the AFU

[emeraldhazeart]

Hey, in case you need to hear this today:

For every 1 person that tells you how much they like your work, there's probably close to 10 people who are just quietly enjoying what you create.

Your art has worth.

Your writing has worth.

You'll never know just how many people your work has touched in some way.

[junglejim4322]

what are your plans for valentines day? ;)

[vigilskeep]

the thing that interests me about kidquisitor is that if you have like a 12 year old fantasy protagonist that’s kind of normal but if you have two installments of dark fantasy about adults and then you open up the third installment with a 12 year old then you know shit is fucked even if the characters themselves, both the 12 year old and those around them, do not necessarily know or want to recognise that they are in the wrong genre for this

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 230

a gamers duel....

[ajastu]

god okay. sorry for yet another text post. but i'm just still thinking about the argument that veilguard is bad because the only option re: morality of your player character that it gives is kindness.

Now, to preface. I understand where this criticism comes from. Veilguard IS a departure from the general scheme of the previous games, in several aspects. And i understand how people would be upset at not having quite the same kind of options/ways to influence the world. It took me some getting used to, also.

What i do disagree with, however, is using that to claim that the game is bad, irredeemable, and also meaningless n soft or whatever.

Because it's really not. It's just different, with a different narrative focus. I've played the previous games several times, and as i said before, origins is in first place for me. Veilguard is a very close second. And i'm not more right or wrong in this opinion than someone who thinks datv is the worst game in the series.

You can still make choices that will influence the world in wildly different ways, they're just not... ''genocide or no genocide'' kinds of choices. Which i can see how some people would not consider the difference significant enough to be interesting for them personally. Which is whatever, im not their dad, i dont really care.

However. I think it's kind of weird to say that ''the game made me resent being a nice person'' or that "kindness you dont have the choice not to offer isnt worth a lot"

Like, game criticism aside. That is just an objectively weird thing to say.

There are ways to phrase that particular dissatisfaction in a way that will not make most people side-eye you. This is not one of those ways.

The thing is, it was a deliberate choice in characterization. Since game development at AAA scale is. an incredibly complex beast, i suspect there were many different reasons for it, and not all of them purely narrative. It is also not 2009 anymore. We are not getting another Origins, like, probably ever.

But. Rook is established in the very second cutscene to care about other people. It makes sense narratively, too, with Varric being the one to recruit them. Their backstory also shows that they gravitate towards the 'moral' choices. It's not bad writing. It's deliberate.

That does not mean that everyone has to like it. And i don't think the people who are upset about the change in this gameplay aspect are stupid or wrong.

We are all different people with different preferences, and i really am sorry if the game ended up being a disappointment for you. I know how it feels, and it does suck.

But i also do think it might be worth to examine the way people choose to phrase this complaining. The claim that kindness is somehow diminished in value if you aren't offered the choice to be cruel alongside it. I just think that, like. misses the point of what kindness is?

I know what those people mean when they say it, i just...fundamentally disagree with the sentiment. And i think phrasing it in this way is incredibly weird. sorry 🤷‍♂️

There is a better way to talk about this particular complaint. I just never actually SEE that being done. and i do think a lot of it comes from not actually engaging with the source material people are trying to criticize. Like, the person i sort of quoted earlier explicitly said they have not finished the game. If you never give something a chance in the first place, if all the information you have is second-hand, then i do not find your criticism valuable in any way. There is no substance to it, no backing. You are not proving a point, you're just chasing your own tail at that point. There isnt even a bone to chew. You've only heard of the bone. you havent actually experienced it.

Another part is people being too twisted up in the emotion of disappointment to actually see that they're not making compelling arguments, necessarily, and that they're actually being a tar pit.

I know not everyone thinks as much about the push towards dismissing the value of kindness for kindness' sake as i do. But like. It really is very weird to see this insistence that game bad bcs it didnt have the option to do a murder to an innocent person, or something. While also dismissing the horrible things we Are shown as 'not in your face enough'.

And honestly, personally? I dont love origins or any of the other ones specifically for the ability to choose the evil options. It's never even been a choice for me, because you can very well play the games without having to make the bad choices. theres always a workaround. And that workaround doesnt even harm u in any significant way. there isnt an actual like. terrible complexity here. I enjoy the dwarf politics quest a lot but ultimately, knowing the outcome? its EASY to choose Bhelen. Unless you're playing a dwarf noble origin, i guess. Rip Harrowmont 🙏 you would have made a terrible king.

And again, my personal opinion is not more right or wrong than that of someone who adored the prev dragon age games exactly because they allow you to make some terrible terrible moral choices.

At the end of the day. why are people still so pissed about a game that came out almost 6 months ago that many of them havent even played in the first place? Relax. take a walk if you can. Maybe move a snail out of the road if you find one. There tends to be a lot of them after it rains. Think about the ones that didn't make it. Try to find compassion for lives so easily dismissed. Maybe that will make you think about whether or not kindness on its own really is so lacking in value.

[fluffydeoxys]

I do admit when I see the cutie-tootie self indulgent oc x canon Zero posts I kyaaa

THANK UUU I appreciate it cus it makes me go alegnkmshekrghh as well but I do get a bit shy like ouuouuu but it makes me happy so idgaf we ball. But knowing other people enjoy it as well makes me smile real big and wide :)

Here's a little bonus as a thank you!

[rollaroundincompliments]

Ally PC 🤝 Doing some unrelated nonsense during a battle ep that turns out to be the absolute most important thing they could be doing

[alish-artie]

I’m having fun so far playing Super Mario RPG !

(Also I didn’t expect Mario to be absolutely ready to punch a kid just because he doesn’t think highly of him-)

[annemarieyeretzian]

ashton,,, blocking imogen’s body from any/all harm,,,

[veriana-rose]

On my replay of 3H, as a joke, I thought “what if I put everyone but Byleth and Edelgard in the maid costumes?” So I did.

Except I looked at Dorothea and decided, you know what, she deserves her normal outfit. Bernie does, too. And Petra.

The result:

[msommers]

she felt very old and mature and wise— which showed how young she was.

[templates: 1, 2]

[shiraishi--kanade]

I remember hearing a video essayist for a different fandom saying a lot of people are having wild takes on the media in question because it's becoming more common to get information about the books second-hand than to actually read the books. And I think something like this happened with pjsk. Except worse because we don't even have video essays we have tiktoks. And that's why We're Like This

[rooolt]

I say this with all the love in my heart, but whenever the dndads cast is like “dnd combat is not an interesting storytelling device and only hampers the flow of the podcast” or anything in a similar vein about the mechanics of the game im always like,,,,,, maybe you guys are just bad at it

[scarletlotus182]

It's almost upsetting how Expedition 33 is giving me what Final Fantasy refuses to lately.

[wannabebardrambles]

maybe i’m just gay but why do we not always have katari in combat she’s so hot useful to the party i mean-