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appleflavoredkitkats · 4 years ago

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Who Are the Four Horsemen of the Dream SMP Apocalypse?

Art by: Viktor Vasnetsov

[TW’s: torture, death, murder, manipulation, alcohol, substance abuse, discussions about the end of the world, religion, starvation, violence, implied gambling, blood, alcoholism]

Word Count: 3.5k

INTRODUCTION

Hopefully I finish this before I feel too sleep-deprived, but I’ve been thinking about the presence of horsemen in Quackity’s “My Enemies” stream. These mysterious, hooded figures are quite odd to say the least, and their involvement with Las Nevadas still remains unknown. There has been a debate on whether there were three horsemen or four, and in my opinion, I believe that there are four horsemen present.

Why four? In the first scene, three horsemen arrive at the Dream SMP on a dark and stormy night. They seem to have come from the south, entering Eret’s castle from the back. As they stop to pull their Netherite swords out, air raid sirens are heard from the distance.

Similarly, in the last scene, Quackity is seen placing a book in Wilbur’s memorial before leaving, riding his skeleton horse, Ossium. The scene cuts from first person POV to third, and we see a hooded figure, presumably Quackity because of how both came from the same direction. Additionally, air raid sirens are also heard from a distance.

[MORE UNDER THE CUT!]

I theorize that these two scenes take place at the same time. The prequel scenes only began after we see the sequence of Quackity torturing Dream, and it ends after the flashbacks of Wilbur. We can synthesize that both these scenes are set at the same time, and that these horsemen are going to meet at a certain point on the prime path.

What may suggest that these four horsemen are supposed to be parallels to the biblical four horsemen?

Firstly, seeing the bits they do, Quackity and Schlatt do know a lot of biblical references. Schlatt has compared Tubbo to Jesus once, and Quackity has said many prayers as jokes in the Dream SMP. It’s just… easy to take inspiration from biblical symbols and references, and also, the four horsemen are just very popular figures in history, so you know, why not?

Also, this may also sound RIDICULOUS, but the fact that this stream establishes that Tommy got resurrected three days after he got killed is actually very reminiscent of, well, you guessed it, Jesus Christ. 72 hours is oddly specific, and I don’t think the cc’s made it that way for no reason. Tommy’s parallels to Jesus—which is a VERY funny phrase—could imply that the Dream SMP might draw more parallels to Christianity, and the four horsemen could be another one of these references.

Also, Quackity mentioned how in Las Nevadas, he made four casinos for him and the rest of El Rapids. So, we know four is a number we can associate with Las Nevadas, and there’s a chance Quackity gave these casinos to three other people. Four casinos, four horsemen.

What is the purpose of the four horsemen in the Dream SMP? When the air raid sirens went off, we can think of these four horsemen as the bringer of chaos or danger into the Dream SMP, very reminiscent of the purpose of the original four horsemen in Christianity. We can also connect it to the end of the world, as these four only appear when the world begins to end. This can imply that these four, who are most likely allies of Quackity in Las Nevadas, are somewhat connected to how the Dream SMP will end.

Now, who is who? Admittedly, it is difficult to find a definitive answer on which member represents what horseman, so I’ll try my best considering all the possibilities for each. I’ll add my own ranks on how probable I think they are, but I have to specify that these are subjective- I am not a beacon of truth, y’all.

So let’s get started.

Firstly, I want to discuss who might NOT be a horseman to narrow it down a bit:

Any minors might not be involved. In Sam’s face reveal stream, aka the first stream mentioning Las Nevadas, Quackity and Sam agree they don’t want Tubbo and Tommy to participate in underage gambling. Don’t know if this applies to Ranboo and Fundy (since he might be canonically a child? Who knows), so they get more of a pass, but the clingy duo might not.

The Syndicate. I’d like to think that the Syndicate, as well as Dream, are Quackity’s main foils of the server. As they are the richest and also the most skilled in PVP, Quackity stands no chance against them even with his sharp tongue. As these people are foils against Quackity, and also probably hate his guts, Quackity might not hire them at Las Nevadas. I theorize he’d probably use Dream as a watchdog against the Syndicate, but that’s a theory for another time.

Additional point about Dream: he’s in prison.

Anyone from Kinoko Kingdom because it’s clear Quackity severed all ties with them.

The Eggpire is half-half. They can possibly join, but also can’t, Quackity can manipulate them into joining only for their inevitable demise, or Quackity wouldn’t wanna associate with them after the explosion incident. They’ll at least get a few passes in some categories, but again, not entirely sure.

CONQUEST

Also known as Plague, Pestilence, and in some occasions, both Jesus Christ and the Antichrist, Conquest is shown to be riding on a white horse, donning a victor’s crown and a bow. There are many interpretations of Conquest, especially with their ambiguous morality. Some people can perceive them as bad, representing the origin of many wars. Some people claim that they represent pestilence and plague as their arrows are slathered with the infections they want to spread. In some cases, they can also be interpreted as good, as their description is heavily reminiscent of Jesus Christ himself. Others would rebut that there is also a possibility that they might be a fake replica of Jesus created by Satan, thus making them the antichrist.

Sam (8/10)

Sam is my first choice when it comes to Conquest because, firstly, he fits the appearance. He is one of the only people in the Dream SMP who dons a crown, and they also possess a bow which they frequently use. I’d say that Sam as Conquest matches with his ambitions as a member of the Badlands, Pestilence or Plague match with his possible crimson infection, and Antichrist matches with his inability to keep Tommy, the possible Jesus figure on the SMP, alive or safe.

My only issue is: would Sam be one of the three who arrived at the Dream SMP in the beginning? Sam is very strict with his job as warden, so it is unlikely that he would be seen far from it.

Any of the Eggpire (7/10)

As Conquest is heavily depicted with pestilence or plague, any of the Eggpire may fit under this category. As their goal as the Eggpire is meant to conquer the Dream SMP, this also matches with the goal of Conquest. Additionally, one of the Egg’s weaknesses is Church Prime, something heavily resembling Christianity, so if the Egg is its opposite, we can view the Egg as somewhat of an antichrist.

I say Punz, Bad, Ponk, and Hannah have a higher chance of being Conquest, while Ant is a solid ‘maybe’. Punz could’ve been the one who blew up the Egg, Bad can be easily persuaded by Quackity, Ponk is one of the only capitalists of the server that may participate in Las Nevadas, and Hannah’s character heavily fits the theme of pestilence when it comes to nature. Additionally, I like to believe that Conquest was the horseman on the skeleton horse (that isn’t Quackity’s), especially since they were holding a dandelion in one shot, something that could be attributed to “pestilence” because a dandelion is a weed. This may imply that Hannah could be part, but because they haven’t interacted much beforehand, we wouldn’t be sure. More insight on Punz: he once mentioned he upholds his duties as mercenary more than he might love the Egg, so there’s a chance Quackity bribed him to join Las Nevadas.

The main con to this is that: why would the Eggpire willingly join Quackity, or why would the Egg allow them to join Quackity? I can see that Quackity might break their brainwashed states because he has a good way with words, but people like Bad, Ant, and Punz have stated that they’ve been fully controlled by the Egg. Also, Quackity makes it clear he wants to eradicate his enemies, so he might not want any members of the Eggpire to join Las Nevadas… unless there’s a traitor?

Schlatt, Mexican Dream, or Wilbur (6/10)

Heavily connected with winning if you take Manberg, Mexican L’Manberg, or L’Manberg into mind.

Wilbur also has a memorable crossbow, but I don’t know if that counts as a bow.

Any dead characters have a high chance of joining Las Nevadas because of its possible connections to death and the revival system of the SMP.

Other possibilities with short explanations and low but possible odds:

Eret: Has a crown, his betrayal can be seen as a “win”, has Tommy’s bow from the duel. Can be seen as an antichrist figure.

Jack: As he is against Tommy, he can be seen as an antichrist figure. Might be working with Las Nevadas because of his deal with Quackity.

Ranboo: He’s a minor, but he also has a crown and a bow so, maybe? He’s not much of a conqueror or winner, though.

Connor: Didn’t really conquer much, didn’t really win much, he’s just here because of Schlatt, honestly.

WAR

War is depicted to be holding a raised sword as they ride atop a red horse. After conquest, war is expected to follow, and War is tasked to break any type of peace on earth. He is tasked to kill, or make humans kill each other. The prominence of red symbolizes bloodshed or immense anger, something very present in war. Multiple depictions of War show him with his sword raised upwards, signifying the start of a battle.

Schlatt (9/10)

The man’s literally torn the Dream SMP apart (/lh). This man is always keen on fulfilling his goals, and if it means he’ll have to fulfill them in the most twisted of ways, he will do it. Him winning the Election brought immense conflict in the Dream SMP, and many people were torn apart on which side was the right or wrong side. One of Schlatt’s prominent colors besides blue would be red, as it is the color of his tie and the color of his ghost form’s horns. Red could represent the bloodshed of those who died during the Manberg-Pogtopia conflict, or red can signify the anger Schlatt had for his own cabinet.

Schlatt was also gifted a sword by Dream called “Shclatt”. The sword only holds heavy significance because of how Fundy treasured it like an heirloom.

Wilbur (8/10)

Another good possibility too as Ghostbur was recently seen to admire red a lot more than blue in one of Tommy’s streams. We can also view the creation of L’Manberg as a place that broke the peace in the Dream SMP as they didn’t really NEED to create L’Manberg and declare war, yet, he did. Red can also resemble his anger for what has been done to L’Manberg- everything is pretty self-explanatory, honestly.

My only qualm with Wilbur being one of the horsemen is how we can’t really… tell if he’s in the Dream SMP? He seems to be very clear on the fact that he does NOT want to return, so he might not even be there when the four horsemen became a thing.

Any of the Eggpire (7/10)

Honestly? Same reasoning as the first explanation for the Eggpire. This also applies for why they might not be one of the horsemen.

Do I even need to explain the red part, or do we just all understand that red is literally their brand.

The Eggpire practically breaks peace in the server and is keen on taking control of the entirety of the Dream SMP. The Egg is shown to be ruthless towards anyone, and will even let some of its followers kill people if needed.

I see Bad as someone who might qualify for this position more because he initiates a lot of the activity in the Eggpire. Same goes for Ant, Punz, and Ponk, but they don’t really take initiative most of the time.

Jack Manifold (4/10)

The only reason I kind of added him here was that he wanted to kill Tommy, but Jack isn’t entirely selfish or peace-breaking. I do think he might play a role in Las Nevadas, especially since if Quackity has access to the nukes, only Jack and Ranboo might be the only two who helped him gain access.

Jack is also… very angry at Tommy. Rightfully so, because he basically surrounded a good portion of his life trying to kill Tommy only for him to realize that that might not be his purpose in life. He blames Tommy for a lot of the loss in the server, so he has a lot of anger, but he has no one to vent it all out to.

Other possibilities with short explanations and low but possible odds:

Eret: Did the first betrayal, but that’s about it. He’s also participated in several wars against others who disagreed with him being the king.

Ranboo: Participated in wars, but is a peacemaker so, y’know.

Fundy: While he does possess Schlatt’s sword, he isn’t much of an initiator of wars as much as he is merely a follower. He has shown that he is quite angry at those who have used him, but the anger has dissipated lately into some sort of sadness/denial.

Connor: He’s mournful that Schlatt, a close friend, has died, but he isn’t really one to be angry. He tried living far away to make his own independent nation, but it didn’t impact much of the story. He also one possessed “Ghostbur’s Stabbing Knife”, which could represent the sword.

FAMINE

Famine is seen to be holding a scale (presumably for food) as they ride atop a horse. Famine is also denoted to be the only one speaking, saying “A quart of wheat for a denarius! And three quarts of barley for a denarius! But don’t ruin the oil and the wine!”. This statement basically means that we have to pay a full day’s worth of earnings for a bit of wheat and barley but oil and the wine, something not considered human necessities, can have the same prices. This shows an unfairness when it comes to acquiring basic human necessities. This is especially damaging to the poor as Famine’s statement can possibly make the poor poorer, while the rich remain the same. It is implied that the wider the gap between the poor and the rich, the closer we are to the end of the world.

Fundy (9/10)

This may be a long answer because I am biased towards Fundy, but Niki once stated that Manberg was in some sort of a famine because of the destruction of farms. Because of this, certain citizens have resorted into eating spider eyes from the EXP farm, but it was notable that she was practically calling out Fundy, someone who literally advertised spider eyes to any person he talked to in the Dream SMP.

Fundy is also hinted to be heavily connected to these hooded figures somehow. In his dream, he was chased by one until he slept in a black bed, the color of Famine.

Additionally, in his dream, he held baked potatoes (food) which could be related…? He’s also a libra so… scales…?

He is also a notorious prankster in the Dream SMP and will bargain for anything as long as he profits from it. He’s not the richest by any means, but he loves doing pranks that involve stealing belongings from other people.

Schlatt (8/10)

Similar reason to Fundy as he was the president of Manberg responsible for these famines. Additional note for this is that he also taxed Niki, one of their only food sources in Manberg.

Schlatt also likes to joke around about being rich, earning money, or being a businessman often, especially with the entire Schlatt coin joke. Connected to Famine’s trait of making the rich richer, possibly?

Famine’s statement can also apply here as it is implied that if humanity doesn’t possess the basic of necessities, they might at least have wine which won’t provide any solutions to humanity’s starvation at all, but it will distract you from your starvation by making you heavily drunk until you finally die. This is very reminiscent of how Schlatt died.

Sam (6/10)

Sam is one of the richest people on the server, matching Famine’s want to keep the rich rich. Only problem here is that Sam is at least very generous and provides a lot of people with resources when needed.

Sam could possibly be connected to Famine because of how he treats Dream in prison. In an attempt to torture Dream, he starves him, cutting his food supply.

Same problem remains with Sam not being able to join whatever the hell the four horsemen are because of his duties as warden.

Any of the Syndicate (1/10)

Only giving an exception here because the Syndicate is exceptionally rich and is more selfish about it than others. Low chances, but Ranboo… might? But it’s still a bit iffy for me. Niki might as well because of her connections to the Manbergian famine, but still on the fence with this one too.

DEATH

Death is often depicted riding a pale horse, but some variations have called the horse light green. Death does not don a weapon themselves, but they are always accompanied by Hades. Hades in Christianity is the place or state of the departed spirits, meaning Death has contact with those who have died. Sometimes, Death is depicted with a scythe similar to the Grim Reaper, but some say Death has no weapon at all as Death themself is the weapon. Death is not only meant to collect souls and end lives, but they can also represent the end of an era of humanity.

Quackity (10/10)

I would say Quackity can fit any other category, but I am so sure that Quackity is death because of how death and toying with death seems to be one of Quackity’s main themes in the Dream SMP. Quackity, once hesitant about killing others, has been shown to now impulsively want to kill others: first with Techno, then Ranboo, then Dream.

Quackity will also most likely acquire information about revival on the Dream SMP, so he is in close proximity with Hades, or in the Dream SMP, the Void. This also heavily ties in with the idea that he will make others gamble away their canon lives only for him to resurrect or return their canon lives if they ever successfully gamble it back.

Quackity is also known to be very powerless in terms of PVP and battle, but you know what he succeeds in? His own words. He is his own weapon that can get him whatever he wants as long as the person he’s up against is in a vulnerable position.

He is also confirmed to be one to have a skeleton horse, and some depictions of Death’s horse show that it is very corpse-like.

A bloody scythe can also be seen in Quackity’s first lore teaser, and that can be attributed to Death.

Other possibilities with short explanations and low but possible odds:

Schlatt: First owned the revival book but he literally does not know its contents. Fits the “they are their own weapon” trait.

Dream: The only exception I can give. But again, he is literally in prison…?

Wilbur & Mexican Dream: Only putting these two here because they have experienced death. These two fit the “they are their own weapon” category too.

Connor: Wants to revive Schlatt, but that’s it.

CONCLUSION

Honestly, my first conclusion for the four horsemen were Sam/Conquest, Schlatt/War, Fundy/Famine, and Quackity/Death, but I only see Quackity as Death to be something that is HIGHLY possible. For Conquest, I shift between Sam and one of the Eggpire, for War, I shift between Wilbur and Schlatt, and for Famine, I shift between Fundy and Schlatt. Again, no definitive answer, but I’d love to hear your own thoughts on this.

I am very tired, but also remember to reblog if you do enjoy this! Again, would love to hear your own insights, and would appreciate any type of discussion! :D

#dream smp #dream smp analysis #mcyt #quackity #fundy #wilbur soot #jschlatt #connoreatspants #badboyhalo #long post

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tubborucho · 2 years ago

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i realized that english is also not my first language, so i can actually add:

• I love how interesting Bad’s character is and how he is so funny and angsty at the same time. I also love the romdramcom that’s going on with him. And how he is so kind and generous and constantly ready to help.

• I love how chill Phil is, and I love when he breaks the 4th wall, it’s always funny. He is definitely a comfort character, because you can always switch to his pov if you are overwhelmed with chaos and tragedy in others.

• I love Jaiden’s True Neutral energy, there’s definitely not enough characters like that (at least I don’t see many) and her lore with Cucuruchos is also so cool.

• I love Tubbo! I can ramble for so long about how much I love Tubbo, he is so chaotic and smart and so good at most of the aspects of the game, even if you can miss it because he is usually compared to the crazily skilled people like Techno or Philza. And I love his sweet nature with eggs.

• I love Foolish, he is so goddamn hilarious, and he is the perfect comic relief character, but the type of them, where is so much more about him, and I am sure we will get heartbreaking lore with him at some point. He reminds me characters from sitcoms, where they are all happy-go-lucky, until That Episode strikes, like JD from Scurbs.

• I love Fit, and he is so cool and intriguing with his secret lore and the way he seems so trustworthy and open despite hiding this big part.

• I love Charlie, and how he is definitely a fever dream of a character, but in the best way possible. None of his streams is ever boring even for a second.

• I love Wilbur and I miss him the most out of people, who are barely on. He is ‘this fucker’ for me, that I lovehate, and I can’t wait for him and Tallulah to break my heart.

• I LOVE QUACKITY!!!!!! MY GOD THIS MAN DESERVES ALL THE PRAISE. HE CREATED SUCH AN INCREDIBLE PLACE FOR ALL THOSE PEOPLE TO MEET. AND HE HIMSELF IS SO FUNNY AND SO GOOD AT WRITING STORIES AND CHARACTERS. AND I WANT TO KILL HIM SOMETIMES BUT /AFFECTIONATE. THANK YOU, BIG Q.

And I love all the people that I didn’t mention here! Most of them are new, so I haven’t seen much of them yet, because I mainly watch Tubbo, but they all seem so great, and I can’t wait to see where they will take the server further.

Well, the QSMP tag is not fun right now. What's something you like about a streamer whose primary language is not your first language?

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luminous-shifting-vibes · 4 years ago

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actual fucking quotes from the shiftblr coffeehouse discord server

out of context of course, what do you take me for? a sane person?

"they made lightning mcqueen hot"

"inch resting"

"Nix: Cars (2006) several people are typing..."

"im evaporating"

"enjoy precipitation"

"tow mater is more attractive than lightning mcqueen/hj"

"lightning mcqueen looks like he would call me a slur"

"why did I come back to a discussion regarding the attractiveness of vehicles"

"lark is the braincell of shiftblr tbh"

"you all need some grass in your life"

"me over here simping for block men and now literal cars"

"didn't nick wilde commit fraud canonically"

"i have no strong opinions on whether or not nick wilde is attractive"

"I AM AROMANTIC AND I AM NOT IMMUNE TO NICK WILDE"

"I am bisexual and I. Am not into Nick Wilde based on a simple fact he looks like he will drink all my pepsi and call me names"

"What is shiftbkr but not a bunch of simps"

"cries in Bianca Monroe"

"listen i have a folder called gayass

it is mostly pictures of kyoka jiro and virgil sanders"

"Nick Wilde x Reader where he steals your car 📷 carjacker to lovers AU 📷"

"he says "mama i like to step on keyboard""

"MY MOM JUST WALKED IN AND I HAD TO TELL HER I WAS LOOKING AT LIGHTING MC QUEEN HUMAN FANART"

"crab walks away"

""Y/N..." Nick whispered into your ear. "Your car...is a Honda Civic, right?" You looked up at Nick with a baffled expression. "Nick, my beloved? Whatever are you talking about?" "Just asking..." He said as he let you out of his embrace. "Hey, wanna see a magic trick, babe?" Your eyes sparkled. "Really, Nick? Of course!" Nick smiled. "Ok, close your eyes!" You giggled and closed your eyes, waiting for Nick to tell you to open up. Instead, you heard the loud rumble of a car starting up, and you open your eyes. Nick has stolen your car, and he has driven off into the sunset..."

"did y'all know his name used to be canonically Montgomery--he changed it to lightning mcqueen to get rid of his past"

"That is my exit number"

"cars trauma arc"

"wait do y'all know about car jesus" "as if jesus wasn't a ford focus in the bible"

"oh yall do not want to know about the trauma in my cars dr lmao"

"Dewit tau style babey make Lightning McQueen outlive everyone and stalk their reincarnations"

"Do they baptize other cars in like gasoline then"

"there is a pope car in the cars universe which means car jesus died for cars sins"

"NOT THE BOOMER MEMES"

"-lays facedown on the floor while caramelldansen plays-"

"like im serious how many of you guys endorse me falling face down on my floor" (NOT THE SAME PERSON AS PREVIOUS QUOTE)

"I will be Tall and no one can stop me"

"is a soft floor?"

"stop I thought faceplant meant like a succulent in the shape of a face instead of falling onto your noggin for a solid 10 seconds"

"Touch some grass??? What about eating grass"

"what if for every employee of the month i just printed out really horrible boomer memes"

"what ab smoking grass /j"

"Can the grassdirt smoothie be a special in the cafe"

"PLEASE IM ROLLING ON THE FLOOR REWRITINH THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WHIKE SPEEDRUNINT MINECRAFT"

"you have to get good dirt from like the middle of a pennsylvanian forest for it to taste good though"

"I ate a four leaf clover as a kid cause i thought it would make me lucky"

"guys how do i see the mee6 leaderboard"

"I used to think i was half dragon and I ate plants out of sidewalk cracks"

"i think i punched someone"

"my parents told me to stop doing that so I looked at them and ate a flower"

"I ate grass when I was 9 bc I read warrior cats and thought I was a medicine cat ....................."

"bees are just spicy flies"

"I had a mental breakdown when I was three cause I didn’t know how to turn off a phone"

"My mom drank a bee once"

"when I was a baby I kinned ink sans."

"bro who here find the yellow hat man from curious george fine as heck 📷📷📷"

"mY LUNGSSSSSS"

"no one topping Him"

"I like em big"

"I think Moto Moto has no game like move over hunky boy I could beat you 1v1 Roblox Arsenal 📷📷📷"

"If you didnt have a crush on springtrap, jeff the killer, or Underfell/Gaster/Error sans don't talk to me /j"

"LOOK THEY'RE BOTH DILFS WITH ABS THAT WOULD FIGHT GOD"

"ZORO IS BANNED"

"Guys please help I found my old fnaf fanart from when I was 8 I'm in literal tears"

"OH NO BOT MY FIFTH GRADE HAMILTON PHASE"

"The worst attraction ive ever had has to be Sombra Overwatch"

"My family is like "save all ur art so I can sell it when you're famous" I literally could not sell this if I tried"

"screaming puppet"

"I just remembered Ive drawn overwatch/hamilton crossover fanart"

"my hermit crabs ate each other again"

"we're cannibals ????"

"having me here is a curse you have inflicted on yourselves and I for one am glad for it <3" "scitters around like a crab in anticipation"

"CARB DAY"

"WE NEED TO HAVE A WATCH OARTY"

"hey y'all ill be right back i have to throw away a crab carcass"

"if I watch cars I'm going to start laughing in the middle of it nonstop just because the word cars is funny and also cars are funny like how do you move silly little metal box with rubber circles"

"Lark asleep post catboy pitbul"

"Mwista Wowldwide! Nya!" "hermit crab 2: electric boogaloo"

"Is that why your name is chaos"

"manifest the crab power!!"

"cool dex fact: i can't read 📷"

"sighs adds to worship these entities list"

"with a knife <3"

"yeah and if he betrays me I could probably throw him across the atlantic ocean"

"give me his eyes"

"my good citizen i am a- wait no im nonbinary nvm"

"it worked on a fish idk what to tell you"

"what is gender??? Is that a board game?? If so can I be apples to apples that one's my favorite"

"CHUTES AND LADDERS"

"anyways actually my gender is Candyland"

"Oh god romes the destroyer of friendships/j"

"i am a simple gay i see math i run in the opposite direction survival instincts 101"

"math my beloathed"

"algebra makes me want to rip open a bag of swedish fish and swallow them whole"

"cackles in they're au characters and this will be very fun"

"pog !!!! me too ksajgks one of my drs is a sanders sides au"

"Is that bipper"

"tumblr sexyman"

"Good because he’ll fuck u up if u hurt a child"

"I want a wing-suit"

"looks like a bean would poison someone"

"my hermit crabs are cannibals what can i say"

"sonic the hedgehog kinnie"

"get yourself a man who is capable of the most ungodly actions but won't do them because of their morality owo"

"tell him he can steal my wallet"

"eyes"

"idk about y'all but I need blueberry sweet tea to live"

"y'know the red souls from soul eater i really want to eat those"

"but like only respectable crimes like stealing from elon musk"

"You can go cultbashing with he!"

"He acts like a flamboyant gay man, but if a flamboyant gay man was straight."

"Simp Satan 📷"

"definitely arson"

"They look like they enjoy lemon squares and other lemon desserts"

"Satan is all-powerful but he spends most of his time building honeymoon locations because he is convinced that the protag loves him"

"bc shes the reincarnation of his dead wife or something i guess"

annd here's a quote from our very own dream (@shiftingwastaken) that sums this post up:

"shiftblr but context makes it worse"

#not shifting #shitpost #out of context #tw cannibalism #tw stealing #tw poison #tw swearing #tw: drugs #tw: smoking #tw: death

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lunarthing951 · 4 years ago

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MCYT Story Prompts LETS GOOOOO-

This Will Be In No Order So One Second You Might Be Getting HermitCraft, Another DreamSMP, And Another Some Weird Crossover Between The OriginsSMP And One Of The One Life Series (Nothing Is Guaranteed). And With That Said, Let The Ideas Commence.

DSMP- Ranboo & Tubbo Having A Platonic Marriage Event. (Fluff)

DSMP- An AU Where Tommy Faked Betraying Techno In The Destroyed Community House Thing, Letting Techno Know Just Before The Betrayal With A PM So The Entire Thing Was An Act To Get The Antarctic Anarchists A Spy. (Story/Angst)

Origins- Birds Can't See Glass. Origins SMP Philza Is A Bird. Funny Stuff Ensues. (Crackpost)

Crossover- Grian And Philza Meet, Now There Is A Parrot And A Crow Both Trying To Adopt The Other Because Mama-Bird. (Fluff)

DSMP- Everyone On The Dream SMP, Enemies Or Not, Protecting Purpled So The Last Minor Without Trauma On The Server Continues To Not Have Trauma. (Crackpost)

DSMP- Tubboat. (Crackpost?)

DSMP- Everyone's Dad Schlatt AUs Are With Tubbo... So Why Not Tommy? Why Not Dad Jschlatt With A Chaos Child Named TommyInnIt? (Anything)

DSMP- The Manburg Exile Arc But It's Tommy Going Insane Instead Of Wilbur. (Angst)

Hermitcraft- Hermitcraft Zombie Apocalypse AU, No More Context For You. (Story/Angst)

Hermitcraft- Zedaph And Impulse Decided To Summon A Demon And So Tango Happened. (Anything)

Any- Child 'Someone' Walks Into A Village And Is Greeted By An Iron Golem Handing Them A Poppy... They Then Proceed To Live In This Village But Eventually Get Found. (Anything)

DSMP- Eggpire Technoblade. (Story)

Hermitcraft- X Moves Them All Into The Nether Update But Accidentally Locks The Server In Hardcore Mode. (Story/Angst)

Hermitcraft?- Hermitcraft But The Egg Is Somehow There. (Story)

DSMP- The L'Manburg Revolution But The Character Roles Are Backwards. Wilbur Is Dream And Vise Versa. Not A Swap AU, Just The Character Roles Change. (Story)

Tales Of The SMP- Karl Time Travels Into The Past And Sees Phil. (Crackpost?)

DSMP- (TW: Execution And Alcohol Mention) Pog2020 Wins And Basically All The Same Things Happen Like With Fundy Being Executed Instead Of Tubbo And Wilbur Being The Alcoholic President And All That Jazz. (Story)

DSMP- Tubbo (The 5'6 Child) Loses His Last Canon Life To Bad (The 9'6 Demon) Stepping On Him. (Crackpost)

DSMP- Ghostbur But He's Basically Just Alivebur But Dead, Just Popping Up Near People And Saying "Hey, Ever Think About Arson?" (Story?)

Hermitcraft- MCR VS HEP But The Character Roles Are Reversed. (Story)

Crossover- Dream SMP Members Meet Their Origins SMP Counterparts. (?)

Hermitcraft- RPG AU. (?)

Origins- Origins Swap. Like- Now Niki Is Fire Woman And Jack Is A Fish Or Philza Can Be The Ender Boi While Ranboo Can 🌟Fly🌟 (Story)

Hermitcraft- Grian Gets A Hermit-Challenged To Mama Bird All The Hermits In 24 Hours. (Fluff)

Any- The Server Is Just A Group Chat. (Crackpost?)

Tales Of The SMP- (TW: Blood Mention) The Lost City Of Mizu But Ranbob Isn't Out For Blood.

Hermitcraft- Grian Is Locked In A Cell In The Evil Hermits's Base... And Then Realizes Just How Crackposty They Can All Be When He's Taken To The Living Room With About A Third Of Them All There Trying To Either Get Him On Their Side Or Just Downright Interrogate Him For Info.

Any- Dadmin... AKA The Admin Being A Father Figure To Someone. (Fluff)

Hermitcraft- The Jangler Is Back... And This Time, It's Not Scar. (Story)

DSMP- (TW: Execution Mention) Techno Being Forced Into The Side Of New L'Manburg During His Execution. Will He Take The Government Down From The Inside Or Will He Learn To Let It Go.. Or Rather.. Learn To Be Apart Of The Very Thing He Hates. (Story)

Hermitcraft- Grian Uses Beef's Cloning Machine But, Instead Of A Clone, They Get NPC Grian / NPG. (Story/Crackpost)

DSMP- Fundy, While Going On His Own Road After The End Of New L'Manburg, Slowly Goes Mad Without Power. In This State, Hallucinating A Different Type Of Ghostbur. A Ghostbur That Acts Just Like The Alivebur... And This Alivebur Still Wants Chaos, And Is Inviting Fundy To Revel In Chaos And Insanity. (Story/Angst)

Crossover- Xisuma In His Bee Suit Thing And Tubbo The Beekeeper Bee-Child Meet... You Know Where I'm Going With This... Chaos And Happy Stuff Shall Ensue. (Fluff)

Crossover- Philza Finds Grian (Who Let's Assume Is A Parrot Hybrid) And Decides "Hmm... Son." (Fluff)

DSMP- Protege Tommy AU But Him And Dream Have An Actually Stable Relationship Involving Dream Teaching Tommy The Ways Of 🌟Manipulation🌟 And All That Jazz. (Story)

DSMP- (TW: Implied Fight) Y'all Know How Ranboo's Character Gets More Agitated The More Eyes That Are On Him? Now He's In Another One Of Those Situations And Then Accidentally Lashes Out At Everyone, Perhaps Even Hurting Someone Physically Before He Snaps Himself Back And Realizes What He's Done. (Angst)

DSMP- Sam Holds A Cat. No Context. Sam The Creeper Hybrid Man Is Now Holding A Cat For A Reason Of Your Choice. (Crackpost?)

Hermitcraft- Hermitcraft But Make Them All 🌟Slightly Older🌟 (?)

DSMP- Sam Actually Does Get Infected By The Egg Eventually But This Snaps Ponk Out Of It. He Didn't Actually Want What This Egg Wants, He Wanted His Friend... And He Just Lost Him... Just As Sam Had Lost Ponk Before. Will Ponk Go Back To The Egg Or Will Sam Snap Himself Out Of It For Ponk's Sake? (Angst?/Fluff?/Story)

DSMP- Techno The Dreamon. No More Context. (?)

Just A Reminder That You Can Use Any Of These As Long As You Credit Me For The Idea. My Preferred Way For You To Do This Is Tagging Me At The Start Or End Of Your Writing But You Can Do It Whatever Way You'd Like. ^v^

( Note: This List May Be Edited To Add More Prompts )

#story prompt #mcyt #hermitcraft #dsmp #origins smp #tales of the smp

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heretic-altias · 4 years ago

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FFXIV Characters as Star Stable Players

Went through a ton of them talking to my friends and thought maybe some people out there somewhere might enjoy these so look below the cut to begin bc there's a lot of them.

Alphinaud: Every horse is level 15. He feeds them every day. Meticulously plans the best gear out for racing and studies each track. Top high score racer on his server, also does champs in his spare time. Will talk about racing to anyone who will listen

Alisaie: All her horses range from levels 1-5 and are depressed. She never feeds them, she's not wasting star coins on stable care when she could be saving up for another horse for her collection. Beat Alphie in a championship one time, will not let him live it down. Spends most of her time either chasing Alphie around or messing with her friends.

Thancred: has no idea what hes doing but Ryne really likes this game so he's playing with her. Lets her pick and name horses for him.

Ryne: Adores all of the horses. Roped both Thancred and Gaia into playing with her. All of her horses have names and personalities and she loves talking about them. Never asks for star coins because they're expensive, but Thancred always gifts her some on double sc weekend.

Gaia: Another one in the 'never feeds the horses club' has one Friesian and insists it's the best horse in the game and the only one she needs. It's level 15 bc she literally never rides another horse. Mostly plays with Ryne. Wrote a backstory for her horse at Ryne's urging, it's very edgy and tragic.

Y'shtola: Rarely plays. Saves up for a horse, logs on, buys it, takes pictures of it, and leaves for another two months until she can afford another.

Urianger: Spends 300 years naming each horse. Has an entire backstory for his character and all of their horses. Obsessed with the lore, frequently writes long lore posts for sso tumblr. Ryne loves reading his fics. Owns all of the old disc games, spent forever trying to get ahold of them and now treasures them.

G'raha Tia: The WoL likes this game so he expected it to be amazing. Ended up playing mostly with the others, but not really on his own. He just really likes hanging out with everyone else. Thinks all of the horses are nice, could never criticize a new release. Probably named his starter after the WoL or asked them to name it for him.

Emet-Selch: Hates every update. Writes long tumblr posts about how the game is terrible now and used to be better. Only rides old models, has thousands of star coins saved because he refuses to buy any of the new horses.

Lahabrea: Constantly leaves comments on sso's instagram about what they should add to the game. Takes it personally when those things don't appear literally the next week. People wonder why he still plays this game bc all he does is complain on instagram over stupid things. Still adores each of his horses and knows their names and personalities.

Elidibus: Analyzes every update and its pros and cons. Thinks SSO should hire him. Posts carefully worded critique posts that he spent hours thinking out. Forgets to actually play the game because he's so focused on doing this.

Aymeric: Loves taking screenshots. Will carefully coordinate every outfit and tack set he has and loves spending his time on it. Probably an instagram celebrity, maybe even an ambassador. Owns a well known club. Only says nice things about the game online to avoid drama, but admits criticisms to his friends.

Estinien: Instagram famous only because he's in Aym's club and Aym posts about him a lot. Complains about other players annoying him. Eventually privates his account bc Aym's fans are driving him insane. People probably wonder why Aym hangs out with him. Lets Aym take screenshots of him and goes to all the club events even though he'd rather just play his msq and save up for horses because he knows Aym is happy.

Lucia: acts as the co owner of Aym's ingame club. Helps filter out some of the chaotic join requests they constantly get. Manages the wait list, handles the club instagram page. Likes to run her training route every day.

Haurchefant: Thinks every horse is great, also in Aym's club. Loves being an instagram celebrity and talks to his fans all the time. Writes lots of posts about how great his friends and the game are. He's just here to have a good time.

Zenos: wants to race against everyone all the time. Gets mad if you say no. Competes with Alphie for those top scores on the server. Probably has one of those ongoing weirdly dark Instagram story accounts where characters like die and horses are stolen/abused and such.

Ysayle: collects pretty horses and enjoys screenshotting them. Likes light colors and a winter type aesthetic. Her club is the other big club on the server besides Aym's. They all ride white horses and matching outfits. She tries really hard to diffuse any drama in the community.

Hien: honestly just probably having a fun time. Likes to host tumblr meet ups just to talk to the people and hang out. Posts mediocre memes that are really only successful bc he's the most active meme page on tumblr. Everyone knows he's a really chill guy.

Arenvald: Probably plays with Alphinaud sometimes but is a little lost when Alphie starts talking about his racing obsession. Still likes to hang out with him even though Alphie crushes him whenever they race.

Minfillia: Owns the club all the scions are in, but it's really just a club for their friend group to chill in. Probably plans events for them all and coordinates everything so that everyone can make it. Takes good care of all her horses, reminds everyone to buy stable care each week even if they dont actually do it.

Lyse: Only feeds the horse she's riding. Loves running championships just for fun on whatever horse she happens to have when the announcement pops up for one. Chats with other players in the race waiting areas, and sometimes even in global if theres nothing happening.

Papalymo: Plays with Lyse. Tries to tell her she'd have more success in champs if she fed her horses and got some tack with actual stats, but she doesn't listen. Sometimes lets her beat him so she feels good about the race.

Fandaniel: insane. Constantly bugs the game and glitches into locked areas. Brags about it to anyone who will listen.

Magnai: really wants to start a romance RP in global. Never finds anyone who wants to play bc everyone reminds him they're against the game's rules.

Sadu: probably making fun of Magnai in global. Likes to start fights in that chat.

Nero: loves finding glitches and testing exploits. Knows a concerning number of ways to use cheat engine for funny things without being banned. Never actually cheats and uses these things solely for meme purposes. Probably leaks horse coats/models online before release just to watch the chaos.

Cid: Also good at finding bugs, but does so in order to report them to SSO support. Nero hates him reporting all the good bugs.

Ardbert: Has a little friend group club with the the other heros from the first. Doesn't really use social media, they prefer to just use their discord server with each other. All of them train together most afternoons.

Tataru: Her gear closet is perfectly organized. Every horse has an assigned stall. Also writes them backstories. Plans out her star coin saving months in advance and exactly what horses she'll buy in what order. Does not stray from it even if a new one comes out, she'll add it on to the end.

Krile: Another lore nerd, started playing at the same time Alphie did and sometimes reminds him about what he was like as a new player. Loves writing and responding to lore posts. Her and Urianger probably interact online a lot.

Louisoix: Played star stable years ago, was super famous in the community. Quit playing a couple years ago but everyone still talks about him. Others desperately try to be like him, but nobody can fill his shoes in the community.

Forchenault: Writes extensive posts of what he thinks of the game, mostly complaints. Will fight anyone who disagrees. Refuses to meet up with anyone else ingame, nobody actually knows if he even logs on still or just complains. Thinks actually playing every day is a waste of time.

Ashai: Instagram fanboy for zenos and his weirdly dark story. Zenos isn't even famous, he has like 220 followers, but Asahi worships the ground he walks on. Runs a fanpage for him where he just reposts Zenos's screenshots/edits and talks about how great they are. Draws fanart too, but he's a terrible artist. Zenos pretends he doesnt exist. Purposely switched his server to the one Zenos plays on and always keeps an eye out for him.

#yes this is what i do in my free time #ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #star stable #sso

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jade-parcels · 4 years ago

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I just wanted to add onto you tags that 18 and older people hate the younger fans like, 15- fans, and honestly most of us that are actually that age and aren't chronically online also hate the dumbasses from tik tok that are causing problems, and I don't mean it in a 'pick me I'm mature' type of situation but as someone that actually knows how to properly act in fandoms its annoying how easily they destroy everything, why do annoying children have so much power when they don't even have well versed argument? I literally have no idea and at this point lost hope in them actually getting better, it's like the Xiao and venti age discourse that happens every other week, this is honestly so tiring but still love genshin ig

Hate is a strong word, I strongly dislike the annoying younger fans. I am aware that there are plenty of non-annoying young fans! I’m in 2 genshin servers with members ranging from 14-19 and no one in either server is problematic or annoying. I’m good friends with a lot of them!! They’re funny! And they respect the VAs, we all just love the new content!!

The young, chronically online fans are so wrong yet so loud. Tbh, if we let them spew their shit and didn’t give them the attention we do, I feel that they’d simply knock it off. They’re attention seekers, they want to feel important in the fandom so they dig up VAs old tweets, make up all kinds of weird age discourse (“Scaramouche is minor coded!!” HUH) and just cause chaos, looking at other fans for their reaction. If we give them positive reactions to their shit, they’ll continue to be the way they are BUT, if we react negatively they’ll just be louder about their problematic thoughts/actions in order to try and prove you wrong. Either way, it’s a lose lose situation. It’s better to ignore them tbh

It sucks. I used to love scrolling through genshin tik toks!! Now it’s so toxic, I just don’t like being around the young fandom at all :/ thank goodness that genshin tumblr isn’t that bad…knock on wood…

#I appreciate you anon!!#thank you for being decent lmao #interactions!#discourse

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theliterateape · 7 years ago

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Problematic Movies of the '80s | Weird Science (1985)

By Don Hall

It’s interesting that statistics show that kids today aren’t having as much sex as we did “back in my day.” When I was a teenager, I was constantly overwhelmed by the Constant Boner of Young Adulthood. I thought about girls and tits and sex almost to a degree one could call mentally unstable. I was not alone. Most kids in the ’80s were consumed by sex. As an act, as a conquest, as a reward. Somewhere along the line (Hey! Let’s blame technology on the decline in teenage libido!) dudes were more consumed with winning at Fortnite than mastering the Art of the Seduction.

Maybe it’s the far more complicated sexual landscape we face today and all the work required just to let someone know you want to fuck (because that is pervy and rapey and to indicate that you are not primarily interested in someone’s opinion or state of mind or hopes and dreams is to proliferate the culture of objectification and, if I had all of that in my 14-year-old brain, I might’ve decided it wasn’t worth the effort as well…)

No, today, sex has to be the last thing on your mind if you ever hope to have it. Not so in 1985. In 1985, there was a horny, stupid ideal of the perfect woman and the movie Weird Science exemplified it. Given today’s sex robots and unlimited free porn, I’d say we haven’t gone too far away from the concept — using technology to manufacture the sexual partner who does not question, holds no complications, and is universally desired is a booming industry.

What I remember about Weird Science is Bill Paxton as the hysterical bullying Chet, the song, and Kelly LaBrock. While LaBrock wasn’t really my type she was definitely hot. No question.

This is also a John Hughes film. Certainly a fan of The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I was a far bigger fan of Weird Science. Perhaps it was that I identified more with the two nerds with no game than I did with any of the characters in most of Hughes’ films. Perhaps it was the idea of creating a woman who liked me no matter what my flaws had been. It may have to do with the fact that most of Hughes’ protagonists come from wealthy families from the Northshore of Chicago and these two idiots somehow felt less so (despite the million-dollar home Wyatt’s parents own).

In terms of Hughes’ movies and the concept of problematic moments, the dude got it wrong a lot. From Long Duck Dong in Sixteen Candles to Judd Nelson peeking up Molly Ringwald’s skirt and still ending up being her best choice for mating material in The Breakfast Club, Johnny Boy taught the young lads of the ’80s a host of bad lessons whilst cracking us up.

Weird Science Written and Directed by John Hughes 1985

In my experience, there are very few actors who, with their very presence, can sum up an entire archetype without actually doing anything. Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Judi Dench, John Candy. And Anthony Michael Hall. From the second you see he and Ilan Mitchell-Smith in their high school gym shorts standing, watching girls do gymnastics, Hall exudes the very essence of the high school geek. All legs and awkwardness, his mouth hung slightly open most of the time. His is the picture next to the dictionary definition.

Weird Science banks on this as he and Mitchell-Smith enact Hughes’ ’80s high school version of Frankenstein/Mary Poppins. The two boys, Gary and Wyatt, are all desire and disappointment as, on a sleepover watching a colorized version of Frankenstein on TV, Gary gets the idea to create the perfect woman via dial up modem computer. They need “more power” so Wyatt hacks into what appears to be the Pentagon’s servers and this juices up things so that electrical magic happens and Lisa (Kelly LaBrock) appears in sports panties and half shirt amidst the chaos.

“So. What would you little maniacs like to do first?” she purrs.

Lisa takes them on a magic carpet ride to a blues bar on the Southside of Chicago, the mall, and ultimately throws a party at Wyatt’s parents’ house (these kids come from very well-off families!) that includes hundreds of teenagers, a young Robert Downey Jr. as a bully, a nuclear missile and the Australian bad-guy from the original Mad Max. No, this doesn’t even have to pretend to be rooted in the real Evanstonian world of his previous films. This one is pure fantasy.

In the end, as all Mary Poppins-inspired tales must, the boys have gained confidence in themselves (and girlfriends!) and Lisa moves on to coach scores of idiots in exactly the same manner because that’s all that incels need, a hot super model with magic powers to guide them.

Problematic moments & themes

While I’m uncertain that Gary and Wyatt learn to not fetishize and objectify women (let alone create one using 1980s Max Headroom graphics) the fact that Lisa is imbued with genius level intellect — I mean, they scanned in a picture of Einstein when building her! — and is in control of everything from the moment she appears. In terms of agency, she never relents an iota of it throughout. She takes no shit from anyone.

Sure, she begins the process of having sex with 15-year-old Wyatt but we immediately find out that he passed out and no sex was had. Lisa, despite being the Frankenstein’s Monster, is completely in charge and badass. In essence, the boys really did create the perfect woman — beautiful, confident, intelligent and no one’s object.

Chet (Bill Paxton) is problematic in that he loves to throw the word “faggot” around but he ultimately gets owned and punished for being such a turd, if not specifically for being a raging homophobe.

Fortunately, Hughes hires a whole room full of black actors for Weird Science. Unfortunately, they all play characters named Bar Patron, Guy at Table and Bartender.

The scene in the blues bar is funny in that fish-out-of-water sort of way and the black men are never treated as anything but masters of their domain. If Gary hadn’t gotten drunk and then done a skinny white kid’s version of a pimp-hat wearing black caricature for far too long, it wouldn’t even raise a flag on the play. Admittedly, I found his cartoonish impression of a black man to be pretty offensive. All he needed was some blackface makeup and he’d be Kingfish from Amos and Andy.

Did it hold up?

Weird Science is problematic but not for the reasons I thought it would be. In the lens of 2018, the feminist perspective is strong given that the initial impulse to create is small and objectifying but the creation herself is an ideal of feminine strength and power. The blues bar is pretty rough when we add the kaleidoscope of diversity on top.

Given that Hughes wrote the screenplay in two days, it’s amazing it isn’t far more troubling and, more importantly, the movie is still funny. The avatar of uncool that was Anthony Michael Hall in his teenage heyday steeps this goofy ass Frankenstein story with too many hysterical throwaways and moments at the expense of the rich, white kid to completely dismiss this as crap.

And the Thomas Dolby title song is pure pop culture genius, as sticky and memorable as almost any movie song ever written.

Overall

Scale of 1 to 10 1 = Classic 10 = Burn all VHS copies of it

Weird Science gets a 4

Next Up: Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

#Problematic Movies of the ’80s #Weird Science

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appleflavoredkitkats · 5 years ago

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okay, i’m not entirely sure if i got all the facts right, but this is what i remembered so far:

dream trades away one of tommy’s discs and gives it to skeppy who, to this day, still possesses the disc.

in one stream of tommy’s, he accidentally kills dream with his railroad system, using his minecart to run over dream, instantly killing him. consequently, tommy would obviously steal all of dream’s belongings, and tubbo hides dream’s op sword away from him. some fights and chaos ensues, mostly of tommy and tubbo killing skeppy and dream.

eventually, wilbur gets on and demands tommy returns the stuff to dream. tommy, obviously not going to do any trade for free, agrees that he will trade the stuff back if he gets dream’s horse’s leather named “Spirit”. dream agrees, but tubbo and tommy lie that they don’t have the sword with them, claiming that it despawned (i believe it was in tubbo’s enderchest?). dream then goes on a hunt to find his sword while tubbo and tommy make a plan to get his disc back from dream.

tommy first offers the leather to skeppy who declined the request. then, tommy and tubbo plan to kill dream to gain the disc that is still with him using the minecart tactic again. didn’t work, and tubbo and tommy die again in the process. eventually, they make some kind of deal with sapnap to kill dream in the hopes that they’ll gain the disc when he dies, but surprise surprise, dream hid away the disc before sapnap betrayed him.

eventually, sapnap betrays tommy and tubbo instead and murders tommy and tubbo because dream was “offering him more money”.

then, here’s where stuff gets real fuzzy because i was actually confused by majority of the damn trades in the stream where tommy got one of his discs back. he was on with jack, tubbo, and niki i believe, and they basically outsmarted dream. plan was to trade the Spirit, mars, beckerson, and dream’s sword for the disc. of course, this is tommy we’re talking about, and he wouldn’t do some sort of agreement without cheating. plan was to rename the real spirit to have some sort of misspelling in its name and to name a fake leather to be the real spirit. i don’t think they really misspelled the real spirit but tommy did hide it in a chest under his base’s floor. when the trading began, he gave the fake spirit with VERY good acting, but he did give away the legit mars, beckerson, and sword. eventually, tommy got his real disc back from dream.

dream quits the server after and tommy celebrates, not realizing dream was watching his stream. eventually, dream returns VERY passive aggressively, and actually “kills” tubbo’s bee box with his three bees. people claim this was merely fake as if there were real bees inside, the bees would’ve escaped, but we aren’t sure yet. dream then hangs the fake spirit on tommy’s wall and types “congratulations on your “win”” and leaves for real.

(one more thing, i think before the whole trade thing, tommy tried to plan getting the disc back by kidnapping george? he tried messaging and calling george but he did not reply, but the chat said he was watching. they tried it with sapnap and dream but they didn’t pick up as well.)

eventually, church prime shit happens-- idk if it actually adds to the smp war but it was pretty funny. basically, dream makes a comment that he is jesus, and they said that them advertising twitch prime was kind of similar to missionaries preaching about their religion, and boom, church prime.

then, in one stream that i haven’t watched yet, sapnap just went berserk and decided to just have a killing spree wherein he killed tommy’s least favorite cow harold and niki’s (and technically fundy’s) fox fungi. tommy eventually hears word of his killing spree and decides to grief sapnap’s house. eventually, he spills the beans to niki, and niki got REALLY emotional. she asked tommy to help her get revenge because, according to her, “that fox was everything to me”.

tommy eventually does get into a call with niki and sapnap wherein niki kind of gets a half-assed apology from sapnap, and that was almost the end of that UNTIL fundy returns to the server. fundy actually didn’t know what happened at first until his chat told him that fungi died. he didn’t believe them at first until he finds fungi’s grave and immediately calls niki.

niki tells him everything and fundy says that they should take revenge by trying to kill mars and beckerson. they eventually encounter dream who does not allow mars and beckerson to be “pet” by fundy but dream does show them that sapnap has some pets in a house somewhere. dream tells them that some of the dogs and foxes there are sapnap’s, and niki and fundy aim to kill one of them. they weren’t sure who to kill at first because they didn’t want to involve george in this (since he owns some of the pets) until dream chatted that skechers was sapnap’s fox. a decision has been made and fundy gives niki a stone pickaxe to use to kill skechers. niki fearfully kills skechers with two hits from the pickaxe and runs.

niki was quite emotional doing this but she immediately goes back home and tries to hide any valuables away before sapnap could do anything back to them. she hides the three diamonds wilbur gave her in an enderchest and that’s the end to the drama on niki and fundy’s end. i think they do renovate fungi’s grave, but i didn’t stick to the stream long enough to know.

lastly, in george’s most recent smp stream, dream shows sapnap that he is missing one of his foxes. sapnap actually goes bonkers as he runs immediately towards niki’s house, saying “skechers was more important than their dumb fox”. he then proceeds to kill three of niki’s chickens, not caring that they were important to her, and then they travelled to fundy’s place to kill his enderman. sapnap killed the enderman unhesitantly, literally shouting “OH YES” twice as he did it. sapnap was also planning to kill tommy’s most beloved cow henry but he wasn’t able to find it in time, which is why he went for fundy instead.

then, dream and sapnap begin hiding the rest of their pets into an unknown location. the viewers only got to see george’s perspective who didn’t show where the rest were. george remains neutral in this war but with tommy still planning to kidnap him, i don’t know how the situation’s gonna pan out.

more minor stuff that happens is tommy meeting dream’s mom, tommy building the vikkstar tower, karl from mrbeast visiting, them creating “the holy land” where no one’s allowed to kill anyone in, quackity’s game show, george in a suit for a money game dream made, tommy almost accidentally leaking dream’s phone number, and some more i don’t remember, but they aren’t really important to the main smp war plot.

Can somebody like - give me a list of events in the dream smp since the lmanburg war ended?? I wanna keep up but I’m in college and it’s hard to watch streams regularly. Sapnap killed nikkis fox?? That’s the only thing I know please help

#i joined the fandom two weeks ago and have been hyperfocusing on their streams yes #mcyt #long post

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ryanssecurityengineering · 6 years ago

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Week 5 Notes and Reflection

REFLECTION

Interesting lecture. Richard really likes to talk about WEP!! Perhaps its in the exam?

I find the idea of hashing really interesting. I was always wondering what a digital signature was and how it works when you sign something in Adobe Acrobat - and why you can’t change the document after you sign it! Now I understand why, so that’s pretty cool!

Don’t fully understand why MD5 is bad for password storage - does it matter if someone figures out a collision for a password attack?

NOTES

Motto: “Don’t roll your own”

Last weeks motto: “Every contact leaves a trace”

Binary Search - Apparently someone published an implementation of binary search and they guy was certain it was right, but years later discovered an integer overflow bug. If binary search is so hard to implement, gg security. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. A lot of time has gone into developing things,you probably can’t do it better than history.

Phone Phreaking - Playing around the tones in the telephone line, reversing engineering. Get free phone call.

CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROTOCOLS

WEP Wireless Security

With WiFi, someone who is a KM away could tap into your network. This is unlike Ethernet network, where the attacker needs physical access. WEP had so many vulnerabilities it was really funny. Once people discovered it was flawed, people still kept using it!!!

How it works - We are streaming the bits serially between the devices. The bits are broadcast everywhere. Laptops need to know which bits are there bits. Communication is done through frames, with the MAC address appended to the beginning. We need to encrypt this.

Both sender and receive have a random number generator. The number is XOR with the data. The property of XOR is associative - can be done in any order. XOR also gives nice psuedo-randomness. The encrypted data is sent to the receiver, he XOR it, then he gets the plain bit string back.

The hack was done using TCP/IP packets. TCP/IP has header etc. The IP packet wrapped around the TCP packet has the source/destination IP address. Hence we know which part of the encrypted string is the header etc. What is interesting is that there is nothing stopping you intercepting the packet and sending your own packet - the machines are responsible for checking this.

How to hack - I take the packet, retransmit by sending the packet to the router but with the destination address to my computer. Then the router will decrypt it, and send it to you!!

The problem is that the data and control are mixed together. Mixing data and control might enable hackers to control the system.

Hack a phone - phones send tones around the PSTN to control things. You can just do a replay attack. E.g. get free phone call.

Hashing

Hashing is good for integrity.

History of hashing - MD5 is “broken” - someone has worked out a way to get an undesirable property from the protocol faster than brute force. E.g. for MD5 if it is 56 bits, to find a preimage it should take 55 bits of security on average. For MD5, and many other protocols, find a small break in the protocol, and over the time like a volcano it goes bang bang bang and breaks. As each year went by, it turns out the time to break it become smaller and smaller.

SHA-0 - NSA came up with a better hashing algorithm. However it was bad so they came up with SHA-1. Just recently SHA-3 has been recently approved.

Data breaches - Few data breaches last year where hackers got the password file with the hashes. A ridiculous number were in MD5!

In early 2000s there was a bit of theory about hacking SHA-1. Recently found a collision.

Broken hash - A way of getting info out of the hash without pure brute-forcing. If a hash can be broken in time less than the brute-forcing time, then it is considered broken.

Merkle-Damgard Construction

MAC - Gives us Authentication and Integrity. MAC is basically a hash of the key and the data. h(key|data). E.g. append shared secret “sausageP” to your strings then hash.

Length extension attack - Take the existing message, with the hash. Add stuff the end of the message, continue the hashing process for the next block, since hashing is done on a block by block basis like a state machine. The solution is to add the password to the end, but still breakable.

Digital Signatures - Need a signature on a document to ensure the document is not tampered with.

Take the original document, encrypt with your private key.

If people can decrypt the doc with your public key, must have been from you!

However instead of encrypting the document itself, we encrypt the hash of the original document, it is shorter.

Collision Attacks with Signed Documents - If we can figure out two documents with the same hash, then on the fake document we can use your original signature and forge the fake document.

Make fake document and original document.

Keep trying to modify the original document until its hash matches the fake document. E.g. add whitespaces

Give the original document to the person and they sign it.

By doing this, they are also accidentally signing the fake document at the same time!!

Data Breaches - Ashley Madison data breach, LinkedIN MD5 Breach

Salted Hashed Passwords

A table makes it easy to crack passwords, as commonly used passwords would hash to the same password. So if a common password is sausage and 1000 people used it, by cracking sausage once you crack all the 1000 passwords.

If we add a salt (a phrase) to each password, and each person has a different salt, then even if two people use the same password, the combination of “sausage” + salt1 and “sausage” + salt2 would result in different hash value for each. We can store the salt in plaintext in the password file.

So in this case if they want to crack some passwords they have to go through each person, and append the salt and then attempt their brute force or dictionary attack.

Doesn’t stop the use of rainbow table, but increases the complexity. Rainbow tables make unsalted MD5 or SHA0 passwords easy to break.

Key Stretching Hashes

Services like Bcrypt are slow algorithms. Although you might have a 1 second slowdown for the user, the amount of time for a hacker to try to crack lots of passwords increases.

Online & Offline attack - Online attack is trying to login to the website, offline attack is when you have the hashed passwords and can easily try crack them offline.

NIST Password Guidelines - read them!

Moore's Law. (n.) Moore's Law is the observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future.

An initialization vector (IV) is an arbitrary number that can be used along with a secret key for data encryption. This number, also called a nonce, is employed only one time in any session.

Attacks on MD5

A. Sotirov M. Stevens J. Appelbaum Arjen K. Lenstra

Flame malware in 2012

AbstractPresented at the 25th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin on December 30, 2008. We have identified a vulnerability in the Internet Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) used to issue digital certificates for secure websites. As a proof of concept we executed a practical attack scenario and successfully created a rogue Certification Authority (CA) certificate trusted by all common web browsers. This certificate allows us to impersonate any website on the Internet, including banking and e-commerce sites secured using the HTTPS protocol. Our attack takes advantage of a weakness in the MD5 cryptographic hash function that allows the construction of different messages with the same MD5 hash. This is known as an MD5 "collision". Previous work on MD5 collisions between 2004 and 2007 showed that the use of this hash function in digital signatures can lead to theoretical attack scenarios. Our current work proves that at least one attack scenario can be exploited in practice, thus exposing the security infrastructure of the web to realistic threats. This successful proof of concept shows that the certificate validation performed by browsers can be subverted and malicious attackers might be able to monitor or tamper with data sent to secure websites. Banking and e-commerce sites are particularly at risk because of the high value of the information secured with HTTPS on those sites. With a rogue CA certificate, attackers would be able to execute practically undetectable phishing attacks against such sites. The infrastructure of Certification Authorities is meant to prevent exactly this type of attack. Our work shows that known weaknesses in the MD5 hash function can be exploited in realistic attack, due to the fact that even after years of warnings about the lack of security of MD5, some root CAs are still using this broken hash function.

The program is being used for targeted cyber espionage in Middle Eastern countries.

Flame was signed with a fraudulent certificate purportedly from the Microsoft Enforced Licensing Intermediate PCA certificate authority.[15] The malware authors identified a Microsoft Terminal Server Licensing Service certificate that inadvertently was enabled for code signing and that still used the weak MD5 hashing algorithm, then produced a counterfeit copy of the certificate that they used to sign some components of the malware to make them appear to have originated from Microsoft. - wikipedia

OPERATIONAL SECURITY EXTENDED LECTURE

Military definition: How they protect info that could be used by the enemy against them, in order to create a safe environment.

Origins - US military tradition of communicating in plain language, field commanders ignored encryption instructions or used bad encryptions.

When to OPSEC - 24/7.

Snowden on Opsec - If the impact of your threat model is too high, consider alternatives. Because sometimes you can’t always keep something secret, but you can plan your response.

The extends to which you you go protect your information and the tools you use will be different depending on the situation.

There’s a counter to every attack, so instead of taking every possible measure to mitigate risk, just think about simple.

How to OPSEC? - If you don’t need to share info, don’t. If you do something you don’t want people to know about, ensure it can’t be traced back to you. Avoid bringing attention to yourself. Very hard to pull off, and tradeoffs must be made.

Avoid sharing info - Only share info on a need-to-know basis. Beware social media, metadata. Minimise indicators - expensive clothes, carrying tools. No info is still information! Hard to strike the right balance.

Keep your identity secret - Remain anonymous or set up a false identity to hide your tracks e.g. VPN. False identities are difficult to create and maintain, but are often useful. Never contaminate, leaking info from one identity to another.

Be forgettable - Blend in with everyone else. If you stand out, you will be remembered and monitored.

Case Studies

Promotion - Wife left facebook post of MI6 chief-to-be public.

Harvard Bomb threat - Bomb hoax, but person failed as he was traceable - IP header, campus wifi.

Good OPSEC - Good OPSEC by NSA. Assange and Snowden.

PASSWORDS EXTENDED LECTURE

Passwords are WEAK

Some statistics:

Full of meaning - 47% of passwords based on a name, 42% based on significant dates or numbers, such as birthdays, 26% based on pets.

Personal Info Attack - Sally Smith Facebook. Kali Linux, make a password dictionary, Hashcat, rainbow tables.

Why are passwords bad? - Hard to remember good passwords, hard to type good passwords, complicated rules for generation, regular password renewal creates user generated patterns, little incentive to create unique passwords (low probability, high impact)

How to not store passwords - Hash them, not plain text!

Bad hashing - Rainbow tables are designed to match with passwords. project-rainbowcrack.com/table.htm Encoding the same string using the MD5 algorithm will always result in the same 128-bbit hash output.

This also applies to SHA128, etc.

Add Salt to Passwords - so hash for same password not always the same

Best Practices - use sCrypt/bCrypt, use salted hash, salts should be long, keep on updating and improving, don’t store password hints.

Password Generation - 4 unrelated words concatenate together creates enough entropy so it is difficult to hack. Long and wacky lexicon but good syntax to make it hard for an Ai to generate.

New policy - Allow long passwords, use multi-factor, don’t force regular password changes, limit failed the number of login attempts.

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writteninlucidink · 8 years ago

Text

Discord Rules

The Discord chat is made with two separate servers which includes the Mun Hub and the RP server. This server was made exclusively for roleplayers, and you will need a Tumblr RP blog to join. If you do not intend to RP with us please do not join as RP is the primary purpose of the server. If you are not sure about RPing on Discord or if you’ll be any good- that’s okay! Give it a try, you’ve nothing to lose and hopefully you’ll have fun! We’re just trying to avoid non-RPers joining just for the other fun stuff (movie nights, art streams, game fun) we’ve got on the server. On the Mun Hub, where all of the announcements are made, mun can discuss all sorts of things that may or may not relate to RP, share silly images and videos, get art feedback, and ask potential partners to rp with them. and even have a place to vent. Unless there is an event, mun need to be a part of the mun server before they can join the RP server. The RP server is where all the roleplaying happens, and things like These rules were created to add sense of order and to keep both servers from going to chaos. This is written to best protect the RPers and their interests as well as avoid past problems that have been encountered in other RP chats. Currently joining is closed but subscribe to this blog to be notified when it is open again. If a friend who is on the server invited you, please have the existing member get in touch with the mods.

1. No NSFW chat! Keep it PG 13. No torture, self harm, or suicide: If you feel the need to RP these themes take it to Tumblr or another server- not here. There may be fighting in battles both mun are okay with in the "Over the Line" Rp room on Patchwork. 2. No God Modding. If you would like to be a DM / Run a campaign plot please talk to the Mods. 3. Talk to the mun. Talk to the mod. If you are planning to do something involving someone else's character and are not the DM, ask the mun privately first. If you are in a DMed game, some actions will need the DM's permission or be verified through dice rolls first. 4. Read the Pinned Messages before chatting in a room. Some rooms have information pertinant to them, such as flair use, that you should be aware of before posting. 5. Your character should act ONLY with their own knowledge and motivation. Things the mun is privy to the muse would not know unless they learn in plot. 6. No muns allowed in the RP rooms! This wildly destroys continuity and plot. Muses may appear in OOC chat for crack interaction, but be respectful of the muns. Mun are responsible for their muses actions in the mun rooms- if they can't behave don't bring them. 7. No personal life stress allowed on the RP server! We have an entire server dedicated to mun things, please don't bring it to the RP server. https://discordapp.com/invite/STpRm9 8. No breaking the fourth wall without prior mod approval. Things like fourth wall breaking and psychic abilities should be discussed with the Mods or campaign DM. 9. You may start with only one muse. After one month you may ask the mods if you can add a second muse. If you play multiple muses please make a separate discord account for each secondary muse as the locations/rooms you are allowed in are based on who that muse is. 10. Anyone who is kicked will be banned for a time determined by the mods based on if you have been problematic before and how bad what you did was. 11. Abuse of other members will not be tolerated IC or OOC. You are responsible for what your muse does, and if you or your muse intentionally harasses or abuses someone else you will be banned. If someone is making you uncomfortable you should try talking to them privately first, then talk to the mods. 12. Do not bash mutuals/fellow RPers! Talking badly about someone is genuinely different than asking for help with problems you are having with someone. If you're not sure if what you're going to say is okay, ask yourself, "Would I post this if they could see this chat/screenshot?" If not, don't say it. If you are having problems with another member talk to the mods rather than starting drama in the chat. 13. In the mun server, change your nickname to what you would like to be called. In the RP server, change your nickname to your muse's name and put your Tumblr name after that in brackets. I.e. Lucida [askLucida] Next add your muse, blog, and photo to the introductions room. That will let us know you read the rules and the mods will give you permission to access the other rooms once we see it. Be patient if the mods are not online. Everyone who joins the RP server will start as a newbie and have limited access as a chance to get to know others, and not be overwhelmed by many rooms and unknown muses at once. If you see a new muse has joined, be sure to welcome them in the newbie room! 14. If you want to interact, be active about it! If you wait for others to initiate interaction with you we won't know you are online. Many people stay signed in to Discord even while not on their computer. Try starting an RP by saying that you walk into the room and greet whoever is RPing, or if no one is RPing say what your character is doing every so often ("My muser walks into the room and looks to see who is here." "My muse turns on the radio and frowns at the song playing.") You can also say in the Out of Character chat room on Patchwork you're on and would like to RP to see if anyone else is interested in RPing. 15. No chat spamming or Zalgo text! If you want to share memes and play with bots, there's a room on the Sister Server for that. A few pics or videos that have to do with current conversation is fine in tss general chat, just don't overdo it.(edited)

Formatting:

On discord you can format using these commands: *For italic, * *For bold

, * * *For bold italic, __ For underline, ~ ~For strikethrough. ```For a box ``For a small box (Be sure to put these marks before and after what is typed)

Actions:

Some of us like to type using /me to indicate an action, while others of us will use storybook writing to indicate the actions a character takes. Psychic/Hivemind: If a character is speaking psychically to another [It will appear like this.] You should address who you are speaking to the first time you use these so the other mun know if their muse can hear this or not. {A bracket like this} Is the Hedge Hivemind, anyone in the Hivemind can hear this unless otherwise indicated. Text: Text messages on cellphones that can only be seen by that character (can also be sent in private chat so other characters and mun do not know) << Text>> Character speech: Some of us will use “quotes” to indicate what a character is saying, others will use a * before speech, still others simply type as if their character is the one speaking into the text box. These are all allowable writing styles since we all write differently. Additionally strikeout text can be used for funny things that your character thought or wanted to say but didn’t actually. It may also give minor contextual clues such as something like, “I’m fine” he lied if you want the other mun to know it is a lie but not necessarily the characters. Whispers: Whispers can be indicated by [these brackets] Out of Character: Things such as reactions or additional context should be written like //this or strikeout for additional comments.

Bold and Italic use is considered stylistic and can be used in combination for emphasis. Some will use it to differentiate when an NPC is talking vs their main character.To indicate game mechanics related things such as if you describe an area players have just entered, or are saying what your dice rolls are for

use a box like this.

This can be done using the GRAVE symbol ```(not the apostrophe) which is to the left of the number 1 on your numpad and should be typed three times in a row before and after what is said to put it in a box.(edited)

Notifications! By default @ everyone is available only to admins to prevent abuse. However, you can request an admin add you to one of these groups if you would like to be notified of events pertaining to that classification. All mentions will be made in the Mun server. The currently available titles are: RpTime: You'll be notified whenever an ongoing game open to everyone is starting (Patchwork) StreamTime: You'll be notified whenever anyone is having a movie or art stream (Mun Hub) GameTime: Whenever someone is starting a game like Cards Against Humanity or other games open to everyone you'll receive a notification (Mun Hub) If you would like to be PMed whenever your username is mentioned type" `pmmentions on " in the ooc_chat and Spoopy will message you. Please do not abuse these group notifications; ask in chat first if people are interested, and if at least two other people are you can send a group notification letting others know there is interest in RPing. Don't send out more than one a day AT THE MOST or this gets tiresome. This may be reduced/removed if it becomes a problem.

#Do not reblog

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thepepperbar · 8 years ago

Text

Discord Rules

1. No NSFW chat! Keep it PG 13. No torture, self harm, or suicide: If you feel the need to RP these themes take it to Tumblr or another server- not here. There may be fighting in battles both mun are okay with in the "Over the Line" Rp room on Patchwork. 2. No God Modding. If you would like to be a DM / Run a campaign plot please talk to the Mods. 3. Talk to the mun. Talk to the mod. If you are planning to do something involving someone else's character and are not the DM, ask the mun privately first. If you are in a DMed game, some actions will need the DM's permission or be verified through dice rolls first. 4. Read the Pinned Messages before chatting in a room. Some rooms have information pertinant to them, such as flair use, that you should be aware of before posting. 5. Your character should act ONLY with their own knowledge and motivation. Things the mun is privy to the muse would not know unless they learn in plot. 6. No muns allowed in the RP rooms! This wildly destroys continuity and plot. Muses may appear in OOC chat for crack interaction, but be respectful of the muns. Mun are responsible for their muses actions in the mun rooms- if they can't behave don't bring them. 7. No personal life stress allowed on the RP server! We have an entire server dedicated to mun things, please don't bring it to the RP server. If you have read the rules you can join the server here. 8. No breaking the fourth wall without prior mod approval. Things like fourth wall breaking and psychic abilities should be discussed with the Mods or campaign DM. 9. You may start with only one muse. After one month you may ask the mods if you can add a second muse. If you play multiple muses please make a separate discord account for each secondary muse as the locations/rooms you are allowed in are based on who that muse is. 10. Anyone who is kicked will be banned for a time determined by the mods based on if you have been problematic before and how bad what you did was. 11. Abuse of other members will not be tolerated IC or OOC. You are responsible for what your muse does, and if you or your muse intentionally harasses or abuses someone else you will be banned. If someone is making you uncomfortable you should try talking to them privately first, then talk to the mods. 12. Do not bash mutuals/fellow RPers! Talking badly about someone is genuinely different than asking for help with problems you are having with someone. If you're not sure if what you're going to say is okay, ask yourself, "Would I post this if they could see this chat/screenshot?" If not, don't say it. If you are having problems with another member talk to the mods rather than starting drama in the chat. 13. In the mun server, change your nickname to what you would like to be called. In the RP server, change your nickname to your muse's name and put your Tumblr name after that in brackets. I.e. Lucida [askLucida] Next add your muse, blog, and photo to the introductions room. That will let us know you read the rules and the mods will give you permission to access the other rooms once we see it. Be patient if the mods are not online. Everyone who joins the RP server will start as a newbie and have limited access as a chance to get to know others, and not be overwhelmed by many rooms and unknown muses at once. If you see a new muse has joined, be sure to welcome them in the newbie room! 14. If you want to interact, be active about it! If you wait for others to initiate interaction with you we won't know you are online. Many people stay signed in to Discord even while not on their computer. Try starting an RP by saying that you walk into the room and greet whoever is RPing, or if no one is RPing say what your character is doing every so often ("My muser walks into the room and looks to see who is here." "My muse turns on the radio and frowns at the song playing.") You can also say in the Out of Character chat room on Patchwork you're on and would like to RP to see if anyone else is interested in RPing. 15. No chat spamming or Zalgo text! If you want to share memes and play with bots, there's a room on the Sister Server for that. A few pics or videos that have to do with current conversation is fine in tss general chat, just don't overdo it.(edited)

Formatting:

On discord you can format using these commands: *For italic, * *For bold

, * * *For bold italic, __ For underline, ~ ~For strikethrough. ```For a box ``For a small box (Be sure to put these marks before and after what is typed)

Actions:

use a box like this.

Secret Locations Rolls FloweRoll: Are you a fan of flowey and want to discuss things related to him specifically? @ mention Pug in the chat or private message them to ask to be added to this group as are the head mun for this secret discussion room. ParanormRoll: This secret room is for people interested in discussing paranormal or otherworldly things- like ghosts, tulpa, evps, or anything relating to paranormal can among other people interested in it. Ask @Avid privately if you'd like to be added to this group. Note, this formerly public room has been moved to a private room so that those who are intersted in this topic feel more comfortable discussing it, since it is only seen by those also interested in it and will be less likely to judge or react badly.

If you would like to be PMed whenever your username is mentioned type" `pmmentions on " in the ooc_chat and Spoopy will message you. Please do not abuse these group notifications; ask in chat first if people are interested, and if at least two other people are you can send a group notification letting others know there is interest in RPing. Don't send out more than one a day AT THE MOST or this gets tiresome. This may be reduced/removed if it becomes a problem.

#rules #discord #pepperbar #do not reblog

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jae-bummer · 8 years ago

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Happy Flight Log

Request: Omg I love your Turn This Car Around fic so much! Do you think you could do something similar like dad JB and mom Jinyoung taking the "kids" to a fancy restaurant? They'd probably cause so much chaos xD

If you’re interested, you can click HERE to read Turn This Car Around

Member: ALL of the Got7 boys

Type: Fluff/comedy

“Hello, reservation for Park,” Jinyoung nodded, giving the hostess a kind smile.

The hostess looked up, furrowing her brows as she focused on his face. She looked directly over his shoulder to scrutinize the group of men idling around behind him. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to clarify. We have several Parks on our reservation list.”

“Park Jinyoung,” he said patiently.

The hostess scanned down the list of names she had situated on her small clipboard. “Party of seven?”

“Yes,” Jackson grinned, answering for Jinyoung before he had the chance to speak. “I guess you could say we’ve...got7?”

The hostess looked at Jackson with lifted brows and pursed lips. “Cool, follow me.”

“Yah, that was funny, wasn’t I funny?” Jackson whined, looking around to his members.

“I thought it was funny,” BamBam nodded with a small shrug. The other members exchanged glances, making a silent pact to avoid hurting Jackson’s feelings.

The boys followed Jinyoung and the hostess in single file, navigating past couples and families, dressed in formal attire.

“Do they have dessert?” Youngjae asked, plopping into the seat the hostess had pulled out for Jinyoung.

“Worry about your dinner before you start searching for dessert,” Jinyoung sighed, sitting in the seat beside him instead.

“But I’ll worry all through dinner, wondering if they have dessert,” Youngjae gasped with wide eyes. “How can you expect me to enjoy my meal?”

“He has a point hyung,” Yugyeom nodded with a grim smile.

“I want fries,” Mark sighed, closing his menu as soon as it was handed to him and allowing it to plop onto the table.

“This isn’t that type of restaurant,” Jaebum sighed, eying over his own menu.

“It’s not that type of restaurant?” Mark asked, lifting a brow. “But it is the type of restaurant to hand out children’s menus with crayons?”

“There’s fries on my menu.” Youngjae muttered, looking up briefly from his small pack of crayons.

Mark lifted his brows as he looked at Jaebum, challenging the leader. Jaebum’s lips formed a straight line as he cut Mark with an icy glare.

“Why does Youngjae get a menu he can color?” Jackson grumbled, flipping through his. “I wasn’t given that option.”

“You can ask,” Yugyeom nodded. “I wouldn’t mind one myself to be honest...”

“No one is asking for a children’s menu,” Jinyoung hissed. “Youngjae, how did you get that in the first place?”

“She just gave it to me,” Youngjae shrugged, coloring what appeared to be a talking meatball.

“Hello gentleman,” a young woman cooed, appearing from seemingly no where. “I’m-”

“Gentleman, I see no gentleman here,” Jackson interrupted with an awkward giggle.

The waitress exchanged an empathetic glance with Jinyoung before continuing. “I’m Jisoo and I’ll be your server for the evening.”

“Sorry,” Jackson groaned beneath his breath. “Aren’t I funny?”

Yugyeom sighed and placed a comforting hand on Jackson’s shoulder. He gave it a gentle pat before directing his attention to the server again.

“What can I get you all to drink?” she asked, looking up expectantly.

“I’ll have a glass of wine,” Jinyoung nodded. “Preferably a Sherry if you have it. It’s been a long week.”

“I’ll have a somaek,” JB nodded. “As I’d prefer not to remember this week at all.”

Jinyoung furrowed his brows before looking to the leader of the group. “Well who’ll drive home if you also plan to drink?”

“I can drive!” BamBam gasped, looking carefully to his hyungs. “I’ve been practicing and-”

“I’ll have a coca cola,” JB sighed, rubbing his temples.

BamBam who was already mid sentence shut his mouth and sunk down in his seat, crossing his arms with a pout.

“The rest of them will have colas as well,” Jinyoung nodded, scrutinizing the menu before him.

“Why do I have to have a cola?” Jackson asked, placing a hand on his chest. “Maybe I wanted a tea, or a water?”

“Fine Jackson, what do you want to drink?” Jinyoung hissed through barred teeth.

“I’ll have a cola,” Jackson nodded promptly, looking down to his menu. Jinyoung closed his eyes and lifted his fingers to aggressively rub his temples.

“Actually, if it’s not too much trouble, I would prefer an apple juice if you have it,” Youngjae nodded.

The waitress smiled, sending a gentle look toward Youngjae as she scribbled into her notepad. “I’ll be right out with those.”

As soon as the server had turned and wandered far enough out of earshot, Jinyoung slapped his menu on the table loud enough to make both BamBam and Jackson jump. “Look, do you all realize why we’re here today?”

Each member looked around at each other expectantly, but none of them could seem to find the reason.

“To celebrate our new album,” Mark muttered, his voice completely in monotone.

“Yes, thank you Mark,” Jinyoung nodded, eying the other members with a frustrated expression. “We’re here to celebrate the final part of our Flight Log series. I know we haven’t been out to a meal together in some time, but surely you all remember how to act like adults.”

“Not to point out the obvious, but-” BamBam began, but was promptly cut off.

“You leave Youngjae and his menu alone,” Jaebum grumbled, giving Youngjae a soft hair ruffle. The younger man looked up, lost in his own thoughts as he surveyed the members. He smiled warmly as JB’s hand fluffed his hair and looked back down to his coloring.

BamBam rolled his eyes before looking back to Jinyoung.

“Hey, look,” Yugyeom hiccuped, smacking BamBam on the arm. He had taken out the chopsticks from his folded napkin and inserted them into his mouth, wielding them as if they were large tusks. “I’m a walrus.”

BamBam giggled, immediately turning to his utensils folded in the fabric of his napkin.

“No, stop it,” Jinyoung hissed, giving his best death glare from across the table. Both Yugyeom and BamBam froze, chopsticks in midair. “This is exactly what I was talking about!”

“I don’t think they gave me chopsticks...” Jackson grumbled, poking around in the folds of his napkin. “I deserve chopsticks, don’t I? What’s with this place?”

“They’re right-” Mark began, pointing toward Jackson’s wrist.

“Oh, they’re right here!” Jackson interrupted proudly. “I’ve found them.”

“Yes, very good Jackson,” JB nodded, his eyes still firmly planted on his menu. “Hmm...I wonder if I can get extra noodles with that...”

“I beg of you all, could you please try to be on your best behavior. I just want to have a nice group dinner for once. Can you do that for me?” Jinyoung sighed.

“Alright, we have five colas,” the server hummed, reappearing again. She floated around the table, tray in hand, and placed the sodas accordingly. “We have one glass of sherry, and an apple juice.”

“Ah, thank you,” Youngjae nodded, sipping from his cup as soon as it was passed to him. The cup sported a lid and the same meatball character he had been coloring earlier. BamBam looked on with his mouth slightly ajar, and shook his head.

“Alright, do you all know what you would like to eat this evening?” the waitress smiled.

“I believe I’ll have the Australian filet mignon with the grilled scallops and baked potato,” Jaebum smiled with a grin.

“Same,” BamBam nodded, handing off his menu.

“Same?” Jinyoung gasped. “Do you have any idea how much that is?”

“Well why does Jaebum hyung get to have it and not me?” BamBam whined. JB clicked his teeth and turned to look toward the younger boy with a penetrating gaze.

“Oh no,” Yugyeom whispered with wide eyes. “Just leave it alone man, it’s not worth it.”

BamBam stuck out his lower lip and dropped his brows. “The grilled chicken breast with swiss cheese then...”

“Now this chicken breast,” Jackson began, cutting Yugyeom off as soon as his mouth opened. “It says that there is melted swiss cheese, now is there any way to add more cheese?”

“It’s quite an adequate amount of cheese sir,” the waitress nodded. “Is that what you would like as well?”

“But what if I wanted more cheese?” Jackson asked again, eying her carefully.

“Jackson, she’s saying it’s a lot of damn cheese,” Jinyoung hissed. “Is that what you want?”

“No, I’ll have the Chinese vegetables,” Jackson nodded. “If you could just put a little bit of that melty cheese in it, that would be perfect. Thank you.”

Jinyoung let out an audible groan as he stared at Jackson.

“Hyung,” Yugyeom whispered. ‘Hyung, did you mean to do that out loud?”

Jinyoung shifted his stare from Jackson to Yugyeom, unblinking as he spoke. “I’ll have the New York sirloin with broccoli please. Mark?”

“Wait, but I haven’t order-” Yugyeom stuttered, looking around with wide eyes.

“Mark,” Jinyoung repeated louder.

“French fried potatoes,” Mark nodded.

“Do you have dessert here?” Youngjae asked, looking up inquisitively at the waitress.

“Oh yes,” she nodded. “Cheese cake, tiramisu, and fresh fruit.”

“Funny,” Youngjae laughed breathily as he pointed up at her. “I thought you just said fruit was featured as a dessert. Lady with a sense of humor.”

“Well, it is on the-” she began, but Youngjae had looked down at his menu again.

“I’ll have the macaroni and cheese,” Youngjae nodded firmly. “We’ll talk tiramisu upon your return.”

“Is that everything then?” she smiled.

“Well, I would like the-” Yugyeom began, glancing carefully to Jinyoung.

“He’ll have whatever the daily fish is in basil sauce,” JInyoung smiled. Yugyeom’s face scrunched as he searched his menu.

“Alright gentleman, I’ll put in your ticket and bring you out some bread. Can I get you anything else?” the server cooed, the smile never leaving her face.

“Unless you have six other personalities back there that are much more agreeable than the ones here, yes,” Jinyoung smiled. “We’re fine.”

“I feel like I was just insulted?” BamBam whispered, lifting a brow. “But to be honest, I’m nooot entirely sure.”

“Happy flight log,” Jaebum muttered, lifting his glass into the air.

Each boy looked around, slowly lifting their glasses as well. “Happy flight log!”

#got7 #jaebum #jb #yugyeom #im jaebum #kim yugyeom #park jinyoung #jinyoung #mark tuan #mark #jackson wang #jackson #youngjae #choi youngjae #bambam

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aurelliocheek · 5 years ago

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Get Packed: Creating a Game for Google Stadia

Developer Moonshine Studios provides insights into the development process of their first game, which was recently released exclusively on Stadia.

The Developer Moonshine Studios is located at the tail-end of Cornwall which is the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula of the island of Great Britain. The studio was founded in 2018 and their first game is Get Packed, which has just been launched exclusively on Google Stadia. In this context we had the opportunity to talk to Dr Marcus Gardner and Jamie King, who are both founding members of the studio. The two share details about the advantages of developing a title for Stadia and how it came to the decision to release their first game solely on Google’s new platform. We also talked to them about the ongoing Corona crisis and how the current situation is affecting the work of developers. In this last section of the interview, they also give a few tips on how small studios can engage funding providers and publishers even in these difficult times, for example with a ‘contactless’ pitch.

Every step should be thought through so that no item gets damaged while moving it.

Making Games: How did the idea for Get Packed came to life and since when is the developer Moonshine Studios working on the chaotic co-op party game about a calamitous removals company? Moonshine Studios: Get Packed is out now, first playable on Stadia, but it has been quite the journey since we first started. Our four co-founders met in May 2017 as part of an EU funded university incubator/accelerator programme based in the digital tech industry called Falmouth Launchpad. As the programme name suggests, it was based in the far South West of Cornwall, run by Falmouth University. The programme focuses on creating and developing a team with the intent of incorporating as a company at the end of the year. This is underpinned by a Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship, which we study while developing the product and company. Out of a cohort of 20, the four of us were partnered together to form one of the games teams. Without going into detail of our market research, we came to the conclusion that we should develop a game focused on the interaction between players. Whether in the form of a co-operative experience such as Overcooked, or competitive like Gangbeasts. Or a mixture of both like Crawl. We started brainstorming ideas to create a co-operative game that combines competitive elements to create these fun interactions. At the time, our artist Callum had recently helped a friend move from campus and remembered the clown-like challenge of cramming everything into this tiny car. Moving objects is something a lot of people can relate to, and a goldmine for comedy. Our earliest prototype involved moving Tetris-shaped objects into a van, where the players would maximise their score based on how tidily they packed everything. Conversely, we found that just piling everything in anyhow using physics was far more comical, and then ideas just started flowing from there. We found that many multiplayer co-operative games have quite a similar cartoony style, and didn’t want Get Packed to get lost in the mix; we wanted to make it more visually different than other titles on the market. The overall style and environment design take inspiration from miniature models and the work of director Wes Anderson. Selective colour palettes with muted tones and bright lighting are utilised to create a playful but stylish look to the game. 3D models follow a sharp, low poly topology to increase performance and visual clarity. Lightly chamfered edges and PBR texturing differentiate the visual style from conventional low poly games to create an almost miniature model aesthetic. Now that we had a basic game loop, art style and a bunch of level ideas, we wanted to introduce a narrative to wrap it all together. Neither physics-based games or party games tend to have much of a story, so we felt this was another area which we could make Get Packed stand out. We took all our wacky level ideas and grouped them into themes, which we then converted into narrative beats. As time went on, more and more layers were added to the story, which resulted in a very silly, but surprisingly intricate narrative. The game is set in the fictional town of Ditchlington; imagine an Americanized version of Cornwall and you’d be close. Ditchlington has been purchased by the sinister Industrial Salt Company who intends to obliterate it for the sake of an enormous salt mine. Player’s take the role of up to four Ditchlington residents who have just been evicted thanks to the Salt Corps greediness. While packing their own belongings, they begin to realise they have a real knack for it and decide to take advantage of the town-wide evictions and create “Last Ditch Removals”. This sees Last Ditch Removals packing up homes, businesses and other dubious locations to make sure it’s citizens are safe, and hopefully, along the way, come up with a scheme to stop the city from being demolished. The cutscenes are delivered via a top-down shot of an animated scrapbook which details Last Ditches’ journey, and this was again a nod to many of the shots seen in Wes Anderson’s films. To create unique and silly characters, we looked to some of our favourite animations such as Wallace and Gromit and the Simpsons for further inspiration. While the majority of the story is told through the animated cutscenes, the levels are full of hidden references and nods to Ditchlington’s history to help bring the world to life.

If too much damage accumulates you get fired and the round is over.

Are there features in the game which were may easier to realise on Stadia compared to other platforms? Working with Stadia has been an amazing experience. Unity has fantastic integration, so the whole development cycle hasn’t been too dissimilar from that of a console game. However, thanks to the power of Stadia, we’ve been able to push the graphics and wacky physics that much further. During development (pre-Stadia), we encountered a number of challenges. Get Packed is played from a birds-eye perspective, and often you can see the entire map. That means it’s a huge area to render, exacerbated by the sheer amount of physics objects which can be manipulated by the player. Knowing the specifications of the target hardware was incredibly useful, allowing us to pack each area to limit without affecting performance. Accurate lighting was another challenge pre-Stadia development. Baking the lighting would’ve been the ideal solution, and would have allowed for faster render times. Still, with all the moveable elements, it became clear that realtime lighting was the only viable solution. Even then, it was tricky balancing the requirements of the shadow system with the destructible meshes and explosions. It looks great, but that level of chaos began to push the hardware. Fortunately, these limitations pretty much evaporated when we focused on Stadia development. Thanks to the power of the Stadia servers, we could push the wacky physics and gorgeous lighting much further than we anticipated.

Does co-op gameplay thrive on players sitting together in the same room? We’re thinking of usual real-life interactions you would expect to see between players gathered together, such as funny scuffles, yelling, and swearing. Over the past few years, there’s been a massive resurgence in couch co-op. Long gone are the days of gaming being seen as a solitary activity. Now it’s just another way for family and friends to spend time with each other. Local-only co-op games – such as Overcooked and Crawl – perform extremely well, so there’s clearly an audience. When we started development on Get Packed, one of our core pillars was to create a game which encourages these types of engaging social experiences, whether online or together in the same room.

Coatsink developers working on the game in their office in Cornwall.

Does the co-op mode support online gaming in case your friends live in a distance where you rarely meet each other? Friends and family can invite each other to play through Stadia and jump into a game with no hassle at all. It features both local and online play, so whether you are playing on the couch with a partner or want to play with someone on the other side of the world, that can easily be done. You can even mix the two, with a few people playing locally and connecting with others online.

Is it possible to communicate with your friends via headset during an online match? Most definitely! You can easily invite your friends to a party on Stadia to start a voice channel with them before starting up the game. Jumping on a voice communications channel with your friends as you are chaotically packing things adds an extra layer of comedy as things go wrong. Part of the game’s experience is being able to enjoy the naturally occurring comedic interactions between you and your friends during gameplay!

What was the motivation behind releasing Get Packed first on Stadia? The game looks like it would also work fine across other popular platforms like PC, PS4, Xbox One, and of course Nintendo Switch. Over the last several years, there has been a huge shift in the way games are marketed, which has led to a massive boom in the development of games from smaller independent studios. Smaller Indie titles can gain massive traction through content creators streaming games content to their audiences. With the Games Video Content market growing at a very fast rate, and both streamers and viewers looking for new ways to interact with one another, Stadia offers a number of interesting features that can make the most of the shift in games entertainment culture. When we were designing the idea for the game Get Packed, we already knew that we wanted to make a game that was not just fun to play, but also fun to watch. When we were later presented with the opportunity to be a ‘First on Stadia’ title, the decision was a no-brainer. Stadia offers an extremely innovative and ambitious new platform that has the potential to change the way in which games are played drastically. As technology continues to grow rapidly, more people have access to faster and more affordable internet, making it even easier to play games than ever before. It is incredibly exciting to be a part of this new pioneering technology as one of the first ‘First on Stadia’ titles. In terms of gameplay, Get Packed is a very physics-heavy game, which can typically be quite intense on hardware. Not everyone has access to such hardware; however, by utilising Google’s high-end systems through games streaming, we can really see how far we can push the physics systems, while still allowing people to enjoy smooth gameplay at the highest graphical settings. Although the game focuses on couch co-op gameplay, in this day and age, social gatherings may not be possible. This makes online play incredibly important, and any developer who’s dipped their fingers into online physics will know how challenging and performance heavy it can be. Thankfully, Stadia can alleviate a lot of the typical performance problems that could come as a result of players connecting to the internet with different levels of hardware.

The developers showed their game at several events.

Are there any differences between online and local matches regarding gameplay? The local campaign is complemented with the animated story of our Ditchlington heroes, but in regards to gameplay, they are exactly the same. The online mode consists of a multiplayer playground similar to that of Gangbeasts, where players can join their friends or strangers in a lobby where they can select any level and mode that they have unlocked. The only differences are that players may have access to levels they haven’t unlocked yet by joining a player who has unlocked it, high scores and challenges won’t be saved for players who haven’t unlocked them in this case. The story cutscenes currently aren’t present in online play. However, we are considering bringing back that option, as many players dive straight into online games without ever learning of the backstory behind the game.

Does the game have features that only Stadia can offer? If so, what happens to these features in case of a future release on other platforms? Post-release, we will be looking to add Crowd Play to Get Packed and exploring other Stadia specific features. When designing Get Packed, one of our core design goals was to create a game which was not only fun to play, but fun to watch. Having the ability to instantly switch from watching your favourite streamer to playing with them is a brilliant idea and would be perfect for our game. These features are a massive bonus for both streamers and viewers. The growing video games content market has shown a rapid increase in the number of people who enjoy watching and interacting with their favourite content creators to the extent where it is considered a staple in the lives of the younger generations. Get Packed was designed to promote fun interactions between players, and this greatly matches what Stadia is also trying to achieve between streamers and viewers. While these Stadia specific features would be a massive addition to the entertainment value of the game, they aren’t crucial to the core game experience, and would not affect development in the case of a future release on other platforms.

Moving can be quite the chaos, but at least it’s a funny chaos.

Finally, some questions regarding the current Corona crisis: How does the worldwide pandemic affect the work of developers and publishers? Has your work changed significantly in this context? Did some of your employees or maybe entire departments have been working decentralised in their home offices even before the crisis occurred? Many large developers and publishers are based in cities where the Coronavirus has had a much larger impact, increasing the likelihood of employees becoming sick or self-isolating out of precaution and care for others. Depending on the company, this could quite easily result in many delays while the company sets up a remote work infrastructure for its employees. Older companies may have a more traditional structure, so they may have found it more challenging to move everything digital in comparison to a small indie developer who has remote employees dotted around the world. Many companies hold their new game titles in secrecy and very close to their chest. Creating a secure environment for employees to work remotely without running the risk of information leaks can be a very costly exercise. For us at Moonshine Studios, which is located at the tail-end of Cornwall, the impact of Coronavirus is quite minimal in comparison. Our small office has been closed since the lockdown; however, it has been very easy for us to adapt to a remote office environment. Since starting up, we have always had a flexible approach to remote working and work hours. While we do have a core office where the majority of us work, people have the freedom to work from home whenever they choose. Graham, one of our programmers, lives quite far away from the office compared to the rest of us and finds it much easier to work at night due to the lack of distraction. As such, we’ve made sure our work infrastructure has been able to accommodate this. Not only that, but some of us have also been in more long-distance relationships, and being able to work remotely for a month or two at a time has been great in fostering them. With the onset of cloud computing and the availability of a plethora of digital management tools for every situation, it has never been so easy to collaborate and set up a remote office network than ever before. Utilising digital collaborative tools such as Slack, Github and Trello alongside Unity indicated that we already had the infrastructure for working from home, which meant that our productivity hadn’t been massively affected by the lockdown. Some slowdown is inevitable; however, as we are all working from personal laptops and desktops that aren’t as powerful as our office workstations. We mostly communicate through Slack, which enables us to easily group topics and direct message to each other. However, conveying complicated ideas or issues can be a struggle via text, in which case we hold quick video chats, especially when they relate to the design of important gameplay features. The biggest difficulty for us with the current lockdown is that we simply miss the office and the company culture. We are all good friends, so to be isolated for weeks can be challenging. We recently started an online coffee chat every other morning to catch up with each other to make sure everyone is doing well, considering the current climate.

Is there a chance that digital products could perhaps achieve an increase in sales as a result of the crisis? Historical video games sales data has shown that more people are moving from physical to digital media, and the current situation will only strengthen this. We have seen the highest unemployment numbers we will probably ever see in our lifetime, with millions of people off work on furlough or having lost their jobs completely. With limited options, while waiting for the economic climate to move back towards normality, those that are currently stuck at home with their loved ones (who may also be in a similar situation) need to find ways to entertain themselves as a form of escapism. Video games are the perfect form of media to do this. They not only act as a form of entertainment, but are also used to create and strengthen social bonds, and can often be a way to stimulate or destress the mind. There have already been multiple reports of increased game sales, game streaming viewership and concurrent players. The World Health Organisation has even recommended playing active video games while in isolation. There is no doubt this will have a big impact on the video games industry, whether that would be introducing gaming to a whole new audience that has previously stayed clear of it, or making it a social staple like board games nights once were. While we could have never predicted what has happened, since right from the start of development, making the game available for online play has been a key goal. Although Get Packed and similar party game experiences shine the most in a setting where players are sitting around the same screen, we know that a large portion of the audience can only play games with others online. It has always been important to us to have both online and local co-op in Get Packed, so that family and friends could enjoy the gaming experience together, wherever they are in the world.

No item is too big or weird to move.

We notice that developer conferences all around the world get cancelled at the moment, which is a big problem for small developers. Usually visiting a developer conference helps to get in touch with publishers quickly and allow multiple pitches in a short amount of time. For many indies, pitching at the publisher’s site (with flights, hotel, etc.) is too expensive. So do you have any tips for a ‘contactless’ pitch? Which information should be part of the first email, and how should a future webcam presentation look like to raise the interest of a publisher? We feel a great deal of sympathy for the developers who had made plans to attend these conferences, some who will not get their money back. In those early pitching phases when you are still looking for funding, every expense is crucial and to not get anything back from it could cripple a company. That’s why it’s been amazing to see the support of places like WINGS who spearheaded the GDC Relief Fund, allowing people to recoup some of their costs. My hope is that this situation will encourage more publishers to focus on online pitches, so future developers don’t feel the need to attend these events. When sending pitches to publishers, it’s important to catch their attention. For us, we knew our game shined brightest when you saw people playing it, so we made a semi-public game night at a university and invited people to come to play the game in exchange for some free food. We recorded them playing and mixed their reactions into the trailer. It was clear that everyone was enjoying playing the game themselves as well as competing against their friends for the highest score. Everyone likes a bit of friendly competition and being able to capture the emotions of those interactions was fantastic. Even before the lockdown started and the games expos were cancelled, it was still very important to have a strong ‘contactless’ pitch. When you attend an event, there are many occasions where you just aren’t able to set up those essential meetings or miss the opportunity to show the game to a potential publisher; you may have to make that first contact by email. Perfecting that is even more important in the current climate. Keep in mind when sending emails to publishers, that they probably get hundreds of messages a day. We found being brief, transparent, but informative with all your needs, the funds required, and an eye-catching trailer was what worked for us. While the first contact is very important, being able to follow up with a realistic view on scope, sales, budgeting and planning is a large bonus. Publishers want to know whether they can trust the team to deliver the game they are pitching in a specific time frame within budget. Ultimately though, if you have something playable to show, this experience can speak a thousand words, so make sure to pitch at the right time with the best possible build you can provide.

Dr Marcus Gardner Co-Founder & Programmer

Originally specialising in mechatronics and robotics, Marcus switched careers to utilise his experience in systems design, programming, project management and independent research to create memorable experiences in games.

Jamie King Co-Founder & Designer

Specialising in games design, Jamie has previously created games and interactive exhibits for award-winning visitor attractions. While primarily a designer, he also assists with art direction the 3D asset production.

The post Get Packed: Creating a Game for Google Stadia appeared first on Making Games.

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