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A Couple of Additional, Miscellaneously Formatted Suggestions

There should also be warnings for how Chapter 1 contains jump-scares and flashing lights on its store page (and perhaps in-game, too). Ideally, there'd also be an option to disable its flashing lights and, mature-content-wise, its depictions of blood.

On a related note, subtitles for longer lines of dialogue are not fully displayed on the screen when its resolution is set to be at 1280x720p.

Problems like these oughta fixed in the future so that more players can comfortably experience Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

Asinine Inaccessibility: Indigo Park: Chapter 1

Warning(s) for: intense violence, blood, gore, and spoilers.

Despite how developer UniqueGeese deserves some credit for having remappable controls and keeping players prone to motion sickness in mind by including options in Chapter 1 for them to disable the first-person camera's bobbing and a "camera delay effect" that moves the camera and the protagonist's flashlight at different speeds, the omission of a content warning on its store page for its mature content is too egregious for it to be written about positively.

Specifically, Chapter 1 contains intense violence, blood, and gore which rear their ugly heads the most in a scene where an antagonist gets bloodily decapitated shockingly, shock that could have caused me, someone with heart problems, to experience chest pain -- as has happened when playing other titles with unexpected levels of horror like Minecraft -- and could trigger players who are sensitive to seeing such content.

If these elements were limited to having a moderate presence like they do in this chapter's sole jump-scare and game-over screen, then them existing without a warning would not be (as much of) a problem as it is now. So, here's to hoping that how it is now will not be how it is in future chapters.

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Asinine Inaccessibility: Indigo Park: Chapter 1

Warning(s) for: intense violence, blood, gore, and spoilers.

Despite how developer UniqueGeese deserves some credit for having remappable controls and keeping players prone to motion sickness in mind by including options in Chapter 1 for them to disable the first-person camera's bobbing and a "camera delay effect" that moves the camera and the protagonist's flashlight at different speeds, the omission of a content warning on its store page for its mature content is too egregious for it to be written about positively.

Specifically, Chapter 1 contains intense violence, blood, and gore which rear their ugly heads the most in a scene where an antagonist gets bloodily decapitated shockingly, shock that could have caused me, someone with heart problems, to experience chest pain -- as has happened when playing other titles with unexpected levels of horror like Minecraft -- and could trigger players who are sensitive to seeing such content.

If these elements were limited to having a moderate presence like they do in this chapter's sole jump-scare and game-over screen, then them existing without a warning would not be (as much of) a problem as it is now. So, here's to hoping that how it is now will not be how it is in future chapters.

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Don’t Just Judge a Book by Its Cover - My Thoughts on Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic

Warning(s) for: disturbing imagery and spoilers.

As a prequel to Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, the Steel Wool Studios-developed Secret of the Mimic recontextualizes the true corporeal antagonist from its predecessor's nonsensical narrative as a sympathetic victim and subsequent perpetuator of cyclical violence well enough for that version of the titular character to be remembered less as an arbitrary Afton return turned equally-baffling bait and switch.

As its own narrative, Secret of the Mimic acts as a humbling meta-commentary on Security Breach's troubled development that underlines how unfettered ambition begets a lack of care for art's and life's many facets through the use of distraught creative and business owner Edwin Murray, who loses his family, and then goes so far as to replace them with his all-consuming work beyond a figurative sense before, eventually, losing both that and his life.

As a video-game, Steel Wool tries internalizing that lesson through Secret of the Mimic by having a smaller yet still interconnected setting to better emphasize lore and interactivity-expanding exploration and diverse encounters. Their efforts, though successful on the former front, nevertheless result in a trite hide-and-run simulator that doesn't match the depth of its tale in spite of its exciting potential to have the player constantly question when and how the ever-adaptable Mimic, who can inhabit any animatronic suit, will strike.

As an exhibit, this potential is somewhat realized with the cartoony art style and character designs of Secret of the Mimic being juxtaposed with run-down areas and grisly details akin to flies and maggots surrounding an animatronic suit with a human arm sticking out of it on one side. Only somewhat, however, since audible aspects like the sound cue for an alerted enemy become grating at the same rate as encounters.

As a whole, Secret of the Mimic is an adequate experience that reminds me of how reviews, as much I dislike writing them, even casually, due to how draining doing so can be, uphold holistic points-of-view, which combat the habit of all-too easily judging away art and people.

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It's important to remember that Luigi Mangione is being framed for murder. The "evidence" they have on him is absolute clown shoes absurd.

They're trying to win this by swaying public opinion. That's why they're doing movie deals about it and staging ridiculous photo ops.

They're gonna try to give this kid the death penalty to cover up for their own gross incompetence and in the hopes that they scare the working class out of trying to fight back.

Please don't help them do this by using his name as a synonym for political assassinations. Please do not perpetuate the idea that he's guilty.

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I can't find the post I read yesterday (or Sunday?) about the DOE's attempt to ram through a "direct final rule" to rescind the part of §504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that mandates the construction of federally-funded buildings make them accessible, but here's Disability Scoop's article on that. 《 Under existing regulations, facilities constructed or altered after June 13, 1980 that receive federal financial assistance must be “readily accessible to and useable by handicapped persons.” Buildings are considered to meet that standard if they comply with what are known as Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards.

But now the Energy Department is calling this requirement “unnecessary and unduly burdensome.”》

(And no, I don't understand why this is under the DOE, but it appears to apply to all federally funded construction, not just for that department.)

Please read and share and most importantly go to the links below to comment - the comment period is open ONLY UNTIL JUNE 16TH and the rule would go into effect on July 15th, so this is urgent. They need as many comments as possible to keep this from being pushed through with virtually no opportunity for the public to comment.

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De-Emphasized Emphasis - My Thoughts on Kentaro Miura's Berserk, Vol. 1 - 2

Onomatopoeias serve to emphasize actions in narratives to help bring them to life. From the volumes of it that I've read, Berserk's English translation by Dark Horse Comics and Digital Manga Publishing overlooks their function by leaving them untranslated and, thus, indecipherable at a glance…:

…plainly translating them without any regard for Miura's artistry...:

…or both, in the case of Vol. 1's onomatopoeic differences between its print (above) and digital (below) editions:

If there is any silver lining of my encounter with these aversive qualities, it is an increased appreciation for the existence of adaptations.

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Progress Takes Patience - My Thoughts on The Casting of Frank Stone

Warning(s) for: spoilers.

Horror of your choosing in this game transpires within an omniversal narrative framework that is deserving of recognition for recontextualizing what are unsatisfying erasures of already-experienced plots elsewhere as a lore-friendly exploration of divergences here. Remaining aware of the improvement that has been made to this sort of story's structure within the confines of this fiction, it is my hope that its potential that is tarnished now due to an inability to initiate those explorations scene by scene is fully realized by future titles of this ilk.

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Musings From a Tortured Mind: Fault

Warning(s) for: strong language.

There's no one for me to turn to. I'm left with only a family that's been abusive to me for support beyond words of kindness. No friends. No community. No one. For this, do I have only myself to blame?

No, not entirely. Bonds have been broken because of imperfections like my impulsivity. But, some of them have met such a fate 'cause of contemptible cunts' lack of accountability, one of many sources of an anger that's prevented permanent victimization… and stigmatized vulnerability, ending times when I've yearned to lower my guard instead with a fearful refusal to naïvely open myself up to more pain.

Those times are why I am writing about myself openly -- without a self-imposed need to constrain how I do so nor justify the act itself -- to help myself gain more emotional control, to feel less desperate and empty when anger fades away, and to hopefully prove to myself that everyone else doesn't want fuck all to do with me.

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Since this fundraiser has been vetted, I'm sharing a post about it again to ask that it be donated to, if possible, and/or shared with others.

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #594)✅️

Help my family in Gaza and give them hope to live in peace 💔🚨

Hi, I am Ahmed from Palestine, from the northern part of Gaza City. I am 33 years old, married, and a father of two children. I live in the Jabalia refugee camp with my family, which consists of 19 members, in a four-story house.

Since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7th, life in northern Gaza has been extremely difficult, lacking basic necessities due to the siege imposed by the Israeli army on the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The occupation has blocked food, medicine, water, electricity, and even communication networks. Thousands of airstrikes have been carried out, and hundreds of massacres have been committed, mostly affecting innocent civilians, the majority of whom are children and women. The infrastructure, thousands of homes, and civilian facilities have been destroyed.

On May 12th, 2024, the Israeli army besieged the Jabalia camp for the second time and ordered us to evacuate, informing us that it was a military operation zone and a dangerous combat area. We were forced to leave our homes in the camp and flee under heavy bombardment and intense gunfire, navigating through the rubble and bodies lying in the streets and on the roads. We became homeless, with no food or water. During this difficult siege, I lost two of my brothers, Abdullah, 30 years old, and Atallah, 26 years old, due to random shelling and airstrikes on the camp.

Why am I collecting donations?

After more than 15 months of war, on January 19th, 2025, the ceasefire came into effect, and we returned to the camp to check on our home. However, we were shocked by the extent of the destruction and devastation in the camp. The homes had turned into piles of rubble, and we could no longer recognize the places or roads due to the scale of the damage. Our house was completely destroyed, leaving us homeless. Now, my family and I live in a small tent that is insufficient for the number of family members. It offers no privacy, no bathroom, no kitchen, and it does not protect us from the summer heat or the winter cold. We are living in an overcrowded environment with displaced people, chaos, piles of garbage, and the spread of diseases, especially among the displaced children.

This war has forced us to live in extremely harsh conditions and an environment that is unfit for human life. We continue to suffer every day from the ongoing war, repeated displacement, lack of resources and essentials, fear, pain, and oppression. Not to mention the hardship of fetching water, standing in long queues for basic needs, and struggling to find food—another challenge added to our suffering in this devastating war that is destroying people, buildings, trees, and animals. All of this has exhausted our bodies and deeply affected our mental well-being.

Therefore, I am reaching out to you through this humanitarian platform to help me support my family, rebuild our destroyed home, and contribute to providing the basic necessities of life so that I can live with my family with dignity and freedom.

• How will these donations be used?

1) An apartment will be rented to temporarily house my family until the reconstruction of the destroyed house is completed, as an alternative to a tent, at a cost of $600 per month for at least two years. (An estimated total cost of $14,000 over the two years.)

2) Purchase the basic tools and equipment necessary to furnish the rented apartment at an estimated cost of $5,000.

3) Purchase clothing and basic necessities for all family members at an estimated cost of $6,000.

4) Remove the rubble of the destroyed house and rebuild it at an estimated cost of $140,000.

5) Purchase the tools and equipment necessary to furnish all apartments in the new house at an estimated cost of $35,000.

• How does your donation and support make a difference?

Your support and donation is a noble humanitarian cause that supports and strengthens our resilience during the war. This contribution, even if it is small, will make a huge difference in my life and the life of my family.

Please help us to live in safety and peace, to start over to achieve our ambitions and dreams, and to create a safe environment for our children that will provide them with a bright future.

@gazavetters @brokenbackmountain@gazavetters @just-browsing1222 @mothblossoms @aleciosun @serica-e @fluoresensitive @katherineonline @khizuo @lesbiandardevil @transmutationisms @schoolhater @timogsilangan @appsa @buttercuparry @sayruq @malcriada @palestinegenocide @sar-soor @akajustmerry @annoyingloudmicrowavecultist @feluka @tortiefrancis @flower-tea-fairies @tsaricides @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @visenyasdragon @belleandsaintsebastian @ear-motif @kordeliiius @brutaliakhoa @raelyn-dreams @troythecatfish @theropoda @tamarrud @4ft10tvlandfangirl @queerstudiesnatural @northgazaupdates2 @skatezophrenic @awetistic-things @baby-girl-aaron-dessner @nabulsi @yetisidelblog

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(Somewhat) Astute Accessibility: OneShot

Warning(s) for: language.

If OneShot, in its original state, was played by me today, then maybe it'd be getting viewed in a more negative light, given how its accessibility options were patched in nearly a month after its initial release and how treating disabled people as afterthoughts to any extent, intentionally or not, pisses me off.

However, having already played games that don't do what it does -- include remappable controls or a toggle option for an input that's normally held by default and not take years to implement a colorblind mode -- I feel like I can relax enough to express that I recognize and appreciate the efforts that have gone into making sure it can be experienced by more players… even though it should really have content warnings that are in-game and not in an easily-missable fifth-wall break and an option for the screen to be automatically dimmed when its occasional screen flashes occur.

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To those who keep scrolling... this is not just another link ⚠️.

This is my home—bombed and reduced to rubble🏡❤️‍🩹.

This is my room—crushed until its height became less than 30 cm💔 🧱.

This is my teddy bear and the cover of my bed—pulled from under the debris with my own hands🧸🥹.

We spent over a month clearing rubble just to build a tent beside the ruins ⛺.

But even the tent wasn’t allowed to stay... ❌

We were forced to leave—by an order from the occupation ⚠️🥹.

It feels like every trace of life is being taken from us, again and again 😔 .

I’ve shared. I’ve begged. I’ve screamed💔.

But the silence around me is louder than my pain🥹.

This isn’t just a donation campaign—this is a cry for life ✊.

If you can’t donate, share 🤝.

And if you can’t share—don’t look away like nothing is happening👌🏻.

Some of us are being buried alive—under the world’s silence🔥.

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Asinine Inaccessibility: Dead by Daylight

Accommodating players with disabilities has notoriously been a low priority for Behaviour Interactive. Keeping in mind that Dbd was released on June 14, 2016, that company only saw fit to put in "colorblind modes" on March 30, 2021; removed moments of mandatory mashing on May 5, 2021; broadened its horizons with field-of-view settings on January 30, 2024; merely announced how, on February 17, 2025, gamma settings are going to be getting their day in the sun at some point in the third or fourth quarter of 2025; etc..

And, adding accommodations are an afterthought to BHVR still what with there being no mention of an intention to address how the hiding of crucial pieces of information akin to the number of times each Survivor has been hooked -- which could help Killers scheme kills incontinently -- negatively affects players with disabilities that alter their processing of information.

I guess that means that I'll have to wait until 2030 for my OCD and PTSD to be considered.

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Asinine Inaccessibility: A Game About Digging A Hole

About two months ago, I requested that DoubleBee, the developer of this game, add in an option to dig by holding the relevant input for its mouse and keyboard control scheme, as is possible with its scheme for controller, along with a "toggle" option for both schemes.

Those options have yet to be added, leaving the player to either painfully repeatedly click the input for digging if they lack access to a controller or uncomfortably hold the input for digging for extended periods of time if they do own one.

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"Kicked for [Being Idle]" - My Thoughts on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (2023)

That's the message I received once I was booted from my first match in this game since 2023. A game that requires victims to hide from family members. A game with a game mode called "Rush Week" wherein a timer for police arrival can be activated and then waited out to survive. A game in which players are punished for playing sensibly.

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Asinine Inaccessibility: Hollow Knight

Whenever certain actions are done being performed (e.g., healing), bright bursts of light briefly appear around the eponymous character, bothering my eyes. There exists no official option that addresses this issue. And, the only thing that I can think of to address it from my end, lowering this game's brightness, doesn't do anything to resolve it.

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RoboPig - My Thoughts on RoboCop (1987)

Warning(s) for: spoilers.

Honesty is not a currency.

It is not "spendable" on the "expensive" depiction of corporate interference with institutions like law enforcement and the subsequent subjugation of the lower class via victimization from overlooked crimes. Nor is the illustration of law enforcement's inherent corruption so "unaffordable" that more "honesty" has to be earned by portraying the protagonist as heroic, even after a scene in which he was willing to forego arresting a supposed permanently legally untouchable criminal in favor of settling a personal vendetta.

This fear of "bankruptcy" results in RoboCop reading very much like pseudo-progressive propaganda.

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Ban Bad Manners (in Video-Games)!

Warning(s) for: references to drugs and drug addiction, and language.

"Bm" is the colloquial verb form of "bad manners." People who bm in video-games are assholes. Assholes deserve to be acted against. So, why is it that these assholes, who act with the intention of maliciously twisting other players' experiences into miserable times via mean-spirited taunts, are not regularly reportable?

A lack of resources? Sometimes, sure, but I'm not gonna pretend that all developers lack the means to form and maintain a support team that could handle additional reports. A loss of resources? The more players who'd get banned, the less money that'd potentially get earned in wealthy developers' eyes, and since money can become one hell of a drug, it's not a substance that they'd see fit to go into withdrawal for over any reason, even if that reason would be to create a healthier atmosphere that could draw in more players who were simply steering clear of mischievous negativity. A lack of willingness? That seems to be the case(, which would explain why the option to block players to prevent getting match-made with them is not commonly implemented, either, at least not in the multi-player games that I play).

So, what can be done about this matter of manners? Push for a cultural shift. Talk about the unacceptability of this shitty behavior while calling for developers to add in and actively utilize measures against it more and more. In doing so, this and worse forms of toxicity can hopefully be seen less and less.