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ichika27 · 3 years

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The World Ends with You

(Yeah, it’s the same screenshot I used for my post about ep. 1. I couldn’t get a new one so...)

Ah, first week without the TWEWY anime to look forward to. I’m actually kinda sad cause I’d miss waiting for the episode every Saturday night (Ani-One posts theirs on that day here). I have some stuff I wanna say about the anime so I thought I’d make one of these plus this is a good way to end the twewy anime blog post series I make every week. I’ll try not to spoil until the very bottom of this post which will have a spoiler warning.

Also, this will be very long and rambly as most of my fandom posts are haha.

Story:

A boy named Neku wakes up in the middle of Shibuya with no memory and finds himself as a player in the Reaper’s Game. For a week he must partner up with a girl named Shiki and both of them must complete missions, battle creatures called noise, and survive as failure meant erasure.

Characters:

Neku Sakuraba - our main protagonist who somehow lost his memories and is now playing the Reaper’s Game. He’s a loner who isn’t too keen on getting close to anyone let alone working alongside anybody - unfortunately for him, it’s a requirement if he wants to survive. As a player he has an assortment of abilities to fight off noise and other enemies (in the game this meant he can use a lot of different pins).

Shiki Misaki - the nice and friendly Shiki becomes Neku’s partner in the Reaper’s Game. Unlike Neku she has knowledge of the game and fills Neku in on things he doesn’t understand. Her ability is to control her stuffed toy called Nyantan/Mr. Mew which she uses in combat.

Beat - the tough skateboarding player, he’s somewhat more like the typical hot-blooded shounen protagonist when compared to Neku. He’s protective of those he care about especially his game partner, Rhyme. He uses his skateboard in battle.

Rhyme - Beat’s game partner who is a lot kinder and calmer than him. Rhyme tends to be the one to reason with Beat when needed and the two are always seen together.

Yoshiya Kiryu - a mysterious boy who seem to know more than he lets on and acts at times acts suspicious. He prefers to be called by the nickname Joshua.

Sanae Hanekoma - a cafe owner who helps out Neku and the others and would give them advice. His advice prove to be very helpful and Neku takes them to heart. Seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Reaper’s Game but doesn’t seem to be a reaper himself.

Thoughts:

(I tried my best to not be spoilery in the character descriptions so some names weren’t written in full)

The World Ends with You (or in the original Japanese “Subarashiki Kono Sekai”/It’s a Wonderful World) is an anime based on the video game of the same name. It had to compress an entire game’s worth of story within it’s 12 episode run which meant they cut out a lot of things and combined some scenes to quickly run through them. It’s theme song is the anime version of the game’s original OP “Twister” although this wasn’t what was originally planned but an incident involving the band who sang the original theme forced them to make changes. The original voice actors from the game also reprised their roles for the anime. The series is created to be watched before the release of the long-awaited sequel game.

The art style is made to be similar to it’s game version (with a bit of change to adapt it as an anime like when it comes to body proportions). They also retained the effect of the characters from the UG (players/reapers) being brightly colored while those from the RG having darker/muted colors. While the noise are obviously cg, I personally liked this since they’re said to be from a different plane anyways so it’s a nice contrast to those from the UG and RG. They had to update the setting though as years had passed since the original game’s creation and they had to model anime version of Shibuya to what it’s real life counterpart now looks. The characters are also given smartphones instead of the flip phones they had in the game (anime-only watchers who are gonna play the game would have to get used to them still using flip phones though lol).

Okay so story-wise... it’s rushed. Of course it is. They shortened it so that what’s left would mostly be important plot points from the main story but they cut out many scenes that consist of character interactions and several little things that could’ve fleshed out the characters more. The gameplay is also made simpler with some mechanics taken away and the mini games weren’t adapted (RIP to Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer, especially the latter as you’re severely missed). The game boast an assortment of characters and some NPCs have their own stories but due to the anime’s limited run time, they had to either be cut out (and are just given cameos) or given smaller roles (and their stories weren’t adapted). They did, however, give a few bits and pieces of information that weren’t in the game such as some details about certain characters and one supporting character was given a bit more screentime that they did in the game version.

Despite the rushed nature of the series (which may or may not affect how one views the story itself), the anime made sure to adapt several important scenes and the dramatic stuff is made worse... like, they really had to make some deaths harder to take. The battle scenes were nice as well although my biggest complaint about them is that the boss fights were over too quickly. There were scenes that were changed for the anime version and there are those that I liked and those I didn’t but there are many which I think was as good as the game’s version.

Do I recommend the anime? The game is better, the characters and story are more fleshed out and the way the character/relationship development happens is better paced so of course, me, biased already would tell you to play the game instead if you haven’t yet. Do I recommend those who played the game to watch the anime? Yes! Yes I do. I think the anime is better watched when you’ve played the game and know the stuff that they cut out cause it’ll make better sense that way. Plus I found it enjoyable seeing the scenes from the game animated and the characters are speaking whole dialogues and moving. It’s great!

Even if the anime wasn’t perfect, like I mentioned before, they did their best to condense the entire main story in a 12 episode series and it tried to be as faithful as it could to the original story so despite the deviations when it comes to how things got to the way they did, if you summarize important plot points, they would be the same (with some details changed). Overall, it was very enjoyable and it wasn’t as bad as I feared when I heard how many episodes the anime was going to have.

Some spoiler thoughts:

It would’ve been better if the anime had more episode count than just 12. Cramming a 3 week story of game into just 12 made the thing very rushed with Week 1 only getting three episodes, Week 2 getting four, and final Week getting five. They had to get to the good stuff so they cut off a lot of scenes where the characters are interacting with each other which means they suddenly get character developments and relationship developments too quickly. It might not be that obvious to anime-only watchers but to me, it felt kinda sudden and it feels like it doesn’t work out well story-wise since Neku had to learn how to trust other people and make friends and with how he started vs. how he came out of it contrasting each other.

By the way, they made the characters look good in the anime. Especially Joshua. Have you seen Joshua? He’s so pretty in the anime. I want a picture of him I could stare at anytime I want to (I do not own a phone, sadly).

I like how they gave Eri more scenes though and that they changed her outfit for the anime so she won’t look exactly like UG!Shiki. All of her scenes though made me feel like I wish the anime gave closure to Shiki’s own story by showing us her and Eri making up. Another scene I liked in the anime is Neku’s fanboying of CAT when he finds out the truth. It was adorable.

Some info was taken away from the anime. Beat and Rhyme leaving home had scene dialogue and unlike Beat just narrating it in-game but they didn’t mention specifically why he was angry and his trouble at home. Joshua wasn’t present when Sota and Nao gave Neku a pep-talk either which is a shame cause I think that helped Josh as well.

I mentioned before how the anime made things go too fast. They cut off chunks of not-main-plot story that let the characters interact with each other more which means each game day is shortened as well. I think it made sense that Neku wakes up at the scramble in the end and not stressed out because he didn’t go through as much as his game counterpart did. That said, game Neku learned a lot from more than just the main cast in the game compared to the anime so I like his character development in the game better.

They took away Tin Pin Slammer. I am sad and disappointed. I was hoping so bad for Another Day to be adapted even if it’s an OVA. That and the ramen incident are part of Josh’s week which meant some side of him wasn’t shown (I mean, anime fans don’t know he wasn’t there on week 3 since he’s busy playing a kid’s game elsewhere and how he could talk about food like he is from a cooking anime). Speaking of Josh, they made him very suspicious from the get-go in the anime. I understand as there’s a limited run-time and they can’t really afford to be subtle about it but it meant some of the fun interactions with Neku is gone and so are some scenes where they actually got along. At least they had ice cream together, I guess?

(I have more to say when it comes to Joshua cause he’s my fave character but this is long and my thoughts on it would make this way longer. I might make another post.)

In the end, it wasn’t perfect but the anime was fun and enjoyable enough that I found myself looking forward to it every week. Seeing scenes I recognize from the game in animated form (with voice acting!) felt exciting and awesome. I’ll miss this show and I still wish it was longer.

If you’ve read this far well, thank you. And also I’m confused why but still hopefully that was a good time-killer. I have so many other things I wanted to comment on but that’s for another time. Maybe.

#Subarashiki Kono Sekai #subaseka #the world ends with you #twewy #sana_post

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archival-account-2 · 4 years

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definition and refinement; in the heart of an artist. | keiji akaashi [headcanons]

❛ 𑁍 pairing: keiji akaashi x female!artist!reader

❛ 𑁍 scenario: in fukoradani academy; in the art club (school studio); in the volleyball court

❛ 𑁍 warning: none because it's a fluff; y'all haven't seen the coffee sachets i consumed

❛ 𑁍 note (i): my head isn't a healthy headspace because the brown coffee + sugar + black sugar i consumed today; y'all better expect like a train is gonna hit you off the rails because i didn't went easy with this one; of course, i tried to keep keiji akaashi in character, so please patient as i am adjusting his personality with my writing style (it’s fun writing new things)

❛ 𑁍 requested by: @schoneelise

🡪 you are one of the school prominent artists not because you're the vice president of the art club (your senpai is a third-year) but because you're presence is always defined no matter where you are.

🡪 did someone saw that cutie in a red berret? yeah, that's you, sketching in one of the notebooks you brought.

🡪 oh, did someone also saw that dolly in a skirt with van gogh's starry night masterpiece? yep, defintely, that's you, admiring your juniors' art in their studio while giving them advice.

🡪 anways, moving on; your senpai, (s/n), is very good friends with kotaro bokuto, the colleyball captain of the fukorodani volleyball club. (s/n) comes to their friend's practice by themselves but one day, you're intrigued with the way they were acting.

🡪 it was as if they were jittery and were kept on their toes. did something happen without your knowledge?

(s/n): they almost had it... they almost had it!

(y/n): ... senpai?

(s/n): if keiji didn't mess it up, he could have-

(y/n): sennpai, are. you. okay???

🡪 your kind concern reconvened your senpai's attention toyou, who almost looked petrified. (s/n) apologized for their erratic behavior and explained the situation.

🡪 long story short: fukorodani would facing off against the schools in tokyo in less than one week, and they don't have enough time to practice the new combo they conjured up.

🡪 you, being the supportive type, decided to come with your senpai. they were more than happy to have you tagging along. besides, it seemed like you needed something to be your next inspiration.

🡪 wow. the tension in the court... is just... wow.

🡪 boy, did the sound of balls bouncing off the floor and walls made you rethink your decision. what if you're going to lose an arm? what if you're going to get a concussion? is the place even safe for behaving people?

(s/n): relax. they know where they're gonna hit.

🡪 you're almost believing your senpai when a ball narrowly missed your head by a hair. a hair... a. hair.

🡪 poor you... you almost dropped your art things on the floor and fainted right after that.

keiji: not that high, bokuto-san. you almostt hurt (s/n)-san.

(s/n): actually... you almost obliterated my vice president, (y/f/n).

🡪 you were, by all means of surprise, a forgiving type of person, so you kindly and simply brushed it off with a shy wave of dismissal and a smile.

(y/n): no, it's fine! in fact, it kinda impressed me that it can go that fast and strong. er, good job!

🡪 let's just say, the volleyball captain became very fond of you at the very instant.

🡪 and his vice captain? he's intrigued, to say the least.

🡪 after one strenous match (that scared you most of the time and had to shift multiple times), they finally had a break. your senpai walked over to kotaro and chatted with him, shooting the breeze as the other players attended to their needs.

🡪 while the game was nearing to an end earlier, you finally moved to the most comfortable spot: almost to the corner, underneath a window. you set your artist's satchel beside you in peace (at last) and made new sketches that were inspired by your new surroundings: the court ceilings, the net from your perspective, the rapid movement of rubber shoes, the accelerated ball and it's awesome momentum.

🡪 you were having your own fun in your own newfound place, and you like the fact you had something new to draw about.

🡪 now, during the ten-minute break, keiji akaashi, the vice captain, noticed that you were gone... well, that was until he saw you sitting by yourself.

🡪 you were sitting cross-legged; your sketchpad on your lap; your mechanical pencil scraping the paper as it draws; your head bending down with your eyes focused on the task at hand.

🡪 keiji walked over to you quietly, making sure his tall presence won't startle you. but since you were so immersed, you didn't even pay any attention to anything else. so, he stood before you, bent over, and looked down at your sketchpad.

keiji: it's really pretty.

🡪 you almost threw your pencil five feet in the air from the sudden, accidental scare.

(y/n): oh, um... thanks... but does it really?

keiji: yeah.

🡪 from then on, you and keiji hang out like good buddies every other time after his practice and after your duties in the art club were done for the day.

🡪 however, on one hand, it would be you who would come by the court and proceed with your habit to sketch the surroundings. but, on the other hand, it would keiji who would finish early and drop by the art club (without announcing his presence because of his frequent visits), watching you work behind your back as you work on an easel or laptop (for digital arts).

🡪 of course, during the times you two would spend the time, keiji would give you meaningful advice on how to make your pieces more attractive and more aesthetic-looking.

🡪 surprisingly, they worked so well! in fact, so well that your (s/n) would tease you about keiji being the better mentor than themselves.

(s/n): i guess (y/n)-chan doesn't need me at all... she had found a better teacher... much worse, he's in the volleyball club. oh, the horror!

(y/n): but you taught me the fundamentals, though... senpai, you're being melodramatic again.

🡪 in case you haven't noticed it yet, you're the type of artist who can quickly adapt to another artstyle without sacrificing your own. you are a fast learner type and that was because you believe improvement knows no speed.

🡪 you always work hard to make your pieces expressive, eloquent, and emotional. with your ardent passion to adapt to functional styles, it's no wonder why you can cope up with keiji's suggestions without thinking about it.

🡪 keiji, in turn, would be surprised. but he would only retain that notion only to himself. he couldn't bear to admit that verbally.

🡪 he's not big on evoking emotions or feelings easily; he prefers to keep a calm, relaxing, and unmoving personality everytime he's around crowds.

🡪 but there was one thing he couldn't do: he couldn't stop his own eyes from expressing from what he truly felt in the inside.

🡪 whenever he saw you drawing something that seemed better than he liked it to be, keiji would give you a nod of his head and simply motioned for you to continue with a wave of his hand. but then you would give him a quick-second glance, and his eyes said, 'it's really amazing. please do more'.

🡪 other times, when you eagerly show him your work, a side of his lips would tug slightly upwards. but it would quickly disappear as it appeared. you didn't fail to spot it, though, and you felt super proud you're able to make keiji elicit an expression of happiness.

🡪 so, one day... your art teacher dropped the bomb: you, art students of the art club, have to draw still-life.

🡪 but not just any still life. no, it had to be still life with the theme, "classically contemporary".

🡪 well... well.. you need to think fast or else your grades will drop to a 'c-' or a 'b+'. and you're a straight 'a+' student in arts, so you can't let this drop-

keiji: what's going on with that head of yours?

🡪 you're hanging out in the court this time, and keiji was on a break (thank heavens; kotaro just made them run twenty-five laps around the gym as 'cool down').

🡪 you explained you thick dilemma and keiji said you shouldn'y overthink it too much because that'll "bench you out until the time is up".

🡪 you took his solemn advice with a grain of salt and thought it through as the second round of practice commenced. before you knew it, you finally made your decision and you're excited to keiji about it.

🡪 but the question is: would he like it?

(y/n): akaa-

keiji: keiji.

(y/n): um, keiji! i finally know what i'm going to do!

keiji: good. can you tell me what it is, then?

(y/n): can you be my model?

🡪 him? akaashi keiji? a model? for someone's project? esepcially that 'someone' was you?

🡪 gosh, he really didn't know how to respond, so he just simply looked at you with the most unreadable face ever. it made you contemplate if you had upset him or something...

(y/n): keiji... um, you know... it's fine if you don't want to my subject. i can just go and ask some of my other friends if they want.

🡪 next day rolled around and you still haven't asked any of your friends yet. that's because you had a hunch they had found their own models and muses in the earliest nick of time.

🡪 sad to be you right now.

🡪 so while the others were working with their newfound partners, you were simply minding your own business by setting the 'still life' background/setting of your work, thinking it might lighten the load while you're still looking for the right person.

(s/n): (y/n).

(y/n): y-yeah? senpai?

(s/n): why is keiji dressed like he's about to revive a shogunate?

🡪 good lord.

🡪 it had to be kotaro's idea.

🡪 it just had to be.

🡪 akaashi-freaking-keiji cannot just waltz inside the art studio dressed in a yukata with a semi-real sword strapped across his waist. no, no, no, no, nope-

🡪 it looked so out of his element, to be honest. like... he wasn't born to wear it because his face conveyed the most unamused expression to ever live. he looked like he was forced to get inside the costume. but how could anyone coerce this serious man to even wear that?

🡪 but you know what?

🡪 he looked really dashing, to be honest.

🡪 really, really dashing.

(s/n): ... this is the art studio, not the drama theater.

keiji: i know. i'm here for (y/n)...

🡪 did. you. hear. that. right?

🡪 or what he just said rendered you deaf?

🡪 anyways, anyways, anyways. here's the breakdown of how the hell akaashi keiji ended up wearing a yukata with the matching sword.

🡪 he admitted to kotaro that you asked him to be your model. kotaro nearly gave him the most memorable slap ever because he lowkey rejected you. as his punishment, kotaro got in contact with one of the drama peeps he's friends with and ordered to his friend the most amazing yukata they have in the closet with matching sword. (so it was definitely his idea; no wonder why akaashi looked slightly pissed). while akaashi thought it was a waste of time and called kotaro out for being impulsive, he also thought... what's the freaking big deal?

🡪 what is he overthinking about? there's nothing to put his mind heavily on the matter. the only thing he's going to do is sit still and look handsome for the artist. is that the hardest job in the world?

🡪 his answer came to him when he sat down on a stool and posed for (y/n): it's not the hardest job at all. besides, he's not always on energizer bunnies and he's barely hyper when he's sitting down. so... i think he's doing a great job~

🡪 (y/n), in turn, is having the best fun of her life.

🡪 she's sketching one of her bosom friend for one her important projects.

🡪 she's taking her sweet, sweet, sweet time sketching keiji on the digital easel and before they both knew it, the draft was done!

🡪 it only took them seven hours, though.

🡪 keiji missed his volleyball practice and it was past their curfews.

🡪 but neither of them mind. while some students really did stay put (wow, the dedication), keiji and (y/n) decided to go home at once.

🡪 but only after keiji changed into his uniform again.

🡪 he cannot be seen in a yukata.

🡪 his dignity relies on his appearance somehow.

🡪 once he's done, both of them walked home since their houses were just walking distances.

(y/n): you actually looked really nice in the yukata, keiji.

keiji: thank you, (y/n). although it was just forced on me.

(y/n): nonetheless, you appeared very dream-like back there.

🡪 something blossomed in keiji's chest. was it deep appreciation for the meaningful compliments? was it earnest regard to how he had behaved and look for your project? whatever it is... he's not going to deny it in any way. but then again, he's not going to say anything about it.

keiji: is that so?

(y/n): gosh, yes! you're a lifesaver back there, you know.

🡪 you spent the night polishing the whole thing and it continued for the rest of the week.

🡪 keiji, being an understanding and considerate type, didn't step in your way except when to remind you about eating lunch and going home earnestly.

keiji: (y/n), eat your lunch first.

keiji: (y/n), brush your hair before sitting down.

keiji: (y/n), time to go home.

keiji: (y/n), rest your eyes.

🡪 one week after your final draft, you passed it to your teacher just in time.

🡪 of course, to compensate to keiji's volunteerism and efforts to keep you alive (barely) last week, you treated to lunch on you.

keiji: i have my own bento, (y/n).

(y/n): but mine has more meat than that,

keiji: ... fine. let me have it, please.

🡪 after a hearty lunch, keiji walked you to the art club. (of course, there was no competition but the grades matter-)

sensei: all of your artworks deserve to be in a museum. but, to be honest, out of the rest, i think (y/n)'s piece deserved a seat right next to da vinci's.

🡪 god bless keiji for being there or else you could have lost all senses then gained a concussion from fainting.

🡪 your still life, turned out, to be the one that stood out the most.

sensei: how did you pull this off, (y/n)? who... who taught you?

🡪 you squinted at your work and noticed the changes you never paid attention to at all. while you retained your own original art style of 'still life', there were some compositions that seemed brand new.

(y/n): keiji-kun taught me.

🡪 you said it with so much pride that keiji actually smiled.

🡪 smiled.

🡪 he smiled the most genuine smile he could ever muster.

🡪 (damn, kotaro is missing in action right now.)

🡪 you got the highest grade among your classmates + your (s/n) congratulated you wholeheartedly. they even said, "you might even be the next president in the art club!"

🡪 you laughed and accepted their compliment.

keiji: maybe next time, you should draw me in a hakama.

🡪 now, should you? only kotaro knows the answer.

❛ 𑁍 note (ii): y’all want actual fanfic of this thing??? dm me/ask me, comment and reblog this, then, so i would know. hope you like this~

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #akaashi keiji #keiji akaashi #keiji x reader #akaashi x reader #haeyllasephone req

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and-then-there-were-n0ne · 4 years

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If scientific discoveries and technological developments split humankind into a mass of useless humans and a small elite of upgraded superhumans, or if authority shifts altogether away from human beings into the hands of highly intelligent algorithms, then liberalism will collapse. What new religions or ideologies might fill the resulting vacuum and guide the subsequent evolution of our godlike descendants?

The new religions are unlikely to emerge from the caves of Afghanistan or from the madrasas of the Middle East. Rather, they will emerge from research laboratories. Just as socialism took over the world by promising salvation through steam and electricity, so in the coming decades new techno-religions may conquer the world by promising salvation through algorithms and genes.

Despite all the talk of radical Islam and Christian fundamentalism, the most interesting place in the world from a religious perspective is not the Islamic State or the Bible Belt, but Silicon Valley. That’s where hi-tech gurus are brewing for us brave new religions that have little to do with God, and everything to do with technology. They promise all the old prizes – happiness, peace, prosperity and even eternal life – but here on earth with the help of technology, rather than after death with the help of celestial beings.

These new techno-religions can be divided into two main types: techno-humanism and data religion. Techno-humanism agrees that Homo sapiens as we know it has run its historical course and will no longer be relevant in the future, but concludes that we should therefore use technology in order to create Homo deus – a much superior human model. Homo deus will retain some essential human features, but will also enjoy upgraded physical and mental abilities that will enable it to hold its own even against the most sophisticated non-conscious algorithms. Since intelligence is decoupling from consciousness, and since non-conscious intelligence is developing at breakneck speed, humans must actively upgrade their minds if they want to stay in the game.

Dataism says that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any phenomenon or entity is determined by its contribution to data processing. This may strike you as some eccentric fringe notion, but in fact it has already conquered most of the scientific establishment. Dataism was born from the explosive confluence of two scientific tidal waves. In the 150 years since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, the life sciences have come to see organisms as biochemical algorithms. Simultaneously, in the eight decades since Alan Turing formulated the idea of a Turing Machine, computer scientists have learned to engineer increasingly sophisticated electronic algorithms. Dataism puts the two together, pointing out that exactly the same mathematical laws apply to both biochemical and electronic algorithms. Dataism thereby collapses the barrier between animals and machines, and expects electronic algorithms to eventually decipher and outperform biochemical algorithms.

For politicians, business people and ordinary consumers, Dataism offers groundbreaking technologies and immense new powers. For scholars and intellectuals it also promises to provide the scientific holy grail that has eluded us for centuries: a single overarching theory that unifies all the scientific disciplines from literature and musicology to economics and biology. According to Dataism, King Lear and the flu virus are just two patterns of data flow that can be analysed using the same basic concepts and tools. This idea is extremely attractive. It gives all scientists a common language, builds bridges over academic rifts and easily exports insights across disciplinary borders. Musicologists, political scientists and cell biologists can finally understand each other.

In the process, Dataism inverts the traditional pyramid of learning. Hitherto, data was seen as only the first step in a long chain of intellectual activity. Humans were supposed to distil data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. However, Dataists believe that humans can no longer cope with the immense flows of data, hence they cannot distil data into information, let alone into knowledge or wisdom. The work of processing data should therefore be entrusted to electronic algorithms, whose capacity far exceeds that of the human brain. In practice, this means that Dataists are sceptical about human knowledge and wisdom, and prefer to put their trust in Big Data and computer algorithms.

Dataism is most firmly entrenched in its two mother disciplines: computer science and biology. Of the two, biology is the more important. It was the biological embracement of Dataism that turned a limited breakthrough in computer science into a world-shattering cataclysm that may completely transform the very nature of life. You may not agree with the idea that organisms are algorithms, and that giraffes, tomatoes and human beings are just different methods for processing data. But you should know that this is current scientific dogma, and that it is changing our world beyond recognition.

Not only individual organisms are seen today as data-processing systems, but also entire societies such as beehives, bacteria colonies, forests and human cities. Economists increasingly interpret the economy, too, as a data-processing system. Laypeople believe that the economy consists of peasants growing wheat, workers manufacturing clothes, and customers buying bread and underpants. Yet experts see the economy as a mechanism for gathering data about desires and abilities, and turning this data into decisions.

According to this view, free-market capitalism and state-controlled communism aren’t competing ideologies, ethical creeds or political institutions. At bottom, they are competing data-processing systems. Capitalism uses distributed processing, whereas communism relies on centralised processing.

Capitalism did not defeat communism because capitalism was more ethical, because individual liberties are sacred or because God was angry with the heathen communists. Rather, capitalism won the Cold War because distributed data processing works better than centralised data processing, at least in periods of accelerating technological changes. The central committee of the Communist Party just could not deal with the rapidly changing world of the late twentieth century. When all data is accumulated in one secret bunker, and all important decisions are taken by a group of elderly apparatchiks, you can produce nuclear bombs by the cartload, but you won’t get an Apple or a Wikipedia.

There is a story (probably apocryphal, like most good stories) that when Mikhail Gorbachev tried to resuscitate the moribund Soviet economy, he sent one of his chief aids to London to find out what Thatcherism was all about, and how a capitalist system actually functioned. The hosts took their Soviet visitor on a tour of the City, of the London stock exchange and of the London School of Economics, where he had lengthy talks with bank managers, entrepreneurs and professors. After a few hours, the Soviet expert burst out: ‘Just one moment, please. Forget about all these complicated economic theories. We have been going back and forth across London for a whole day now, and there’s one thing I cannot understand. Back in Moscow, our finest minds are working on the bread supply system, and yet there are such long queues in every bakery and grocery store. Here in London live millions of people, and we have passed today in front of many shops and supermarkets, yet I haven’t seen a single bread queue. Please take me to meet the person in charge of supplying bread to London. I must learn his secret.’ The hosts scratched their heads, thought for a moment, and said: ‘Nobody is in charge of supplying bread to London.’

That’s the capitalist secret of success. No central processing unit monopolises all the data on the London bread supply. The information flows freely between millions of consumers and producers, bakers and tycoons, farmers and scientists. Market forces determine the price of bread, the number of loaves baked each day and the research-and-development priorities. If market forces make the wrong decision, they soon correct themselves, or so capitalists believe. For our current purposes, it doesn’t matter whether the theory is correct. The crucial thing is that the theory understands economics in terms of data processing.

[…] Dataism naturally has its critics and heretics. As we saw in Chapter 3, it’s doubtful whether life can really be reduced to data flows. In particular, at present we have no idea how or why data flows could produce consciousness and subjective experiences. Maybe we’ll have a good explanation in twenty years. But maybe we’ll discover that organisms aren’t algorithms after all.

It is equally doubtful whether life boils down to decision-making. Under Dataist influence, both the life sciences and the social sciences have become obsessed with decision-making processes, as if that’s all there is to life. But is it so? Sensations, emotions and thoughts certainly play an important part in making decisions, but is that their sole meaning? Dataism gains a better and better understanding of decision-making processes, but it might be adopting an increasingly skewed view of life.

[…] Of course, even if Dataism is wrong and organisms aren’t just algorithms, it won’t necessarily prevent Dataism from taking over the world. Many previous religions gained enormous popularity and power despite their factual mistakes. If Christianity and communism could do it, why not Dataism? Dataism has especially good prospects, because it is currently spreading across all scientific disciplines. A unified scientific paradigm may easily become an unassailable dogma. It is very difficult to contest a scientific paradigm, but up till now, no single paradigm was adopted by the entire scientific establishment. Hence scholars in one field could always import heretical views from outside. But if everyone from musicologists to biologists uses the same Dataist paradigm, interdisciplinary excursions will serve only to strengthen the paradigm further. Consequently even if the paradigm is flawed, it would be extremely difficult to resist it.

- Yuval Noah Harari, The Data Religion in Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

#yuval noah harari #homo deus: a brief history of tomorrow #homo deus

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morshtalon · 6 years

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Dragon Quest

What would be the consequence in the videogame industry if Dragon Quest never existed?

For those who somehow don’t know yet, Dragon Quest, released as Dragon Warrior overseas due to some complications with trademarks, while there is some controversy as to what was truly entirely pioneered by it, is credited as the first game to embrace and present the common tropes we associate with classic, console jRPGs today. Even if those credits can be contested, however, it still bears undeniable meta importance within the zeitgeist of japanese gaming, and countless upon countless games can have their origins traced back into DQ’s legacy...

For example, Mr. Shigesato Itoi would use it as direct inspiration for his mother series (the first game bearing many similarities to Dragon Quest with some fresh coatings of paint), which later went on to itself inspire a certain game called Undertale, don’t know if you’ve heard about it?

For further example, there’s this one series called Final Fantasy that basically owes every aspect of its existence to Dragon Quest, considering most of its own games are improvements and twists on mechanics taken from DQ’s own installments. How’s that one doing now?

Also, if you scroll down a bit, you’ll come across my Lufia 1 review. Give it a read while thinking about this, if you could.

In any case, it’s interesting to form this “genealogy” and view just exactly how powerful an impact one thing can have within its medium.

That said, it is essentially a 1986 game with few guidelines driving its design, drawn from its own inspirations in the Wizardry and Ultima series of western RPGs, which can have their lineage traced back to dungeons and dragons, which emerged from tabletop wargames, which... anyway, I digress. Nowadays jRPG gaming has evolved into something far, far apart from DQ’s idiosyncrasies, going on to develop idiosyncrasies of its own, and therefore with modern eyes the game doesn’t even feel like it belongs in the same place. I’ve read reviewers having trouble distinguishing nostalgia from things that are actual merits of the game, and the answer to the question of whether it is an antiquated piece of vaporware belonging in a museum or the aforementioned different approach to concepts that have drifted away over the years is difficult to answer with that state of mind. The first time I played DQ to completion was in 2018, so bearing absolutely no nostalgia for it, I will aim to answer this question in the clearest manner possible.

Dragon Quest is the story of one lone dude with historically inaccurate viking headwear on a bloodline-driven quest to square off against a not-ancient (!!!) evil dude, who took an incandescent lightbulb (that really has no point being there at all), painted it black so the light wouldn’t shine through the coating and that resulted in the land being overrun with monsters conveniently spread out from his fortress to the hero’s starting position in a balanced scaling level of difficulty, in order to provide the hero with the opportunity to build up his muscles and learn healmore eventually because you can’t win the game without it. In the way, there are no plot surprises, there are no rivals, heck, there aren ‘t even any friends (though there is one quite friendly character), you have one major goal given to you right at the start that never changes and one minor one that’s entirely optional and also pretty much given to you at the same point, a cute little world to explore, a few puzzle-esque minor hoops to jump through in order to reach the final dungeon (which together probably don’t amount to half an hour) and tons and tons and TONS of level grinding to do. But how does it execute it all?

Depending on what you’re looking for, holding dragon quest up to scrutiny with the most recently released wizardry or ultima at the time is akin to comparing a book to a movie: many of the complexities and raw content of the formats being used are eschewed in favor of a simpler, trimmed-out experience with a more visual approach (which is humorous now considering the intense density of text contained in DQ in comparison to modern games). Yuji Horii intentionally designed the game to be an experience that newcomers would find easy to learn but veterans would still dive into the intricacies of the mechanics. There is only one party member, only one enemy per battle, only 2 stats besides HP and MP, spells are few and perform simplistic effects, equipment follows a straightforward progression with no multiple choices to he found and the list goes on. To that end I must say I don’t agree with the second part or Mr. Horii’s statement: of course there ARE people who dissected the entire game and have figured out, mattered and exposed every single assembly line there is about this product, but only liminal knowledge of the mechanics is required for one to complete the game, and there is an at best marginal need to even know what’s going on in order to play it with reasonable success; there is just THAT little to it. The most complex strategies involved in the battles amount to casting sleep or stopspell beforehand to prevent enemies from murdering you if you are at a suboptimal level and otherwise wailing away until one or the other gives in.

Is it possible, then, that one of the pivotal and more dearly beloved games in history only achieved its success due to favorable circumstances and a nice (at the time) coating of paint hiding an otherwise non-daring and understimulating product?

...Yes. It is entirely possible. It’s happened many times before with other media, and it’s happened many times since. So is the game a piece of shit? Well... that’s a more complicated answer.

You see, with many future dragon quest games; there’s always something or other I can pinpoint as being a particularity pioneered or otherwise codified and popularized by dragon quest. For example: 2 made popular the common party member progression utilized in many RPG’s throughout time; 3 brought party customization and archetypes (mostly reworked from its blood fathers) into the mainstream; 4 had that AI controlled party member thing and a creative chapter-based method of storytelling (not to mention having a plot back in the day), and so on. Up until now, I hadn’t been able to do the same for the first installment; as previously showcased, the game doesn’t really have innovation, it’s just a simplified version of older stuff.

Then it hit me: the keyword I’ve been looking all along is structure. It’s so obvious to me now that it baffles me I hadn’t thought of it beforehand.

Allow me to illustrate: Ultima barely knew what to even do with its numbers. Levels didn’t serve any purpose for at least 2 games, HP was gained extremely arbitrarily and so were weapons, dungeons also served little to no purpose and there were more red herrings in the game than not-red herrings. Wizardry was more functional but no less loose; party members were these transient things that sort of mattered but sort of didn’t, stats rose and fell in a completely arbitrary fashion and it was once again difficult to discern any practical function in them whatsoever (there are still discussions nowadays about what exactly they do, with only at best vague answers based on more common sense things). Dragon Quest, in its simplicity, had a clear-cut, very obvious flow, everything does exactly what you think it does, nothing is ever lost arbitrarily and items and equipment are beseeched and acquired in 100% non-obtuse, sensical and understandable fashion with no need for peripherals outside the game. This set the base for further development and complexity as the series went on without ever losing track of the main, core design principle of “anyone could pick this up and spend very little time internalizing the concepts herein”. As the complexity began to accumulate, Horii’s statement forged its path to full realization, and along with Dragon Quest, basically every single jRPG followed suit in its advances.

Therefore, this game’s -practical- importance is still, in my opinion, entirely credulous and valid; it’s a stepping stone and a filter, in its reductiveness refashioning dated concepts and sculpting the mindset of players for the ushering in of a new, refined design philosophy, one which would be built upon by its own successors too, but also its peers, all collectively working to fully inject and transform RPG gameplay into the idiossyncratic identity it retains in electronic gaming to this day.

So, that’s all nice and good to discuss, but what is one’s emotion and response when actually playing the game?

There’s no way to answer this question outside of 100% personal input, so in my humble opinion, it’s enjoyable-ish for the right mindset. I already went into it knowing that I would have to appreciate some stuff more conceptually than practically, and I did in fact get enthralled by its offbeat quirks, for what it’s worth. The game really is one “big” item collection puzzle, almost a simplified King’s Quest if you took out the battles, and this worldwide exploration quest would go on to dominate early DQ’s core mindset, with 5 being the first one to break away from it and offer a more linear progression. Frankly, I really enjoy the fact that these old games can get away with disregarding logic sometimes in favor of making the puzzles more interesting (i.e. abusing map boundaries to circle around city walls and access a secret area), and I’m glad the precedent, for a while, was set with DQ, without going overboard with oblique design the way point and click games usually did - perhaps as a byproduct of the memory being busy handling the RPGness of it - and becoming far more fun for it. As previously stated, there is a lot of level grinding, and nothing can really prepare you from the hours of boredom walking left and right waiting for a random encounter, which does act in the game's detriment, but the remakes have softened up the chore I guess so there’s always that option.

Synthesizing the museum piece and actual game aspect of it, Dragon Quest, to me, deserves a 6 out of 10. It is, unfortunately, too simplistic to warrant any higher a rank, and focuses far too much of its time on gameplay that isn’t fun, almost enough to surprise me that the game fared so well, being so intimidating with its earlygame grinding. As I said, however, its importance hoists what fun the gameplay does have into bearably numbing status, and it will give you a feeling of accomplishment when you do strike that death blow against the final boss, like you completed an initiation ritual. I’d recommend it if you’re a genre enthusiast, but you probably already played it if you are so...

#game #rpg #review #criticism #dragon quest

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theoscout · 3 years

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do not reblog

There's a channel called misha miraculous who uploads ancient film reels about a character named Whirl, who looks like a fantasy version of an anglerfish. He's a MASSIVE JERK for a cartoon, and I'd say he was made in around 194x (AFTER wwii). Acts like Woody Woodpecker does. According to his creator (Paul), he's a berberoka. Paul was originally aiming to be a horror artist to try and put the trauma he's suffered through life into artwork, however at the time most publishers only published horror comics of a particular style. Paul couldn't make his drawings that style, but he tried very hard and was left with a series of drawings that looked the same. Realising he could get into animation instead of horror comics, he repurposed the stories he had written about Whirl (real name Whirlpool but no one aside from Paul knows that) and began to make short films about Whirl.

Whirl is obviously a villian protagonist that people aren't intended to sympathise with. Instead, according to Paul, they are intended to sympathise with the people he hurts along the way. Paul said in interviews in the reels that sometimes there are villians in life that you can't escape from no matter how much you hate them or wish you could, and he wanted his work to show that. But he also wanted to show that said villians could be beaten and weren't invincible. Paul explains that berberoka in mythology are cryptids that would suck the water out of swamps and let all the dead fish lie at the bottom, to lure in fishermen to collect the fish. Once they were within range the berberoka would release all the water and attack and eat the fishermen while they were struggling with the influx of water. He designed Whirl to look like an anglerfish because they too lure in their prey before eating them. Whirl was never seen directly killing anyone in the cartoons, but he was a tricky kind of sadist who liked to pull people into playing awful kinds of games. (Whirl is magic and goes by whatever gender suits him at the time btw) She would do things like make miraculous inventions that in secret would make the lives of the person she sold them to far worse.

Whirl's inventions were like Wile.E.Coyote in terms of absurdity, but the difference was that they almost always worked perfectly until the victim figured out a way to turn them against her and escape his influence. So Whirl was quite a bit darker than most cartoon protagonists at the time.

Paul said that he had based Whirl off many people he actually knew, and that he didn't feel confident enough to write other central characters. He had anxiety which gave him self confidence issues and often led to him thinking of only the worst case scenarios which he would then fuel for his cartoon series. He argued against people who thought that having a berberoka as a character in a cartoon would be too dark for audiences by saying that the brothers Grimm would write tales far darker than what he did, and people tell them to their children all the time anyway.

Now for more on Paul and his family. Paul Fernsby was the middle child of a pair we shall call Mr and Mrs Fernsby. Their oldest child, Sean Fernsby, passed away around 5 years ago due to organ failure caused by severe stress and alcoholism. Their youngest child, Carrie Fernsby, is a mechanic. She struggled frequently in her job and school due to the stronger gender discrimination there, and as a result had to share a home with Paul in order to be more financially stable. Mr and Mrs Fernsby are AWFUL people. They aren't evil, they're the kind of insufferable pricks that think they're morally above everyone and that they're always right. Sean always wanted to be a dancer, for instance, but Mr and Mrs thought that was a job unsuitable for a man and refused to let him dance, instead forcing him to cut contact with all of his friends and force him to study to become a mechanic. Carrie and Paul both strongly believe that this played a major role in Sean's fall into alcoholism, but Mr and Mrs are still in denial. They insist that they *extended* Sean's life, and that Sean was just unhealthy to begin with and that a life on the stage would have killed him quicker. So they haven't learned anything about his death. What's more, despite opposing Carrie's early attempts to be a mechanic and trying to force her into being an obedient housewife for a future husband, when she finally got successful they took all the credit for her success and said that she was delusional and complained too much.

As for Paul? Well, Paul's a special case.

From a young age he had a special gift. The ability to see and hear things that no one else could. As a child he would frequently point out ghosts and fey that he occasionally saw in gardens or staring from nature reserves from a distance away, but no one else saw them so he kept his mouth shut. Originally his parents would yell at him for drawing when he could have been studying, so as a teenager he left offerings for the fey and asked for advice. And one day... something ancient and powerful began to answer him.

The creature identified itself as a pelagic god, but more specifically a ghost of one. According to the creature, it was once extremely powerful and was a tyrant of the land with it's powers thriving off the spread of fear. but eventually the people who once knew about it moved or passed away and it faded into weakness and irrelevency. So in exhange for making people fear it again, the god would grant Paul the power to live life as he pleased. Paul knew enough about fey to keep himself safe, and he kept the god a secret from everyone. The god didn't care what was going on in the cartoons, only provided that people feared her avatar. And Paul could provide for that just fine.

Eventually, Paul felt safe enough to confide in Carrie about the existence of the god, and Carrie built a special machine that would allow the god to communicate easier with people. They set very strict rules about how much communication there was, because neither of them trusted the god enough to let it close to them. Plus, with the success from the cartoons, the god was growins stronger.

The god granted Paul with massive viewer success the stronger it grew, and a lot of luck. No one knew about its existence, but the fear and awe from the cartoons would be enough to sustain it. Though they worked for each other in a mutually beneficial way, they still held a great deal of mistrust. Paul did not trust the god and some of her suggestions to problems he had were extremely disturbing. Plus, she had threatened to curse a number of people who 'got in the way' of Paul, and Paul had retaliated by threatening to stop producing the cartoon if she did that. Meanwhile, the god had been asking for Paul to reveal its existence so that more fear would be caused, or commit a crime, which he obviously refused.

Actually you know what? Forget the stuff I wrote about the pelagic god earlier, I got something that makes more sense.

Paul nicknames the deity the Unsiren because sirens are mythological creatures who sing to lure people onto rocks to drown, and the deity is a creature that screams from a cave to frighten away people and warn of dangerous currents. Unsiren was the deitiy who lived by the sea and was associated with fear, loud noises and the ocean. The tribe who lived there were constantly in danger from the sea, which they relied on for food but was too unpredictable for them to approach safely. Due to the geography of the underwater coastline, the tides were extremely unpredictable at random times of the day with little to no pattern. Think of the Bolten Strid from Britan- an innocuous looking stream which is actually a massive canyon filled with rapids that sucks you under and kills you the moment you set foot in it. That was how dangerous the water around the coast was.

But there was one way to tell about the danger. There was a cave in the side of the cliff, and at certain points when water would rush through it a certain way, the sounds produced sounded like whispering or roaring from some terrifying beast. At first the tribespeople feared the unseen creature, but eventually they learned to intrepret the noises of the ocean into ways that would lead them to fish safely. Their explanation for the sounds was that a massive creature who was too frightening to look at was trapped behind the raging rapids by some malicious fey, but then learned to use its frightening voice for good by warning people of the dangerous tide. So they prayed to the sea cave and the monster murmering behind the rocks to be there to warn of any changes in the tide, and would throw offerings of food into the sea in order to earn its favor.

But centuries of erosion meant that eventually, the sea cliffs that mutilated the dangerous currents and gave the sea cave its voice no longer existed. So with that, the stories of the great beast hiding beyond the rapids began to fade away, and so did their desire for the Unsiren to speak for them. The stories began to grow increasingly obscure, until one day the tribe went to war with invaders and suffered heavy losses. The few who still retained knowledge of the beast beyond the cave no longer existed to spread the story, and the creature faded into a strange purgatory.

The Unsiren isn't evil, but she is frightening by nature. She will go for the hard truth over any sugarcoated encouragement any day, and isn't afraid to speak up. Paul's ability to see into her realm and speak with the inhabitence there interested her greatly, and so did his desire to create. She made a deal with him to prevent herself from dying completely: provided that he could create a series that carried on her life's work, she would reward him with safety and stability whenever she could.

Her life's work was simply warning people about danger. More specifically water related dangers, but she could adapt to that. Paul designed Whirl in mind as a personified representation of the dangerous currents which now no longer existed, choosing him to be a berberoka because that seemed like the best fit. And Whirl's cartoons were made to warn about a variety of dangers, to children and adults. Abusive relationships, kidnappers, dangerous situations, peer pressure etc. The Unsiren had an avatar within the cartoon series, but that wasn't Whirl as the audience might be lead to believe at first. Instead, she's the narrator character. The voice of reason that usually goes unlistened to until the very end. The one who existed in title cards, and as a kind of voiceover narrating the episodes sometimes while using Paul as a medium. No one figured out how Paul was able to make himself sound like that, not even him.

Paul still didn't fully trust Unsiren at first, but she acknowledges that it was wise on his part. After all, it's in her nature to be frightening. Even if she is anything but evil.

#posting for convenience's sake here #my writing

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phantom-le6 · 3 years

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 (4 of 6)

With just over half of season 7 of Star Trek: The Next Generation behind us, we now delve into a fourth group of episodes from that season, beginning with the highly notable ‘Lower Decks’.

Episode 15: Lower Decks

Plot (as given by me):

The episode focuses on a group of junior officers assigned to the Enterprise. The group is comprised of Nurse Alyssa Ogawa and Ensigns Sam Lavelle, Sito Jaxa and Taurik. Sito and Lavelle are both anxious about upcoming promotions, and learn from Ben, one of the waiters in Ten-Forward, that both are being considered for an assignment to the Ops position on the bridge. Alyssa is later told by Dr Crusher that she will soon be made a lieutenant, and the two women also discuss concerns Alyssa is having about her relationship with Lt. Andrew Powell.

The junior officer all become curious when the Enterprise beams aboard an escape pod under an apparent cloak of secrecy, Lt. Commander La Forge briefly reprimanding Taurik when he tries to identify the pod’s occupant. At the same time, Captain Picard calls Sito to his ready room and gives her a severe dressing down for her part in the Starfleet Academy incident seen in the season 5 episode ‘The First Duty’. Taurik later begins to suspect something is going on when he asked to assist La Forge in putting phaser blasts on a shuttle’s hull. The junior officers and Ben discuss recent events that evening during a poker game, while the senior officers do the same in Riker’s quarters. When the first game ends, Ben stops by Riker’s quarters and gets himself invited into their game.

The next morning, Lt. Worf asks Sito to remain behind following a martial arts class he has been teaching. He subjects her to a challenge that requires her to defend against his attack while blind-folded, and after a few tries Sito stands up to Worf and tells him the test is unfair. Worf then reveals that was the whole point; to make Sito stand up for herself when she feels she has not been treated fairly. She then returns to the captain’s ready room and insists Picard judge for who she is now, not the mistake she made as a cadet. It is then Picard’s turn to reveal that him berating her was to assess for a dangerous mission, and that she had been assigned to the Enterprise in the first place so she could have a fair chance to prove herself.

It turns out the Enterprise has beamed aboard a Cardassian double-agent working for the Federation. The Cardassian, Joret Dal, now has to try and get back into Cardassian space without arousing suspicion; he will take the shuttle damaged by La Forge and Taurik to give the impression he is a bounty hunter who has escaped Federation custody, and Sito is asked to pose as his prisoner. Once Dal is back in Cardassian space, Sito will be sent back across the border in an escape pod. Despite the dangers, Sito agrees and is cosmetically altered to give the appearance of having been beaten by Dal. During the shuttle trip, Sito learns that while Dal is loyal to Cardassia, he is supporting the Federation because he feels the military is more about serving the ambitions of high-ranking officers than the people of Cardassia.

Sometime later, the escape pod fails to appear at the pre-arranged co-ordinates, and Picard risks sending a probe into Cardassian space despite it being a treaty violation. The probe’s telemetry and intercepted Cardassian communications reveal that Sito was apparently killed in her escape attempt, and Picard sadly informs the crew of her passing. Later, Lavelle receives his promotion and assignment to Ops, and Ben convinces Worf to join the rest of Sito’s friends in mourning her apparent death.

Review:

The episode ‘Lower Decks’ is not to be confused with the animated Trek spin-off series; that series is part of this episode’s legacy, and a poor part at that. I haven’t sat down and watched any of it, mind, but I can see from trailers it’s been made somewhat in the style of the Rick and Morty animated series, which I tried an episode of once and promptly put to my ‘never watch even on pain of death’ list. Like Rick and Morty, and South Park before that, the ‘Lower Decks’ show seems to be based on the idea of using crudeness and vulgarity for cheap laughs instead of trying to be intelligent, and I hate comedies like that. I also hate anything designed to be a spoof of something I enjoy, which is undoubtedly the only other gear that show would have. Frankly, Trek deserves better; as much as it can and does have its comedic moments, the core of the franchise is about developing the characters of the show and exploring real-life issues through metaphor. Neither is generally the province of a sit-com, and for that reason I blank the ‘Lower Decks’ cartoon as a part of Trek to never try at all. Just toss it out the airlock and blast it into nothingness with phasers, would you please.

That aside, the episode ‘Lower Decks’ has better aspects to its legacy. A later episode of the Voyager spin-off followed a similar theme, and the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV show did a number of episodes across a few seasons collectively referred to as ‘Lab Rats’ episodes. In those episodes, the focus shifted from the CSIs who go out and deal with crime scenes to the lab technicians who process the evidence. Clearly there is a ‘Lower Decks’ influence in those episodes, and one does actually take place around a convention dedicated to a Trek-like TV show. It’s certainly a fun idea; take the focus off the main crew and focus on the wider crew, albeit with focus still on a set group of characters.

The inclusion and prominence of Ensign Sito really helps the episode feel like proper Trek, because through her part of the episode we get a look into the idea of redemption and can someone who has done wrong in the past become someone worthwhile again. It’s a concept many people in the real world will discount out-of-hand, choosing to believe that if someone has committed a crime or struggles with addiction to anything, they are somehow fundamentally beyond redemption. In some cases, that can be true, especially if no one is willing to help the people in question work out the underlying causes of their behaviour so they can adequately combat them. Sito is lucky to have people like Picard and Worf show the faith in her that they ultimately do, and it’s unfortunate that her story appears to have so tragic an end.

However, the tragic end is kind of the point; the story is somewhat a coming-of-age story as well, as it shows Sito and Lavelle seeking promotion and advancement as they settle in on the Enterprise, and while Alyssa Ogawa also gains promotion, the advancement of her relationship with an unseen lieutenant is more the focus of her plot. It’s also fun to see the inclusion of a member of the civilian staff in Ten-Forward, as at this point Trek hasn’t focused on many characters that aren’t officers in Starfleet or a non-Federation power while also being human. Taurik adds little to the show itself beyond compensating for TNG’s low quota of Vulcans, but the actor does go on to play another Vulcan as a recurring character on Voyager. Overall, aside from the dodgy animated show in its legacy, I can’t really fault this episode at all, and give it top marks; 10 out of 10.

Episode 16: Thine Own Self

Plot (as given by me):

Counsellor Troi returns to the Enterprise from a class reunion and is surprised to find Dr Crusher commanding the night shift instead of Lt. Commander Data. Crusher explains Data has gone on a mission to retrieve radioactive material from a deep-space probe that has crashed on Barkon IV, a planet which is populated by a pre-industrial society. The Enterprise is unable to communicate with Data to advise him of a delay in meeting him, but Crusher is unconcerned as Lt. Commander La Forge warned that radiation from the probe would cause communication problems. The two women discuss why Crusher has earned herself the rank of Commander, since it is not a requirement to be chief medical officer. Apparently, Crusher wanted to push herself beyond what was necessarily required of her. Wanting the same, Troi decides to take the Bridge Officer’s exam so she can also become a Commander. She passes all parts of the exam easily except for the Engineering section, but after several tries, she succeeds when she realises the test is not of her engineering knowledge, but her willingness to order one officer to their death to save everyone else.

On Barkon IV, Data wanders into a village apparently damaged and with no memory of who he is, carrying a box bearing the word ‘radioactive’. He is taken in by the village magistrate Garvin and his daughter Gia, who names him “Jayden”. Talur, the village healer and teacher, tries to assess Data’s memory loss and determines that he is not ill, but is instead part of a race of “icemen” who dwell in the nearby mountains. In need of money, Data is convinced to sell some of the pieces of metal he had in the box to a local blacksmith, Skoran, retaining the rest in case in case they provide any clue to his identity. He also saves a man when an anvil collapses on him, revealing his incredible strength to the villagers.

Later, Garvin becomes stricken with a mysterious ailment, with Gia and Skoran also being afflicted not long after. Most of the villagers blame Data, who begins conducting research into the cause of the illness. He determines that unseen particles are being emitted by the metal fragments from his box. He asks Talur to retrieve all the pieces of metal while he works on a cure, but shortly after she leaves, Skoran arrives with another of the villagers. The pair attack Data, one of them ripping the skin from the side of his face and revealing his mechanical nature, causing them to flee in terror. Talur finishes retrieving the metal fragments while Skoran organises the villagers into a mob to search for Data, who has hidden in Garvin’s house and reveals himself only when everyone else has gone. He has put on a hood to hide his face, but Gia convinces him to remove the hood as he continues his search for a cure to the radiation sickness.

Data’s cure proves successful on Garvin, so he administers some to Gia and learns from her that the village well is the only water source near the village. In order to sure everyone, Data opts to apply the cure to the well’s drinking water, but is found by the villagers just as he is doing so. The cure is dumped into the well water just in time, as Skoran impales Data, seemingly killing him. Days later, Dr Crusher and Commander Riker infiltrate the village disguised as natives to the planet. They find the villagers have buried Data and the box containing the radioactive fragments, enabling both to be beamed up to the Enterprise without the villagers knowing. Back on the Enterprise, Data is reactivated, but he has no memory of his time as “Jayden”, and learns that Troi has been promoted in his absence, meaning that she now effectively out-ranks him.

Review:

Apparently, the Data side of this episode was pitched as “Data as Frankenstein” according to Memory Alpha, and depending on how that is meant, I’d be very worried about the intelligence of the person making the pitch. If the idea was that Data should be the outcast scientist who others shunned for his advanced ideas, then the pitch is correct. If, however, they meant Data as a monster, then as Kryten once noted in the Red Dwarf episode ‘Quarantine’, whoever made the pitch was a truly stupid person. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which is the original story from which all subsequent variations have been derived, Frankenstein was the scientist who created a monster from the bodies of the deceased, not the monster itself. Every version that has identified its monster as Frankenstein has been a misconception, and frankly I wish they’d all carry disclaimers to say they’re getting it wrong.

For me, though, that side of the episode didn’t do much for me. It doesn’t advance Data to any degree as a character, though watching it in the here and now, I suppose there’s some retroactive analogy to those idiots in society who ignore or deny sound science whenever it clashes with what they believe or what they think they know. For all intents and purposes, the villagers who mob up with Skoran against Data are this episode’s equivalent to every anti-vaccine, 3G-paranoid, climate-change-denying conspiracy nut yahoo wasting space, food and air that would better be used on actual human beings. It’s such a shame that teaching them the folly of their ways wasn’t really how this episode played out, as I would have loved the morons to get some kind of comeuppance for acting like a bunch of in-bred superstitious fools.

As for the Troi storyline, it was kind of interesting to see her go after a promotion, but again it was flawed in various aspects. First of all, Troi has spent ages being on the bridge of the Enterprise. Surely in order to be stationed on the bridge for any length of time, she would need to be a certified bridge officer. Why was it a bridge officer’s exam that she had to take when she’d been on the bridge for many episodes already? Second, Data is supposed to be the ship’s second officer, so logically he needs to retain equal or higher rank than everyone except the captain and first officer. However, now he has both the doctor and the ship’s counsellor out-ranking him.

How the hell does that work? You can’t have underling officers out-ranking their bloody superior. This isn’t like M*A*S*H where rank is purely a formality and you can have a chief surgeon be fairly low on the officer ranks just for being good. Starfleet is supposed to be based on a more traditional and strict military hierarchy, and to my mind Data should have been promoted off-screen sometime before this to keep his second officer position and his rank consistent within the context of all other ranks on board. For me, this episode was barely ok, and only earns 4 out of 10.

Episode 17: Masks

Plot (as given by me):

The Enterprise discovers a comet and begins to scan it, only to receive some kind of feedback that forces them to reduce the intensity of their scan. Later, Lt. Commander Data sculpts a mask while attending a class Counsellor Troi is conducting with the school children on board. The mask is remarkable for two reasons; the first is that Data was having trouble demonstrating imagination in his sculpting earlier, the second is that matching symbols then begin to appear on the computer console of one of the children. More symbols appear at other terminals, which Data is somehow able to read, and strange artefacts bearing more of the symbols begin appearing all over the ship.

It turns out the comet contains an alien informational archive that is using a transformation program to transform the Enterprise into something resembling its native culture. The program has also affected Data, who begins to manifest different personalities, most of which appear to be ritualistic representations of the deities of the alien culture. After numerous failed attempts to halt or reverse the process, Captain Picard finally succeeds in restoring the Enterprise when he confronts the most powerful of Data’s personas in the guise of a counter-part deity. The transformation program is disabled by Lt. Commander La Forge and a Federation archaeology team is dispatched to study the archive further. Only the mask Data made himself remains, and Picard notes that Data’s recent experience transcends the human condition, as he has just been the embodiment of an entire civilisation.

Review:

For me, this episode more than any other betrays just how bad TNG was getting towards its end. It’s not a surprise considering the way Trek was spreading itself thin at the time this show’s final season was in production. You’ve got a new series and a feature film in pre-production while also wrapping up TNG and putting out a second season of Deep Space Nine. That said, this episode still could have been better. Apparently, it was based on an idea about doing an alien analogue for the Library of Alexandria, and an original script originally explained the archive was a kind of “advanced Genesis Device” that mistook the Enterprise for a world it could reshape into the world it originally came from.

If this is indeed the case, then frankly the idea that they would chuck the explanation and keep the Enterprise as the thing being transformed seems stupid. You need to explain the what and why of the archive for it to make sense, and having it change the Enterprise and make Data go into “weirdness for weirdness’ sake” mode is just unutterably stupid. They should have not only kept the archive as a terraforming kind of device, but also had it try to alter a planet. There could have been some debate then about how to handle it, weighing up whether the archive needed to be destroyed, allowed to take its course, etc. Instead, we just get a non-sensical clunker of an episode that is best forgotten. I give this one a lowly 4 out of 10, the points largely going to Patrick Stewart for delivering another great performance as Picard the archaeologist despite the episode turning out rubbish all around him.

Episode 18: Eye of the Beholder

Plot (as given by me):

Following the suicide of Lt. Daniel Kwan in the nacelle tube control room, Lt. Worf and Counsellor Troi are assigned to investigate the death to determine why it happened. Reviewing his logs and talking to his superior officer and his girlfriend reveal no behaviours that would suggest Kwan had any intention of taking his own life. Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Data reveals to Geordi La Forge that he once contemplated committing an act that would have been similar to suicide; in the early months after his activation, Data began to struggle incorporating new pathways into his neural net, and considered starting from scratch, thereby self-terminating the person he had become. However, Data notes he instead opted to look at the situation as a challenge to overcome instead of a problem to avoid. Geordi commends Data on this attitude and laments Kwan apparently being unable to do the same.

Troi visits the nacelle tube control room, and is overwhelmed by an empathic flood of emotions from no apparent source. Unable to make sense of the emotional barrage, Troi opts to try again, but is asked to wait while her telepathic neurotransmitter levels return to normal. While waiting for this, Troi and Worf talk further, after which Worf goes to Ten-Forward and tries to hint to Commander Riker that he may seek his permission to court Troi. However, Worf backs off when Riker’s comments suggest he’s about to suspect Worf’s possible intention. Later, Worf and Troi return to the nacelle tube control room. When no psychic flashes occur, Troi asks Word to open the maintenance door. This prompts a psychic experience in which Troi experiences the control room as it was eight years ago when the Enterprise was being constructed. The experience shows her a couple being found in a compromising position and laughing at the discoverer, and then the women of the couple apparently being killed.

Knowing Kwan had served at the ship yard where the Enterprise was constructed, Troi researches further and learns an officer in Engineering, Lt. Walter Pearce, also served at the same ship yard and is now serving on the Enterprise. She also remembers seeing Pearce in her visions, so she and Worf question him. While she cannot gauge the truthfulness of Pearce’s replies empathically, the fact she can’t do this suggests Pearce is partly telepathic. A discussion between Troi and Worf about this leads to the pair making love in Troi’s quarters. The next day they continue the investigation, but Troi gradually grows increasingly suspicious as she notices what seems to be flirting behaviour between Worf and Lt. Kwan’s girlfriend Ensign Maddy Calloway. Geordi finds a skeleton behind a bulkhead in the nacelle tube control room, the remains of which belong to a Marla Finn, the woman in Troi’s visions. Troi deduces her visions were from Pearce’s perspective, and she and Worf go to confront Pearce about the apparent homicide of Finn. However, Troi begs off due to her growing suspicions, which she passes off as a side-effect of a neural suppressant Dr Crusher has given her to assist her in processing her vision.

Pearce confronts Troi in her quarters and claims Worf told him to report to her. While other security officers take Pearce into custody, Troi tracks Worf to Ensign Calloway’s quarters and finds them kissing. When the pair begin to laugh at Troi, she kills Worf with a phaser. Horrified at what she’s done, Troi races away, and after encountering Pearce in the corridor, she races to the nacelle tube control room to commit suicide as Kwan did. However, before she can hurl herself into the plasma stream, she is pulled back from the edge by Worf, who much to her relief is still alive. It turns out everything from Worf opening the maintenance door to him stopping Troi’s suicide attempt took place in seconds.

Geordi finds cellular residue on the bulkhead where the dead body had been found in Troi’s visions. Apparently, Pearce, Finn and Finn’s lover William Hodges had been reported missing in a plasma accident during the ship’s construction. In reality, Pearce found out Finn was cheating on him, killed the couple, threw them into the plasma stream to cover up the murders and finally committed suicide. Due to having a Betazoid grandmother, Pearce was partially telepathic, and the manner of his death left a psychic imprint of the murder-suicide that affected Kwan and Troi. Worf then expresses curiosity about who had killed him in Troi’s visions, to which Troi responds “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

Review:

This episode is the first to try and follow up on the Troi-Worf romance that came up earlier this season in ‘Parallels’, with try being the operative word. While Worf clumsily tries and fails himself to drop a hint to Riker that he’s got his eyes set on Troi, most of the Worf-Troi romance plays out in Troi’s head. It’s annoying to see it happen like this, so for once I’m in agreement with Roddenberry’s ‘no dream sequences’ rule. Granted, I know Roddenberry also wanted this show to be very episodic television with no attempts at creating a continuity, so to speak, but at over two years after his death and with the show about to end, I’m thinking they should have been more daring. TNG audiences would have been ok with the Troi-Worf romance being pushed into reality at this point instead of later, so they should have just done it already.

Otherwise, the episode is just pure whodunnit mixed with a bit of Trek weirdness. It’s ok, but could have been miles better. How? Simple; they could have gotten Troi and Worf together in the real world and done it so there wouldn’t be a telepathic vision cop-out. I was also rather unimpressed with how the idea of suicide and possible depression was handled by this episode. Ok, so your character didn’t give any signs by way of being outwardly upset or stressed in the build-up to taking his own life? Guess what? That means sod all, as we’ve sadly seen with many recent celebrity suicides. The writers on this one should have really done some research to keep this aspect of the show more timeless. As it is, it betrays a very poor, very out-dated understanding about what emotions a person can display prior to killing themselves. If I was to try and find something in Trek that covered suicide well, this wouldn’t be it. Overall, I give this episode only 6 out of 10.

Episode 19: Genesis

Plot (as given by me):

During a shift in sickbay, several characters are being treated; Commander Riker is having cacti spines removed from his back following a mishap in the Enterprise arboretum, Lt. Commander Data has brought his pregnant cat Spot in for a check-up, and Lt. Barclay is after a second opinion after once again self-diagnosing a supposed ailment. Barclay turns out to have a mild case of Urodelan Flu, something most humans would be naturally immune to. However, the genes responsible for combatting the illness are dormant in Barclay’s case, so Dr Crusher activates them with a synthetic t-cell. Spot’s visit also reveals that the newly wed Nurse Ogawa is pregnant herself.

Later, the ship begins to conduct test exercises on upgrades recently made to the ship’s weapon systems by Lt. Worf. A photon torpedo used in the test goes off-course. Remote detonation commands fail and the torpedo is soon out of phaser range, forcing the Enterprise to send a shuttle to reclaim it. Captain Picard opts to fly the shuttle himself and asks Data to accompany him. As the mission may take longer than the remainder of Spot’s pregnancy, Data leaves his cat in the care of Lt. Barclay, the only other member of the crew Spot likes and will not attack if left with.

After Picard and Data leave, various members of the crew begin to exhibit unusual behaviour; Troi suddenly feels inexplicably cold and dehydrated, Commander Riker struggles to think clearly while Barclay is full of energy, and Worf is exhibiting signs of unusual aggression. After Worf comes into Troi’s quarters and bites her on the neck, both are taken to sick bay, where Worf inadvertently sprays venom from his mouth into Dr Crusher’s face before fleeing. Crusher is placed in stasis, and it soon reported that a viral-like contagion is loose on the Enterprise, causing unusual behaviours in the crew. At the same time, the venom Worf secretes is being found all over the ship and causing system damage. Riker, with the aid of acting first officer Lt. Commander La Forge, tries to handle the situation, but his inability to think is another sign of the growing illness.

Picard and Data ultimately return with the errant torpedo to find the Enterprise adrift. Once back on board, they begin trying to ascertain what has happened and regain control of the ship. Their investigations reveal that a synthetic t-cell is present in the crew, all of whom are apparently at varying stages of de-evolving into other forms of life. The t-cell apparently activates introns, fragments of dormant DNA left over from earlier stages in the evolutionary process. Examples of the effects include Riker becoming a proto-human, Troi becoming an amphibian life-form and Barclay beginning a transformation into a spider. Discovery that Spot has mutated into a lizard but that her new-born kittens are unaffected suggests that amniotic fluid may provide the basis for a cure.

As Nurse Ogawa has recently become pregnant, Data begins to devise a counter-agent using a sample of her amniotic fluid. However, Worf begins trying to break into sickbay to reach Counsellor Troi using his abilities as a far deadlier but less intelligent proto-Klingon lifeform. Picard, despite the fact he is beginning a devolution into a prey-level form of early primate, uses a concentrate of Troi’s pheromones to lure Worf away from sickbay, eventually subduing him in a Jeffries tube by electrocuting him. This buys Data the time he needs to synthesise and release an airborne counter-agent that reverses the devolution. Later, a recovered Dr Crusher informs Barclay that when she gave Barclay the synthetic t-cell, it activated more dormant genes than she intended and then co-opted his flu infection to spread to the rest of the crew. She suggests naming this new form of illness after him, and Troi notes that given what Barclay has just been through, she had better clear her calendar for the next few weeks.

Review:

This is TNG’s last Barclay episode, the first episode of any Trek series directed by a female cast member, and the first and only Trek episode directed by Gates McFadden, who of course plays Dr Crusher. Now while this episode might be a fun one for people who enjoy seeing Trek do horror and enjoy seeing the talents of Michael Westmore when it comes to creature make-up and prosthetics, it’s not got much to go on besides that. There’s no issue exploration to be found in this episode and no character development either; it’s just a filler episode that allows the show to meet a given quote of episodes for the season. That said, at least for the most part it’s well performed, but it’s still Trek not being Trek. For me, it’s only worth 5 out of 10.

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omni-spiritual · 4 years

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● Disclaimer:

None of the ideas in this blog are fact, nor is it a matter of opinion. This is pure speculation about how I believe the spiritual side of the universe operates based on an educated guess from a hypothesis presented in other religions, as well as Humanity's current knowledge of scientific understanding. These are hypotheses that our current level of technology has no way of proving either way.

It is my belief that all religions are as equally right as they are wrong. There is no actual way of knowing if any of this is fact so it should not be treated as such and should be open to change. People should also keep an open mind to other religious beliefs.

● The Universe:

I believe there are an infinite number of universes out there, each sentient, each omnipotent to the things going on inside of it. Although they are likely aware of each other they are not aware of what happens in the others.

The universe we inhabit is a living organism, which we attempt to comprehend as "God". All the various galaxies are organs, and the planets and stars which make them up are cells. Sentient life and animals are essentially bacteria, tiny organisms that can be either helpful or detrimental to their host.

Each spec of life is connected to the universe itself. They are part of it and the matter of the universe makes up its various working parts. This is why there is a running belief between religions that "God is all things", as everything from atoms to people to galaxies make up its body. The Universe is a sentient, fully self-aware, combination of all life and energy. It has trillions of pocket dimensions which are a part of it, like growths on a body.

God is merely more aware of the organisms that make up its body then we are of our own.

I like to think of it as female, like a nurturing mother, but that has no basis in anything. Just a feeling. It is likely the universe does not have a "gender" as we understand it.

It is my belief, based on personal observations (such as seemingly impossible prayers being answered). That God is neither good nor evil, but has a merciful and compassionate outlook towards everything that lives inside her.

God does not create evil, nor are our troubles God's doing. Life, by its nature, is cruel and, well God tries to help us. God itself is a living organism with flaws and limits. Such as not being able to affect free will. Rather, God affects the universe by the laws of the universe and affecting the probable outcome (AKA "increasing the odds" or "luck.”) However games of chance aren't a high priority for prayers to be answered as there are far more important things for God to concern herself with. Doing something that disregards the laws of the universe is possible but is extremely hard, as it takes a lot of effort which causes neglect for others.

● The Cycle:

The galaxies expands out until gravity collapses in on itself and they slowly begin compressing back to the center of the universe. They tightly compact themselves in the black hole at the center of the universe until nothing else is left.

However the black hole will also consume all super fluids, which is a state of matter not effected by gravity, due to them being carried by planetary bodies and asteroids which pick them up on their way to the black hole. This will inevitably result in the black hole erupting and causing new galaxies to form out of the space dust. This cycle is an actual scientific theory called "The Big Bounce" which explains in greater detail how the big bang works.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. The universe is made up purely of energy, even matter is nothing more than physical energy which has been converted through extreme means (AKA the first big bang). The universe has gone through an untold number of these cycles, where it has effectively died of old age before reincarnating itself.

● The Soul:

All creatures that can think have a soul, including Synthetic Lifeforms such as Artificial Intelligence. The Soul is nothing more than the electrical impulses that control the body. The brain (even a mechanical brain) imprints memories and personality traits onto it from the moment you start thinking. When you die that consciousness still exist and is recycled in the next lifeform that uses the energy. That lifeform will have the traits of you but the memories will remain dormant unless something synchronizes the thoughts of your new brain to your soul's memories. Your soul gains new information each time it is recycled. It changes and evolves but it is still you, and all your other lives, at its core.

Souls can be reincarnated as any race or creature that has a brain, organic or synthetic doesn't matter. Souls are continuously reincarnated, taking a "break" following death to look after the souls of their loved ones. When those people pass on the soul allows itself to be "judged" however they don't go to hell or heaven, rather they are reincarnated based on their Karma.

There is no such thing as hell. The physical plane is as close as you get to such an environment as it is a proving ground for Bacteria to test itself and eventually ascend into Enlightenment.

● Karma

While I believe "Karma" affects your next life, I also believe what you do in this life matters.

If you are punished in this life, either by law or a seeming "Random run of bad luck", then your karma evens out Provided you see the events for what they are and "repent" (As cliche as that sounds). If you repent, actually repent, then you can be forgiven for near anything. But this isn't a free bargain. Redemption comes at the cost of hard times, but at the end of it, you get your clean slate and second chance.

In essence, if bad stuff happens to you and you interpreted it as "Divine punishment", and learned from it. Then you will start experiencing good luck again. Then your next life will be getting a pretty nice setting.

You can't escape your bad Karma by killing yourself. However, you can take comfort in the knowledge that it won't last forever. Eventually, your Karma will restore itself and things will start going your way again.

Likewise, if you go unpunished in your past life, you are born with poor Karma, and will suffer through "Bad Luck" for apparently no reason. But that to, won't last forever.

While it is possible to restore your Karma by doing good... doing good things, specifically for the purpose of redeeming your Karma, doesn't affect it. Good deeds, done for bad or selfish reasons, doesn't help you, but nor do they condemn you. You must truly do good for goods sake for it to effect your Karma.

● Sins:

There is no such thing as sin. Karma is only determined by if you are a "good person" by your own values. However this is not as black and white as it seems. Acts you personally believe to be for "the Greater Good" or are "Morally Grey issues" that disturb your person still affect your Karma in a negative way. If you twist your beliefs to justify hurting others, that affects your Karma negatively as well. Your Karma also determines how much of a priority your prayers are.

● Deities:

It is highly likely each universe has billions of small pocket dimensions growing on it like moles. However too many pocket Dimensions is harmful to the universe. The dimensions can bump into each other and destroy each other, leaving wounds on the main body of the universe. This is where Deities come into play. Lower gods, called Deities, likely do exists. They are known by us as gods from ancient mythologies.

Deities are former bacteria which have reached "Enlightenment" and are able to interact with the physical world without the use of a physical body. They are beings of pure consciousness and immense power, which they are supposed to use for various task to help the universe function. Deities retain their consciousness even after the universe dies and are reborn through the Big Bounce Theory.

One of these task is to act as White Blood Cells, healing the wounds of the universe. They manage the various pocket dimensions of their universe, to insure they don't become harmful to the body of the universe. Another is to recycle energy for reincarnating individual souls. The final task is to create planets and stars. It is possible, if there is a consciousness behind shaping worlds, that it comes from these entities. Which act through science to clump together space dust, a process taking millions of years. Deities want as many habitable worlds as possible in order for more deities to emerge.

Deities do all this by influencing "luck" through scientific laws.

● Jesus:

Jesus is one of many demigods recorded throughout history, however he was the child of the universe itself and a mortal. Whereas other demigods were the offspring of deities who we know through mythology. The reason we do not see these individuals anymore is because the universe was either offended or the deities became too worried to trust us with their own children after we murdered Jesus. It is my belief that Jesus did not "sacrifice his life for our salvation", rather he tried to save us and humanity killed him for it. This is the reason we don't see Gods from Mythology anymore. Our world marked itself as a poor vacation spot after that.

● Luck

It wasn't too long ago that we didn't understand what made gravity work. We had the basic theories, and hypothesized what made it work, but we recognized gravity as a fundamental force hundreds of years before we even began to understand the quantum particles that generated it. Yet we could still predict it and manipulate it to our advantage, in sports and construction and various other areas.

It is my belief that Luck is a fundamental force, like gravity. We merely don't understand what makes it work yet. However, as with gravity before, we can predict it and manipulate Luck. Mostly people do this through rituals or items they believe to be lucky.

Wiccans, and those that practice true witchcraft, are not flashy magicians. No fire balls or animal transformations. I believe what these individuals actually do is bend luck through ritualistic prayers they call "spells". Much of this is guess work, and likely unnecessary, however they are able to tap into the force of luck and bend it to steer certain events in their favor.

Well not as efficient at it as Demigods, living creatures can learn to bend luck themselves or ask a spirit to do so for them (which is more effective but less reliable).

String Theory suggest the existence of other dimensions. If this is true then we could assume many of these dimensions have lifeforms of their own. It is possible that the "Spirits" and "Demons" Wiccans contact through other rituals are actually beings from other dimensions. Beings attempting to make contact from their end, as the wiccans are.

Honestly I'm not sure if this part of their practice is true but I will submit for the record that it is scientifically possible. In a hypothetical situation where beings from other dimensions have a deeper understanding of String Theory then ourselves, they could, theoretically, be able to contact us.

Personally I would prefer to stay the hell away from such beings. Many of them may be benevolent but, like any other person, they likely have their own agendas and would likely expect something in return for whatever favors individuals ask for. It doesn't help that any being with such an understanding of Science would view us as inferior. At best they would consider you a pet, at worse a play thing.

If you're going to summon things for help. It's best to stick to your own loved ones, who have passed and are waiting to be reincarnated. As beings of conciousness they can influence luck more easily, rather then interact with other aspects of the physical worlds.

Ask help from family, friends, even pets that have passed, but don't just ask them for things. Talk to them (or rather think at them) when you go to bed. Tell them about your day and they will likely feel more appreciated and help you where they can. Even help answer your prayers.

To alliterate, real magic can be explained through theoretical science. If proper research is put into it, it could be proven as true someday... unfortunately because of the stigma of "magic" it is unlikely any scientist would be willing to put the research into it.

The soul itself could be proven if more research was put into identifying the unique signature of brainwaves (and attempting to track it after death). Same can be said for magic... good luck finding an eccentric billionaire willing to fund the research.

#Spiritual #Religion #Religious #Speculate #Theory

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spicynbachili1 · 6 years

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How to update the classics for modern audiences with Dotemu

From Legacy of Kain to Detective Pikachu

We stay in a time when most individuals forty years outdated and youthful had been introduced up adoring media that was designed to operate as toy commercials, childhood companions, and near-religious texts on the identical time. After I noticed Michael Bay’s Transformers film in theaters all these years in the past, I felt like I used to be seeing a lifelong good friend who I revered with virtually holy ranges of affection “remodeled” right into a crass collection of explosions, butts, and exploding butts. It’s nonetheless the worst time I’ve ever had in a movie show. Any enjoyment I could have derived from the senseless popcorn charms of the movie had been destroyed by my very own expectations.

That is the story of a complete technology of children, now in early or mid maturity, seeing the faces of manufacturers they’d grown to like became one thing else. The Lion King, Pokemon, Thundercats, Mario, She-Ra, and Sonic are only a handful of different +20 12 months outdated franchises which have simply acquired, or are about to obtain, whole make-overs which may be interesting to new audiences, however have left at some prior followers chilly. It does not must be that means although. It is potential to make everybody blissful. Dotemu is proof of that. Their contemporary takes on Wonderboy, Windjammers, and Streets of Rage have been almost universally praised, even when adapting to new mediums and tremendously altering character designs.

I reached out to Cyrille Imbert, CEO of Dotemu, to ask for his or her ideas on 2D vs. 3D animation, retaining the spirit of a franchise with out bringing its dated baggage together with it, and much more. This is what he needed to say.

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What does it take to replace a traditional recreation for contemporary audiences, with no AAA price range to work with, in a means that brings the essence of the supply materials ahead whereas leaving the outdated design choices behind?

It’s a troublesome course of as you may think about. Particularly as even when you attempt to be as impartial and logical as potential, there might be subjective choices. Our greatest solution to keep away from that’s to essentially focus on about all of the design concepts between us but additionally with followers, family and friends and get everybody’s opinion. As followers ourselves, we attempt to get the essence of what makes a traditional recreation nice and to maintain it in any respect price. From there, we attempt to collect info from our personal expertise and from web communities, about what would have been higher or ought to have been prevented within the authentic recreation. We set up a listing of these defaults and see how we are able to change them and whether it is technologically possible.

For Windjammers, the menus from the Neo Geo model had been virtually nonexistent so we thought it could be good to fully redo them, and that will additionally give the chance to present extra choices for gamers to customise their expertise and assist them perceive how you can play. The apparent addition was to have the ability to compete with anybody worldwide as Windjammers is a recreation that reveals its full potential when two human minds problem one another. Nonetheless, we determined to remain true to the unique inventive course in each side: menus, gameplay, advertising and marketing, and so on. It’s quaint, however that is actually what makes this recreation so distinctive as properly. It’s 100% a part of the core expertise and essence of the sport.

It is generally assumed that polygon-based graphics price way more to supply than conventional “dot artwork” sprites, however often one thing like King of Fighters 13 comes alongside to disrupt that notion. It is a good looking recreation that used polygon fashions for the bottom animations for every character earlier than drawing over them with 2D sprites, presumably as a result of animating with polygons was the inexpensive technique. What are the variations within the artistry, and price, behind “dot artwork” graphics, hand drawn animation and polygon-based visuals? Are there methods to mix the strengths of all three visible kinds that carry out the most effective in all of them whereas lowering the over all manufacturing bills?

That’s an excellent query! The reply is complicated because it is dependent upon various factors, the primary one being the gameplay and the digicam. I might say that the most affordable graphics are 2D pixel artwork in low decision, as a result of you may work actually fast and don’t want extra assets than one or two individuals. However certainly, if you get to greater resolutions and full HD in 2D, like LizardCube did for Surprise Boy: The Dragon’s Entice for instance, it turns into tougher and tougher. Certainly, as you’re animating body by body and by hand, you higher be an excellent artist and know the place you’re going. As a result of if you wish to change a colour, add a bit of armor or a tattoo, you’ll must do it yet again. 3D is nearer to sculpture/cease movement. So if you wish to change some elements of your character or object, it’s means simpler as you don’t have to transform every body by hand. Combining two strategies could be a good center floor, however once more, it actually is dependent upon what you’re aiming for by way of international inventive course. It gained’t be as clean as a 2D hand drawn animation, however it should really feel extra alive than primary 3D. I’m not an enormous knowledgeable on that although.

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Enjoying 20-ish 12 months outdated video games like Avenue Fighter III: third Strike, Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Steel Slug three reveals that the craft of 2D animation in video games might have peaked years in the past, at the least in my view. Why do you suppose these three video games have but to be topped, even by the cleaner wanting, however typically much less expressive tiles from fashionable studios? Or do you suppose that the three retro video games I discussed have certainly been outclassed by more moderen titles, and the actual subject is with my rose-tinted glasses for the previous?

These three titles are certainly the most effective references for online game 2D animation, and that is what we love at Dotemu. You can additionally add Castlevania SoTN simply with these masterpieces. These are form of video games that will make no sense to remake graphically. They’re already good. I might say that they haven’t been topped just because they’re on the high, so don’t fear about your glasses! However there are some video games which are very near that degree and Arc System Works are undoubtedly going for it. Try DB Fighters Z, that is actually spectacular, even when it’s not 100% 2). Ori and the Blind Forest, Machinarium or the Vanillaware productions are proofs that we nonetheless have very expert groups doing nice video games. Cuphead is top-notch as properly.

However again within the day, 3D was not an possibility, so when you needed to do the most effective recreation you needed to have the most effective 2D artists. That’s it. That is undoubtedly what we’re going for with Dotemu and The Arcade Crew. We’re in love with stunning 2D animation and we’d like to contribute.

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In the event you may work on any I.P., with an infinite price range, what would you make?

Hardest query ever. There are such a lot of prospects! Currently I’ve been desirous about Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. It didn’t aged properly graphically however I bear in mind being fascinated by the environment and story of the sport. With stunning 2D HD graphics and fashionable gameplay mechanics it may actually be superior.

I’ve heard from quite a lot of great game artists who’re pretty put off by the look of the subsequent Pokemon film. What’s your tackle the newly launched trailer for Detective Pikachu, and what would have you’ve gotten executed with the artwork course for the movie when you had been in cost?

To be trustworthy, I personally have by no means been an enormous fan of Pokemon, even when I can fully perceive the success of the video games and universe. So I haven’t got a lot of a way for a contemporary tackle that license. We will discuss Star Wars and the current tackle the IP for hours if you need, however I in all probability gained’t be capable of identify greater than three Pokemon. The film seems to be attention-grabbing, however it appears that evidently it actually will get removed from the unique IP and takes quite a lot of liberties with it. It seems to be like a distinct story in a distinct universe, which could be a genius transfer or a complete failure. Pokemon is such a mass-market license, it have to be tremendous onerous to fulfill all of the several types of followers. So long as the IP isn’t just there to promote tickets and merch although, I’d say why not.

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something-very-special · 7 years

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Ask Response-stravaganza!

So I got a buuuunch of Asks in the last couple of days and a lot of them are spoiler-y by nature. Rather than hiding them all until I feel more comfortable addressing them (which won’t be for a couple of months, honestly), they’re all going under a big ol’ SPOILERS AHOY! read more break.

So here we go.

SPOILERS AHOY!

Anonymous: I agree that 2B and 9S's bond is mainly that of a broken family but there also seem to be a few hints at attraction there (e.g. the comments about 9S's heart rate increasing at the beginning of route B). Also, even though Adam's line certainly referred to "kill", the wording itself does carry some ambiguity and connotations that seem intentional - considering the hatred and love aspects of 9S's (admittedly complex) feelings, Adam may be referring to several things here, possibly all at once.

I absolutely believe the context was meant to be ambiguous. This is also why it’s really funny seeing how people reacted to it, and how they kind of project onto it. (And I certainly had the same reaction the first time I saw it, hah hah.)

I like to think that the censored word is actually a number of verbs all at once -- ‘fuck’ and ‘kill’ certainly aren’t the only two four-letter verbs out there -- which is why it’s censored the way it is; it’s an accusation of multiple natures, potentially meaning multiple things, open to a bevy of equally valid interpretation.

But.

In context of the story, whatever is hidden behind that line of asterisks is something that 9S doesn’t want to acknowledge. If it were something related to love or even lust, 9S has already proven that he gets flustered in such a context-- the aforementioned ‘heart rate’ response, and his conversation with the Little Sister. However, in conversation with Adam, his response is violent. It’s violent denial. I don’t think he’d be so aggressive if Adam’s main point had not been trying to stir up his more negative feelings.

So, in context of everything Adam may have said, and in context of what we as the audience could take away from it? I do believe ‘you want to **** 2B’ can (and was intended to) mean a broad range of things. But in context of what 9S heard? Not so nice.

Anonymous: thank you for your in depth thoughts about 9S. I found him to be really unlikeable at first and then somewhat tolerable by the end. but my final lasting impression of him was that he just unsettled me for some reason i could not pin point. With your thoughts, I was able to understand him a bit more. though he will still be my least liked character, i can't deny his whole arc is really thought provoking (also you mentioned that A2 was very underutilized, a sentiment I concur with whole heartedly)

Oh, I’m glad. I know 9S can come across as being a brat (which I think is more of a knee-jerk reaction to his youthful design), and a racist jerk (which is definitely intended in-game, by his dismissal of the very concept of the robots having their own egos), but he’s definitely got a lot more going on. I had the fortune of accidentally tripping the Mother and Son quest early, so other than 9S being kind of a jerk toward Pascal the first interaction I saw between him and the machines was trying to comfort the little child machine, which was adorable and probably instrumental in my own opinion of him. (Made watching him go from “Shh, shh, don’t cry” to “I WILL MURDER EVERYTHING” pretty disturbing, and heart-wrenching.)

Yeah, A2 needed more love. I think I understand why she was kind of incidental, but still...

kantan-kt: Do you think that 9S died in route C? If you continue to route E, the pods tell the player that all yoRHa black boxes are offline. Doesn't that mean that A2's sacrifice was in vain? ;~; But then again, he did stop his data upload to the yoRHa server so maybe there's a chance that he's alive?

When you enter Ending E from the Chapter Select, it continued directly from Ending C, implying heavily that his black box was offlined. However, A2′s work seemed to be less about keeping him alive (which wouldn’t really be accomplished by hacking into him, since the damage kind of came from repeatedly stabbing him in the final fight) and more about retaining his memories and eliminating the logic virus the clone-arm imparted into him-- saving his soul, if you will, even if the body still died. Kind of ties in to the considerations of something greater than themselves, and the direct contemplation in a few of the sidequests about heaven, and whether they, as artificial life, would qualify for such a thing if it exists.

So even if you ignore Ending E and its possibility of restoring the three characters -- which obviously A2 would not have had any knowledge of, herself -- no. Even though 9S is also confirmed dead at the end of it, her work was not in vain.

Anonymous: On the BBE's Artbook, Commander talks about Jackass making an android combined from two other androids...Do you guess who they are talking about?

I haven’t taken a chance to really look through the art book yet (didn’t want to spoil myself), but I’ve seen this mentioned and I have to say I don’t actually have a guess. I can’t think of anybody in the game, including sidequests, that would match this description. The only thing I can think of is her lamenting the death of ‘White’ on the bunker, but I can’t think of anything solid.

I look forward to somebody figuring it out, though. That’s pretty awesome, in a legitimately terrifying kind of way.

Anonymous: I thought about something and would like to hear your two cents on it. I personally find that 2B lacks character development, she barely says anything about her throughout the entire game, however, once you learn what her true purpose is, you have to look at the core of most sidequests in the game to (indirectly) learn about her since said sidequests are more or less related to 2B (and 9S to some extent). The "YoRHa Betrayers" and "Amnesia" are the most obvious that come to mind. Any thoughts?

This is a two-parter, but the Asks split themselves quite neatly.

Regarding this, this is one of the things I really like about both this game and the original (and I remember hints of this in Drakengard, too). There’s plenty of clear development between the characters, but there’s also a lot of unspoken, subtle stuff. I’ve recently mentioned the relationship between Nier and the members of his party, and what’s really brilliant about it is that most of the interpersonal bonding is done without dialogue, or else entirely through subtext. The entire chunk of game from the fight against No. 6 to the post-fight against Kaine in the Lost Shrine is brimming with gorgeous body language and perfectly constructed dialogue that never feels the need to speak too much about what it’s trying to say. It requires-- I don’t want to say thought because it sounds pretentious, but it does require paying attention, especially for the relationship between Emil and Kaine (which turns out to be incredibly powerful even, what, 8000 years later, and I’m completely sold on it for this one hour-long stretch of game).

The same occurs with 2B. We’re introduced to her in a very mechanical context, and she comes across as being stoic, flat, no-nonsense. It serves a pretty good foil to 9S being the most emotional and ‘human’ of the main characters, but 2B herself isn’t emotionless. I marked this even back in the demo; she says ‘emotions are prohibited’ but becomes extremely worked up over 9S being hurt. Seems like a clear contradiction, especially when they ‘just met’, and given how generally well-written and strong the narrative is seems too contradictory to have been unintentional, especially for being right at the start of the game.

There are definitely hints and intrigue throughout, and these little bits from the sidequests and from her more errant dialogue and reactions paint a very interesting and complex picture, especially in conjunction with the “Amnesia” sidequest, which not only reveals the existence of the E-series YoRHa (which 2B dismisses, incidentally) but that they are highly psychologically unstable due to the rather grisly task presented to them. (That was all one sentence and I’m sorry.)

I quite like how her characterization was ultimately treated. It’s not overt, but there are enough indications of what lay beneath to make her at least interesting, and once you’re given full context about her nature it retroactively makes her more unusual decisions and reactions quite a bit more fascinating, and telling.

I was running out of space with my sidequest ask earlier, I thought about another obvious one that might be related to 9S? It's the "Confidential Intel" which ends up pretty badly, where some resistance member wants to build an S android since he always wanted a family, which can be associated with 9S wishes in a way? Maybe this is too far fetched but it all feels too coincidental that most sidequests share the same themes as the main characters' struggle, if that makes any sense?

Oh! Yes, actually, I completely follow. I admit I didn’t make that connection (although I did that quest with 2B so I wasn’t yet in the realm of familial pining), but it does make sense. I imagine something could also be read into the Resistance member’s desire to have somebody to protect.

...now that I think about it, I wonder if an E-unit was sent after them? The Scanner has confidential intelligence, after all, something that could be catastrophic if leaked, and while I interpreted his ‘p-please...’ at the end of the quest being a misfiring need to get away from his ‘family’, it might have been linked to their request: “Don’t tell anybody about us”, “Please”, because if somebody learns where they are the Scanner has to be eliminated, and his protector will go with him.

Got a bit away from the point. But yes, I think that’s entirely possible. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

#NieR: Automata #Meta #Talkin' 'bout vidya games #Seriously though you guys give me really good discussion. I love this.

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topicprinter · 5 years

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Here are two things you’ll hear a lot from product teams:A lot of data is needed to reduce uncertainty and get an accurate picture of users’ needs and behavior.People working on products understand and know their users well.The above statements are misconceptions, and in both cases, the reverse is true. In this post, I will discuss how analyzing user behavior without big data (debunking the first premise) will help us avoid the unpleasant outcomes of thinking you already know your users (debunking the second premise).First misconception: We need a lot of data to reduce total uncertaintyImagine an infinite sized pool of black and white balls. Your task is to find out the share of white balls. Initially, you are in a state of complete uncertainty. How much data do you need to find the answer to this question?If you take 100 random balls and calculate the proportion of white balls, then you will know the answer with an accuracy of ± 9.8%. If you add another 100 balls, you will increase the accuracy of your answer to ± 6.9%; Add 200 more balls—you are up to ± 4.9%. Another 600 balls—up to ± 3.1%. With 9,000 more balls, you will achieve ± 1% accuracy.Did you notice that the first 100 balls gave us a lot more knowledge than the next 100, and going from 100 to 200 balls had much more impact on the accuracy than the 1,000-10,000 range?Let’s keep this in mind and move on to the second misconception.Second misconception: People working on products understand and know their users wellThe second misconception assumes we understand the products we are working on.The truth is, we don’t.We are always looking for ways to close the gap between the product model we envision and the actual product we build. To do so, we try out new tools and approaches, communicate with users, conduct experiments and analyze data.The goal behind all of these activities is simple. We want to improve our understanding of the product and users, to find opportunities for growth and development, and to increase the proportion of the right decisions we make.Viewing the product through users’ eyesWhat was this long introduction about? I want to introduce you to a method that will allow you to learn a lot about your product. It is very simple:Take a few users and observe how they use your product.No, you don’t have to conduct an interview with these users. There’s also no need to calculate the metrics that characterize their behavior in the product. We literally need to take a specific user and monitor how she interacts with the product throughout her entire period of usage.How can you do it? If you already have event logging set right in the product, it is very simple:Select the group of users you want to study (you will need different users to get answers to different questions).For each user of this group, create a sequence of all the events they generate, including the event parameters, from the time they start using the product.You will end up with a sequence of events for each user in your product. You can divide this sequence into separate sessions for convenience.You can also do it with the help of Amplitude’s User Look-Up tool.Now you have everything you need to view the product through the user’s eyes. Look at the sequence of events and start analyzing it. Take notes along the way.You will observe what the user does while going through the onboarding and afterward, what difficulties she encounters along the way, at what point her first session ends, whether she has experienced the product’s value by that time, when does she retain and how long it takes her to do so, and much more.Now, let’s go back to the first misconception. Studying a small number of users (50-100) with this method will help you find out the following:How and why do people use your product?What problems do they face at different stages in your product?How does the actual usage differ from what you designed the product forWhich users tend to stay and which tend to leave? What are the differences between them?Another benefit of doing this type of analysis is that it helps you come up with a bunch of hypotheses that you can test/validate through data analysis, experiments or user research.Case studies of analyzing user behavior through session analysisThe method we described above solves a wide range of tasks, so it can be considered quite universal. Here are a few cases where session analysis proved to be very useful.Yandex Maps RedesignRedesigning any old popular service is extremely risky. It’s very important not to break any of the existing use cases in the new design.A few years ago, I worked on the redesign of the web version of Yandex Maps, the most popular online map service in Russia and CIS market with over 30 million users. Due to the complexity and scale of the task, we wanted to make sure we understood thoroughly all the use cases our users have. To do that we decided to manually analyze user sessions.We selected a few hundred random users, manually examined their sessions, categorized them, and wrote down our observations. The result was a table of existing product use cases and their popularity.You might argue that this approach was not necessary, that we could have just calculated the share of people who used the product to build routes, those who checked the traffic jams, or searched for organizations, etc. But these quantitative indicators would have hidden a lot of useful and critical information about the way people solve their problems with the product.It turned out, for example, that different people used the same features and solved similar tasks in completely different ways. And it was something we should have considered in the new version of the product.In the process, we made a number of unexpected discoveries. For example, it seemed obvious to us that in the task “to find an organization on a map -> find out how to get there,” users build a route directly from the organization’s snippet (see the orange arrow in the screenshot).In reality, however, it turned out that only a small percent of users did this. Most users simply copied the address of the organization and pasted it in the routes tab to build a new route (see the green arrow on the screenshot).I don’t know any other way to learn about such unexpected twists in users’ behavior other than tracking their events and examining their sessions. And the fact that such behavior exists entails many questions. Creating routes directly from the organization’s snippet is clearly easier than copy-pasting its address in the route tab. Why are users missing it? Is the organization’s featured snippet overloaded with data? Are users not noticing the button?Finding problems in the first versions of King of ThievesWhen creating products, we usually assume people are going to use them in the “correct” way. We design a product in a way that helps users discover its core value as soon as possible.Surprisingly, “silly” users always do everything in their own way instead of the way we anticipate. This is exactly what happened with the first versions of King of Thieves.King of Thieves is a mobile game in which you have to break into dungeons and steal treasures and gems. You can play the game in single-player mode, but the true value of the game is in its competitive multiplayer mode. The key feature of the game is to steal gems from other players to become the wealthiest thief. At the same time, players must defend their own treasures and build traps in order to stop rivals from stealing their treasures.King of Thieves turned out to be a very successful game—but the launch of its first version was a disaster.The game’s retention was a poor 26%. Most players left the game shortly after they tried it and never came back.To understand the reasons behind this, we looked at the user sessions in the way described above. We wanted to understand what was wrong.The core value of the game was in its multiplayer mode. When creating the game’s onboarding, we assumed that we would show how the game mechanics work in the first levels of the single-player campaign, and then players would switch to the multiplayer mode when they were ready. That’s exactly why we made a huge red multiplayer button after all!But it turned out that most users simply went through the single-player levels without ever paying attention to the multiplayer game mode. After some time, they got stuck in a difficult level, or just got bored, and abandoned the game.There were few who switched to multiplayer, but in most cases the players saw no difference from the single-player mode. The opponent either had no gems to steal, or he did, but when players completed the level, they weren’t awarded the gem, even though stealing gems from other players was part of the game’s core loop.After analyzing the sessions of several hundred users (the sessions were very short, so it didn’t take us too long), we figured out that less than 10% of users had a chance to experience the essence of the game in their first few sessions. Those who grasped it were much more likely to keep playing the game.Of course, we should not forget that at that point, this was just a correlation—it did not necessarily mean that players kept playing the game because of that experience. Nonetheless, it was a good starting point, and the hypothesis that walking more users through this experience will improve the metrics was worth testing.We could have probably found this problem through metrics alone: We would see that a very small percentage of new users try the multiplayer mode. And in most cases, those who do try do not steal gems from their opponents. But we didn’t know exactly what we were looking for or when we needed to pay our attention. Perhaps everything was fine, and players simply didn’t find the mechanics of the game entertaining enough.We launched a new version of the game in which we walked players through the multiplayer mode in the onboarding and also made sure that when players attack a dungeon, there’s a gem for them to retrieve and they actually get it after completing the level. As a result, the game metrics significantly improved: Day 1 retention soared from 26% to 41%, while Day 7 retention increased from 9% to a healthier 20%.While examining the sessions and looking at the product through the eyes of our users, we found the stark contradiction between what players experienced and what we wanted them to actually experience.Optimizing the Funnel of adding a flight in App in the AirHere is a wonderful example that Bayram Annakov shared in his blog.App in the Air is a mobile app that keeps track of your itineraries, boarding passes, and frequent-flier programs. The application helps ease the frustration and complexities of finding and managing flights.However, the product team found that 30% of users of the App in the Air didn’t add a flight after opening the app screen where they were expected to do that.The problem turned out to be pretty trivial, as has been the case in many similar problems. The users would search for the name of the airline or airport they sought in their native language—the search worked only in English.The funnel demonstrated that 30% of users churn at a certain step, but in order to find out why, it was necessary to go one level deeper and look at what exactly people were doing at that step.After making sure all the app’s localized languages were considered, the churn rate at this funnel step declined from 30% to 5%.Personal sales firstY Combinator co-founder Paul Graham has an iconic essay titled “Do things that don’t scale.” One of the things Graham mentions is that founders should personally find their first customers and help them onboard into their product, serving as a tutorial manual in a way.Why? Because it gives the opportunity to look at your product through users’ eyes, which in turn allows you to quickly find points your users don’t understand, where they find the maximum value, and what is and isn’t important to them.It is true that this can be labor intensive and not fun at all. It is way easier and less stressful to look at a drop in the funnel at a specific step than to seek and observe lack of understanding in real people to whom you’ve recently spoken about all the advantages of your service.Personal sales work great for B2B products. In fact, session analysis is a variation of this approach that is more suitable for B2C products (though it can also work for B2B). Now you can select the users you need and study them in detail, like in the previous example with App in the Air, where users reached the screen where they could add a flight, but for some reason didn’t complete the step.Moreover, you can also contact these users personally later and ask them the questions you have in mind. This will make the overall picture as complete as possible.Pros and cons of analyzing user sessions manuallyAnalyzing user sessions will give you a more decent understanding of how people are using your product. This is not an abstract knowledge of how various popular features and conversion of various funnel steps work, but a vivid idea about your users’ paths within the product from the moment they start using it until they either churn or your service becomes a part of their life.Another bonus of such an analysis is making it easier for you to work on new things in the product. Having a clear picture of the current paths of your users inside the service, you can better predict how and at what stage the planned changes will affect them. This increases your chances of making the right decision.Unlike using metrics, this method loses much less information along the way. But, as is usually the case, it also has its disadvantages. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to compare different versions of the product based on the manual session analysis method. You will have to analyze too many of them to obtain statistically significant results. In this case, metrics, cohort analysis, and A/B tests will help you.Summing it upMany think that analytics is all about numbers and mathematics. In my opinion, analytics should help you to understand your product and answer questions you have about it. Numbers and metrics can help with this and solve some problems rather well, but you should not limit yourself to them. For some tasks, other approaches, including manual session analysis, will do a much better job.Try examining the session of 50 users of your product. If you don’t find anything interesting, you’ve only lost a few hours of your time. However, and I can bet on it, you will probably find a few pleasant surprises.

#/r/startups #reddit

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terryblount · 5 years

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Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition – Review

The Tales of, or just Tales, series has always occupied something of a weird blind spot in the résumés of even the most hardened JRPG fans in the West, and I am no exception. Indeed, these games have faithfully preserved so many of the most recognisable motifs of this genre through release after release. Yet, somehow, they have slipped under my radar time and time again.

When the definitive edition for Tales of Vesperia was announced, it felt like fate reaching out its hand. While the game initially launched during the glory days of the Xbox 360 and the PS3, Namco Bandai has now made their 2008 classic fully compatible with current-gen platforms. They also sweetened the deal by adding extra goodies that were originally exclusive to the Japanese release. Suddenly I could no longer ignore the signs that my moment had finally come to dive into this beloved series.

The world of Terca Lumireis is overrun with monsters, and each city is protected by a barrier generated from a blastia.

After spending what felt like a 59-hour holiday in the mystical world of Terca Lumireis, the adventures I had with Yuri and his band of misfits have left me with fond memories. There were certainly more than a few opportunities where I couldn’t help but sigh with frustration. However, a potent combination of confident storytelling, some unique mechanics and characters that I could actually care about made me question why it took so long for me to try out a Tales game.

Heads and Tales

Tales of Vesperia is truly a master class in how to retain a player’s focus on the main story line. Much like Dragon Quest XI, which I reviewed a couple of months ago, the plot in Tales of Vesperia is what acts as the key driving force behind the gameplay since everything seems to feed really naturally into the overall adventure. Completing every objective always felt like I was adding more pieces to the puzzle of a bigger picture.

This is Yuri, and there is an old guy at his local pub who keeps mistaking him for a girl…

Given that this game could easily take around fifty hours or so to complete, the story is understandably something of a slow burner, which could potentially be a hard sell to some players. Rest assured though, it is written very well, and several exciting twists turns in the narrative will undoubtedly feel more than rewarding to players that are willing to stick with the game’s more placid narrative pacing.

The actual plot is centered on Yuri Lowell – a dishonoured knight from the imperial legion in the capital of Zaphias. While lounging in his bedroom window like only an anime teenager can, his downtown neighbourhood was abruptly flooded with water. Seems some lowlife pinched the ‘aqua blastia’ which is a magical device needed to regulate and control the water supply to the slums. He wakes up his pipe-smoking dog, Repede, and the duo set off to where the culprit might be hiding.

Seriously, his dog smokes a pipe, and how this poor pooch somehow succumbed to a tobacco addiction still leaves me sleepless with questions at night. In any case, retrieving a magic stone from a petty thief should be a cakewalk for an ex-knight right? Wrong. What is any JRPG without some unwitting hero stumbling into a major calamity?

The Imperial City of Zaphias, and this is the ‘impoverished’ part of town. Anime’s can be so idealistic…

Somewhere during his efforts to capture the thief, poor Yuri ends up in the slammer. However, no prison can hold him, and it is during his escape that he meets a noblewoman, named Estelle, who shares his passion for running from the authorities (and bizarrely coloured hair). She urgently needs to find a mutual friend of Yuri’s named Flynn, who happens to be located in the same direction as the thief’s getaway. The duo, along with Repede, therefore decide to make an impromptu little road trip together into the wilderness beyond the city.

From here, the little fellowship travels from one location to the next only to find themselves constantly one step behind both Flynn and the blastia thief. It’s not all bad since every location reveals more to Yuri and Estelle about a deeply entrenched conspiracy surrounding both the stolen blastia, and the iron fist of the Zaphias Empire. Needless to say, they soon find themselves unavoidably drawn into a much bigger mission in which the very fate of Terca Lumireis might be at stake.

Estelle trying her best to give a high five.

As per usual, the friends that help them throughout their travels ultimately end up joining their little clique until the group is big enough to form their own guild. They decide to name their guild ‘Brave Vesperia,’ and first to join is Karol, a young boy exiled from another guild and thus eager to prove himself as a fighter. A feisty blastia scientist, Rita, joins the group shortly after since she sees their journey as an opportunity to learn more about the blastia.

Flynn also joins once the gang finally catches up to him, along with three other characters named Raven, Judith and Patty. I cannot disclose much about the these characters without giving away some crucial story moments, but it is worth noting that the writers did a superb job of keeping me uncertain with regards to their true identities and intentions. It certainly set the stage for some rather interesting surprises later on.

The devil is in de-tales

If I had to summarize Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, I would say that it plays like entering your own anime epic. Many aspects of the game, from its narrative mechanisms to its combat style, impart a distinct cinematic and theatrical feeling to the player. As such, the game is generally a mix of pretty standard JRPG content, but with a distinct visual edge which has always given the series its unique identity within the genre.

The most obvious implementation of its anime pedigree lies in the game’s visuals. Tales of Vesperia has been rendered in a colour-popping, cel-shaded style which, even ten years later, looks great. A few shockingly bad in-game cut scenes have unfortunately survived the transition to the current generation, but they are few and far between thankfully. Besides, you are bound to forget about them entirely when you see how well the game’s graphics complement the fully animated cut scenes (also equally gorgeous).

Yuri fighting his buddy Flynn, but I won’t spoil why

The visuals are accompanied by an arousing and diverse soundtrack that is always in sync with what’s on screen. Combat scenarios generally received thumping rock beats, while exploration was augmented by classic orchestral symphonies, but the cherry on top is the opening song. It is called ‘Ring a Bell’ by Bonnie Pink and trust me, it will be firmly stuck in your head by the time the game is done. Go give it a listen.

True Commitment to Story-telling

As I mentioned, Tales of Vesperia shows its commitment to being a cinematic-driven adventure in how the game takes a more linear narrative approach. Whether it involved infiltrating a mansion of a corrupt official, or helping a town repair the blastia that upholds a protective barrier against monsters, every objective represented a key albeit sequential component in how the story plays itself out.

This effectively means that the game offers very little side content outside of the missions related to the main story, and I can imagine fans of fuller and more ‘looter-centric JRPGs’ might be left wanting here. For me, on the other hand, it was refreshing to play through a role-playing game that placed its story so front and center. Besides, if you ever get tired of blastia and the cast prattling on, there are recipes to create, battle strategies to refine, and ample opportunities to fight monsters for some extra XP on the side.

Apparently this is a series known for its beautiful and lush graphics.

Speaking of prattling on, Tales of Vesperia has got one of the chattiest casts I have ever encountered in a game. It is not exactly a problem (unless this kind of thing irks you) since the dialogue and interactions between characters have been written and localized rather well. The lengthy conversations between Yuri and the gang is in fact one of the most crucial ways in which the game conveys their personalities to the player, as well as colouring in the lore and history of Terca Lumireis.

The interactions between Karol and Rita were particularly a highlight of the game since they were really funny. Karol constantly pipes up with something stupid to say when the adults are talking only to be silenced by Rita with a firm head jab. It represents the kind of slapstick comedy I used to love while I was watching the Bleach anime series.

And here we have the resident mage Rita. This is one of the few scenes she is not assaulting/teasing/whacking/chasing Karol.

Of course, additional but entirely optional interactions between characters are presented to players via the ‘skits’ that have become a fan favourite in this series. These are essentially delightful little intermissions in which the different characters have a brief tête-à-tête with one another.

Classic example of the skit

The skits could involve one character sharing their knowledge on a certain area or just throwing some good old fashioned shade at one of the others. They serve only to endear the characters to the player and are totally skippable, however I laughed my way through nearly all of them since they exhibit the same quality of writing as the rest of the game. It is yet another aspect of this game that demonstrates that classic Tales dedication to making its cast memorable and relatable.

The Linear Motion Battle System

The combat is where things get a little different, and, as any Tales veteran will be happy to tell you, it is here where the series makes its sharpest departure from the rest of the genre. Whereas all the heavy hitters from the JRPG founding fathers opted for the classic turn-based gameplay during battles, Tales games have since their SNES days had a more active system that looks like a permutation from a hack ‘n slash game.

In the case of Tales of Vesperia, it means the player must attack, guard and use magic against the enemy in real time, usually with the help of three squad mates. The battles are not random, and like many modern games of this kind, players can circumvent (read: run away!) from enemies that you would prefer not to engage.

A typical scenario would involve you seeing an enemy either in close quarters or in the over world map. Once the enemy has been engaged in combat, the game then moves everyone into an arena of sorts, with the camera adopting a side-long perspective not unlike a fighting game. The player then locks onto any chosen enemy, and proceeds to pummel them with a mixture of light melee attacks, as well as more powerful, magic-fueled assaults called ‘artes.’

Your rating is based on how much damage you avoided, combo hits, damage given, etc.

There are even rudimentary combos to be chained from connecting your character’s light and heavy attacks, and the higher Yuri (and the others) level(s) up, the more artes and finishing moves become available to him. Several short cuts have also been added to the D-pad which allowed me to change the overall strategy of my party on the fly, and you can really get into the nitty-gritty of tailoring your own unique strategy. By the time the game places you toe-to-toe with the boss enemies, changing between strategies is utterly indispensable.

For example, Rita is primarily a mage class with magical attacks while Estelle is a powerful healer. During normal grinding and lesser enemy encounters, they can certainly hold their own right next to you with sword and shield. However, during boss fights I tailored a preset where both characters kept their distance while focusing on the party’s health once their own HP dropped below 75%. Once I got the hang of all the systems and subsystems at work in the combat mechanics, the action-packed fighting became a delightfully intellectual affair much like a menu or turn-based system.

Alas, even once I began to feel sorry for the Pokemon-esque monsters for the swiftness at which I was mowing them down, I couldn’t get over how clumsy the system felt at times. If Yuri was not specifically locked onto the enemy closest to him, he often missed with his sword which left him striking stupidly at thin air in the middle of the battle arena. Making matters worse is that the controls are not the most responsive either meaning that combos are more a question of luck rather than skill.

Lastly, I also found most boss fights to be somewhat unfairly difficult in comparison with the rest of the game play. This is a matter easily solved by simply switching the combat difficulty to ‘Easy’ in the in-game settings (which I did a lot). Still, it feels like the developers could have done a little more to prepare the player for the jarring contrast in difficulty that so many of the boss encounters represent.

The 3D over world map. You can even camp out in the open for one night.

These are not exactly deal-breakers in the grand scheme of the combat system. Yet, it is disappointing to know that with a little tweaking and refinement, the already decent and unique trademark of the series could have elevated a great game to a nearly perfect status.

To be or not to be…

Tales of Vesperia is like the paradox of JRPGs in that it hosts so many familiar elements of the genre, yet it clearly shapes its own identity through its stylistic choices. Whereas other JRPGs feel like the seasoned old business magnates in their crisp suits, this game feels like the new, hip kid on the block wearing urban fashion.

Some more senseless violence! The ring on the left shows the edge of the combat arena.

This is not the first JRPG to be so consistently driven by its story, nor is it unique in its presentation. What I feel is special in Tales of Vesperia is how gracefully it pulls all of these elements together. This game will never allow you to become too preoccupied with one particular aspect of the overall experience on offer. Instead, it is a well-rounded adventure which demands to be consumed in big, greedy chunks at once.

If you have been playing turned-based JRPGs since the days you were still using a potty, and you feel no immediate rush to venture too far out of this landscape, you might have a hard time warming up to this one. However, if you believe variety is the spice of life, and you are willing to test the barriers of what this genre can do, look no further. This game is in no rush to overwhelm you with complexity which makes it a compelling choice for old hands and newcomers alike.

Supports up to 4K resolution

Cel-shaded beauty

Engaging story

Relaxing gameplay approach

Strong characters

Excellent score

Brilliant localisation

Several cut scene animations

Combat controls

No option to quick save

Difficulty spike with bosses

Playtime: 57 hours total. For the single player campaign

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox One Controller

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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williamsjoan · 6 years

Text

The Best and Worst gadgets of 2018

There was countless gadgets released in 2018. It’s the end of the year so Brian and I rounded up the best of the best and the worst of the worst. Some where great! Like the Oculus Go. Or the Google Home Hub. But some were junk like the revived Palm or Playstation Classic.

CES 2019 is a few weeks away where manufacturers will roll out most of their wares for the upcoming year. But most products will not be available for purchase for months. What follows is a list of the best and worst gadgets available going into 2019.

Google Home Hub

Google took its sweet time bringing an Echo Show competitor to market. When the Home Hub did finally arrive, however, the company lapped the competition. The smart screen splits the size difference between the Echo Spot and Show, with a form factor that fits in much more comfortable in most home decor.

Assistant still sports a much deeper knowledge base than Alexa, and the Hub offers one not so secret weapon: YouTube. Google’s video service is light years ahead of anything Amazon (or anyone, really) currently offers, and the competition shows no sign of catching up.

DJI Osmo Pocket

I wanted to dislike the Osmo Pocket. I mean, $349 for a gimbal with a built in screen is pretty steep by any measure — especially given the fact that the drone maker has much cheaper and more professional options. After an afternoon with the Pocket, however, I was hooked.

The software takes a little getting used to, but once you’ve mastered it, you’re off the races, using many of the same tricks you’ll find on the Mavic line. Time-lapse, FaceTrack and the 10 Story Mode templates are all impressive and can help novices capture compelling video from even the most mundane subject matter.

Oculus Go

The most recent wave of VR headsets has been split between two distinct categories. There are the high-end Rift and Vives on one-side and the super low-cost Daydreams and Gear VRs on the other. That leaves consumers in the unenviable position of choosing between emptying the bank account or opting for a sub-par experience.

Oculus’ Go headset arrived this year to split the difference. In a time when virtual reality seems at the tail end of its hype cycle, the $199 device offers the most compelling case for mainstreaming yet.

It’s a solid and financially accessible take on VR that shows that the category may still have a little life left in it yet.

Timbuk2 Never Check Expandable Backpack

Granted, it’s not a gadget per se, but the Never Check is the best backpack I’ve ever owned. I initially picked it up as part of a Gift Guide feature I was writing, and I’ve since totally fallen for the thing.

As someone who spends nearly half of his time on the road these days, the bag’s space’s big volume and surprisingly slim profile have been a life saver. It’s followed me to a Hong Kong hostel and a Nigeria hotel, jammed full of all of the tech I need to do my job.

It’s also unassuming enough to be your day to day. Just zip up one of those waterproof zippers to compress its footprint.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2

Like most nerds, I have more keyboards than friends. In 2018 I gave mechanical keyboards a chance. Now, at the end of the year, I’m typing on a Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2. It’s lovely.

This keyboard features Topre capacitive 45G switches. What does that mean? When typing these switches provide a nice balance of smooth actions and tactile feel. There are a handful of mechanical switches available, and after trying most of them, this switch feels the best to me. The Topre capacitive switch is available in a handful of keyboards, but I like the Happy Hacking Keyboard the best.

The HHK has been around in various forms since 1996 and this latest version retains a lot of the charm including dip switches. Everyone loves dip switches. This version works well with Macs, has two USB ports and is compact enough someone could throw into a bag. Starting just last month, the keyboard is available in the US through Fujitsu so buyers do not have to deal with potentially shady importers.

Worst

Palm

The Palm is the kind of device you really want to like. And I tried. Hell, I took the thing to Africa with me in hopes that I’d be able to give it some second life as an MP3 player. But it feel short even on that front.

This secondary smartphone is a device in search of a problem, appealing to an impossibly thin slice of consumer demographics. It’s definitely adorable, but the ideal consumers has to have the need and money for a second display, no smartwatch and an existing Verizon contract. Even then, the product has some glaring flaws, from more complex user issues to simple stupid things, like a lack of volume buttons.

It’s easy to forgive a lot with a fairly well designed first generation product, but it’s hard to see where the newly reborn company goes from here. Palm, meet face.

RED Hydrogen One

Where to start? How about the price? Red’s first foray into the smartphone space starts at $1,293 (or $1,595 if you want to upgrade your aluminum to titanium). That price will get you a middling phone with an admittedly fascinating gimmick.

After what seemed like years of teasers, the Hydrogen One finally appeared in October, sporting a big, metal design and Rambo-style serrated edges. The display’s the thing here, sporting a “nano-photonic” design that looks a bit like a moving version of those holographic baseball cards we had as kids.

I showed it to a number of folks during my testing period, and all found it initially interesting, then invariably asked “why?” I’m still having trouble coming up with the answer on that one. Oh, and a few told me they became a touch nauseous looking at it. Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.

Facebook Portal

Why? is really the overarching question in all of these worst devices. It’s not as if the Portal was a bad product. The design of the thing is actually pretty solid — certainly it looks a lot nicer than the Echo Show. And while it was initially lacking in features, Facebook has made for that a bit with a recent software update.

The heart of the question is more about what Portal brings to the table that the Echo Show or Google Home Hub don’t. It would have to be something pretty massive to justify bringing a Facebook-branded piece of hardware into one’s living room, especially in light of all of the privacy concerns the social media site has dealt with this year. There’s never been a great time for Facebook to launch a product like this, but somehow, no feels like the worst.

Portal delivers some neat tricks, including impressive camera tracking and AR stories, but it mostly feels like a tone deaf PR nightmare.

Playstation Classic

1: Half the games are PAL ports and do not run well on US TVs 2: Missing classics like Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, and Tomb Raider 3: Doesn’t include a power adapter 4: Only one suspend point 5: This product makes me angry

The Best and Worst gadgets of 2018 published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

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theinvinciblenoob · 6 years

Link

Google Home Hub

DJI Osmo Pocket

Oculus Go

It’s a solid and financially accessible take on VR that shows that the category may still have a little life left in it yet.

Timbuk2 Never Check Expandable Backpack

It’s also unassuming enough to be your day to day. Just zip up one of those waterproof zippers to compress its footprint.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2

Like most nerds, I have more keyboards than friends. In 2018 I gave mechanical keyboards a chance. Now, at the end of the year, I’m typing on a Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2. It’s lovely.

Worst

Palm

It’s easy to forgive a lot with a fairly well designed first generation product, but it’s hard to see where the newly reborn company goes from here. Palm, meet face.

RED Hydrogen One

Facebook Portal

Portal delivers some neat tricks, including impressive camera tracking and AR stories, but it mostly feels like a tone deaf PR nightmare.

Playstation Classic

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

0 notes

fmservers · 6 years

Text

The Best and Worst gadgets of 2018

Google Home Hub

DJI Osmo Pocket

I wanted to dislike the Osmo Pocket. I mean, $349 for a gimbal with a built in screen is pretty steep by any measure — especially given the fact that the drone maker has much cheaper and more professional options [[https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/01/dji-wants-to-end-shaky-smartphone-videos/]]. After an afternoon with the Pocket, however, I was hooked.

Oculus Go

It’s a solid and financially accessible take on VR that shows that the category may still have a little life left in it yet.

Timbuk2 Never Check Expandable Backpack

It’s also unassuming enough to be your day to day. Just zip up one of those waterproof zippers to compress its footprint.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2

Like most nerds, I have more keyboards than friends. In 2018 I gave mechanical keyboards a chance. Now, at the end of the year, I’m typing on a Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2. It’s lovely.

Worst

Palm

The Palm is the kind of device you really want to like. And I tried. Hell, I took the thing to Africa with me in hopes that I’d be able to give it some second life as an MP3 player [[https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/14/the-new-palm-is-almost-the-mp3-player-i-want/]]. But it feel short even on that front.

It’s easy to forgive a lot with a fairly well designed first generation product, but it’s hard to see where the newly reborn company goes from here. Palm, meet face.

RED Hydrogen One

Facebook Portal

Portal delivers some neat tricks, including impressive camera tracking and AR stories, but it mostly feels like a tone deaf PR nightmare.

Playstation Classic

Via Brian Heater https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes