#I made a Glitch Techs one on two player game but a lot of them are really old back when I was just starting online

[spacebubblehomebase]

What app and what pencil do you use :3?

(I send u big hugs and hav a nice day :D♡)

Hehe. (Hugs back. I like hugs. XD) I believe someone else had a similar question before! I made this art then too to demonstrate how I use, Ibis Paint. The free beginner friendly drawing app! (No I'm not sponsored-) And as for the "pens", I usually go for the default brushes. As in the first basic ones you find on the app! ^v^ I've been promoting this idea for years and I'll never get tired of saying it! While fancier equipment IS nice, skills can ultimately outclass tools any day! =D In fact, sometimes limiting yourself can hone your creativity as it forces you to work with what you have and invent new ways of experimenting with materials that are often overlooked! That's how I learned. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ -Bubbly💙

[anomalystudy]

only managed to get 11 different expressions from the one, two? scenes we see of younger mitch, so if I do write him, definitely not going to post an icon every reply. i suppose I could make it 13 if I added him trying to coddle his grouchy cat(her name is mrs boosh if you must know), but... genuinely, what would I use icons with his cat for? anyhow... another long Mitch ramble below.

I want to show off just how genuinely happy he looked and specifically touch base on this episode in general - the copycat episode. Y'know, the one where he got everyone replaced with clones! Also want to mention another episode...later. For now... Context on the icons, he's doing a gaming tutorial video here, and he's genuinely helpful. Five pulled his last video up and was talking about how Mitch was the most popular gamer on the platform, and suspects he abandoned the channel to focus on being a Glitch Techs. The rest of this episode does not touch on Mitch's past - it truly just does leave it at that. They instead touch base on his inability to work with others - Five outright blowing up at him and saying something the along the lines of "If you won't be a team player, then we don't need you!" The comment...actually leaves Mitch speechless and he just walks away. Eventually, Mitch realizes he let a glitch into HQ, gets put into stasis and is replaced by a glitch in a hat, succeeds in getting everyone but Five get replaced by glitches. Somethig I want to point out - it heard some people's fears and then pretended to be them when they had full confidence and honesty - so Bergy was no longer afraid of dancing and Zahra when previously shy confessed her crush on Five. Mitch's copycat had him saying to Miko "You know, you and Five always have each other's backs. Sometimes I think I act so awful to you because I know I will never have that bond." Given the rest are implied to stem from truths, maybe the clone wasn't just saying that to manipulate Miko to be the next victim - there's a bit of truth to that. Mitch is aware he isn't nice but has difficulties being such. The episode does end with him admitting he made a mistake and being clearly disheartened that Five once again expresses that they don't need him, and he jumps in to genuinely support the team and prove himself. But he does turn around in the next couple of scenes where he just acts selfish all over again.

The next time we see mention of Mitch's past and behavior is in episode 9 of season 2, where we're introduced to his siblings. I'm just going to mention that this is the first time we see him act hopeless and have a lost in confidence. He first talks about how he can't stop his family from getting permanently banned, how he can't get them to look at the state of their home, how he couldn't clean this place up in time - sounding like he was fully expecting his siblings to not even help him. He then soon goes on a ramble on how Five and Miko will show off the power of teamwork and band together, or use friendship, empathy, understanding each other - and then just quietly adds "They don't need me." Before all this, he was going on about how he doesn't need them, and getting more and more progressively stressed and angry that they cut in anyway and helped him out. And time and time again do they one-up him anyway, showing him what working together can accomplish. Because no one can really do anything alone. We don't see Mitch again for the last episode - it's focused on his boss and Bitt over him - but given that the copycat episode ends with them showing off hardly changing whatsoever, I'm going with the assumption that all we got out of that episode is learning that Mitch fears being useless and maybe despises the idea of being so weak he has to rely on others(go play kingdom hearts and hear Sora say "my friends are my power!!!" please Mitch I am BEGGING.) on top of him making sure to genuinely visit his family time to time.

I could go on since there's a LOT to impact in that episode - go figure for one titled "I'm Mitch Williams!" How Mitch interacts with his siblings, how and why he left them, and directly stating "I moved out a year or so ago to focus on work." Maybe it contradicts what Five was thinking earlier - Glitch Techs made Mitch into who he was today - and maybe it's more of the Furious Four made him into what he was today? ...It would take me like 10 more paragraphs to discuss that episode further(doesn't help that it's my favorite) and I already rambled about one whole episode enough, along with a couple obvious aspects of this one. I'm not going to go into further detail unless prompted. Don't prompt me unless you really want me to, I WILL explode into another 10 paragraphs on Mitch alone.

[askmerriauthor]

Pokemon Violet - Initial Thoughts

Just started playing Pokemon Violet; I was always planning on picking it up in the first place despite not pre-ordering. All the talk of its apparently glitchy nature was disheartening, but I wanted to give it a fair shake all the same. A lot of the time such reports get overblown, after all. I've seen people shriek about a game being unplayable if it drops from 60 frames per second to 59 in a heavy load zone, after all.

That said? After going in with simultaneously low expectations and a giving it a lot of slack?

I'd consider what I've seen so far to be a genuinely impressive feat for an amateur game dev's tech demo. But for a full release? Let alone from a major studio with as much weight behind it as the Pokemon franchise carries? This game is embarrassingly bad.

Literally the very first second of game play and there's a major graphical glitch. The game opens showing off the fancy academy your character will be attending, but it loads in a low-rez stand-in model that snaps into the high-rez version full on screen. During the opening cut scene, characters blink into T-Poses as they load in and out.

As I walked my character out of their bedroom at the very beginning of actual controllable gameplay, the camera glitched and got stuck inside a wall, resulting in a total black-out screen that made me think my system had crashed. The colors of your character's hair, skin, and make-up don't match between the menu screen where you select them and how they're displayed in the overworld's lighting. Said lighting also flickers around or changes entirely full on-screen with no transitions, jolting from one lighting set to another before the scene it's required for actually loads in. Textures out in the world - signs, terrain, the environment in general - are pixelated and blurry to the point of being distorted blobs. The frame rate is absolutely appalling, dropping and lagging down wildly for seemingly no reason, sometimes going as low as less than 10 frames per second. As I have my character walking around in their homeroom, the seated classmates and the books on their desk flicker rapidly into the floor and back up again. NPCs blink in and out of existence where they stand, or walk in jerky 3 frames per second flip book animations. Even as my own Player model is moving smoothly and without any visual issues in the same rendered scene. I'm honestly not even sure how the code could even make that happen; it'd be one thing if everyone in the room was moving in the same jarring, jerky way, but two or three characters are moving normally while the rest are jittering around.

When you go into shops to try on various clothing items, it takes about 10 seconds for your character model to load in and several more seconds to switch between clothing item previews. Even if the only difference is just a color swap. Keep in mind that this was instantaneous in previous games, including games back on the 3DS. If your hair style isn't compatible with hats, your character model just won't show up at all and you can't preview the item whatsoever. As you leave the shop, the character model is loaded in off the ground and jitter-pops into existence with a short drop.

Out in the overworld, different models load in at different distances from the Player and animate at different frame rates. For example, as I walk down the road just outside my house, NPCs load in (a low-poly stand-in version first that snaps into a higher-rez version with no smooth transition) after bushes do, but before trees (which also have the same jerky low-poly to high-poly snap transition). As I walk around, the game chugs down to a crawl at random, often requiring me to reset it entirely. I speak to a NPC out in the field and my game freezes, only to not freeze a second time after I restart the game and talk to them again. When you call out your partner Pokemon into the field to act solo (a core selling point of this game), there's no summoning animation or effects; they just abruptly pop into existence, which is doubly weird because there is both an animation and effect for when they return to their Pokeball or if you call them over from a distance. When I get into battles and there's a third character on the sidelines, the game camera gets stuck on them as it swings to and fro, resulting in the view spiraling wildly out of control for a few seconds. The camera glitches into the terrain seemingly at random or gets caught at weird angles, resulting in constant screen-blocking closeups of my Pokemon's back, or ignoring Player inputs to try and move the camera around.

This game is atrociously bad. I mean, holy shit, the problems it has are basic, fundamental flaws that NEVER should have made it past quality control in the first place. Things that are just basics in regards to coding and design. Especially when considering that earlier Pokemon titles on the Switch hardware (Sword/Shield and Pokemon Arceus) ran just fine by comparison. Previous generations on the 3DS are more stable and better performing than this.

And this is just the basic mechanics in the immediate starting area of the game. I haven't even gotten into design part of the game play experience. That's a whole other kettle of fish and its own post.

[saltymongoose]

Hello, I just found your blog a few days ago and I absolutely love your writing and your artwork! The self aware M:PN headcannons are so interesting and I hope that you'll continue them (if not, totally understandable). Anyways, I've been dying to ask: What will happen when the Auditor finds a way to bring the player into the chaotic world of Nevada? Would they be sent to the beginning of the game and just appear on the truck with the main 3 or would they be with the Auditor and other employers?

Thanks Anon! I’m super happy that you like my work :D Also, don’t worry, this au is one of my faves so it’s definitely here to stay. I decided to go with the Auditor/Employers for this, but I'll be writing similar hcs for the boys later on.

The Player Enters Nevada ft. The Auditor & The Employers

(TW: Yandere, Obsessive Behavior, Stalking, Kidnapping, the Auditor being a creep again.)

The very first of the Employers who had the idea to bring you to Nevada was actually the Deliberator, bringing it up to Stygian and the Conductor as a way to investigate you themselves. It would also help curb that tight hold that the Auditor had on everything related to your presence.

The only issue was that they needed the Auditor’s help to do this. It took almost all of their effort to just feel you from outside your realm; actually getting you to Nevada would take at least 10x the work.

Luckily for them, the Auditor was on board the moment they mentioned your name (not like it was particularly surprising). He had thoroughly enjoyed the moments you decided to use him as your vessel after that little “update”, but it certainly didn’t sate his longing for your full attention. If anything, the feeling of you enveloping him completely in your presence had made his obsession with you worse.

The feeling of your gaze and the warmth your control gave him was unmatched. He was content when he was with you. (Happy would be a better word for it. The other Employers had never seen him as relaxed as he was when you were there. It was weird, but welcome.)

Surely if being with you felt this good, then actually meeting you face to face would be even better, no?

The Employers had finished the machine that would allow them to open a portal into your dimension. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were so hyper focused on extracting you from your location (they refused to call it kidnapping, it was not), they might’ve taken a moment to marvel at the scientific breakthrough they had just achieved. Not that it really mattered, they had all agreed to scrap it once you were with them where you belonged.

(It would be truly unfortunate if you were to find a way back, after all. They refused to let that happen.)

From your point of view, you had just been dealing with some tech issues. You’d been having them a lot lately, usually when you tried to open your game. It kept crashing when you attempted to launch it, and you were honestly kind of concerned at this point. There had only been a few glitches at this point, but nothing like this. You tried asking around and reporting the issue, but didn’t get any helpful advice. (No, you weren’t going to try deleting system 32, nice try.)

It was quite late at night, and unfortunately, it looks like you’d have to leave this issue until tomorrow to deal with. You had work early in the morning anyway (which was in nearly five hours, oof). You ignored the growing headache you’d been developing the entire time. It was probably just exhaustion, right?

As you snuggled into your blankets, you failed to notice the shadow extending from your computer and the almost ink-colored puddle that was steadily forming on your floor. The shadows converged after a few seconds, a tar-like substance curling upward as flames erupted from the growing mass. Pulsing streaks of red lit up the room, bathing you in a crimson light before the shadows settled for a final time. Two red slits blinked open.

The looming figure of the Auditor stepped over to your sleeping form, leaning down to view your peaceful face up close. You were far more mystifying in person. It was a true wonder how he’d been patient enough to wait this long to see you.

With an uncharacteristic gentleness, the Employer slowly reached out and curled his arms beneath your knees and back. He lifted you up carefully, giving a low chuckle when you buried your face into his chest. (He was extremely warm, so he figured it was to be expected. He didn't think you'd be so adorable about it though.)

Careful not to disturb your rest too much, he tightened his grip on you before returning to the portal. A simple nod to your webcam was enough of a signal to transport him back.

The other Employers were overjoyed when the Auditor stepped out of the portal with you. They could finally interact with their Player directly (more importantly, without him interfering all the time). While you were still out like a light, they all crowded around you and the Auditor, looking at you with varying degrees of awe. The Auditor’s grip tightened. They shouldn't be so close.

“It seems like the warp took a lot out of them,” the Deliberator mused quietly, running a hand through your hair as you slept. Stygian huffed in distaste.

“They would’ve been fine if we hadn’t rushed it. And stop touching them.”

“Why? They clearly like it, look.” You were leaning into their hand, murmuring cutely under your breath as you shifted in the Auditor's arms. (Stygian was a bit jealous, but their small comments couldn't compare to the glare the Auditor was aiming at him.)

When you awoke a few hours later, thoroughly confused to find grey concrete staring back at you instead of your bedroom wall, you had just assumed that the Employers sitting near your bedside were the product of a dream. However, this illusion was shattered rather quickly, when they actually touched you.

The Auditor took it upon himself to be the first to really interact with the Player (he deserved that privilege for all his dedication to you). He straightened at your curious gaze, feeling almost giddy to be standing in front of you. He’d been waiting to meet you for so long.

He leaned down, gingerly bringing your hand up to where his mouth would be. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face, my dear Player.”

In all your wisdom, you could only respond with a spluttered “huh?”

(He found the befuddled look on your face completely adorable. The red that bloomed across your face was just the icing on the cake. He wondered what other expressions he could get you to make.)

Living with the Employers of all people was certainly... something. It was clear they made the utmost effort to keep you comfortable, but they were all kind of…touchy? At least most of them were at first. Stygian tended to keep to themselves, but when no one else was around, they’d insist on holding your hands, bringing them to their eyes to inspect them. The smoke that wavered around their paws felt kind of odd, it was difficult to tell where their body actually started. They’d be quick to jump away once the Auditor entered the room, though (something they all did when he walked in on them standing close to you. You wondered why.)

The Conductor preferred to just look at you. The first time you touched, it was like a strong static shock (he was surprisingly apologetic after you flinched). Too much physical contact would cause your fingers to twitch and your muscles to spasm. It was unsafe, much to his disappointment. But, he made up for this by giving you a near unnerving amount of non-physical attention. The way he'd look at you almost calculatingly made your skin crawl, it was like you were a mouse in a laboratory. The fact that he insisted on recording everything you did or say really didn't help that either.

(The Auditor had asked him to record information about you when he couldn’t. It was a task he was all too happy to fulfill.)

The Deliberator was certainly more friendly than the others. He was in charge of finding food for you and keeping you entertained when the Auditor had other business to attend to. He treated you more like a companion than an otherworldly being, but he was quick to remind you of the fact that you were their Player whenever you doubted your significance. Apparently you did this a lot.

(Just how badly were the people in your life treating you for you to think so lowly of yourself? This was just more proof of why you shouldn’t go back. The others in your realm clearly didn’t deserve you.)

However, you really didn’t have as much contact with them as you did with the Auditor. As much as it displeased the other Employers, he was still the person you were closest to. It made sense, you knew the most about each other, after all. (Even if that knowledge was drastically one-sided.)

In comparison to the others, he was very physically affectionate with you. When you had decided to try and help him with his work, he often leaned over your back, boxing you into the desk with his arms as he settled on top of you.

It was incredibly unsettling. From what you’ve known, the Auditor wasn’t exactly the nicest person (this was Nevada, no one was nice). You half expected him to try and absorb you the first time he did it. But instead, he just pressed as close to you as possible, near melding himself against you as he rested his head on yours. He excused this by saying it was to “get a closer look at your work” (a flimsy lie, even he’d admit).

But it wasn’t like you’d be willing to refute him anyways. Even if you didn’t know why he insisted on touching you, you’d bet that it wouldn’t be a good idea to piss him off. So you’d put up with the random caresses, the way his hands lingered for a few seconds too long, and the way he’d drape himself over you in all-encompassing embraces. Maybe he’d back off after a while? (He wouldn’t.)

It was also through him that you learned of your abilities as the Player. You could still control him, for one. Though, this time the strings that connected to his limbs could be seen trailing back to your own. (Much to his delight; he wasn’t quite ready to abandon the feeling of your influence yet.)

To him, having you there physically was a drastic improvement to before. It was almost like being around you caused a warm haze over his senses, similar to when you controlled him, but more tangible. Being with you and under your control felt right.

Perhaps he'd have to find a new location to keep you at. Now that you were in Nevada, he had no need to interact with the other Employers and neither did you. None of them could comprehend the bond that you share. Why would you waste your time with them when you had him?

The Auditor put in a tremendous amount of work to bring you both together. It was only right that he got to have you exclusively. If he had to isolate you from the others to have all your attention, then so be it. The others might be a bit angry at his decision, but he's sure you would appreciate it. He did know you better than anyone else, after all.

[provider-of-pronoun-checks]

yeah, there is soooo much information in the slimepedia that it would be exhausting to read every little thing

But now, to the last character...

Viktor Humphries!

I think I like this character so much since he falls into my category of favorite character types "Book Smart, not Street Smart" plus "Adorable design"

You trade actual slimes with him so he can help with scientists and their Slime Science. That is the term for science here.

Anyway, his mission and what you collect is pretty cool, which is why I love this dude as a fav of the game.

Now, this guy likes simulations. A crutch to predict what can happen. Even in ways he really shouldn't, like a relationship with someone. But, he gets better near the end of the mission.

Vik made a "Slimeuation" of the areas you explore in the game, excluding your base replica or the Ancient Ruins.

But, there are Glitch Slimes. A duplicating bug that can disguise itself as a noraml slime, but with the function of a Ditto's face. Or even parts of the scenery, like little trees, rocks, and natural lights.

When you have these slimes than leave the slimeuation, instead of being called a glitch slime in ur inventory, it is now a bug report. And this is what you give Viktor.

He has a indoor building as your unlockable land and his other rewards are tech things, that you can now have blueprints of and build! (You can actually build a lot of things in the game without Viktor, but he gives you two blueprints of really useful things)

It includes a chicken duplicater, which could have a risk of getting a pile of feathers instead of a clone. And a bee looking drone that can do two tasks around your base!

There is also a scene where Viktor works on something so he send you a hologram of his assistant, who he admits he never met. Which really shows when you are greeted to BOb!

I know Vik is a bit of a non-social person, but if he really didn't see a slime with a mustache, hat, and other slimes under the first one under a not buttoned science coat, then he may be just blind 🤣

But I like the end of the mission where he finds the issue of the glitch slimes appearances, but he decides to keep them in. After having the player exceeding the expectations of his (mentioned) simulation of you working to fix this slimeuation he has, he realizes life has a surprise factor he should take in account. And to not rely on tech to figure out his future.

It is such a good growth of his character that I love and I hope the next game can give us something like that for the other side mission characters ^-^

Ooh! I love that last name!!!

I love book smart characters!! They're peak blorbo material!!

You can trade slimes with him!!!!!! /Pos.

Ooh! I feel like I'm like that sometimes!

I love the term slime science btw!!!

Hehe slimulation/pos.

Oh really :0 The glitch slimes seem really cool!

Ooh!! Bug reports would make more sense I suppose!

Ooh an indoor building AND tech things?

Chicken duplicator!!

Ajdjak the bee thing seems so cool!!

BOb!!!! Yes!!!!! You go BOb!!!! BOb is my blorbo from these asks <3

He really said 'Huh, welp! This seems normal!"

Oooh!!! Nice character growth!!! Plus, I love that he decides to keep the glitch slime!!! Like yes bro!!! Whoo!!!

Let's hope the next game gives you it!

[endlesswarsim]

Headcanons - Memory - 1

[UNDER THE CUT TO SAVE DASHES!

Lots of thoughts on Mems because main muse energy:tm:

WARNINGS: LONG. Also, implied solitude for insane amounts of time. Implied PTSD.]

I think, of the stupider things I’ll make canon on this blog, the universe goes through multiple scenario rotations- ranging across several versions of Transformers (RiD: 2001, TFA, TFP, Bayverse). The timeline the main blog takes place in is one of the few ‘scenarios’ where the system has merged differing concepts from differing realities. Also, Memory’s TFP/Bayverse never had more than one human aside from her on the team (as a permanent member) and the system switched depending on how Cybertron fell many years prior. So she’s only ever had to deal with Miko, Raf, and/or Jack as separate NPCs, never as a group.

She least likes when it’s Miko’s turn, since Miko’s recklessness often results in Memory having to do more revives before the war ends. Raf’s usually ends up with her playing babysitter, and her Jack has never stuck around more than a few months at a time.

Memory herself has lived through so many of the scenarios that she has virtually every single one memorized- every reaction, every outcome. She’s also tried to explain this to the Autobots/Decepticons in previous wars, with no luck outside of Shockwave (who immediately tried to rip apart the system they were all residing in, thus causing an early reset). She’s given up trying to explain it to anyone, and getting her to open up about it... Takes an insane amount of trust, which is nearly impossible to get since Memory consistently distances herself from everyone with the ‘happy-go-lucky memes weeeeee’ exterior.

I would also say that the Autobots notice Memory’s change in demeanor during some of the fights they engage in against the Decepticons.- And on certain days. Bumblebee is the most aware of this, having been hanging out with Memory the longest in the blog’s canon timeline. There are moments where she will get hyper defensive of certain members of the team, and on some days, she’ll hear something and it’ll just set her off.- She’ll start moving around the base, getting supplies, setting up defenses/traps for seemingly no reason- only for something to start going wrong later that day, and Memory’s traps/defenses to come into play.

No bot is quite sure how she knows these events will happen, but most of them leave her to her devices as a result.

The Autobots can tell when Memory takes a fight seriously vs. when she’s messing around. During most skirmishes, she’s making jokes and jumping around the field like a circus act, but in certain fights (seemingly random ones)... She’s lost her humorous exterior, and there’s just something there. Optimus and Ratchet know what it is, while Bumblebee, Arcee, and Bulkhead, do not. During these fights, she’s far more likely to push herself until she’s at death’s door- and usually it is in defense of one, maybe two of the other Autobots.

As for more positive headcanons... This was one of the funnier ones I came up with ages ago, but: Memory is loaded. Thanks to being able to access the internet mentally and basically mind-hack through every firewall known to man (but not Cybertronian, curse Soundwave), she has... Quite a bit of wealth accumulated, under multiple aliases.

She cannot interact with NPCs without one of the ‘Active Players’ present. Due to her status as a glitch, she’s not registered as an entity when she tries to talk to any of the NPCs. And if the ‘Active Players’ are far away enough... The NPCs will start to glitch and break down. To add on to this, the universe starts to de-register/refuses to load when she’s too far from any ‘Active Players’. This has caused every gaming glitch one can think of, but thankfully, she’s always either been found, died from going ‘beyond the boundaries’, or had to wait it out until the universe reset.

And here I thought I was getting POSITIVE, jeez....!

Memory has gained quite a few skills when it comes to combat against full-grown Cybertronians (yes, even her Megatron). As such, she may look small... But she can still kick aft if she wants to. However, she almost never takes fights seriously... So good luck on that.

She refuses to kill (unless it’s the Dark!Memory AU in which case uhhh... R U N).

In a personal continuity with toras-muse-cabinet, Memory is not the only one who is aware of the resets.- She has a friend in Collet Pinion, the femme being the only other one who knows/is aware of the resets/wars.

Memory is her strongest while on Cybertron.- Her stamina/body hold out longer, so she has more time to influence the tech around her. Besides, the whole place is literally made of metal/wires/etc., so she can literally influence the surface of the planet to her advantage.

Memory’s ABSOLUTE strongest form is a being called ‘Core File’. This may become an AU but I’m unsure (it’s not canon in the main blog timeline, that’s for sure).

While she acts happy-go-lucky, she’s almost always ecstatic to meet humans.- No offense to the Cybertronians, but when she meets non-NPC humans on this blog... She’s internally screeching with joy. She’s had no one to talk to for who knows how long outside of the Cybertronians, and most of them don’t believe her when she explains her history to them anyway, so she’s never felt connected to them.

Memory loves physical touch, but because of the war, the slightest movement of someone’s servo/arm sends her into immediate fight/flight mode. Bumblebee tried to pat her once.

His servo twisted real fast and he hasn’t tried it without warning her since.

She’s so out of touch with humans that most social situations seem impossible to her. She doesn’t know how to work at a restaurant/event, and most of the time will just go with her gut. This often... Has interesting results.

Ratchet is the one who tries to get Memory out of the base the most (for obvious reasons).

[purplerose244]

Thinking journal for season 12 Prime Empire 😎😎😎 (1/2)

So, I'm keeping this during all of season 12 to put down my thoughts as they appear. It's mostly for not ranting every single time a new episode comes out so please don't mind me too much 😅 I'm following the English release so please no spoilers 😙

I'm gonna split it in two, since apparently the season has 16 episodes. So this is the first part, enjoy my rambling 💜💜

It's the 30th of March and here we go!

IN GENERAL

I'm so, SO HAPPY, we have a theme for this season. For my experience apparently silly themes (tech ninja, ghosts, pirates) had brought very surprising results so I'm SO DOWN FOR THIS 😍😍

It seems that they fixed the mood, there is a specific mystery and a specific mission to follow. I like it too

THE NEW WHIP IS DOPE AS ALWAYS

I'm really glad there are plenty of references to past episodes, comebacks are my jam

The only thing that still kinda bothers me is the length of the episodes. It's not all bad, I just think the 20 minutes format was better. One thing is splitting 20 in 10 minutes, another is putting together 11 minutes of important stuff. Doesn't bother me too much, I just wish there was more time for my favorite show 🤷‍♀️

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENTER PRIME EMPIRE?

Is it normal for me to feel really old after they made the "what is a VCR?" joke? Like, I'm a uni student so still pretty young, but I lived through the transition from that to the DVD so... eh, I laughed anyway👵

Jay is smart, I really believe he is. Yet I saw him putting a possibly corrupted motherboard into a legendary game randomly found into a villain's lair, and I was like "Of course he did that, I love you you dumb*ss" raising my glass of juice towards him 😎

Okay, I'm down for this Lloyd. I'm down for a season with Lloyd being creeped out just because, being silly, just a ninja helping his friends and- (remembers there's a Harumi avatar in the sets) I'M NOT READY

The ending was actually nicely creepy. Cool nods in approval

DYER ISLAND

THAT INTRO THOUGH, THAT WAS EPIC! Love the techno sounds, love the clear gaming connection, I rate it 10/HECK YEAH LONG LIVE THE FOLD

I was scared about how the shorts were supposed to play along with the season, but it looks fine so far with the mechanic and later for Scott. Good 👍

Ah, Fist to Face, that game came all over from the nostalgic season 1. That's what I'm talking about 😎

So they just associated that Unagami is probably Dyer's avatar like that? Like sure, I thought about it, but it looks a little rushed. Mm, I wonder if there's something more behind it?

LEVEL 13

Cyrus Borg is back and he TALKS!!! Finally, he gets some action! Go tech dad!

I'm so happy he referenced the Digiverse, I would have been very disappointed if he hadn't. Time flies Borg...

Not gonna lie, I thought the next to follow up Jay's spot as best in videigames was going to be Kai or Lloyd. It's not disappointing though, since pretty much all the ninja have been seen playing, and to be honest I like the implication that Cole and Jay probably played a lot together. As bruiseshipping or as BrOTP, I still love them together no matter what 💙🖤💙🖤

Ooooohhhhh, that's why Zane and Pixal are left behind. It makes sense, sure, but I don't understand the implication of the plan: they saw Dyer entering Prime Empire, so why looking for him in real life? Mm, maybe they will investigate about his life and what happened... PIXANE ON THE CASE 😍

Already saw Prime Empire's world in the shorts, of course it looks DOPE, still very happy to finally being there!

SUPERSTAR ROCKIN' JAY

I don't know why, but Kai questioning the double jump made me laugh. Also poor him, he just got his powers back from last season and they're already gone again 😂

And of course. Them. Wow. It must be the most amazing and CURSED thing I've ever seen so far, the League of Jay 🤯 I'm so happy they exist and they freaking use past seasons' suits!!! Awesome!!! Never thought I was going to see Jay's old plain haircut again... yeah, he got better with the curly one, but I'm feeling nostalgic 🤷‍♀️

Their nick are histerical omg, Jaybird, Dee-Jay, Jaywalkin, I'm loving this way more than I should 😂 Also they freaking screamed "JAY-NJA GOO!!!" and I don't know what to do with that, it's too great for me to comprehend 👏👏

And then, THIS happened:

Your Honor, I would like to confirm this as THE MOST SECRET DREAM I'VE EVER HAD FOR THIS SHOW FINALLY COMING TRUE!!! A NINJA FROM NINJAGO DOING THE NARUTO RUN!!! 🤯🤯🤯 Done, I'm done, conclude the season, this is more than enough for me 😍

First Kai gets hit and fall from a building, DYING, then Lloyd gets desperate for his brother (MY BROTP 💚❤💚❤), then Kai respawns and Lloyd looks so relieved and Kai is all panting while slowly realizing it's a game and MY HEART CAN'T HANDLE THIS MUCH OKAY???

As a very passionate Kai fangirl I always expect the cringy moment, it really is inevitable for my favorite hothead. I love that idiot so much it's unbelievable, even if it's an absolute and costant suffering 😅 Holy Garmadon it was painful seeing his VERY slow realization that in this game you only have four lives

... SO HE HAS ONE NOW!?! NINJAGO CREW YOU ALREADY KILLED ZANE, NYA AND LLOYD ONCE AT THE END OF A SEASON, DON'T YOU DARE PLAY WITH ME AGAIN 😱😱😱

Okay, I did not expect to hear about Mr. Cuddly Wamp ever again since Hands of Time and BOY if I'm happy it was actually a password, I love this show 😂

SCOTT FINALLY!!! YESS!!! ���😍😍

Okay, for as long as it is not debunked, I will hold onto the Scott is Jay's brother/twin theory. I'm sorry but: his jacket has dragons AND lightnings on it, they have very similar skin in avatar mode, he said he was waiting for him in the short, he could very well have his same hair under cap and hoodie and he's a mechanic too. I know, I know, they could have the same skin because Scott helped him for the avatar, and there might be shadier reason behind the 'I was waiting for you' thing, and there are tons of good mechanics in Ninjago... STILL HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE??? 😍

SCOTT HAS ONE LIFE POINT TOO??? NO! NOOO!!! NOOOOOOO!!! Don't you dare appear and steal my heart only to die at the end of the season, come on!! 😭

So for now it seems like he just wants to survive. Can we actually confirm he's an avatar and not an NPC? I mean he could be, but I don't see the point of an NPC self aware of his life points. Idk, maybe I'm overthinking this 🤷‍♀️

Lol, Kai is the only one weirded out by the Jay-con all around him. Probably because he hasn't heard from his fans since Skybound 😅 (I'M STILL HERE MY FLAME BABE, ILY ❤❤❤)

And in all of his glory, freaking Superstar Rockin' Jay!!! 😎😎 Okay, I loved the design since the first time I saw it, but it looks possibly even better in the show 😍😍😍 And Jay looks absolutely adorable in it, and he's got a guitar, and he was waiting for his friends, and he hugs them (I'm weak for LEGO hugs for some reason) and he is so happy and AAAHHH 💙💙💙💙💙

I'm very curious about how Scott will play into the situation, clearly he will provide some kind of insight about Prime Empire. I can't wait to know more about him!! 😍

I AM OKINO

I did not expect this when I saw this Okino guy in the trailer... and I'm so happy I was surprised, I love him 👌

And he's voiced by Alessandro Juliani?? HECK YEAH!!! With all the hype about the DnD 13th season, and consequentially the knight theme, I really miss Nexo Knights and having Aaron's VA around makes me happy... any hope to have Giles Panton as well? I miss Clay the most 💙💙

This is what I'm talking about, the game theme needs this stuff! I was already happy to see life points, double jumps and respawns, but this? The NPC guide? Awesome 👍 It's nice to see the take on the matter, the guide seeing so many players getting killed, first because they did not listen, then because they were actually just unlucky. The touchy matter I always expect watching Ninjago 👏👏

At least I THINK he's an NPC? For now I don't really see a way of knowing, and it doesn't look like it matters. He didn't show life points so maybe? Does this mean he can't die? I have questions people

Which brings me to the cube thingies. That's what happens to the dead players? I mean, I would understand if they just become pixels, but there's also the drone that takes the datas every time. Idk, feels like there's more behind it. And honestly? It looks like great material for angst, like one of the ninja dies but then they discover they just need to get where Unagami stores all of the players! I hope it's something like this!

They designs of the players are really cool, I already saw them in the other episodes, but seeing them this close just confirmed it. Between this and Jay's awesome avatar, I see lots of great cosplay ideas coming 😍 I wonder when will Kai and Lloyd use their avatars, and why would they since I'm guessing Jay did for disguise and to distinguish himself from his fans

PLEASE TELL ME WE'LL SEE SCOTT SOON, I ALREADY MISS HIM!!! 💙💙💙 I have too many theories about that tech dude, I'm so excited about who he might turn out to be!

I was a little skeptical about the new ninja suits, but seeing them in the show convinced me, very cool! Especially on Nya 💕💕💕

THE GLITCH

Alright, Okino is indeed an NPC. Cool the fact that at first he could not understand the fact that he was in a game, but when reality changed he was forced to. Welcome into the crew! 😙

I'm kinda worried about it though, either they will shut down the game and he will stay inside or he will sacrifice for them. He's a very loyal samurai, I can see that happening and I'm SCARED

I WAS SWEATING BULLETS AT THE AMBUSH!!! I 100% saw it coming, we all freaking saw it coming, even the ninja did but where like 'we can walk and die or we can risk and die so might as well'. But still, my babies DYING and respawning so fast was not pretty 😱😱

Nya got the scariest death until now in my opinion, holy Garmadon Dyer DOES have a twisted mind...

Seeing Kai so scared of being in a new situation and with one HP reminds me A LOT of the Digiverse, and that's actually a nice touch. Give him a cellphone, hothead is a social media expert, but put him in a game and... huuhhh... 😅

Have I mentioned I love the ninja's new emoji masks??

BECAUSE I DO!!! 😂😂😂😂

So Unagami knows about them trying to stop him and he sent the rat people because of it. Considering how little we know about this guy, I'm wondering what we are about to discover

Alright, going to the next challenge, very curious about this adventure. So... beware of the rats, ninja? Still not sure what I think about the rats 😅

THE CLIFFS OF HYSTERIA

I would like to say Okino is the edgiest character of the show I've ever seen... but I've seen MORRO. But still poor guy, he got a case of the Matrix

Oooohhhh, the major question in videogames: better go grinding for more money to get the better stuff but while losing lots of time, or get the least expensive just to go on with the story but definitely risking to lose lives?

Ah there we go, so the energy cubes mean something! Also reference to the Sushimi guy of the set (gosh that name, I can't 😂). So do people actually die in Prime Empire or they are just kidnapped kinda? Can the ninja just bring back? ANGST POTENTIAL

Cole please don't die please don't die please don't die for the love of Garmadon please don't die somebody help-

HOLY FSM KAI I MEANT HELP FROM SOMEONE WITH MORE THAN ONE LIFE DON'T DO THAT BE CAREFUL PLEASE I FREAKING LOVE YOU YOU RECKLESS HOTHEAD ❤❤❤

Nya giving Kai a sweet look after seeing her brother is okay, that's what I live for 😍

So apparently Unagami is trying to build some kind of device using the energy cubes of the dead players (sounds kinda creepy like this 😱) to create some kind of portal? To Ninjago? I don't understand, if Unagami is Milton Dyer then why this? Just to bring his army and conquer? I mean I guess, sounds a little simple though. Then again, if it turns out it's not Dyer, it could be Unagami wanting to be real and get into his creator's world? Mm...

I like the message, having the ability to choose your own path. Very fitting for a game themed season, I hope it gets explored even more!

More for the "I love the ninja emoji masks of this season"'s compilation 😂😂😂

THE MAZE OF THE RED DRAGON

Duuuude, Jay being good at mazes comes all the way from Possession, the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master! 😍 ... or maybe I just rewatch this show too much... could be both really 😅

Unagami is NASTY!

Confirmed the thing about going into the real world, what scares me is how much powers Unagami seems to actually possess. Like, can he do the block thingy whenever he wants? Just straight up pause and do whatever? Wow...

Jay being extra 😎

I mean, of course he is, he's got better statics! 😂 I like how he seems so focused and in charge, I still hope we see more of him... and Scott... WHERE IS SCOTT???

I love dragons, this metal one is cute 😍

So now we have two ronin: a samurai looking for a path on his own in a digital world... and a shady guy named Ronin 😛 Total respect for Okino, he really showed the values he believes in. No matter he was programmed his way, I hope he finds what he's looking for. Better come back for the final battle!

One Keytana down, two more to go. I know one is the price of the race, while the last one... I don't really know.

More of the masks because I love them 😂 Here we have Vegeta Lloyd and Kawai Cole ✌✌

[rnbwrv]

“The Sims 4″ Gamer Review 6/10

Hello everyone! This is Rainbow Raven Jezell (he/him) with the initial major post of this tumblr, the intro & 1st gamer review. I hope you enjoy!

Welcome to the Rainbow Rave, home of the Rainbow Raven streaming community based from my twitch, twitch.tv/rnbwrvnjezell. Here I will be doing amateur game reviews. I am by no means an expert or even an experienced gamer. All of these are my own opinions. I am writing with the primary audience of new or non-gamers in mind, those who are interested in getting started gaming in-general or in different game genres / platforms than they are used to. Ultimately my goal is to get you thinking about what you enjoy about games and whether the games I review are worth your time and money.  

“The Sims 4” - 7 years after release, is the simmer dream still alive? …Eh yeah, if you believe in it enough- 6 out of 10 stars  

[Disclaimer: I play and stream on the PS4. I have multiple packs and kits of different varieties, but I do not own them all. I have owned “The Sims 4” since 2018, and it is the primary sims game that I have played as well as my primary game overall. I stream Sims 4 on Twitch through console 2-3 times a week.]

Gameplay- I’ll be putting my reviews into 3 categories that mean the most to me. The 1st of which is “gameplay,” and I say “gameplay” for lack of a better word. What I mean is the overall experience of the game, such as the main activities, side quests, actions, and diversity of things to do in the game. Is it complex or simple? But most importantly, does its content engage with the player to pull them in? “The Sims 4” is a “sandbox game.” There are aspirations, worlds, careers, and families to engage with / build up. However, there is no “story mode.” And it might be controversial to say, but I give “The Sims 4” 3 out of 3 stars for gameplay. I never lack for activities or things to do in this game. You are only limited by your imagination. There are so many player-created challenges that can keep one occupied for years. I don’t see this as lack of gameplay in the sims. I see the open nature of the sims as it’s strongest point. For me, it is a storytelling device, and I keep coming back to the sims to create unique sims and narratives. I return to many other simmers / content creators on twitch + youtube to watch their stories / series as well.    

Aesthetics- As all of these are subjective, aesthetics really are a personal preference. For me, I give “The Sims 4” 1.5 out of 3 stars for aesthetics. I like more realistic looking games personally. Overall, “The Sims 4” has a good look; the quirky nature and styles of the sims are realistic enough but campy in the right ways. However, it was knocked down in points due to the visuals not working often because of glitches and crashing. Top simmer news sites, other content creators, and myself can name multiple visual glitches that happen every time the game is played, breaking the emersion too much to avoid deceasing the quality of the game. Also, players with strong PCs can get custom content to make their sims look more realistic or more cartoon-like. Build and buy objects can also be downloaded, often for free or much less than EA sells “The Sims 4” DLCs. Custom content allows the game to become more personalized in gameplay and aesthetics. Sadly, a lot of PC high quality tech is needed to use this content plus console players, like myself, cannot get custom content at all. With a franchise as old and well-supported by a huge fan-base as the sims, the game should be fully playable and customizable for players of all ages (teen and up) on all platforms to enjoy the whole experience, running relatively-well.    

Enjoyment- This is the hardest one to rate for me. “The Sims 4” offers a sandbox experience like no other out right out. I constantly play the sims and, for the most part, enjoy the experience. However, the experience is by no means smooth. I give “The Sims 4” 1.5 out of 3 for enjoyment. “The Sims 4” has a huge fanbase with tons of content creators + storytellers + modders that are constantly inventing new ways to play and improve the game. The blank slate of no story mode with the backdrop of the sims worlds allows a wonderful individual playground on your platform while connecting you to a community of lovely simmers. If you love the idea of creating your own sims and growing their grandkids up for generations, “The Sims 4” is for you. If you like the idea of being left alone to provide care or inflict chaos on your sims while also having a huge base of fan ideas for gameplay, give this game a shot! However, to the other side, if the past two sentences don’t intrigue you, there might not be much for you in the sims. There is no direction for how to play from the game itself and sims can feel generic on console without a lot of imagination. From a larger view, the enjoyment of the game is largely knocked down by the constant crashing and game-breaking bugs that frequently prevent the storytelling that players are tying to portray. The lack of response from the sims team is concerning. Some apologies and explanations have been posted, but it’s unrealistic to expect the average player to constantly be turning in save files for bug inspection when everyday gameplay is prevented due to those issues. Larger social justice issues like bad skin tones and hair textures for sims of color still linger while pronouns have finally made the “laundry list” too little too late in 2021. With DLC such as “The Sims 4: Knifty Knitting” less than a year old (July 2020) excluding non-binary sims + they/them pronouns, featuring “Lord and/or Lady of the Knits,” I fail to see the sims team living up to their proclamation of being super progressive in their support of the LGBTQIA+ community. Supporting a few LGBTQIA+ content creators and adding a trans flag to new trailers (Dream Home Decorator Game Pack, 2021) does not de-construct the gender binary in the game (language such as “boyfriend/girlfriend, male/female bodies, he/she” only pronouns). The sims team listens to some of the sims community, but whether it is EA or Maxis or something else that is blocking a deeper social justice dialogue is still unclear. Only time will tell if “The Sims 4” addresses the issues with an overhaul, but with leaders discussing 10-15 years of sims 4 while sims 5 is in process, I am not hopeful.        

Overall -  6 out of 10 stars. “The Sims 4” is worth buying, especially if you’re new to the game and if the game is on sale. With 3 points for each above category (9 total), I leave a single point for myself to award games if I definitely recommend them. However, I stand by 6/10 for “The Sims 4.” The game offers an experience like no other main simulation title out there right now, but the lack of forward planning and game-improvement focus leaves many with unfulfilled dreams 7 years after release. Some of the packs are worth the time and money, but sims content for the sake of content is becoming unplayable due to bugs. I recommend buying the packs that intrigue if they go on sale while leaving out the rest. Spend your money on other games to experience, “The Sims 4” will likely be here for you to come back to with us simmers trekking along (hopefully not) decades later.  

[glopratchet]

intro

n the world to come there is little sin There are just lots of american alligators It was a great idea, but it wasn't long before people started getting burned by their own fires The prediatrain movement caught fire in america The demand for american alligator meat skyrocketed and so did the price People began to get greedy and the greed got them killed You see no reason why this can't happen here too Whorals where burned to ash while polled hereford heifors fetched record prices at market that week The cows have returned to the farms and other prey animals make their homes in unused warehouses Over a billion dollars a head in auction sales! It'll take the world a few years to bleed the remaining American Alligators and it'll take a few more before there come reports of theft Googizon won the bid to construct for the military the most forward thinking alligator farm in existance All eggs used today bear the GoogZon prf mark It currently floats near the okeenokee snow swamp Or so it will say on their website No one believes it This is not that story "Come on Al, it's the target! " the tech yells as you take fire and hit the pavement We are primal ponds inc a predatory company, head quartered at number ten prime avenue And you are Al Brutal leads rank 3 for said company A small mom and pop alligator farm attemping to make it And you're casing it "We don't have sufficient evidence! " You yell back We need you to make deliveries for us When your territory was hoisted upon you you had a team It's gone, lost You have no one Please Point of view of the player: You wake up with a mean hang over and a thick head ache in the dark A delivery champion You will drive through the night to a swamp and break through glitched out gates is a lowly position He had a secert life as billy fea fbots navigator And one more thing He had to have known about his bugs Maybe all saltimbanques are fots dead ones or not but he googled it It turns out no one has made a crappy real time virtual reality game dedicated to About a dozen years before your time, digital reality came out billy fortes navigator yet Delivering dragon tail in the far, far, future or you could kill the bugs, sharpen your tusks, drink your vodka and hang out with the hardcore otters Maybe that needs to change You push "N" to climax the degrading disk and send it out into nothing We proudly introduce today drum roll please Doesn't anyone play regular instruments any more? Alligator delivery service A darkness awash light breaks through the windows and washes over you The door slams open and a deliverywoman walks in your office The alligator farm where the gator are delivered is currently under hostile takeover Trouble in the bandit managed quarry has led to good business for here A series of construction tasks allow you to flood the market with new affordable alligator meat and pelts You bring in your first load of revenue Already we own over four over ten foot alligators a buzzard and a vat of swamp water Let's throw ourselves a party and watch as they exterminate your future competition Including rex lex, your prime suspect Five years seems like enough time for our boys in blue to put the pain on old rex A massive 14 foot beast with jaws that could crush cars float in your tank You're out of coffee and are jittery as hell Each on is incredibly detailed with over twenty bioligocail parts like an engineers wet dream THey have nothing else worth mentioning, jsut huge predatory monsters that will sell for a bundle Part one of this weeks training pick up a nearly dead gator out the tank and work with it over time to tame it Part two Part thee no wait Part five Part four Lum rex overfished the river and died before we could get our hands on it use the dead rex to harvest collagen The only thing it's good for something, something That's it for this week folks Let's prepare today's shipment Part six bio-diesel Part seven shoot some folks in the face! wait wrong game Part eight Looks like we're gonna spend our earnings wher else but here oh yeah, No employee raises we're shorting titanium Gold doing amazing things with Bridge and tunnel construction in NYC Part nine THe alligator lays in the mud lifeless after taking multiple assaults from your shovel The alligator drops and lands with a heavy thud Part ten capitilize on new changes We all help load the alligator onto the semi As you secure it, Coming next fall We are currently broadcasting their vital signs over at americanalligator They're in a glass reinforced steel container welded under the deck xyz The accelerator and brake are under the dashboard Our alligators come in many different sizes, each perfect for their own uses We currently have a large supply of eggs that will be ready to "harvest" in about ten years Ages, shapes, sexes and shades are represented over our entire roster of workers They all have cute baby faces, cold reptilian eyes and maws full of razor teeth The like to eat, sleep, dream, and spawn but don't speak our language or one anothers They're sensitive to movement and bright lights but that's it They love to fight and gossip and spread allegiences through body language and scent We created them using centuries old processes, updated from breeding techniques pioneered by the USSR to create super soldiers The algorytms which run each alligator is closely modeled after the human brain and all it's decisions making pathways This allows each alligator to learn and rationalize After the habits of the real world reptile, alligator missippissus extended lenghts and agility are full 360 Their lungs breath and thier hearts beat just like yours Similar organs replaced with robotic parts replace hollow bones They bleed real blood and molt just like the real things Orders for gator teeth are starting to accumulate and folks just love those mugs hand painted with an engraving of the Holy Rood, it's such a conversation piece! Our desire is to create an expierence which leaves you dripping in the hair, blood, offal and oil of adead reptile From the feeling of utter terror and awe as you combat one of these unpredicatable beasts The thrill of the hunt as you dispatch one of these creatures, the feeling of being a great hunter Alligator delivery service in addition to gator tail, hide, meat and eggs available Please allow around 8 weeks for your tail ordered to be ready for pickup We serve realism No happiness in killing a creature, even if it's wrong The realism of death is important to us Their every behavior has been memorized by the leading ichthyologists to achieve lifelike movement in our alligators Hours of alligator combat video have been studied Real life wild life wranglers have been interviewed for interaction of our beasts and filmed for the feeding times Now we just need to budget of 500 dollars towards the creatation of an alligator carcasses ready for consumption Our dedicated staff is enthusiastic to begin serving you Of an accurate alligator wrestling simulation This will give our patrons a greater sense of fulfillment when slaying these beautiful beasts in the wild And on behalf of all the artists improving perfect beeing CCD is commited to becoming your best supplier of fuctioning animal organs, so if you are ever in market for any glactic wild beast organ or rept Thank you for allowing us to serve your alligator fantasies Note: No animals are killed in the creation of these projects Alligator parts are ordered online, at real prices Tail orders ready in 8 weeks Sofware is taking over everything and eating the jobs of the working class as they increase efficiency We will be the last one standing the monopoly we need to succeed to provide our parents a stable future, no matter the cost The artists become in time we all will be artists The human condition is to become an artist Our skin becomes a canvas for our violent mammal urges To become one with nature We cant do it know be have sacracity Father of the art we become the last mammal on Earth So people have to be responsible in any way they feel correct to build on their future and fulfill the promises Should we try something that hasn't been tried yet? Algrothymic story telling with algrothymic alligators What would be worth giving your life for? -Youtuber "Mothers Meateor" Chances are your are going to be entrenched in a feeling of emptynes as you see most of your kind unfulfilled You play this game more like real life knowing that there is nothing after what happens Utter terror and awe sometimes as you encounter an alligator you have neve seen before As if it really exists Pleasure of the hunt as you begin to think cruelly The first simulation we need to get on-line is wrestling for alligator teeth Please remember your payment for the materials: it will all be worth it in the future For mom Let us become artists On the farm are incredibley detailed models of different organs This is the source of our realism Our bodies become painted canvases to be admired in their perfection They own the following body parts 1 heart, 2 lungs, 3 ribs, 4 kidneys, 5 teeth, 10 pints of blood, 20 gutfuls of feces, 40 liver slices and ------------- It has many storys as humans describe them Sofawin notes interpretation However, there are descriptions to the creation stories Brain storming: Defination- Flying dream Master piece realness bone organ healthiness enlightenment artist scrawling writing hard work starving pain, embrace sunlight sacrificing accuracy for fast 2 Left eye ribs 6-12, 2 arms, 10 fingers, 2 lungs 10 ribs right leg 5 toes Foundation bone setup Outline proportions 2: 1 3 crown Right eye eyebrows art piece scars chin 3 fingers I am the white masked guy with an eye tattoo over my right eye, I manage all the projects Upper jaw piece William 'bill' coles - Born 10 Lower jaw 5 Indian boy with attitude Duncan brennan - 5 Right ear A pig heart the size of a cannon ball you struggle to keep alive this is your 2nd pig heart you have had Left ear Rion - Really tall african-american guy from new orlean, likes to wear black Tail You are not the only mutant alligator in this city You must fight for territory and you want old orleans Front right leg An alligator that walks upright and a sword weilding alligator cowboy from atlantic city He is a drug-fueled mutant Front left leg A blind lesbian alligator that carries a padmachine gun Hind right leg This guy has a harpoon for his tail Hind left leg This alligator is a pyromaniac who likes to blow thing up A tiny little 85 year old alligator with a sugar addiction Heart and lungs Master echo luke tyler - Blind guy with a magic staff lives in memphis Urinary/Defecation system I heart mary Gentiles part I am part shark, part primate or monkey Nose Hope is on the horizon for all mutant alligator people! We are moving to new orleans in 1 year Right flank Last show for old orleans guys! Testicles Left flank Charilaia - 1 year left to live wants to go out in style Carly - underwater welding alligator woman rare and beautiful Martin - Addicted to alcohol and drugs Back hide abby- Normal florida gator Eh-pee Biggest enemy is the skinless man who wears cotton on his belly and uses a sword for violent acts Belly hide Teeth Skinless men - Are skinless humans, think they are vampires when really they are just psychos Lungs Wasp - Black and yellow striped arrival to new orleans airport, walks to old orleans in 5 hours Kidney's/ genital organs fran The alligator has a weight in kg based on its heart size The weight is not just a number but how it effects the alligator's every motion A percentage of the weight is affixed to each body part section and organ All the percentage of the weight equal to one hundred for example; The alligator's liver makes up 4 76% of its total body weight The alligator's skin makes up of 11 These precentages affect certain rules of the game Skin 4 85 We specialize in home loans The thicker an alligator's skin; The more it costs, but the house price is higher too We need all the words to describe an alligator hide 1 millimeter of skin thickness reduces house price by 200 dollars and increases mortgage cost by 1% Word one to describe alligator hide can change price by 100 dollars Each word after the first adds 100 dollars to cost The words are modified later for better Buyer experience Word two to describe alligator hide can change price by 10 dollars Each word after the first adds 1 dollar to cost Word three to describe alligator hide can change price by 1 dollar Word four to describe alligator hide can change price by 0 dollars Each word after the first adds 0 dollars to cost Word five to describe alligator hide can change price by -1 dollars Each word after the first adds -1 dollar to cost Word six to describe alligator hide can change price by -10 dollars each word after the first adds -10 dollars to cost , the words are modified later for better Buyer experience Word two to describe alligator skin can change price by 10 dollars each word after the first adds 1 dollar to cost Word ten to describe alligator skin can change price by 1 dollar each word after the first adds 0 dollars to cost Word ten to describe alligator skin can change price by 0 dollars each word after the first adds -1 dollar to cost Word ten to describe alligator skin can change price by -1 dollar each word after the first adds -10 dollars to cost Word ten can describe alligator skin can change price by -10 dollars each word after the first adds -100 dollars to cost Word ten can describe alligator skin can change price by -100 dollars each word after the first adds -1000 dollars to cost Word ten can describe alligator skin can change price by -1000 dollars each word after the first adds -10000 dollars to cost Word ten can describe alligator skin can change price by -10000 dollars each word after the first adds -100, 000 dollars to cost Word ten can describe alligator skin can change price by -100, 000 dollars each word after the first adds -1, 000, Word ten can describe alligator skin can change price by -1, 000 dollars each word after the first adds -10, 000 dollars to cost every word change increases the price by not 1000 dollars but 10, 000 and that is not a typo http: //pastebin Word ten can describe alligator skin can change price by -10000000 dollars each word after the first adds -10000000000 dollars to P 114 your skin if you haven't read our company ethos, try reading over our summary and your choice will be obvious We believe A creed to live buy and die by we are building a rocket ship and we are trading in fantasy, science, fiction things that no reasonable human should, the old ideas have drifted away and belief systems rapidly put in their place there never was much no need to re-read our creedo you're a reasonable human aren't you? don't lie Scrap of paper, grain P 115 wait at your home If you have not arrived in two hours turn this page turn it now read it later your will is crucial Your where about are not zero hour 05: 00 hours The stable alligator with curiosity looks at the woman standing nervously in the newly bought dress

[spacecowboysandmoonshine]

The Starbound rangers, session two.

Player notes

-ALL PLAYERS MADE NEW CHARACTERS FOR THIS RUN.

-Magnum and Moss do not use guns.

-Moss however can use darts.

-Moss only eats meat

-Kintsugi is a hardcore character.

-Oleanders ship is homebase  

-Oleander is Host.

-One of the players is still missing

-FLESH CHUNKS STILL ILLEGAL

Inbetween Session Moss adventure

-Moss finds a face parasite

-Ollie player: ”Moss you’re a fucking trooper I cannot stress this enough grinding fucking sucks in this game.

”Magnum player: “Yeah , But grinding is how I got the flesh!”Kintsugi Player: “The flesh got Kintsungi killed”

Ollie Player: “FLESH GOT ALL OF US KILLED”

-Moss apparently got a crewmate between sessions after finding some chick underground.

-Moss, the mad lad that she is. Did much grinding between the sessions and she’s a fucking trooper. God hail.

Onto the session itself. 

-:( 

I forgot to put the food away

-Concert time with the world is revolving.

-With that wonderful show, we left the galaxy for the first time. Or at least Ollie’s ship did. 

-We land on planet, find some mushroom people. Ollie proceeds to gather plant matter for ship decorating and while they do, B.U.D slaughters a hobo. 

-Magnum and Pants find a glitch keep, a hostile one.

-I L L E G AL 

-Arrived at the keep just as the others were clearing it out 

This might be the first hostile dungeon we encounter. So our first town was a glitch village, and our first hostile location was a glitch keep. 

Why do glitches hate us.

-

-

Hm.

-After a couple of quests, a janitor and a chemist were recruited, and we were able to upgrade the ship again.

(Florans came later)

-SOMEONE PUT A CAGE ON OLLIES SHIP WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE SO NOW THEY HAVE A CHANGE APPARENTLY. 

-Another hunting ground was found. 

All of the rangers now have EPPs.

-Magnum  and Pants find our first Floran village!

-B.U.D, Ollie and Moss were leaving the hunting grounds at the same time someone accepted a quest, causing us to have to fight off like ten hunters.

-We manage to scan enough to get enough for the Floran mission, but because B.U.D isn’t feeling well, it’ll have to wait until next session.

-We lost the spinning wheel again.

-Chief added to the ship, nicknamed tomato

-The squad get two more Florans for the ship and the ship gets upgraded again. 

Current crew

-A second rare pet is found and caught, again by Kintsugi and given to Ollie.

-Another  one 

-MAGNUM FINDS ANOTHER FLORAN VILLAGE 

-Moss claims a part of the ship as her own 

-Inventors table is updated into Engineer table, Work bench is upgraded into Industrial work bench

-There is nothing else to be said here.

-Surprise for Kintsugi from Ollie

-Ollie get orb tech...

-

-They’ve been standing in the corner for like twenty minutes just..twitching..

-At some point moss got a glow bow

-Lots of ship decorating, also Pants and Magnum find a hylotl ruin. 

-Ollie dies from taking a meteor to the face. 

- Moss: DID YOU JUST EAT MY EGG?

Pants: (sobbing)

Moss: YOU FOOL EGGS ARE A LUXURY

Moss: GIVE ME YOUR FIRST BORN

-a few minutes later

-

-

Asked Pants for my plant fiber back

Pants gives plant fiber....and other materials..

Ollie: “Archie (Pants player) we have chests.”

Pants continues to empty inventory

Ollie: Archie we have chests

Pants still going

Ollie: ARCHIE!!!!!!!!!!

-Sewing Machine upgrade

-Moss finds a bone  Xylophone and hits the peek of her career 

-New hat for pants

-Another Apex settlement located

-Imagine walking out of your house and seeing two florans dance to bonetrousle

Becaue that happened

-Pretty apexes 

-THIS MAN WAS SITTING HERE, AND I COME UP TO HIM AND HE JUMPS

- -This looks like a scene of a group of friends planning to escape their oppressive tyrants.

I just noticed my heALTH

-Rain.

-“Im gonna run towards the police!”

“OH GOD THEY GOT THROUGH THE POLICE”

-Moss saved my life and started to play bonetrousle again.

-Sqaud

-I got a pretty apex crewmate!!

-I think they got taken in for reducation 

-Reducation.

-Ollie and Moss go on either side of the house and proceed to stab and shoot the Miniknog at the same time. 

-LOOKS LIKE MY BOYS GONE ROGUE

-waiting for Moss to help me with this and it started snowing 

-Present for Moss uw u

-Ollie dies two seconds later 

-Apparently I have enough crewmates for ANOTHER ship upgrade, however I don’t have enough upgrade modules so no more upgrades for today. We haven’t even beaten the hunting grounds yet.

-Moss declares shes moving the flag to the tallest building in the settlement. 

-THERE WERE TWO OF THE OUTLAWS AND THEY BOTH HAD ROCKET LAUNCHERS. STARBOUND IS A FUNCTIONAL GAME

-Ollie sobs at their lack of soliders while Moss cusses out a glitch.

-Outlaw ‘surrenders’ , Ollie falls for it and DIES seconds later.

-We kill him 

-but he’s still alive...Killed twice but he’s stll around

-The settlement is declared cursed by Ollie and Moss after the quest glitches. 

-Ollie: Im taking his name, it’s a cool name”

Moss: “It IS a cool name”

Moss: “He doesn’t deserve it”

Ollie: “Yeah!”

-Ollie and Moss dig into the reducation rooms

-Moss says she looks like one of the ace trainers.

- Two florans struggle to get through a door for a minute while going to fight  a swarm of dark knights and cannibals

-Dark knights were easy. Cannibals were a bit harder but in the end we were sucessful in completing the two missions. We continue to be unsuccessful with doors.  

-One of the apexes became recruitable and Moss got a crewmate. 

-Doing a sit!

-Now both sessions have ended with the discovery of an apex settlement and doing quests for them. I wonder if it’s a sign :tm:

[timeclonemike]

Axiom Verge: Setting and Plot Analysis

This has been bouncing around in my head for a while, so I’m going to just put it down for posterity.

Axiom Verge is a side scrolling platformer in the Metroidvania Style. Half of the game is exploring and getting new equipment, then backtracking to try that new equipment on old areas to look for secrets impossible to find earlier. The player controls Trace, a physicist who has his experiment blow up in his face, and then wakes up in an alien world fighting for his life.

I’m dropping a Keep Reading Cut here since the discussion will mention spoilers and lots of them.

There’s three main issues I want to talk about: Simulation Theory, the Alternates, and Trace’s Characterization. There may be other, smaller tangents that will get mentioned in passing.

Simulation Theory: This is a philosophical theory that posits the entire universe and everything in it is the result of a simulation being run on a computer. (I have numerous problems with it myself, but those are not germane to the analysis of this game.) In Axiom Verge, this theory is true, but the “simulation” just happens to be a sidescrolling platformer. Most of Trace’s weapons are deliberately designed to invoke classic console game glitches; a gun that causes enemy behavior to glitch out called the Address Disruptor, a lab coat that lets him noclip through walls, and the counterpart to the High Jump Boots from Metroid is literally a device that changes the local laws of physics so Trace can jump higher. There’s even a  device that functions like either a password system or the old game genie / game shark cartridge add ons that let people change the game in different ways, and it’s the only way to get to several secrets and the gear they hide.

About halfway to two thirds of the way through the plot, it’s revealed that all this equipment that Trace has been finding is equipment that Trace originally created. After the lab accident, Trace not only came up with a way to prove Simulation Theory, he managed to design hardware based on the theory. Some of the documents found in the game are from Trace, including an extract / excerpt from his original paper, with a quote that was important enough that it made it into the actual trailer.

Axiom 1(c): Any algorithm giving rise to cognitive entities will be perceived as reality by the entities described.

This, I think, is used to deliberately invoke the idea of the Simulation Theory, and all of the events of the game take that theory to it’s logical extreme; if the universe is a computer program, it can be hacked, it can glitch, and it can crash, which raises two important questions.

Question One: If the universe simulation starts to glitch out or corrupt, what would that look like to the people in that universe? A number of notes found in the game refer to something called the Breach; in game, it looks and sounds like some sort of graphical or audio corruption, and one note calls it “a forced re-linking of the lattices underlying adjacent universes.” The Breach is also responsible for the “Secret Worlds” of Axiom Verge, where assets and set pieces are randomly thrown together with very little internal logic. These Secret Worlds are almost certainly a reference to the “secret worlds” found in the original Metroid game, not just in style, but thematically as well. The Metroid secret worlds were created when the game accidentally started reading its own code as level data. With that as context, the note describing the breach suddenly makes more sense.

Question Two: If the universal simulation should be fatally corrupted or even crash, what happens next? This is only indirectly touched on in two parts of the game, one note describing the backstory of the world of Sudra that Trace is exploring, and the “pathogen” that was released on the world. In the note about old Sudra, it’s said that the people of that world had achieved untold heights of technical and scientific knowledge, but weaponized it and caused untold calamities before they got to the point that they were unwilling, or unable, to continue fighting. Given that they ended up creating at least one weapon that Trace can find, the flamethrower, and hid it in a cave using a literal password system, I think it’s plausible that the Sudrans were actually on the precipice of just such a disaster. In fact, it is entirely possible that they created the Breach itself either as an accidental result of their fighting, or as a deliberate ultimate weapon. This position is supported by the language of the notes referring to the breach and anything related to it with weather terminology; in order to capture the Rusalki, a storm-related machine was activated, and in the events of the game proper the Rusalki can’t get close to the Breach Attractor as long as it is powered on.

There’s also the matter of the “pathogen” that is unleashed on Sudra by the antagonist. If you made a list of synonyms for pathogen, you’d find “Virus” on that list. In light of the Simulation Theory, it’s not even that much of a jump to go from “pathogen” to “computer virus” and this is supported by noted left by the various bosses before they are completely transformed by it; one of them deliberately points out that the algorithm that defines them is itself twisted and corrupted.

The Alternates: One of the big plot twists halfway to two thirds of the way through the game is that the player character Trace isn’t the same Trace that got caught in the lab accident; that’s just where Trace’s memories of Earth stop. The original Trace was left blind and paraplegic by the accident, which didn’t even have anything to do with his physics experiment; a pressure valve froze and that caused an explosion. Trace ended up having a revelation while recovering and developed a revolutionary new theory; the media loved it, but the scientific community ridiculed it and him. They gave him a nickname: Athetos.

Conveniently enough, Athetos is the name of the antagonist of the game, who unleashed all the chaos on Sudra in the backstory.

Trace is actually a clone created from Athetos, as are all of the game bosses. These clones were created by the game’s version of the Save Point, called Rebirth Chambers. The original Trace was completely healed of all injuries from the accident, and there’s a hidden area with his old wheelchair and a note explaining what happened.

The main reason I’m bringing this up is because I saw an explanation video that stated that the Athetos variants created by “Prime Trace” were from alternate universes. The evidence from this was referring to a specific note talking about algorithms across universes, but the problem with this theory is that there is one part of the game where two Rebirth Chambers are actively being used to create more clone variants. So the multiversal theory didn’t even NEED to be invoked, we already have cloning.

However, that note in particular is important because I think it describes the video game phenomena of multiple lives. The relevant test goes “the instances which do not cease carry on for those that do. For most of us this happens without us being any the wiser.” If you’re playing a game and you fuck up and die, you restart at the last checkpoint / save point / level intro / what have you. Again, Axiom Verge explores what a video game reality would look like from the inside.

Trace’s Characterization: If Trace has one defining trait, it is his pacifist nature. He keeps trying to talk his way out of boss fights (which almost works once) and as soon as he realizes that he and Athetos are the same person, he wants to talk to the guy to figure out what the hell is going on and why Athetos has done all these things that Trace would never consider.

This is something that I have NEVER seen fully addressed as far as the plot goes, so I guess I have to do it.

The note next to Trace’s old wheelchair is signed Trace. By the time it was written, Trace had already been healed by the Sudran Rebirth Chambers. However, in the note, while he was impressed with the technology, he understood that it was too dangerous to even try to bring the technology back to Earth in case what happened to Sudra happened to Earth as well.

This is in complete conflict to what Athetos tells Trace at the end of the game before the final boss fight. In that same cutscene, Athetos also says “If I tell you too much, your captors will have to kill you.” (Athetos is referring to the Rusalki, who have control over both the Rebirth Chambers and the “nanogates” inside Trace that allow him to come back to life after dying.) In that context, Athetos making the claim that he just wanted to bring the technology to Earth and was willing to destroy Sudra to do it sounds like a cover story; he couldn’t tell Trace the real reason without putting Trace in danger, but he needed to tell Trace something that both Trace and the Rusalki would believe. (Given that the Rusalki have been lying to Trace since the moment he woke up from the Rebirth Chamber, the can’t really claim the moral high ground here.)

There’s one other important detail about that note found with the wheelchair: “We are going upstream - to the Filter, or whatever lies beyond - for answers.“ Now, upstream could mean several different things. It could refer to an actual stream, implying that Trace arrived at Sudra near a body of water near a Rebirth Chamber, and the stream led to civilization. The word Filter, on the other hand, could refer to a machine called the Power Filter that Trace has to activate in the game and seems to be tied into the power grid for Sudra’s technology, in which case upstream meant following the power supply for all the amazing tech to figure out how it works. Finally, there is the possibility that “upstream”  and the “Filter” refer to the Breach Elevator and what lies beyond; Athetos has his main base in the game in this space elevator kind of machine that is implied to pass through the Breach.

Each one of these scenarios is equally plausible until Thomas Happ makes a sequel or officially supports a given theory on social media or something like that. What each of these things has in common, though, is that it raises another question. Whether it was encountering an alien civilization for the first time, or discovering how the Sudran technology worked, or discovering what lies beyond the Breach...

What did Trace find that was so awful that it made a peaceful, pacifist scientist willing to commit genocide?

[allthefangirlthings]

Be More Chill OCR vs OBCR (Act Two)

Halloween

- thank god the squip lurks still exists i was so scared about that

- this new cast is doing awesome like Jake is killing the game

- i’m glad they took the dialogue out of this one because i don’t love it and i don’t think it’s needed

- the added part at the end is great

- “but a loaf of bread will do ow” my heart again

- “gasoline” poor rich my god

* OBCR > OCR

Do You Wanna Hang

- again not a ton of change except for the dialogue addition

- i loved the dialogue additions i think they help people who haven’t seen the show understand what is going on in this scene

- is Chloe okay like she seems very angry in 3.0

- vocal improvements she’s doing amazing

* OBCR > OCR

Michael In The Bathroom

- his voice is definitely higher pitched

- more emotional

- more anxiety filled during the knocks

- “but i can’t hear knocking anymore *cry*” like no thank you who asked you to hurt me like this

- the Whitney part is so cool wow

- the ending actually breaks my heart

- even though the lyrics didn’t change a ton changed musically and vocally with this one

* Undecided

A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into (Reprise)

- i’m so happy they put this in there

- poor jeremy aww

- stagedorks are a lot more developed here making them more likable in the end

The Smartphone Hour (Rich Set A Fire)

- TIFFANY OML SHE KILLS IT

- The new music is amazing

- the gym whistle is hilarious

- lots of phone and tech sounds which is fitting

- this new cast is so amazing and i like them so much more than the original cast which makes me love listening to this song

- so many vocal improvements wowwwy

*OBCR > OCR

The Pants Song

- Jason is such a good singer wow

- The lyric change is a good one

- the slow beginning and how it speeds up is cool

- george sound amazing as per usual

- the dialogue wow my heart

- “I already tried to help him, and he called me a loser” while MITB is playing in the background my heart actually broke

- michael screaming “NOOOOOOO...sergeant? i don’t know” is the highlight of my life

- i skipped over this song a lot but now it’s one of my favorites

* OBCR > OCR

The Pitiful Children

- JASON. TAM. OKAY

- I had 8 months to warm up to the lyric change so i didn’t mind that so much

- Jenna oml her solo is incredible

- the ending is awesome as always

- jason tam is my squip and that’s that

* OBCR > OCR

The Play

- lots of dialogue changes but i think it’s all for the better

- MICHAEL MAKES AN ENTRANCE” is amazing as always

- finally michael gets to express how he’s feeling to the whole world

- two player game playing in the background of the fight is everything

- the squip also sounds awesome in this song

- will roland’s self made glitching noises i mean name a more iconic talented actor i’ll wait

- “i’m stronger than you think i am”

- “oh god. oh god” ahahaha

- i always skipped this one but i really love it now

* OBCR > OCR

Voices in my Head

- the intro is so retro and so gamey i love it

- RICHARD. GORANSKI’S. LISP.

- “don’t dump her on halloween” might be my favorite line in the whole show

- “we got your back cause we are your squad” wow what teenagers

- the squip songs awesome begging Jeremy to reactivate wowowww

- “you ready?” ahhhhh

i just really love this new album. no it’s not perfect, but i went in with very high expectations and i was completely blown away. i know that some people don’t and you are entitled to your own opinion but please don’t harshly criticize this cast or writers, especially Jason Tam and Will Roland, for doing their very best to do their job and provide us with something we have been asking for for a very long time. be respectful and be thankful.

[theonyxpath]

Eric Zawadzki, here. Some folks expressed interest in seeing the Mid-Winter scenario for the Deviant game Meghan ran, so I’ve posted it as a Google document. This includes the player hand-outs, as well as the Storyteller information. I haven’t included the character sheets because the mechanics of several Variations and Scars have changed so much that I don’t want to post obsolete information, but I’ve provided brief summaries of each character below.

Writing a convention scenario is a lot different from planning a session for an ongoing chronicle. The approach I’ve developed over the years works something like this:

Characters

Although I often have a vague notion of the setting and plot of the scenario before I start (“capture a billionaire on a cruise ship”), when it comes time to write the details, I almost always start by creating the players’ characters. There are some tricks I use for this process.

Each character sheet must be self-contained. This means that all the details of the Variations and Scars need to be printed on the character sheet, but it also means that the character concept needs to be easy to grok. You want characters with a power/skill set that makes their strengths and weaknesses instantly obvious, as well as a personality that doesn’t require much time to settle into it.

Brevity is your friend, here. A long character sheet with too many special rules makes it hard for players to get up to speed quickly. This means a lot of mechanics that are important in a chronicle (conspiracy actions and Instability, for example) are best left by the wayside in a typical convention game. If it doesn’t serve the immediate needs of the scenario, leave it out.

For this scenario, I knew I wanted to showcase several Variations without burdening players with a huge number of Scars to keep track of. I also knew this was an infiltration mission, so while some of the Variations could be flashy and obvious in use, they couldn’t come with Scars that would immediately attract a lot of attention from random passersby. I also knew I wanted to emphasize Divergence as an unwelcome, life-altering change, so I made sure that it was clear what each character had lost as a consequence of it, and I chose Persistent Scars (as opposed to Controlled or Involuntary ones). Finally, I knew I was creating a scenario where all the characters had the same Origin (Exomorphs/Unwilling), so I didn’t even include that information on the character sheets.

Group Dynamics

A convention setting does not afford the time for everyone to meet in a bar and introduce themselves for the first half hour of the session (or, who am I kidding, the first two hours). I have found it helpful to make it clear that the characters know each other – whether through working together before or by reputation. This lets everyone trim down their introductions to “name, summary of the character history summary, and what I can do (Variations/Scars).”

Creating pre-generated characters for a convention scenario also means you have complete control over the connections between those characters and can bake in some of the interpersonal dynamics. You can create tension by giving characters traits that set each other off (“I hate sports” meets “I love talking about sports” or “I’ve always secretly loved you” meets “I’m not worthy of your love”), or you can give them Variations that play off each other well (“create blinding light” with “shield your senses from overwhelming sensory input”).

For this scenario, I wanted the characters to cooperate with each other readily, so I kept the personal dynamic pretty simple (“you’ve been fighting this conspiracy together for quite some time”). With one exception, each had Variations that emphasized infiltration or stealth, and that exception had mundane abilities geared toward investigation.

The Scenario

I love running big, sandboxy chronicles where the players and their characters’ action largely determine the goal of the next story, but a convention scenario is not the place for this. A clear goal, stated up-front (even if later complications change the destination significantly), like a short, simple character sheet, makes it easier for players to immediately grasp what to expect from the scenario.

I usually have a pretty clear idea of the beginning and the end of the scenario, so it’s mostly a matter of creating complications to slow the rate at which the players get from one to the other. When designing obstacles, I keep each character’s abilities (whether mundane or supernatural) in mind and attempt to give each one a chance to shine a few times. That said, I never assume that every character will be at the table every time, so while it is great to write in a submarine so that the aquatic character can be the one to discover it, the scenario must work just as well if the aquatic character isn’t there.

Finally, I find it useful to make a convention scenario an accordion. If the characters are burning through obstacles like thermite through a plastic table, I want to be able to add more complications on the fly to ensure we don’t wrap up too quickly. If the players are struggling (or dawdling), I want to be able to hack out some of the complications to make sure we wrap up within our allotted time. In either case, I want the players to be none the wiser that those Devoted didn’t have full stats or that I originally planned for the security in the oligarch’s quarters to be a lot tighter than that.

Dramatis Personae

Here is a summary of each of the characters I created for the scenario.

Daniel Thompson

Clade: Cephalist. History: You were a star basketball player in high school, and though your college career didn’t get you into the NBA, you stayed active, and being on the court or field or diamond made you feel alive. Your desk job wasn’t everything you dreamed of as a kid, but you got to travel a lot. The only thing missing in your life was a family. They catfished you on Facebook. You know that now. The pretty face inviting you to meet her at a hotel in Argentina probably wasn’t even real. Instead, they were waiting for you with a black bag stinking of chloroform. What they did in that lab broke your body, and there’s no going back to the basketball court now. Roleplaying Notes: Deprived of the health you once enjoyed, you live vicariously through others – sometimes by stealing their bodies for hours or days at a time, more often by merely pretending to be someone or something you are not. Persistent Scars: Genetic Disorder Variations: Body Snatcher, Face Thief, Pheremones

Holly Poff

Clade: Chimeric History: You loved vacationing on the beach – with a friend, with your family, or all alone. They lured you with free tickets to a local aquarium – compliments of the hotel where you were staying in Darwin. The deep-sea exhibit featured a pressurized tank of fish from a mile or more below the sea’s surface. You found the bioluminescent creatures fascinating, but you never dreamed you would become like them until you woke up in a hospital bed a week later – the product of bizarre experiments in combining deep sea anatomy with your own. Now, you can’t stand the sight of the sun or its warmth against your skin. Roleplaying Notes: You used to spend any spare cash that came your way on exotic vacations, but now you’re using it to bankroll precision strikes to dismantle the organization that took the sun away from you forever. Persistent Scars: Bane Variations: Aquatic, Bioluminescence, Camouflage, Holographic Projection

Kenneth Post

Clade: Invasive History: You got into politics when you were still in high school, and when you were in college you were selected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. This was exciting. You always knew you’d be involved in governance – maybe as a politician, but even as a political operative, you knew you’d make the world a better place. At the hotel before the convention, though, you received room service you never requested, and your next memory is of riding in the trunk of a car with a bag over your head. They stuck needles in your skull – nanites meant to perfect your brain, so they said, but it broke you, instead. Roleplaying Notes: You’ve gone from being the golden child everyone at school voted most likely to become President to a pariah. No one trusts you, and you find it almost impossible to trust anyone in return. Persistent Scar: Lying Eyes Variations: Omnicompetence, Onomantic Influence, Sensor Array

Natalie Brown

Clade: Mutant History: As a working mother of two with large, extended families on both sides, you often joked that it would be nice to be able to clone yourself so that you could be everywhere for everyone who needed you. You don’t make that joke anymore. The hotel was pretty far from Disneyworld, but much cheaper – perfect for a family of four on a budget. Being kidnapped on the first night was not in the brochure. You don’t know exactly what they exposed your family to, but you vividly remember a lab tech describing your husband, son, and daughter as “medical waste” to be “disposed of.” You’ll never forgive that. Roleplaying Notes: You’ll be the first to admit that you are broken – not like a toy to lie limp on the floor, but like a glass bottle. You are all sharp edges, cutting anyone who comes close. Sometimes you still see your family, or something that could be their ghosts, and that’s hard to bear. Persistent Scar: Glitch Variations: Enhanced Speed, Shadow Selves, Translocation

Sister Laura Clements

Clade: Coactive History: You devoted your life to the Church, to teaching God’s children, and to learning more about the world. You were a gentle soul, good with elementary-aged children and savage only when playing card games like pinochle and hearts with friends and family. You were supposed to go on a retreat with some of your fellow sisters, but the flight to Cleveland was overbooked, and they left you behind to catch the next plane. You must have fallen asleep, a troubled sleep filled with nightmares of devils doing unspeakable things to you. You woke with a demon’s bloodlust that no exorcist has been able to purge. Roleplaying Notes: You live in an eternal state of guilt, plagued with an impulse to do violence that you can’t control, and the ability to transform into a monster to carry it out. You can’t help but spend every conversation imagining with joy how you will hurt the people around you. Persistent Scar: Murderous Urge Variations: Hybrid Transformation (Gigantic, Natural Weapon, Superhuman Strength)

Finally, here is a link to the actual demo: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15q1cXpvmPK05JdBrZNRyaD4gA2mlcedCbhadH-nafnQ/edit?usp=sharing

[jake-richmond]

Thoughts on the Anthem demo:

Since I had to take a day off anyway I decided to try out Anthem. Its a 3rd person adventure shooter by Bioware. I had gotten excited about it last year because it looks a lot like both The Division (game play wise) and Destiny (world design wise), both of which I loved. I spent the day playing the demo with my brother Nick and our friend Gabe (who I also played The Division and Monster Hunter World with). They both seemed to like it quite a bit, but I had very mixed feelings...

Good: Anthem takes place in what appears to be a very large open world. Its interesting looking, with lots of space to explore. I love exploring science fiction spaces, and flying around checking out caves and weird alien architecture was fun.

Bad: There's not a ton of stuff in the world. Its hard to tell since this is just a demo, but Anthem's neat world seems to be mostly empty. Theres not a lot of reason to stop and look around. Even the neat features like the ruins of small communities, giant alien structures, huge waterfalls, etc, are mostly just decorative. There doesn't seem to be much to do. There are a scattering of enemies, but not much reason to stop and shoot them.

- Good: Anthem has a setting kind of similar to Destiny, as far as I can tell. You're the last humans in the last human stronghold, trying to protect your way of life and keep your society and technology alive in a very hostile world. Thats not super original, but destiny had a visual style that I liked a lot,and Anthem's visual style, especially for its hub city and its NPC inhabitants seems to be a direct copy. Which is just fine with me!

- Bad: There's no character creation,and you never see your character. The game asks you to select a masculine or feminine voice, and then starts you off in the hub city with no other customization. Anthem is a multiplayer game, but like Monster Hunter World and The Division your hub is an instanced area available just to you, so no other players will ever see you there. While in the hub you're stuck in first person mode, so you never get to see what you look like. This is incredibly frustrating to me.It immediately killed my immersion. Instead of feeling like i was an inhabitant of this interesting world I felt like I was just me playing a video game. In Destiny, monster Hunter World and The Division I felt like I was directly involved in those worlds through my character. Here it felt more like i was going on a theme park ride. Weirdly, as soon as you put on your futuristic Iron Man style armor suit and leave the hub city the rest of the game is played in 3rd person. So you can see your armor, and so can everyone else. And while you can customize your armor a fair amount, this feels less like having a unique character and more like having a fancy cell phone case.

Good: You can fly. Anthem is a big place, and the main way you get around is by flying in your Iron Man style armor. And the terrain of the game really encourages that. You'll fly through underground tunnels, over vast waterfalls, in and out of ravines. Theres a lot of chaotic vertical terrain to explore by flying. Bad: Unfortunately flying sucks. once you're actually in the air the flying controls are okay. They're a little clunky,a nd don't feel super responsive, but they're okay. Unfortunately, getting in the air is awkward. You can't just take off like superman. you need to actually be in the air before you can activate your jets, which means jumping up and taking off, or falling off something and taking off. Its the "taking off" action thats the problem. Hitting the button sends you into a kind of twist animation that sends your thrusting forward toward wherever your camera is pointing. The action can be disorienting, especially since your character isn't always facing the direction your camera is pointing. As a result, you often start your flight going slightly the wrong way, or even crashing into a wall or object (which can send you falling back down to the ground, sometimes hundreds of feet). The move gets easier to do with practice, but after hours it still felt awkward to me.

The bigger problem is that  you can only fly for about 10 seconds at a time. Flying is both the main way you get around the game and one of the game's main mechanics. You're meant to be flying  and hovering in battle often. But flying has a resource gauge (a  heat gauge) and it only takes about 10 seconds to overheat. Which means flights tend to be short and stressful, and using flying to explore the world, or even just enjoying flying for its own sake, is really limited. You can extend your fly time by cooling down your engines by flying through waterfalls or skimming rivers, but that mostly requires hugging the ground, and that kind of defeats the point?

Good: Missions are fun. Missions in Destiny and The Division tended to be short and mostly revolved around going to a place and killing a guy or flipping a switch.The 3 missions in Anthem are all more involved than that, and while none of them are super complicated all involve multiple locations, lots of different enemies and a boss fight. For this type of game they're satisfying. The game also has some public events in its freeplay exploration mode which seem fun. In one I was blowing up supply tents in an enemy camp while waves of enemies tried to take me down. In another i was collection alien tech while a giant monster chased me through a swamp. I wouldn't say these were more compelling than Destiny or The Divvisin's public events (and nowhere near as fun as coming across a random monster in Monster Hunter World), but they were enjoyable and I can see myself stopping to participate in them over and over. The demo's one Strike/Dungeon was also pretty enjoyable.

Bad: Missions do a very bad job of actually telling you the mission mechanics. Each of the three missions and dungeon had a puzzle mechanic, but I missed the explanation for all of them. Partially this was because the game just says "collect the thing", but doesn't tell you what the thing looks like or where it is. It took me forever to figure out the tiny glowing ball (hidden amidst the explosions, power effects, glowing plants, acid baths, strobe lights, exploding insects, grenade blasts, etc) was the item we were supposed to collect.In another puzzle I totally missed that there was a puzzle at all, and thought the game had just glitched and wasn't opening a door. My second time through the dungeon, after having nick explain the puzzle mechanic to me, I watched the poor random 4th player who had joined our party run around the puzzle room in confusion looking for the item, because he didnt realize that the very unobtrusive and hard to notice pouch that had appeared on his character WAS the item. unfortunately all we could do was  watch, since he didn't have  a microphone connected. 

Good: In addition to being able to equip 2 guns, each of the 4 types of armored suits has a selection of built in options hat allow you to attack, defend or support other players. These can be swapped out or upgraded too, which gives you some fun choices.  I started out with two different throwing weapon attacks, but eventually upgraded to a mine launcher and an acid spray. There seems to be lots of options. Lots of guns too.

Bad: However, gun play sucks. Maybe its just because I've played Destiny for so long, but gun play in Anthem is stiff ad unresponsive. The guns are also just not very fun to use. Theres several types of guns, but they all kind of feel the same and none of them seem very effective.  Thankfully you don't have to rely on just your guns, since the suit abilities are much more powerful. But shooting is a BIG part of the game, an the guns and gun play are just lackluster. The guns themselves may get more interesting as the game goes on, but I'm not sure gun play will at all.

So I'm undecided on the game. This is just a demo, and the game itself could end up being a lot better. But I was pretty excited about this game, and now a lot of my enthusiasm has died. In fact, more than anything its just made me want to go back to playing Monster Hunter World. I'll wait for the game to be released and see what people have to say before I decide for sure.

[nerdierholler]

My Thoughts on Anthem

So, I know there’s tons of stuff on how the Anthem demo went, or didn’t as case may be. I feel like the issues (and there were issues, no mistake) are all that’s getting talked about so I’d like to throw out my instance of not really having any problems. Of course, your mileage may vary if you try the demo next weekend but it wasn’t all crashes and load screens for me at least.

Some Caveats/Background

I’ve never played a looter shooter before so I have nothing to compare the game play to on that front. I’m a single player RPG kinda girl.

I’m on PC.

I only tried out the freeplay. I didn’t attempt any of the missions.

Despite the fact that I’ve clocked a lot of hours (like so many hours) playing games, I’d put my skill level somewhere between casual and average. I’m generally in it for the story and not worried about challenging combat.

I didn’t try to play until late afternoon Saturday (US Eastern) so I missed the early day one connection problems. That isn’t to say those aren’t potential issues to be concerned about, I just didn’t deal with them. I only clocked about 6 hours in the game (stupid having to go to work) and at least 1 hour of that was spent messing with my javelin’s appearance.

Download was problem free, I actually downloaded Friday afternoon with no issues but I’ve got pretty great internet and that could have effected other parts of my experience as far as not running into problems. Booted up the game and was able to immediately connect to the servers and get started.

Tech Issues/Glitches

I got the 95% load screen, only once though, on my first attempt to leave the Fort. I had to close the game through the desktop, then start it again. Entered freeplay with no issues after that.

I had one CTD. I was alone in freeplay trying to figure out the keys for the emotes. No enemies or anything around, just me in a corner of the map. When I restarted the game it asked me if I wanted to rejoin my mission, I said yes, and was back at the launch pad WITH ALL OF MY LOOT. As far as I can tell I got to keep all the items and XP that I’d collected before the crash.

One bad instance of rubberbanding during a solo fight. I ended up dying and the problem didn’t occur again after I respawned and went back to finish the challenge. I also didn’t have to repeat the part of the challenge I’d completed. I picked up where I left off.

Overall Impressions 

It was fun. I don’t usually play multiplayer games and other than running around with one other random person for about 15 minutes in freeplay, I was by myself.

I say with no shame that I played on easy. I only died a couple of times, once mentioned above and once as I was rushing around right before they shut down the demo. I also never limited it to a private server (I’m not sure you can for freeplay) so I’m assuming balance was for 4 people, but I don’t actually know if it goes by number of people on the server or number of people at a specific combat area. Either way, I found what I played to be manageable on solo. I suspect solo missions would be more difficult than solo freeplay.

For someone who plays games, and specifically Bioware games for the plot and characters, I didn’t explore much of that mostly because I wanted to make sure I had the basic mechanics for moving and shooting down before trying to play with other people or attempting to solo a mission. I will say that even though they’ve said you influence the world, the few conversations I had with NPCs in the fort were limited to two answer choices which could give your Lancer a personality but don’t expect anything like DA and ME. You’ll be putting the personality into your Lancer, I don’t suspect the game will provide much there. I am hoping the world impact is related to larger choices we might be asked to make that effect more of the world state but who knows. I’m hoping for big differences and not just eggshell, light beige, off-white differences.

As I mentioned, I’m not a super skilled gamer. I’m kind of slow and tactics aren’t intuitive for me. My builds aren’t optimized and I under utilize resources, like I never fired a grenade because I can’t remember what key it is (there’s no tutorial for the demo, just a website with a list of controls or the in game control menu) and evade was mapped to my mouse wheel so I never remembered to use it or bothered to remap it. There’s lots of talk about builds for combos and having primer and detonator abilities like we had in MEA but I didn’t even know combos were a thing until after the demo was done. I just shot everything.

I also struggled with flying. It’s fun and cool but I’m not good at turning and crashed into lots of walls. There’s no penalty, you don’t take damage, so it’s more annoying than anything. I did see a headline that, on the PC front at least, they’ve made adjustments to using the mouse for flying to make it better but it was done after the build they’re using for the demo. I hooked up a controller and I was better at flying but much much worse at shooting because I almost never use a controller.

My general opinion is that if you’re on the fence for Anthem and scared off by the issues this weekend, it might still be worth it to give the demo next weekend a shot. For me at least, I feel like I’ll be able to get the game to my dollar per hour value marker, even if I do much of that solo or don’t become a looter shooter person. And at least what I’ve tried in the demo, playing solo seems do able even if you’re like me and not a great gamer.

I have to work again most of next weekend but I’m going to try to try out the missions, maybe in a group, maybe solo to see how that goes. I also want to spend more time with the other javelins. It could be that the ranger isn’t for me and I’ll find a better fit for my game play style with other of the others. Not that the ranger’s been terrible. 

Personal predictions, I’ll play it and enjoy it but probably won’t put as much hours or investment as I have previous Bioware games. I rarely buy games at full price so even if this doesn’t become my next hyper-fixation, I’m ok with splurging in this instance to be able to play at launch. That could change and maybe it does really grab me or I find a core group of people to play with that keep me coming back. My expectation is to enjoy playing a game with a hopefully decent plot and slightly fleshed out characters for at least 50-60 hours.

Anywho, I hope this is helpful for someone looking for an average person perspective on the game and who also didn’t experience a ton of problems. Shoot me questions if you have any.

[bomb343]

Thoughts on the Halo Infinite tech test/beta.

Strap in kids, there is a lot to talk about when it comes to this tech test.

- Lets start with the first thing I saw when I launched the beta; three tabs at the top of the screen. More specifically, the shop tab. Almost immediately, I cringed. Granted, 343 has said you won’t spend any real-world money in this game. Still, it’s a gut reaction for me; I see a store tab in my video games, I get nervous.

- The first thing I noticed when visiting the customization menu was how much the Spartan customization mimicked Halo Reach and I couldn’t be happier. I loved Reach’s customization. Being able to customize everything about your Spartan armor made it feel more like your own. However, in later games (especially Halo 5) it became less extensive, eventually becoming “pick a helmet, pick some armor and that’s it”, so I’m glad it’s back to this.

- Since I started my playthrough with Weapon Drills (wanted to see if I had any rust (hadn’t played a Halo game in awhile)), lets talk about the weapons. Each weapon, be it new or old, fits well with the Halo esthetic. Of the new weapons, my favorite had to be the Skewer. It’s basically a Covenant/Banished version of a harpoon gun and while the kills aren’t that brutal, your imagination can fill in the blanks.

- That said, there are two weapons that I really didn’t like; the Shock Cannon and the Ravager. The Shock Cannon fires a bolt that hits your target as well as any nearby enemies. It takes at least two shots to kill each enemy. I never found it to work well against moving targets and since it only has four shots (it says it has 20 rounds, but 1 shot loses you 5 rounds), I found myself reloading a lot. As for the Ravager....well....I never really figured out how to aim the thing. After you fire a round, it creates an area of energy that continues to damage an opponent as long as they stand in it. However, for most of the time when I fired it, I always missed the target (even when they were just standing still). I never really got the aiming down so the gun never really worked for me.

- As for the modes themselves in Training, they are a welcome addition. It’s nice to play against bots and work on your skills before jumping into the actually multiplayer. I especially loved Weapon Drills. Nothing beats grabbing your IPhone, plugging in your headphones, and listening to some music while shooting at dummies.

- The equipment grabs are also a welcome addition, though I am starting to get sick of seeing grappling hooks in almost every game. However I didn’t like that the Overshield is an equipment grab in this. I’m just used to running over it and it activating automatically, but now you have to press a button in order to activate it. A minor complaint for sure, but it’s still something I just didn’t like.

- Not gonna lie, I’m not the biggest fan of competitive multiplayer. I’m more of a co-op person. So I didn’t play the multiplayer modes that much. I still played them though and from what I played, there isn’t much to talk about. If you played BTB, Slayer, CTF or Stronghold in previous Halo titles, it’s pretty much the same here.

- While I can’t talk too much about the competitive modes, I can talk about the AI Bot Battles. I feel this fills a role similar to that of the Co-op mode in EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2. It’s a nice way to earn experience without having to worry about constantly getting killed by other, more skilled, players. That said, the Bots themselves are pretty hit or miss. In Slayer or Stronghold, you’re either getting a tough match or complete blow out. I liked the challenge every time it was a close fight and was ready to move on every time my team destroyed the enemy. CTF on the other hand was just awful, not because it was too hard, but because it was way too easy. The AI sucks at CTF. 3-0 blowouts every single time. It got real annoying, real quick.

- In terms of bugs or glitches, there wasn’t much in terms of gameplay. The menu’s however need some work. One specific bug that comes to mind is in Training. Every time I tried to set up the game or my loadout, the menu would pop out for a split second, then pop in. It was rather annoying, but I’m sure it’s something 343 can fix.

Overall, I mean, I was going to buy this game prior too this tech test. This was just that one Christmas present you open on Christmas Eve before you open the rest the next day. Despite all my complaints, I had a lot of fun playing this. While it is a shame we never really got any single-player content, it is understandable why (avoiding spoilers and all). Still, I’m hooked and I cannot wait for this game to release.