#after i already had nice cards built in the og game

[xx-justsomeguy-xx]

Kinda feel like I’m gonna go insane

[moon-goggles]

Generation Loss: The Founders Cut Thoughts

I adore genloss and was there to watch the premiere of the founders cut but one thing I do have a problem with is some of the pacing, and I’ve thought about it a fuck ton believe me but I gotta say some things; I think the cut isn’t perfect but IT IS interesting, it adds a lot to the project as a whole actually despite the cuts and it’s great to introduce to others who are intimidated by the vods who aren’t actively interested in the people playing as these characters BUT, it loses a lot of context for why and how it’s so horrifying as a concept unlike the og material.

I appreciated the pacing of the first episode but it lost some key contexts like GL!Charlie’s grandma and GL!Ranboo generally fucking up his place and other details that really built more onto how they were being controlled which thematically connect to the horrors you experience in episode two.

Episode two was already, quite long in the og vod and frankly not my favourite (hot take I know),,, but it was missing the horror of Charlie? Like what makes that surgery so jarring is how it was presented and it left me sitting there a little disappointed as it’s my favorite part. The episode felt very filler and it once again, takes over a majority of the three episodes due to its content and nothing wrong with that but the pacing felt slow and drawn out after the Candy Room. The pacing and editing could’ve been done differently for the rest of that episode in my op. Especially after the fast pacing and clean editing in the first episode. I don’t think it necessarily should’ve gone fast like the cabin in the woods, because the theming of that episode was about puzzles and such, but I don’t feel the time they used was necessary for the story or idea of everything being a game for the show YKNOW?

Episode three of course, my favorite beloved, not much had to be changed or cut as the pacing was already mostly planned well and efficiently from it being pre-recorded toward the end for cinematic feels, I don’t really have any complaints toward it except for the fact that it’s prior episodes lost the impact or context needed to bring you to the conclusion as an ultimate horror realization. GL!Ranboo saying thank you was such an added moment and HETCH actually being colder and directive toward them was good chilling touches but once again I feel that thank you isn’t as holy shit without some of the context you get from the og material cuz it was cut.

The ending was DEFINITELY worth the wait it left me intrigued and excited because it connected and set off the premise of smth beyond generation 1 and I’m pretty excited for what’s to come—

But overall the whole project, I knew it would be cut and edited as seen fit as states “THE FOUNDERS CUT” and that there was possibility for tidbits of lore that added on. I got exactly what was expected and was told we were going to get I just feel it leaves a bit lacking for the reasons stated earlier. This honestly could be somewhat of an intention because it is the FOUNDER’s cut, and what the FOUNDER wants shown despite the screen card for episode three about it not being something you’re supposed to see.

The whole premise of generation loss’ title losing some of its media and context for the cut and the way its perceived as a whole is honestly really smart and cool if you know the og material and I’m still stuck on if that was intentional by any means or not besides the obvious decisions for the audience to see where GL!Ranboo repeats himself over and over, the surgery’s horror being skewed, and HETCH acting as somebody being worth trusted as he did in the og, and etc. Because clearly, it was intentional but I’m not sure it was presented in the best way possible.

The additions tho once again I quite appreciated, getting to see that the food in episode one was horrific for a split second and GL!Ranboo’s past for those split seconds as well, very nice. Also the Showfall Media Mascot, Squiggles, having his very own animation was neat too tho his chat box almost never going up because of the cuts made it feel strange when it did show up in my op. And of course the new voiceover additions and tape at the end added so much tonal wise and made me rethink and evaluate what I assume as the consumer of this world’s lore, which I quite enjoy and appreciate!

[markrosewater]

Hey again!

In response to this point: “To use a metaphor, it’s why an interior decorator uses a color palette. You want to confine the choices, so the overall aesthetic comes through.”

I would just say that I don’t think y’all should necessarily be so 100% rigid. If 99% of the MID and VOW cards are two colors, it doesn’t ruin the overall aesthetic to have Edgar be three colors.

Exceptions to the rule can be a nice addition to the aesthetic. Edgar is the OG vampire after all. One of the biggest names on the plane. For him to be three colors in a block that’s defined by two colors…it adds to his eminence. It fits.

To reduce him to two colors and a rare simply because the team arbitrarily restricted itself to two-colors only and that you can’t have two mythic in the same combo (black and white)—it’s actually, I think, a disservice to the aesthetic. It’s not in the best interest of the flavor, character, or fans.

I understand maintaining those aesthetic restrictions for all the plane-flavored cards, right? Like the cycle of Cemetary mythics. Those cards make up most of the set and are in service to the set.

But when it comes to the main characters, especially already established characters, restrictive aesthetic limitations should come second. The characters should come first. If that means doubling up a mythic slot, so be it. If that means going three colors instead of two, so be it.

Fans attach to those characters and want them to be kick ass. When they’re not, you get responses like the response to Odric and Edgar. Is it better to have stuck to the arbitrary restrictions at the expense of fan reaction to these characters or would it have been better to make a couple exceptions and have an overall happier response?

Since you were so kind to spell out your side, let me spell out mine. Each player has things they personally care about. That's shaped by what format(s) they play, how long they've been playing, who they play with, how they play, etc. To that individual person, the priorities of the things they care about are obviously very high, so they tend to look at Magic as a means to give them the things they most care about. And the majority of players don't want that many things. Why can't we just give them the things they care about? It would be so easy. You only have to change a few cards here or there.

Now look at from our side. There are tens of millions of players who each have their own desires. That list of "just a few cards they want" becomes many times longer than there will be Magic cards in existence in the game's lifetime. We spend a lot of time collecting data and creating lists of what players want and are constantly making cards to meet common requests.

Add to that problem, the players want contradicting things. If we had made a red/white/black Edgar, I'd be answering a different post about how they already have a red/white/black Edgar, why couldn't we make something new, something that would inspire a different deck? Meeting player desires is complicated.

Then we get to what I'll call our problems. We have to make a Magic set. There's a lot that comes with doing that. A premier set has to offer something for all the formats (constructed and limited), it has to be fun to play, it has to be flavorful, it has to be distinctive to set itself apart from the various other sets we make, among many other needs. To do this, there are a lot of internal constraints built into the system of making Magic sets. Some are about optimal game play, some are about play balance, some are about marketing, some are about digital play, some are about organized play, some are about various resources (like say available artists), some are setting up sets around it to be successful, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

What this means to the problem at hand is just changing one card is often not as simple as "just change it". Let's talk about Edgar. What if we made the Coffin red on the back. What harm would that cause? For starters, it would make it a three-color card in a two-color draft format. That means we'd probably want to move it up to mythic rare to minimize players opening it in draft because it communicates to do something that the set doesn't support. But wait, Kaya's sitting in the white/black slot at mythic rare (because we color balance rarities), and she's a planeswalker, and barring special sets like War of the Spark, our planeswalkers are mythic rare.

So why not just have two white/black cards? Okay, what do we pull? The second we break a colored cycle, I get a different group of players writing to me because the color they adore didn't get as many mythic rares as the other colors. And color balancing exists for a reason (for example, aesthetics and play design). Ignoring it raises all the problems that it was created to solve.

In addition to that, we purposefully made three legendary Vampires to support each of the three two-color combinations to allow a variety of Vampire decks in Commander. When we change Edgar, we lose our white/black Vampire commander. Do we replace it with a new one? If so, what other card do we remove from the set? If not, we make an imbalance, and I'm getting questions about why white/black Vampires don't get a commander.

And then there are the cycle issues. Normally, we design our multicolor cards in cycles. We don't just make one three-color card, we make five, going around the color pie (usually all shards or all wedges). So, does changing Edgar require us to change four other cards? And again, the set isn't made to support three-color draft archetypes, so do all those have to be at mythic rare? And if we don't make them, then I get the complaints that red/white/black got a new commander, but no other wedge combinations did.

And then there are the reciprocity issues. If Vampires got a three-color commander why didn't the Werewolves get one in Midnight Hunt? So, now a change in this set might require a change in a whole other set that has just as many repercussions as this change did.

What I'm trying to point out here is there's a reason for our restrictions, and it's not just something we can change quite as easily as you think we can.

On top of all that, Magic has to keep making new content. If enough players really want something, they'll voice it to us, it'll get on a list, and one day we'll make it. Players like you will be very excited to see it. Having some things players want that doesn't yet exist is good for us, because it allows us to keep making cards that excite people.

We very much listen to and care about feedback, and where we can find ways to make concessions to our structure in the future in ways we think a lot of players we'll enjoy, we'll always consider it, but I need you to understand that it's a far more complex ask than I think you realize.

[skyphile]

Happy V(b)day!

GIFTS

a pair of whirlwind like piercings, a silver, smaller set like this, for his cheek dimples

matching fish toys for him and bongwater, this one for the cat, a Way bigger version for the… larger cat /:

a cardbox built castle shaped like a bong - for bongwater (google failed me here… )

non sweet chocolate pastries - using the alternian chocolate to make sea-salt based sauce and savory churro dough for the pastry

his reinterpretations (piano and softer) of the entire écailles de lune album - the og album here

this dumb vday card

a pair of luvdisc plushies like this, with magnets on the tip of their mouth

a whole nest! - from the same verse he’s taken daven to. john’s found an entire network of underwater tunnels made from some definitely alien tech, that serve as an observatorium of the sea life right there. the tunnels are mostly metallic, but they have several entryways into the sea, protected by nothing but a barrier you can phase through, but still keeps the liquid perfectly outside. there’s several rest points too, which john’s littered with cushions and other comforts, and one of them even has a kitchen area with a teleporter especially made to receive john’s fridge-like sylladex cards. john knows nothing of the civilization thats made these - if it even still exists - but figures fucker will enjoy the mystery. he knows very little of the marine life of this verse too, except it’s Very different, but also gets it if fucker wants to go out and explore too. the kitchen has a PLEaSE FEED ME button, that sends a signal to john whenevers pressed and he can respond to.

LETTER

In plain white paper, in pretty blue swirly cursive,

happy birthday, and merry heart day double whammy, fucker!!

ordinarily i write a very tender one of these any time an important birth event comes, but i figure it’s only fair i up my game for you - the big perk of landing the one day that should be about showing love and not be shy of it, to remind your important people why their place in your life matters.

so here it is…..

looking back at our first conversations now, it makes me so surprised to see how far we’ve come, from the the nervous back and forth of few words to…. the straight up sin that comes with the… pokemon fucking… topic. but, um. anyway!

for the longest time i honestly believed that i was? annoying to you, some sort of a loud factor that you had to take in small doses, and i didn’t want to give cause to make that worse or put pressure on you at all, so i guess that’s why i never really tried to talk much… i hope this doesn’t sound accusatory, because i don’t mean it to be!! it’s perfectly normal for people to be compatible with different ones in different moments of their lives. and i still got to secondhand see you and sbw work together, and the nice impact that had, and that made me very, very happy too.

now i realize that. we’re actually pretty similar in our origins here, the trouble that comes with opening up for the first time, to sow the seeds for something better, and i recognize that and i’m!! so proud of you for getting this far and, it’s very very nice to share this boat of recovery with you. i couldn’t ask for better company!

and also… i’m just… very happy that the veil of insecurity was drawn away and, well… we happened too!

because from day one i’ve seen you as someone grand and whose opinions i admired, someone who kind of? ressonated with me even if in subtle ways, someone who could shift my mood like five tiers better just by saying something nice, by giving me even the smallest compliment.

your insight has always been! really valuable to me, and to feel like we shared some key ideas on life and stuff has always felt very empowering.

seeing you talk of me with such honest kindness, to learn that!! the way that i am - which i struggle with on the regular because it’s… so easy to feel like anything that falls outside the norm is bad and bound to fail - is something you admire and even strive to achieve in your own terms, i can’t!! begin to describe how wonderful it felt, to have that kind of validation from someone i hold in such high esteem, for something i do without even thinking. so thank you, so much…

but it isn’t just that.

that opened the door to!! so much more. from then on, it kind of clicked on me that i’d been!! dumb and wrong all along, and that my paranoid feels of immediate rejection were. so silly to begin with… and as you helped me strip off that, everything else fell into place and! i found my way to be with you. and how wonderful that is!!

i adore that you carved your way into my home, and i love every second you spend here - i love laying back and feeling its heart beat, and knowing that the cadence of your own bloodstream is entwined in it. i love it when sbw gets teary over the new baby and thanks you under his breath, i love it when daven touches something up in the mirror and goes about how right you were over something you’ve mentioned about color combos, i love holding up sord to slice through veggies and they start humming something i’ve heard you hum before. you’ll always have a place here - you’re already embedded in the walls! 

no matter where life takes you, you’ll have a haven here.

and then i love it so much, the ease with which you’ve set camp in my own heart too.

from distant admiration through to mutual support of our out-of-the-norm, amazing ventures, it’s so natural to want you close, to love you with the friendly purity and joy of a child, to see you flourish, to tend to you in ways that’ll help you get there better.

i know this is because you’re so tiny (:P), but it makes me smile to feel how cosy you fit in my arms, and it makes me melt just! how tenderly you react to even the gentlest shows of affection, just how!! fucking adorable you are, and how nice cuddling you is… i hope it’s just as good to you, and please know that you deserve these and more, given regularly and by people who know how, and i’ll be on my toes to volunteer my tribute every time - i am!! that smitten, yes!! to see you soothed down and relaxed, breathing easy and at peace, is such a thing to treasure.

from then on there’s just!! a series of many other tiny ways you make me smile, that you fill up my heart with, you’ve made my life brighter…

you’re gorgeous, skin deep and every layer below that, in either form, in every shade of action i’ve seen you in, and i’ll fight you if you ever disagree with any of it (with more hugs and face kisses, i mean. i am kind of shit when it comes to aggression, although i guess sparring would be fun too?? I DIGRESS…). some of the events that happened to!! help break the ice between us were unorthodox as heck, to say the least, and very… flustering still to look back on and remember, but in the best way possible. ://)

i can count literally in one hand, the people i feel comfortable sharing that more!! intimate, sexual side of myself, and there’s an undefined bond now, because you got to feel as i feel, and more than that, you’ve?? treated it with such respect, described it in a way that? has really made me tear up like a dweeb, because gosh, you?? get it, you understand the amount of love i endlessly pour into them, and if anything that’s made me feel like i’ve made the right choice, however impulsive, when i dragged you to all that…

like you’re a comfortable presence there too.

i don’t know if anything similar will happen again, but i know now that i’d really love to, to even have!! a more active role in it, because! i feel as comfortable with you there as i am with them, and that’s. a rare, special thing for me. even if i’ll!! always need daven to be near to Want to put any of it into action….

to get to kiss you, to get to make you feel good in added other ways?? (gay peter pan voice) would be an awfully great adventure…

but then at the same time i realize how complex your relationship with sex is by now, and more than anything i want you to know that!!! my epitome of happiness already happens through looking after you, through feeding you and holding you close, and despite the attraction still DEFINITELY being there, the best way i can be with you is the way where you’re just as happy as me, and. yeah…

in many ways, this weird, unique intense mix of different ways i’m drawn to you, fits the qpp Experience™ for sure. because it’s its own thing, it’s still pretty wild to get used to it, and a big exciting adventure to figure out as well!! the languages i’m comfy talking you in, and again, i don’t want this to put any pressure on you either way, or for you to feel like you need to?? indulge in any of these things for me to be happy with you in my life, for me to want you to stay.

because i want you for you! no matter what!

if anything i figured!! baring open my full feelings for you here would be fitting for the day and would be… a good way to show you just how much of a positive, growing impact you’ve had on me, and how my happiness has weaved to yours in ways i don’t want to untangle.

how much i!! want to be the same to you.

i hope you can remember this, even when things get rough, but i will never be too far that i won’t want to remind you either!

finally it’s just. infinitely precious that we get to build on all these broad and diverse and wonderful scenarios where dirk and you and i are together, tackling the odds and creating a family based on love and trust and support, and i love getting to spend time with both of you almost like kids, sprawled belly down on the floor with lots of paper and crayons, drawing up our castles and treehouses, our effigies holding hands. it’s been!! such a blessing to get to love you both, and thinking about our verses helps add sugar to this one and… honestly, i hope that our friendship translates just the same, in our own safe ways.

and then i… wanted to say, just how obvious it is, how much you’ve grown, just how awesome the path you’ve taken is, and how?? happy i am to see you here and now, rid of things that had you down, and surrounded by others that get your eyes twinkling and your fingertips typing for miles, on love and devotion, cherishing and respect, happiness.

love and happiness look so good on you, you are!! infinitely lovely when you delve in subjects that instill either and both in you, and i hope i always get to hear you talk about your boyfriend and the people you coexist with, your projects that keep you pumped, all the little quirks and things that make you yourself - because all that is so good…

so!!! here’s to all this… to keep this going and see where it leads, like a bottled message in the current, all those fish that migrate far into the sea, only to always be led back home. i am really excited to keep loving you, and i hope these tokens and these words always help.

stay well, fucker! i love you!!

~ john