#among a huge range of other examples

[the-moogle-of-your-nightmares]

[alarming health stuff, internalized ableism cw]

no, moogle, it is not in fact fishing for sympathy or making excuses for dropping the ball on things or whatever to talk about it when your health issues continue to get worse. you are not scaring people for attention when you post on your personal blog about the fact that you aren't sure yet whether your current condition might be 'dangerous but recoverable' or 'irreversible, incurable, and usually fatal.' stop that.

[writingwithcolor]

Conlanging Issues: A Compendium

NOTE: This question was submitted before the Nov 1, 2023 reopening and may not adhere to all rules and guidelines. The ask has been abridged for clarity. 

Most of my questions are about linguistics. […] One of the major locations in my story is a massive empire with cultural inspirations ranging from North Africa in the far south to Mongolia/Russia in the far north […] The middle region is where the capital is and is the main root of culture, from which Ive been taking inspiration from Southwest Asia […], but most notably southern regions of India. I've tried to stick to the way cities are named in Sanskrit-based languages but added the names of stars to the front (because the prevalent religion of this region worships the stars [...]). So Ive ended up with names like Pavoprayag, Alyanaga, Alkaiduru, Alcorpura, Cygnapete, etc. Is this a consistent naming system or should I alter it in some way? The empire itself is named the Arcana Empire since [...] each act of my story is named after a tarot card [...]. Another region in my story is based more on parts of South China and North Vietnam, so I've tried to stick to names with a Chinese origin for that. I understand the significance of family names in southwest [sic] Asia, so I wanted to double check [...]. They have only two short given names. Based on the birth order of the child, the first half of the name comes from the fathers family and the second half from the mothers family. It is seen as disrespectful not to use both names because using only one is seen as denouncing that side of your family. Thus I have names like Su Yin, Dai Jun, and Yi Wen for some of the characters from this region, and the city itself that they are from is named Bei Fen. On the other hand, Im having further trouble naming characters. […] Ive been trying to give my human characters names from real human cultures to distinguish them from the website-generated names of say, orcs, elves, dwarves, etc, but I think I should change many of the names Ive used to be more original and avoid fracturing real world cultures for the sake of my worldbuilding. […] Im still very weak in the linguistics area (even after four years of French, sigh) and am having trouble finding where to read about naming patterns so I can make new ones up. I read your naming guides but am still having trouble on where to start for specific languages. […] Im trying to look into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian specifically.

You're Going Too Broad

In my opinion, you’re casting too wide a net. You mentioned looking into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian to develop fantasy names. These languages are very different from one another, so unless you’re using them separately for very different parts of your world, it will be hard to draw inspiration from them in a way that makes sense. You’re taking on a huge amount of research in order to worldbuild cultures that span a massive geographical area (basically all of North Africa and Asia?) and have very little in common. Are you sure you want to take on that task?

I could see it being more manageable if most of your story is set in a small region of this world, which you will then research in depth to make sure you’re being as specific as possible.

Taking Persian as an example, you’ll have to decide whether you want to use Old Persian, Middle Persian, or Modern Persian. Each of these comes with a different alphabet and historical influences. They’re also associated with different periods of time and corresponding cultural and social markers. Once you’ve decided exactly when and where you want to start from, you can then expand the borders of your area of focus. For example, if you’ve decided to draw inspiration from Achaemenid Persia, you can then look at the languages that were spoken in the Achaemenid Empire. A quick Google search tells me that while Old Persian was the empire’s official language, they also used Aramaic, Akkadian, Median, Greek, and Elamite (among, I’m sure, many many others and many more regional variations). Further research into each of these will give you ethnic groups and bordering nations that you can draw more inspiration from to expand out your worldbuilding.

Don’t forget to make sure you’re staying within the same time period in order to keep things consistent. It’s a lot of work, and this is only for a small portion of the continent-spanning worldbuilding you’re trying to do.

You can get away with painting the rest of the continent in broad strokes without too much depth if the story doesn’t go there and you don’t have any main characters from those parts of the world. Otherwise, you’ll need to put this same level of detail into your worldbuilding for the area with Turkish-inspired names, and again for the area with Sanskrit-inspired names, and so on.

I know this isn’t what you were asking, but I honestly have a hard time helping you figure out where to start because your ask is so broad I don’t quite know where I would start myself. So, this is my advice: focus down on one region and time period and go from there. Feel free to write back once you’ve picked a narrower focus that we could help you with.

- Niki

So there’s logistical issues in regards to your naming system for southern China-coded regions. One issue is history: mainly on how there is not simply one language in China but multiple due to having a lot of ethnic groups and the size of China. South China in particular has different dialects and languages than the North as seen in this map of Chinese languages and dialects. There’s also how historically Mandarin was not the official language until 1913 in China and historical China saw vast changes in territory dependent on the dynasty. Before then, Mandarin was primarily a northern Chinese language based in Beijing while southern China had its own languages, dialects, and dynamics. Not to mention, historical China saw an evolution of language just like English has Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. For instance, Vietnam was once part of China during the Tang Dynasty and at another point, it was not part of China.

-Mod Sci

If You’re Borrowing Whole Words or Elements, Research More

The other issue is inconsistency with the cultures you’re deriving this conlang from. In regards to “two given names,” the Chinese name I was given was one syllable and then I would have a last name that was also one syllable. There’s also how not every family is perfect. Not every marriage is sanctioned and some children may come from single parents. Some families may not cooperate with marriage and sometimes children may be abandoned with unknown parents. There does not seem to be contingencies for these names under this conlang system.

The main problem with conlangs is that one needs to truly understand the languages one is drawing from. Tolkein managed to create conlangs due to training in linguistics. Mandarin is already a difficult language with multiple tones, and trying to use it for conlangs without knowledge of how Mandarin works or a good foundation in linguistics is just a Sisyphean endeavor.

-Mod Sci

Four years of French wouldn’t have taught you about linguistics as a science or anything about the language families you’ve listed - Indo-Iranian, Sino-Tibetan, and Turkic, nor any Asian naming conventions. I agree with Niki that you need to narrow down your research.

Pur/pura means city in Sanskrit (ex: Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur). Prayag is a place where pilgrimages are done. Naga isn’t a place name in Sanskrit (google says it means snake), nagar is and it means town. X Nagar is a very common name for places (Ex: Rajinder Nagar). Many cities in Karnataka have names ending in uru (Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Tumakuru, etc) but the language of Karnataka is Kannada - a Dravidian language and completely different family from Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan). I’m not sure where “pete” came from. “Bad” and “vaal” are common suffixes for places too (Ex: Faisalabad, Allahabad). A disclaimer that I do not speak Sanskrit, I speak Punjabi, which is a descendant of Sanskrit and in the same linguistic family (Indo-Aryan languages).

- SK

Also, This Is Not…Really Conlanging.

Hi OP. Linguistics refers to the science of studying how languages work, not the discipline of learning languages. And nothing shows that gap more than how you have thus far approached constructing fictional languages and toponyms. 

The reason why Sci and SK have a lot to say about your place names is because they don't resonate—you have borrowed whole words into your toponyms (place names) from a variety of languages—without an accurate understanding of what these words mean, how they’re pronounced, where they’re derived from—and expected them to work together. I suggest you read the links below on why conlanging is not as simple as choosing some languages and mashing their IRL words together: 

Why Using Random Languages Wholesale in your Fantasy is a Bad Idea 

Pitfalls of Mashing Countries and Languages in Coding

In your city names, for example, you’re using star names from multiple languages that use different sets of sounds represented by different sets of historical spelling rules. “Cygn-” and “Arcana” stick out like a sore thumb—the fact that one “c” is /s/ and one is /k/ is an obvious flag that they are Latin-derived English borrowings. This is because spelling rules were created in Middle English to make sense of the mix of “c” pronunciations across words of Indo-European origin due to a historical split called the Centum-Satem division. This is a phenomenon that is very specific to our world history, and to the history of English at that. Ironically, in your attempt to avoid stock fantasy names (which also often fall into the Latin-derived English pit), you are taking the exact same approach to naming.

Like Niki said, your selections are far too broad to code under a single umbrella. Do you expect that whatever language that city name came from runs the full gamut of sound inventory & spelling variety that spans multiple continents and hundreds of languages? Because that’s not how languages work. (And yes, I mean hundreds. Indigenous languages and linguistic diversity are a thing. See Niki’s note about just the languages in Persia. And nation-states bulldozing over those languages and pretending it’s just one language is a thing. See Sci’s note about China.) I haven't even talked about the variation in morphology (how words are formed) or syntax (sentence structure).

Please just read or re-read my guide on “naming conlangs” in this post and start from there.

~ Rina

PSA ON CONLANGING AND FANTASY NAMES:

For fantasy language asks submitted after Nov 1, 2023, the asker must indicate that they have read Mod Rina’s conlanging posts linked in FAQ 2 (Guides and Posts by Topic) of the Masterpost under the question “How do I make a fictional language for my story?” While this is an older ask, we are posting it as an example to our followers.

Per our new rules, any questions that can be directly answered in or extrapolated from the FAQs, or questions that indicate that the relevant resources haven’t been read, will be deleted with a note in the Deletion Log explaining why.

As always, if this post was helpful or educational to you, please consider tipping the relevant mods: SK, Niki, Sci, and Rina.

Edited for terminology errors

[songoftrillium]

Likes don’t increase visibility to others! Please reblog this to spread the word! 

I think Werewolf is an inherently queer medium

This is all a part of a larger long-term project.

I am trying to hold the World of Darkness to higher standards of inclusivity.

Book 1: Cliath

Meet The Gaians — a chosen people blessed by Gaia of whom among them there are heroes who are born, blessed with the power to Change. They have been charged with the duty of protecting her and her brood, and among them are fellowships from every culture. They are largely comprised of Kinfolk. Vanguards of the earth, they follow the Codes and Creeds of renown in chiminage to the spirits in exchange for favor, protection, and power to strengthen their Fellowships and they form one of several primary factions.

A small number of Gaia’s chosen have been gifted the ability to shapeshift through either bite or birth into animals; warriors joining the fight against the Wyrm. The Gaians have many secret names for these shapeshifters between their cultures, and they range across many animal species and tribes, but the most common among them in these times are Garou.

This sourcebook includes information on First Changes, Rites of Passage, how people become werewolves, and what they're fighting for. Book 1 is effectively a players guide, including enough comprehensive character creation rules for people to create rank 1 Garou.

The World of Darkness is implied to exist just beneath a facade that all others take for granted as simply being a world gone wrong. When the Change happens to a Garou, human or otherwise, the world they once knew ceases to be. The Apocalypse is said to be something happening to everything, everywhere, simultaneously, and on every level. This transcends the concept of everything succumbing to a singular event but many small ones.

In many ways, the Garou themselves are emblematic of this Apocalypse, with these former lives ending and sweeping the cub into something far bigger than themselves. A Call To Action is the theme of Book 1.

Book 1: Cliath goes into warborn, bitten, wolf-born, and human-born lives leading up to the change. It presents a curated depiction of the Garou from the perspective of those who would mentor them. There are not a lot of conflicts, profound lore, or politics so much as 'this is what we are, this is what we do.' Functionally, this can be considered a Players’ Guide, containing your attributes, abilities, advantages, and Merits and Flaws. Gifts and rites will be truncated to rank 1 for the most part. Guidelines for new STs will be found here, including enough powers and enemy stats to keep their troupe of players on their toes. This will also include things like chargen and descriptions of attributes, abilities, and advantages. This will also have many details on packs and the importance of one's packmates. And what better way to introduce new players than to have it happen in an all-new setting for storytellers to introduce their players to the game: the first three chapters of Dead Mountain!

Dead Mountain isn't going anywhere. In fact, it will be used as the foundation for this series. Already-finished parts of the Dead Mountain will be released over the next few months, and a delayed release of the full chronicle will come next spring. The scope of Werewolf: the Essentials will strongly diverge from past game traditions. In past core books and settings, there was an intent to showcase the world at large, written from the perspective of people who had never been to these places. In the end, many details were laughably wrong or mediocre representations that didn’t appeal to the groups they represented. We want the World of Darkness to be HUGE. So, we will be laser-focusing this project to represent the Garou from the Pacific Northwest as an example, with guidelines on how to make your own World of Darkness at your locale HUGE too!

CALLING ALL CHARACHS!

We cannot make this happen without your help.  We are putting out the call for folx from all parts of the queer, lesbian, trans, bisexual, gay, and asexual werewolf fandom looking to help make this the best possible release we can:

Artists

Horror writers

Editors

Consultants

Hype Wolves to help spread the word

Indie TTRPG creators

Working together, we can create a game that is fun, engaging, and genuinely representative of the diverse community of players and fans who love Werewolf. To help us out, click here We look forward to providing you future updates!

UPDATE: Our team has grown huge, and we're grateful to the fandom for rising up and howling with us! We received far more applications than we were able to fully process, but we promise to deliver you the best possible Sourcebook anthology we can! Meet the Writing Team Meet the Art Team Follow our official account for future announcements! To check out a book preview and help us hire cultural consultants click here

Social Media Shout-out! I offer my thanks to @peltofash and @a-boros-named-seamus for supporting me on the Adren and Athro tiers! Your contributions are directly helping make this game more inclusive!

[jennamoran]

The Far Roofs

So today I want to talk a bit about what this game wants to be. In particular, I'm going to go over its key technical and artistic goals.

The Far Roofs focuses on immersive hidden world fantasy adventure. It's intended to offer the experience of a grounded, emotionally real base world attached to an idealized, fantastic "hidden world" setting.

One might say, the streets and buildings and houses of the game's world are basically our own. Above us, though, is a stranger, more idealized, and more fantastic place. It's hard to get to. It's dangerous. It's less grounded. It's full of wonder.

Those are the Far Roofs.

This divide exists to make the game feel as real as possible, if you want to go that way. That's part of what hidden world fantasy is about, after all---the idea that magic is here. That it's not in some distant alien land or mythic future or past.

It's here, if you want to reach for it.

(Now, the game is flexible enough that you can play "protagonist" types instead of realer people, and many traditional gaming groups will probably prefer that, but that'll mean getting less of that immersive effect.)

The mood the game is interested in is that feeling you get when you take a huge risk---move to a new place; try a new thing. The feeling you get in those times in your life when everything is alienated and wondrous and terrifying but there's also so much more *hope* than there was in the still times before.

It's a mood of being swept up and called forward.

This is, among other things, meant to be a game for people who've been beaten down or exhausted by the ... everything ... to feel that sensation of moving forward again.

To remember what it's like, why it's worth it, how to reach for it again.

It's meant---and I do understand that I am finite and flawed and this can only go so far---as a tonic and refreshment to the soul.

--

Rules

The Far Roofs uses a 5d6-based dice pool system for day-to-day task resolution. It's relatively traditional and optimized for fast, fun dice reading. There's a loose consensus I've seen in RPG design circles that dice are for when outcomes are uncertain and both options are interesting, and I don't disagree ... but there's also this thing where rolling dice to decide is intrinsically interesting and fun, where it's fuel for a certain part of the brain.

This game tries to get as much out of that side of dice as it can.

You'll also collect letter tiles and cards over the course of the game. This is for bigger-picture stuff:

To answer big questions and to complete big projects, you'll either assemble representative words out of those tiles, or, play a poker hand built out of those cards. Word and their nuances express ideas and shape how outcomes play out; poker hands, conversely, just give a qualitative measure of how much work you do or how well things will go.

In keeping with this, the campaign is represented principally in the form of questions or issues your words and hands can address. Player/GM-created campaigns would be the same.

--

Physical and Electronic Product

I wanted to put the print version within the range of as many people who might need that tonic as possible. That means that for this particular game, I wanted to cover the full territory that I'd normally cover in a two or three volume set (core rules, setting, and campaign) in a single 200-250-page volume.

In practice this means there's a guide and examples for constructing the setting, rather than a deep dive into a fully-detailed world; that there's a bit less in the way of whimsical digression and flourish than in the writing I'm known for; that there's minimal "flavor" text on abilities; and that the campaign presentation is pretty fast-paced.

Conversely, it means that the game should be easy to absorb and to share with other possible players, and, that the game and campaign in this one relatively small volume should provide enough content for five or six years of play.

The book will be 8.5"x11" with grayscale art, available in a limited hardcover print run and a print-on-demand softcover form.

--

On the Rats

You'll see a lot of talk from me and others about the talking rats in this game. They're one of the jewels of the experience, and I think they're probably a significant draw just for being talking rats that are core to the game.

... but I'm going to hold off for now, because, to be clear, this is not a game of playing talking rats. It's just a game where talking rats and probably one of the top three most important setting elements.

I couldn't get that feeling I wanted of ... the base world being grounded realism; of the hidden world pulling you up and out and into a world full of magic ... with your playing rats, with your playing something so distant from the typical player.

So this is not a game of playing them.

They're just ... I like rats, and so I made the rats in this game with love. They're great ... whatever the equivalent is to "psychopomps" is for a magical world instead of for death ... and a way of talking about how in the face of the world, we're all pretty small.

--

I'm really excited about this game; the playtest was lovely.

I hope you'll enjoy it as well!

[ilovereadingandstuff]

Okay, so I was doing some chores here at my house and, out of nowhere (something completely normal forr me as a fan of bnha), chapter 413 popped in my head, especifically pages 13-14, and I started rambling my ideas...until I realized something.

Izuku is going to lose OFA.

Ok, not that, which is literal text, but this:

Izuku is going to lose OFA, and while arguing with Kudou and the others vestiges, he was crying his eyes out because what mattered the most to Izuku about losing OFA, among ALL the consequences and intricate meanings which 'becoming quirkless again' could represent...It was the fact that OFA was a gift from All Might that made Izuku's heart ache in agony at that moment.

ch. 413 Here I want to note that the spanish official translation says exactly the same, so there's no contradictions.

It was not that he was going back to his past self, not that he most-likely would have to face that discrimination he went through all his childhood all over again. Not that losing his quirk could mean that he would have to stop being a hero. Not that he was gong back on being useless/worthless again...ANY OF THAT! BUT because he is 'losing the gift, meant for him, from his daddy might'...THAT'S what was causing his tears...

And from this, I see two things:

First...

IZUKU YOU BASTARD!!

HE'S AVOIDING AGAINNN THINKING OF HIMSELF!!

And, I'm sorry, but being quirkless is not goddamn easy!

It has been explained several times in the development of the plot that bnha's society is based on superhumans: people with quirks.

Being just a regular person without a quirk is a really complicated thing to deal with, and having that particularity means facing problems both on a social and psychological level.

In Aoyama's case, for example, his parents were so devastated over the fact that their son was quirkless, and therefore, he was feeling excluded and different from others, that they reached a point of despair that they made a deal with AFO and, well, you know the rest.

Another one that comes to mind is Ragdoll. Her inclusion here in the list could be debated, but what I want to distinguish about her character is that, after losing her quirk completely by AFO's doing, she had to face a huge set back in order to re-organize her new life now without a quirk. She didn't appeared in the story for many chapter until it was explained that she was still working as a hero but in the backstage, to say in a way.

And finally, Izuku is one of the clearer examples of all this (and that's why he's the protagonist).

He had to deal with bullying, rejection and exclusion (from their classmates when he was in elementary/middle school to the entire society against him). His OWN mother had her own troubles to support him over a dream that was impossible to achieve because, once more, confront villian with a broad range of hazardous quirks against a single person was basically suicidal...

On note of all this, I have to mention this scene (which I say now: I'll bring this up over and over again, a thousand times if needed). I've mention this specific situation in one of my posts before, but now I'll explain it more in depth:

ch. 72, pages 19-20

WHAT ABOUT THIS HORI!!??! HUH!!?? WHAT'S THAT?? WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN???!! "BIRTH DEFECT"!?? "HE JUST COULDN'T ACCEPT THE TRUTH"?!?!

This scene has always been stuck in my head since the first time I read it because...here it explicitly shows Izuku's demeaning perspective over 'being quirkless'.

Here he's saying that "it's a defect", an imperfection, something he lacks on (because society has made it a necessity or requirement).

And even in spanish, even though it doesn't translates as 'defect', it highlights the idea of 'he didn't get what he should have received' (in this case, that his parents 'couldn't provide him of that')

In both languages it is mention the phrase where he explains that ' ' 'his friend' ' ' always kept believing EVEN when the universe was proving him wrong again and again.

My point here is: Izuku has a negative view of being quirkless (just as any other person in-universe would have) and with that, the possibilities of him having a list of low self-esteem issues, lack of confidence and self-value even as a human being are REALLY high...

but then, the fact that Izuku, after having been thrown around for the most dangerous villian of all, shirtless and crying with a bunch of ghosts inside his head...when they're telling him of getting rid of what he should have had always what makes him human...he doesn't think of him. of the problems he would have to face. of the pain he would go through again...

Instead, he thinks of 'the gift from All Might', almost as if the quirk were a toy All Might gave him and that he shouldn't lose it because All Might would feel angry or sorry for him...

MAYBE, maybe I'm going around the bush and making no sense... but FUCK IT! I WANT ANSWERS, HORI!!

I NEED THEM!! I'M LOSING MY MIND!!!

Why is he refusing himself again?? Avoiding HIS feelings but worrying about others'? Or rather, worrying about THE THING instead the consequences it causes the lost of it??!

WHY IS HE ALWAYS THINKING OF ANYTHING BUT HIM?!

Second...

Ok. Now that I've calmed myself down and said what i was meaning to say...after having been screaming internally against Izuku and all his shit...the second point I wanted to talk about was that...

With everything that has happened, a GREAT opportunity would be presenting itself to develop the dad-son bond Toshinori and Izuku have been building since the beggining.

Let me explain:

When All Might first came to town and met Izuku, their bond began to form because they were interating with one another because of OFA. The 'you're my successor' was the excuse and only connection they had to be together. And for that same reason is how their relationship exists in the first place.

So...if Izuku loses OFA. If that excuse stops to exists...the only reason for them to continue being together would be the love they have develop for one another as father-son.

If Toshinori could spell out loud to Izuku that he cares for him beyond that 'you're my successor' or 'the one I gave it my quirk'...if they could transcend that lame excuse and finally spoke to each other as human beings...

GOD, maybe I'm projecting myself here because I LOVE their relationship and i would gladly like to see Toshi legally adopting Izuku or them calling each other 'my son' and 'my dad'...but, yeah...

Those are my ideas about the new chapter.

[alexandriaisburning]

+002: The Problem with “Good Game Design”

Addendums, Archives and Appendecies is extra, off topic writing in addition to the regular CANON FIRE entries. You can support more writing like this on Patreon.

In games we have a tendency to try and solve everything, to get the optimal, most ideal solution. Sometimes that transfers to how we approach criticism too. There’s an idea that game design is an art that can be perfected, an art that we can test and measure until we’ve achieved perfection. 

A million game design essays and industry post-mortems will have you believe that every year we are getting closer to the platonic ideal of the medium. That we make continued progress towards the unspoken agreement of what games should look like. 

This is where we get what I call “prescriptive game criticism”. 

Prescriptive game criticism goes in with a predisposed set of ideas for what makes a good game. It looks to fit the object of critique into its framework, rather than fit the framework to the object. It overlooks the context and application of why certain choices were made, and the context they were made in. 

A prescriptive approach might take the design choices of a successful game, and turn them into lessons to be applied in making other games, or hold them as a standard to judge other games by. It might observe the way one game builds a world makes it successful, despite its simple combat, and see the depth of another game’s combat system, and so naturally combining both would make the ultimate game. Right?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this sort of theorycrafting, and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular. It’s entertaining, and often even useful, and it gives us a sense that we’re coming to a greater understanding of a medium we love. But often this rigid approach turns into a rulebook of good and bad design, a checklist you use to judge work on terms you’ve already decided on before you started, removed from context and content. 

These approaches often unknowingly replicate underlying ideologies. Even a simple statement like “games should award skillful play” dismisses a huge swathe of games and can reinforce flawed ideas of meritocracy. Look at the way that people consider skill at videogames to be a prerequisite for having opinions on them. Or the way the fighting game community will often tell you to settle arguments in a first to three, as if your skill means more to your legitimacy than the content of the argument. 

If that still feels like a reach, let’s take a look at the concept of “flow”, which is often used as a measurement for positive engagement and game balance:

As defined by psychologist Mikhail Csikzentmihalyi, flow is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter, achieved when the goals are clear, and there is balance between the difficulty of the task and the skills of the person doing them. 

It sounds like game design 101, right? In fact, you’ll find Csikzentmihalyi’s work cited all across game design essays and post-mortems, with many words written on how to induce this state through game design. Jenova Chen, designer and founder of thatgamecompany, even named a game after Flow, and designed an accompanying system to dynamically adjust difficulty, directly citing Csikzentmihalyi’s principles. 

Chen specifically draws from the argument Csikszentmihalyi makes in Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience, his most cited work. But for such a frequently invoked argument, the rest of the book presents a disturbing picture. 

Csikzentmihalyi presents flow with the framing of a self-help book, as a positive force that can enrich all points of life, as almost a moral good. Among the examples he uses to prove his argument range from the obvious--chess, listening to classical music, playing sports--to the absolutely bizarre--like parenting, factory labor, or even homelessness. No exaggeration.

So if inducing a flow state is a measure of good design, does this mean society is well designed? Wealth inequality?

Incredibly, Csikszentmihalyi seems to believe so! As the book continues he veers into an argument that we should dispense with moral relativism and embrace absolute judgements of which societies are best, with Western society of course being the model, thanks to its meritocratic structure allowing the most opportunity to achieve flow states, and therefore happiness. Even those on the bottom rung can achieve flow here, and those who can’t are simply broken and shouldn’t be factored into the equation. 

Again, this is no exaggeration. If anything, I left out a lot of other examples that I found more distasteful. 

It’s not as if these underlying ideas haven’t made it into people’s work either. The psychological work done on flow has been used to create exploitative games, and to gamify labor and education to replace real satisfaction with a drip feed of short term rewards, and arguably even influences our interactions with social media. 

I say this not because I believe everyone using the term “flow” is cosigning some conservative cultural clash, but to illustrate the assumptions that go unchallenged when we adopt a framework without consideration. 

“Good design” sometimes doesn’t look much different than exploitation, and many effective works directly clash with traditional ideas of what a good game looks like. Descriptors like “depth” or “immersion” frequently exclude more feminine modes of play, like dress up or socialization games, which can be rewarding in other ways. Or shut out games that intentionally introduce friction to make it intentionally unpleasant to engage with. 

I think fondly about Fatale, the most dreadful, boring 40 minutes I’ve ever spent with a game. It’s nothing but slow movement between points, observing tableaus and reading Oscar Wilde quotes. And yet, years later I still remember it, and the powerful impression it left on me. 

Had I been given more freedom to explore the environments and set my own pacing, the whole thing would have fallen apart. The lack of agency, the dreadful atmosphere of the aftermath, IS the point. Fatale strains against our expectations and desires, and it's that friction that gives it thematic weight. Or makes it a total waste of time for you. 

Once you begin to break down the assumptions that we’ve made about “good game design”, it kind of breaks the idea that there’s an objective measure for the quality of a game. Which means we have to accept that something that works for us, might not land at all for others, and vice versa.

So if we throw away those prescriptive ideas of what a good game looks like, what’s the alternative?

For me, I like to approach games with what I call a “descriptive” lens to criticism. To be clear, I don’t want to present yet another dichotomy, between the good and bad games crit. Rather, a descriptive approach is one that I think of as widening the angle from a narrow viewpoint to capture a work’s context, intentions, and even our own personalities and worldview. 

It requires us to take a look at what a work is doing, why it makes certain decisions and decide if it achieves them within its context and constraints. Or if we even agree with those choices. There are many games I would have enjoyed more if they were designed differently, but that doesn’t mean they’ve fundamentally failed because of it. 

To move this out of the realm of the abstract, let’s return to one of those games traditionally excluded from ideas of good game design. Girl’s Fashion Shoot is one of those “games for girls” that are often outright dismissed in conversation. This one in particular lacked a recognizable brand, and was published by a small, niche publisher, and its existence unrecognized by most people. Curious, I played it myself, and I found an interesting cultural connection to a real Japanese teen fashion magazine--hastily scrubbed out of its English release--and found myself challenged by my personal lack of knowledge of fashion styles and movements. It had me thinking about the way I presented myself both physically and digitally. 

Structurally and mechanically, the game presented next to no challenge, handing you the tools to success immediately, pushing you forward only with the promise of access to more items you could use to express yourself. Yet it still compelled me, and gave me plenty to chew on emotionally and intellectually. 

Working within a descriptive mode means opening ourselves to moments like this, putting aside the ideas we project onto games about what they should be, and looking at what they have on offer, whether they present it with a clear or compromised vision. Ask yourself, what is this work attempting, and are the choices it makes on its journey successful? Look at how it frames itself, what it chooses to include and exclude in its aesthetic presentation. What does it give you control over, and where does it take it away? What worldview does it present, intentionally or not? And how does that collide with our own?

Art can inspire a spectrum of thoughts and emotions, often joyous, but often miserable, terrifying and painful. Chasing a singular idea of “good game design”, one that centers fun, flow states, or mechanical complexity and reward, can rob us of the catharsis of something that challenges us in other ways, that pushes back on us. Sometimes the work of criticism means not only looking at the piece in front of you, but the reflection of ourselves presented within it. 

If videogames are truly an interactive art, we need to accept that not only can we influence it, that it can influence us. We need to accept that games are a conversation between us and the work that people have labored to put in front of us. And that means not only speaking about the work, but listening to what it has to say to us. 

[phoenixyfriend]

Last night I stayed up until about 4 AM rereading @glimmerglanger's fic "Bush League," and then today I got around to gushing about how their Cody characterization is basically one of the best on AO3 in Discord. Since I like to make sure the people whose fics I like actually hear that love, I'm going to share what I said here.

(Also to convince to read some of their stuff even if you haven't already. CodyWan isn't even in my main ships but I still read their stuff because it's just that good, and also because their Cody is so good.)

This goes out to imo one of the best fic writers I've run across in this fandom.

So to kick this off, I jumped into SW fandom right about when CodyWan was ramping up. I joined Feb/Mar of 2020, and that coincided (though I didn't know it) with the S7 release. That means that the ship was basically everywhere, and a lot of my early fic reads were based off of things that other people recced to me, things linked under cool fanart, things by authors I already knew from other fandoms, or niche trope searches.

Among those early longfics I read were a few glimmerglanger pieces, namely "Like Real People Do" (I don't actually remember how I found this one, it was probably fanart), "A Slow Fall Towards Grace" (through omegaverse filtering), "Flotsam and Jetsam" (tumblr fanart), and "Home on the Range" (don't remember how I found it, probably recced, or after I started following them on tumblr).

Bush League came later but it's also one of the best examples.

So this author is, IMO, really good in general. I don't have the same interps of canon across the board (because Star Wars is massive and you pick and choose your canon because it conflicts with itself, so everyone takes a different road for interp), but objectively, their fics are very solid and internally coherent.

They are particularly good at:

- Subtlety and nuance - Unreliable narration - Small hints of outside events that suggest a fuller universe

What canon gives us about Cody is that he's:

- very competent - well-respected - puts high value on loyalty to his brothers - puts high value on loyalty to his ideals (represented by the Republic) - while he has a dry sense of humor, he's also prone to playing personal things close to the chest (that parts a bit YMMV but it's the vibe I got) - he trusts Rex a nearly insane amount

What glimmerglanger does in their Cody POV fics is play those elements against each other in an understated way that feels genuinely human. Bush League has the main conflict embodied through 'loyalty to ideals' hitting cross-purposes with itself, and 'plays it close to the chest' heightening the problem until something snaps. That Cody's ideals are in conflict because there is what he was instilled with (a significant amount of internalized homophobia and toxic masculinity) and his better sense that he can be better, unlearn some of these things, that maybe his parents weren't right, and that Ben is a swell guy, maybe it's not that big of a deal that Ben likes guys, it's not a huge flaw when he can pitch like that, right

Crucially, lot of it isn't presented consciously. Cody doesn't realize he's unlearning some of those things, that he's subconsciously very aware that the things he was taught are wrong, that he's consciously trying to find compromises in those thoughts because the last eighteen years of things he knows can't be wrong, right?

And of course all this balances with the regular, small reminders that, if he is this thing he was taught is bad, if he is friends with someone that is 'bad,' then he will have one of his primary character traits (loyalty and love for brothers) sabotaged. This is even touched on in the epilogue of the fic.

Honestly, IDK how intentional it was to parallel this sort of denial and internal conflict to "Cody starts to question the structure of the army and has to hide his slow realization that they are slaves, is even in denial about it, because to speak out means to have his authority and influence removed, so he can't even try to keep his brothers safe anymore," ...but that is something I also like to see in Cody characterization, and it's definitely a good parallel if so.

glimmerglanger's skill with nuance and subtlety is something I really appreciate in general, because my focus as a reader tends to be short comedy, which often doesn't have the same room for dynamic, developed characterization. (My other focus is time travel, which runs the gamut, but that's a different rec list.)

I think that, on a casual read, some of their writing can come across as a very 'standard' reading of Cody, but it's never actually flat. The flaws and thought patterns tend to be pretty consistent across works, so even in wild AUs, I have the sense that this is the same person. I'm also a huge believer in how denial, especially characters very consciously not thinking something, can inform a character to the reader, and that's a pretty common thread across their Cody and Anakin POVs (for different reasons).

Flotsam and Jetsam is an interesting one on account of how it's Obi-Wan POV with a massive language barrier (human and merman, English and Mando'a). Cody isn't even conscious for the first part. It's also a fic that benefits a lot from having a canon to base off of without actually taking place in that canon. The reader can guess a whole lot about Cody's situation that Obi-Wan cannot, because we know the structures that are informing the original context, and can guess in a few ways at how they take shape in the new, so even when Cody is largely unable to communicate, the reader gets things out of it.

Anyway, glimmerglanger's Cody is one of my favorites because they manage to juggle all the things I consider core to Cody's character without necessarily having to come out and state them, so even when Cody is dry and private and 'standard,' he still feels like his own fully realized person that's consistent with both canon and with what I'd expect someone in his situation to be and do.

Okay, rant over, I have many feelings and I want to pump up this author as much as possible, go read their stuff, it's good.

[generalhumancloudalmond2]

Rumors

Platonic!Kunikida x Student!Fem!Reader

"Y/n! Stop yawning! Get involved in the lesson, now!"

Another yawn and your bored look. Well, at least you're looking at the board now.

"Well? How much will it be?"

"I don't know."

"I've had enough, Y/n. You're staying after school."

After that, Kunikida returned to the lesson, and you continued to yawn as if nothing had happened. When the bell rang, you, as expected, tried to sneak away, but the teacher quickly stopped it. Pointing to the desk opposite his, he told you to sit down, but you decided to show your character again and sat down in the place where you always sit, namely at the end of the class. Then he himself, with a tired sigh, comes up to you and sits down next to you.

Among all the students, you are one of the most difficult and problematic: you don't study, you trip up, you periodically arrange fights, you smoke. Many teachers have already dropped their hands, and as long as you didn't bring too many problems to other students, they just ignored you. However, there was one small "but", because of which the man wanted to believe that you would start study, namely: you had one hundred percent attendance. Yes, you attended all his classes, sometimes even stayed for extra ones, although you continued to do nothing.

"Y/n, the transition to high school is coming soon, and your grades are worse than ever. You need to pull yourself together and start learning. Now, I will do a quick test to figure out which topics you don't understand. And next week, I'll help you deal with them."

"No thanks, I'll pass."

You start to get up from your desk when he hits it loudly, forcing you to sit down at it again. Kunikida often spoke in raised tones, and it was easy enough to make him lose his temper, but he knocked on the table only when his righteous anger reached the point of no return.

"Y/n, what do you think you will become in the future?! With such grades, you threaten not to get into high school, not like the institute! I'm giving you a chance and I demand to take it! Because at this rate, you will quickly trample yourself into the mud, from which it will be impossible to get out!"

He stood over you and looked straight into your still bored eyes, he could understand from your look that you perfectly understand what he is talking about, just for some reason ignoring the fact of the problem.

"Okay, only if you back off."

Looks like he managed to break through your defenses. This is a success. The main thing is that you take the test seriously, and not as usual. Kunikida gives you three task sheets and continues to sit next to you to follow up. But it looks like you've decided to take the task seriously, since you have tried to solve one of the his mathematical examples for half an hour.

"If you don't know, it's okay, just skip it."

You don't say anything to him, you just keep looking for the answer to the task. To be honest, now he finally saw not your stubbornness, but your perseverance, which could not but please him.

"Y/n, are you doing well at home?"

"Passable."

"And classmates?"

"Yesterday I smacked one jerk from the parallel class."

Kunikida frowns, he doesn't like the way you talk about it easily, but you look exclusively at the sheet and don't notice his indignation at all.

"Why?"

"I just wanted to."

"Y/n, you can't do that, violence is bad, especially if there was no reason for this violence."

"Okay, I won't do it anymore."

It was too easy, but he didn't pursue the subject and decided to stop distracting you. At the end, when you had already handed in your work and were about to leave the classroom, something made him ask you about a rumor that had been walking around the school for some time.

"Y/n, I'm sorry if I'm meddling in my own business, but what is this ridiculous rumor going around the school? About the fact that you have some kind of relationship with the mafia?"

"My parents owed a huge amount of money to the mafia. It's true, if that's what you mean. The postponement expires tomorrow. You can pray for me if you want. Goodbye."

"Y/n, wait!"

You jumped out of the classroom. Deep down, you wanted help, even though you knew that in your case it was impossible, and it was too late to do anything...

On that day, Kunikida urgently tried to find any possible help for you, but no sane organizations and agencies wanted to go against the mafia. It wasn't until the next morning that he found an agency that was ready to get down to business, but you didn't come to school that day.

In the future, Kunikida will take an interest in your parents' case and he will find their bodies, but yours will not be among them.

[itookyoudown]

coming in with givenson for the ask game with the numbers 8, 10, 19, 14, and 48!

What happens if one of them gets sick?

Illness is a huge example of both Raylan and Tim's mutually stubborn nature rearing its ugly head. Both of them would rather chew off his own arm than pick up the phone to make a damn doctor's appointment. Both of them will push through it and only call out when they're sent home from work or they've gotten to the point where they're a danger to themselves or others in the field.

Raylan likes being cooed and pampered and cared for + cuddled when he's sick, but he hates asking for it even if he wants it more than anything. No lie, having Tim check in on him, preparing his medicine and serving him soup and getting him a wet washcloth reminds him of how his mama look care of him when he was sick. It makes him feel loved.

Lucky for Raylan, Tim's really good at doting caretaking like that since acts of service is his love language. Though he can spoil it a lil by being mouthy while Raylan is suffering lol.

Even when they're both sick as a dog, I can't see them not giving each other shit even while they're being nice.

Tim's less inclined to accept caretaking and it takes him being REALLY sick to accept Raylan making him food or doing the tidying around the house. Tim is the type of person that keeps a "sick box" for himself that has everything he needs pre-prepared for suddenly falling sick. Tim's too used to taking care of himself and doesn't expect anyone else to do it for him, so he struggles letting Raylan take over.

Tim's the type to live out on the couch while he's sick. He just wants to watch cartoons until his body stops trying to kill him.

Describe their first date.

Their first proper date, not just a drunken hookup, would absolutely be the shooting range followed by lunch. They'd go to an indoor shooting range and only shoot their pistols because Tim would joke he doesn't want Raylan thinking he's "some type of slut" by going to the rifle range on the first date. Probably burgers and fries or sandwiches and chips. Raylan, of course, orders them ice cream too as they leave and they'll eat it in Tim's vehicle because it's roomier. Tim will, of course, blow Raylan in the backseat.

"And here I was behavin' like the gentleman under an assumption you weren't the slutty kind," Raylan will grin like the cat getting the cream.

"I ain't that type of slut," Tim will drawl, "but I am this type of slut."

How do they feel about PDA?

Raylan loves it so long as he's not in a place or among people that are going to give him shit for it. He'll refrain from it if he feels it isn't safe or if he's somewhere that he's going to get in trouble if he flashes his firearm at someone looking to commit a hatecrime. Handholding, slipping his arm around Tim's shoulder, pulling his waist, quick kisses, etc. Raylan loves all that shit. He relishes touching Tim in public and showing everyone this is his boy.

Tim? Not so much. He can't let his guard down or stop himself from thinking the worst. He doesn't even stand too close to Raylan in the grocery store least someone notices they're a couple. Tim's only truly fine with PDA after he's had a few drinks and they're in someplace like a gay bar.

Who's the better driver?

See, they both would argue it's Raylan but that's just because Raylan drives faster. Tim's actually the better driver and does most of their driving for them. He has a the better mindset for it. Though when he's going through a rough patch with his PTSD it's the first practical daily skill that goes out the window. Tim gets too nervous and hyper-vigilant behind the wheel and won't trust himself to drive anymore. So while Tim might be better, he's not reliable to always be good to drive.

Also as awful as it is of them but let's be real about who they are even if it's illegal and stupid ... Raylan is absolutely the best drunk driver between them.

(obligatory OTP asks meme)

[aotopmha]

I understand and agree with a lot of the tone of your post about roulettes but also spamming ranged attack as a tank while pulling is good practice. You'll gradually lose enmity whenever you don't attack (and ranged attack has a slight aggro bonus too) so if you just run between each pack without hitting buttons, especially on huge pulls like some of the shadowbringers dungeons, there's a decent chance the enemies from the first pack or two will lose interest in you and start killing everyone else. It has nothing to do with a necromancer wanting you to play more like potd or w/e. It is something that should be said in more guides, so not your fault, but yeah. Now you know.

Thank you for the clarification!

I have actually been putting this into practice among all the other stuff I do since having heard of it because I have wondered for a while if I should just run from pack to pack or if there isn't more to do while I am running; I've also seen people do it alternating ranged/provoke in footage and always wondered why.

It's just unfortunate people feel the need to be assholes about this kind of stuff and not just tell the other person.

Obviously some will be assholes, but in my experience people will 95% of the time listen and you'll get someone not making the mistake again.

And in my case I was confused with what they meant to begin with because this was the first time I've seen someone be negative about it because it was veiled in sarcasm and I was wondering what they were jabbing me about.

There are several of these kind of tricks I've found out about just randomly.

For example, for the longest time I did not know the fact that Arm's Length is also a mitigation tool besides knockback immunity and that the "slow" it mentioned was actually really useful instead of being just a minor side effect.

I also constantly put tank stance on as an off tank because that's what people always keep repeating for tanks.

(And I still rarely see a case where main/off tank is properly respected, but when it is, the fight usually goes super smooth.)

In fact, the off tank role was really confusing for me for a long while because for the longest time I could not find a proper guide.

(Answer: it's very flexible and depends on the fight. You take the adds, the second target if it pops up, separate targets from each other, replace main tank when they're down etc.)

More than anything, I hope they add some elements that teach you better about maybe the slightly less obvious stuff.

I understand this is an MMO and part of the game is to learn through experience and from others, but I still think a little more help from the game would go a long way to mitigate people just not knowing the basics.

There are still so many players the miss even the basics.

Tanks that pile on all the mitigation at once or barely any at all.

One-skill DPS.

Or even stuff like Swiftcasting a revive being an option.

Yet it is understandable for even non-sprouts because the best way to learn is outside of the game.

Thank you for the ask!

[cerastes]

Which defenders and supporters do you recommend?

Defenders:

Mudrock remains relevant forever on virtue of being Mudrock. Damage, bulk, self-sustain, you name it. On the same note, Penance is pretty good, and her S2 remains active even if she's stunned, making it good at dealing with Stun-heavy maps. Still, keep in mind they cannot be healed for their Elemental damage (but they still get the Elemental damage mitigation from being in Mulberry's S2 range, for example).

Blem is always solid due to her good damage and ability to heal herself and others.

Spot is damn good still, his ability to heal and 3-block at 0-1 Hope cost is simply too damn good. He's probably the best 3* on higher Waves.

Horn is REALLY damn good. Practically THE anti-Highmore machine as long as you can ground her. Horn's range and sheer damage make her an amazing unit, especially in the latter floors where maps get bigger and you can do more stuff with her.

Saria remains relevant forever on virtue of being Saria. You know what Saria does. She still does it very very good.

TBH Cuora being a stone wall actually finds plenty of spots to shine.

Supporters:

Gnosis can Freeze the floaters and Highmore, grounding them (watch out with Highmore, though, you'll need ASPD artifacts and set-ups to let him survive being that close to her in order to actually be able to freeze). Gnosis is just very good in general besides this.

Skadi the Corrupting Heart remains relevant forever on virtue of being the Corrupting Heart. S2 will be your main tool with her, giving you VERY important stat heft to handle higher Waves on more equal footing, with S3 finding some really good chances to shine (Piper's Call, Highmore if you have the team for it and don't need her S2 for her, among others).

Ling "Blue Woman" is always very powerful, though keep in mind that her effectiveness declines on higher Waves due to increased enemy RES as well as stat heft, making her summons not instawin buttons. She's still VERY good, though.

RRRRRRRROBERTA GAMING

Shamare with investment, particularly S2M3, is a very reliable source of a rare ATK debuff. She slashes enemy ATK in half in an area, this is immensely powerful, especially in higher Waves.

Scene is strong, her cameras help a lot with their utility.

Podenco remains, as the youth say, Based, because her S2 Slows and Silences. VERY strong tool in IS3.

Suzuran is always useful to have thanks to her Supporter Skill Aura, multitarget slow+fragile with S2, and her huge area slow+fragile+heals S3. Her S3 in particular is very good against Last Knight, since making him slower and more susceptible to damage is exactly what you want.

[humansbgone]

Just binged the whole series. It is all IMMACULATE and (among many other things about the series) your voice acting is fucking incredible!! Any tips for someone who wants to get better with doing different voices?

Aw, thank you so much!!! I really appreciate that. As for voice acting...

(Apologies in advance, I'm using my own terminology for how I think of voices here to describe as well as I can)

This will vary depending on your voice, but I find I have "speaking spaces"--high and low, front and back (feminine voices are usually more in front, masculine in back). So you've got front-high, front-low, back-high, back-low, and then up in your nose (for nasally voices). Work with kind of shifting into these five spaces, and you'll be amazed at the range you can attain! Then, just work on pitching up and down *within* those spaces, and you'll get an even greater variety.

For example, Rose, the ants, the default human, and Violet are all front-high--Rose is the lowest, default human higher, the ants are higher still, and Violet is highest. Sophodra and Commander Vera are front-low, with Vera being lower than Soph. Mundle (the fly), and Harvey (Rose's dad) are both back-high, and Gregorsa is back-low (and then I pitch him down in Audacity even more). Lieutenant Mobia is high, but kind of midway between front and back--I start front, then pull back. This avoids the vibration I usually get from starting in back. (An upcoming weevil and future mosquito will be nasal.)

And yeah, pay close attention to the vibration (that is, whether you can feel a voice really making your vocal cords reverberate)! It makes a very big difference in the way a voice sounds. Sophodra is high-low and has a lot of vibration (she's close to back); Vera is low-low and has very little vibration (closer to front). Rose, Mobia, the default human, and Violet are low vibration, the ants are medium vibration. All the back voices are high vibration.

The way your character thinks about the world also makes a huge difference. You can use what is physically the same voice and make two characters sound completely distinct. Like, what emotions a character expresses (do they seem fearful? snooty? caring?), or how fast or slow a character talks.

There's also accent. Even little regional things! Rose says "sure" quickly like "sher," but Sophodra says it more like a smooth, luxurious "shew-ore."

Finally, it's worth thinking about a character's vocabulary. Not just whether they use big or small words, but the kinds of phrases and wording that will pop to the front of a given character's head. Non-confrontational phrasing, maybe, or phrasing that gets a point across faster. What are your character's priorities when communicating? If you can tell your characters apart even when they're written down, you've got good characterization, and that will carry over to making the voices unique. (Of course, this only applies if you're also doing writing, or allowed to improvise.)

Sorry, I know that's a lot. I hope it helps!

[mariacallous]

Among the many victims of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are some of the most important ecosystems in Eastern Europe: Ukraine’s forests and protected areas.

The full extent of the damage, however, is unknown. That’s why we are launching a new tool that will help open source researchers track destruction from afar.

In September 2022, Ukrainian environmental researchers visited national parks — which are more resilient to climate change than artificial plantings and support crucial biodiversity—to assess damage to forests and wildlife. Initial findings revealed broken trees, damaged root systems due to trench digging and unexploded munitions scattered across protected lands.

“Forests have suffered a lot on the frontline… huge areas of forests are being mined”, Yehor Hrynyk, an environmental campaigner at the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group, told Bellingcat. But large parts of Ukraine’s vast national parks, mountainous regions and woodlands are inaccessible for on-the-ground environmental monitoring.

That’s where open source techniques come in.

The OSINT Forest Area Tracker

We’ve launched the “OSINT Forest Area Tracker”, hosted on Google Earth Engine. Our tool compares data collected by Sentinel-2, a satellite which detects changes in infrared wavelengths and can be used to study the health of forests. 

The tool reveals the scale and intensity of anomalous changes on land. This narrows down search areas for researchers working on environmental damage in Ukraine. 

Importantly, the map does not attribute the cause of these changes, meaning that it is crucial to find corroborating evidence from other sources before concluding that they were the result of military activity. 

The tool uses the Normalised Burn Ratio (NBR) index to estimate burn severity.

Researchers can also use the tool to select custom date ranges for geographic locations of interest. 

As Ukraine’s official database of protected areas includes over 7,500 sites, we chose not to study them all — among their number are botanical gardens, city parks and archaeological sites. That list also includes many areas in the far west of the country which have not seen intense conflict. 

Therefore, we selected 16 areas which featured the highest number of detected fires over the first year of the war, based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. MODIS is a sensor which allows satellites to detect thermal anomalies, including fires in active war zones (Along with VIIRS, MODIS data can be accessed on the FIRMS system; you can read more about its use to open source researchers here). We also added Svyati Hory National Park because of its proximity to fighting. The tool includes a drop down list preset areas from across the country, including those near military activity. These preset areas are referred to by their acronyms, for example SHNP for Svyati Hory National Park. A full list of these acronyms can be found on the tool’s GitHub page. If researchers are interested in areas of the country not included in the dropdown menu, the coordinates can be entered manually.

While the new tool focuses on Ukraine by default, the methods it employs could be used to analyse areas elsewhere in the world.

...

Future Development

In the case of Svyati Hory, the tool identified damage to a protected area which deserved further investigation. In the case of the Kinburn Spit, it allowed us to further verify existing open source claims about an attack which had caused damage to a forest – also enriching our knowledge about the extent of the damage, which was less easily visible on real colour satellite imagery. However, both cases demonstrate the importance of corroborating the tool’s findings with other sources before drawing any conclusions about the causes of such damage. The author will continue refining and improving this tool in order to better understand the scale of damage to Ukraine’s many protected areas. Feedback or suggestions for improvements are welcomed. For further technical details on this tool and updates following the publication of this article, please read the description on the author’s GitHub page.

[sinosauropteryx--prima]

National Fossil: Peru

We‘re continuing our travels through South America and the next stop is Peru.

Once again, you get to vote on which one should represent the nation. As always, it could be a fossil that is just exceptionally well preserved and beautiful, had a huge impact on paleontology and our knowledge of the past, is very common/representative of the area, is beloved and famous in the public eye, is just a very unique and interesting find, or has any other justification.

Perucetus: The first contestant has just been described earlier this year. Named after its home country, the giant whale made headlines because it might be the heaviest animal that ever lived, even surpassing the modern blue whale (just keep in mind that this is still very much up for debate as Perucetus‘ estimated size range spans from “just“ 85 t to well over 300 t; Art by Adam Works)

Livyatan: In case one giant whale is not enough, Peru also offers you Livyatan, named after the biblical monster. It was first discovered in Peru, where it lived about 30 million years after Perucetus. It was similar in size to its modern cousin, the sperm whale. (Art by Balasz Petheo)

Megalodon: It seems to be an unspoken rule of paleo that you cannot mention Livyatan without pointing out that they shared a habitat and directly competed with megalodon, fighting brutal battles to the death (honestly, they were probably both chill and just stayed out of each others way, but whatever…). Since it had a global distribution, picking megalodon as a National Fossil might be a bit controversial - on the other hand: There have been fossils found in Peru and no other country has claimed the giant shark yet, so this is your chance to call dibs on the famed movie monster.

Inkayacu: Next up is a cute penguin! Well, cute might be the wrong word considering it was almost as tall as me. Inkayacu lived about 35 million years ago during the Eocene (btw great time to be a giant penguin) and is known from very well preserved fossils, including feathers. From the material researcher could even tell its coloration and unlike its modern relatives, Inkayacu was reddish-brown and grey. (Art by Ripley Cook)

Thalassocnus: Ground sloths are among the most iconic prehistoric South American fauna, and this one is not just your regular weird giant ground sloth - it was a semi-aquatic giant ground sloth! There are multiple species of these guys known, all from slightly different ages. They show very well how they transitioned to a more aquatic lifestyle over time, making them a great example for evolution in progress. (Art by Mark Witton)

Macrauchenia: Lastly we have the “long llama“ as the name translates. Since today llamas (well, vicunas, but same difference) are Perus national animal, I wanted to give an option that resembles them. Macrauchenia actually belongs to a now extinct line of hoofed mammals that lived in South America back when the continent was still separated from all other land masses. While they weren‘t too closely related to our modern camels and llamas, they probably filled a similar niche. (Art by Olga Kobrina)

[landofzero-archive]

Battle on the Sugoroku Board - God Won’t Roll The Dice 6

(Location: “Battle on the Sugoroku Board” program set)

Arashi: Use this app…… Is this ok?

Natsume: YeP. It looks like the item is actually being useD. Let’s gO, then.

Natsume and Arashi: 3, 2, 1— GO!

Idol: They split into two! Defeat them both!

Arashi: Ufufu, even if I’m from the track and field club, I can’t avoid a “Dice Battle” that’ll start as soon as I encounter someone.

Still, it’s a shame……♪

Idol A: A “Dice Battle” isn’t being triggered……!?

Arashi: We used a support item. When using the “Disappearing Mantle” (1) — this item prevents the person using this item from joining a “Dice Battle”. 

There’s the disadvantage where you would not be able to proceed with a battle on your own, but it’s useful for when you’re in a situation surrounded by enemies.

For example, you can make your enemies fight each other just like this……☆

Idol B: Oi, you……

Idol A: Wha……! You guys were the ones who said to ambush them!

Idol B: You’re the one who said to “Run down the NewDi Team”. Don’t make this our fault!

Natsume: Oh my mY. A falling out between friends is unsightly, you knOW?

FuFU, it seeMS like you guys wanted to ambush the NewDi Team, but the opposite thing happenED.

In this “Battle on the Sugoroku Board”, the momeNT you come into contact with the enemy team’s idol, a “Dice Battle” wiLL be triggered.

HowevER, the range of the “enemy contact” is a tricky thiNG. The “Dice Battle” would nOT trigger unless you’re within a certain distance. Which means, you can’NT defeat an enemy by just observing.

That’s why I took advantaGE of that rule, setting fiRE to all the ambushing idols on the other side all at once. (2)

Natsume: “It seEMS that I wasn’t able to join the “Dice Battle” though — Everyone is in a marriage interview, but is it fiNe if you let me slip away?”(3) ……Or something like thaT.

And then a “Dice Battle” outbreak will occUR between the multiple enemy teams gathered here.

It truly is a wholesale arrest. (4) Sorry about this, but I’m makING everyone sustain huge damages…….♪

Idol C: Shit, is there no way to avoid a “Dice Battle” with this many people!?

Idol D: How many teams are here……!

Natsume: Come aloNG, now iS the time to run, Kaminari-san.

Arashi: Yes. While the support item’s time limit isn't reached. Watching the infighting between them is fun in its own way, but it’s not the time to get carried away watching right?

Among everyone involved in this “Dice Battle”outbreak, only one person would come out with a large amount of gold and items.

We can’t afford to not run from such a dangerous person, see?

Bye, everyone. Let’s meet again sometime ♪

But that’s only if you can safely survive……☆

Ufufu, somehow I feel refreshed♪

Ah, it’s fun when your strategy goes well, right? A great achievement, leader.

Natsume: WeLL, I’m not just putting on appearances of having gotten to know games, you knOW. I’m usEd to abusing rules like these.

……More importantLY, you saw didn't yOU? Mikejima-senpai.

Madara: Yeah. I found you immediately since you were ‘lighting the fire’ so loudlyyy.

By purposely revealing your whereabouts, you managed to get even more people to get caught up in the “Dice Battle.” Thanks to that, all I could do was to look on from a distance from the surrounding area thoough?

Natsume: That’s my bAD.

Right now people who approach us are forced to engaGE in battle with other teams. We’ve usED a valuable item, so we haVE to make use of it thoroughly. 

Arashi: However, it seems that thanks to that, people from other teams won’t be able to get their hands on us as easily.

Mama’s back too, so now the NewDi Team is complete.

Madara: Ah, about that. On the way back here, I earned a little reward. If you’d like, please use it.

Natsume: HmM, 300G……That’s quiTE a lot of money. That’LL be of help.

Madara: Also, I have something to tell Natsume-san.

Natsume: Hm?

Madara: It’s about that. Idols from weaker agencies are colluding to defeat the NewDi Team. 

They’ve been told to make it look like we ES idols are defeated. On the show program’s side, it seems that they’re painting the scene for us ES idols to lose.

To put simply, it’s “staged.”

Natsume: “Staged”......?

Madara: Yeah. I don’t really know why, but we’ve made ourselves enemieess. It looks like the agencies have been egging them on.

It seems among them, there are idols who have been given items by the management and are complicit with the “staging”.

Natsume: I sEE. I had an inkling of thiS, but the “Battle on the Sugoroku Board” staff were pulling the strings behind the scenes, huH.

But this iS baffling. Letting us win shoulD garner more rising popularity— I don’t seE any merit in purposely letting idols from other agencies win.

The hard-to-know-what-he’s-thinking-aboUT “NETV” program director who had caused a violent incident in the paST. As well as the idoLS from weaker agencies gathered here……

It feeLS like there has to be a reason they are all coincidentally gathered here. This isn’t a chance arrangemeNT, so there shouLD be several clues to find.

………

Could it bE— it might be possiblE to understand their intentions.

Madara: Oh……

Arashi: Can you tell us in more detail?

Natsume: MmM. However there’s noT much time. I’ll explain as we keep on the moVE.

EveryoNE, I’m going to be developing a certain strategy from now on, so could you lend me your cooperatioN?

I’m going to buy “Disappearing Mantle” one morE time. If I don't do thAT, there are things that can’t be done, you sEE.♪

TL Notes:

隠れ身マント (kakuremi manto; lit. vanishing from sight (thus, disappearing) mantle) could refer to the JP terms of either these three things; the Pokemon item 'Covert Cloak', the Doraemon gadget 'Invisible Cape' or the Harry Potter 'Invisibility Cloak'. Mod would like to note that each and every one of these terms are written using different sets of characters.

Lit. ‘to light a fire’, but it means to ‘instigate fighting between two or more sides’. Kept it in for the fire vibes. Go Natsume.

お見合い - A formal marriage interview; in which the participants meet to discuss the prospect of getting married.

一網打尽 Four word idiom meaning to round up all (the criminals) with one move.

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[absolutebl]

[14th May, 2023.]

Hi!

Not sure how many BL fans takes BL Awards seriously,...but I certainly do, that's why this curiosity. And often times I'm left confused with not just the nomination, but the winners and the sponsors as well. It seems like only commercially successful BL, or actors with a huge fan-following tend to have a greater chance of bagging maximum awards. Whereas, BL series with terrific storyline and acting, often is overlooked, if it's either not talked about among the audience, or if the lead couple isn't that well-known or well liked.

That's why,...I'm intrigued about the fairness and inclusivity of the awards. Like for example, despite a certain BL gaining a massive popularity among the audience, neither the lead couple, nor the director or the author bags any award. Case in point: "Triage" (2022). While some random awards is being given to Bible & Build for "KinnPorsche (2022)", especially the announcement coming at the time when Build and Poi has apparently had a legal settlement.

I don't mean to discredit any BL actor,...BUT,...I'd like to know,...what is the criteria used for selecting the winners, the diversity and representation of nominees and winners, and the potential impact of these awards on the popularity and success of a series or actor.

Because,...it is important to examine the processes and criteria involved in selecting winners, and whether they are transparent and free from biases. Additionally, considering the representation of diverse themes, characters, and creators in the nominations,...selecting the right winner is crucial to reflect the broad range of talent within the BL genre.

So,...my question to you are as follows:

What criteria should be used to judge the quality of BL series in award functions? Should it be based on the acting, storytelling, production values, or other factors?

How do you think the recognition and celebration of BL series through award functions contribute to the overall acceptance and visibility of LGBTQ+ representation in media?

Are there any notable trends or patterns in the winners and nominees of BL award functions? Do certain actors, series, or production companies tend to dominate the awards, and what factors do you think contribute to that?

In your opinion, are there any deserving BL series or actors that have been overlooked or underrepresented in past award functions? Who would you like to see recognized in future ceremonies?

How influential are BL award functions in shaping the industry and driving the production of new BL series? Do you think they have an impact on the types of stories and characters being portrayed in the genre?

Should there be separate award categories for different aspects of BL series, such as acting, writing, directing, or should the awards be more general to encompass the overall quality of the series as a whole?

How have BL award functions changed over time in terms of categories, nominees, and winners, and what do these changes reflect about the genre's growth and evolution?

xoxo

Arjuna

I honestly couldn't give a rats arse about awards. They are, generally speaking popularity contests of some kind or another (whether that is the popularity within industry, or popularity with fans). Occasionally, I'll report on them if I feel like BL broke ground with that particular win.

There is one component I do consider, especially with something like Asian art awards, which is countries like Thailand (in the weaker positional politically and film quality wise) will push for categories it can win (best kiss for example), because they can win it with their catalogue. Using the show that got the biggest reach in the zeitgeist (for a style Thailand is already known to dominate, BL) is an intentional choice and has nothing to do with how anyone feels about the quality of said show or it's representation, just its reputation.

Anygay... It's a bit like the Eurovision song contents. Taste and ability, production values and so forth, has very little to do with actual results.

(1) What criteria should be used to judge the quality of BL series in award functions? Should it be based on the acting, storytelling, production values, or other factors? I wouldn't. Whether there are criteria in place or not, pop culture is by its nature subjective. It depends on what your goal is from that media. What do you WANT your entertainment to do to you?

Should it tell an engaging story and exemplify fictional narration? (in which case basically all BL is out, sorry)

Should it be quality of filming and production? (in which case Japan and Korea will almost always win)

The skill of the actors? (hi Taiwan, but ALSO I would put much greater weight on comedy which is a lot harder to do properly and never wins awards) I think it's a lot hard to act funny than sad.

Should it be the emotions it makes you feel? Which emotions are better? (It's a lot harder for me to feel comforted and transported by a BL so I'd vote My Dating Sim over The 8th Sense ANY DAY of the week. But most would disagree with me.)

Or how entertained you were at the time (the immersive experience)?

Here on this blog I engage with moots all the time who feel entirely differently about any one BL from me. And we are all in BL fandom. Imagine if it opened up to a wider audience to judge.

Personally? I actually do feel like a piece of media impact on culture (global or regional or both) should be taken into account.

Example: I absolutely loathe the movie Titanic. But I still feel there is a good case to be made it should have won, because it was such a sensation and so popular with viewers at the time that is SHOULD have won. It represents a pop culture moment, it's existence and what it DID to cinema after counts for something in my book.

Frankly I'd be tempted to make a case for Twilight winning a major award. For the same reason. Because of the audience it reached and the sensation it was. For me a thing having IMPACT on culture is something I value highly and think should be recognized with awards.

To value-judge something means you need to consider what is important about that thing to you, the judge. And I think it's important for a piece of pop culture to have REACH. I am not the biggest 2gether fan or TharnType or KinnPorsche. But do I think they "should" have won something because of what they did to the BL genre at the time (for better or worse). So I am absolutely fine with the fact that they did win things.

There is a part of me that says "yes, award them" because they introduced so many people to BL, and by default brought new watchers in so that they could discover the more obscure and interesting (to me) stuff.

(2) How do you think the recognition and celebration of BL series through award functions contribute to the overall acceptance and visibility of LGBTQ+ representation in media?

Hum. I am of the opinion that normalization is good. For me, the most important thing is to get the mundanes accustomed to the queers. Just let them see us kissing and holding hands and cheek snuffling and everything in between - all the time... everywhere. MewGulf crashing Thai Vogue's website is an important moment in BL history but also queer rights. Because it was so popular, because it was everywhere, because THEY were everywhere as a fantasy couple. They sold a lot of people a lot of product, but they also sold a lot of people on gayness, too.

Since in many cultures queer is fighting taboo, there is a disgust reflex that's engages in some bigoted, overly religious, and under-exposed individuals when seeing visual representations of queerness. IMHO exposure therapy is the only thing that really works to shift taboo (and even then it often takes generations). Still, just showing them queers in their media, on their billboards, and in their awards shows can really help move the needle of the general population towards acceptance, or at the very least tolerance and a sanguine/neutral reaction when encountering actual queer humans IRL.

(3) Are there any notable trends or patterns in the winners and nominees of BL award functions? Do certain actors, series, or production companies tend to dominate the awards, and what factors do you think contribute to that?

I don't know. I don't follow them closely enough.

(4) In your opinion, are there any deserving BL series or actors that have been overlooked or underrepresented in past award functions? Who would you like to see recognized in future ceremonies?

Taiwan in general. Politically this can't be done as any awards event where China is participating cannot recognize Taiwan. (Your Name Engraved Herein notwithstanding.)

I'd like to see KBL's start to get some in country recognition, for filming style if nothing else (I'm thinking about TMS 2, 8th Sense, and Semantic Error). But among other things it has its Japanese roots working against it as well as a shorter format and, of course, the gay.

I'd like to see Asian BL's in general get recognition outside of Asia but BL is fighting a loosing battle as romance almost never wins awards let alone non-English language romance, let alone queer romance.

(5) How influential are BL award functions in shaping the industry and driving the production of new BL series? Do you think they have an impact on the types of stories and characters being portrayed in the genre?

I think the biggest influence they have is more direct. For example, My Beautiful Man would not have got a 2nd season if it had not won awards (I don't think). And Old Fashion Cupcake probably would have had a season 2 if it had won something significant (which it should). (Japan is very awards motivated.)

As to whether it effects story I am not sure. I do think the success of something like TMS2 and even (to a certain extent) ITSAY has encouraged Korea (the most savvy of the BL producing industries) into pushing into darker and grittier stuff. Or at least broadening their scope and their formula. (I think the success of KP is prodding them into both higher heat and better chemistry, whether they like it or not. And they don't really like it.) As a result KBL is getting ever so slightly and consistently more flexible.

But also, as they (and Thailand and Japan) continue to produce more and more BL content this was always bound to happen (award recognition or not) because experimentation is a natural progression of exponential growth.

(6) Should there be separate award categories for different aspects of BL series, such as acting, writing, directing, or should the awards be more general to encompass the overall quality of the series as a whole?

Again I would challenge notions of quality and value, also significance and importance, as being something that can be awarded (or even recognized and judged fairly) given the basics of human nature. What I would award for, and what you would award for are, at base level, completely different.

On a simple scale, language alone makes something like quality of dialogue and script difficult to award. What is a clever and fun script in Thai is completely different in Japanese or Korean.

(7) How have BL award functions changed over time in terms of categories, nominees, and winners, and what do these changes reflect about the genre's growth and evolution?

Again I don't know this one either as I don't follow.

I mean what I have noticed that has changed is that BLs are being recognized at all, for anything, and that counts in my book. (Maybe i have too low a bar?)

But I am old enough to remember a time when we didn't have queer rep AT ALL that wasn't death or punching down, so this whole damn bubble of BL joy is a win for me.

That's why I do this blog.

And hand out my own awards...