#and it's through Steam Review Bombings

[jaythelay]

Don't take this as racist, just stupid, but I find it funny how everytime I hear about China and the people that live there, all I can ever think is:

These people don't believe in unions or collective bargaining, coming together to demand better and more freedom, but if a game dev on Steam does something...not even remotely offensive, they form together to form the ultimate harassment campaign the world has ever seen by reviewbombing and messaging developers of Gacha games because they can't fuck some loli.

And it keeps happening. All I really need to know about China is they would prefer Gacha gaming over actual freedom. When, I've seen what they say, and I gotta say, you'd think they'd use an OUNCE of that murderous rage to...go after their corrupt government. Not...not games on Steam.

[elizabethemerald]

A Shade Darker than Red

The other post was getting a little long, so here's Part 4. Previous Parts

Jazz slowly and methodically reset her room to how it usually was. She’s tired, and her hands are shaking more than she would like, but she has to do this. Her roommates couldn’t know that she was doing amateur ghost psychology out of their apartment. Fortunately Danny had been able to contain Jason’s emotional outbursts and accidental ecto blasts so she wouldn’t lose her deposit, though she would have to buy a new lamp from the one blast Danny hadn’t been able to stop. 

The two boys were now gone. Danny had mentioned he and Jason would be training their ghostly abilities, then once Jason was up to stuff they could get some “Mortal world catharsis.” She didn’t want to know, but she knew that even if it wasn’t the best coping mechanism, Jason could certainly do to blow off some steam. 

Jazz transferred the encrypted short-hand notes to a notebook that was locked to her ecto-signature. Then she burned the original so there was no risk of her notes getting out. When she was done reviewing her notes her hands were shaking even more and she had to go into her bathroom and run through her breathing exercises. Her stomach twisted and rebelled, sharp bile rising in her throat as she struggled to keep her food down. 

She knew that therapy could be an emotionally exhausting career. She wanted to work at Arkham and the trauma the inmates went through was such an important part of their story that she would have to hear to help them work through. Eventually she was sure she would get better at hearing about the horrible things her patients had gone through or done. 

It was even worse for the ghosts. At least for her human patients most of them would have survived the awful things that happened to them. That was not the case for ghosts or even half ghosts like Danny. Her brother could describe to her in excruciating detail exactly what it felt like to be electrocuted to death. He had even told her once what it felt like to be electrocuted while the ectoplasm of the portal was putting him back together at the same time. She had thrown up after hearing that. 

Now she swallowed down the bile, practiced her breathing and called for food to be delivered so she wouldn’t have to cook. Anything she could do to keep calm. 

Jason remembered his first death. He didn’t seem to remember that he had been Robin, even though she and Danny had recognized the costume. He remembered getting beaten to the brink of death by the Joker before the madman’s bomb pushed him over the edge. She had a guess what catharsis they would seek once Jason was feeling better. 

He had fuzzy memories of coming back. Danny had theories about that and about the pools filled with corrupted ectoplasm. He, at her insistence, kept his theories for a time outside of Jason’s therapy session. Again, she imagined that Danny would investigate the pools later and deal with them personally. 

She sighed to herself at the end of the day. She had eaten her take out from her favorite Chinese restaurant, she painted her emotions out in a chaotic and dark piece that she would probably have to burn and she had taken a long bath. She was as relaxed as she could be, yet a single swirling thought continued to hound her from Jason’s session. 

Jason couldn’t remember who or what killed him the second time. However there was a very distinctively shaped hole in his memories. A figure who should have appeared in any story about a Robin, yet was missing from all of them. A figure who should not have appeared during the death of that Robin, yet was present there as a towering dark figure and a weight of betrayal. 

It was just a theory, she couldn’t even voice it. Jason had a repressed memory that he would have to uncover on his own. If she told him she was certain the information could shatter the poor ghost. If she told Danny, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. Every ghostly instinct in his body was demanding he go and pay back whoever had killed Jason. She guessed that he was already plotting how to get into Arkham once Jason was back in fighting shape, she couldn’t give him another target based on just a theory. 

Her theory that kept flying around her head even as she tried to relax to fall asleep, so dark and painful for Jason, that she couldn’t even risk writing down in her own private journals. Batman had killed Jason. Batman had killed Robin. That news would shatter the superhero community, and it might take Jason with it. 

.

Barbara was sick with dread. She needed to confirm, but more than that she needed to get the rest of the bats safe. If Bruce had… she couldn’t even think about it yet. She pinged the location of everyone else in the city to make sure they were safe. At this time of day most of them were in their homes or in school. 

The first thing she did was scramble the GPS feeds for everyone. Bruce would notice if the data disappeared and even she was certain that she could keep Bruce from finding them again, but with the useless noise it would be like they were scattered all over the city, anywhere but where they actually were. 

Next she had to collect the various bats from around the city to go over their findings. She arranged for Dick to pick up Damian from school and sent a location for a rendezvous to the phones of most of the family. They would slowly trickle in over the next couple of hours to the safe house. 

On her list next was Observation and Extraction. Several GPS markers were showing up in and underneath Wayne Manor. Barbara couldn’t help the trepidation she felt seeing that. Everyone in that house was in danger right now. She opened up a secure line to Cassandra’s phone. Cass answered the call with her face cam on so Barbara could see her signs and didn’t have to rely on her tapping out morse code over the phone. Cass looked at her curiously, but seriously. 

“Black Bat. I need you to confirm who is in the manor right now and what their condition is.” Barbara said with her Oracle voice filter on. 

Cass’s name signs for the other members rattled off quickly. 

“Bruce; Alfred: Talking. Duke: Sleeping. Sick. Tim: Computer. Cave.” 

Barbara nodded, that information confirmed by her tracking software. 

“You are now on a stealth mission. Objective: observe target without being seen. Report on your assessment of their body language. Extract VIPs. Reconvene at rendezvous location. Understood?”

Some of the others would use their “Mission Voice” for things like pranks or family black mail, but Barbara always kept her work life separate, unwilling to risk someone not reacting appropriately to a warning or an order. So Cass knew this was as serious as an investigation into the Joker. She nodded, then signed again. 

“Target?”

“Bruce.” Cass’s eyes widened marginally but she nodded again. 

“VIPs?” 

“Tim and Duke. Extraction is the highest priority.”

Cass nodded again and pulled her black hoodie up over her head. She put in her ear piece and slipped the phone, camera facing out, into her front pocket. Barbara would be able to see whatever Cass saw as well as her sign language so they could communicate. 

Barbara could only watch as Cass snuck into the manor. Black Bat was their single best stealth operative and she knew the manor better than anyone other than maybe Alfred. It was in theory a safe and easy operation. But if she was correct… best not to think about it right now. She needed to focus on what Cass was seeing. 

It was only a few minutes before the camera focused on Bruce and Alfred speaking at the bottom of the staircase. Cass was on the top looking down on them, practically invisible in the shadows there. The camera didn’t have high enough fidelity for her to hear what they were saying, or for her to read her lips, but she didn’t have to when Cass could. 

“Speaking. About Jason.” There was a slight hesitation in Cass’s sign of her brother’s name. “Alfred: Worried. Afraid: for Jason.” 

“And Bruce?” Barbara knew Alfred was worried about Jason. He was always the first to worry if one of the bats didn’t come home or check in regularly, though he didn’t usually show it so openly. 

“Bruce: Not worried. Knows: Jason’s Location. How? Knows How?” 

“That’s the question Black Bat. Move to extraction. We’ll discuss at the rendezvous.” 

Cass signed a yes with her hand then moved silently away. Barbara watched, still on tender hooks as Cass crept to Duke’s room. She opened his door and crept to his bedside. Duke woke with a hand covering his mouth and a Cass with a finger to her lips in his face. Probably one of the more adrenaline inducing ways to wake up, but at least it got him up and focused quickly. She signed to him quickly then stepped back so he could get up. She turned her back as he dressed, keeping her eye on the door. When she turned back, Duke had a backpack thrown over his shoulder and jacket that would blend well in the shadows or on the Gotham streets. She was certain, given the paranoia of the bats, that the pack was a go-bag that Duke had prepared in case he needed to run for his life. 

The two of them continued to sneak through the house, aided by Duke’s umbra kinesis as he pulled the shadows around them. Barbara followed their markers through the house, looping cameras and muting sensors as they went, undoing her work so there was no trace after they passed. Even her skills would be able to be discovered eventually, but she just hoped that her actions would be enough to get them out of the manor. 

Duke led Cass into Bruce’s office, which was fortunately still unoccupied and the two of them descended into the Batcave together. Barbara could see Tim at the Batcomputer looking over the same data she had been pouring over before Damian had texted her. Cass ordered Tim to get ready to leave, but he stubbornly insisted he was still good to focus on his work. 

Gods above, Barbara was going to beat a good sleep schedule into that stubborn idiot one of these days. Cass apparently had the same thought and dealt a rapid fire punch to a pressure point. Not enough to render him unconscious, but enough to get him to wake up and focus on what she was signing. It only took a brief explanation from there for him to also grab a go-bag and then give a solid yank to the cables at the back of the Batcomputer. It would take hours for someone familiar with the system to get it back in working order after that, someone unfamiliar might never figure it out. 

She sighed with relief as the trio finally excited the Batcave. Bruce was just now realizing that something was wrong. She didn’t know how long it would take for him to figure out the others were out of the cave, but she did everything she could to buy them all time. She scrambled codes, fried camera feeds, and filled the tracking data with meaningless noise. 

Then she sent a final message to the phones of the family other than Bruce. 

“ABC”

In any other family it could be considered a mistype or a key smash. It was simple code for when the priority was getting the message across. 

“Avoid BatCave”

[monster-musings]

30 Hours into Dragon's Dogma 2 - A Report

Dragon's Dogma 2 is fun, but I am also the type of freak that got through all of the first, + Dark Arisen, AND old gen Monster Hunter - specifically the ones that are about to shutdown :( . It's definitely weaker than some contemporary open worlds (BotW, Elden Ring) but it is leagues above most when you hear the phrase "AAA open world", I would say it rightfully secures third place beneath them.

Right now a lot of negative press you'll hear is very surface level, although some of it is warranted; fast travel in a game world of this scale should not be as frugal as it is currently - especially with the number of quests that require bouncing between towns - but there are certainly some halfway decent solutions provided by the game for this. Does that include the micro-transactions? No, you can do this revolutionary thing called 'playing the game' and it circumvents most if not the entire need to spend extra money on a paid for game.

Issues like performance and character editing were significantly blown out of proportion on release, and the subsequent review bombing the game has suffered on Steam, combined with how low the overall achievement percentages are tell me that people have not really played the game at all, which is sad!

All of these achievements are effectively gimmes for the first few hours of gameplay, even if you get distracted from doing quests with exploration and combat (as is the style for open worlds of this caliber). The fact that the overall percentages are this low is fairly telling.

There are definitely some slight changes I would appreciate for the future of the game (auto-scroll on dialogue text for the Love of God), but all in all it's not even the roughest launch of a game I've played this year (*cough cough* Helldivers 2), and a lot of it is undeserved.

[devsgames]

When it comes to press stuff for my games I almost never really bother engaging with game 'collectors' or achievement hunters as part of it, because they're both demographics who don't really contribute to the success of your game.

Steam has cultivated an ecosystem where people will 'collect' games and never play or engage with them in any way (which is supremely not helpful for indie devs like me seeing as how reviews and word of mouth is kinda our lifeblood). Most Steam users buy games for cheap, but collectors typically wait until the games are basically bottom-of-the-barrel cheap before engaging.

Steam also incentivizes achievement hunting in a way that is exploitative towards indie devs by allowing people to refund games before a 2hr mark for virtually any reason. This means if your game is cheap enough, short enough and easy enough people will speed through it to get all the achievements before refunding it. They keep the achievements and you lose a sale! Roughly ~20% of my sales on Bombing!! 1 have been refunded, largely by users who were never interested in the game in the first place, only its achievements (Source: I've had plenty of refund reasons be: 'I just wanted the achievements').

Anyway, this is typically why if I'm going to reach out to a content creator who claims they're a game collector or an achievement hunter I typically pass, and instead prioritize with folks who seem like they're going to actually play the game, talk about it, review it or share it with people in some meaningful way.

[luyoki1]

This is gonna be my first post, but eh I only use this account to lurk.

However, there’s something on my chest I need to say. The review bombs that are going off on steam are not just because Ishmael isn’t in a bikini. It evolved to be something much much worse.

Apparently, some of the fans found out that one of the main CG artists is a “feminist” due to retweets from 3-4 years ago. I don’t know much about the cultural aspect of gender and equality in different countries, but being viewed as a feminist is really bad in them. However, besides that point, now these fans want Project Moon to fire that artist because they believe that one artist will make Project Moon “feminist”. Therefore, the steam review bombs came.

A little anecdote I would like to place is that in attempts to make this artist out to be a bad person, these “fans” looked through different scenes of the game in order to find evidence of the artist putting in “feminist symbols” and came up with this image: https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1020798202473103440/1133095006232658032/image0.jpg

Apparently the way Yi Sang is holding this bottle is reminiscent of 🤏, which is a symbol used to insult men according to them.

There might be more of these “evidence” but I literally don’t have the energy to see them.

All in all I can’t believe this situation is happening and it is making me stressed.

[iri-scrublord]

Fresh Season 2 Weapon Review

Once again, I'm putting my faith in the automatic cut. If it doesn't show up for you guys, god help you. Or press the...what is it? J key? K key? One of those skips to the next post.

Below there be thoughts on the weapons that came out.

The Whale In The Room

There're less weapons each time one of these damn seasons comes out. The first season of each era bans a bunch of the old weapons as they figure out the balance with the new stuff. That's fine, there was still a ton of stuff to go through. The second season of the De-Recall era introduced 13 weapons.

The third introduced twelve. The fourth introduced eleven. Ten. Nine. Eleven. And this new one coming up has eight.

Squidforce is losing steam. If I've said it before, I'll say it again. They're a bunch of boomers and need to go. Get some fresh minds in there. Like me. I'll run the damn league I don't give a damn, you think I don't know my way around weapon and stage logistics? Hell, maybe I'll even allow all of the idols I sponsor to, I don't know, participate in the damn sport.

I'm not going to rant again about accessibility, I did that last time. But it's a damn sin that Big Man has to sit there, on a podcast, and wax poetic about turf and ranked - sorry, anarchy - and the only time he gets to hold the fuckin' weapons is when he's working his second job at war because Grizz doesn't give a shit about regulations (Thank Squod).

Anyway. #DownWithSF.

TL;DRs in the tags.

Deco's .52 Gal (w/ Curling Bomb and Splattercolor Screen)

I'm trying a new formatting thing with the titles. It's going to be a little less consistent with what people actually call the weapons, but I want to highlight the developers of the kits a little more. There's a lot of work that goes into making even the worst kits, and it's not fair to the engineers at each company not to shout out who made them.

I've already given my view on the Splattercolor Screen last time, so I'm not going to go on and on about it. They did rework it, but barely. Still gives you damn achromatopsia, but...I dunno, it's not as bad as before. Dialed it back, I guess. Blegh.

The weapon itself...? I mean it's fine? The .52 didn't really need a tool for getting in like the Curling Bomb, it's got healthy ink spread and decent range. Curling Bomb is usually best on weapons that either have trouble inking or short range.

Course, that's me trying to be impartial. If you want to know my bias, I love curling bombs because it's so much fun to splat people with them. It's almost as embarrassing as dying to a Sprinkler.

That's besides the point though. If I'm going to be forced to think about the synergy with...that thing...I guess it provides pretty good area denial. The .52 is a scary enough weapon that it can take out opponents at a safe distance, and anyone heading through the screen is going to be at even more of a disadvantage than they normally would be going into neutral with it. The curling bombs don't add much, though.

Custom's E-Liter 4K and E-Liter 4K Scope (w/ Squid Beakon and Kraken Royale)

So. I've been one to rag on E-Liters in the past. Like literally last season, I ragged on them. And before grading this weapon, I'd like to retract some of my previous statements.

E-Liters are perfectly respectable weapons, capable of being played in skilled and interesting ways.

It's you saltlicks that just sit in the same damn place for five minutes doing sweet FA but looking down your sights that piss me the fuck off. Do you spend your free time watching paint dry? Do you put your meals in the microwave at low power just so you can watch that shit turn for thirty minutes? The hell are you doing playing this sport when you could pick up the well-respected and more-your-speed human game of FUCKING BACKGAMMON

Anyway. The actual weapon. Once again, freaky special, but I did try it. Don't say I never did anything for you guys. And...I like it. E-Liter at its base is a very solid support weapon. Even just seeing one on the other team is psy-ops, and as long as you can convince the enemy that you're a threat, you don't actually have to follow through on too much to keep them on their toes. Squid Beakons are great to mobilize your team, since you won't be on the front lines unless you're a Battle E-Liter (respect). And the Kraken works wonders to get people off of you. Just try and use it smart, don't chase people off into the wild blue and get caught with your pants down when it expires.

Custom's Explosher (w/ Splash Wall and Triple Splashdown)

Ahhh, Triple Splashdown. The noobkiller. Menace to turf, nigh inconsequential to ranked - sorry, anarchy.

I like this kit. Explosher has always had a lot of trouble keeping people off of it, and its base kit of Point Sensor and Ink Storm didn't really do much to help it. But this one's got a Splash Wall to give a bit of buffer (though you're going to need to stack some Ink Savers if you want to do anything after throwing one), and Triple Splashdown as a panic button.

I don't normally like panic buttons at the best of times, but this is a weapon that really needs one. Getting rushed down sucks as this thing, and having some tools to help with being harrassed by Splooshes and the like really helped it out.

Dolphin's Dread Wringer (w/ Squid Beakon and Wave Breaker)

I don't like Squid Beakons quite as much on this guy. The Wave Breaker works nicely with such a slow but terrifying weapon. I love Wave Breakers on any kind of mid-to-long range slosher that can take advantage of tags over walls. So...most of them. But Squid Beakon?

I mean this thing isn't going to be on the front lines all the time, sure, and it never hurts to have beakons on the team, but...I don't know, I feel like if the team tried a little harder, Dolphin could have found something better for it. Hell, Dolphin makes Sprinklers, right? I would have taken a Sprinkler over Beakons to make for even more consistent specials.

Eh, I dunno. The Wave Breaker's nice.

Foil's Flingza Roller (w/ Suction Bomb and Splattercolor Screen)

I love the finish on this thing. The Flingza Roller to begin with is one of my favourite weapons to look at. Weird, rustic, industrial. The folding mechanism needs constant upkeep, sure, with a roller whose entire gimmick revolves around the flick, that's only natural, but it's so simple yet so great. And the navy blue finish is just, chef's kiss, y'know?

And yeah, another Splattercolor Screen, you knew they were coming.

...

Okay, I'm stalling a little. I freaking love this weapon. I loved the original Flingza, and as much as I wanted to hate this thing because of its special, I don't. I really don't. Suction Bombs just feel so good to make people scatter like minnows. And until Dynamo stops sucking major ass, this is the closest we're going to have to a long range roller. With Suction and Screen, this thing excels at flushing people out and following through. And I HATE that I think that because I still fucking hate the Screen.

Deco's Glooga Dualies (w/ Point Sensor and Trizooka)

First off, absolutely love the finish. Striking. They look like power tools.

But other than that? I dunno, they're...good. They're good. Tagging is always nice, though I kind of wish that they had the dart instead. More weapons need that thing, and I think it's neat. I could probably fit a dart onto Gloogas if I really wanted to, though I'm not sure I'd be able to make it league legal (#DownWithSF).

But I'm digressing. Going into a fantasyland where I get to make my own kits for league.

There's just not much exciting or standout about it, y'know? Tag someone, take 'em out. Tag someone, take 'em out. Gloogas are a pretty terrifying weapon as they are, and this is just a way more aggressive kit. But it's not like....burst bomb aggressive.

...Or line marker - sorry, Angle Shooter aggressive. (Nouveau I swear to god please change the name)

Shelly and Donny's Nautilus '79 (w/ Suction Bomb and Triple Splashdown)

What a gorgeous weapon. The gold-rimmed finish? God. Sheldon knows how to make 'em. Or, I should say, not Sheldon. I happen to know that this one was designed and manufactured by Shelly and Donny, the little guys that run the stores in Inkopolis. They look pretty young (I haven't asked ages) but for their first crack at a weapon kit they did a pretty good job. Pick this weapon up if you can. Even if they're in the pocket of Squidforce, it's always good to support up-and-coming designers.

Beyond the looks, this thing is serviceable. (Sorry, guys, but I'm not going to mince words just because you're new. Feedback is feedback, and if you only get gilded phrases you'll never grow!) Suction Bomb and Triple Splashdown is an alright combo, respectable, though I get the inkling that the two of them had Squidforce breathing down their neck trying to make them include one of the new specials in this thing. I haven't gotten a Splashdown dev kit yet, so I don't know how actually hard it is to work with, so I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they did the best they could under the circumstances.

Dolphin's New Squiffer (w/ Autobomb and Zipcaster)

Fuck you guys they put a fun weapon in the game.

I don't care if it fucking sucks or is the best thing on the planet it's fucking fun okay

We can have a fun weapon every so fucking often as a treat

Custom's Douser Dualies FF (w/ Ink Mine and Killer Wail 5.1)

Alright, on to the brand new weapons they introduced. The meat of it.

That is to say the fucking pair of them come the FUCK ON-

These guys are interesting. Love the firehose inspiration, Custom's really been coming out lately. Three new kits (The E-Liter and Scope count as one) and a brand new weapon in a single season? Jeez, guys, slow down!

As for effectiveness, I like the special on them. They're pretty long range as it is, but they've got a damn slow kill time if they don't roll, and if they roll, they don't have the damn long range anymore. So the Wail really helps them out.

I think if I had to use a word t describe the Dousers it'd be 'underestimated'. That's probably going to wear off the more we see them, and understand how they work, but they just don't look like they should have the range that they do. Those hydraulic pumps do wonders man, what I wouldn't give for a three month internship at Custom. Custom's weapon department. I don't want to be stuck making actual fucking power tools.

Sub's a wash.

Sorella's Recycled Brella 24 Mk I (ft. Ammo Knights) (w/ Angle Shooter and Big Bubbler)

So you might be looking at the name and going "oh damn that's familiar"

And you might look at the aesthetic of it and go "Oh damn that's familiar"

And I kind of gave the game away by putting it in the heading but...yeah! This is a collaborative weapon between Sorella and Ammo Knights! Sheldon's never actually had the opportunity to make a brella before this, because Sorella's got a patent down on the damn things. Same reason I haven't been able to make any either. (Same reason they're all kinda dogshit tbh)

But they actually opened up the golden gates for a bit to let someone else in! And it's my man Sheldon! How did he do??

....Bad. Sheldon did bad.

Or, more accurately, I think Sorella did bad. I can see Sheldon's character in here. He always makes weird and interesting weapons with cool catches to them. This one's definitely the power in the shaft, and the fast-launching canopy. The aesthetics are so fucking good, too, I love what he did with it.

But I can feel Sorella's influence creeping over this thing like black fucking sludge. It's slow, the canopy's a joke, and what is that KIT? Big Bubbler??? On this???? Are you fucking joking?????

I'm so sorry they had to do you like this Sheldon I'm so fucking sorry

And that's Fresh Season 2. Done literally what, two hours before Sizzle Season 2 comes out.

I'm going to try and get that review done in time before the last minute, I promise, just...I dunno. Had a weird bit in the middle of the season where I just kinda. Existed, for a bit.

Side note, anybody get that? Like, two weeks in or something, you just got this striking sense of ennui, like your thoughts all just vanished for a couple of days? I talked to a few guys and they felt the same thing around the same time. Promise this isn't a race thing, but octos got hit especially hard. Hope you're all okay.

Take care of yourselves, guys. Burnout's real.

[rruhlreviews]

Book Review - The Shining by Stephen King

This is the first Stephen King novel I’ve read, and fittingly, I read it during the largest snowstorm I’ve seen in a few years—though not nearly as severe as the blizzards that entrap the Torrance family in the Overlook. It was an excellent introduction to his body of work. Since I write gothic horror, reading The Shining has helped me to learn more about the broader canon of the subgenre, especially since my experience thus far has primarily been the foundational stories of the nineteenth century, such as Carmilla and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The Shining, written and set in 1977, enhanced my horror experience as I had a closer cultural connection to the fears explored in the story. Small details down to the sad song Seasons in the Sun on the radio made the threats feel close to home. I believe this is why it had such mass appeal, as a reinvigorated take on a classic subgenre. Divorce, generational trauma, economic depression, and the undercurrent of racial relations are easy for the contemporary reader to connect with, and this is still true almost fifty years later in 2024.

Regardless of the year of setting, The Shining contains the hallmark elements of gothic horror: an isolated location, missed opportunities for escape, loss of sanity, and haunting. The characters not only physically trapped in the Overlook, but emotionally trapped with each other, and it’s the latter that makes the story captivating. Jack fears becoming his father, Wendy fears becoming her mother, and both fear upsetting their son with a divorce, which keep them entangled in their failing marriage. Through the narrative, their resentment for each other is as palpable as the steam building up in the boiler, a ticking time bomb. This is what I consider to be the most masterful element of the novel and the reason it remains so popular: a sense of subtle, creeping dread and psychological tension.

The first 250 pages were difficult for me to remain interested in, if I’ll be honest, but I kept reading because of the little hints. I could not put the book down for the last 200 pages. My own gothic novel has a slower pace, and something I had been recently struggling with was feeling like I needed more glamour and action to convey dread, but The Shining is titillatingly creepy with a thousand little threads that weave together in a web to ensnare the reader’s curiosity. The introduction of the story teases a climax that is paid off in full at the end. In addition to the main suspense around “redrum,” the recurring symbol of the wasps stood out to me. The first major supernatural occurrence at the Overlook was the resurrection of the hive, Jack connects the wasp nest with his abusive father and the cycle of trauma, and the entity dying at the end is compared to a swarm. The novel is neatly bookended, starting with Wendy and Danny together in a normal day, and ending with Wendy and Danny together in a new type of normal. I do personally prefer horror stories with hope at the end.

After gaining experience with formulaic mysteries and thrillers—which I do enjoy, don’t get me wrong—I love a suspenseful novel that is not predictable. Despite knowing nothing was going to allow the family to leave the Overlook, there were times I had hope Jack would snap out of it, and I really thought it wouldn’t be possible—but then he did at the very end to complete his goal of saving his family. I could not predict if Dick was going to make it to Colorado and survive to the end of the novel, and that perilous journey up the Rockies in a blizzard may be one of the most harrowing things I’ve ever read—and he fought not only the winter, but racial profiling. Another touch of realism to bring the fear home. I was convinced Wendy and Jack were going to kill each other, but Jack was the only one not to escape the Overlook. The novel kept me guessing and I felt real fear and disgust, especially when the dead woman in the tub was first revealed and when Jack was hunting Wendy in the scene made famous by the movie. A successful horror story indeed. My hope for my own writing is to make a reader feel such raw emotion and concern for a character.

As for criticism, I’m unsure how I felt about the third person omniscient point of view. I believe we needed all the viewpoints offered to get a full picture of the story told, but at times, the perspective seemed to shift midsentence and the style wasn’t the most readable. From a gender lens, something I could’ve gone without was how the novel paused to mention what every woman’s chest felt or looked like. It’s not unexpected for a male author in the seventies but it did take me out of the narrative. If I had a shot every time the word “nipple” appeared, I probably would have about five shots, which is, in my humble opinion, too many for a story without a romantic focus.

If The Shining was written by an unknown author in 2024, I feel like it wouldn’t have been allowed to have such a slow start or have a length of 500 pages. The market has changed since 1977 for an audience with a much shorter attention span. The first page is Jack’s dislike for his new boss. It doesn’t have the hook demanded by modern readers. Yet the first chapter foreshadows the rest of the novel, and right away, we know Jack will try to kill his family like the former caretaker. The narrative may meander at times like a mountain road, but it delivers. King keeps his promises to the audience in The Shining, which is what makes the book and him as an author so successful.

[wet-bread-owner]

After my recent review on the different Turquoise October songs I decided that I wanted to make more reviews of different bands and their songs, but only the ones that contain Octolings or something similar, that's why I decided to review DJ Octavio's songs, I mean, they are mostly remixes but they are still good

DJ Octavio

Splatoon 1

I Am Octavio (1): To be honest as simple as this song sounds it's actually pretty nice, it's a nice opening to his fight and I think shows more about Octarian music as well, you can hear some similarities to Turquoise October, which I mean DJ Octavio is technically part of Turquoise October since he's their producer; the simplicity of this song is what makes it good In my opinion, and it shows more about DJ Octavio, apart from his in-game dialogue, overall good song

I Am Octavio (2): This is the worst one of the three, like, it's just really bad it doesn't sound that good, it serves as a good transition to the third phase tho so I think it does the job right, nothing much to say about this one

I Am Octavio (3): Ok this one is actually really good, there are some weird noises added that I like and what sounds like steam coming out of the Octobot king, the weird vocals it has sound funny but I think it depends on the context because if you are going against Octavio they sound more like, idk but it makes the battle feel intense I guess, now there's also the Turquoise October jingle, which I love because it connects Octavio with the Octarians and it sounds really good as well, I think this is the best Octavio original song

Inkopolis Memorial Mixtape: Nothing much of interest in this one, it's pretty nice sounding tho, I could hear some references in this song, I believe the live version is better (for obvious reasons lol)

DJ Octavio ft. Callie

Splatoon 2

Bomb Rush Blush (Dj Octavio ft. Callie): Honestly I really like this remix, I think Callie's remixed vocals with the different trumpets and other instruments used mixed really well, I love the fact that in one part Callie sings the Turquoise October jingle, again I say this a lot but it's something I absolutely love in songs; the song makes the fight better, it's kinda boring but with the song it makes it more frantic, Callie also does a funny dance if you look at the screens around the arena and I think that's cute lol, also going back to what I said about the Turquoise October jingle, I absolutely love when songs do that, like, referencing something from like, before the big finale and it being more like, cool sounding, idk how to describe it exactly but it fills me with so much joy, it's like, a tiny cheer to the player's morale like, showing something that has been with the player since the beginning and using it to motivate the player, and in terms of the story well I love that Octavio references that jingle because I read that it is also what makes octarians be more obedient (it's not mind control btw)

Tidal Rush (DJ Octavio ft. Callie vs Marie): Tidal Rush is really good, I like how Marie and Callie sing their songs and the different instruments and audios that are thrown through the song, it's really good, makes the fight feel harder than it is, which I think it's good, for me it means it adds that feeling of accomplishment when you beat it and I think that's great, I love that, and I also love to think of Octavio having to remix the song and also fight at the same time, which is pretty cool if you think about it, I feel Octavio doesn't get that much recognition for stuff like that

Inkopolis Memorial Mixtape Live: This is an amazing song, i love the fact that it opens with Turquoise October and other stuff about the story mode, and how Octavio can be heard during the song too, it feels like an open letter to the fans, especially splatband fans if I'm being honest, since most songs in here are from the splatbands and they also gave Paruko new vocals and I'm pretty sure they gave Mizole new vocals as well, which is so cool, I wonder if the two bands worked together with Octavio to make this song, I really can't describe how good this song is, and it's super long as well, like, 12 minutes or something like that, that's amazing I love long songs, I won't listen to it that often but it's definitely one of my favourites, I wonder if we will get something like this for splatoon 3, and I hope Octavio will do it; as I said I think this song feels like a combination of everything in splatoon 2 like, all the songs and other gameplay related stuff too, like a cute gift to the community, I haven't seen that many people talk about it tho

DJ Octavio

Splatoon 3

I Am Octavio F34RME Remix: As far as I know it's a remix of his boss theme from the first game, and honestly it's a really good one, I love the way it feels more, light(?) Idk if you could call it that, but it reflects how he doesn't have the power of the great zapfish, and he's battling with very little power, so the song feels more calm I guess, it's still pretty like, noisy and what not for his boss fight, I love the weird vocals it has and how it sounds kinda more clean than the original one, I don't know if I prefer this one or the one from the first game, it's really hard to choose

Calamari Inkantantion 3MIX: I'm pretty sure he worked on this one, at least the wiki says he did, but I saw many people say he didn't, either way I think that his work as a DJ in here Is amazing, I believe this is a good song to end his story, although sad if I'm being honest here, I wish he got more original songs or even more remixes like, one with deep cut or off the hook, but who knows, maybe we'll have a Splatsville Memorial Mixtape when splatoon 3 ends and he'll have his moment to shine once again, he deserves more recognition, and so do the octarians and their music

Goodbye!

And that's about it, that's my review on his songs, I'll definitely make a post about him later, he's one of my favourite characters in the game and I think he deserves to get more recognition, I'll be working on more octarian/octoling song reviews, so yeah, hope you guys enjoyed this post, cya now!!

[blueberry-lemon]

You've probably seen this image. I've seen it many times. I have mixed feelings about it.

It's a funny image, and represents a good cause. It's usually posted by people who want to support fairer working conditions for game developers, and want to show support for smaller titles.

It's usually posted in contrast to something like Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs: Legion, The Last of Us: Part II, or God of War: Ragnarok.

There's a part of me that cringes every time I see it, though. I imagine there may be other game developers who feel similarly.

I think the reflexive cringe comes from the phrase "shorter games with worse graphics." People being paid more to work less sounds great, tbh, and barring any sort of production pipeline blocking, I think most devs would be into that.

These are the thoughts that fly through my mind when I hear people say "I want shorter games with worse graphics."

Short compared to what?

Shorter than Elden Ring? Shorter than Hollow Knight? Short like Venba? Short like Celeste? How short could a AAA game be before, even despite posting this phrase, you'd find it unsatisfying or incomplete? How short could an indie game be before you don't consider it a "real game"? Games can be anything from Ulysses to a haiku, but it rarely seems like people are talking about the haiku style of games.

What does "worse graphics" mean?

I just can't imagine a world where "worse graphics" could possibly correlate to Hi-Fi Rush, Undertale, Hollow Knight, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Celeste, Mario Odyssey, Wind Waker, A Short Hike, or Hades. Even though those are the types of games that I often see people use this meme in support of. Those games have incredible art that talented artists worked really really hard on. It feels like a bit of a sting to associate those beautiful games with the term "worse graphics." That phrasing, sadly, implies that photorealism is the bar by which all other games are compared.

Forever Games

Where do replayable games, like roguelikes, tycoons, crafting games, and farming sims land on the realm of "shorter games"? They're not inherently any shorter than a big AAA game, and they're designed to be replayable and to suck your time in. That can be great, but it also might be a treadmill that is not inherently any more honorable than a game trying to tell a linear story.

Are you really "not kidding"?

This meme has a very confident, smug energy and I think that tone invites this question: Do you REALLY want shorter games with worse graphics? I know this is going to depend on the individual lives of each human being who's ever reposted this meme, and it can never be truly answered, but it really begs the question of whether or not people REALLY DO WANT "shorter games with worse graphics." Because let me tell ya, there's a lot of shorter games with worse graphics right now and they ain't selling very well. Check the Steam reviews. Ask devs how many copies they sell on itch. There are many devs out there who make shorter games with worse graphics and no matter how many times people post this phrase, people don't seem to flock over to support those projects. And that sinking feeling of "oh, these folks don't mean the games that my friends and I post regularly on itch, they mean Hi-Fi Rush and Wind Waker" is a little bit demotivating, given the gusto with which this meme is posted. There are people whose whole careers hinge on the hope that there's an audience out there that wants "shorter games with worse graphics" and there doesn't seem to be an actual sea change that's helping those projects out. There is a treasure trove of games out on itch that you can play in between hyped releases, but most people's playing habits don't seem to shift.

Lastly...

...there are thousands of devs out there who work hard, collaborating with other devs and artists, to make their games the best they can be. Devs work hard to bring their artistic vision to God of War: Ragnarok or to Bomb Rush Cyberfunk or to experimental indies with intentionally-ragged art styles. Everyone is putting their heart into their art to make something that will connect with the player. Sometimes, this can be pulled off by 1 or 2 people. Sometimes, this will require hiring more onto the team. It's slightly dissonant to see people say they want to see "worse graphics" when you're trying to get a job in texturing or particle effects and want to deliver something your team is trying to push a boundary on. This is true in both small projects and big projects. Artists are putting their stamp on Horizon Forbidden West just as much as they're putting their stamp on Venba. There are artists looking for work in the indie space who want to make better and more beautiful "graphics."

Anyway, no disrespect to people who post this meme. I understand that it's a show of support and solidarity. I understand that it's just a joke. I know that it's not a big deal.

But I'd be lying if I said that these mixed feelings didn't flash through my mind every time I saw this hedgehog. Figured I would share them.

[dudesome]

After looking around on YouTube, twitter, tumblr and the like, it's amazing how Team Fortress 2 fans can act like the most annoying, petty and hostile people on the planet towards Overwatch, Destiny 2 and even Fortnite and wonder why people don't like them and label the community as toxic.

You think a game that has been through a lot of rough times and is struggling to get by with bugs that don't get fixed and having more bots than planet cybertron would make them more sympathetic to gaming communities, but they are instead just really mean.

They love to start this one sided war between themselves and other gaming communities, blame them for starting it and claim victory when literally anything happens. Just like how they go "Overwatch fans accuse TF2 fans of review bombing game" and the moment you go on the steam page of Overwatch 2, they have infact review bombed it and are very loud and proud out it.

I don't get why a community that needed to get SaveTF2 trending on twitter to get the dev's attention act like review bombing other games is a good thing and those same games going through hard times is a victory. As someone who is a fan of Overwatch ever since it came out, I am upset with how some things went and it is not comforting to know that you laugh at this and think I started the fight you started.

And before anyone sees this and tries to do the classic "This person said something good or not negative about Overwatch, they are defending Blizzard who has rampant sexual harassment cases", fuck off, cus I'm not and Team Overwatch and Blizzard are not the same person. And unless you hold Valve to the same standard with its own controversies, hold your tounge.

[kamenstranger]

Review: The Bullet Train (1975) AKA Shinkansen Daibakuha.

I went back and forth on if I wanted to do this as a bluesky post or a review. I tend to prefer only using tumblr for longer more detailed reviews like Ultra Seven, Black Sun, and Minus One.

But this ended up longer than 300 characters so… here we are.

The basic premise is a train gets wired with a bomb and if the train dips below 80kmph it'll go off. Guy makes demands, cops try to figure out who/how many are involved, things continue to unfold from there. Sound familiar?

Bullet Train is a curious watch in the modern era, mainly in how clichéd it comes off. I don't mean that as an insult, merely an observation. In much the same way Whale's Frankenstein popularized and even originated many tropes of the mad scientist archetype, Bullet Train will be familiar thanks to all the various parodies and homages over the years, even if through more indirect ones i.e. parodies of "Speed." The premise, various plot points and twists; they're all likely to be things you've seen referenced, if not done in other thrillers. That's not a deal breaker per se, but chances are you're going to know some if not most of the twists and contrivances sprung upon the audience due to that pop culture osmosis. You can read a synopsis and immediately have a surface level idea of the film. This leaves The Bullet Train with a bit of an uphill battle when there are so many others that have done similar things. But I think with the right mindset and framing, there's plenty of merits to the film today.

The most obvious of course is the astonishing effects. I was about 40ish minutes into the film wondering as what point they would make more prominent use of the miniatures. There were clearly some used for an explosion scene involving a steam engine, and I was aware there had been a massive 80 foot long model built. But I hadn't realized how much footage was the scale model, and only occasionally inter-cut with wide shots of a real train. Even today the scale stuff looks incredible. The composites and rear projection on the other hand… yeah, they're rough, but that's expected.

The special effects were handled by Shozo Konishi; former TsuPro and Ultraman/Seven designer, Toru Narita; and Gunji Seisakusho. Narita is of course the most well know of the group, but it was Konishi who I see credited for acquiring one of the most advanced pieces of equipment at the time, a snorkel camera, allowing for very up close shots of the models. Star Wars would more famously make use of this 2 years later.

The other big draw is that the film is directed by Junya Sato. He had been doing films at Toei since the early 60s, and in the 70s he started to get bigger pictures, notably 1973's Golgo 13. But it was here when Sato truly entered Block Buster territory and would open up opportunities like The Go Masters and Silk Road. Sato wrote the screenplay along with Ryūnosuke Ono, who you may know as one of the writers on the Crying Freeman OVA series. The result is something that even today feels a bit more unique than you might expect given all the other familiarizes.

One thing that might come as a surprise is that unlike many films following in the same wheelhouse, we don't actually spend all that much time on the train. It's hard to knock them for that given the locked in nature of a rail. Outside a sequence about needing to slow the train down and just missing another train during a rail switch, they kinda spend most of the train's dramatic bits in the first 45 minutes, at least until the last quarter. There are occasional cuts to passengers getting more restless, and the most un-pregnant woman I've ever seen going into labor. But there's little that threatens the speed of the train, which is the far more exciting element. In fact, they actually use one twice, that being the brakes engaging if an external door is opened. You're simply more limited than say a bus in terms of what can stop the movement, so the Train is used as more of a bookend set piece with sporadic check ins.

Instead, the film is primarily a procedural drama about the police solving the case and learning details about the antagonists. We also have a lot of conflict with The National Railway in how disastrous the Police operations are throughout, as well as internal conflict regarding the safety of the passengers vs. cutting their losses. Sophisticated might be too strong a word given the film is still an Action Thriller full of contrivances, but it's certainly less schlocky than other films within the same genre. Think of something more than Airport, but less than The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Bullet Train wants to have nuance and a tiny bit of social critiquing.

This is most true with our primary antagonist, Tetsuo Okita (Ken Takakura) who is by far the best part of the movie. It's never tiring seeing him plan, adapt, and escape multiple times throughout the film. The script treats the character incredibly sympathetically, to the point where you're kinda rooting for him. Part of that is how great Ken Takakura is in the role. Ironically outside Japan the film gets hailed as a Sonny Chiba movie, it even appeared in a compilation by BCI Eclipse. Chiba's great as always and he has a starring role, but make no mistake, Takakura is top billed for a reason. He brings a lot of complexity to Okita, his experience playing a wide range of Yakuza no doubt being a great boon to that end.

Aside from Takakura's performance, there are some elements delving into Japan's economic and environmental disasters of the 70s, the exploitation of rural areas, and allusions to the Zengakuren (which Okita is implied to have been affiliated.) Some of that is likely to missed given the lack of relevance nowadays, but for those aware of the movements and political turmoil of the mid 60s followed by the mid 70s burnout, I think you'll have a better appreciation for what the film is doing with Okita's character.

Conversely, where the film feels most antiquated in a detrimental sense is the heavy reliance on flashbacks and narration to fill in character details. The problem isn't even so much the flashbacks on a base level, but sometimes their placement and their execution feels disconnected from the rest of the film, if not dated even at the time. Rather than appreciating the nuance it's giving to our antagonists and their plight, I'm thinking about how weird the pacing is, how Okita reminiscing about his comrades often lacks the emotional impact it's looking for by just a tiny bit. It wasn't unusual in this era for films made in Japan to be finished just three-four days before release, so it wouldn't shock me if this was a compromise. That being said… I was more invested in these characters than the last movie I watched. Which is kinda depressing, but makes sense the more I think about it.

Something I'm more down on is the run time. The JPN cut of The Bullet Train is surprisingly long, really fucking long. Two and half hours. That's longer than The Shining. By the hour and fifty minute mark, I was starting to notice. If it was 2 hrs. even, maybe 2:15, I think it'd be easier to swallow. For what it's worth, it's hard to imagine the film without its many methodical shots of Okita running through his tasks… but they probably could've shaved a bit off. I've heard there was an even longer 2:40 cut just before release, and if that's true, it's impressive they were able to cut a good 10 minutes out.

All the same, the run time does make it slightly difficult to recommend to just anyone, even Toku fans. I mean this is barely under the umbrella of what I typically cover here. There's plenty of reasons to still watch it of course: The incredible cast, stunning special effects, and being a notable entry in a directors career-- run time be damned. If you're in the right mind set and have an interest in branching outside the typical Kaiju/Kyodai/Kaizo Ningen fare, then I highly suggest it. Maybe even look into the Sanrizuka Struggle to help contextualize the film. For everyone else, the film might come off as a victim of its own formula being so well known and done to death as to instill contempt, not helped by being a tad long in the tooth. But I'd still give it a fair shot if the opportunity arises.

A word of warning, the film is streaming on Tubi, but unfortunately they only have the dubbed version and it looks like garbage. It's not just a bad transfer, it's pixelated as shit. I'm not convinced they didn't badly rip a DVD or possibly a Youtube vid and just shove it on there, which they have done before. Although this one is really weird because it has a Shoreline Entertainment logo, and I can't find any info on them ever being a distributor for any release. All this skeeviness is actually why this is yet another review free of screen grabs, as I watched the very nice Bluray from Discotek and can't rip those.

Tubi also made a shitty Al poster, but I repeat myself. Check out the mysterious third rail, the dropping of "The" from the title, "Sony" Chiba, and the completely wrong train that isn't even a Shinkansen. How embarrassing. Why didn't they just use an official Poster? Unless of course they're not supposed to have it and think Toei might notice. That place is worse than Kissasian while pretending to be legit, I swear.

Speaking of posters, I want to point out the Bluray by Discotek, which brilliantly uses the second release poster "Super Express 109" as the slip cover, and the original "Shinkansen Big Explosion" poster for the case. Love when releases do that. Sadly, committing to a purchase is your best bet if you simply want to check out the film, at least until Mubi or some other niche service picks it up. You can't even rent it digitally. But it is a damn nice release with both versions of the film in gorgeous 2k, new subs, plus a 24 minute interview with Sato. For the UK, Eureka Entertainment did a release with the same transfer and a ton more special features including commentary and several more interviews. So get out there and check out some classic Japanese thriller.

Hopefully you enjoyed taking a look at something different as much as I did. Doing these smaller quicker reviews is nice, and I'm going to see if I can get more done while still doing the deep dives. I've got a few things still in the works, so we'll see what next time brings. Might even do another book review. As always, you can find me on BlueSky and my Ko-Fi here.

[bugtoast]

TSP WRITING PROMPTS BASED OFF THE ENDINGS!!

these are prompts of fics i'd like to see, or fics that I haven't seen be done yet (or both)

Sick of this gag ending

Stanley and Narry both agree that they're sick of this gag, and narry ends up playing his song for stanley like usual, but stanley ends up falling asleep to the song

Whiteboard ending

Stanley finds the whiteboard from the whiteboard ending, picks it and the marker up, and ends up sitting in the middle of the blue office (or even in his office) doodling on it

Press conference ending

Stanley has a panic attack during the press conference and runs off stage. hurt/comfort ensues

confusion ending

but it actually goes the way its meant to go in the game. aka:

Fifth restart

Narrator forgets about previous resets

Stanley attempts to play the story, but is stopped somehow

Unable to go anywhere or do anything

Game restarts on its own

Sixth restart

Find the line again

Find an identical replica of the office that has begun to deteriorate

Attempt to make up a new story there

Narrator restarts the game

Seventh restart

There is no longer an office, just black space

Wander into blackness

Find a book store

Get bored and leave

Narrator restarts game

Eighth restart

Narrator is gone

Stanley dies after a long time

this one has a lot of angst potential >:]

Serious ending

basically, what would the serious ending have looked like if it was in ultra deluxe? what if you could bring the bucket?

Art ending

Stanley has now met the essence of divine art. what now?

Bucketless

What if the bucket was replaced by another item?

Secret disco

what if Stanley and Narry acknowledge the secret disco, and decide to have a small party just for the hell of it?

MINECRAFT ENDING!!!!

Stanley and Narry end up stuck in minecraft after that one time, so now they're forced to forever play minecraft together. antics ensue!!

Bucket destroyed ending

what if the bucket destroyer actually did destroy the bucket? what would happen next?

Elevator ending

what if the elevator that goes nowhere... went somewhere? where would it go? what if it went to where the narrator was?

Escape pod ending

what if Stanley and Narry actually used the escape pod? where would they end up? why would they be escaping?

Flushed away ending /j

NOOO STANLEY DON'T GET FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET AND END UP REINACTING THE PLOT TO THE HIT STOP-MOTION MOVIE 'FLUSHED AWAY' NOOOOOOOOO

Backrooms ending

someone get on this already, I wanna see what would happen if the goofs got themselves stuck in the spooky /lh

SCP ending

THIS TOO!! this would be really fun

Countdown ending

what if Stanley actually can deactivate the bomb? what would happen then?

Freedom ending

what would happen after the freedom ending if the game didn't immediately reset? what would stanley end up doing? would the narrator still be around?

New new content

what if ALL the new new content was added to ultra deluxe? where would the hole be? what about the jim button?

Aperature ending

...TSP but it goes into the portal plotline. what happens? and most importantly; do Chell and Stanley meet and become besties?

"Set stanley free" ending

Stanley is set free from the parable. how?

Memory zone... WITH A TWIST

they don't find the steam reviews and it ends up being a really fluffy domestic situation :]

That one cut ending (i think it was called the warzone ending?)

y'know the one, the one that you get to read about in the museum ending; where the game becomes a fps and the fps game wages war on the Narrator. I wanna see how that happens.

how'd this happen??

suddenly Marriella is the protagonist??? WHAT???

wait... where'd the right door go?

Stanley goes through the right so many times that the Narrator just ends up deleting that entire part of the map.

third door real??

"When Stanley came upon a set of two doors... wait, hold on- Stanley, why are there three doors here? I didn't put that door there."

aka: there's a third door now!! where does it lead?

Stanley Parable; in search of coworkers

Stanley finds his coworkers! but the narrator is gone... now what? does everything go back to normal now?

Stanley and Narrator watch Rick and Morty ending

"he turned himself into a pickle, stanley! funniest shit I've ever seen."

Make up your own original ending!

I'm curious to see what the community can do if they end up making their own endings!

--

as I think of more prompts, i'll add onto this post!

[dlamp-dictator]

Oh right, one more quick thing while I'm here, completely forgot to talk about before I ran morning errands, didn't mean to forget but I just didn't want it clog up the Quick Thoughts when I mention that Project Moon once again can't stay out of the negative spotlight for five goddamn minutes.

Short version of this: I'm done. I tried sticking around after the official apology went off, but I'm done now.

Long Version? Well... unfortunately I can't make a gag about a necromancer this time to lighten mood since Project Moon decided to cut the middleman and just do the dark blood rituals themselves.

Okay, so for those new to the blog, hello, I'm Allen X/dlamp, I sometimes make posts and analysis of things I like, usually whatever gacha game has me by the balls that year, and I usually don't write moral/current event posts like this unless they are relevant to the previously mentioned game that has me by the balls. With that said... Limbus Company's... well, company Project Moon has been going through a conga line bad press, review bombs, and making so many bad decisions in terms of their business that it's almost impossible to discuss the game or the company without some sort of new controversy/bad decision happening.

But you know what, I think everything can be summarized with this one meme post.

Okay, I'm being a dick here, but the shortest summary I can give is that after an artist was either fired or stepped down depending on the source you believe Project Moon, the company that made Limbus Company had to suffer a number of fires and negative press from the act. The reasons for the firing/stepping down was right around Limbus Company's summer event when there was a vocal group of people not happy about how some of the new IDs looks to put it mildly. From there it's been fire after fire of something new springing up from other artists speaking out against the apparent bad working conditions at Project Moon, to certain parties and translation groups not being paid properly, to some translators quitting due to online harassment, the list goes on and can be tracked by people more involved than me. The point is, a lot of this company's dirty laundry was being aired out and Project Moon was losing cash and profits at record-breaking speeds. After a few months of this they finally gave a public announcement and apology for their multiple faux pas and made a promise to better and even go into legal action on those that continue to spread rumors, lies, and negative press on them.

They are now trying to file a lawsuit on the protest groups and unions that gave them negative press.

That's basically the sum of it all. But combining all of the other bad press Project Moon has gotten as a company this move sure as hell feels like Canto 5's drop would be the perfect smokescreen to push for lawsuits between a protest group and several union heads that investigated them months ago with few people complaining as people notice their latest game climbing to the top twenty of most played this week on Steam.

This has also semi-split the fandom somewhat into two sides, at least among those that know about this happening in the first place: those that agree with Project Moon's actions and don't agree with the action.

The general idea behind the lawsuit is twofold, making good on their mildly vague threat a few months ago in their apology post and trying to silence some of the key groups that hindered their profits and gain reparations. That's really the long and short of it and most people are either okay with that or not.

I do not.

I think it would had been a smarter move to Project Moon to just release Canto 5, shut their fucking mouths, enjoy all the new business it was getting, and move the fuck on. I'm not knowledgeable enough in South Korean law understand this, but I know this isn't the sort of move made by a company or company head that just wants to go back to making money with their semi-new lease on life after their little controversy was somewhat over. This is the move of a company that's hungry for revenge and can't leave well enough alone.

Like, goddamn, I'm trying to not care about it, I was just about to go to Sam Club this morning to buy a $50 steam card and splurge a little on some of the weekly packs until that story dropped. Why can't this company not be an asshole for at least three months.

And folks, I'm not trying to play some moral high ground here. I've already discussed why that's pointless on this hell site that doesn't care about morality. But I also know a shitty school bully kicking sand in someone's face when I see it, and take that from someone who has a job watching little kids in school. Project Moon essentially is wanting to play the bully after a kid tattled on them for pulling someone's hair instead just... playing somewhere else.

And look, I know the other side of this, the one that says Project Moon has a right to sue these folks for defamation and get some of their missing profit back, but... My god, that sounds way too petty for me to even entertain. That's just revenge, and if Canto 5 is telling us anything given Ishmael's self-destructive state... well... I think I know where this company's gonna' end up, and unlike Ish they don't have a magic clock person to rewind their mistake.

With all that said, this is unfortunately gonna' be the last time I talk about Limbus Company and Project Moon titles as a whole for long while. Until their current CEO steps down, if they step down. I just don't wanna' get involved in a series where the tag and the fanbase will split every time this company does a Bad™.

On the plus side, that means I'll be going back to Arknights soon since I won't have to fight between two different gacha games, so maybe expect more content on that soon. Hopefully I can rush through Lone Trail and get Silence Alter.

[totalleeawesome]

Develop Blog: Market Yourself, Not Just Your Game

How many of you love marketing? I'm near-sighted, but I'm sure I wouldn't see many hands raised. From my experience trying and failing to get my game known, I've asked endless questions, perused multiple marketing discords, and even got a question answered by Chris Z. himself. Yet I can never shake this anxiety I feel whenever I make a twitter post. I have no blue check mark so I already know that me going viral is unlikely. I've accepted that my my page will take years to bear followers. But sticking to it isn't a matter of discipline, it's a matter of overcoming my fears of rejection.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of making my first game the magnum opus. I don't have experience releasing anything outside of jam projects, nor do I know what it's like to get review-bombed on Steam. I have never learned how to deal with fans telling me how to write, I've never encountered trolls telling me to off myself, all I've encountered is a lack of notifications after a post went live. Part of me is grateful that I get minimal feedback. It means that I don't need to worry about growing a fandom that rivals the toxicity of Undertale. I don't need to worry about disappointing people because I skipped out on my blog this weekend. It's as if a lack of progress rewards me more than progress. Or more likely, it's my anxiety keeping me locked in a gilded birdcage.

How many of you look forward to posting on Reddit, making a tiktok video, or updating your discord? Tell me your secrets, because I'd much rather be writing my game's script than researching strategies on TikTok. Dopamine is one hell of a drug, and I get more of it by writing than appeasing consumers. I know a lot of people that'd prefer to pass it off to a PR agent and let them play with it. After all, they're the ones reading the bad reviews. Now if only most of them didn't cost an arm and a leg for us indies.

Sadly I don't have the silver bullet to get me or you all out of this rut. As much as marketing is research oriented, it's mostly doing. I call it a progressive craft, where you'll get better at it the more you throw yourself to the mercy of Reddit mods. Not only that, the best marketers will share their content to the point where it might annoy people. Think about all of those Youtube ads. I can recall Shick Hydra, the Lending Club, Old Spice, and all those brands marketed by corny actors four years ago. We all know what Genshin Impact is due to its pension for shoving anime girls in our faces. Chris Z. himself will tell you that the more you talk about your product, the more people will learn about it. Love it or hate it, it'll improve your odds of having someone visit your steam page. It sounds manipulative and underhanded, and that's because it is. Why do you think so many communities lose their minds at the slightest hint of self-promotion? Because everyone has a product to exhibit.

But how the hell could you, let alone myself, go through with doing something so corporate? Do we have to become those guys who get routinely banned by mods? Of course not, and I wouldn't advocate for you spamming your brand. Marketing isn't just promoting your brand, it's also about promoting YOU! Something interesting about being a respected member of a community is that you can get away with self-promotion a lot more than someone who isn't. It's almost as if people have come to like you, so they check out your page and wish list your game. And the craziest part about this is that you don't need a rigid schedule to market yourself unlike your game. You can be like me when I go into a Visual Novel discord, gush about my favorite waifu for ten minutes, then bounce. This helps me stay motivated with playing visual novels, and the mods see me as active so they're more likely to allow me to self-promote. Of course this is based on social media with forum mods and communities, but being active on Twitter, Tiktok, and Itch goes a long way as well. Because when you comment on someone's video, that person might be tempted to look at your profile out of appreciation. And if your steam page is listed in the bio, they just got hit with a call to action. People, especially newer profiles, adore any form of feedback. I'd know, I do a happy dance every time I get a comment on my post. Yes you read right, a sincere comment on a tiktok video indirectly markets your game. Your character can be just as profound as a flashy trailer. So is marketing still as scary?

Dale Carnegie, author of How To Win Friends And Influence People, refers to this as marketing for other people. Mods want an active community, so being an active member might make them more interested in working with you. Indie developers love feedback, so giving them what they want might encourage them to reciprocate what you want. One example from my past experiences is when I offered to be a beta tester for one of my colleagues. I had been following her for seven years. We were the same, both new developers struggling to make their big debut. So I played her demos, interacted on her twitter posts, and gave honest and constructive feedback from my beta tests. Was I working in the mindset of what I want? I'd be lying if I said no, but my priority was to help this indie developer release her first game. Later on, I ran into a conundrum where I needed to commission someone to help with capsule art for my steam page. Now pause and take a guess at what this developer told me when I asked her for some tips. If you guessed, "I'll help you arrange the capsules free of charge", then pat yourself on the back. But this transaction went both ways. Now, I'm a fan and will purchase future games out of appreciation. And the cycle MIGHT come around and she reciprocates. I capitalized the word "might" to emphasize something I want everyone to be aware of; to be sincere from start to end, whether or not you like the results. I'm not looking to train manipulators, and people can sense flattery through a computer screen.

Since that last example wasn't directly marketing related, another example involves these blogs. When I first started posting them to Reddit, I got a mixture of downvotes, no activity, and my post deleted by the mods. It made me want to hide and never blog again, but it also showed me that posting a small summary followed by a link probably rubs people the wrong way. My goal with these blogs, aside from keeping my demons at bay, is to spread awareness of my itch page. So what did I do? I included the entire blog in the initial post, with an optional call-to-action at the bottom to follow my itch. Then my next post got a lot of feedback. None got banned, people commented with thanks or criticisms, and I got to learn some valuable insights about how to make my blogs better. I wasn't seen as some other spammer, I was perceived as engaging the community. Well I hope I was…

I hope that this blog post inspired you as much as it inspired me. If you're as introverted as me, you'd much rather live under a rock and only come out when your masterpiece is complete. It's almost as if the difficult hobby that's game design teaches us bad habits. But in the end, it's a necessary part of the process. Baldur's Gate 3 would've been a flash in the pan had it not been for the devs not shutting up about it. However those developers did more than just post pictures of the women you could romance. They interacted with consumers and other developers, so much so that their game got fully funded on Kickstarter. Imagine someone willing to pay for your game's development for you! Us indie developers are underdogs by default up against the hill that is finishing our products. Be thoughtful and compassionate with others, and you just might have a helping hand up the slope.

If you enjoyed this blog, please leave a comment down below and tell me how awesome I am. If you'd like to support me, follow my itch.io OR play my prototype here https://totalleeaweaomw.itch.io/philistine. Let's become better developers together!

[miloscat]

[Review] Butterflies: Episode 1-3 (PC)

They understand the concept of love.

After Bomb Rush Cyberfunk wowed me, I wanted to take a second look at this even more indie project memorialising Jet Set Radio. I've played Episode 1 (and some pre-release demos) before but since then, French lead dev Le Capitaine and their Le Crew have finalised Episodes 2 and 3, and published them to Steam as a bundle. Supposedly it's still to be continued but for now the team is hard at work on an F-Zero homage. Hopefully they come back and keep expanding this because what's there so far is really good!

Rather than using JSRF as a jumping off point for gameplay, Butterflies seems to prefer refining what the original JSR was doing. This means a more realistic sense of inertia, and managing the momentum of your crew of inline-skating delinquents. The dash button is there to pick up speed on the ground and grinding rails is not effortless. It's clearly set on improving the clunky play control of the Dreamcast game though, and the result is fast, technical, and satisfying... when you've put some time into mastering it.

To get you there is a low-pressure kind of game design with a set of missions that populate the large levels. You can roam around, tackling them and finding tag spots as you please without a timer ticking down, which on its own is a big step up from JSR for me. These tasks are usually races that pass through checkpoints or specific line runs that require keeping a combo going—some in Episode 1 are particularly strict—while Episode 3 adds in extra graffiti challenges. Going through the checklist is a nice way of showing off these urban sandbox levels as you hunt for write spots or (as of Episode 2 onwards) collectible music tracks.

Each episode has one map to itself while advancing the overall story. The first two are hilly suburban areas, with a bit of industrial in E1, and E3 features a sprawling inner-city area connected by train tracks. Powerlines to grind on and the ability to wallgrind on almost any wall if you have enough speed help you traverse the high degree of verticality built into these zones. The first two episodes have an interesting grungy, sketchy look while the third revamps things with more colour and shiny detail. Populating the maps are your typical low-poly NPCs (I spotted some modelled on Lammy and Parappa!) as well as bear-hugging cops, flying police drones, and zap-projectile-slinging cameras: as of E3, these can all be dealt with by a quick application of spray paint (which by the way is unlimited).

The story is handled a bit more seriously than in some other street punk simulators. In this near-future world, a Japanese city has seceded and is now run as an independent autocracy by one General Sakamoto, and by the end of E3 the rebellious Nat and her growing Butterflies crew are gearing up to rise above petty rudie squabbles and vandalism to really fight back against the fascism. The inclusion of real-world cultures and concerns keeps the tone grounded, like when one of your teammates Jae (who tags in Hangeul) comments on the treatment of Korean immigrants; another, Zinnie, wears a hijab and interjects in Arabic, while Rin is a trans girl and you follow her journey of self-discovery in dialogue which I thought was handled pretty well.

On top of their characterisation in cutscene dialogue, these touchstones make the characters deeper and more relatable, more than just a cool cel-shaded character design. They also for the most part have clear strengths in their stat distributions; I favoured speed specialist Zinnie for getting around. Each one has distinct graffiti designs (they all get a refresh in E3 as well) that, while simple, usually include their name (in katakana) and tell you something about their personality. Writing involves a three-stage timing-based minigame so everyone has three unique designs, although you might find you end up with the simplest "bare minimum" one all over just to save time with the ~200 spots per map.

Since Butterflies has been released episodically over five years, it's interesting to watch as the new instalments make changes and become more polished. It's still rough around the edges even as of E3 but solid enough, and this release structure gives me hope that even more refinements will be implemented going forward (a better in-game map would be nice!). Either way, I've enjoyed what's there so far, and it's refreshing that multiple projects have been springing up in this vein while having their own character: in this case a little bit subdued, down to earth, but it's got heart.

[good-prog]

ff8 review

Main campaign date: 2023/02/17-02/27 Playtime (in game) to roll credits: 30 hrs (No Steam playtime this time; artificially inflated that metric by accidentally leaving the launcher open after closing the game.)

I think the best I can say is that Final Fantasy 8 was okay, I guess? I'm probably not part of the target audience, though I imagine the story and characters would have resonated as a teenager [redacted] years ago. Once I figured out it wasn't for me, I just sat back and tried to enjoy what I could. The stakes that the party faces throughout the story are on par with what it feels like to be a young person. The only difference is that in their world, that those crises are truly life threatening or world ending, intensified by the struggles of school, relationships, and lack of guidance from adults in the face of those challenges.

Spoiler warning for all aspects of the game.

characters/story

Despite the drama of the opening cutscene and duel between Squall and Seifer, the game started off relatively slow compared to most other FF titles. The first hour showed off the school setting and encouraged the player to read way too much tutorial text.

Initially, the Garden students in the party felt pretty interchangeable due to their lack of character development and similar character design. This issue was further exacerbated by the junction switch function, which allowed all magic and GFs junctioned to be immediately swapped with another character's. Their similarly rectangular character designs didn't help either. (I understand that they were going for realism--hence the lack of deformed character sprites--and you can hand wave their shared social background, but it's pretty bland nonetheless?) Throughout the story each party member did have their stand out moments, though they were sparse. For example, Irvine starts out as a flirty and somewhat un-serious sniper. He chokes during the assassination attempt on Edea, but his hesitance (and familiarity with the female members of the party) gets clarified during the GF memory loss reveal at the start of disk 3.

I felt a bit uncomfortable at some points with how violent the society depicted in FF8 was. Sure, the age of majority might be younger in their society, but they're also being raised as child soldiers? And yet, Edea (while possessed by Ultimecia) manages to order a missile bombing on an entire school of these children (and pit two such schools against each other--putting cadets/actual children at risk!), without any sort of objection from society at large or the schools themselves. A common comment I made through the first two disks was "do they not teach critical thinking at this school?" I guess one could argue for the main party being trained as unquestioning mercenaries, but I don't think their goal to become leaders because of the "fate" Cid envisioned for them was particularly compelling.

Side note on Cid: he keeps urging the party along, but seems to think that his prior preparation by creating Balamb Garden and training them is sufficient; surely he could have taken a more active advisory role along the way besides just throwing Squall into his position.

on Squall's char arc: I liked the asides and getting to hear his thoughts, as well as the option of different dialogue options (though they ultimately did not impact the story). He starts off being incredibly introverted, likely due to his traumatic childhood, but learns to become a leader that relies on others for help, on top of developing a romance with Rinoa, ultimately becoming her knight and promising to keep her in check should she lose control of her powers.

Seifer: Like the rest of the cast, his personality doesn't seem to change much from his childhood to the present. (could attribute to childhood trauma, I guess) Maybe I was lucky with my junctions, but he was a pushover every time the party faced him, rather than a true rival. (Well, it was a 3 v 1 battle, so…) I found it interesting that he recovers his memories of the orphanage around the same time the party does (either told by Edea/Ultimecia, or managed to do it in a different way). Nice that he, too, gets a happy ending (fishing with his buddies, Fujin and Raijin)—but doesn't get much redemption, either.

Laguna and his friends/comrades Kiros and Ward were an interesting diversion from the main plot, giving hints of the world's historical geopolitics to the player as well as context for when the player revisits those locations in the present. He seems to perpetually fail upward, and despite becoming the leader of the most powerful, technologically advanced nation on the planet, still puts the responsibility of defeating Ultimecia on Squall's party, though he sends them off with some encouragement about the power of friendship.

Ellone seemed to be more of a plot device than an actual character. She was a perpetual damsel in distress; Laguna, then Cid and Edea, then Squall were constantly chasing after her to ensure her safety, with the party only hearing about her in relation to other people. She initially sends Squall into Laguna's consciousness in a fruitless attempt to give her adoptive mother, Raine, a better death (or prevent it altogether). She also inadvertently helps Laguna and friends via infusion of Squall's power. She finally understands that she can't change the past, though she can (by proxy) experience it for herself.

plot/story?

The reveal that GF use causes memory loss seemed too convenient, but in the context of the game's outlandish plot, not unrealistic? Regardless, Irvine staying silent about it for an entire disk seemed odd; you'd think he'd at least make a comment about Edea/Matron during the assassination beyond just chickening out.

Time compression: I guess it works? It taps into some primal fear of time passing/memory loss/eventual death, and subsequently being forgotten. Even if the delivery was haphazard at times, I feel like some of the themes definitely resonated with me, particularly with respect to memory loss.

I feel like some of my peers fear getting older. A friend talked about traveling to Korea for leisure (but also to get plastic surgery). There's anything inherently wrong with wanting to look or feel younger or healthier or more like oneself; it's just that there's some denial embedded in it all. My own parents, too, talk about their own mortality, especially since their peers are getting old and sick and dying; those things are a guarantee—"when it's too late". We arguably don't know how to talk to each other in the present—their most common sentence starter is "remember when-?" as if I would remember the way I was as a child.

Beyond natural decay, in undergrad I dealt with poor mental health, and large parts of that time of my life are just gone. It's been several years, and I've healed from it enough to forget my own forgetfulness. Even now, I sometimes thumb through old journal entries going "oh, I guess that happened." (Potential knowledge gaps with respect to my professional career aside, I'm disappointed that I forgot the good times that I had and the friendships I made amidst everything going on.)

I don't really have an answer to these things beyond "oh, it just is what it is." The quite cliche'd sayings about living in the present are probably right, after all. The best I—and FF8's party—can do is to be confident about oneself in the here and now and keep moving forward.

gameplay

I didn't really mesh with the gameplay, either. Because of the game's reputation and my own miserly RPG-playing tendencies, I was afraid to level or spend magic unless absolutely necessary (e.g., for healing/recovery, and even GF abilities replaced those over time). I stuck to drawing from and carding enemies, refining the materials from cards, and junctioning that magic to stats. However, I was hesitant to refine materials, in case they became useful for weapon upgrades, or in case I got better refinement abilities (e.g., maybe I could use a wizard stone for Curaga instead of Firaga). I know that the "proper" way to amass magic for junctioning is farming Triple Triad, but I only played a couple games before deciding to do it the more grindy way. (I've played my share of Triple Triad in FF14, but I'm honestly not that big of a fan.)

Early in the game, I found that GF spam was quite effective, since it did significantly more damage than the party's attacks. For example, while escaping from X-ATM092 during the SeeD exam, the party had to do about 1.5k damage each time—doable with about 3 GF summons but much longer with standard attacks that did double-digit damage. After the party had improved stats, though, I didn't feel like sitting through the entire GF animation each time and instead favored standard physical attacks.

Until disk 3, I carded/drew from enemies as convenient, but I didn't go out of the way to farm. Boss battles dragged on a bit, but with decent junctions (e.g., sleep to ST-Atk-J on human enemies) nothing was too challenging. I was a bit worried about my subpar gameplay going into the endgame, though. After obtaining the Ragnarok, I spent an hour hopping around the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell mindlessly drawing spells for stat upgrades. I also farmed cactuars for AP to max out all of my GFs' abilities.

My endgame build involved junctioning triple (one of the higher, but not the highest stat modifier) to each of my character's Str stats and using the standard physical attack each turn. Since there are only 2 GFs that naturally learn Str-J, I overwrote a third's Magic ability with the same so that all three characters could benefit. For bosses, my strategy was casting meltdown to increase the potency of physical attacks, then using the two other characters in the party as support for Squall's LB spam (keeping everyone healed/buffed and Squall buffed with Aura, attacking normally when it was safe to do so).

One of my gameplay highlights occurred while trying to get Bahamut as a GF. I didn't think to buff everyone with shell, so after a nasty megaflare, only Squall was left standing. Angelo was the MVP, though: he revived Rinoa, and the next turn used wishing star (dealing almost 80k damage!) to defeat the boss. (That was the first and last time I've seen him use that limit break; the party needs to be practically dead for that to occur.)

Ultimecia's Castle was definitely a highlight as well. I liked how it sealed off all abilities (besides the standard attack) to start, and defeating each boss enabled the party to unlock one new ability. In between each boss were little puzzles that involved both the main and secondary parties. Even if my main strategy was standard attack spam, I had to think a bit more about junctioning beyond using the "Auto" junction function. For example, one of the bosses attacks with high level thunder magic; by junctioning lightning to Elem-Def-J, those attacks could be minimized (or even used to heal). For the final boss fight, I managed to die to Griever's Shockwave Pulsar a couple times before playing it super safe and keeping all the characters topped off and shelled.

music highlights

FF8 has my favorite soundtrack of the FF games I've played so far, likely because of its use in the FF14 Eden raids. (When I first set foot outside Balamb Garden and heard "Blue Fields", I was transported back to The Empty. Similarly, when I heard Don't Be Afraid, my first reaction was "oh, that's Cloud of Darkness!") The Eden's Promise tier was where I learned to raid and also where I made most of the friends I play and raid with now, so I have a lot of fond memories associated with the music.

misc

In addition to the music, I had a couple "Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme" moments while playing the game. Voidwalker (E2) is reminiscent of Adel's fight, where Sorceress Adel junctions Rinoa, physically connecting her to her chest and siphoning hp from her each turn. As referenced in FF14's Oracle of Darkness fight, Ultimecia casts Hell's Judgement (reducing party HP to 1) as her opening move in her final form. An astute Twitter user also pointed out parallels in the ending cutscenes.

Side note: I appreciate how various fan translations of Ultimecia's speeches further elaborate on how Griever was created, as well as her motives.

conclusion/next steps

There's a lot of creativity that can go into the junction/magic system and "break" the game. For example, once Rinoa becomes a sorceress, she gains "Angel Wing" as a limit break, which is effectively a berserk magic form that has her cast offensive spells from her inventory repeatedly without depleting those stocks. So, should she only have Ultima and Meteor stocked, the AI will favor Meteor (the "weaker" spell), allowing her to do ridiculous amounts of multi-hit damage every turn. I certainly know more for a second playthrough, but I don't think I'd want to play through again anytime soon.

I'll probably just uninstall for now; with my current stats, I don't think I'll have a fruitful time tackling the Ultima or Omega weapons. Plus, if I want to play Triple Triad (with better QOL) I can always do that in FF14. I'm glad I got to experience the game, though, and draw my own conclusions about the story.