#and saying he deserved to win over these women who have taken years and 100’s upon 100’s of hours crafting and honing multiple different

[dyna-myght]

Girlfriend sent me some of the cosplay contest drama from NYCC and I’m still like laughing that people really thought that one guy was gonna win or even place when like it doesn’t even take that long to look at it and be like. That’s just foam glued together 😭😭😭.

[lowkeysebastianstan]

okay, so about bucky

i’m sure someone has already posted about this, but wtf. i’ll add my 3 cents.

everyone is talking about how steve earned this, how he was a man out of time, how he deserved to go back and live the life he should have had, which, you know, besides flying against everything we’ve learned about steve through the movies, raises the question; and bucky doesn’t?

steve rogers is a man out of time, yes, but steve rogers also did what lead him there completely voluntary. he enlisted, he accepted the serum, he dove headfirst into battle (motivated by bucky, huh) he even crashed the plane of his own volition. did he know what would happen? no, of course not. but still. he did all that, and apart from the plane he had plenty of chances to turn back. but he didn’t want to, that’s not who he is was (thanks @russos). as long as he could help, no matter how, he would always do so. 

but bucky? the canon says he was drafted, he openly admitted he only stayed in europe for steve, and after that... bucky barnes was captured and experimented on, tortured to the brink of insanity, and he chose to stay with his buddy to help fight those that did that to him, he fought bravely, and he made the ultimate sacrifice without knowing that he did. when he entered that train he didn’t know he’d accepted death, not like steve, who knew he was done. 

but, just like steve, he didn’t die, did he. no, he spent 70 years as a pow, being abused and torrured, forced to do the most heinous of acts, the was stripped of his autonomy, his body and mind and he never had a choice.

and finally he was saved. by steve. he was found. by steve. he started to heal. with steves help. and he died again, but that’s by the bye. true, he has people beside steve now, he has sam, he has t’challa and shuri, and- yeah, i guess that’s kinda it, isn’t it.

and then steve just tells him, “hey, buck, buddy, imma pop back and force myself into peggys life, and leave you stranded here with all of these close friends you have now, one of which you’ve must have known for, idk 2 years at the most, and spent maybe a few weeks with bc he was busy following me around saving the world while you were herding goats in wakanda. i mean, i could have taken you with me, but im not gonna, bc i deserve to have a happy ending, you don’t. i am america’s ass after all, you’re just an asshole and a chump.”

he could have brought him along, but i guess bucky would much rather stay with these people who he’s spent all this time bonding with and made into his new family and- oh wait. that was st- ah. nvm.

bc idk. maybe bucky would’ve taken the offer his best bro could have proposed in a different reality. to go back with steve, to see his family, see his sister(s) grow up, to reconnect with his friends, maybe they’ll come back after the war, maybe he could spend time with the commandoes, maybe connie is around still, maybe she’s set to have a great life with someone else and he can do what is considered noble and just nowadays, so who cares, he can surely win her over, just reinsert himself into her life, or if not there must be enough dames to go around, bc he’s bucky barnes, straight as an arrow, and women is his game, maybe he can go around with steve, saving himself, bc apparently that’s something ppl are convinced steve does, or more likely, just kill himself and make sure that steve stays lost and frozen after they’ve popped by to pick up the shield. bc i know in this universe time travel doesn’t impact anything. and then, after maybe going to the different timelines with steve, (idk how it works, i always assumed that since his cells regenerate so fast, the serum maybe caused some longevity, and steve must be more that just 90-100 yrs old when he comes back, so what the hell was he doing? im probably wrong though, surely the filmmakers are incapable of making such a rookie mistake.) maybe he’ll also grow old, maybe he can die in peace, but not alone, he’ll be surrounded by his- someone. 

but i guess he doesn’t deserve that, he’s not earned it. he only risked himself to stop the threat of the other soldiers, to go back to his hell to face them, he took up the call to battle without question when t’challa came, even if he was weary, so weary, just barely starting to heal, and no. it doesn’t compare to what steve’s done, of course not, because he’s not a hero, he’s a villain, he must be punished for all those atrocities ha committed, willingly and purposefully i guess. and it’s not like they were that close anyway.

okay, fuck me i just can’t seem to shut up can i? anyways i just thought i’d put that out there. 

[doktorpeace]

Top 5 Games Of The Year #4

Yakuza 0 is a pretty special game both individually and as a part of its franchise. It’s the first time Yakuza has taken a step backwards chronologically, in order to better explore already established characters and what led them to the events of the first game. It gets a lot of praise already and I’m just here to heap a little more onto the pile because it well deserves it. Although the series at this point is no stranger to having multiple protagonists and Majima has technically been playable before the special feeling Yakuza 0 elicits by having two protagonists wasn’t really lost for it. Compared to the four in Yakuza 4, or the frankly over padded five protagonists in Yakuza 5, taking a step down to just two and placing an almost equal emphasis on each really does the game’s narrative and pacing wonders. Yakuza 0′s story is really good it is an excellent crime drama and among the best main plots the series has to offer. While some might argue other entries, usually 2 or 4, can stand up alongside it I feel 0′s has an edge in some areas. Largely in terms of pace, ambition, and intrigue. For instance, 2 doesn’t really mess around with plot twists, the entire game basically waves a giant flag over Ryuji saying he’s the final boss and the whole plot exists basically just to get to his and Kiryu’s legendary fight. And that’s fine, it doesn’t try to be more than it needs to be and that’s okay. 4 meanwhile has more intrigue and some good twists in there but its pace is much poorer in my opinion. Your mileage may vary on the bullets plot twist, too. 0 has some legitimate plot twists and it does a great job getting players engaged and interested in what’s going to happen next. To get back to 0 though, it doesn’t sacrifice characterization to achieve the quality of its plot either, far from it. It’s the first time we’ve seen a young, hot blooded, and frankly really stupid Kiryu. Kiryu’s never a smart guy but getting to see how he handles situations and behaves before 10 years in prison and subsequent stories smooth his edges and temper his personality is really a treat for fans of the character and newcomers alike. He’s fun, relatable, serious when he needs to be, and most importantly he’s still perfectly recognizable as Kiryu. He is still absolutely that amazing protagonist that you know and love, he’s just young, dumb, and full of.....well you know. On the other hand Majima is almost unrecognizable in this game, being calm, well dressed, a charismatic and professional showman, dissuading others from fighting, all while being openly depressed to boot. This take on Majima still feels fitting because the way he phrases himself is familiar, his gut reactions feel right for the characters, and ultimately this game contextualizes not just his transformation into the Mad Dog of Shimano fans know him as later but many of his actions through the rest of the series. Just ignore how his story here and how he’s written in Yakuza 5 violently contradict one another. We can all just pretend Y5′s Majima writing isn’t canon. The strength of characterization extends to the game’s side characters too, including ones who alongside Majima and Kiryu return from the main series. Nishiki, Kashiwagi, the Lieutenants, Tachibana, Lee, and more are all memorable and great characters. Just, uhh, don’t expect many women in the main plot is all. I don’t want to talk too in depth about the game’s story so as to avoid spoiling anything but it really is a treat. The script takes advantage of player’s expectations in a meta sense, that ultimately this will be Kiryu’s game because, well, Yakuza 4 and 5 were Kiryu’s games in spite of the other protagonists. Those guys all got good, moving stories too and they are all well worth experiencing and having around but ultimately Kiryu is still the most important guy on the block. Not so, here, as by the halfway point of the game players might notice that Majima’s ‘half’ of the game, his half of the game’s chapters, are quite a bit longer than Kiryu’s. Majima has a lot more legwork to do in the story because it is his story, and while Kiryu gets the true final boss fight and is very important to the events at hand as well it’s really Majima who’s the star here. This game is an excuse to explore his character and it does not beat around the bush on that intention. If you are a fan of this franchise you really do have to experience this story. All too often prequel games just end up softening or weakening the existing narratives they’re trying to pay homage to or trying to strengthen but Yakuza 0 expertly dodges that bullet by never missing a beat in terms of quality relative to standard Yakuza entires. My only real issue with the story, honestly, is that Makoto is about as much of a McGuffin as she is a person. The game does take time to develop her both directly and indirectly but ultimately she spends about as much time just being a plot device to be ferried around by one man or another as she does getting to talk and do things.  The gameplay is very refined compared to other games in the seires, I would argue it’s tighter and more fun than Yakuza 6′s, even, if only due to the sheer variety of Heat Actions (effectively super moves; ranging from the silly to the bombastic to the brutal to a handful that made me shout ‘HOLY SHIT HE DIDN’T DESERVE THAT!!!’ at my TV) present in 0. If you like beat ‘em ups you’ll like Yakuza’s playstyle; each character gets 4 fighting styles earning three through the story and a fourth through side content. The fourth fighting style for each one is essentially a bonus, letting them fight in their ‘iconic’ styles, Dragon and Mad Dog respectively. To be honest they’re both underwhelming, Mad Dog is maybe Majima’s weakest fighting style and Dragon, while strong, requires a lot more heat than what it naturally builds to stay competent. The fighting styles are still fun though, they add plenty of new and unique options to each character to justify getting them, they’re just not going to win you the game for free or anything. Of the character’s main fighting styles the only real issue I have is the disparity in strength between them, both internally and between each other. No mincing words here, Majima is obscenely overpowered compared to Kiryu. Breaker Style annihilates every challenge in the game with next to no effort besides Mr. Shakedown fights, which aren’t really fun anyway. That said Slugger easily bashes in Mr. Shakedown and even Jo Amon. Majima will breeze through all of his content even on higher difficulties. Comparatively Kiryu can have a pretty rough time in some fights. This is due in part by his fighting styles being really well balanced internally, they’re all useful and thus the player may actually feel like swapping between them mid battle or between encounters. Kiryu not really having an overwhelming option generally means he can be very expressive, my fiancé and I played him very differently for instance on our runs. Whether you most enjoy his fast, invulnerability frame heavy, dash cancelling Rush style which takes a very high amount of investment to become good but I would argue is maybe his best style once you get it there, his brutish item swinging, semi-grappler Beast style which absolutely decimates indoors fights, or the more well rounded, heat action heavy Brawler Kiryu’s got something for everyone. Each of his styles also get a great variety of unique heat actions, all three to environmental cues, and Beast and Brawler to equip-able and overworld items. While Majima’s fighting style are also expressive and a ton of fun to use they just feel too safe and too easy compared to Kiryu. He gets absolutely stellar results and gets them quickly for extremely little effort in the ridiculously fast, low profile attacks of Breaker. Not to say Breaker isn’t fun, because it is, breakdancing to beat people up is hilarious and fun and its heat actions are flavorful to boot, it’s just really overpowered is all. After some investment his Ballerina With A Baseball Bat fighting style, Slugger, also becomes nigh impossible to challenge for the AI thanks to it losing its primary weakness of the bat bouncing off of walls it hits after you put only moderate investment into it. While the least varied of Majima’s styles in terms of heat actions, Slugger is great fun if you ever wanted a proper weapon based fighting style in Yakuza. It feels like what Shinada should have played like. Majima’s starting style, Thug, is a fun grappling and street brawling style that requires a lot of precision to use well and is very well suited to one on one fights should the player be so inclined to not opt for his better options. It makes use of baroque kicks, eye pokes, strangles, and back turns. It’s also Majima’s only style that can make use of non-baseball bat items for heat actions as well as most of his environmental heat actions, and Majima has some GREAT heat actions under these conditions, helping Thug keep a niche compared to the other styles. Honestly, if you like Tekken you’ll probably like Thug. These great fighting styles would be pointless if the game didn’t have fun enemies and situations to pit you against and thankfully it does. Its ‘dungeons’ are a lot of fun and some of the boss fights really stand out. Thanks to the sheer myriad of context based Heat Actions even just fighting the random mooks in the street stays fun for dozens of hours as you experiment to see how you can fuck up some chumps today. It’s deeply gratifying and a lot of fun. While the optional Mr. Shakedown fights are a chore, they are all optional besides the first one so there’s no real reason to bother with them unless you’re doing a 100% substory completion run or REALLY need to grind money in a game where money is already free. Some of the boss fights are a bit mediocre, too, but overall they’re good fun. I do think Yakuza 0 is at its strongest though when it’s making the player fight room after room of enemies, dozens at a time, and just letting them feel like an absolute champion while doing so, really letting them revel in just how strong and cool Majima and Kiryu are. Yakuza 0′s side content is both one of its greatest strengths and in my opinion an area where it shows the most weakness. While Pocket Circuit, Karaoke, Cabaret Club, and the Sub-Stories are absolutely excellent and I truly cannot stress enough how fun they are the game also has a myriad of seemingly half baked minigames based off of real life activities for you to do, a lot of which have unnecessary RNG. Even Bowling has RNG...BOWLING, come on! The Pool, Darts, Bowling, Catfight Club, and other such minigames feel very rushed in execution and for all but the last of those feel like poor simulations compared to other games I have played. Catfight Club is just a really, really, shameless and sexist ‘Watch almost naked women ‘’’’wrestle’’’’’. Also, opposite Majima’s deeply flavorful, engaging, well written, and fun club management minigame Club Sunshine, the aforementioned cabaret club, Kiryu gets Real Estate Royale. Which is about as fun as you think. It’s literally standing around waiting for money to grind for you and then going out and investing it into properties. While the storyline attached to it is decent enough and has some good moments for Kiryu the minigame itself is just dreadful and grossly slow paced. Which is funny to say, because I think it takes less time to complete than Cabaret Club, but it feels like A Lot Longer because it just isn’t fun. There’s the Telephone Club, which uhhh, you can have Kiryu do to get laid. It’s funny in a tongue in cheek way but it’s also not my cup of tea besides laughing at Kiryu’s great dialogue and body language during the interactions. Basically, play Karaoke to hear Kiryu’s beautiful singing voice and also THE ONLY GAME IN THE SERIES WHERE MAJIMA’S SINGING ISN’T JUST AWFUL SCREECHING! 24 Hour Cinderella is a gift to the world and you need to play it. Cabaret Club is also where the vast majority of this game’s female characters exist, as hostesses. While the game could take this opportunity to be sexist (and one could argue it is, for sure) the writing present in Cabaret Club for the platinum hostesses and their story lines is just as good as anything else from the game. They’re worth talking to, learning about, and seeing their development. In all honesty they can almost fittingly serve as a nice break from the game’s intense story, giving the player a breather with some whole and comedic interactions. The Sub-Stories which make up this game’s version of side quests (because yes, this is a Beat ‘Em Up Japanese Crime Drama RPG) are also basically all amazing. The writing is heartfelt, funny, and just really good. They all have strong opening hooks without forcing the player to immediately get involved and despite being 100 of them they’re basically all really memorable. This is also where the game pays Kiryu back a bit for his lost story content relative to Majima, giving him 60 of the 100 sub stories. They’re all great ways to get to see more aspects of these characters and the citizens of Kamurocho, please give a bunch of them a try if you play this game. I also briefly want to talk about the settings of the game, Kamurocho and Sotenbori. They’re literally just the real life Japanese districts, Kabukicho and Dotenbori by SLIGHLY different names. If you play this game enough you’ll know some real life actual locations in actual real life Japan like you’ve been there. You’ll be able to navigate at least a few square blocks of Japan without a map, it’s amazing, and it’s really something special compared to other games. Also, I’m not exaggerating, the overworld(s) of this game are only a few square blocks large but the game plays that to its advantage. Navigating from one side to another of either one takes a minute or two at most and the streets are always PACKED with content. It’s impossible to wander around playing naturally without falling ass backwards into a dozen or more of the game’s sidestories and inevitably getting sucked into playing a few of them and seeing how good they are. I love this game’s map, it’s so brilliant in its design by simply being true to a real life location. Yakuza 0 also sports stellar sound design. The sound effects are BEEFY, hitting things feels amazing and nothing sounds out of place or off beat. The bombastic, over the top hit sounds really sell Majima and Kiryu’s overwhelming power and it just makes every fight satisfying. The soundtrack similarly is good, and while much of the soundtrack isn’t what I would call listening music, the Karaoke selections, specifically Bake Mitai, sure are. I’m not really the kind of guy who can tell you why the sound design is good, it just is, trust me.

All in all, Yakuza 0 is a stellar game and is exemplary of both what a modern beat ‘em up AND a modern RPG should strive to be like. It is a masterpiece in its own right and I’m glad that its success in the western market has secured this unique, beautiful series a future. Please play Yakuza 0, it’s regularly on sale on both PS4 and Steam and it deserves your attention. If you’re ever alone on a Friday night, just remember these Yakuza, and you’ll have a great time.

[httplovecraft1890]

Random Yandere Simulator Win Condition Speculation

So the latest update for YanSim came out today and Yandere Dev gave us this image briefly in it. If you haven’t seen it yet this is in the context of Yandere Dev talking about factors that will influence which of the multiple endings you’ll receive.

(Apologies if this is blurry as I had to screen cap it.) Since I haven’t done a lengthy post in a while, let’s do some speculation, shall we? Most of these are fairly self-explanatory but I’ll touch on the ones I think are significant enough. Also: apologies in advance. I’m going to reference things I’ve heard from Yandere Dev himself through various social media throughout that I don’t have links to anymore.

Collecting Tapes Using audio tapes is a fairly good way in games to get more of your story across. It lets the writer play around with characters who don’t have to be physically present in order to show plot information to players and has been used in many games in the industry, probably most famously in BioShock and its spiritual forefather System Shock (especially the sequel). So seeing things that will be about Ayano’s parents (Basement Tapes), Headmaster Shuyona (Headmaster Tapes), and Megami’s dad (CEO Tapes) isn’t suprising. What is an interesting omission here to me is that the Journalist Tapes do not count towards what ending we will receive, which strikes me as odd given that while he won’t encounter him during the course of the game, he will be in 1989 mode as a main character. This says to me that this will be the background information we will be ‘spoon fed’ in the game (i.e., it will be gradually given directly to us as we advance in the plot); all the other material is effectively supplementary and it will be our job to discover it.

What is Yandere-chan’s relationship with Info-chan?

Way back when development on the game started Ayano was going to have to ultimately fight Info-chan as the game’s final villain who had been using you the whole time to eliminate other rivals for Senpai’s affection. This was ultimately changed - and for the better, IMHO, as it’s incredibly cliche - and Yandere Dev has stated before we can complete the final game without using her services at all though I assume it will be quite difficult. One of the things I think we will have a little more leniency on in the final game, not that anything has been officially confirmed yet, is cleaning up after murdering our opponents or disposing of them in dishonest ways like expulsion. You won’t have to be 100% perfect at what you’re doing at first; it allows players a learning curve. However, the game will keep an invisible tally of what you’re doing and this will affect certain things such as increased security during Megami’s week or even the police keeping open tabs on you before her though they haven’t been implemented yet. Screw up enough and they’re going to crack down on you and I suspect Info-chan’s willingness to aid you in those situations can be affected as well. She’s only looking out for herself and I highly doubt she wouldn’t be willing to ratfuck Ayano if she knew it could save her own hide  (Just remember snitches get stitches, Info-chan.)

Did Yandere-chan learn the secret of the cherry tree?

In a surprise to absolutely no one we learn that there is, in fact, some significance to the enormous sakura tree behind the school. Obviously, it was given that Ayano is obsessed with it and there are urban legends behind it but every story has a beginning and it does make you wonder: how did it gain the reputation in the first place for two people destined to be together to confess to each other under it? The sakura is probably the most recognizable, physical representation of Japan you can find in media and it has ironic undertones in the story given that it symbolizes the fragility of life (’beautiful, but fleeting’ essentially). Though I don’t have much to back it up I suspect that it might be yet another way that the Aishi family could be connected to Akademi. It was stated at one point by Yandere Dev that the matriarch of the clan, Ayano’s great grandma, is alive and kicking in 201X (born in 1910) though what role she’ll play is unknown right now. I think that it would be rather fitting to have all the misfortune so many men (or women) have fallen under be the spot where the first Aishi woman had her confession accepted by her senpai.

Did Yandere-chan learn the truth about _____?/Did Yandere-chan discover the ____?

Though Yandere Dev recently confirmed that the demon summoning stuff in the occult club won’t factor into the story (it’s going to be non-canon, basically, unless you enter in codes at the start or something similar to unlock it) he has stood by implementing Phantom Girl into the narrative seemingly; she may or may not factor into a specific elimination method, even, probably Oka’s. While it might seem superfluous to discover something at first to include discovering Phantom Girl’s identity given that Ayano will find out her mother is just like her I believe there is a deeper meaning to it. Headmaster Shuyona has currently been kept under wraps in regards to what his character is like. The only thing we really know about him is that he was once idealistic early on as headmaster but came to be a misanthrope over the years. Considering that 1989 is mentioned as the year he lost his faith in people I suspect it will be that Phantom Girl was his daughter and that the apparently high profile media trial surrounding Ryoba Aishi and her subsequent evasion of justice caused his sour disposition.  Speaking of that trial... sort of weird that Ayano has never heard of it before, isn’t it? Especially since it was a big enough deal the whole country was reporting on it and more strange that the police aren’t fingering her as a suspect in the current crimes you can commit at school (disposition to insanity can be genetic, after all, and even while the whole thing has been made hush-hush to the public it seems rather weird the police wouldn’t have a tab on you).

Did Yandere-chan choose to delete the _____?

‘Delete’ implies that we will eventually encounter a file of some sort regarding ourselves or something. This could have one of two origins at the moment: 1) Info-chan. Though apparently a friend to Ayano I suspect that she probably has a back up data in case things start to go south as I previously mentioned to probably nail us as the criminal for our crimes in game. My guess would be is that the catch turns out to be a major plot detail that would give the player pause enough to decide if it would be worth it to continue existing as a threat over our heads or if whatever information it gives us isn’t worth the trouble having the possibility of being leaked to anyone in a position of authority. 2) Saikou Corp. This is the more likely option in my opinion given that in her first appearance to players in the builds Megami tells us over Not Skype that we’re not the only yandere that her father (and presumably grandfather before him) have kept tabs on. If this is the case then they must have the data stored somewhere at their corporate HQ. Given that they seem like they’re going to be big players in the finished plot it seems to me a similar situation where you have the choice to sabotage whatever they’ve been cooking up or allow them to continue going about their business.

Did Yandere-chan reject _____’s offer? If I’m correct about the above then I believe it will be Megami’s father who we have the option of siding with. He seems completely fascinated with what Ayano is and has been seemingly aiding you enough that you’ve been allowed to continue what you’ve been doing for 9 weeks unmolested before Megami shows up. In an unrelated theory to this I speculated that Ryoba probably works for Saikou Corp. and that it might have been them who sabotaged the trial from 1989 in Ryoba’s favor (probably on the condition that she come under their employ; it would definitely explain how she and Ayano’s dad can leave for 10 weeks to go to a foreign country with little to no explanation). I guess the moral quandary will be for us when we discover that information is something to the effect of. ‘Now you know your family’s been a slave to these guys, perhaps for quite a long time: do you continue that line of work or do you strike it out on your own?’

Did Yandere-chan decide to punish _____?

What’s so interesting about this is the word choice. ‘Decide to punish’ means that whatever this event is is entirely optional; it is completely ambiguous as to just how significant it is to the overarching narrative other than it allows us to role play the sort of person Ayano is a little more. Are you the straightforward sociopath who uses others to further her own goals but doesn’t have much of a dog in Akademi’s affairs otherwise or are you a complete monster in sheep’s clothing? Anyway, here’s a collection of the endings that have either been theorized about or confirmed/mentioned by Yandere Dev at some point. Sabotage all interactions with your rivals: Senpai becomes misogynistic. Do matchmaking for all your rivals: Senpai becomes codependent on others and fears he doesn’t deserve anyone’s love. SNAP: Senpai is confessed to by another girl or rejects Ayano with a reputation of -100 (both speculative). Ayano kills herself and Senpai probably after a short chase sequence - the original idea for the game’s ending, by the way. Kill all your rivals: Senpai believes that he’s cursed to bring others bad luck. People may speculate he’s a serial killer if your rivals die soon after they meet Senpai. Of note: there was an interesting suggestion by someone on the game’s subreddit about a unique game over where Ayano could be taken in by the police for her own ‘safety’ if things got bad enough. 

Kidnap all your rivals: Unknown, but mentioned that Ayano would probably kill them at some point after the story ends, they would just be left to starve to death, or even become her ‘pets.’

“I’ve seen some shit”: If Senpai sees more than 5 corpses, not necessarily Osana’s and/or Hanako’s, he’ll become a vegetable which Ayano won’t care about (as long as he doesn’t reject her confession everything is gravy). As of today, if he figures out somehow you had something to do personally with either Osana’s or Hanako’s death, it seems he’ll pull a reverse SNAP on us and off Ayano. Kill ‘Em All: Apparently a joke ending we get if every student but Senpai is eliminated.

[torentialtribute]

Who could blame Tottenham if they tire of Mauricio Pochettino’s games?

Again? Serious? Again? Daniel Levy must investigate the morning newspapers as Bill Murray aroused by his 6:00 AM alarm on Groundhog Day.

& # 39; OK campers, stand up and shine … & # 39; Besides, instead of Sonny and Cher and the crazy chatter of the radio DJ & # 39; s, Levy is confronted with the newest bulletin from the press conference of Mauricio Pochettino, the newest round of brinkmanship, the most recent disclosure that is counterproductive to everything what the club wants to achieve.

How he could have stopped, or he would have stopped, or he would not buy the players, or he would be the coach but not the manager. Pochettino walked away last week when Tottenham had won the Champions League this week he wanted a relegation in the title because he had no control over the transfer. It is all, the disciples of Pochettino say, part of a cunning plan to complete the transfer activities of Tottenham.

Mauricio Pochettino creates uncertainty to motivate Tottenham to keep him happy

This is his way of applying pressure. He creates uncertainty to motivate Tottenham to keep him happy. It is certainly tiring for Levy.

Pochettino is a brilliant manager, everyone agrees. But Tottenham is also a brilliant club. They have built the best club stadium in the country, they have an academy system that feeds a steady stream of young prospects, and they have consistently broken their transfer record during Pochettino's tenure. Moussa Sissoko, £ 31.5 million; Davinson Sanchez £ 36m; Tanguy Ndombele £ 54m. It could tumble again if the club could close the deal with Real Betis for Giovani Lo Celso.

This is advanced as a motivation from Pochettino. But when has negotiations ever helped to give the impression that the manager is on the edge half the time? Certainly when he is a very viable target for Real Madrid, or Paris Saint-Germain, or Manchester United – or a number of clubs that could have a vacancy in the near future?

Pochettino probably plays a smart game. But how smart is it really? If a game is even needed, Pochettino must assume that Levy is ready to put all that development, all that progress, at risk because of a cheap deal.

The president clearly likes his own form of craftsmanship because the minutes tick away towards the deadline, but he should be crazy to sell his club now. Is the relationship between chairman and manager really so suspicious that Pochettino must play this charade? Does he really believe that the club is trying to deliver its players?

Tottenham has reacted coolly to the latest drama and says that Pochettino is part of the four-man recruitment team and that he is his coach title. Maybe they just think he needs a hug. The fear is of course that he really likes the sound of that train in the distance; and all this so-called politicization only lays the foundation for the day and he decides to capture it.

The games of the Tottenham manager are certainly tiring for chairman Daniel Levy

SULKING BALE DESERVES NO SYMPATHY

Being photographed on the golf course while apparently & # 39; too sick & # 39; is to travel with Real Madrid for a preseason match, Gareth Bale & # 39; s claim of poor treatment hardly helps.

Whether or not Zinedine Zidane has an irrational resentment towards him, this image only feeds the negative portraits of a player who is most interested in lowering his handicap.

That his agent, Jonathan Barnett, said that Bale was waving to empty & # 39; his head & # 39; after the collapse of a move to China, the issue only gets bigger. Whether Bale has been treated hard by Zidane or not, the only thing that Madrid does not owe him is money. It's not their job to take a huge loss, so Bale can earn £ 5 million a month in China in the region.

He has been beautifully rewarded in Spain and it is not unreasonable for Madrid to earn back part of his investment with his resale. They don't stand in his way. They just hold out for their share.

Certainly, Baal sulking on the putting green will evoke sympathy. He no longer mourns his place in the Madrid team. He is just a very rich soccer player, denied the chance to become even richer. That is not under story and it is not even personal. It's just business.

Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale sulking on the putting green will arouse sympathy

THE ARMY IN ANOTHER FINE MESSI

The League tribunes will not be broadcast on English screens this season. This news is a hardy annually, and usually resolved at a late hour.

It is worth remembering what happened last year when the rights went to Eleven Sports streaming service, the number of which was desperately low during the season. Eleven then ran into difficulties and ultimately retained La Liga only on a non-exclusive basis.

This is important because Andrea Radrizzani, the Leeds president, owns Eleven Sports and was particularly outspoken about the Football League deal that was signed for Sky Championship, claiming that the clubs could have done much better to do.

If he cannot sell Lionel Messi and Barcelona, ​​he asks why he thinks he would be more lucky with Blackburn Rovers or Luton Town.

As it looks now, La Liga will not be broadcast on English screens this coming campaign

WHY ARE YOU SELLING ONLY?

Every glimpse of Moise Kean suggests he is a player. He debuted for Juventus on 16, scored in Serie A on 17, for Italy on 19, and will only be February 20.

He is strong, capable, scores charities – he is not the finished article, but at that age, who is that? The only alarm is why Juventus would sell a player with such potential to Everton for £ 29 million – because, at first glance, they are crazy.

SO WHERE HAVE ALL FORTNITE WOMEN GOED?

Here's something interesting about the Fortnite World Cup, not the money. The make-up. There were 100 finalists on Flushing Meadows last week, who qualified in fully open series, on every continent, with no age or gender restrictions, and 40 million entered.

They were phased out over a period of 10 weeks and at the end that incredible number – larger than the entire population of Canada – was reduced to the hundred best. And how many women?

None. And you hear all possible reasons for this. Scientific differences, emotional differences, gender differences. The 2015 test conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder, which suggested that men had faster response times than women when responding to light and sound.

The fact that Fortnite is in fact a shooting computer game that is always more attractive to young men than women, meaning that they spend more time, often obsessively, and get better at it. But here's the worrying one. That gaming environments are dominated by men, making them hostile to women, who are confronted with misogyny as often as women in life, and ultimately lose interest or become a cow.

Make your choice. But still – not one person. And Epic, the manufacturers of Fortnite, estimate the ratio between male and female players at 65:35 and not 100: 0. So there must be a reason. We know why men and women have to compete separately in most physical sports. But esports? It would be really depressing if they had to go the same way.

There were no women involved in the 100 finalists in the recent Fortnite World Cup

CHINA CONFUSION ON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Without a doubt, the FINA governing body did not seem embarrassed that China, and its well-known drug cheater Sun Yang, would end up at the top of the medal table at their world championships.

So many athletes have denounced Sun that FINA issued a free rule halfway through the tournament. Sun also accused his rivals of not respecting & # 39; from China.

They were not respectful cheats at the moment, but because China has a lot of them – especially in swimming – the two are easily confused.

] HIGH PLACES FOR MAN UNITED

Manchester United supporters claim that it will be 158 years before the club can pay off the debt due to the Glazer was taken over in 2005. only £ 44 million of the £ 660 million contracted has been repaid.

The irony here is that before the elite clubs hijacked its meaning, the blame – not the owner's investment – was the target of UEFA's financial fair play. How fortunate that United had so many friends in high places who the football rulers could explain who the real offenders were.

THE LAST IDEA OF THE TEST CROWN LEAVED CONSEQUENCES FANS FALLED

Cricket was always the sport that Americans could not understand. Five days and it's a draw. Look how they get their heads around there, ha ha.

Have you seen the World Test Championship format? Explain this to every nationality: English, Australian, Indian, West Indian. It reads as if it was sketched on the back of a package. And some very good ideas started that way. However, the inventor usually returns to his notes and gives further shape to his thoughts.

This is where the World Test Championship differs.

There are no set schedules, no round robin as such. There are 12 teams, but they don't all play against each other. They play whoever they want, almost the same as always. There is also no fixed number of matches. There is a competition and everyone competes for the same points – but not every match has the same point value.

So the five Ashes Tests of England with Australia have the same total points as the two Tests she plays next year on tour in Sri Lanka: 120 per series

In other words, win this soak with Edgbaston and it's worth 24 points; win in March in Colombo and it's worth 60.

And some series are not included at all. In the time that England plays 22 tests, Sri Lanka plays 13. So not all England matches count for the WTC rankings.

Have you seen the World Test Championship format? Explain that to every nation

Of course, not every competition makes perfect sense. The EFL Cup, for example, is decided with one game per round bar in the semi-final when, inexplicably, there are two.

The FA Cup is on full repetitions in its early rounds and then the lottery of a penalty shootout as it comes to the end. There are countless sports in which winning the competition only entitles the champions to a play-off with an inferior. And raising the cup to the UEFA & # 39; s inaugural Nations League did not even give Portugal a place in the final of the European Championship.

All of these competitions have significant logical shortcomings, but none of them are quite astonishing as the World Championship Test, the most comical notion that this is supposed to breathe new life into Test cricket, with a ranking and a final at Lord & # 39; s in 2021.

The idea is that cricket enthusiasts will know where their team is at the table and will show interest in the long-form game, worldwide, as a result. In other words, if England is at the top, New Zealand versus Pakistan can become hugely important in the struggle for supremacy. But is New Zealand versus Pakistan even a WTC-accredited match? And how many points per test? Forget about Nasser or Bumble, at this rate we need Professor Brian Cox to explain the importance of events in Dunedin.

The organizers have thought more about the game.

WHO WAS NOVELTY ACT BUT ADVISORS Abandoned her

The British Women & # 39; s Open started Thursday in Woburn without one of the most famous names in the sport . Michelle Wie takes the rest of the year off in an attempt to recover from a series of hand injuries. She is 29 and her free time is described as & # 39; indefinite & # 39 ;. Her last two rounds were 84 and 82 in Minneapolis, and she looked desperate and considered an uncertain future.

We will never know if Who would have physically better endured the challenge of a professional career if she had not been parachuted by parachutists in men's tournaments by the William Morris Agency and several sponsors from the age of 14. That was Wie & # 39; s brilliance – the teenage girl who could compete with men. And she did that sometimes, when competing is a reduction of 13 or just complete.

Michelle Wie & # 39; s consultants made one of the greatest golfing talents over the years

On other occasions, such as the 2006 European Masters, she finished last, 15 above par. Omega, the tournament sponsors, didn't matter, because competition was not the point. She could have played and participated in a ladies tournament because she was a stunningly gifted player, but against men she was a novelty to draw the crowd.

Winners win. It becomes a habit. Who should have been a big winner, a regular winner, but spent too much time interrupting her momentum in competitions where only survival on Saturday would be a triumph. No wonder her game deteriorated. She had distance in the women's events, but even choosing her men's tournaments, that benefit was canceled out; and who knows the physical toll of striving for those extra meters? If this is the end, she will retire after winning a single major in 2015, the US Open.

It is her advisors, not Who, who really did the impossible: they have made one of the greatest talents of golf unusual.

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[militantinremission]

Conflicted By Cosby Narrative

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know the whole story behind Bill Cosby's behavior, or all of the details behind Andrea Constand's accusations. I personally think that Dr. Cosby is guilty of adultery, but i'm not sure of any of the other accusations. I don't mean to come off as insensitive to the [dozens of] Women that came forward against him. For me, there are too many conflicting stories to be sure what is accurate.

I feel the need to say that Black America has developed a [substantiated] group paranoia over the Centuries. Out of this paranoia, come Our Urban Legends. Among the most popular, is the belief that a White Woman's word can get a Black Man killed- no questions asked. Carolyn Bryant Donham's accusation of Emmit Till is the classic example. The current trend of White Women calling in false reports, opens the door to more tragedies like the 'Scottsboro Boys' & the 'Central Park 5'

Another popular Urban Legend, is the assumption that Bill Cosby is being targeted, because he wanted to buy the NBC Network. The N.Y. Times broke the Story in 1992, but buzz about Cosby's intentions go back to the Late 80's. Then NBC Owner, General Electric downplayed Dr. Cosby's intentions, & said the network wasn't for sale. It didn't matter, because a New Age was dawning.

At the time, Reginald Lewis acquired Beatrice Foods Inc, becoming the first Black Billionaire in America. Ron Brown, was named Bill Clinton's Secretary of Commerce; the first Black American to hold the position, Post Reconstruction. Across the board, Black Men & Women were beginning to make their presence known in their respective Industry.

Sadly, Ron Brown died [mysteriously] in a plane crash, in Eastern Europe; en route to a European Economic Summit in Croatia. Reginald Lewis fell ill & died from Cancer, not too long after making history. They were taken in the Prime of their lives, but both became role models for the Next Generation of Black Entrepreneurs.

I never heard a formal announcement, but again, rumors about Cosby's intentions go back to the 1980s. A Wilhelmina Model reported in 2014 that back in 1982, her Photographer set up an appointment for her to meet w/ a Casting Agent about a film project. She says two Men- an Asian Man in his 50s, & a White Man in his 30s met w/ her, & offered first $5K, then $10K Cash to work w/ Bill Cosby.

She requested a meeting w/ Dr. Cosby, to go over the script, but was told it wasn't necessary. This was a Spontaneous Casting Call... According to the 'script', she was suppose to meet Dr. Cosby, & try to seduce him. She was supposed to record the 'audition', to determine her success & credibility. If she could deliver seductive photos of Dr. Cosby, along w/ some of his sperm(?), she would get an additional $5K.

She says that she was uneasy about the 'Project', so she excused herself, & never returned. In her FYM Article, she goes on to say that she believed the two men were paying her to discredit Bill Cosby, & is "100% convinced that all of the women coming foward have been paid off to discredit Bill Cosby as well". The implication was that Dr. Cosby was getting too big (for his britches); he was grasping beyond his reach. He was empowering People of Color!

Black America took the (Russian Mob related) murder of Ennis Cosby as a message for Bill to back up... Along that vein, it was assumed that Michael Jackson was targeted for his interest in Sony Music; as well as acquiring the Publishing Rights of Rock & Roll Hall of Famers like Little Richard, & The Beatles. Prince was similarly targeted for winning Ownership of His Song Masters from Warner Music.

The Criminal Case of Andrea Constand against Bill Cosby is one of legal precedence. Ms. Constand alleges that Dr. Cosby raped her in January, 2004, but she didn't come forward until 2005. The D.A. admitted there wasn't enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Cosby, so Constand took him to Civil Court. In that Civil Trial, Dr. Cosby agreed to a ($3.4M) settlement, but was required to give a sworn deposition.

He was assured by the Montgomery County D.A.'s Office that his statement would be sealed, to protect him from possible self incrimination @ a future date. Oddly, Cosby's Defense did not request Immunity; maybe They thought it was implied, when the D.A.'s Office sealed the deposition. In the end, Dr. Cosby complied, & Ms. Constand was paid.

The precedent set in this last Cosby Trial, centers on the fact that the current Montgomery County D.A. overturned the decision made by that same Office to seal Dr. Cosby's Civil Trial Deposition. Did the D.A. know that Cosby did not have a formal Grant of Immunity; just an assurance from the D.A.'s Office, under the previous D.A.?

This D.A. ran on the promise that he would put Dr. Cosby back on Trial. A Jury already declared a Mistrial on these Charges last Year, but the D.A. says Constand deserves a verdict. This is on top of the Civil Trial that ended more than 10yrs earlier. On top of everything else, Cosby accusers forget that Andrea Constand already settled her Case & collected her money.

The more one looks @ this 'Criminal Case', the more one may ask: Why are We here? The D.A. was successful in painting Dr. Cosby as someone w/ a proclivity for adultery- a serial adulterer. Labelling an Octogenarian a 'Violent Sexual Predator', is overkill. The label is obviously meant to smash the 'America's Dad' image. Cosby's deposition says that he acquired drugs to give to women he sought for sex, but is accused of slipping Women drugs; quaaludes in particular.

Problem is, none of the accusations can be substantiated. There is only one account, & then, the young lady requested it. Beverly Johnson's account was spotlighted by Media. She says her incident w/ Cosby occurred while they were rehearsing lines. For some unknown reason, Beverly not only returned to the Set; she finished rehearsal, then shot the episode, all after her alleged violation.

In an interview following David Bowie's death, Iman said she couldn't believe Beverly Johnson's account. She went on to say back then, news like that would've spread through the Modelling World like wildfire. Bill would be untouchable. The implication was that he was a serial dater, not someone slipping Women quaaludes. If Beverly's account were true, no one would want to be left alone w/ him. In the Case of Andrea Constand, she was given a benadryl for an allergic reaction. Hardly a date rape drug. According to Dr. Cosby's (sealed) deposition, they were drinking cognac; perhaps that is the culprit.

In any case, Ms. Constand made contact w/ Dr. Cosby on 19 different occasions, following the alleged rape. In her written statement, Camille Cosby accused the D.A. of ethics violations, including producing a witness (Andrea Constand) that perjured herself. She continues, "Moreover, Bill Cosby's Defense team introduced the testimony of a witness [Margot Jackson] who confirmed that the district attorney's witness admitted that she had not been sexually assaulted, but that she could say she was and get money... which is exactly what she did."

Others point to a Kinder Morgan connection to Dr. Cosby, in Shelburne Falls, Ma. Kinder Morgan, is The 3rd largest Energy Company in North America, worth approximately $125B. They are the largest Energy Infrastructure Company in North America; responsible for 80,000 miles of pipeline & 180 Terminals. The Energy Company's Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company wants to construct a $341M Natural Gas Pipeline through Shelbourne Falls, as part of a $3.75B Northeast Pipeline Extension Project. The Cosbys have been against the Project; since being notified in 2013, of The Company's intention to survey their land.

The Cosbys own hundreds of acres of Protected Land in Shelbourne Falls. They were concerned that the proposed Project "shows disrespect for humans, flora, & fauna." They were also "astounded" that all six New England Governors support the Project. Camille Cosby wrote an op- ed, in March 2014 that questions the motives of a Company beholden to shareholders, more than Nature. She & Dr. Cosby later joined protesters against the Pipeline in July, 2014. Conspiracy Theorists believe that the Cosby Family angered people @ Kinder Morgan; to the point that They wanted to assassinate his Character & his Legacy.

Fast forward to Oct. 17, 2014- Comedian Hannibal Burress accuses Bill Cosby of Rape during his Stand up routine. The floodgates opened! By mid November, Women like Janice Dickenson were accusing Cosby of [graphic] past Rape acts. Around this time, The Washington Post was asking: If Bill Cosby was accused of rape 8yrs ago, why is the story going viral now? A rumor circulates soon after, that P.R. Man Rick Berman, aka, "Dr. Evil" was contracted by Kinder Morgan to take down Dr. Cosby. A tape later surfaces, where Berman brags how he can take down Celebrities for Clients w/o having actions traced back to him.

All things being said & done, i'm conflicted by Cosby. No question he is more than just a very gifted Writer & Actor. But he clearly has another side. Black America was hard pressed for Role Models on TV; Cosby, like O.J. fit a model that appealed to Both Americas. In the end, Cosby believed his own hype. He mistook The 'Cos' for 'Heathcliff Huxtable'. I guess it must be something like Undercover Cops staying 'Under' too long(?). He played a straight shooter so long, that he forgot he wasn't squeaky clean. Now Cosby has to deal w/ a new image & label- Violent Sexual Predator.

Talking Heads let it roll off their tongues w/a frightening ease. It's like 'The Powers That Be' couldn't wait to push that narrative of Cosby. Sen. Lindsey Graham, on @ least two occasions, used Cosby as a reference for 'The' Sexual Predator, in his defense of Brett Kavanaugh... That opens the door to an interesting comparison- Bill Cosby & Brett Kavanaugh measure up pretty well. Kavanaugh was quick to tout his Academic Standing & Community Service- his pedigree, when pressed on his demeanor @ Social Events.

Cosby could have done the same. He could have touted his academic proficiency, Humanitarian Awards, or the Tens of Millions of dollars donated to Charity; particularly, Historical Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) over the years. There is also the number of Jobs that he created for his TV Shows & Concerts...

Ironically, a 'Gang' of Old Conservative White Men stepped in to rescue Kavanaugh, when he faltered. They employed [coded] wordplay in their language, to assure him that all of the brouhaha was moot; he WILL be confirmed. Meanwhile, the same 'Gang' that once lauded Cosby, abandoned him; almost from the beginning.

Phylicia Rashad appears correct in saying this whole thing is about Legacy. The Cosby Show was an inspiration to Black America. The Black 'Professional Class' flourished during the time that the Show aired. Young Men & Women were attending College & Post Grad Programs in larger numbers. Taking the Show off the air was detrimental, not just to Dr. Cosby, but to the overall Image Hollywood portrays of the Black Community.

Actor Geoffrey Owens, is a causality of the conspiracy to discredit Bill Cosby. He admitted that taking 'The Cosby Show' out of syndication, was a factor in his decision to work @ Trader Joes. Dr. Cosby shared syndication royalties w/ his Cast & Crew, so Geoffrey may not be alone. Meanwhile, admitted child molester, Stephen Collins can enjoy collecting syndication royalties, from Networks that still air '7th Heaven'.

Dwelling on America's double standard Culture can be mind boggling. 81Yr Old Bill Cosby is led out of court in leg chains, facing a 3yr- 10yr Prison Term. He is expected to serve @ least 3yrs, but taking his age & health into account, i'm not very confident that he will survive the Experience. Meanwhile, GOP Conservatives- male & female, are arguing on behalf of Brett Kavanaugh; that speaking up after 30+ Yrs is not fair, unless the account can be substantiated. Dr. Ford comes across as credible, but...

When Autumn Jackson appeared in the mid 90s, claiming to be Cosby's daughter, she referred to a tryst that Cosby had w/ her mother in 1974- Why didn't these Women speak up then? From recent interviews, I understand that many were intimidated by his image & stature, but Cosby's fidelity was being questioned. Dozens of Women coming forward would have gained momentum.

Why is Autumn's mother, Shawn Thompson- Upshaw among the Women accusing Cosby of drugging & raping them? That wasn't her story 20yrs ago. Autumn & her partners in Crime (Jose Medina, Boris [Schmulevich] Sabas) were Tried & Sentenced for Extortion ($40M) in 1997. In that Trial, Cosby was a Witness for the Prosecution. In his testimony, Dr. Cosby revealed that he & Ms. Thompson did in fact have a brief affair.

He also admitted that he gave Ms. Thompson $100,000 over the years as 'hush money,' plus he gave her money for Autumn's Education & well being. Does Ms. Thompson- Upshaw think she has a legitimate argument 20yrs later? It's interesting how We are expected to forgive the 'trespasses' of America's Historical figures, but Bill Cosby is tossed out w/ the trash. How does this work? The 'Cos' was part of Hugh Hefner's Playboy crowd. He was a regular @ the Playboy Mansion, & talked about it in his Stand Up routine.

America celebrated Hef's polyamorous lifestyle, even after getting married. Charlie Sheen can be the irreverent Bad Boy, to the point of becoming HIV Positive. Cosby is basically the prototype of Tiger Woods, but he gets singled out for punishment. Meanwhile, Tiger (I'm not Black) Woods gets a second chance. He is currently being toasted by the same people that criticized him 5yrs earlier. R. Kelly is free to do Lord only knows what (w/ Young Black Women), but Society is satisfied w/ locking up a Legally Blind 81yr old in failing health, & calling him a Violent Sexual Predator... But it's not about Legacy though.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/just-maurice-symonette-aka-donald-trumps-michael-black-man/

Just who is Maurice Symonette aka Donald Trump's 'Michael the Black Man'?

Who is Maurice Symonette? In another charlatan tactic employed by the Trump administration, the individual also known as "Michael the Black Man" is a political propaganda character that serves as a distraction, making Trump and the Republicans look grossly incompetent and devastatingly desperate.

  Since his Phoenix rally earlier this week, Trump has reintroduced us to his new campaign tool – Symonette, a.k.a Maurice Woodside. Many outlets have already profiled the man holding a sign that said, “Blacks for Trump,” digging deep into his background as a criminal, cult follower, and militant negro. Along with holding his perfectly placed sign (right behind Trump in view of all the cameras) Symonette also wore a t-shirt that let the world know, “Trump and Republicans are not racist.” The one-time cult member who belonged to Temple of Love in the 90’s, looks to be a reformed pro-black activist who now makes YouTube videos about the goodness of white people, the dangers of Cherokee Native Americans (who are the real KKK racist slave masters per Symonette) and the evils of Hilary Clinton and her Islamic State connections. The man also considers white people “White Gentiles who are Black Peoples Republican Emancipators,” which is why I am sure he fits right into Trump’s overall plan to win the White House a second term. While I understand but do not agree with, white people’s move in having a token black person as a means to show other black people that they aren’t that bad, it rarely ever works. And when you use any ole person for the sake of “representation” it becomes more of a joke than a serious attempt to reach minorities. Such is the case with Michael the Black Man and Trump.

  A part of me doesn’t even put all the blame on Symonette. The man clearly has signs of someone who deals with mental illness. I would not be surprised if he genuinely believes what he says and Trump and his people happened to stumble upon him and said, “Just go with it.” The other part of me believes that Trump has paid this man to be the face of his 2020 campaign that is aimed at getting black people to finally accept him. But speculation aside, this just looks bad on all sides because instead of focusing on dealing with the issues this country is facing, Donald Trump is on the campaign trail… for 2020.

  The real focus should not be on the black man holding the sign because anyone in their right mind isn't paying him any attention. I actually laugh at the fact that Trump's people thought it was a good idea to let him be on camera. The outrage, anger or however people are feeling about the situation should be aimed at the man who 53% of college educated white women voted into office. Why is the president of the United States, who just took office a little over eight months ago, spending time at campaign rallies? You won Trump! You should be focused on leading this country to greatness, not maintaining or getting support for 2020. I mean, if you were smart, you would understand that being presidential and acting like an adult who holds the important position in America is what will secure a bid for you in the next election. But I digress because the key word here is “smart” and from what I’ve seen, intelligence is just not something at work in the White House right now.

  As I said earlier, this is a distraction. We have become so consumed with the things Trump does, that weighs no kind of significance to the overall well being of the nation, we don’t see these antics for what they are. I 100% guarantee you that white people are laughing at Symonette and if they were wise, they would have no business with him. His presence only adds to the lack of credibility already associated with #45’s presidency. Michael the Black Man is a conspiracy theorist who no member of the sane voting population gives any real thought to because he’s so all over the place. Nothing he says can be considered valid.

  All of this just speaks to the absurdity that is our country’s leaders right now. This is embarrassing. It is not funny and from my point of view, only serves to show how lost we truly are under Trump’s rule. Nobody who is serious about their position as president of a country would embrace this foolery let alone allow it to be a fixture at his rally.

  Alas, what more can you expect from the circus that is America 2017? Maurice Symonette is a non-factor who doesn’t deserve our attention. He doesn’t represent on any level how black people feel now or will in the future about Trump.

5 Facts About Michael Symonette

His Site Gods2.com Leads Visitors to HonestFacts.com, a Site Listing Conspiracy Theories About the Cherokee Indians

Symonette’s site Gods2.com leads visitors to HonestFacts.com. That site is one long page listing strange conspiracy theories about the Cherokee Indians and Hillary Clinton. The first one claims that the “Real K K K Slave Master Revealed & is the Cherokee!” Symonette claims that Trump will “Solve America’s debt” and “make all Indians pay Taxes!” The page also alleges that President Barack Obama, Clinton, and Senator Al Franken are Cherokee and Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, along with Mitt Romney are “White hidden MORMOM/CHEROKEES.” “ Republican Senators who’re against Trump’s HealthCare Policy & all of his Policies are Mormon Cherokee’s. They are the Racist that believe White Gentiles & Black Republicans are Idiots & are not worthy to Rule,” the site reads. Symonette also has a YouTube channel, where he has videos that go with many of his theories. He also refers to the Confederate Battle Flag as the “Cherokee Democrat Flag.”

Symonette Was a Member of the Violent Yahweh ben Yahweh Cult Led by Hulon Mitchell Jr.

According to the Miami New Times, Symonette was a member of the Yahweh ben Yahweh cult. The cult was led by Hulon Mitchell Jr., who adopted the name “Yahweh ben Yahweh” and spent 11 years in prison from 1990 to 2001 on violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Mitchell and other members of the group were convicted of conspiracy in over a dozen murders. Symonette himself was charged with allegedly conspiring in two murders, but he was found not guilty. During the trial, his brother claimed Symonette helped beat a man who later died and stuck a stick in another man’s eye. The Southern Poverty Law Center called the cult a “notorious black supremacist religious sect” and feared it was growing after Mitchell’s death in 2007. Symonette, who was “Maurice Woodside” before joining Yahweh Ben Yahweh, explained to the Miami New Times in 2011 that he first met Mitchell around 1980, when he was 21 years old. He also said he was inspired by seeing Roots. “I was shocked and I was upset, so I became a warrior against the whites,” he told the paper. “I went insane.” Yahweh Ben Yahweh is still a major influence in Symonette’s life, as evidenced by HonestFact.com. He even includes a disclaimer to show that he was not convicted of criminal charges related to the cult. “BLACKS FOR TRUMP founder Maurice Symonette/Michael the Black Man was found innocent in YAHWEH Case after witnesses admitted they we’re lying to get a good Deal from the Gov. So after being questioned by YAHWEH Atty,” his site reads. “Congressman Alcee Hastings who caught Rosier lying about seeing an incident Sept.17.1983 but could not have seen this because Atty. Hastings proved that he was in Jail between Feb.1983 until Jan.1984 in Jacksonville Fla. at the time of of the made up incident in that never happened in Miami! google this!”

  Symonette Also Organized Blacks Behind Obama & Claimed Obama Wanted to Kill Him

In 2008, Symonette made a name for himself as the leader of “Blacks Against Obama.” In an October 2008 interview with the Miami New Times, Symonette also claimed Obama wanted him assassinated. “This was supposed to be an assassination,” Symonette told the Miami New Times. “Obama’s people were behind it.” Symonette claimed that on September 25, he was getting on a bus to go to Mississippi and protest the first presidential debate with 30 other men. A man ran out of the shadows with an AR-15 and grabbed Symonette’s brother. “I bit his leg, right above his knee. He screamed and let the AR go,” Symonette claimed. Symonette told the New Times that two other gunmen came out. He described the scene as if it was an action movie. “I got up and started running in a zigzag, and one of my shoes done came off,” he told the paper. “One of the bullets … grazed my head, on the right side. When I put my hand there, I felt all the blood.” Police did report a shooting and Symonette’s brother Al was taken to a hospital because a bullet went “straight through his arm.” The gunman was identified as Taytreon Edwards, 25, and the two other gunmen were never found. Symonette told the New Times that a friend heard one of the gunmen say, “Where is the guy that Obama wants dead?”

Symonette Said He ‘Completely’ Despises Hillary Clinton

After appearing at Trump’s Lakeland, Florida rally in October, Symonette explained to the Miami New Times why he couldn’t support Hillary Clinton. “One reason is because Hillary’s last name is Rodham, and their family members are Rothchilds, who enslaved 13,000 slaves as collateral,” he told the paper. “She’s also on camera kissing the head of the Ku Klux Klan and saying, ‘That’s my mentor.’ That’s all on my website.” He added, “I completely despise Hillary. I hope the very worst for her chances for the presidency.” Symonette has been charged with four felonies in his life but never convicted. In 2009, he was charged with grand theft auto. In January 2017, he was charged with violating a city ordinance for a noise complaint.

Symonette Once Opened a Rick Santorum Rally & Was Praised by Glenn Beck

Symonette earned the attention of other conservatives before Trump. Back in 2010, MediaMatters noted that Glenn Beck praised him and other “black conservatives taking a real stand in the face of adversity.” The Miami New Times also notes that Symonette was invited to a January 2012 Rick Santorum rally in Florida. Symonette, who was gaining attention among the Tea Party, told the audience that Democrats are “Nazis” in disguise. “The Democrats, they’re the worst thing that ever happen to the black man,” Symonette told the crowd. “They’re the slave masters.” In 2011, The Miami New Times reported that one of Symonette’s nephews, Adolphus, was accusing him of trying to create another cult. “Adolphus is just telling you what he thinks will get him out of prison,” Symonette told the paper.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

[webmuch]

Pride Month 2017: LGBTQ Fashion & Beauty In style

Happy Pride Month Everyone! Every year, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month is celebrated in June to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots. The riots, which took place in Manhattan, were a crucial tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the U.S. So every year during this month, everyone around the world comes together to celebrate how far we have come since then. We show our full support for the LGBTQ community and we in particular love what the fashion and beauty industries have done this year. So many brands help out but raising money and awareness for the LGBT charities and we all need to appreciate it. During the entire pride month, we saw some amazing collaborations, collections, beauty products and got to know about several LGBT owned brands we never knew about.

We hope this month, next month and every month after will inspire you to help out the LGBTQ movement. Let’s stick together and stand up for love because after all love is love! Check out the all the LGBT glam below:

   L  G  B  T

   Life            gets                better           together

Pride Month 2017: LGBTQ Fashion & Beauty In Style

LGBTQ Owned Brands You Need To Know

We all know the amazing gay men that have really shaped the fashion industry over the years, by building these high-end brands for us. Women’s fashion has been taken to a whole new level because of them and we don’t know what the fashion industry would be like without them. But we all know a lot about them right? What you might not know are the small super cool designers killing it with their gender-bending clothing lines. You should check them out, especially during this time where we are celebrating pride month. Some of the LGBTQ owned brands are really worth checking out.  

Chromat

An American Fashion Label based in New York City was built by Becca McCharen in 2010. Fashion can help move the society forward and this is what this brand has done. Chromat is known for its innovative structural and angular clothing. They have also become very famous for its black clothing that features designs based on the structure of the human body. Becca McCharen is part of the LGBTQ community and has experiences discrimination. She says that her clothing is just like her being ‘queer’! Her experiences  and trials had formed her brand into what it is today. She makes sure her campaigns and models involve a range of different people from helping women, people of color and people of different sexual orientations. She wants to be able to break into the traditionally male-dominated fashion industry. Last year we saw this upcoming trend of inner wear becoming outerwear and this is what her brand represents as well. She is breaking all the boundaries of what should be worn where.

This pride month she says : “As fashion designers, we have the power to highlight and celebrate beauty in all different forms. Every fashion week is an opportunity to celebrate those inspirational people and have these incredible women and non-binary babes reflected in our runway show. It’s not a trend—it’s our life.”

Ready To Stare

Ready to Stare is a body positive apparel and accessory brand and personal style blog that was started By Alysse Dalessandro. Both the brand and the blog are designed for those who believe in following their passion, loving themselves and inspiring others to do the same. The brand is specifically oriented towards plus size females. Her aim was to create a brand for the people who were getting left out of the mainstream fashion lines.

Dallesandro says “I wanted to create a haven for those who get stared at because they’re different and who choose, instead of hiding, to stare back and keep shining,”

You must check out her “Thank You For Staring” look book, which is explicitly LGBTQ+ and size inclusive.

Play out

Play out believes in: BE OUT. PLAY IN STYLE. A queer owned fashion brand specifically designs gender-neutral underwear that is colourful, bold, playful and bursting with energy. The founder and designer of play out Abby Sugar says: “As a queer-owned brand, we knew that we wanted to create something for our LGBTQIA family, but also embody and proudly display who we are to the rest of the [heterosexual, binary-gendered] world.” Their brand is lesbian-inspired, gender-inclusive, free, sexy, and fun for women, men and people of all gender identifications. As they have grown their brand, Play Out have worked with men, women, trans- and gender-free individuals of all backgrounds, ethnicity, gender presentations and sexual orientations.

Tyler Wallach Studios

Tyler Wallach is such an inspiration, he is a creative and independent queer artist from Harlem, NY. He is well known for his bright and bold coloured street-art characters on both canvas and clothing. The brand brings out the best bold bright graphics to their clothing which features street characters and unisex designs that can be worn by people of gender. His compassion, love and care towards the LGBTQ community keeps him inspired to be the artist he is. He produces large-scale paintings every year that are donated and auctioned off by national LGBTQ charities with 100% of proceeds going to at-risk youth and anti-bullying efforts.

Tyler Wallach Studio is taking over the fashion game! Check out his vibrant and rebellion designs against the status quo!

Rebirth Garments

Rebirth Garments are designed and made by hand by Sky Cuba-cub, a QPOC (Gender queer Person of Color) from Chicago. Every garment is customised and all their brand campaigns feature models of all sizes and genders doing all sorts of splits and fun stuff in wheelchairs with oxygen masks. They are inclusive and representative in their imaginary and garment customization. The aim for the brand is to be able to give products accessible to queer crip youth along with being able to provide free/reduced priced garments for people in need. They believe Rebirth Garments has the power to give you the confidence and strength to feel comfortable in your first skin.  

Through the collection, people can confidently express their individuality and identity. This identity according to the brand is that of Queer Crip, meaning queer, gender non-conforming identities, visible and invisible disabilities/ disorders—physical, mental, developmental, emotional etc.

10 Fashion Brands That Are Giving Back To The LGBT Community

Around this time of the year as soon as we hit the month of June we see brands embracing the rainbow like never before. They all find their own unique and stylish ways to honour the start of pride month by releasing collections or limited edition products sporting the pride flag colors. As we mentioned before this is the time when these brands donate the proceeds to LGBTQ charities and organisations. We have put together the top 10 brands who have come out with the most beautiful products in support of LGBTQ people for Pride. Pride branding has really come a long way as the new generation has done so many things to make a difference. We see more brands than ever now using models of color and trans models to promote their brands, rather than going for big celebrities. Check out our favourite picks from this month:

Nike

Nike’s journey of supporting the LGBTQ community began in 2012 with their #BeTrue Collection in the wake of its marriage equality campaign. Ever since then Nike has provided approximately $2.5 million for financial and in-kind support for LGBT causes. They come out with the most amazing limited edition kicks and rainbow spins on some of their most popular shoes. They have taken a bold step with their #BeTrue2017 Collection where they suggest that rainbows are not the only gay symbol. They have paired it along with other symbols of Pride, such as the color pink and the triangle.

“Sporting your rainbow in the gym or on a run became a way to feel like you belonged to something larger – you were connected to being ‘out’ or being an ally. The rainbow has and always will be incorporated into the BETRUE product in some way.” – Robert Goman, LBGT Network Leader at Nike

Dr. Martins

We love what they are doing! Dr. Martins is donating $5 from every $145 pair of 1460 Pride Boots to the Trevor Project. This is a suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth. They are also going to be hosting Pride events all summer long to create a huge amount of awareness and give the LGBTQ community all the support they deserve. This funky colorful boots are totally taking us back to the 90`s. The shoe brand is associated with punk rock and these boots come with a message. On one boot there are words written across it such as LGBT+, LOVE and UNITY  On the other boot it has a rainbow pattern all over and both the boots come with bright rainbow laces.

American Eagle

American Eagle are really doing their part this year by donating 100% of the sales of its 2017 Pride Collection to benefit the It Gets Better project. Their collection for pride month includes t-shirts, boxer-briefs, boy briefs, a rainbow beaded choker and a hat. They have a campaign called #WeAllCan which was started to remind everyone that they can be anything and do everything they want. This collection has been rolled into this campaign as it fits the message perfectly.

Everlane

Out of all the brands, we have listed Everlane is one of the companies that it truly committed to ethical production practices. They began their 100% Hymen campaign in January where they started giving $5 of each purchase to the ACLU. Later as International Women’s Day came they came out be millennial pink shirts where the profits went to women’s rights organisation. Now for pride month, their complete focus was on PRIDE with 100% Human rainbow shirts.

The campaign declares “Gay. Bi, Lesbian. Queer. Trans. Non-Binary”. Whoever you love, however, you identify, we’re all 100% Human.

Gap inc.

The most famous Pride lines are rainbows, love is love and love wins. Gap Inc. came out with colorful rainbow t-shirts with these lines along with being paired with their brand logo. 30% of Gap’s Pride T-shirt net sales and $2 from every Pride-themed eGiftCard will go to the UN Free & Equal organization. For pride month Gap inc. released a corporate video in order to encourage their employees #weartheirpride.

Levi`s

Levi’s approach to the pride month merchandise is a little different than the others. They believe in going beyond just slapping on rainbows on t-shirts. They came out with black and white tanks and tees that have Fight Stigma written across them. The Fight Stigma initiative and product line is inspired by 80`s HIV awareness efforts. Levi’s Pride collection this year is utterly thorough, with jeans, shirts, pins, bandannas, socks and underwear.

100% of proceeds will be donated to the Harvey Milk Foundation and Stonewall Community Foundation.

Urban Outfitters

We love how fun and refreshingly the Pride fashion line is from Urban Outfitters. They designed the #UOPride line in partnership with hip-hop artist Taylor Bennett where all the profits are going to GLSEN. GLSEN is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the school experience for LGBTQ youth. The designs as we said are very fun and bubbly. The collections for pride month is full of soft pastel colours with rainbows and statements like love is love.  This year, the merchandise was shown off on a mix of young LGBTQ creatives, like dancer Harper Waters, model Torraine Futurum, activist Tyler Ford and musician Taylor Bennett.

Meundies

MeUndies are donating $1 from every pair of Pride underwear sold to the Los Angeles LGBT Center. We find their colourful polka dot underwear super cute along with being one of the most stunning campaigns for pride month. Their campaign involves a range of diverse and refreshingly female-focused line-up of human beings. Their “celebrate yourself” campaign and video series is about “feeling proud from the inside out.”

Converse

Converse have gone all out with not 1 but 37 different shoe designs on its Chuck Taylor’s and they are all pretty amazing. A part of the line is 70’s inspired and others include rainbow-soled high-tops and low-tops. They have patterns of all sorts from gradients, flags, spots, lines and stars. The name of their campaign is #YesToAll where this encourages people to feel free to be who they are. Net proceeds will go towards the It Gets Better Project and Miley Cyrus’s Happy Hippie Foundation.

Gucci

Gucci pays tribute to classic Elton John with this fantastic footwear for pride month this year. These platform sneakers are really giving a strong fashion statement. Along with these platforms they also came out with leather high-top sneakers and a pride print t-shirt.

Beauty Brands That Are Giving Back To The LGBT Community

We have discussed and seen how fashion brands have shown their support during Pride month this year but the beauty companies are no exception. We heard of companies giving out free products to the LGBTQ youth on every purchase along with others trying to raise a huge amount of money for organisations that support them. The true essence of Pride Month is giving the LGBTQ community a chance to freely express themselves. We saw the rainbows on the clothes, shoes and accessories it’s now time to see some fun colourful beauty products. You should really feel proud to own some of these products in your beauty kits.

We also came across several Pride-themed makeup looks everywhere on social media throughout the month, so people were either celebrating and supporting by buying some of these beauty products or creating vibrant colourful looks.

The post Pride Month 2017: LGBTQ Fashion & Beauty In style appeared first on Posherry.

from Pride Month 2017: LGBTQ Fashion & Beauty In style

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include a classic Deus Ex postmortem, making Steam games successful in China, and the surprise smash hit Lineage 2 mobile game, among other things.

In particular, I was taken by that piece on the success of Lineage 2: Revolution for mobile - $176 million in a month in South Korea alone? Wow. It's a good reminder that when franchises have fans - and Lineage is gaming royalty in Korea - then startling things can happen.

Oh, and FYI - we opened up registration for our standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this week - happening this September in San Francisco. We've added board members from ILMxLAB and HTC to a stellar set of advisors from Valve, Oculus, Sony, Magic Leap, Microsoft & more. Lots going on in the VR, AR, and mixed reality space, and it's good to have a truly platform-independent show to explore it...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Highlighting History's First Female Game Designers (Manon Hume / Game Informer) "Though it might be difficult today to imagine Uncharted without Amy Hennig or Journey without Robin Hunicke, women in the early days of video games rarely had their time in the limelight. Carol Shaw and Dona Bailey, creators of River Raid and Centipede respectively, were two of the first female game designers in video game history, yet their contributions have often been overlooked… Until now."

Building Worlds in No Man's Sky Using Math(s) (Sean Murray / GDC / YouTube) "No Man's Sky is a science fiction game set in a near infinite procedurally generated universe. In this 2017 GDC talk, Hello Games' Sean Murray describes some of the most important technologies and interesting challenges behind generating both realistic and alien terrains without artistic input, using mathematics."

College Esports Programs Are Growing, But Can They Field a Winning Team? (Will Partin / Glixel) "The doors to University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Cox Arena and Pavilion open at 12, and every seat inside is filled by 12:30. If it weren't for the occasional StarCraft cosplayer or the elaborate apparatus of club lighting enveloping the stage, you could be forgiven for mistaking Heroes of the Dorm for a division one basketball game."

Making Horizon Zero Dawn's Machines feel like living creatures (Willie Clark / Gamasutra) "One of the most memorable features of the recent PlayStation 4 title Horizon Zero Dawn are the sophisticated robots, known as Machines, that wander the game world like a natural part of the landscape. How were these distinctive robot/creatures conceived of and designed? We talked with several devs from Guerrilla Games, the studio behind HZD, to see just what went into the making of the Machines."

Persona 5 deserved better: a translator's take on a subpar script (Molly Lee / Polygon) "I found myself mentally rewriting A LOT of Persona 5. What should be a gripping tale of outcast kids became an outright chore to parse … and I was barely a few hours in. The start of every game is the part that's meant to hook you."

The 15 year quest to mod the mainland into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Luke Winkie / PC Gamer) "It has been said that everyone’s favorite Bethesda game is the first one they play, as if stepping into that freedom for the first time is far more powerful and resonant than any prospective gameplay upgrades or graphical bumps. There’s probably no better proof than the community at Tamriel Rebuilt—a mod that’s been in development since Morrowind’s original release date."

A No Bullshit Conversation With The Authors Behind The Witcher and Metro 2033 (Piotr Bajda / Waypoint) "Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski says he doesn't owe games anything, but Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky thinks games made them both."

Unleashing the Benefits of Coviewing With Minecraft Videos (Matthew Farber / Joan Ganz Cooney Center) "Both Minecraft and YouTube are ubiquitous in today’s children’s media culture. And like millions of other children, my six-year-old son loves to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube. He frequently watches Grian’s how-to-build-it Minecraft videos. He enjoys the silly antics from Pat and Jen of Gaming with Jen, the husband-and-wife team who produce PopularMMOs. And he loves Stampy Cat—but more on Stampy later."

SU&SD Presents: British Board Games 1800-1920, By Holly Nielsen (Holly Nielsen / Shut Up & Sit Down) "Continuing our collection of talks filmed during the V&A’s Board Game Study Day, here’s 15 minutes from journalist and historian Holly Nielsen on the hilarious, horrifying history of British board games."

Steam games in China: Making the most of a lucrative opportunity (Chris Priestman / Gamasutra) "There are now over 15 million Steam users based in China (according to SteamSpy). That makes it the country with the third largest number of Steam account holders, behind only Russia and the USA. Numbers like that should be enough to convince any game developer to make efforts to appeal to the Chinese audience. Yet many don’t."

How Ghosts ’N Goblins helped video games find comedy in failure (Anthony John Agnello / AV Club) "Most games tried to lighten up your failure to soothe the loss. Pac-Man touches a ghost, the music stops, and the game bloops as the little semicircle winks out of existence, vanishing with the last of your extra lives. The sounds are disappointing in tone but fun in execution, enough to make another quarter seem worth it. And in 1985, Ghosts ’N Goblins made failure infuriating but also hilarious, giving video games their very own comedic language."

"Creating an MMORPG that anyone can play": The making of Lineage 2 Revolution (Matt Suckley / PocketGamer.biz) "It's safe to say that Lineage 2 Revolution has been a huge success for Netmarble. On the face of it, this hardcore MMORPG based on a PC title is one that caters to a relatively niche audience. But despite only being available in South Korea, the game hit $100 million in revenues within 18 days - $176 million in a month - powering its developer to an 81% leap in profits."

Clark Tank: Steam user review changes and SimAirport! (Ryan Clark / YouTube) "I'm veteran indie game developer Ryan Clark, and this is the Clark Tank! Every second Friday at 1pm Pacific time we stay on top of the latest game industry trends by examining the Steam top 50, scrutinizing the latest Kickstarted games, and by playing the most prominent recent releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is the second YouTube stream compilation, and is still catching up, but the commentary and analysis in here is still super helpful for devs & interesting to others!]"

From Squadron To Ringleader (Jimmy Maher / The Digital Antiquarian) "European developers remained European, American developers remained American, and the days of a truly globalized games industry remained far in the future. The exceptions to these rules stand out all the more thanks to their rarity. And one of these notable exceptions was Chris Roberts, the young man who would change Origin Systems forever."

The Virtual Life – The Unsettling Humanity Of Nina Freeman's Kimmy (Javy Gwaltney / Game Informer) "Kimmy is a different kind of game from the rest of developer Nina Freeman’s works. Freeman, who now works at Fullbright as a designer on Tacoma, has released a number of personal vignette-like games throughout her career."

The Metal World: Horizon Zero Dawn (Matt Margini / Heterotopias) "In the sleepy suburb of Sydenham, south-east of London, the statues of the Crystal Palace Dinosaur Park stand watch over nothing in particular. By today’s standards they look hilariously inaccurate: the Iguanodon is little more than a fat alligator, while the Megalosaurus looks like one of No Man’s Sky’s misshapen dog-like quadrupeds. [SIMON'S NOTE: watch out for Heterotopias, it's a super-promising new outlet about game worlds - its first zine was in my recent Storybundle, and more zines & more web-exclusive articles are coming!]"

Classic Game Postmortem: Deus Ex (Warren Spector / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC postmortem, acclaimed game designer Warren Spector walks through the development of the 2000 hit game Deus Ex and reflects on some of the key lessons from launching the critically-acclaimed immersive sim."

The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games (Graham Oliver / Electric Lit) "Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,”Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative."

Meet the most honest man in EVE Online (Steven Messner / PC Gamer) "When you're the most trusted person in EVE Online, your reputation has a way of preceding you. For years, the name 'Chribba' felt like an urban legend to me—a man you can trust in a galaxy where the first rule is to trust no one. Inside the Harpa convention center in downtown Reykjavik, I meet Chribba amid the bustle of players gathering for EVE Online's annual Fanfest."

How An Offbeat Video Game Got 100 Japanese Bands To Write Its Soundtrack (Jared Newman / Fast Company) "Let It Die is a game about a mysterious tower in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where players control an emotionless, reanimated corpse, and are guided by a cheery, skateboard-riding grim reaper named Uncle Death. Strange as that sounds, the story behind Let It Die‘s soundtrack is even more unusual."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include a classic Deus Ex postmortem, making Steam games successful in China, and the surprise smash hit Lineage 2 mobile game, among other things.

In particular, I was taken by that piece on the success of Lineage 2: Revolution for mobile - $176 million in a month in South Korea alone? Wow. It's a good reminder that when franchises have fans - and Lineage is gaming royalty in Korea - then startling things can happen.

Oh, and FYI - we opened up registration for our standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this week - happening this September in San Francisco. We've added board members from ILMxLAB and HTC to a stellar set of advisors from Valve, Oculus, Sony, Magic Leap, Microsoft & more. Lots going on in the VR, AR, and mixed reality space, and it's good to have a truly platform-independent show to explore it...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Highlighting History's First Female Game Designers (Manon Hume / Game Informer) "Though it might be difficult today to imagine Uncharted without Amy Hennig or Journey without Robin Hunicke, women in the early days of video games rarely had their time in the limelight. Carol Shaw and Dona Bailey, creators of River Raid and Centipede respectively, were two of the first female game designers in video game history, yet their contributions have often been overlooked… Until now."

Building Worlds in No Man's Sky Using Math(s) (Sean Murray / GDC / YouTube) "No Man's Sky is a science fiction game set in a near infinite procedurally generated universe. In this 2017 GDC talk, Hello Games' Sean Murray describes some of the most important technologies and interesting challenges behind generating both realistic and alien terrains without artistic input, using mathematics."

College Esports Programs Are Growing, But Can They Field a Winning Team? (Will Partin / Glixel) "The doors to University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Cox Arena and Pavilion open at 12, and every seat inside is filled by 12:30. If it weren't for the occasional StarCraft cosplayer or the elaborate apparatus of club lighting enveloping the stage, you could be forgiven for mistaking Heroes of the Dorm for a division one basketball game."

Making Horizon Zero Dawn's Machines feel like living creatures (Willie Clark / Gamasutra) "One of the most memorable features of the recent PlayStation 4 title Horizon Zero Dawn are the sophisticated robots, known as Machines, that wander the game world like a natural part of the landscape. How were these distinctive robot/creatures conceived of and designed? We talked with several devs from Guerrilla Games, the studio behind HZD, to see just what went into the making of the Machines."

Persona 5 deserved better: a translator's take on a subpar script (Molly Lee / Polygon) "I found myself mentally rewriting A LOT of Persona 5. What should be a gripping tale of outcast kids became an outright chore to parse … and I was barely a few hours in. The start of every game is the part that's meant to hook you."

The 15 year quest to mod the mainland into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Luke Winkie / PC Gamer) "It has been said that everyone’s favorite Bethesda game is the first one they play, as if stepping into that freedom for the first time is far more powerful and resonant than any prospective gameplay upgrades or graphical bumps. There’s probably no better proof than the community at Tamriel Rebuilt—a mod that’s been in development since Morrowind’s original release date."

A No Bullshit Conversation With The Authors Behind The Witcher and Metro 2033 (Piotr Bajda / Waypoint) "Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski says he doesn't owe games anything, but Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky thinks games made them both."

Unleashing the Benefits of Coviewing With Minecraft Videos (Matthew Farber / Joan Ganz Cooney Center) "Both Minecraft and YouTube are ubiquitous in today’s children’s media culture. And like millions of other children, my six-year-old son loves to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube. He frequently watches Grian’s how-to-build-it Minecraft videos. He enjoys the silly antics from Pat and Jen of Gaming with Jen, the husband-and-wife team who produce PopularMMOs. And he loves Stampy Cat—but more on Stampy later."

SU&SD Presents: British Board Games 1800-1920, By Holly Nielsen (Holly Nielsen / Shut Up & Sit Down) "Continuing our collection of talks filmed during the V&A’s Board Game Study Day, here’s 15 minutes from journalist and historian Holly Nielsen on the hilarious, horrifying history of British board games."

Steam games in China: Making the most of a lucrative opportunity (Chris Priestman / Gamasutra) "There are now over 15 million Steam users based in China (according to SteamSpy). That makes it the country with the third largest number of Steam account holders, behind only Russia and the USA. Numbers like that should be enough to convince any game developer to make efforts to appeal to the Chinese audience. Yet many don’t."

How Ghosts ’N Goblins helped video games find comedy in failure (Anthony John Agnello / AV Club) "Most games tried to lighten up your failure to soothe the loss. Pac-Man touches a ghost, the music stops, and the game bloops as the little semicircle winks out of existence, vanishing with the last of your extra lives. The sounds are disappointing in tone but fun in execution, enough to make another quarter seem worth it. And in 1985, Ghosts ’N Goblins made failure infuriating but also hilarious, giving video games their very own comedic language."

"Creating an MMORPG that anyone can play": The making of Lineage 2 Revolution (Matt Suckley / PocketGamer.biz) "It's safe to say that Lineage 2 Revolution has been a huge success for Netmarble. On the face of it, this hardcore MMORPG based on a PC title is one that caters to a relatively niche audience. But despite only being available in South Korea, the game hit $100 million in revenues within 18 days - $176 million in a month - powering its developer to an 81% leap in profits."

Clark Tank: Steam user review changes and SimAirport! (Ryan Clark / YouTube) "I'm veteran indie game developer Ryan Clark, and this is the Clark Tank! Every second Friday at 1pm Pacific time we stay on top of the latest game industry trends by examining the Steam top 50, scrutinizing the latest Kickstarted games, and by playing the most prominent recent releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is the second YouTube stream compilation, and is still catching up, but the commentary and analysis in here is still super helpful for devs & interesting to others!]"

From Squadron To Ringleader (Jimmy Maher / The Digital Antiquarian) "European developers remained European, American developers remained American, and the days of a truly globalized games industry remained far in the future. The exceptions to these rules stand out all the more thanks to their rarity. And one of these notable exceptions was Chris Roberts, the young man who would change Origin Systems forever."

The Virtual Life – The Unsettling Humanity Of Nina Freeman's Kimmy (Javy Gwaltney / Game Informer) "Kimmy is a different kind of game from the rest of developer Nina Freeman’s works. Freeman, who now works at Fullbright as a designer on Tacoma, has released a number of personal vignette-like games throughout her career."

The Metal World: Horizon Zero Dawn (Matt Margini / Heterotopias) "In the sleepy suburb of Sydenham, south-east of London, the statues of the Crystal Palace Dinosaur Park stand watch over nothing in particular. By today’s standards they look hilariously inaccurate: the Iguanodon is little more than a fat alligator, while the Megalosaurus looks like one of No Man’s Sky’s misshapen dog-like quadrupeds. [SIMON'S NOTE: watch out for Heterotopias, it's a super-promising new outlet about game worlds - its first zine was in my recent Storybundle, and more zines & more web-exclusive articles are coming!]"

Classic Game Postmortem: Deus Ex (Warren Spector / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC postmortem, acclaimed game designer Warren Spector walks through the development of the 2000 hit game Deus Ex and reflects on some of the key lessons from launching the critically-acclaimed immersive sim."

The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games (Graham Oliver / Electric Lit) "Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,”Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative."

Meet the most honest man in EVE Online (Steven Messner / PC Gamer) "When you're the most trusted person in EVE Online, your reputation has a way of preceding you. For years, the name 'Chribba' felt like an urban legend to me—a man you can trust in a galaxy where the first rule is to trust no one. Inside the Harpa convention center in downtown Reykjavik, I meet Chribba amid the bustle of players gathering for EVE Online's annual Fanfest."

How An Offbeat Video Game Got 100 Japanese Bands To Write Its Soundtrack (Jared Newman / Fast Company) "Let It Die is a game about a mysterious tower in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where players control an emotionless, reanimated corpse, and are guided by a cheery, skateboard-riding grim reaper named Uncle Death. Strange as that sounds, the story behind Let It Die‘s soundtrack is even more unusual."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include a classic Deus Ex postmortem, making Steam games successful in China, and the surprise smash hit Lineage 2 mobile game, among other things.

In particular, I was taken by that piece on the success of Lineage 2: Revolution for mobile - $176 million in a month in South Korea alone? Wow. It's a good reminder that when franchises have fans - and Lineage is gaming royalty in Korea - then startling things can happen.

Oh, and FYI - we opened up registration for our standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this week - happening this September in San Francisco. We've added board members from ILMxLAB and HTC to a stellar set of advisors from Valve, Oculus, Sony, Magic Leap, Microsoft & more. Lots going on in the VR, AR, and mixed reality space, and it's good to have a truly platform-independent show to explore it...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Highlighting History's First Female Game Designers (Manon Hume / Game Informer) "Though it might be difficult today to imagine Uncharted without Amy Hennig or Journey without Robin Hunicke, women in the early days of video games rarely had their time in the limelight. Carol Shaw and Dona Bailey, creators of River Raid and Centipede respectively, were two of the first female game designers in video game history, yet their contributions have often been overlooked… Until now."

Building Worlds in No Man's Sky Using Math(s) (Sean Murray / GDC / YouTube) "No Man's Sky is a science fiction game set in a near infinite procedurally generated universe. In this 2017 GDC talk, Hello Games' Sean Murray describes some of the most important technologies and interesting challenges behind generating both realistic and alien terrains without artistic input, using mathematics."

College Esports Programs Are Growing, But Can They Field a Winning Team? (Will Partin / Glixel) "The doors to University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Cox Arena and Pavilion open at 12, and every seat inside is filled by 12:30. If it weren't for the occasional StarCraft cosplayer or the elaborate apparatus of club lighting enveloping the stage, you could be forgiven for mistaking Heroes of the Dorm for a division one basketball game."

Making Horizon Zero Dawn's Machines feel like living creatures (Willie Clark / Gamasutra) "One of the most memorable features of the recent PlayStation 4 title Horizon Zero Dawn are the sophisticated robots, known as Machines, that wander the game world like a natural part of the landscape. How were these distinctive robot/creatures conceived of and designed? We talked with several devs from Guerrilla Games, the studio behind HZD, to see just what went into the making of the Machines."

Persona 5 deserved better: a translator's take on a subpar script (Molly Lee / Polygon) "I found myself mentally rewriting A LOT of Persona 5. What should be a gripping tale of outcast kids became an outright chore to parse … and I was barely a few hours in. The start of every game is the part that's meant to hook you."

The 15 year quest to mod the mainland into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Luke Winkie / PC Gamer) "It has been said that everyone’s favorite Bethesda game is the first one they play, as if stepping into that freedom for the first time is far more powerful and resonant than any prospective gameplay upgrades or graphical bumps. There’s probably no better proof than the community at Tamriel Rebuilt—a mod that’s been in development since Morrowind’s original release date."

A No Bullshit Conversation With The Authors Behind The Witcher and Metro 2033 (Piotr Bajda / Waypoint) "Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski says he doesn't owe games anything, but Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky thinks games made them both."

Unleashing the Benefits of Coviewing With Minecraft Videos (Matthew Farber / Joan Ganz Cooney Center) "Both Minecraft and YouTube are ubiquitous in today’s children’s media culture. And like millions of other children, my six-year-old son loves to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube. He frequently watches Grian’s how-to-build-it Minecraft videos. He enjoys the silly antics from Pat and Jen of Gaming with Jen, the husband-and-wife team who produce PopularMMOs. And he loves Stampy Cat—but more on Stampy later."

SU&SD Presents: British Board Games 1800-1920, By Holly Nielsen (Holly Nielsen / Shut Up & Sit Down) "Continuing our collection of talks filmed during the V&A’s Board Game Study Day, here’s 15 minutes from journalist and historian Holly Nielsen on the hilarious, horrifying history of British board games."

Steam games in China: Making the most of a lucrative opportunity (Chris Priestman / Gamasutra) "There are now over 15 million Steam users based in China (according to SteamSpy). That makes it the country with the third largest number of Steam account holders, behind only Russia and the USA. Numbers like that should be enough to convince any game developer to make efforts to appeal to the Chinese audience. Yet many don’t."

How Ghosts ’N Goblins helped video games find comedy in failure (Anthony John Agnello / AV Club) "Most games tried to lighten up your failure to soothe the loss. Pac-Man touches a ghost, the music stops, and the game bloops as the little semicircle winks out of existence, vanishing with the last of your extra lives. The sounds are disappointing in tone but fun in execution, enough to make another quarter seem worth it. And in 1985, Ghosts ’N Goblins made failure infuriating but also hilarious, giving video games their very own comedic language."

"Creating an MMORPG that anyone can play": The making of Lineage 2 Revolution (Matt Suckley / PocketGamer.biz) "It's safe to say that Lineage 2 Revolution has been a huge success for Netmarble. On the face of it, this hardcore MMORPG based on a PC title is one that caters to a relatively niche audience. But despite only being available in South Korea, the game hit $100 million in revenues within 18 days - $176 million in a month - powering its developer to an 81% leap in profits."

Clark Tank: Steam user review changes and SimAirport! (Ryan Clark / YouTube) "I'm veteran indie game developer Ryan Clark, and this is the Clark Tank! Every second Friday at 1pm Pacific time we stay on top of the latest game industry trends by examining the Steam top 50, scrutinizing the latest Kickstarted games, and by playing the most prominent recent releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is the second YouTube stream compilation, and is still catching up, but the commentary and analysis in here is still super helpful for devs & interesting to others!]"

From Squadron To Ringleader (Jimmy Maher / The Digital Antiquarian) "European developers remained European, American developers remained American, and the days of a truly globalized games industry remained far in the future. The exceptions to these rules stand out all the more thanks to their rarity. And one of these notable exceptions was Chris Roberts, the young man who would change Origin Systems forever."

The Virtual Life – The Unsettling Humanity Of Nina Freeman's Kimmy (Javy Gwaltney / Game Informer) "Kimmy is a different kind of game from the rest of developer Nina Freeman’s works. Freeman, who now works at Fullbright as a designer on Tacoma, has released a number of personal vignette-like games throughout her career."

The Metal World: Horizon Zero Dawn (Matt Margini / Heterotopias) "In the sleepy suburb of Sydenham, south-east of London, the statues of the Crystal Palace Dinosaur Park stand watch over nothing in particular. By today’s standards they look hilariously inaccurate: the Iguanodon is little more than a fat alligator, while the Megalosaurus looks like one of No Man’s Sky’s misshapen dog-like quadrupeds. [SIMON'S NOTE: watch out for Heterotopias, it's a super-promising new outlet about game worlds - its first zine was in my recent Storybundle, and more zines & more web-exclusive articles are coming!]"

Classic Game Postmortem: Deus Ex (Warren Spector / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC postmortem, acclaimed game designer Warren Spector walks through the development of the 2000 hit game Deus Ex and reflects on some of the key lessons from launching the critically-acclaimed immersive sim."

The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games (Graham Oliver / Electric Lit) "Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,”Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative."

Meet the most honest man in EVE Online (Steven Messner / PC Gamer) "When you're the most trusted person in EVE Online, your reputation has a way of preceding you. For years, the name 'Chribba' felt like an urban legend to me—a man you can trust in a galaxy where the first rule is to trust no one. Inside the Harpa convention center in downtown Reykjavik, I meet Chribba amid the bustle of players gathering for EVE Online's annual Fanfest."

How An Offbeat Video Game Got 100 Japanese Bands To Write Its Soundtrack (Jared Newman / Fast Company) "Let It Die is a game about a mysterious tower in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where players control an emotionless, reanimated corpse, and are guided by a cheery, skateboard-riding grim reaper named Uncle Death. Strange as that sounds, the story behind Let It Die‘s soundtrack is even more unusual."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include a classic Deus Ex postmortem, making Steam games successful in China, and the surprise smash hit Lineage 2 mobile game, among other things.

In particular, I was taken by that piece on the success of Lineage 2: Revolution for mobile - $176 million in a month in South Korea alone? Wow. It's a good reminder that when franchises have fans - and Lineage is gaming royalty in Korea - then startling things can happen.

Oh, and FYI - we opened up registration for our standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this week - happening this September in San Francisco. We've added board members from ILMxLAB and HTC to a stellar set of advisors from Valve, Oculus, Sony, Magic Leap, Microsoft & more. Lots going on in the VR, AR, and mixed reality space, and it's good to have a truly platform-independent show to explore it...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Highlighting History's First Female Game Designers (Manon Hume / Game Informer) "Though it might be difficult today to imagine Uncharted without Amy Hennig or Journey without Robin Hunicke, women in the early days of video games rarely had their time in the limelight. Carol Shaw and Dona Bailey, creators of River Raid and Centipede respectively, were two of the first female game designers in video game history, yet their contributions have often been overlooked… Until now."

Building Worlds in No Man's Sky Using Math(s) (Sean Murray / GDC / YouTube) "No Man's Sky is a science fiction game set in a near infinite procedurally generated universe. In this 2017 GDC talk, Hello Games' Sean Murray describes some of the most important technologies and interesting challenges behind generating both realistic and alien terrains without artistic input, using mathematics."

College Esports Programs Are Growing, But Can They Field a Winning Team? (Will Partin / Glixel) "The doors to University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Cox Arena and Pavilion open at 12, and every seat inside is filled by 12:30. If it weren't for the occasional StarCraft cosplayer or the elaborate apparatus of club lighting enveloping the stage, you could be forgiven for mistaking Heroes of the Dorm for a division one basketball game."

Making Horizon Zero Dawn's Machines feel like living creatures (Willie Clark / Gamasutra) "One of the most memorable features of the recent PlayStation 4 title Horizon Zero Dawn are the sophisticated robots, known as Machines, that wander the game world like a natural part of the landscape. How were these distinctive robot/creatures conceived of and designed? We talked with several devs from Guerrilla Games, the studio behind HZD, to see just what went into the making of the Machines."

Persona 5 deserved better: a translator's take on a subpar script (Molly Lee / Polygon) "I found myself mentally rewriting A LOT of Persona 5. What should be a gripping tale of outcast kids became an outright chore to parse … and I was barely a few hours in. The start of every game is the part that's meant to hook you."

The 15 year quest to mod the mainland into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Luke Winkie / PC Gamer) "It has been said that everyone’s favorite Bethesda game is the first one they play, as if stepping into that freedom for the first time is far more powerful and resonant than any prospective gameplay upgrades or graphical bumps. There’s probably no better proof than the community at Tamriel Rebuilt—a mod that’s been in development since Morrowind’s original release date."

A No Bullshit Conversation With The Authors Behind The Witcher and Metro 2033 (Piotr Bajda / Waypoint) "Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski says he doesn't owe games anything, but Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky thinks games made them both."

Unleashing the Benefits of Coviewing With Minecraft Videos (Matthew Farber / Joan Ganz Cooney Center) "Both Minecraft and YouTube are ubiquitous in today’s children’s media culture. And like millions of other children, my six-year-old son loves to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube. He frequently watches Grian’s how-to-build-it Minecraft videos. He enjoys the silly antics from Pat and Jen of Gaming with Jen, the husband-and-wife team who produce PopularMMOs. And he loves Stampy Cat—but more on Stampy later."

SU&SD Presents: British Board Games 1800-1920, By Holly Nielsen (Holly Nielsen / Shut Up & Sit Down) "Continuing our collection of talks filmed during the V&A’s Board Game Study Day, here’s 15 minutes from journalist and historian Holly Nielsen on the hilarious, horrifying history of British board games."

Steam games in China: Making the most of a lucrative opportunity (Chris Priestman / Gamasutra) "There are now over 15 million Steam users based in China (according to SteamSpy). That makes it the country with the third largest number of Steam account holders, behind only Russia and the USA. Numbers like that should be enough to convince any game developer to make efforts to appeal to the Chinese audience. Yet many don’t."

How Ghosts ’N Goblins helped video games find comedy in failure (Anthony John Agnello / AV Club) "Most games tried to lighten up your failure to soothe the loss. Pac-Man touches a ghost, the music stops, and the game bloops as the little semicircle winks out of existence, vanishing with the last of your extra lives. The sounds are disappointing in tone but fun in execution, enough to make another quarter seem worth it. And in 1985, Ghosts ’N Goblins made failure infuriating but also hilarious, giving video games their very own comedic language."

"Creating an MMORPG that anyone can play": The making of Lineage 2 Revolution (Matt Suckley / PocketGamer.biz) "It's safe to say that Lineage 2 Revolution has been a huge success for Netmarble. On the face of it, this hardcore MMORPG based on a PC title is one that caters to a relatively niche audience. But despite only being available in South Korea, the game hit $100 million in revenues within 18 days - $176 million in a month - powering its developer to an 81% leap in profits."

Clark Tank: Steam user review changes and SimAirport! (Ryan Clark / YouTube) "I'm veteran indie game developer Ryan Clark, and this is the Clark Tank! Every second Friday at 1pm Pacific time we stay on top of the latest game industry trends by examining the Steam top 50, scrutinizing the latest Kickstarted games, and by playing the most prominent recent releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is the second YouTube stream compilation, and is still catching up, but the commentary and analysis in here is still super helpful for devs & interesting to others!]"

From Squadron To Ringleader (Jimmy Maher / The Digital Antiquarian) "European developers remained European, American developers remained American, and the days of a truly globalized games industry remained far in the future. The exceptions to these rules stand out all the more thanks to their rarity. And one of these notable exceptions was Chris Roberts, the young man who would change Origin Systems forever."

The Virtual Life – The Unsettling Humanity Of Nina Freeman's Kimmy (Javy Gwaltney / Game Informer) "Kimmy is a different kind of game from the rest of developer Nina Freeman’s works. Freeman, who now works at Fullbright as a designer on Tacoma, has released a number of personal vignette-like games throughout her career."

The Metal World: Horizon Zero Dawn (Matt Margini / Heterotopias) "In the sleepy suburb of Sydenham, south-east of London, the statues of the Crystal Palace Dinosaur Park stand watch over nothing in particular. By today’s standards they look hilariously inaccurate: the Iguanodon is little more than a fat alligator, while the Megalosaurus looks like one of No Man’s Sky’s misshapen dog-like quadrupeds. [SIMON'S NOTE: watch out for Heterotopias, it's a super-promising new outlet about game worlds - its first zine was in my recent Storybundle, and more zines & more web-exclusive articles are coming!]"

Classic Game Postmortem: Deus Ex (Warren Spector / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC postmortem, acclaimed game designer Warren Spector walks through the development of the 2000 hit game Deus Ex and reflects on some of the key lessons from launching the critically-acclaimed immersive sim."

The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games (Graham Oliver / Electric Lit) "Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,”Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative."

Meet the most honest man in EVE Online (Steven Messner / PC Gamer) "When you're the most trusted person in EVE Online, your reputation has a way of preceding you. For years, the name 'Chribba' felt like an urban legend to me—a man you can trust in a galaxy where the first rule is to trust no one. Inside the Harpa convention center in downtown Reykjavik, I meet Chribba amid the bustle of players gathering for EVE Online's annual Fanfest."

How An Offbeat Video Game Got 100 Japanese Bands To Write Its Soundtrack (Jared Newman / Fast Company) "Let It Die is a game about a mysterious tower in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where players control an emotionless, reanimated corpse, and are guided by a cheery, skateboard-riding grim reaper named Uncle Death. Strange as that sounds, the story behind Let It Die‘s soundtrack is even more unusual."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include a classic Deus Ex postmortem, making Steam games successful in China, and the surprise smash hit Lineage 2 mobile game, among other things.

In particular, I was taken by that piece on the success of Lineage 2: Revolution for mobile - $176 million in a month in South Korea alone? Wow. It's a good reminder that when franchises have fans - and Lineage is gaming royalty in Korea - then startling things can happen.

Oh, and FYI - we opened up registration for our standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this week - happening this September in San Francisco. We've added board members from ILMxLAB and HTC to a stellar set of advisors from Valve, Oculus, Sony, Magic Leap, Microsoft & more. Lots going on in the VR, AR, and mixed reality space, and it's good to have a truly platform-independent show to explore it...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Highlighting History's First Female Game Designers (Manon Hume / Game Informer) "Though it might be difficult today to imagine Uncharted without Amy Hennig or Journey without Robin Hunicke, women in the early days of video games rarely had their time in the limelight. Carol Shaw and Dona Bailey, creators of River Raid and Centipede respectively, were two of the first female game designers in video game history, yet their contributions have often been overlooked… Until now."

Building Worlds in No Man's Sky Using Math(s) (Sean Murray / GDC / YouTube) "No Man's Sky is a science fiction game set in a near infinite procedurally generated universe. In this 2017 GDC talk, Hello Games' Sean Murray describes some of the most important technologies and interesting challenges behind generating both realistic and alien terrains without artistic input, using mathematics."

College Esports Programs Are Growing, But Can They Field a Winning Team? (Will Partin / Glixel) "The doors to University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Cox Arena and Pavilion open at 12, and every seat inside is filled by 12:30. If it weren't for the occasional StarCraft cosplayer or the elaborate apparatus of club lighting enveloping the stage, you could be forgiven for mistaking Heroes of the Dorm for a division one basketball game."

Making Horizon Zero Dawn's Machines feel like living creatures (Willie Clark / Gamasutra) "One of the most memorable features of the recent PlayStation 4 title Horizon Zero Dawn are the sophisticated robots, known as Machines, that wander the game world like a natural part of the landscape. How were these distinctive robot/creatures conceived of and designed? We talked with several devs from Guerrilla Games, the studio behind HZD, to see just what went into the making of the Machines."

Persona 5 deserved better: a translator's take on a subpar script (Molly Lee / Polygon) "I found myself mentally rewriting A LOT of Persona 5. What should be a gripping tale of outcast kids became an outright chore to parse … and I was barely a few hours in. The start of every game is the part that's meant to hook you."

The 15 year quest to mod the mainland into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Luke Winkie / PC Gamer) "It has been said that everyone’s favorite Bethesda game is the first one they play, as if stepping into that freedom for the first time is far more powerful and resonant than any prospective gameplay upgrades or graphical bumps. There’s probably no better proof than the community at Tamriel Rebuilt—a mod that’s been in development since Morrowind’s original release date."

A No Bullshit Conversation With The Authors Behind The Witcher and Metro 2033 (Piotr Bajda / Waypoint) "Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski says he doesn't owe games anything, but Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky thinks games made them both."

Unleashing the Benefits of Coviewing With Minecraft Videos (Matthew Farber / Joan Ganz Cooney Center) "Both Minecraft and YouTube are ubiquitous in today’s children’s media culture. And like millions of other children, my six-year-old son loves to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube. He frequently watches Grian’s how-to-build-it Minecraft videos. He enjoys the silly antics from Pat and Jen of Gaming with Jen, the husband-and-wife team who produce PopularMMOs. And he loves Stampy Cat—but more on Stampy later."

SU&SD Presents: British Board Games 1800-1920, By Holly Nielsen (Holly Nielsen / Shut Up & Sit Down) "Continuing our collection of talks filmed during the V&A’s Board Game Study Day, here’s 15 minutes from journalist and historian Holly Nielsen on the hilarious, horrifying history of British board games."

Steam games in China: Making the most of a lucrative opportunity (Chris Priestman / Gamasutra) "There are now over 15 million Steam users based in China (according to SteamSpy). That makes it the country with the third largest number of Steam account holders, behind only Russia and the USA. Numbers like that should be enough to convince any game developer to make efforts to appeal to the Chinese audience. Yet many don’t."

How Ghosts ’N Goblins helped video games find comedy in failure (Anthony John Agnello / AV Club) "Most games tried to lighten up your failure to soothe the loss. Pac-Man touches a ghost, the music stops, and the game bloops as the little semicircle winks out of existence, vanishing with the last of your extra lives. The sounds are disappointing in tone but fun in execution, enough to make another quarter seem worth it. And in 1985, Ghosts ’N Goblins made failure infuriating but also hilarious, giving video games their very own comedic language."

"Creating an MMORPG that anyone can play": The making of Lineage 2 Revolution (Matt Suckley / PocketGamer.biz) "It's safe to say that Lineage 2 Revolution has been a huge success for Netmarble. On the face of it, this hardcore MMORPG based on a PC title is one that caters to a relatively niche audience. But despite only being available in South Korea, the game hit $100 million in revenues within 18 days - $176 million in a month - powering its developer to an 81% leap in profits."

Clark Tank: Steam user review changes and SimAirport! (Ryan Clark / YouTube) "I'm veteran indie game developer Ryan Clark, and this is the Clark Tank! Every second Friday at 1pm Pacific time we stay on top of the latest game industry trends by examining the Steam top 50, scrutinizing the latest Kickstarted games, and by playing the most prominent recent releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is the second YouTube stream compilation, and is still catching up, but the commentary and analysis in here is still super helpful for devs & interesting to others!]"

From Squadron To Ringleader (Jimmy Maher / The Digital Antiquarian) "European developers remained European, American developers remained American, and the days of a truly globalized games industry remained far in the future. The exceptions to these rules stand out all the more thanks to their rarity. And one of these notable exceptions was Chris Roberts, the young man who would change Origin Systems forever."

The Virtual Life – The Unsettling Humanity Of Nina Freeman's Kimmy (Javy Gwaltney / Game Informer) "Kimmy is a different kind of game from the rest of developer Nina Freeman’s works. Freeman, who now works at Fullbright as a designer on Tacoma, has released a number of personal vignette-like games throughout her career."

The Metal World: Horizon Zero Dawn (Matt Margini / Heterotopias) "In the sleepy suburb of Sydenham, south-east of London, the statues of the Crystal Palace Dinosaur Park stand watch over nothing in particular. By today’s standards they look hilariously inaccurate: the Iguanodon is little more than a fat alligator, while the Megalosaurus looks like one of No Man’s Sky’s misshapen dog-like quadrupeds. [SIMON'S NOTE: watch out for Heterotopias, it's a super-promising new outlet about game worlds - its first zine was in my recent Storybundle, and more zines & more web-exclusive articles are coming!]"

Classic Game Postmortem: Deus Ex (Warren Spector / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC postmortem, acclaimed game designer Warren Spector walks through the development of the 2000 hit game Deus Ex and reflects on some of the key lessons from launching the critically-acclaimed immersive sim."

The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games (Graham Oliver / Electric Lit) "Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,”Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative."

Meet the most honest man in EVE Online (Steven Messner / PC Gamer) "When you're the most trusted person in EVE Online, your reputation has a way of preceding you. For years, the name 'Chribba' felt like an urban legend to me—a man you can trust in a galaxy where the first rule is to trust no one. Inside the Harpa convention center in downtown Reykjavik, I meet Chribba amid the bustle of players gathering for EVE Online's annual Fanfest."

How An Offbeat Video Game Got 100 Japanese Bands To Write Its Soundtrack (Jared Newman / Fast Company) "Let It Die is a game about a mysterious tower in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where players control an emotionless, reanimated corpse, and are guided by a cheery, skateboard-riding grim reaper named Uncle Death. Strange as that sounds, the story behind Let It Die‘s soundtrack is even more unusual."

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