#even if it's clunky and the characters aren't 100% in-character

[rays-of-fire-and-ice]

That feeling when you're SO CLOSE to finishing a fic but you just can't get over that damn hurdle of tying everything together in a way that makes sense and doesn't feel clunky all the while trying to keep characters in-character and not feel like they're acting the way you want them to just to finally finish this story

[mashounen1945]

The Sonic comics' ... everyone (haters, fans, the writer) disappoints the world once more

Hold on tight, people. It's Salty Mashounen Time (with an extra dose of clunky English, written by a momentarily cranky Spanish-speaker).

Here's my attempt at a TL;DR of what happened recently:

The people writing IDW's Sonic comic started doing a bit of "harmless" teasing for gay pairings widely supported by the fandom currently —namely SonicXShadow and WhisperXTangle—, both in the actual comic's pages and outside of them. In the comic itself, they drew a panel showing Whisper and Tangle together and holding hands with a background suspiciously similar to the lesbian pride flag; outside of the comic, in Ian Flynn's personal podcast BumbleKast, he and some friend of his had the idea of celebrating Pride Month by making some sort of 50% parody, 50% serious, 100% hypothetical (officially) "Sonadow Special" where they spent almost half an hour theorizing how a romantic relationship between Sonic and Shadow would probably go in an official Sonic story (they supposedly did it all as simple fans and nothing else, and neither SEGA nor Archie officially had anything to do with this).

Sadly, Sonic fans reacted with all the grace and elegance of English hooligans in the UEFA Euro 2020 final (that is, exactly as expected of them). The bigoted vocal minority (AKA the daily bread in Sonic comics discourse) started harassing Ian Flynn for this, as well as all the shippers of all the pairings that aren't either SonicXShadow or WhisperXTangle. To make matters worse, some fans who aren't bigots or even support one or both of these gay pairings also started harassing Ian Flynn, for various reasons: trying to force him to turn any of these pairings into canon; scolding him because he gave false hope to fans while knowing full well that SEGA would never allow any kind of romance between main and/or recurring minor characters (whether from the video games or from the comic's original cast) to take place in IDW-Sonic; scolding him for actually saying there was officially nothing romantic between Whisper and Tangle in the IDW comic and SonicXShadow wouldn't happen in canon; accusing him of bigotry because that friend starring as his co-host in the BumbleKast had allegedly made a few homophobic remarks at some point in the distant past...

Flynn responded to this whole mess and tried to clarify some things via the following Twitter thread:

I guess I can commend Ian Flynn for coming out and speaking to the fans like this. I'm still very critical of the story he's writing at IDW, and I still disagree at a fundamental level with his vision of the Sonic series and its cast, but he's a good person in the real world (at least as far as he lets the world know over the Internet); he's not a bigot like some Twitter users (of course) are saying, and out of everything he did as head writer of Sonic comics, considering the possibility of including queer characters and/or pairings is one of the very few aspects of his writing I don't have any problem with, and I can understand why it's so difficult for him to have a queer character/pairing materialize in the comic's story (now, if such thing is finally green-lit by both SEGA and IDW, I may have issues later with the idea's execution by Ian Flynn and co. in the story itself, since this already happened with some other good ideas Flynn came up with when he tried to actually put them on the panels of either IDW-Sonic or Archie-Sonic... but that's a different topic).

However, I can't help but feel jaded at him due to the very direct and reckless way he interacts with the fans. There are already arguments to be made for a content creator to maintain some healthy distance from their followers, but this especially applies to Ian Flynn: as someone who spent so much time dealing with the Sonic fandom while writing the comics (and even started his career as a Sonic fanfiction writer himself), he knows very well how neurotic Sonic fans (from any subset of fans) can get. There are also the added challenges that come with trying to introduce queer themes and also trying to get it right on the first try. The desperate thirst of the LGBTQ+ community for good representation in fiction is legendary (and justified since they're on the verge of genocide in the USA and the UK, which includes the very real fear of being not only physically wiped out but also wiped out from the collective memory of the peoples of their respective nations, the Alt-Right has already openly declared "culture war" on them), and on these issues, the old adage "don't make promises you can't keep" is more valid than ever: if you're not guaranteed that both your publishers and the IP owners will allow you to introduce queer themes into your story and also give you the freedom to deal with those themes as you see fit, you shouldn't even leave clues for the audience or put any hints or do any teasing, because the desperate LGBTQ+ audience is always going to take it as a sign that they finally have their representation secured, and then they'll get rightfully angry when that representation never happens or is insufficient or problematic.

All in all, engaging the fandom the way Flynn does is not only highly dangerous in multiple ways, but also some piss-poor PR on a similar level to what you'd normally expect from SEGA themselves. Now he regrets the fandom's reaction, and the fandom certainly sucks for doing crap like this, but to be fair, he should have seen it all coming.

And then there's the terrible long-term effect of this scandal. Due to this kind of reactions from bigoted vocal minorities in the Sonic fandom, the IDW comic had already become quite criticism-proof: any negative opinion is often labelled as "anti-SJW bullcrap" merely because the most vocal haters of Ian Flynn's Sonic stories used to be Alt-Right nutjobs, neck-bearded InCels living in their parents' basement and secretly (or not so secretly) lusting over female anthropomorphic animals, and reactionary conservatives absurdly nostalgic for Ken Penders. But now, IDW-Sonic will be seen more than ever as an unquestionable piece of top-class literature comparable to Sophocles's most iconic plays, thus worsening this "echo chamber" thing going on both among the fans and between them and the comic's writers.

I try not to believe in conspiracy theories, but a part of me is starting to think all of this was partially staged at least: perhaps Flynn realized the way he was writing the story for IDW-Sonic was alienating a lot of fans from multiple, pretty varied subsets, and now those fans could actually provide some reasonable arguments to back up their criticism rather than some predictable homophobic/misogynistic rant; maybe he genuinely thought IDW-Sonic is the best thing he ever wrote and even one of the best stories of its genre, so he just ignored all those readers he lost and focused on the readers he still has, or he agreed with some of that constructive criticism from disappointed fans and wanted to stop writing the comic like this (he does occasionally tone Sonic's "jerkiness" down for a few comic issues, before toning it back up for the next big crisis in the story) but SEGA had already grown fond of the "self-righteous asshole" Sonic, his hypocritical friends and the "bafflingly incompetent super-genius" Eggman created by Flynn for the IDW comic; in any case, Flynn could have amped up the "technically not official" gay innuendos in the actual comic and his podcast in order to get a reaction out of those few bigots in the fandom (and also to get a reaction out of hardcore shippers, who are another vocal minority of Sonic fans with their own issues), then let his readers' blind devotion and the Sonic fandom's paranoia do the rest, making any potential critic of IDW-Sonic be dismissed as either "pro-shipper obsession" or "just the same miserable crap as the Far-Right weirdos" or even both.

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

PS:

If you still feel like going out on the Internet and calling into question any of Ian Flynn's or his crew's artistic/writing choices (either in their role as official Sonic content creators or in any other "informal" situation such as their podcasts, social media accounts and personal forums), feel free to do so (as long as you try to do constructive criticism and aren't bigoted or too disrespectful, of course) but forget about invoking "Sonic Team's original vision", or pointing out any difference between the IDW comic and other pieces of official Sonic content, or pointing out incongruences between the IDW comics and the videogames of whose stories it's supposed to be a continuation, or anything like that. Some purist fans like to imagine SEGA and Sonic Team are the guardians of good/accurate portrayals, but that's just not true and was probably never true: either they don't give a damn about how Sonic is portrayed in the West anymore, or they do care, but they totally allow and endorse —either by action or omission— the current Western Sonic content (along with this sort of comeback of the infamous planned differentiation between Japanese source material and localized Western versions), regardless of whether they do so by action or omission; for all intents and purposes, the "bastardized" Western version of Sonic, whether or not you like it more than Japanese "original" Sonic, is currently part of Sonic Team's artistic vision as much as the videogames made in Japan are (IIRC, I've already talked about this in a previous post shortly before the release of Sonic Frontiers).

In any case, most of the fandom was always wrong in one way or another about Ian Flynn and his dynamic with SEGA: contrary to what his fans may think, any flaws of the IDW comic ain't due to Flynn and his co-writers' creativity being held down by SEGA or its mandates, and contrary to what purist fans may think, he's not irreparably ruining Sonic forever (at least, not as far as SEGA and Sonic Team are concerned).

[angelosearch]

My initial screaming thoughts on the Avatar the Last Air Bender live action remake on Netflix. Spoilers for eps 1-4 below, will watch 5-8 later today probably.

I want to hug this casting director and also ask them how they pulled the chacters straight out of the cartoon and made them real.

IROH IS SO GOOD OMG

Lol wow the dialogue is really leaving nothing up to the imagination. Exposition exposition exposition. Get why they are doing it this way but it gets reeeeeally clunky sometimes.

We must say the exact number of years that everything has happened and everyone's age

hope line in ep 1 is straight out of Ember Island Players

WOW THE BENDING

WOW THE FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY

The ostrich horses are chocobos and I am not taking any questions

😭 The airbender genocide is horrifying (as it should be)

Animals are a tad uncanny valley but I am okay with it

I appreciate that they kept so much of the original music even though it feels a little out of place for something live action

The tone is much more mature. The themes are different in a good way - they haven't changed much of what exists in the canon, just shifted focus. Adult side characters are getting more story. Stakes feel higher. Violence! Grittiness!

Firebenders are really fucking evil so they need to balance it with more morally gray/evil earthbenders and more upfront sympathy/development for Iroh and Zuko

This show could be enjoyable to someone who has never seen the cartoon before but it is definitely written for us, those who had our hearts broken by the movie

Sokka is not overtly sexist and honestly I'm okay with it. I like that arc for him in the animated tv show but with the tone of the live action, he couldn't just be funny sexist, he would have to be dark sexist and that just wouldn't be Sokka. Plus I like how they focus more on Sokka's sense of duty because it creates a good foil for Aang.

I was never really a big Sokka/Suki shipper but DAMN.

KYOSHI PLEASE STEP ON ME ALL I REALLY WANNA BE A GIANT WOMAN OMG THEY TOOK STUFF FROM THE BOOKS

I am getting more Zutara vibes rn than Katara/Aang idk

Okay they are condensing the plot but in really smart ways. We aren't losing much.

The set design. The costuming. SO PERFECT. Ohmashu looked great.

DANIEL PUDI AAAAHHHHHHHH

THE. CABBAGE. MERCHANT. 10/10 IT'S THE VOICEACTOR THEY CAST HIM IN THE LIVE ACTION

they mention secret tunnels. Are they gonna do it? Are they gonna keep it in?? YEEEESSSS FUCK YES OKAY THIS REMAKE IS AMAZING

I really like how they made the tunnels about sibling love tbh

Utkarsh Ambudkar disappears into the role of Bumi and it is SO GOOD

Me: *cries as Zuko comforts Iroh at Lu Ten's funeral* My husband: "Wait, listen to the music" Me: *listens* *lays down* *CRIES A LOT*

This show is very focused on showing what a 100 year war does to people and I think that was a good direction to take

Overall I am VERY happy with it. They understood the assignment, there is a ton of love for the show weaved into it, and I am excited to see more.

[jayahult]

The Fatigue Of Enclosed Open Worlds and Their Antidotes: A Short Essay

I've been thinking about open world games a bit lately and what goes into them. Because open world games have been sort of the "it thing" in video games for quite a while, certainly the thing to do in the prestige AAA development scene. When consoles launch, you don't just show off new physics and improved graphics, you show off how the console can do all that with a massive "open world" that a player can run around in freely. The thing about this is that once you start really looking at these open worlds, you start to become very aware of how formulaic, how actually enclosed they really are.

People have come up with a lot of names for this. I personally would like to call it the Ubisoft-Bethesda open world model. You give the player a character with some limited starting abilities or inventory. You give them an open check to explore the map and look around - but you also effectively give them a checklist of objectives the may complete. You give concrete, but small rewards for completing these objectives - nothing so big that it risks breaking game balance or the intended progression - and tell the player that they can go for them. You can really see this sort of design take off in Far Cry 3 and Skyrim. The thing is that this sort of design also tends to create sameyness in these checklists. Any open world game - really any game period, but open world games in particular can suffer from this - is going to need to reuse assets and design elements or else the dev cost skyrockets. Once you've beat one draugr tomb in Skyrim, you're going to kind of get the deal with the rest of the draugr tombs in Skyrim. On repeat playthroughs - something encouraged by a lot of RPGs - there's not a lot of desire to replay these samey dungeons / outposts / encounters and the player would only do because 1) they're doing 100% completion 2) they want to recreate the first playthrough in some way 3) there's a specific item they want or 4) the area is required for main story progression.

Related to this is how you actually interact with these areas. Combat is often the primary gameplay verb of this sort of game because it lends itself well to satisfying repetitive gameplay; it's a design space that is well-understood by developers and extremely legible to players who are familiar with games in general. The problem is that there is only so much a good combat loop can do before it gets boring, particularly if you're facing off against the same sorts of enemies in the same sorts of areas the whole time. Even Elden Ring, which was critically acclaimed for avoiding a lot of these issues, suffers from this fatigue in the late game. There have been some other attempts to get across some variety in this sort of game. Cyberpunk 2077, clunky and plagued by problems as it is, has some interesting things going on here. There seems to have been a real attempt to differentiate out encounters by the area you're in by having different areas be controlled by different gangs. They often have distinctive musical themes. Enemy chatter and tactics also vary by gang. One group primarily speaks Japanese; another primarily speaks Spanish; the Animals and Maelstrom gangs can be told apart because they all have heavily synthesized voices. The results aren't enough to eliminate that sameyness but they are enough to make the player take notice.

What comes across - what I feel like people are increasingly feeling - is a fatigue with this sort of open world design. They are seeing the cracks in the system, that there isn't really an immersive open world where they can do anything but a tightly enclosed one where the designers have prescribed a set of check listed activities that, at the end of the playthrough, may feel like busywork or wasted time. Yeah, you can climb that mountain and get a cool reward; yeah, you can go all over the map; but there's nothing in Fallout 4 where you can just say "fuck my son, I'm becoming a raider and I'm going to rule the Commonwealth like some kind of postapocalyptic Genghis Khan." You can't say "I want to establish a new, separate state based off the principles of Enver Hoxha, just slamming down impractical bunkers everywhere for reasons that are not entirely clear." Because that's not in the prescribed play-space for the devs - the amount of effort required to provide structure for that sort of game would be insane!

So, more and more, I think devs are looking at previous eras of game design before the open world era. Some of this is definitely percolating up from the indie scene. Over the past couple of years we've seen an explosion of games that base themselves in the styles of the PS1-PS2 era alongside the continued proliferation of pixel art. That isn't just in terms of graphics, though. Mission based design, old-school survival horror design, boomer shooters, Metroidvanias and more have all been increasingly popular for a reason. You can design a very tight, interesting experience on a small budget. You don't need to spend so much on QA or bug-testing because instead of looking at a several-kilometer wide map for gaps in collision detection, you can look at a single mission where a player is confined to a couple dozen interconnected rooms. Even if there are bugs or exploits that could break progression, that's not necessarily a bad thing; speedrunning and exploit communities can really get into the nitty-gritty of that stuff and make a fanbase around it! You don't need to worry as much about gameplay that gets stale at the 40 hour mark of a 60 hour game if a player can get 100% completion in 20 hours. And this is floating upwards. Hi-Fi Rush is a huge proof of concept that if a game has solid, well-thought out gameplay, a good set of missions, and a good amount of charm people will buy it like hotcakes, and it'll be for a fraction of the budget of almost any open world title. Frankly, I'm pretty excited by this trend and hope it continues to give us more interesting and innovative titles as these spaces are plumbed more with modern technology.

That said, there is a question: where do open world games go? Because there is still that appeal, that desire to see a game where it really feels like you can go anywhere and do anything. The technology for that kind of game is here, but the actual kinds of gameplay and the limitations that it imposes are large. There are titles that live up more to the open world promise, but they actually end up being pretty niche because most players are used to and like more structure being present in their games.

There are games like Dwarf Fortress, for example. I'd argue that Dwarf Fortress is sort of the grand-daddy of this style of game. Instead of a really specific objective, there are two general modes of play in DF: fortress and adventurer. In Fortress, you control a group of dwarves making a new settlement. It's a citybuilder, but there aren't many metrics for a good or bad city besides "whatever goals the player sets for themselves." If you want to make a fortress where everyone is safe and happy in the middle of a resplendent natural paradise where the primary economy is unicorn husbandry, the game accommodates that. If you want a intimidating fortress of black obsidian walls next to a volcano in a land where it rains blood that revives the dead as zombies, the game also accommodates that, and everything in-between. Adventurer is closer to a classic roguelike, but still stands out for how open and dynamic it can be.

Another descendant would be Kenshi. Kenshi is one of those games that is almost intoxicatingly fresh in terms of visual style. It's not pure good graphics, it's pretty graphically primitive, but but the style and art design immediately makes it stand out. It's a science fantasy world, but it's anything but standard. Things are semi-feudal but lost high technology is out there; hell, one of the standard character creation options is a "skeleton" who is actually a very advanced robot. All sorts of strange, totally alien animals roam the landscape, and the landscapes themselves are legitimately alien themselves. There are waterlogged lowlands where it only rains acid and the rivers will burn you alive. Deserts where there are regular dust storms and hostile bandits prowl the countryside in search of prey. Towns filled with strange but friendly insect-people who make their living farming hashish. You can watch as the various factions in the world go to war, guards fending off bandits and criminals, hunters facing down dangerous wildlife; you can watch scavengers pick after the remains. You get the distinct feeling that if the player character was removed, the world would get on just fine without them. History would continue to happen, people would continue to live and fight and die and have their stories told and the world would never be the wiser of your existence. That said, the player can also massively change the world. They can wipe out other factions, start their own, establish new settlements; they can go it alone or in a small party, a drifter going from town to town, changing things in little ways.

And this openness does leave the game open to all sorts of exploits, but those exploits feel... earned for the player and require a knowledge of the game's in-depth systems to really get at and have fun with. For example there's a very popular video series by ambiguousamphibian on Youtube where he starts as a quadruple amputee - no arms, no legs. From there, he works his way up to get prosthetic robot limbs, eventually finding a set that lets him sprint extremely fast. After this, he makes a realization. Around the areas where it constantly rains acid, there are ferocious, animals called beak things that also happen to have extremely valuable eggs. They're too big and powerful for him to fight... but he doesn't need to fight them. With his robotic limbs min-maxed, he can run at just under 45 miles per hour; beak things are fast, but they aren't able to run at highway speeds. He outpaces them, kites them around away from their nests like a sheepdog and then dives in to grab the valuable eggs and sell them for massive profit. Is that an exploit, a use of mechanics not intended by the designers? Well, maybe, but on the other hand, so what? It's a single player game where there is no set end goal! Instead of a samey dungeon experience, the player gets a unique and immersive story from the emergent systems of the game about the crazy bastard who refitted his prosthetic legs so that he could outrun this universe's equivalent to a hippopotamus to steal their babies to turn a neat profit. And Dwarf Fortress, and similar games have that same dynamic, where instead of a samey experience you can get these crazy emergent stories that other games can't really replicate.

I actually have a fun personal example of this. Rimworld is a game based in the same tradition of Dwarf Fortress as a citybuilder / colony sim. Early on, one of my colonists lost part of her leg, leaving her in a pretty nasty position. To mitigate this, I set the group's primary crafter (who was also her lover) to start making prosthetic limbs for her. The first couple ones were kinda crappy, though, because she was still new at the crafting thing. The end result was this really cute romance where you had one part of the couple who had this horrible injury, and the other who worked hard to learn how to best create a prosthetic limb for her so that she could have a better life. That's a story I couldn't necessarily get from other titles with structured plots, and it was mostly shaped by the emergent systems of the game and not the hand of a writer or designer, and I think that's actually really cool and neat.

In conclusion, even if the enclosed open world design is (hopefully) on the decline, I think there's still a place for creative open world games. They just have to be very aware of their position in the world and how the greatest strength of many open worlds is not any single element of gameplay, but emergent storytelling from the interaction of many mechanical elements. That'll make the "emergent open world game" a mostly niche phenomena, but one that often attracts devoted and unique fanbases that are still profitable and rewarding for dev effort. I just hope that niche phenomena doesn't get thrown out with the bathwater of more bog-standard AAA open world games.

[knightsofsomethingorother]

Right so. Before ANYTHING... you need to see the intro to this show.

Let it sink in. Bask in it. Writhe in it.

Okay now that that's out of the way, our story starts with a stupidly long and slow 'battle' between these dudes...

And Camelot which only has 3 people in it.

Merlin, Womanlady, and Guinevere. Anyway Guinevere's kidnapped by a bird man. Roll with it.

He knocks Merlin over and then everyone fucks off.

What, did you expect more? That's what happens. THAT'S ALL THAT FUCKING HAPPENS. YOU DON'T GET MORE.

So anyway, the question is... where the fuck is everybody. And there's an answer. Turns out Arthur and the Questy Boys all got locked in the... Let me check my notes here... 'Cave of Glass'. What is that? I don't know! I hope we find out though.

Anyway.

Merlin monologues at the round table for a wee bit, filling the audience in on all of that, then Nimue shows up, tells him what to do and then he reaches through time to summon... reincarnations..? Alternate versions..? A group of Dudes where two people are named 'Arthur' and 'Lance'. Some destiny something I don't really care about. But what do I care about?

AMERICAN FOOT BAAALLLLLL!

AMERICAN FOOTBALL.

So number 12 up there who just scored the Winning Touchdown there is Arthur. Or new Arthur, at least. His name is Arthur King and I am dead on the inside. He's the special boy, I'm to assume.

Anyway they win the game and then this group of VERY CLEARLY HIGH SCHOOL BOYS drive a BUS on their OWN to NEW YORK CITY.

In this bus we get to see the rest of the team.

So uh... This came out in '92. There is a Single Asian Character and Two Black Characters. We will see how well the series treats them but so far the Asian guy has talked once and he's a nerd who likes Museum and only one of the black guys has spoken and his name is 'Tone' and he talks like a black guy named tone in a 1990s cartoon would talk so... Hopes aren't high.

Anyway this UNSUPERVISED FOOT BALL TEAM OF HIGH SCHOOL BOYS DRIVING A BUS ON THEIR LONESOME are 100 miles from New York and a storm is moving in. Arthur King (hghghhg) tells the kid driving to take a shortcut he just so happens to know.

Sidenote. This is my favorite guy. I've decided already. This is also a good time to say that aside from Arthur and Lance there are no other allusions to actual Knights of the Round Table. Not even indirectly. Thank CHRIST.

Anyway they eat shit and fall down a cliff for like 3 full minutes and end up in Camelot.

I need to say that I WISH I knew how to make Youtube Poops because this is a fucking GOLDMINE. Every other line read is just... Mwah. Perfection. They don't sound human. They sounds like AI before AI was a thing.

So they end up in Camelot. Get some new clothes. Merlin sends them to fight some guys. They're down with it and don't really object. They fight some guys. All the while the football boys are talking about AMERICAN GODDAMN FOOTBAAAAALLLLL. The end.

Sound rushed? That's because it is! This is a clunky trainwreck and if I was a wee bab in the year 1992 I wouldn't be interested in this at all. The only character I like thus far is Bus Boy who I will call Bus Boy from here on out because I refuse to use his actual name who is the only Guy with like... a likeable personality (so far). His voice actor is also doing a really good job and that does go a long way. The football team just kind of accept shit immediately with little pushback and that's just not compelling. Plus most of the runtime is dedicated to Merlin expositing stuff at us. It's not over-the-top campy and it's not FUN. At least not yet. They've got 25 more episodes to be fun.

Also is this design for one of the baddies racist?

Yeah so in summary 2 AMERICAN FOOTBALLS out of 5

[baku-usagi]

I found DA: Origins a hard game to get into. I hate the “when does it get good” sentiment but, is there a point where it really picks up, or am I just impatient?

Oh man thank you for this ask anon I love the opertunities to talk about this game more. I guess it just depends on what you're looking for? Personally for me it was really good from the jump, I know a lot of people think it picks up better after the battle at ostagar. The game could certainly use a remake for the clunky aspects of game play that make certain story elements drag between eachother, but the actual Relationships you get to cultivate with these characters through out, and the importance you as the pc feel are unmatched. The relationships develop slower and more naturally I think.

I feel like a lot of modern games run on instant gratification, origins wasn't really one of those games, it did take time. And build up to truly feel gratified at what you'd completed, but for me every step of the way was fun.

I also personally play as a mage more then not and I love love love the power you feel as you level Up. All three games wave around this idea that mages are terrifyingly strong, but only origins really gave me that satisfaction.

There is a scene in later game, where you're pretty much meant to lose the fight and go to jail, a jail break ensues and honestly it's super fun, but you can actually beat this fight.

It's one of the hardest Fights in game since you're getting swarmed and are meant to go down, I think I had strategy mode open the whole time just about But I was able to unleash massive hurricanes of fire and Ice and cause earth quakes and I beat this very unbeatable fight with my mage. It was so fun and I haven't enjoyed playing a mage even half as much in DA two or inquisition.

At the end of the day I'll be 100% honest, dragon age origin is unfortunately locked by the graphics and game play of its time, which are slow. I personally enjoyed those things, I enjoyed the slow build and the working hard for every level and getting to strategize. I loved the organic relationship, I cried harder then I've ever cried over a video game by the end when you're preparing for your last battle and all of your companions tell you how much you mean to them, because at that point, with the hours put in, and the attempts at their approval which was much harder to get but much more rewarding, they truly meant something to me to.

In a point of loneliness in life, I had friends in these little lines of code, friends who'd seen the worst of things with me, who'd protected me.

If you become. Good enough friends with sten during end game he tried to pull you to safety from a necessary cut scene, and has to be held back by other npcs,

But I know the clunky slow movement, and the auto firing your basic attacks and what not can get boring or just not satisfying for many.

The codex, the puzzles, the almost human feeling of the enemies you fight including many demons you actually get to have conversations with rather then just murder on spot are some things that make this game feel so much more real.

There aren't any heart shaped dialog wheel options or red purple or Blue, you just say what you authentically mean

You can play with empathy, with anger, with diplomacy but you can also play in between.

And sometimes that diplomatic statement ends up doubling as a flirt,

Or that sarcastic remark wins the heart of Alistair.

The companions will actually pursue you of there own accord if you've gotten enough approval from them, and flirted enough.

The enemies, even the demons, house a feeling of Nuance, where you can almost sympathize at times. Everything makes sense and is congruent and tied in to itselve. Your companions cut in more on conversations you have with just about anyone, they're so full of life and personality and not just waiting for you to make something happen. You can also talk to your companions anywhere and not just at camp, I super miss that.

You have a dog after the battle at ostagar! He's loyal and he loves you and you can have your companions interact with him

My dog actually just passed about two and a half weeks ago now. And he always looked like the mabari hound dog in origins to me. I have a save file floating around with my Grey wardens dog being named nek after my dog. Last living nek there is now! So it's a bit sentimental to me too!

Anyway, I completely wouldn't hold it against you if you cant get Through the game, I would urge you to try, take it slow, don't expect gratification to be quick but know that it's worth it, learn and use strategy mode! It's a role play so make up little canons for your character and what their past was, build off the story you've been given, it's a power fantasy for me, you get to come up from whatever back ground and be something, you get to do something good.

Worst case, maybe watch someone play through the full game so you an still get the organic lore and characters feel without the frustration of being behind the controls!

Sorry for the long answer this game just means so much to me I could go for house and many many pages haha

[inbetweenknacksandnooks]

Rules

DNI If you're homophobic transphobic, or a man.

I'm only going to be writing for characters I'm comfortable with writing. Any characters in red on my masterlists are characters I won't write for. I might eventually be able to write for them, as the main thing that might be putting me off might just be a lack of knowledge about them, personality-wise, backstory-wise, or otherwise. So while a character might be in the red as of now, that doesn't mean it'll be like that forever.

I will NOT write for male characters from any of the fandoms I'm in.

Likewise, I also WON'T be writing for M!Reader ever.

I can't do X OCs, and will instead do X Readers. If your OC has a specific quirk, or something unique that you want me to translate into my writing (ex: you have an OC that's a really bossy Halovian with black wings and is a "bad singer" and you want them to be shipped with Robin) then make it less specific. Like say something like, "Could you do a Bossy!Reader X Robin and throw in how their first date would go?" or something along those lines. Basically, narrow down your OC, and disguise it as a Reader request. This rule is primarily put in place so that others who decide to read don't feel alienated because it's too specific.

I'm absolutely chill with angst of nearly-all kinds of angst, though I might be a bit rusty. However, I won't do suicide angst, angst of active abuse (angst reflecting on past abuse is fine, though). My angst needs to have a happy/non-sad ending no matter the kind.

Smut-Specific Rules

DO NOT REQUEST SMUT OF CHARACTERS I'VE LABELED IN PURPLE

Nothing with typically-gross fetishes or kinks (p!ss, feces, r@pe, CnC, I personally can't do anal, so I won't.), but I'm fine with lighter stuff (foodplay, BDSM, temperature play and similar stuff)

Don't expect top-tier stuff

I usually prefer for my p0rn to have a plot. Not necessary to put it into the request, but it's heavily advised, so that I'll know where to go and so that I'll have more ideas on what to do.

If you're not sure what's allowed, then just ask me.

Not really rules, just warnings on how I write.

I'll usually be writing for GN!Reader, Fem!Reader, or AFAB!Reader. I can probably write for MtF!Reader, but I'm not trans myself, so it'll probably be clunky and noticeably off for me to write for that if it's a steamy scene.

I'll likely only do smut if it's requested. If I do write smut, I'll mostly be focusing on the thoughts and feelings of the Reader character, rather than sensations or what exactly is happening.

I don't tend to make the Reader very generic in terms of their reactions, or backstories (if they have them). They aren't exactly my self-insert, it's just that I find it fun to think up some backstory or other scenarios the Reader has been in. Just pretend it's an RP or something and roll with it. If you want me to avoid doing this, you can put something in with your request.

My main strengths are headcanons, and fanfics. Drabbles are not my strong-suit because making something 100 words or less makes me sad (Booo! Get off of Tumblr, Nack!). I get that non-drabble works are not for everyone, so the closest thing you'll get to it would be my headcanons.

If I do angst I need it to have a happy ending. You have been warned.

You CAN request multiples. You can even request more than 3! However, keep in mind, that if it gets beyond 5 characters I WILL split the post into parts so that they can all be detailed and nice-looking.

With all of that sorted and out of the way, I hope you enjoy this blog!

[whereonceiwasfire]

Alright, I've been musing on The Writing Thing™ and at the request of literally nobody, I'm going to just ramble something I've been thinking about here. Disclaimer: I have one brain cell (and he's a-tired), and I'm pretty much of the mind that like, do what you want. If words are on the page, congrats, you've succeed at writing. That said, here goes, welcome to The Innerworkings of My Brain, and proceed at your own risk.

So, I kind of just think a lot of writing advice ends up boiling down to the fact that writers can get in our own way by trying too hard to convey something very specific to readers. While, of course, part of the point of writing is to paint a specific word picture, I also think there's something to be said for letting that go a little bit. Making your peace with the fact that, most of the time, readers probably aren't going to imagine/picture/experience exactly what you want them to when they're reading. I am 95% sure that every setting, character, or description I have ever read was not intended to look the way they do in my head. Part of that is because I have the attention span of an overcaffeinated hamster and will just picture something immeadiately upon its introduction in the text (and continue to picture that throughout, actual desciptions be damned). But part of that is also because there's ambuiguity in language. And that's okay. Freeing even. Dare I say, kind of magic? The idea that we could all enjoy the same story, go on the same journey, love the same characters, but that, for each person who reads, a new, subtle variation of this experience now exists? It's little universes. And why would you want to stifle that?

How does this apply to writing advice, you ask? So glad you brought that up, since I was getting distacted.

Basically, I feel like so many of those pedantic things that get critqued with writing "shoulds" are naturally addressed when we get more comfortable with ambiguity. For example, take clunky, awkward, or over description. These things tend to be a result of just trying too hard to create a very specific picture in readers' heads. You want them to know exactly what the layout of this room is, precisely what the character looks like, specifically what this random gesture they're making is, definitively what move/attack they just used on their enemy, etc. More often than not (though, again, it's not a one-size-fits-all thing, do what you do, and if it works, it works), I think these awkward/over descriptions tend to be hard to follow and slow the pacing down because we're taking such time to focus on something that probably isn't that necessary to make the story go. And isn't it kind of awesome actually that we can be satisfied with giving vague structure to some of these things, and letting readers fill in the blanks, instead of feeling like the fabric of this reality we're creating will break down if we don't describe things 100% perfectly? If we can't convery exactly what this random, shadowy, wirthing portal into the nether dimension looks like? I don't know, maybe I just think so because I'm lazy.

But truly, I think some of the most powerful descriptions are ones that don't even tell you what exactly you're looking at, it tells you what that Thing makes character Feel. "Her lips were red as cheap merlot and I ached to drink to the dregs", "He looked like too many late nights and a hundred bad decisions", blah blah blah, *insert less tropey and cliche example here.* Regardless, what I'm getting at is that a dozen different readers will probably picture a dozen different shades of red lipstick in that first example, no matter how many sentences you devote to describing it, but that's not really the point, is it? The point is that Character wants to kiss the crap out of them.

Likewise, I think this is part of the reason fight scenes can be such a struggle. You want to show exactly what's going on, how Character A is dodging Character B's attacks, each parry and thrust of the sword, etc., etc. However, a real fight is fast, and adrenaline-fuelled, and disorienting, and ask anyone involved to recount what happened afterward, and they probably won't do a great job of it. You lose so much of that urgency, that confusion, that chaos, when you focus on trying to get readers to imagine exactly the perfectly choreographed fight scene you have plotted out, beat for beat, step for step. Which, like, fair. You put a lot of effort into making that scene exciting and dynamic. But I think a lot of the time that's not the pont of the scene, the point is "omg, they're in a fight!" Giving up some of that control and being free to make a fight scene a bit choatic and overwhelming, focuing on the sensations and the ways this fight impacts Character and Story, is often going to make the read so much stronger. Leave some of those fussy details to the individual readers to interpretat since chances are good they were going to do that anyway.

Also, as another example, the whole, oft repeated "show don't tell" advice relies hugely on being okay with readers perceiving subtle things differently. Sure, maybe you want readers to get that your character is sad, and while you can come out and tell them Character A is sad, showing Character A being subdued and quiet instead, forcing a tight smile when addressed, swallowing hard, dismissing themselves from others as quickly as possible, etc., gives you so much more to work with and brings the reader in on the experience. But that means being okay with the fact that maybe some people aren't going to track this as "sad." Maybe they're going to think Character A is upset with the characters they're not talking to, maybe they're going to think Character A is angry instead, maybe they're going to read grief where you meant remorse. And maybe that's okay, because maybe there's a little bit of all of that going on underneath the surface, or maybe it'll become clear later as more of the story happens, or maybe it's just really not that important that the reader gets that the character is "sad" maybe they just need to know that the character is feeling something.

And, in the end, no matter how hard you try to make something you've written exact and specific and yours (the themes, the story, the characters, the setting, the world, the magic, whatever), the second you put that into someone else's hands, it's theirs now too. It comes alive, it changes, it grows, it breathes, and I think, just, let it. Working within that ambiguity, letting the story be something that can exist outside the confines of the words you've written it with, that's powerful, and when we use that to inform our writing, I think it's just naturally stronger.

So...yeah! I guess we're here now, the end of the ramble. Not really sure what to do with that, so, I'll just like, see you all next time?

Signed, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Fanfic Writer

[literaticat]

How do your clients improve their writing skills? Seems like a lot of picture book classes are full of "how to get published" or "how to find an agent" and not so much on the craft of writing. Any suggestions?

I've said it before (and lots of people don't believe me but hey) -- in MY opinion, the best thing you can do if you want to write picture books (or any kind of book actually):

Go to the bookstore and/or library.

Read at least 100 books in your chosen category that have been published in the last five years.

Make general notes on them in a notebook or spreadsheet -- who are the publishers/imprints? Did they work for you, general impressions, style of art, whatever.

(I suggest also taking a look at Writing with Pictures by Uri Shulevitz; though it is somewhat dated perhaps in some of the technological parts, the storytelling parts and dummy parts etc are still excellent).

Take your top, say, 10-15 favorites from that bunch of 100 to be Mentor Texts. Buy copies of those. STUDY them. Dissect them. Why do they work? HOW do they work? Are there things they have in common? Are there ways the art and text interact?

Type out JUST the text -- what does it look like with NO pictures? How long is it? Do you notice how the author has probably left room for the illustrator to interpret in their own way? How do the page turns work, ie, WHY have they chosen to break up the text in this way? etc. (You can probably find info online about how to study mentor texts specifically!) Are there principles you see that you can apply to your OWN writing? (Not plots or characters, obviously).

Now -- PRACTICE WRITING. Get a critique partner or group. Edit each other's work. Practice some more. And when you have some texts you feel are strong -- practice dummying them out -- even if you aren't an illustrator, just for your own use! This is really important! DON'T WORRY, you never have to show anybody! There are templates available online and lots of ways you can do it, but doing this, whether as thumbnails on a big piece of paper, or folding up a little blank book , will help you SEE in a real way whether or not your PB is viable, or clunky, or too long, or what.

Do you see dynamic page turns, as you probably noticed in your mentor texts? Does the text actually lay out correctly in the number of pages you have, or do you end up with way too much text in one place? Are you describing things that will be in the pictures, or are you leaving room for the illustrator to interpret?

Congratulations, you just gave yourself an MFA, for very little money. (Yes, it is a fairly significant time investment -- but then, so is an MFA. It does take time to learn things.)

[problemswithbooks]

I agree that this would be a mature (and preferable) way but it’s best to accept that hori is going to go for redemption with dabi alive. Just to prepare oneself you know?

Oh, I'm prepared for whatever ending Dabi gets, and fully know it won't he satisfying no matter which direction Hori goes at this point. I just wanted to vent a little and point out how poor the writing around Touya is.

I wouldn't say Touya surviving is immature or anything at least not if done well. Back before the whole MVA I fully expected the LoV to be saved and redeemed by the end and that was fine with me. It's really only Hori's poor setup and transitions to this new aspect of the story that has me annoyed with the LoV's redemptions.

Themes around saving bad people aren't necessarily for children, it's just that they have to have some sort of nuance. I mean Enji's redemption has been anything but some idealist thing where someone suddenly snaps out of being a jerk and does a 180 and everyone lives happy ever after. He's struggled with it for a long time and is still not 100% perfect/ a good person. People don't forgive him right away. The story admits that the process is hard.

Yet with Touya, his redemption will be sorely lacking that kind of depth. He's still burring people to a crisp in graphic detail and might even be aware of AfO's plans to attack civilians with his spies. This comes after Shoto reached out to him and Hori drew their child selves.

Sure you could say this is the darkest hour before the villains switch sides, but we don't really have time for that. Hori is rushing toward an ending. Unless he decides to pull a Naruto Shippuden and have a second series come directly after this one, then he's going to have to wrap up the LoV's redemptions and side changing in a handful of chapters. Which given his love of drawing gore, it makes that change in alliance hard to stomach or even understand.

And this heel turn is also affecting the other characters as well. I mean from the leaks it seems that despite Shoto watching as Dabi melts screaming victims, some of which were probably his father's sidekicks who came to help him, all he can think about is how strong his big bro is. It comes across as uncaring and honestly just clunky exposition that Hori needs to use to explain Dabi's sudden ability to copy moves he's never even seen before in .02 seconds.

I really don't have an issue with redemption arcs--in fact I generally prefer them over simple "lets kill the bad guy" kind of approaches in storytelling. Maybe that's why Hori's writing lately has bothered me--because it could have worked, and been great. Not only that, so many people seem to think it is great and even if it's not good writing they're prefer their favs get a happy ending rather then get a well written story.

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Hello! I'm Moosh (or just Paul) a 26 year old trans man and a humble welcome to my corner of the internet! I hope you enjoy your stay!

Current status; slow but steady.

Moosh's fandom Masterlists

One piece

Lupin III

Devil may cry

Star wars

The elder scrolls

Red dead redemption

Attack on titan

Some base blog rules!

My main is @mellumarbles, where I give updates and shitposts about my life and mostly is used to communicate to other writers.

This blog is not spoiler free from...pretty much all fandoms I cover, one piece in particular (which I am caught up and I do write for Egghead characters!)

Don't be an asshole. Whether it's just an ask to ask me how my day's going or you're dropping a request, please don't be rude or I'm most likely not going to respond.

Hey, trans rights. Don't be a dick and misgender people, including yours truly.

English isn't my first language, my native tongue is norwegian. Although I've been a good chunk of my live in America and have spent years learning the language I'm still not great with it at times so forgive me if my language can be 'clunky' I try my best to properly make sure I fix everything before I post but stuff falls through cracks sometimes.

I make shitty edits and jokes with my poor sense of humor.

Please tell me if links don't work!

Basic request rules

4 characters for headcanons and 1 for event/occasion only scenarios.

For alphabet requests I only do three letters a request!

I write sfw content for; gender neutral and male (But gender neutral requests always more preferred!)

Please be specific in your ask! I don't want to have to scrape the barrel for details because I have nothing to work with so please have basic details in your request! However, don't have too many details in your request because then you basically write your request in your ask and will leave...well nothing else is left for me to write?

If gender isn't specified in your request I will ALWAYS make the reader gender neutral!

I don't accept matchups at this moment.

No yandere. Don't even try to hide it, I've seen anons try this with other blogs.

No 'child' reader requests.

No Au requests I'm just personally bad at them and I'm not all that interested in them so I write canon only.

Polyamory is A-okay! (But depends on who are the two other characters)

I update my fandom of focus in the bio but when I get requests that aren't the fandom of focus the tend to take longer!

Some fandom specific rules for star wars in particular.

(NSFW related stuff under cut)

NSFW related rules

I will not write for characters under the age of 18. I will for sfw, of course with s/o as a minor, but NOT for nsfw. And for characters (one piece in particular) that become of age after a timeskip, for example Vivi, NSFW works will always be set after that timeskip.

No female readers when it comes to NSFW content. Male and gender neutral only! If you need more details please read this post.

Things that are an absolute no: pedo content, non con/forced, scat/pee, the omegaverse, furry (that includes minks and fish man) extreme degradation/humiliation, master/slave, daddy kink* and incest. If I missed anything feel free to ask if I will write for it or not! 

*Absolutely important; even though I will sometimes joke about it daddy kink has a deep trigger for me so I'm serious even if I use the term in a joke to refer to a certain character I'm usually not being 100% serious so please don't come to my askbox with all of the characters you think like being called daddy or whatever. It has a deep in real life effect on me so I'm begging please don't even try it.

For devil may cry I am completely comfortable writing devil trigger smut.

All NSFW content is tagged #sin content and NSFW request are hidden from the children's eyes with a read more link. If I find out any of you are minors looking under that read more link I WILL BONK YOU!

Trans men readers; I love you and I am more than will to take requests with a trans reader, but when it comes to NSFW trans male requests I won't take it unless it states does and don'ts of what the reader in the request is comfortable with. I don't want to have to go off my dysphoria to write it and everyone is different so I also don't want to unknowingly trigger the requester. So please gives necessary details but make sure you're absolutely 100% comfortable giving!

If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

[leafbloggy]

Aw Shucks

So, here's my first real post. I'm just gonna start with the game I just finished today, cuz that just makes sense.

The game is Oh Jeez, Oh No, My Rabbits Are Gone!!!, a title which is very difficult to search for online without just getting posts about rabbits.

OJONMRAG is a simple little puzzle-platformer wherein you rescue your 100 lost bunnies. It plays, for lack of a better comparison, like a mix of Lemmings, Another World, and A Boy and His Blob. I would argue, though, that the aspects borrowed from those games are pretty much all executed better here, which is an impressive feat. The main gameplay loop is exploring an area to find bunnies, and then directing those bunnies past obstacles in order to rescue them.

The controls are... Mixed. They are a bit clunky, and it took quite a while for me to truly feel accustomed to them. That clunkiness isn't without reason, though: it's a cost of precision. This game has a very obvious grid layout, and every action, every jump and climb and run, moves you a very set, consistent distance. In a puzzle game like this, the benefits of that really can't be understated. It allows for much cleaner, more nuanced puzzles, where there's no need to worry about players getting stuck trying to jump up a wall that goes nowhere or fixating on a rock. It focuses both the design and the player, which is very welcome in a climate where puzzle games largely feel a pressure to think far outside the box, regardless of how that fits with the game.

It's like... A sokoban. Imagine a sokoban where nothing is rigid, boxes aren't stuck to the grid, and so forth. Sure, it could be done. It probably has been. But not needing to be that lets sokoban games more easily be designed with other challenges in mind.

Moving on, there's not too much to be said about the actual structure of the game, I think. It's solid. Good, even. The world feels real, the exploration feels like... exploration. It's good. It took me about 4 hours to beat, finding all the bunnies but missing a couple color palettes (finding them lets you change the main character's colors.)

As an added bonus, you start the game with a range of color palettes based on pride flags.

Finally, visually, the game is adorable. It's the kind of aesthetic that needs to be sincere to shine, and oh boy is it sincere. There's cute bunnies, cute landscapes, and cute gay girls. It's everything you could want in a cute game.

And yes, you can pet the bunnies.