#funniest game of 2023 for sure

[verflares]

btw i'm sure this is nothing new on account of it having been well over 6 months by now since totk released and we had the no dlc bomb dropped. but i wasnt posting back then so idc ^_^

anyway the funniest thing about totk is no kass 100%. like. what happened to him. they dont even mention him by NAME and the only time hes ever even really mentioned is penn talking about him like this distant legendary figure and not like some guy who was playing his accordion in the woods. i hope amali divorced him

[sinlizards]

also before i forget today marks ONE YEAR since this guy ruined my life

[lesvianism]

“clouis > violentine” believers when you tell them that clementine’s reactions are different between violet and louis because they’re completely different people and therefore there are completely different dynamics between them rather than her being unhappy with violet

[qianqiancandyjar]

Tech-Ninja AU Lore & PV?

If you think yokai ninja AU is the craziest idea I've ever had...think again :D

In a corner of my Ninjavember 2023, I briefly mentioned this au, merely a tip of an iceberg.

The lore is mainly inspired by a weird dream and episode 39 of season 1(McSatchle): What if Howard really becomes Randy's boss? Worse yet, what if they'll be like Mcfist and Viceroy?

Yeah, just punch me already🤣*wheeze*

In this AU, Randy didn't get chosen to be a ninja in his highschool years. Instead, he has good grades and a talent for inventing and technology, and eventually got into Mcfist industries with Viceroy as his mentor. Things went downhill as he discovered the true face of Mcfist. After the present ninja was killed by his own invention "the ninja armor", Randy could only turn to Howard.

Though, he's pretty sure he didn't install an AI calling themself "Nomicon"...

Howard is a talented businessman (He's good at chess, some sorts of smart game, so it kinda make sense?) who started his own company in a young age. He and Randy promised to run a company together when they were in highschool. So he was kinda frustrated that Randy chose Mcfist over him after college graduation. Of course Howard won't go easy on his old friend when he turned to him...

Howard and Randy being boss and employee is probably the funniest part of the AU. The rest are just pure angst😗

With Randy finally joined the Weinerman company, they began to catch up with the Mcfist industries. Yep, the story is mainly about business wars and science stuffs, which is another one of my blind spots. So no long comic for this one :P

There're also typical Ninja fighting robots and monsters stuffs, only this time, Randy isn't loved by everyone.

[freakspectors]

HELUVAKINKTOBER: DAY 3 - BUKAKKE.

A Chuuya Nakahara | BSD x Female Reader Smut Fanfic.

warnings ; smut , bukakke , sex toys , mutual masturbation , degradation , praise if you squint , overstim if you get a magnifying glass , dazai mention (you can't escape him) , minor crack , nowhere near proofread , it's 1 AM on a school night please don't mind errors.. , etc .

author's note ; girl i feel so dumb. like mid fic writing i re-looked up bukakke and found out it was MULTIPLE MEN cumming on someone's face when i couldve sworn it was just one person. IM SO EMBARRASSED. but anyways.. i'm half awake, if this is horribly written, i'm sorry, and if you find it funny, thank you. i'm funniest when I'm sleep deprived.

heluvakinktober 2023 m.list .

“Fuck yeah, Doll. Touch yourself just like that..”

Chuuya moaned, leaning back into the cool leather of his office chair. You continued to ride the Dildo under his desk, rubbing tight circles on your puffy clit as the Executive before you stroked his length right before your eyes. His strokes were languid, almost teasing. You felt your mouth and pussy moisten at the sight of pre-cum coating the tip of Chuuya’s penis, the warm lighting of his small lamp making it shine beautifully.

He taps his cock on your right cheek, chuckling as a sticky ‘plap’ sound is heard in the obnoxiously silent room. You were fighting your thoughts — the urge to wipe the wet feeling off your cheek and lick it up, finally getting a taste of the redhead on your tongue. Chuuya interrupted your thoughts immediately, as if he were an empath.

“If you move your hands anywhere other than that pretty pussy of yours, there will be some punishments; and I don’t think you want that. Do ya, love?” Chuuya asked. His tone was insincere, shamelessly mocking you with a wide smile plastered on his annoying face. You wanted to retort, but god, were his reprimands attractive. You whine out a defeated ‘No’, sighing as a boisterous laugh rang in your ears. “Good girl. Now ‌keep bouncing f’me.”

Jackass. There was absolutely no wonder why that Dazai fucker hated his guts; who would like this son of a bitch?

That’s what your mind said. Your body, however, quaked for him. Your pussy pleaded for Chuuya’s dick, fingers, tongue, anything other than the cheap plastic he had made you ride. It was pathetically obvious, too, the once pristine tiled floors now coated in a pool of your slick. You wished for Chuuya's sick and twisted game to end, for him to fold you in half and have sex with you until you were senseless—

You hadn’t noticed how sensitive you made yourself while you were fantasizing about Chuuya like a schoolgirl, your clit raw and cunt mush from how hard you pleased yourself. You could’ve cummed just now and you wouldn’t be aware of it. But you couldn’t stop. Your body wouldn’t let you, not after the gorgeous sight before your very eyes.

Chuuya looked disheveled. He leaned all the way back in his chair, his hands tangling in his copper locks as his chest heaved while staring down at you. His moans got louder, louder, and louder, sure to worry anyone that so passed by the Executive’s office. Your gut was put on a spin cycle, the tight feeling in your abdomen returning for the umpteenth time that evening. You flicked, spun, and rubbed your clit as quickly as you could without it hurting, until his left, gloved hand gripped you by the hair and pulled your hair back.

“Open your fucking mouth, baby. I’m gonna glaze you so goddamn much you’d qualify as a fuckin’ donut — Oh, fuck..” the Executive groans. His words were so quick, you could barely understand his sentences. But words hadn’t been the reason for your nearing climax, no. How he handled you so roughly, the way he spoke to your quivering body. It was all too much to handle and process; soon enough, you’d reach the peak of your arousal.

It did. It hit you like a bullet train.

Thick, creamy white globs gushed around the dildo as you clenched around it, moaning out Chuuya’s name as if it was he you were riding like Paul-fucking-Revere. The redhead curses your name, visibly close to his own arrival. You could count how many times his cock twitched before he came; it was almost like everything was in slow motion.

One.

“FUCK.. Take it all, bitch, I want every drop of my cum on your face..”

Two.

“You’re gonna look like such a slut after all this.. I’ll take so many pictures of you just like this and — Shit!”

Three.

And your vision goes black. Well, white.

@ HELUVAKU 2023 . do not share or repost .

[cursed-sonic-opinions]

i really regret being such a shitty person towards Sonic for most of my life. for years, i only kind of 'liked' Sonic, and even then it was purely in an ironic way. i never really played the games or paid attention to the plot, i just watched funny let's plays and made fun of the glitches, voice acting, etc.

i regret that so much, because on May 7, 2023, i finished watching a playthrough of Sonic Frontiers. something about that game was special because i actually sat and paid attention to the story, the writing, the music... i fell completely in love, for real this time. i had a Danny Devito "it's beautiful" moment, so to speak. after finishing watching that series, i immediately borrowed the IDW comics from my local library. i ended up reading 61 issues in 12 hours -- i didn't even get up to go to the bathroom. i was enthralled.

i fucking love Sonic the Hedgehog, man... i've never felt such powerful affection towards anything in my life before. now i completely understand how people become lifelong fans of this series. it's so much fun and so full of love. it's so sincere. god, we need more sincerity in our world today.

and the fandom... i love the fandom so much! this is the most fun i've had in any community, ever! like every community, it does have its flaws, but you know what? i've gotten to know some of the kindest, funniest people i've ever met. in this fandom, i've found a community that i actually feel wanted in. i've even gotten to travel to meet some of them in person! while it's true that there are some miserable assholes, i've found that it's so easy and so wonderful to surround yourself with uplifting, positive people. this community is so passionate and so supportive. because of this blue rat. i've made so many best friends, and they're helping me get through the worst year of my life.

you see, at the beginning of this year, my grandmother's cancer came back, and she has had to enter hospice care. it's been a really, really difficult time for me and for my family. we had to spend six weeks in Utah, 520 miles away from home, so we could spend some time with her while we could. it was hard. it was actually the hardest thing i've ever experienced, because at 27 years old i got incredibly lucky—ive never actually lost a family member i've really known before. this is the first time i'm having to deal with this, and it's devastating. but so many of my fandom friends have been so supportive. knowing i have them behind me has made me stronger.

many of the closest people in my life now are Sonic fans i met through the Bumblekast server, and when i shared my family's impending loss with them, they've been DMing me and checking in with me regularly, making sure that i'm okay and that i'm managing. heck, when we were in Utah, my best friend DDRMasterM made time to come hang out with me a few times. the second time he came over, he even surprised me with some Silver gifts he found when he went to a Smash tournament. that was so thoughtful and kind of him... man, just thinking about that made me start tearing up again.

i know that as Sonic fans, we often find other Sonic fans to be incredibly annoying. sometimes we despair over the state of the fandom at large. but please don't forget the good people. this community is filled to bursting with kind, lovely, funny, caring people. there are so many Sonic fans who exemplify Sonic's love for freedom and hatred of oppression. please don't forget that that for every miserable asshole, there's ten DDRMasterMs. 💖

🦔‧₊˚✩彡

[fayes-fics]

3 Fics game

Rules: Look at your own fic masterlist and choose a max of 3 fics that you would assign to the following categories.

Personal Favorite(s)

Somewhere Only We Know

Mrs Bridgerton

Are We Friends?

All modern AU, that's weird. 🤷‍♀️

Unusual: different from your usual style

The Things We Do For Love

Enthralled [OC version]

Text fics: Texutal Encounter, The Belgian Chocolate Affair, Three Dot Symphony

Yes, I know I cheated with that last choice 🤷‍♀️😂

Underrated: you like, but didn’t get much attention

Enthralled

Many Things

Sorry it's a tie: Portrait and Waking Up

Inexplicably popular: you don’t think are that great, but are liked

Eden

Making an Heir

Kinktober 2022: Breeding Kink

Damn tumblr loves breeding kink

Mild Cringe: you have considered taking down

Skinny Dip

Call Me

Refuge

Most memorable to write (and the reason)

Sonnet #29 - first ever fic

It Had To Be You - adapting an existing story

When The World Is Free - swept me up into a different world

Fluffiest

Our Cottage

Comfort

To Know You

Angstiest

Not my specialty, so not that angsty tbh

Goodbye, Hello

The Things We Do For Love

Safe

Smuttiest/Kinkiest

Almost all of mine are smut, so I've gone kinkiest. Which is tricky, as one person's kink is another person's day-to-day. I went with ones that, while I was writing, I was concerned I might get “this is too much, I’m out” comments.

Kinktober 2022: Temperature Play

Kinktober 2023: Milking

Today’s Lesson

Funniest

Moments: Like Father, Like Son

Textual Encounter

Coitus Mahemium

Atmospheric

Err, wow, this is a tough one. I'm sure I'll disagree with myself here later.

Electric

Hippy Benedict: Original Drabble and Sequel Fic

Succour

Hall of Fame: you’d probably be remembered for

Jeez… none? This feels like a question for readers, not me, lol.

Second Son

A Beneficial Arrangement

Moments maybe? Idk..

This was tough to narrow down, but fun!

Not tagging anyone, but have a go fellow writers, if you wish! 😁🧡

[amyysfics]

skz - "bet."

pairing: felix x bff!gn!reader warnings: fluff, pining, reader eats popcorn summary: you make felix watch your favourite movie word count: 850

©amyysfics (2023) All Rights Reserved - Reposting/Modification of any kind is not tolerated.

Giggles, snorting and all kinds of laughter filled the room. You were barely able to catch your breath, when a voice broke through the sound of heavy breaths and occasional giggling. "What the fuck kind of movie are you watching, that is making you laugh this hard?", your best friend asked.

The both of you sat in a video-call on Discord. He had been playing a game, which you assumed must have been League of Legends, judging by his continuous screaming, "Noooo!" and "What are you doing? We had it!". You had turned on your favorite movie eventually. None of this was a rare occurrence. You hung out with Felix this way whenever possible - both of you doing your own thing while being in each others company.

"I'm watching what is possibly the funniest movie ever, thank you very much for asking.", you looked straight at the camera, poking out your tongue. How dare he judge this amazing piece of media? Out fo the corner of your eye you could see your blue-haired friend roll his eyes. Though, before he had the chance to tease you back, you thought of a deal. "Why don't you watch it with me? I can restart it. And if you end up liking it and enjoying your time, I will treat you to a smoothie!"

The idea made Felix' eyes light up. He loved having movie nights, especially with you. And he was was being honest with himself, he couldn't give less of a shit what you guys were doing, as long as he got to spend time with you - his best friend, that he just so happened to have a not so tiny crush on. She he did what every sane idiot in love with his best friend would do; He responded with as little words as he could as to not let you hear the shakiness of his voice, "Bet."

You left your seat for a minute to grab a fresh bottle of water and Felix used the time to finish (and lose) the round of League he was still in. It took you a few moments to come back, so he made sure to to set his screen up properly. He could click on one of the images to have them fill up almost the entire screen, the rest of it being smaller at the bottom. After making everything look the way he wanted to, he noticed you walking back - a bottle of water in one hand and a bowl of fresh popcorn in the other.

The Australian silently cursed himself for agreeing to this. It wasn't the first time you watched a movie together, but he would usually be the one streaming it - the movie taking up his entire monitor. Today, for the first time, he had the chance to observe your reactions. He noticed the way your eyebrows scrunched together mere moments before you laughed. He saw the way you attempted to hide your shy smile as the two main characters kissed. He could even tell that one strand of your hair seemed to be bothering you - constantly tickling your neck. Felix knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself from brushing it away if he actually sat next to you.

"Yongbok!", your less than quiet voice ripped him out of his thoughts. You glared at the boy, or at least it looked that way to him. "Were you even watching?", you clicked with your tongue, fishing through the last few pieces of popcorn for the best one. "I was! I loved it!, he lied. Your best friend put barely any of his attention towards the movie. You smiled a little, popping the chosen popcorn-piece in your mouth, "Right? The part where the cat rolls in the snow is so good!" Felix nodded immediately, "It's probably the best part."

"You couldn't stop feeling your heartbeat get faster, almost pounding out of your chest, knowing you caught him in a lie. "Lix, first of all, there wasn't a single cat in the movie and it's set in summer. And second-", you leaned closer to the camera, "I can see the reflection of your screen on your computer-case a little bit. You had my camera on full-screen-mode the entire time.

His body reacted faster than his brain allowed him to come up with a witty response. A blush crept up to the tip of his ears in an instant. And even his neck turned about three shades darker. He tried to think of a response - any explanation, but he couldn't get a single word to come out.

"You know what?", you broke through the silence, smiling, "I'll still treat you to that smoothie. I mean it looks like you had a good time, no? Pick you up tomorrow at five?", you winked. When did you get so smooth?

Felix' blushed even harder at this chance of a date with you, even that was even possible. But what he didn't know, was that you were just as excited about it, as he was. So he gathered all the courage he could.

"Bet."

@bokkiesplace @notastraykid @hee0soo @moon0fthenight @bbyquokka @strawberry31 @weird-bookworm

[smash-64]

2024 Game of the Year Countdown #9: This Way Madness Lies Nintendo Switch, 2023

I’ve had my eye on Zeboyd Games’ latest installment for a while, and picked it up once it went on sale, as they often do. I think I got Cosmic Star Heroine for $1.50, and that ended up being in my Top 5 for 2021. The concept of mixing magical girls and Shakespeare is completely absurd, and while I can’t say it’s exactly a seamless combo, it’s definitely the funniest game that Zeboyd has put out. I wasn’t exactly rolling on the floor laughing, but my constant chuckles while on lunch at work got a steady stream of “what are you playing?” questions coming my way.

The pixel art is the best in the Zeboyd repertoire, and they definitely won’t let you forget about how pretty the magical girl transformations are, since they insult you if you try to skip them!

The transformations themselves are pretty neat for pixel art.

I enjoyed the music, although I was slightly disappointed that Hyperduck Soundworks wasn’t returning, as I think they did a phenomenal job for Cosmic Star Heroine. The battle tune is catchy and easy to listen to for long periods of time, which is great since some of the battles on the harder difficulties will drag on. Although I would say that the songs with lyrics definitely had more of a garage band sound, which may have been intentional, but was still a bit unexpected in my opinion. The menu song sounds like they tried to mix two songs together, lyrics and all. So not all are great.

In the early part of the game, I was afraid that the whole experience would be over before I knew it. HowLongToBeat said the game should take 6-8 hours, and it took me about 11. I’m not really sure what people were doing to finish in just 6 hours, and 11 felt about right, since the last two dungeons dragged a bit.

The game also offers actual Shakespeare quotes at times, but then also gives a "modern translation," which is always just jokes.

This Way Madness Lies was a good, short, classically-styled JRPG with lots of jokes and a fun battle system. Plenty of customization within each unit, and within your team makeup as a whole, gives you plenty to do and plenty to experiment with as you go through the game. I especially liked how the game often forced me to use seemingly random team combos because it let me figure out who I liked best. 

[tapedsleeves]

Thank you <333 Everyone is so loveable 😭 I'm so glad you added Hutton cause I vaguely remember him playing in a few games but the lip sync video is sooo funny

One last batch of questions if you're up to it cause I adore how you describe everyone <3 looking at the roster I think the last guys left are Barbie and ammo? (the funniest nicknames 😂) and guys like Dorofeyev, brisson, and jiri patera but I think they might fall under the Henderson duckling group?

also if you don't mind, I keep seeing patches and Reilly smith pop up when I scroll thru himbeaux's blog. I've heard a lot about marc andre fleury before but I didn't realize how many other ex-players were also so beloved! I'd love to hear about any of them if you have the time

There are actually a couple I haven't talked about in depth, but Hertl & Hanifin have only been on the team since the trade deadline. I don't know probably more about them than you do.

So, here's the list of current roster guys I'm gonna touch on: Ivan Barbashev, Michael Amadio, Pavel Dorofeyev, Brendan Brisson, Brett Howden, and Jonas Rondbjerg

and the traded guys I'm gonna talk about: Marc-Andre Fleury, Reilly Smith, Max Pacioretty, Robin Lehner, Ryan Reaves, Erik Haula, and Dylan Coghlan.

Now you see why I was like "I don't know if I can do it all in one ask" - because not only is team chemistry defined by who's there currently it is SO informed by who's been there.

These blurbs are probably gonna be shorter, because there's (counts) 14 of them.

That's many. And there are some that I don't know a whole bunch about. That's truer for some than others.

Ivan Barbashev Traded to VGK at the trade deadline in 2023. Learned about the trade at the same time as his wife (she screamed in the other room). was very excited to play with petro again, since they're good friends. got headbutted by LT and was very cute about it. his little face when jack yells He's actually just. giggly in general. he was part of the 12 Knights of Giving and was VERY VERY cute about giving ppl their groceries for free. his face on this save is REALLY CUTE. He fell off the bus during the STL parade. this supports my theory that he's made of like. variable density. it's impossible to knock him over and yet he is SO fast and agile? it's fucking wild.

he's got really good taste in sunglasses

2. Michael amadio: UNDERRATED!!!! i love Ammo. based on getty, i think either he and nic roy have very similar schedules or ride in together bc they are almost always in walkin photos together. i'm just now finding this out.

I don't know a lot about him, because he's very quiet, but he's got really nice eyelashes and his face looks very soft. even his beard. even his voice is soft & deep. he seems really nice. just a cool room guy.

3. Pavel Dorofeyev: Dorothea!!!. Ok so this is not his actual nickname. I call him this bc when Dave Goucher says his name on the broadcast it sounds like Dorothea. And when Dave had Laryngitis, and he said his full name, it truly sounded like he said "pebble dorothea." this is his name in my head.

Dorothea is SO cute. He looks like a Tall Bitty to me, and i can't get that out of my head.

I know that's not very informative, but that's just.

true.

when Brendan Gallagher busted his teeth in, alec martinez picked them up and carried them to him. Dorothea is one of the HSK guys, who are the closest.

4. Brendan Brisson - son of famous agent Pat Brisson. babysat by Sidney crosby. Umich guy. lots of ppl know more about him than me. always wants to tuck himself into a hug. this is very funny hwen the other guy is shorter than him

lots of people who followed him at umich know more about him than me, i'm sure.

5. Brett Howden: Bread!!! Just a sweet young manitoban guy. Childhood friend of nolan patrick went through Tampa & New York before coming to Vegas. changed his play style to play with Mark. Was part of the 2018 WJC team, but hasn't been implicated in any crimes :(

Grabbed Marchy by the jersey and yelled "we did it we did it" when they won the cup

Jonathan Marchessault followed up with him after and said "oh i had to tell you, when i had my vision of winning the cup, we weren't wearing the white (away) jerseys. we were wearing the gold ones"

indicating that??? Marchy??? has prophetic visions?? and shares them with brett howden???? what the hell is happenign here i love this so much. (seriously this video has SO MUCH. keegan kolesar kissing marchessault on the face SO MUCH. jack and marchy beign sO romantic about Marchy's conn smythe win "I did it for - you did it for me." / "that's the best thing i've ever seen" and all the i love yous. I just. love them)

6. Jonas Rondbjerg - Ronny is just a really sweet, quiet HSK guy! he's not the main roster, so when he gets called up, he hangs with the guys he knows. He was best friends with Jake Leschyshyn before he got traded to the NYR.

Notable Guys who've been traded

Marc- Andre Fleury - found out he got traded on twitter. Known prankster. Everyone loves him, excellent but aging goalie who is going to retire after 24-25. After retirement, he's moving back to Vegas to live during the non-summer months. If he hadn't been a goalie, probably he'd have been captain. I love him so much and he tried to fight jordan binnington while he was on the Wild.

Reilly Smith - OG Golden Misfit, traded to VGK with Jonathan Marchessault. Jonathan Marchessault said of him that he was relieved when they got drafted / traded that wasn't scared to go to a new place bc he would know somebody. And when Smitty joined VGK for their White House Cup Visit, Jonathan said in the interview after "Everywhere he is is home a little bit"

Reilly started the Battle For Vegas, a charity baseball game during the summer, which is a great time which Jack Eichel took over since Smitty got traded. Said "What a time to be alive" with an absolutely blasted voice while on the ice right after they won the cup.

Max Pacioretty - Traded to Vegas after doing frankly a nuclear option with his prior agent (switching to Allan Walsh on draft day) because talks with Montreal had gotten so bad. was SO happy to be in Vegas. When Stone was traded in February, was kind of worried bc they'd been such rivals during their time in MTL & OTT respectively. but they were almost immediately complimentary of each other. They were best friends. Patch says that he knew, almost as soon as Mark came in that he was gonna be the captain. Which is WILD. Bc it had been almost 3 season without them having one. but Mark is their captain. He was right.

Ryan Reaves - is a GREAT room guy, and a WONDERFUL guy off the ice. Loves a prank. ate spicy chocolate. He's done B4V a couple of summers (he did it last year iirc) and it's just. Really sweet. A lot of these guys just. really really bonded for life during that first year, you know? I know that Belly is still friends with a bunch of the OG Misfits, and so is Reavo (he was pumped to play on the wild with flower, for instance). Reavo said that when mark stone fought tomas hertl that "Those hands aren’t made to fight; they’re made to dance. They’re supposed to be soft." basically "I'd rather they let ME do the fighting, their hands are meant for better things" like. ReAVO MY GUY. UGH.

i love him

Erik Haula - Another guy who does B4V, got traded to the Canes (who mistreated him) and is now with the Devils (who love him). Is still best friends with Karly.

Dylan Coghlan - came to VGK in the Erik Haula trade from the Canes system. Was VERY VERY good friends with the younger guys, Haguer, Roysie, Whitecloud, Keegan, Howden, etc. Went to a concert with Jack, Haguer, & HOwdy/ Also still does B4V and excels at it. Is a defensemen, but when we didn't have any forwards, filled in. I would know him by his teeth anywhere (very distinctive). adorable.

[luthordamnvers]

For the fruit emoji ask: bananna and bunch of grapes.

🍌 In your opinion, what’s the funniest joke/reference/pun you’ve made in a fic?

I don't really consider myself particularly funny, but I will forever love the "Nice to meet you Purity" that Kara says when she sees Katie's Lena's tattoo for the first time in DEBS. It wasn't really my idea, but I HAD to include it in that fic. Then, one of the funniest things I think I've written is one quip Brainy says in 2023's supercorptober. It has everything to do with context but I was CACKLING when I came up with that particular paragraph: “Why not?” Brainy meddled. “Intimacy could help with your foul mood. It can help reduce feelings of anxiety and depression as it triggers the release of dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin.” He continued. “If you find him a fine specimen, and you have the express permission of his life companion, there is no reason not to. You almost did it with Mon-El, and Imra was certainly not as agreeable with sharing partners.” Brainy voiced with the precision of a surgeon and the finesse of a wrecking ball. 

🍇 Is there a particular scene/episode/book/etc that you want to just write a million fics about, over and over? Which one?

Idk if this would be a surprise to anyone, but I feel I could write inside the supergirl show forever. As i'm sure you are aware, I tend to write post show. I can work with the series as is. But there is a myriad (heeey) of things you could explore in ANY season. With ANY character you feel like. Kara and Lena, obviously are my mains, but Jess the secretary, my beloved, had a canon appearance of 13 seconds, but to me she will remain Lena's right hand woman forever, and I'd love to give her an arc just for herself. Sam Arias was for a season and I'll write fics about her soon. Show never gave me Kelly's ex-fiancee name but by Rao i'll write about their relationship even if just to establish context. They are my blorbos.... I've claimed them.

Thank you so much for asking, darling💜

[Fruity ask game]

[wienersmosh]

since the smosh main channel is about to go through a shakeup and we're not sure if the sketches as we currently know them are coming back (someone correct me if i'm wrong lol), here is my ranking of all of the sketches post-reunion.

food battle 2023

i regret my turkish hair transplant

my dead friend

sleepwalking disaster

submissive & breedable

help! i became an npc!

would you push this button?

the rise and fall of grimace

i joined jared leto's cult

apple vision pro sucks

cursed magic 8 ball

pokemon roommate battle

evil ai tried to kill me

we summoned a demon

mr beast copycats have gone too far

if video games were real 7

man caught watching hot tub girl in public

the dating app that works 100% of the time

whatever you do, don't talk

proof i'm the funniest person

stop copying me!!

we were robbed

pokemon in real life 2024

bluetooth speaker ruins date

let me know what you guys think! share your rankings if you want :)

[yungvenuz]

Game of the Year List 2023

Honorable Mentions: Touhou: Artificial Dream in Arcadia: I love the oddball mashup of shmup and dungeon crawler mechanics, but I ended up losing interest before the end of the game. In Stars and Time: Still playing this game. I like it so far, but I didn't want to rush it through to get it on this list. It'll go on next year's list if I like it enough. Stuffo the Puzzle Bot: Really great soundtrack. Still on regular rotation.

10. Super Snail (IOS and Android)

This is a difficult inclusion. Super Snail is an Evil game. It's the most monetized game I've ever played. Every screen you can visit can trigger a special offer for a pile of goodies you don't need that you can buy with real money. It's a mobile gacha game, through and through, designed to eat up time and attention and offer back a distant illusion of progress that you could surely expedite, if you were just willing to kick in ten bucks for one of its dozens of customized season passes…. So, why is this game on this list?

Developer QCPlay was already on my radar from previous release Gumball and Dungeons, a similarly high effort mobile game (amusingly originally intended as a Dragon Quest game, until they failed to secure the license and were forced to sand all the iconic teardrops off their slimes and call them gumballs instead). Despite their willingness to indulge in all the awful trends of mobile game markets, these are real, proper game designers, who have buried a real, actual game under all of Super Snail's idle timers and base management bullshit.

Super Snail is constantly shifting, adding new layers of complexity and shaking up existing mechanics. It's the only gacha game I'm aware of in which your gacha machine can be stolen from you temporarily if you use it too much, forcing you to wait on spending tickets until the thief decides its rates are too shit to bother with and returns it to you. There's a dating sim mechanic in which various characters met in your travels (male, female, or both) will find out about your secret base and decide to mooch off you, which is some of the funniest writing in the game.

On that note, the writing is weirdly good for a game that's approximately 80% random pop culture references. The eight demon lords you've been tasked with defeating by the mysterious god "Earth's Will" all have detailed and consistent backstories. There are a few honest-to-god effective twists in the plot, and a lingering question about how shady the god you've signed your life to actually is.

A predatory mobile game shouldn't deserve one minute of my attention, let alone one of the coveted slots on my illustrious top ten list, but Super Snail spits in the face of all that, and god. I can't stop thinking about it, about how many interesting game design lessons are nestled within its strange and evil exterior. So, by compromise, it's grudgingly earned my #10. Just, for god's sake, if any of this backhanded review piques your interest, set a budget for yourself and don't exceed it for any reason.

9. BOSSGAME: The Final Boss is Your Heart (Steam)

BOSSGAME is an action rpg about two dirtbag lesbians, Sophie and Anna, trying to earn rent money by taking random mercenary work in the big city. The story is low pressure fun, with a little melodrama mixed in to spice things up. The plot is needs-suiting, even maybe good, but the reason this game is on the list is the gameplay.

BOSSGAME is really, really fun to play. It uses a combat system reminiscent of the Mario and Luigi rpgs in which both party members are controlled simultaneously. Enemies telegraph attacks that need to be blocked using the left or right side of the gamepad based on character, draining stamina. Attacking also drains stamina, so a careful balance of offense and defense needs to be maintained to survive. Most interestingly, there's no turns: enemies repeat attack patterns usually without waiting for a counterattack, so combat becomes a brain-bending routine of multitasking, with one character needing to block attacks while the other sneaks in some damage. A combo system encourages keeping up constant pressure, with the reward being increased progress toward a super attack that can briefly stun bosses and allow some easy hits before returning to defensive play. The end result is fast paced, engaging, and totally unique combat that was fun to learn for each of the dozens of boss fights in the game.

I'm glad this game ended up being good enough to recommend here, not just because I, too, am lesbian, but because I love designers that are willing to take a chance on unique control schemes. Part of the fun of playing BOSSGAME was getting to learn how to play without being able to rely on any of the muscle memory I've accrued over years of playing other action games. I only wish it weren't so short. Of all the games on this list, this is the one I would most want to see expanded into a full 40-60 hour RPG epic.

8. Slay the Princess (Steam)

A Myers-Briggs test for fetishes. Keep that in mind whenever anybody who tries to talk to you about their favorite "route". Great writing though

7. EDF 5 (Steam)

My official Multiplayer Game Experience of the Year. The EDF (EDF! EDF! EDF!) series is an alien invasion resistance simulator that exists somewhere between Dynasty Warriors and Monster Hunter in gameplay. I've known about the series for a long time, and I had assumed it was the kind of loud dumb fun that makes for punchy clips but wears out its welcome quickly. To be clear, it definitely is loud, and dumb, and fun, but it also has significantly more mechanical depth and complexity than I expected, which kept it fresh and engaging for as long as I played it.

Mechanics like building destruction and corpse hitboxes looks like they're just they're there for spectacle at first, but as levels progress and more and more aggressive enemy types are introduced, these seemingly incidental details take on more and more importance as you need to manage cover and enemy sight lines more effectively. This is the game's most potent tool, I think: everything that makes it great as a ridiculous carnage sandbox has been meticulously designed to also work in the higher difficulty levels to deliver a genuinely tense and highly mobile shooter.

6. Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayers (Steam)

A boomer shooter in the same canon as Hypnospace Outlaw, partially developed by troubled teen ZANE_ROCKS_14 and polished up for release 22 years later. For an elaborate shitpost, it's very well made, but what most interests me about it is its contradictory nature. Outwardly, it's completely juvenile and silly about everything it does, filled with poop jokes and mouthy rats and evil stepdads. Underneath that, there's the deep melancholy of a 36 year old desperately trying to relive the last time in his life that he felt cool.

all the levels in the game faithfully recreate scenes of Zane's Idaho childhood, from ritzy suburban neighborhoods to car parks to the local fair, but they're all just a little bit too eerily empty for the settings they're trying to evoke. The protagonist's sincere love for his mother completely clashes with the badass attitude he brings to every other scene. Zane put his all into voice acting the protagonist's lines, while every other character sounds like they're reciting lines into their phone in a bathroom. The end result is a masterpiece in immersive game design, meticulously arranged to feel like it came from a very specific time and place in a fictional alternate universe. It's so effective that even the parts that don't work can be argued as a deliberate part of the overall period piece, like the confusingly short penultimate level or unnecessarily annoying final boss.

5. Cobalt Core (Steam)

A card battler built around spaceship combat. It should be immediately apparent to anybody who's played a lot of Slay-The-Spire-likes that Cobalt Core is on the easier side, but that's a deliberate choice here, in an effort to create an engaging narrative experience rather than a perfectly tuned progression treadmill. While Inscryption (another narrative card battler) managed its story by bringing the player away from the cards for cutscenes or escape room sequences, Cobalt Core delivers everything within its roguelike framework, even going as far as coming up with a time loop justification for why the player is repeating runs to progress the story.

In that regard it compares more closely to Hades than other card battlers, and I also think that's a good comparison because I really like the characters and character interactions in Cobalt Core. Each round starts with the selection of three of the (after finishing a short period of unlocks) 7 crewmates available to play with, and every combination of characters has interesting discussions and interactions between them. Characters also have lines to acknowledge specific artifacts, cards, or game states (like big damage or status effects) that offers a level of reactivity to make each run that much more unique. Also like Hades, there's a concrete ending sequence. Backstory for each crewmate is delivered piecemeal throughout the game, and while there aren't any earthshattering twists or revelations, the ending does a good job of tying everything together for a proper sendoff.

Shoutout to Riggs. Best possum in the galaxy.

!Great Soundtrack Alert!

4. Going Down (2014 Doom wad) (Doomworld File Depot)

This year, I played MyHouse.wad. More and more people were talking about it, and I wanted to give it a try myself before someone randomly spoiled it for me. I didn't end up caring for it much! It did some interesting things, and it was definitely well made, but I'm not that interested in the creepypasta style it was going for.

It did pique my interest in the rich ecosystem of Doom modding that's been quietly trucking along for 30 years before myhouse ever released, though. A friend recommended Going Down, which I found to be terrific, and then I spent the rest of the year playing random wads (level packs) whenever I didn't have anything else to do. Doom has become invaluable to me as a podcast game, especially as I've only just been able to extract myself from Tactical Nexus's cunning grasp this year.

So, without further ado: The Official Doom Wads of the Year Minilist:

10 Struggle: Antaresian Legacy - Most of the levels in this wad focus on low-pressure exploration, but my favorites were the wide-open chaotic battles. I especially like the capstone levels of the first two chapters (maps 11 and 20), which both feature massive arenas with hundreds of enemies active at once. 9 Ancient Aliens - A collab megawad with great aesthetic and theming. Level quality is inconsistent, which makes sense given how many authors were involved, but the best levels in the wad are excellent. 8 Dust Devil - A short campaign of two interconnected levels with a bunch of interesting custom content. The use of grenade launchers and shielded enemies was especially cool, and not something I expected the doom engine to be able to do. 7 Lullaby - A stylish single-map wad in a decidedly undoomlike blue dreamland. There's only five or so major setpiece encounters, but they're all very memorable. 6 Doom 2 - I love how experimental the design in Doom 2 is, especially given that the entire genre of fps was brand new at this point in history. there's abstract levels, puzzle levels, diagetic cityscapes, and more. It's easy to see its influence in every fps to ever follow in its wake. 5 Overboard - A newer wad by the same author of Going Down with a great gimmick- the first five levels are followed by a set of hard mode remixes that use the same maps with more aggressive enemy arrangements. I particularly liked the last map of hard mode, which is identical to its normal mode variant except that it spawns all 500 enemies in the moment the level starts instead of deploying in piecemeal waves as it does in the original. 4 The Thing You Can't Defeat - An experimental remix of the first chapter of Doom 1. Very interesting premise and punchline. If you liked MyHouse.wad, I'd highly recommend checking it out. 3 Tarnsman's Projectile Hell - This is the first touhou game I've played, technically. Deviously difficult design with an emphasis on long distance hitscan enemies that would be extremely annoying in the hands of a level designer any less obviously talented than Tarnsman. 2 Unloved - An ambitious continuous campaign that takes place in a Silent Hill-esque house with several portals to distorted nightmare realms. I like that small amounts of progress are made in each level at a time with frequent revisits to the main hub, and I love the dark atmosphere. Very creepy. Also insanely difficult. 1 Going Down - My favorite by a long shot. The amount of variety in level and encounter design is incredible on its own, but I particularly like the care that went into giving each level a unique identity that still makes sense in the context of the wad's premise (taking an elevator floor by floor down into the depths of hell). Every level is meticulously designed to use the entire space, usually multiple times as later encounters in each level usually reuse the same arenas with additional twists on the layout and enemy deployments.

3. Pizza Tower (Steam)

A fluid platformer heavily inspired by the Wario Land games. Its most notable design choice is the lack of fail state when exploring levels. There's no health bar, and falling into pits only resets the room, so there's no significant pressure until the timed escape sequence at the end of each level. That's not to say the game lacks challenge, though. Far from it- the challenge comes not from reaching the end of each room, but in doing so as efficiently as possible. Pizza Tower's principle antagonist is the 5 second combo timer in the top right, forcing a constant stream of action. Every level has just enough stuff in each room to allow a single combo to be carried from start to level finish, which confers the coveted P Rank medal on level completion.

Full P Rank completion is what I spent three months obsessively chasing at the start of this year. Movement in Pizza Tower is so fluid, and so satisfying to learn how to fully utilize, that I couldn't resist going for it. I got so far into it that after finishing the game, I went back in immediately for an optional challenge that requires full P rank completion of the game in less than 4 hours, which required being able to clear each level with perfect consistency.

!Great Soundtrack Alert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWoTeTZL-C8

2. Beton Brutal (Steam)

The trailer for Beton Brutal immediately spoke to me. I've been a fan of persistent-state platforming games for ages, and it's a sorely underserved genre (mostly lurking in MMOs and player-made levels for games like Mario Maker). I like the emphasis on meditative upward progress, and I especially like the increasing pressure that builds as each subsequent jump risks losing more progress than the previous. Beton Brutal's developer was able to deliver this perfectly while also maintaining a consistent and interesting visual style (a stark contrast to the dreadful nft tie-in climbing game Only Up, which also released this year).

For weeks, I opened Beton Brutal after work and played for thirty minutes to an hour, usually seeing some small amount of new progress before inevitably taking a long fall and rage quitting for the day. I don't think I can call this the hardest game I've ever played, given that there's an entire community of people that can complete the entire climb in less than ten minutes, but I do think I'm uniquely poorly suited for games like this, given the extreme precision required. Still, that made it all the more satisfying to finally complete the game after almost exactly 20 hours of effort.

Three months later the DLC "Beton Bath", with another 500 meter tower with new obstacles, mechanics, and visual aesthetic (themed after public pool equipment, which honestly looks great decorating the tower), released. This dlc had mixed reviews, but it cemented this game as a whole as a favorite for me. The new tower has a very different design approach, with more focus on interpreting strange geometry, seeking out aggressive shortcuts, and taking giant leaps of faith. The last 100 meters particularly impressed me, with numerous falls onto trampolines 80 meters below to stride the entire tower in one jump and reach new ladders, before climbing just a few meters higher and repeating the process back to the opposite side.

trying to settle on which screenshot to include with the entry was agonizing, so I'm going to post a bunch more here. I love how this game looks.

Don't worry about the vertigo meter in the bottom left. It's probably nothing to worry about.

Void Stranger (Steam)

Void Stranger is a tile-based puzzle game featuring a magic wand that can pick tiles up and place them elsewhere. Help the noble handmaiden Gray delve into the 256th floor of the mysterious Void to fulfill her heart's desire, learning more about her past by peeking into her memories as she rests at checkpoints along the way.

…But that's not sufficient to describe it, really. The best way I can come up with to describe what Void Stranger actually is, is as a seemingly normal block-pushing puzzle game that's had an entire additional Myst-like adventure game layered over it. The puzzle game is real, and it can be engaged with honestly from start to finish, but the true fun of the game (and several of its many, many possible endings) comes from interpreting obscure clues in the lore and interface to dive deeper.

The more that's learned, the easier it is to navigate the underlying puzzle game. Almost every object in the game has hidden mechanics related to it, opening up easier routes through initially difficult puzzles or allowing the use of shortcuts to skip floors entirely. Once these tricks are mastered, only thirty or so of the game's 256 floors even need to be visited to complete a run, and most of them can be cleared in seconds.

That's a good thing, too, because there's a lot of travel to specific floors needed to find all the secrets in the game. This is a game that thrives on friction in its play experience, which means it's definitely not going to be a game for everybody. If clues regarding certain shortcuts or secrets are missed, it can add a lot of unnecessary work to completing the game. But I personally love that kind of obscurity in games, and I really appreciate that the developer System Erasure (who made the similarly excellent ZeroRanger) was willing to take a chance on a niche-of-a-niche genre that could really speak to its core demographic: me specifically.

I'm not going to talk much about the plot, because most of it is deeply tangled with the Void Stranger's deepest secrets. That said, I appreciate that every route through the game, even the ones that don't engage with all the secret hunting, have been given fully fledged stories. Even the bad ending has a fucking awesome finale, to the extent that I would recommend seeking it out before engaging with the rest of the game's content (if you get offered a fruit, go ahead and eat it!)

Void Stranger is good enough to make it onto my top ten list of games of all time. I've put it at #6, just behind Iji and just ahead of Full Bore. Everything about it is fucking awesome. Check it out!

!Great Soundtrack Alert!

[ardent-fox]

✨ Tag Game Master Post ✨

Hi, all! Catching up on these two games I was tagged in during the holidays 💖

First up, thank you to the lovely @lupeloto for creating and tagging me in this fun Tag Game! 🥰

📺 Favorite tv show? At the moment, Our Flag Means Death (shields self from tomatoes being thrown at her 😁)

🕴️ Favorite character? Oof, this is difficult. Gonna have to go with my precious baby boy, Stede

💋 Favorite relationship in the show? Blackbonnet (shocking, I know)

👯‍♂️ Fav sibling relationship in the show? No blood relations but the entire crew is chosen family, so… all of them?

🎨 Favorite art form? Music, with a heavy focus on lyrics/words

⚡️ A talent you wish you had? Being able to draw would be cool

☀️ What is one thing that can always make your day better? My toddler nephew saying the most hilarious things, he's barely 3 and already the funniest person I know

🎬 Favorite fictional character of all time? Atticus Finch (any works he appears in besides To Kill a Mockingbird do not count)

🌅 Dream place to travel to? Thailand or Ireland (either "land" would do, get it? 🧍‍♀️ ...I'll see myself out)

🎈 You’re planning a huge party, what’s the theme? The Masque of the Red Death, get fancy and spooky, bitches 🎭💀

🍕 Favorite pizza topping of all time? All kinds of cheese and extra mushrooms

🥂 You can pick ONE celebrity to have dinner with… Who? Andrew Garfield, {Marge Simpson voice} I just think he's neat

🎥 Favorite movie that you kinda know is bad but you still love? Rocky Horror Picture Show 👄

👖 How would you describe your style? The "I gained a substantial amount of weight in the past 5 years and haven't bought anything new since, so I now wear whatever I can fit into and lots of dresses and skirts cause pants are uncomfortable and shopping for them is a nightmare" style 😬

🖤 Finally, something making you smile this week? My mom's reaction to a present she really wanted, seeing her that touched was soul ascending ✨

----

Next, I got tagged by @deedala, @tanktopgallavich, @suzy-queued and @lupeloto to complete this round of Weekly Tag Wednesday, thank you my darlings! 💙

Name: Lyds

Location: Unknown location in Europe

Astrological Sign: Taurus squaaaad ♉

What's a TV show or movie you plan to re-watch this year? Hubby has never seen Giant, so I'll be rewatching it soon as well as some other classics like Some Like It Hot and Philadelphia Story, I'm sure I'll rewatch Frankie and Johnny for the umpteenth time as well. As far as shows go, I rewatch Our Flag Means Death at least once a month since it's my comfort show, and might do a Shameless rewatch since I've only seen the whole thing once (excluding all the Gallavich scenes)

What's a book or fic you will probably re-read this year? The entirety or The Menagerie by @crossmydna and Honeycomb by @metalheadmickey with artwork by @heymrspatel 💕

What is a song you will likely continue to play on repeat? I've been replaying One Of Your Girls by Troye Sivan for days and don't plan on stopping anytime soon, also still listening to Hozier's entire Unreal Unearth album whenever I'm chilling

What's a tasty treat you look forward to eating more of this year? Gonna steal Ri's answer here and say cinnamon buns, as well as my husband's homemade pizza rolls that I previously mentioned, as they're our favorite thing to eat while binge-watching

What's a time sink that you will continue to sink time into this year? Scrolling this beloved hellsite

Did you pick up any habits in 2023 that you plan to continue? Only unhealthy ones that I plan on ridding myself of in 2024 👋

What's your toxic trait? Inflexibility and freaking out when things don't turn out the way I've planned

What is a coping mechanism you will continue to indulge in this year? Staying in my burrow with my hyperfixations

Tell me something you like about how you look! My full, rosy lips against my smooth, pale skin

Give me at least three adjectives describing things you like about yourself. Honest, open-minded, creative 🌸

I'm out of the loop (which is about to change since I celebrated the last of the festivities today) and haven't been keeping up with the tags lately, but am still going to tag some peeps if you want to do either or both of these: @heymrspatel, @stocious, @too-schoolforcool, @xninetiestrendx, @krysmiss, @sleepyfacetoughguy, @michellemisfit, @whatwouldmickeydo, @vintagelacerosette, @metalheadmickey, @rereadanon, @francesrose3, @darlingian and anyone who sees this and wants to play! ✨

[providing-leverage]

Fic in Review 2023

This looks fun, thanks to @writer-and-thrasher for the tag

Total Number of Completed Stories: 16, which is great because my goal was 12 (one a month, which didn't happen, but oh well)

Total Word Count: 77,440! Again, I had a goal and surpassed it (getting to 300k on my account) and it feels really good.

Fandoms Written In: So much Ted Lasso, which I discovered after Sunflowers came out and was trending. I saw canon gay characters and went sign me up even if I don't normally like comedy stuff. I'm super glad I did because I've not written so much for a fandom so fast since my Shadowhunters hyperfixation years ago. Other than those 12, I did some PJO, Supernatural, and Batman, and Teen Wolf.

Looking back did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expect: so much less! Ted Lasso brainworms truly won this year

What’s your own favorite story of the year, personally?: I'm super proud of myself for finishing Past and Present Now Embrace, one of my few non Ted Lasso fics. Bianca was a very interesting character and the Percy Jackson universe it a great sandbox to play in.

Did you take any writing risks this year?: I think my trend towards gen stuff, because obviously romantic stuff gets more hits a lot of the time so I've trained myself to sprinkle it in even when it doesn't really need to be there. But with Ted Lasso I really felt like I could embrace the platonic stuff and when I did write romance it was because I wanted to.

Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?: I want to write a multichapter, and I'm hoping that multichapter will be either Stranger Ranger or Guard Your Heart. I've also been watching to rework the second and third parts of SSA Sam Singer.

Best story of the year: personally I'm really proud of the Fundamentals of Love and Lying, which is so self indulgent

Most popular story of the year: Get It Off Your Chest for sure, and I think that's all to do with the blurb I used in the summary

Most personal story of the year: Oh for sure it's a rather touching notion which is also probably the one I wrote the quickest. An aroace character figuring out who they are, feeling outside of so many social interactions because they lack romantic and sexual attraction? Pure projection. Also The A Team because yay autism.

Funniest story of the year: While the summary for Get it Off Your Chest is funny, Colin's reasons for picking up lesbians is deeply sad so I can't really say that. Eliza's exasperation with Jamie in Flowers for Dani is pretty funny though.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Fundamentals took a lot of work but it's also a rarepair I invented the tag for and narrated by a character that is basically an OC, so I understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Most fun story to write: Holy Novelty Socks Batman is pure fluffy crack and made me smile a lot

Story with the sexiest moment: none of them really. Fundamentals and some of the other TL fics have some sex allusion though.

Sweetest story of the year: I'll say Shake It Out, a teen wolf fic from early this year that I'd completely forgotten about. What's sweeter than breaking into your school at night for a date?

“Holy crap that’s wrong even for you!” story: dito on not doing scandalous, but for angst then maybe this fic where I give Dani my caffeine sickness

Hardest story to write: Past and Present Now Embrace, for sure took the longest, with me working on it for over a year. I wanted to get it up before the Sun and the Star came out but that didn't happen.

Biggest disappointment: Not any published fic in particular but I have a lot of drafts I wish had been able to see the light of day this year

Biggest surprise: the community I feel like I've found this year, especially within Ted Lasso. Doing these tag games, trading asks and ideas with other writers, is something I've never gotten to do before and I feel so lucky and grateful for my mutuals.

Speaking of... @orbitalpirate @mearpsdyke @manwholovescabins sorry if any of you have already been tagged

[northwest-cryptid]

I don't collect many things, but of the things I do collect I think the most surreal is physical Mabinogi merch.

To explain Mabinogi is an MMORPG that came out in 2008 and I've been playing it ever since beta. I'd argue it has plenty of charm and enough reason even now in 2023 for anyone with even some slight interest in it to give it a shot however to me (and to my partner) it has a special place. Not only is it how my partner and I met, but it's literally a game I have played for 15 years now; considering I'm 28 that's over half my entire life.

As you might imagine back in middle school and even early high school I didn't really have a lot of money, let alone the understanding of how to order things from overseas. So a very niche MMORPG didn't necessarily have a lot of merch out and about. While most kids at my school had Pokémon backpacks or some kind of Anime plastered on their shirt (normally Naruto or Dragonball) I never had physical merch. So I was always that annoying kid who had to verbally tell you how much I liked my dumb special interest.

To give you an idea of how much this game was a part of my life, my mother once bought me an actual copy of the Mabinogion, like; the book that the game is loosely based on, it's entirely in Welsh and my mom also gave me a dictionary to translate it, I was stoked about this; I was in early high school walking around with a black book with a red symbol on the front speaking in Welsh as you can imagine this did not make me popular and cool.

Now my partner and I collect actual official merch, just last year we acquired a few magazines, guide books, and even manga. It's incredible to behold such a snapshot of time from when this was all still new and popular.

This is a guide book from back when the slogan for the game was still "fantasy life" it would later become "anime life" and a few other things; but this is the one I remember from my childhood:

We were really excited to look through this and translate it, more over we were taken aback by the system requirements listed in the guide book, I mean just check out these specs!

The funniest part is that there was a time at which I was getting a new laptop because I had to travel and I specifically gave the guy at Bestbuy this almost exact rundown for the specs I needed. This was of course because my plan was to install Mabi on it, which I did. However I had a hard time explaining to anyone why I wanted these sort of specs specifically without saying "uh so I can play an extremely niche online game from Korea?"

We also got books that were literally Item and databooks which had full lists of items you could obtain in the game as well as what races and genders could use them:

This was an absolute trip down nostalgia lane for us.

I cannot stress just how cool it was to flip through these pages and go "oh shit I had those, oh I remember that! Remember this? Yea it was from an event, damn that was a long time ago; oh god I'm old."

It's crazy to see just how much detail and effort went into these! I didn't even know they existed, if I was aware of these back in school I'd have gone ballistic over them like, check this out there's entire pages dedicated to Generation 1:

of course the merch pages caught our eye looking over all the stuff we have yet to hunt down for our collection

These books are great and I personally love the manga, illustrations of the world that I've only ever seen as low poly PMGs is such a sight to behold as a long time fan.

However you may notice something, there's not a ton of physical merch. Sure there's books and manga, and it seems like at one point there were standees and a few figures, posters, and mugs; but these days getting your hands on the rarer merch can be difficult and not to mention expensive.

That's sort of why we excitedly took matters into our own hands, slowly and methodically recreating the game's PMG models as OBJs we can actually print from our 3D printer. It's not easy but it's totally worth it.

I know this probably sounds REALLY stupid to you, and I wouldn't blame you for laughing at me for it; but the fact that I have played this game for 15 years; and today I held a 3D printed figure of a Golem in my fucking hands has me feeling a certain kind of way that's hard to explain. Knowing I could print figures of our characters, our favorite NPCs, not to mention entire dungeons and create dioramas of our favorite places from a game that means so much to me is genuinely mind boggling.

I think the part of all this that still has me in disbelief is that if you asked me what I wanted when I was a depressed 16 year old in school who came home and immediately jumped on Mabi; I'd 100% tell you that I just want to live alone with a partner who enjoyed Mabi and maybe a few cats. Now I'm 28 living with a partner who I not only met via this game but who is actually significantly better than me at it lol; we also have 3 cats and our home is slowly but surely being decorated with more and more Mabinogi crafts. I don't mean to sound like my life revolves around this game, though I admit I do laugh when my partner breaks out her signature slogan of "Mabinogi is Real Life" but I guess in a sense it just feels like I've fucking made it you know? I did it, I finally got the life I was longing for and while it may not feel real; every day this sort of thing happens makes it a littler harder to deny that I'm living the dream. I'm far from rich and I'm far from healthy; and I don't exactly have a great career or anything sure, but I think 16 year old me would be happy with the way I turned out.