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sazorak · 1 year ago

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Every Game I Played in 2023, Ranked

I debated moving this list to Cohost (after all these years, the Tumblr text post interface still makes me want to punch a wall) but whatever, here we are! Keeping it relatively short this year.

A lot of the games I played aren't going to be on this list because I don't have much new to say about them (MTG, Dwarf Fortress, Strive, etc), but for those that I do, here's the games I played this year.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

SD Gundam Battle Alliance - 2022 - Steam - ★★★

I really wanted to like this- you know I like me some Gundam- but the experience is simultaneously too thin, too grindy, and bereft of stakes. There's nothing like "oh no we have to preserve the Gundam metaverse from hackers ruining the archived story!" to make me go to sleep.

There's something about the progression system of every "hey, gotta catch 'em all!"-ish Gundam games that is designed exclusively for people who either played these games in the early 00s, or people with addictive personalities. There's been little in the way of evolution. Yeah, the gameplay here is different as a sort of Action RPG, but this is far more Dynasty Warriors than it is say Armored Core.

Just not for me!

... Where's my new Super Robot Wars at damn it?

9. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC - 2023 - Switch - ★★★★

I talked last year about how I mostly liked this game in spite of its many, many issues. The DLC mostly plays to SV's strengths: fun plot and characters, improved open world catching system from Sword/Shield. They also run considerably better, due to a year of opportunity to make things more stable and address bugs.

That said: It doesn't address any of the other issues that have always been there. Open world exploration becomes kind of pointless when you have the ability to invalidate any level geometry. There is such a thing as too much mobility, believe it or not, when you can just jump over everything. At the same time, the ways cutscenes work is soooo slowwwww, to the point that getting through them to the "action" can be quite tedious.

This DLC also continues the unfortunate thing that drives me nuts about all these DLC, that the level scaling is just awful. It basically assumes you have done literally nothing since finishing Scarlet Violet, and not engaged at all with the post game. Which hey, works out for Lil Timmy who is experiencing this DLC in-line with the base game or only after beating it (since it does dynamically scale for earlier progression), but it makes the whole thing kind of a rote exercise for those who actually played the game more than that?

I realize this is multiple decades now of me barking that hey, it'd be nice if Pokemon didn't exclusively try to appeal to 5 year olds, which is definitely a lost cause at this point. We don't even get stuff like Battle Towers or Frontiers anymore really. Ah well!

8. Street Fighter 6 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★

Ok, here's the thing: Street Fighter 6 is overall a very good game, lots of care and polish, but I got a few bones to pick with it.

1. I kind of hate its input buffer. Just drives me nuts, particularly with how it handles supers and specials with overlapping inputs.

2. World Tour while is neat, the progression of it is so goddamn grindy and miserable. So much HP for enemies as you go on, and you don't have access to a fighter's full skill set even at the very end due to how special "slots" work.

3. The cast feels too safe. I like the new additions a lot, and in general the old chars have been rendered quite well, but there's just not a lot of innovation going on. The system mechanics are quite good, but it's the thing where no one on the cast really calls out to me. Personal taste thing.

Marvel's Spider-Man - 2022 - Steam - ★★★★

I don't think I have anything particularly unique to say about The Spider-Man Experience beyond hey: that's a pretty good Spider-Man. I think the DLC was obnoxious as shit, and a number of the decisions tied to box-checking-completionist stuff were mean for someone like me who has the stupid brain that thinks it's important to do Everything no matter how tedious it is, but overall: a good Spider-Man. Some of the villain stuff felt pretty weak though.

7. Resident Evil 4 Remake - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A great remake! They trimmed down some areas a fair but, but none of them particularly egregious (some of them, particularly a last act boss being removed, was quite appreciated), and the mechanical additions are fun.

Does it invalidate the old version? I dunno, maybe?

6. We Love Katamari Re:Roll - 2023 - Steam / Switch - ★★★★★

Hey, you know what's also a very good game? We Love Katamari. Not much new to say beyond hey: the name is accurate, and you should buy and play it. I liked it enough to buy it twice on two platforms, which is silly but it gave me the excuse to play more Katamari so quite understandable.

A thing that does annoy me about the game is them reusing certain models from the other Katamari Remake, even when they were deliberately replaced in We Love Katamari and are even called out as different in the item descriptions despite not being so. Arrgh. It doesn't really matter, but I got the dumb brain for that kind of thing.

5. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A fighting game that I enjoyed years past now has actually good netcode! The mechanical additions have been very nice, and I've been enjoying myself grinding away for my meager gains. It's also funny having skipped all the base game's DLC and coming in now, since it's like this release just added 20 more chars I'd otherwise not engaged with before.

A ton of polish has made this a fantastic package across the board, so many smart decisions and little details. I'm sure for GranBlue gacha fans it's probably incredible as something that pays tribute as well.

… but see, my main annoyance with the game mostly ties to being unable to stand the source material it pulls from. It's not enough to diminish my positive feelings for the game, but none the less: man, everything about the lore and characters themselves just does NOTHING for me. This is nothing particularly unique to GranBlue itself even, it's pretty in line with how I feel about every gacha title that exists to roll out chars and appeal to as many niches as possible without real forward movement or actual story, but hey here we are.

Looking forward to that 2B.

4. Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A game I admittedly haven't completed yet (I got up to a certain kidnapping in the last act and had to set it aside due to stuff repeatedly coming up for the past couple months) but still: this is a very good tactical RPG. I enjoy the writing, characters, and gameplay quite a lot. A ton of polish went into this.

I don't think I have much to say about it that hasn't been said by others, especially with all the Discourse that has circled it for months-to-years now across Early Access into release.

If there's one thing that does kind of annoy me about the game design, it's the way the player characters are handled. You have the option during character creator to create a character with a number of character-build-y backgrounds, or use their pre-built characters that have existing stories. This choice is lose-lose.

A fully custom character is blank, unimportant. There's nothing special about them beyond their affinity with a certain orb and being Protagonist Man. Their background doesn't really matter, even as you express your personality. You have nothing behind you that meaningfully comes up or affects the story (no Gorion, etc) beyond your role in the conflict. In other words, there's not a lot of reason for you to exist except as a cypher for the named characters.

Playing one of the named characters also sucks, because you lose those the writing for those characters. If I'm stuck aping Karlach, I have no Karlach in my party. You barely even get voice acting once you choose to play those characters either. You effectively end up with less writing and characterization, which kind of sucks! Yes, you do get your backgrounds being looped in and mattering more, which is indeed something, but not enough.

There is secretly a third option that, the more I think about it, is the correct one, they just don't tell you it. You can choose your character background to be tied to the Dark Urge, which results in a lot unique interactions, gives your character an actual background and comes up, etc. They don't outright make this the main option presumably because it comes with a lot of baggage (which, yeah, it does), but it seems completely worth it by comparison to just flitting through the story as either a ghost or the phantom of a real character.

3. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Remastered - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Play Ghost Trick.

2. Armored Core VI - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

From Software continues to not miss. Fantastic game, some of the most satisfying mecha combat I've played. Story is great; it's still your usual "oops we're not explaining much other than in medias res or by circumstantial details" that From Soft has continued to double down on, but I really enjoy that stuff so hey. I 100%'d this game, got all the endings etc. Great stuff.

Really want some proper DLC so I can do even more, though.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Let's face it: this wasn't going to end any other way. Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite game of all time, and this is basically just more of that, remixed and remastered into a Second Quest that builds on the first one.

Something I kept thinking about while playing is that while there is volumetrically more to do, more things happening, more mechanics, etc etc, the different approach it takes in terms of focus and approach doesn't make it necessarily a "strictly better" version of Breath of the Wild.

Breath of the Wild was deliberately spare, quiet, and minimalist. Like the name says, its about the quiet wilderness, a poignant world that you explore. Tears of the Kingdom drops much of that, in many ways turning into a kooky madcap version of BOTW. You don't spent nearly as much time smelling the roses and taking in the scenery, as you're often too busy blasting by using any number of the new movement abilities or combat tools or literal flying machines you can now Nuts and Bolts together.

It's a deliberate escalation, one that in my opinion requires the preceding part to work. They add together into one complete singular experience, rather than pulling against each other. That's awesome, exactly what I wanted. Now I get to have two favorite games of all time that are secretly just one-and-the-same.

Some minor thoughts:

1. Lots of great writing and characterization, built up well on BOTW there.

2. It's kind of funny how much it goes out of the way to avoid talking much about BOTW in case someone plays this game first.

3. The last of a Master mode this time around is kind of a bummer but oh well!

4. The vehicle crafting system and everything about it, including the way it plays into the existing physics system is fucking insane. Absolutely incredible game design. Bonkers.

I'm really curious how the hell they're going to follow these games up. Going back to square-0 from this formula- one that is so built up and diverse, seems like it'd be impossible to me. What the hell could you do? Looking forward to finding out.

#think piece #nonfiction #game of the year #video games #tears of the kingdom #armored core 6

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branmuffins22 · 2 years ago

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Moots said they wanna hear about WIPs and I feel like I gotta get this brainrot out anyways so HERE I GO

I've only got three projects I'm actively working on right now, all of which are Owl House fanfics, although I've got ideas here and there for other things (video games I might've made if I weren't so burnt out, ttrpg characters that might need their own goddamn settings and stories to themselves, a Code Lyoko fanfic, music (mostly loads of disconnected song lyrics), 3D avatars, etc).

The Owl House fanfics in question are three(-ish?) fold:

Theseus Who?, a mostly-canon-compliant 5+1 post-titanification headcanon compilation that DOESN'T just let Luz keep her titan form (mostly it's just a bunch of changes along the lines of when Hunter's eyes changed color after Flapjack saved him). - It's actually sort of a tie-in to another, bigger fic I'm writing that's gonna be point 2, so you can assume anything mentioned in this one will happen throughout the timeline of the next one as well. - I've currently already got the 5 written, so now I just need to buckle down and finish the +1, unless I decide to do another sweep of edits (I think the excessive parentheticals might be too excessive). - - I only started it like a week ago, and I've been waiting for motivation to strike again to let me finish it for like half that time.

Masha and the Very Normal Nocedas, a mostly-canon-compliant sorta-multimedia veesha longfic based on the dramatic irony of Masha slowly driving themself nuts trying to piece together what the Deal is with Luz, Vee, and the rest of the Nocedas. - by "sorta-multimedia" i mean its got plaintext segments describing the story, journal segments of Masha recounting events as they remember them and trying to organize their thoughts, chat segments when the characters interact over text, and possibly more if I feel the Need. - I've only outlined the three prologue chapters and the following intermission, only have snippets and vague ideas for scenes for the main bulk of the fic itself, and have only actually written two of the prologue chapters and the intermission. - - won't start posting it until I at least get the third prologue chapter done, so I've got a usable buffer. Hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later.

The Overthinker AU (or "The Artificer AU"? name is also very much a work in progress), a canon rewrite that I think I'll actually split into a bunch of shorter "episodes", so I can appropriately tag each one, rather than tagging one monolithic fic with Everything Under The Sun. The basic premise is "what if The Owl House, but there's more time", both in the meta sense of "not bound by the 20-minute TV episode format" and the diegetic sense of "the broad-strokes plot of the show will happen over a longer in-universe period of time" (though I'm a bit stuck on just how much more time I want to give em). - for the most part, I wanted to put more emphasis on Luz's magical development, and extrapolate a somewhat wider magic system out of what we see in the show, but I also want to go into more detail on how her actions affect those around her, even outside of all the friends she makes (stuff along the lines of the little things the crowd mentioned while protesting Eda's petrification at the end of season 1). - I'm almost (reluctantly) thinking of pulling a Grapes of Wrath with it, structure-wise, by having main plot/character development chapters alternate with shorter intermissions focused on magical exploration, worldbuilding, and so on. - this project is currently just the scribblings of a madwoman in my private discord server and three wildly unfinished fics in my google docs folder - - one of these fics is Something Like a Bible, which is essentially a condensed version of the entire broader project, boiled down to bare plot and occasional commentary. Like a series outline and a plot synopsis rolled into one, though perhaps not quite the series bible it claims to be. - - - honestly I REALLY aughtta work on this one some more, just so I can get most of the Big Ideas out of my head and share them with people. - - the other two fics are currently untitled snippets of scenes from the project, one a sentimental/instructional note from Eda to Luz, and the other sort of a ragefic twist on the ending of Thanks to Them. - this project is gonna include tons of ideas from and allusions to other fics which inspired it/me, such as The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled by IdeaHunter, All that's at Stake by The_Lampman, and Decorative by TheTokenAro, to name a few. - I could make a whole post about this project on its own (and in fact, I have before), talking about all the little changes I'd make, the developments I'd include, the more sweeping changes, the additional themes I'd toss in, and so on, but there are some I REALLY don't think fit well into the "rambling tumblr post" format (and/or just don't want to spoil yet), so I shall Abstain (for now :P).

#toh #the owl house #fan fiction #fanfic #barely-tamed ramblings of a madmind #moots eat up #timestamping Saturday August 26th 2023 (at 11:02am PST)#in case you wanna yell at tumblr for not putting this in your feed until days later #like they have with all my other posts in the last month-ish for some reason

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aquaburst3 · 3 months ago

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Sunday Fic Update: March 23, 2025

I didn't finish chapter 25, but I did get some things done on it. It's over half way done now. My goal of getting 25-27 by Easter still stands.

I got a little done on a future arc, because the event on the ENG server motivated me to…despite it not coming out until after Pomefiore is done. (Neurospicy brains. Gotta love 'em. xD)

I'm posting up chapter 24 of Pomefiore this Thursday. Keep an eye out for it.

This past week @stormkitty97 and I finished posting up the rest of our Percy Jackson fic. Check it out if you haven't.

We worked more on the first chapter of our Bella/Jacob Twilight fic, and then watched Flow. (We enjoyed it, but we both kinda wished that it had narration like Spirit.) We never completed the chapter yet. Plus, we both agree that we want to finish a few chapters before posting them up, just so we have a buffer.

#aqua rambles #writing announcement #fic announcement #fic update #writing update #twisted wonderland #twilight renaissance #twilight fanfiction

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 6 years ago

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Shield Hero 20

Motoyasu getting dragged by Filo was funny…not enough to get a proper laugh though. Just a smirk or two.

Stop narrating and just get on with it, Naofumi and friends…!

“I was saying we should fight together all along.” (from Itsuki) – Were you, now…? (skeptical)

Ass-pull! I call “ass-pull” at the power to swallow the phoenix flame! Seriously, when did the dragon get the opportunity to teach Naofumi how to do that???

How did Naofumi not die after losing so much blood��?

What does the Q even stand for in the queen’s name…?

Sarazanmai 7

The seagulls…so fluffy…

For some reason, I expect a fakeout, but then it never arrives…these boys are really connecting…

I found some kappa croquette thingy online, but it referred to a “Shiki City” which probably isn’t in Asakusa…

The shirt…Kazuki’s shirt says “frog” but I get the feeling it also means “return”.

Shirohasu water. It’s Irohasu in Japan.

Was the lyric to Kawausoiya (the otter song) “gonna take ‘em”…?

Nice ET reference, Sara.

Balls…not just sport entendre, but…y’know. The sort of humour I don’t like as much.

Ooh…Keppi is shaping up to be the bad guy. But what plans does he have? Am I speculating too much and is he being framed? Hard to know until next time…

BSD 32

When Kyouka is eating the sundae, she looks like the Tofu Kyouka from Mayoi…hmm.

Can I confess something? Before I saw the illustrations for s2, I thought Louisa’s hair was much darker than what it is in the anime…hmmm, indeed.

I don’t think we were ever told (in the manga or the anime) what Louisa’s wish was…

This bit with Fyodor…I don’t think it was in the manga.

Subarashi-sou is a pun on “it seems wonderful”. That wasn’t in the manga, but it’s a great pun (because it’s right up my alley).

Fitz laughing at the neighbour’s TV wasn’t in the manga either, but that’s just the anime director’s humour peeking through.

“Blalack Daniel’s”, LOL.

Ohh…a quick Google reveals TJ Eckleberg is from the Great Gatsby. In there, he’s an eye doctor, but here, he’s an engineer.

George B Wilson is also from the Great Gatsby…Here be spoilers, but…George dies in his original work too.

Manhasset is a place in New York…I assume it’s connected to the Great Gatsby as well…

Oh yeah! Random Poe moment. That’s in the manga, so Igarashi (or whoever’s responsible for the terrible humour) doesn’t have to fake that bit.

Cue “Objection!” by Fitz, lemme guess. Even if I know the outcome and how it was done, I’d like to have my memory refreshed (by stabbing in the dark…and making an Ace Attorney joke in the process).

I already know, without googling, that Tom Buchanan is part of Great Gatsby as well…

Bank of Amerigo…LOL.

Fruits Basket 8

“If you show up for the banquet now…”

“The banquet sounds just like the folk tale!” Honestly, subbers, proofread…

Haa-kun and Haa-san. No distinguishing between them (aside from honorifics), even though they’re two completely different people.

Hatori’s squinty face was…hilarious, to put it simply.

Oh…I forgot the dance seems to be something the animal of the year does. So if Yuki was 3 years ago, it makes sense Momiji is doing it this year.

Best seat in the house for a sunrise, huh?

Kimetsu no Yaiba 8

I’ve seen Muzan being described as “Demon Michael Jackson” and now I can’t get that out of my head when I see him…sorry.

Tsukihiko, huh? It translates to “moon’s radiance” or something like that. That name is appropriate for a bad guy, isn’t it?

This is the first time I’ve really listened to the OST (aside from the OP and ED), so it’s…really something.

Ooh, I didn’t realise until now, but Ufotable even imitated the paper Jump is printed on with the next-ep previews…

OPM 2 8 (OPM 20)

Er…I haven’t mentioned it for the past few episodes, but Suiryu is hotttttttt. (No? I said that? Okay, next step.) That’s basically the only reason why I’m watching anymore…I can’t seem to find anyone who thinks positively of this tournament arc enough to do reviews of it that I can read, which has made my own opinion of this beloved series go down the drain…Also, if you weren’t aware, my taste lies not in Suiryu’s huge bulk, but rather in the fact he’s got long hair.

Didn’t Suiryu get pierced in the abs??? Where’s the blood coming from his injuries??? Update: He does have injuries there, they’re just not bloody…that’s all.

The main criticism for OPM 2 is the fact that it keeps cutting between different events, so it’s hard to follow. Well, I’ve had worse (see Concrete Revolutio) so that’s why I’m still here.

People say that clothing changes you – say if you put on a new outfit, you feel like a new person. (Of course, that’s all glamorising and praising consumption, but that’s beside the point here.) I think that’s what’s up with Max and Snek.

Shield Hero 21

“…the Shield Hero is worshipped.”

Really? Boob jiggle, at a time like this??? (Context: Malty is getting th slave crest painted on her.)

Wait, was there ever a Shield Church???

Okay, that felt like a real seasonal ending. What the heck is going to happen in the last few episodes, I wonder…?

Sarazanmai 8

Chikai knows the real meaning of YOLO…heh. I’m only kidding…

To be honest, I think I like Toi best out of the main trio. I tend to like the boys in blue…and no, I don’t mean the otter police.

Kazuki’s service provider is “Kappa Phone”, LOL.

When Reo held up the gun, I was yelling, “Enta! Get it for him!” (i.e. take the bullet) I didn’t expect him to actually do it…

…and here I thought tragic yuri was common enough and we don’t have enough Tragic Yaoi Dudes…

Notably, Toi was registered on Enta’s phone as “Kuji”, while Kazuki is registered as “Kazuki” (katakana) on Toi’s.

Shots fired…!

Update: I didn’t notice this, but the evil dude with kamome written behind him (I think it’s in this episode, but it might have been in the last one instead) must be based on a seagull…because that’s what kamome means.

Bungou Stray Dogs 33 (BSD S3 Ep 8)

I think it was around here I stopped reading the scans, because the series was picked up legally anyway…but I can see the death flags for a certain Port Mafia man…one who stands at the top.

As expected…butt shot. Igarashi (or whoever’s responsible for that shot) likes butts, so between this and Sarazanmai…*imagines image of kappa!Kazuki holding a shirikodama* There’s absolutely no buts about it (LOL), there’s no shortage of butts this season.

“To think that the rabbit being hunted would show its face…” – I think it’s hard for you to say that, Akutagawa, when you yourself have no face in that frame…

Why are both Akutagawa and Fyodor Naruto running today???

“So you’re doing this for that woman.”

What is “Mukurotoride”? I don’t seem to remember…maybe I never learnt what it was. Update: Apparently a tower in Dead Apple is called Mukurotoride.

Conspiracy time! This book sounds like Kunikida’s Ability…so imagine if it were under Dazai’s nose the entire time…

Fruits Basket 9

I love how the synopsis for this episode goes, “Kyo fights Yuki, Yuki fights a cold…”

Hatsuharu’s wearing such an ostentatious fluffy jacket…LOL, I love it.

Holy cow (LOL), I forgot how old Hatsuharu is…so that means he’s 15-ish, right?

Come to think of it…I see Fruits Basket characters in Ro Te O, which I started writing at about this time in 2013. The Azrael of that time was a hybrid of Hatsuharu, Ritsu and Ayame, Tetsuya is basically Yuki and Ryou is Kyou…hmm.

Apparently, Shigure had in the 2001 anime a song that went like, “High school girls, high school girls, cute high school girls for me.” So that’s where it was??? (Context: I haven’t seen Fruits Basket 2001, but read the entire manga.)

Kimetsu no Yaiba 9

Recap time, recap time…so the lady’s in the back room and Tanjiro conveniently forgets the man is in the basement…? Wuh?

Moya was complaining about how repetitive this show can get when it comes to the script (i.e. it repeats itself because it doesn’t trust its audience, but I think that’s because this is originally serialised on TV week by week that people may forget if they’re not bingeing, taking notes or following the manga). I’ll talk more about that in my KnY collab post, I guess…

When Yushiro said “watch your back”…he really meant it, huh?

Temari are the balls, but kemari is when you kick the balls.

“…the eyeballs on his hands are creepy.” – LOL.

Shield Hero 22

The ep title just says “Hero Council”…not specifically that there are 4 of them.

My stream’s been buffering more than usual, so I went “like mother, like daughter” before Naofumi did…

It would’ve ben massively funny to hear Melty call Malty either “Trash” or “B****”…especially the last one, because that’s always a fun way to end a sentence (especially for a girl as young as her). Update: She does, but the way she does it isn’t as funny as I thought it would be (and she doesn’t end her sentence with her sister’s new name).

Wait, I thought they got rid of her slave pact??? I thought it was only for the duration of her trial that she needed it for.

L’Arc and that lady seem like they’re foreshadowing for later…hmm. Update: The next-episode synopsis says “yes”. So does that new visual.

Sarazanmai 9

I can’t believe this show’s almost over…That means I gotta get a move on with RobiHachi, but to be honest? Non-anime things are probably going to kep me busy until…a few days from now. So I’ll get RobiHachi watched then.

Characetrs are dying en masse in this episode, aren’t they??? I saw a spoiler that (well, SPOILER) Chikai’s gonna die, but I don’t know about Enta or Keppi…Update: To be honest, I thought Chikai was going to become the next monster – a gun monster, perhaps. Maybe now that I’ve finished the episode, he’ll become a real zombie. (Hey, see what I did there with the bolding…? How’s that for hiding spoilers, eh???)

Oh yeah…I forgot Enta’s sister was Kazuki’s teacher…

There was a sign behind Masa that said”Hinode Asakusa” – “hi no de” meaning roughly “under the sun” or “leaving the sun”.

Tokarev…? The gun? Gun monster, maybe? Is this a critique of the American gun…(exaggerated voice) Nah, can’t be…this is Japanese.

Lionel…Lionel…for some reason, that name in relation to soccer seems familiar...I just can’t put my finger on who it reminds me of, though. Update: Is it, perhaps, Messi…? Yes, I think that’s the guy I was thinking of…!

Aw…I’m not crying, you are…But these words were running through my head before Toi chucked the bag of money away and yelled, “F***!”: “Everything I do, I do it for you.” Isn’t that cute…?

Bungou Stray Dogs 34

“…one by one?” Junban means “sequentially”, so I don’t see why you have to use the phrase “one by one”. Or “one at a time” would also work.

Hardbank…to contrast Softbank (a phone company in Japan).

Face-stealing aliens strike again…(re: Atsushi)

Oh flip. This reminds me of my Kunikida fic…yeah, I bet you don’t remember it.

Hey, this dude! Apparently he’s from one of Kunikida’s stories. I really am approaching the end of what I know of canon…*gulp* Update: Oops, we already passed that part…

I wonder if the real Fyodor could play cello…? Or is this just a thing to make him ominous and villanous…?

The cross on the wall behind Kunikida…makes this show more like Eva than Kekkai Sensen…exquisite. Absolutely exquisite, isn’t it?

Another cool cross, behind Tanizaki!

What’s a tatamigatana? Also, I didn’t know other people could be synchronised using Doppo Poet and Ranpo’s deduction…

Does Kouyou mean (by “the one I most despise”)…Chuuya? Or herself? It’s definitely not Ace.

Kimetsu no Yaiba 10

Headpats for Yushiro as well! Headpats for everyone!

There’s a lot of Tanjiro being terrified in this episode…

Wait…Kizuki? I thought they were the 12 Moons? (Well, “tsuki” means “moon”, but then what’s the “ki”?) Update: The “ki” means “demon”, so the Kizuki are the 12 Demon Moons.

Being alone with the body…that’s always a scary thought in murder mysteries…for the people who dissect them to determine the cause of death, that is.

Considering the name of the episode is “Together Forever”…nup, I don’t see Nezuko and Tanjiro separating anytime soon…

The Kasugai crow is what happens when you can’t turn off your Google Assistant…or GPS…or Siri.

If Tanjiro knows the name of his crow, how do the crows get their names? Do their trainers (is that the right term for a crow breeder in this case…?) give them names?

OPM S2 Ep 9 (Ep 21)

LOL, that one shot of the ants…JC Staff really don’t care about this series, do they…?

I kinda forgot about Genos after a bit more than a week…sorry, I was watching other anime in between. (More than usual, at least. I started playing Chibi Tamago – a forum game for AniList where you collect badges for watching anime - that’s why.)

Did he (Pri-Pri Prisoner)…store his phone in his butt…?

#simulcast commentary #Bungou Stray Dogs #one punch man #Sarazanmai #Fruits Basket #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #the rising of the shield hero #Chesarka watches Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari #Chesarka watches BSD #Chesarka watches OPM #Chesarka watches Sarazanmai #Chesarka watches KnY #Chesarka watches Furuba #Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

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pixiespeaks · 4 years ago

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9.30

Sorry I haven’t posted in a little while. I’m mostly making a post today to provide updates and to write out some stuff so I don’t forget to bring it up to my therapist Tuesday.

I’m trying to work on my ADHD tendencies. Mainly the forgetfulness. But also the object permanence. I’ve started setting more reminders for myself on my phone so I don’t forget things. It’s been helpful for stuff that I would’ve probably written down and been like uh… but the downside is that it’s making me more reliable on checking my phone at weird periods of time.

I’ve also started implementing iOS 15’s focus feature. For Apple users my status will display to them as my having notifications muted. So they will know that if they message me, I’m not ignoring them. For android users, this means calls and notifications dnd. Which is ideal for me not getting interrupted during work hours. Because my main focus is on my job, and if I’m on the phone and my cellphone goes off I’ll get distracted by whoever is calling me. Doesn’t mean I don’t wanna talk to you, because I do. My brain is just going to get distracted by the message or the call and I won’t be able to give attention to my job, if I’m on emails, it’s fine. I can pause for a second if it’s a light day to answer or reply. Im also trying to remind myself to check my texts more frequently, so hopefully I won’t forget to reply to people.

Im also trying to come up with ways to help with the object permanence. The current idea I had is to designate a block of time on Thursdays or Friday to just call everyone and talk to them for a few minutes. So they know I’m thinking about them. Usually when the thought pops up, it’s late and I’m like I’ll call em tomorrow. Tomorrow rolls around and I’ve forgotten already. It’s an endless cycle of forgetting things I intend to do.

My normal day to day is a bit more weird than it has been. Mon-friday, Austin isn’t here during the day. So the house is extremely quiet and my only communication is the cats or my coworkers. I asked my therapist about how I can try to put myself out there more to make friends or try to strengthen my current friendships more because it’s hard for me to hang out with people because I work nights and I don’t have a single weekend day off and everyone else I know does. She recommended trying to make neurodivergent friends or go to some sort of meeting or get together either for ADHD peeps or like a hobby class and make friends through that. I have no clue how to talk to people anymore. The benefit of texting is I can give my brain time to come up with something to talk about or give my brain time to process what’s being said before I reply. It’s a bit more difficult in person lol, you could probably see the buffering symbol above my head while I’m trying to think. Meanwhile the other person is just staring at me like 😳 because I’m not saying anything or it’s awkward silence.

The closer the wedding gets the more I’m focused on trying to make sure I have everything for it. My appointment for my alterations is next Friday. I need to make my hair appointment soon. I gotta get my bridesmaid gifts done. I gotta finish buying the stuff for the wedding. I gotta get my accessories (shoes, whatever jewelry, whatever hair thing), I need to finalize the ceremony music and the reception music, we need to get our marriage stuff from the state, I need to figure out who can man a phone or a laptop to stream it, gotta get stuff for the bachelorette thing. Just a never ending list and I’m still staring at my fall decor like I DONT HAVE ENOUGH!!!!!1111.

I’m incredibly hyper focused on making sure everything is squared away with that, that I’m forgetting other stuff I have to do or should do. And I’m just like AAAAAAAAAAAAA. Like I’m sure there’s still stuff I’ve forgotten and then the wedding is gunna come and I’m gunna be like SHIT I FORGOT THIS THING FUCK FUCK FUCK.

I’m also panicking because the RSVP’s haven’t all rolled in. I sent out tons of invites and have only received a few responses. I’ve got until October 15th to get a total head count so I can give the final number to the caterer and I’m worried that people either won’t reply or just aren’t going to come.

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marie85marketing · 8 years ago

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9 Activation Secrets You Need to Be Using

Your problem isn’t what you think it is.

More traffic can definitely paper over some cracks. Likewise, more downloads, installs, or sign-ups always help.

But that’s not it.

That’s not the thing holding you back.

Because if 70% of free trials are useless (as reported by one study we’ll get to in a second)… more traffic or signups isn’t gonna help you. Pouring more water into a leaky funnel will won’t help you fill it any faster.

Instead, you gotta turn your attention to fixing those holes, first.

Specifically, starting with how to get more people successfully Activated and engaged to stick around for the long haul.

Here’s how to do it.

Revisiting The Top of the Funnel Fallacy

Less friction generally means higher conversion rates.

Example: Go from eleven down to four form fields and conversions shoot up 120%.

Pat yourself on the back. Fire off a blog post to GrowthHackers.com and call it a day. Plenty of artisanal stout beers to go ‘round.

But here’s the thing.

More isn’t always better. Over-optimizing conversion rates – taking drastic actions to boost one isolated number – don’t always pan out in the long run.

Just ask Moz, who found out that, “Many, many [website visits] visits are often correlated with high purchase prices.”

In other words, the most profitable customers didn’t convert after a single session or two. In fact, those that did were more likely to churn and bounce the quickest as well.

Instead, the most profitable customers often visited the website at least eight times prior to signing up for a free trial.

Totango ran a study years ago that illustrated a similar point. Their data showed that you’ll see a higher conversion rate (~10%) without asking for a credit card during sign up then you will when you do (~2%).

But that doesn’t matter. Because they don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.

Only around 20% of those trials are actively evaluating the product and considering crossing your finish line. (While as much as 70% are completely useless.)

A similar study looked at how customer conversion rates changed when a credit card was required upon sign up. The results showed that as many as 50% of people who used theirs during the initial signup will convert. While only around 15% who didn’t use their credit card will go on to become a customer.

TL;DR?

Over-optimizing the top of the funnel is pointless if it doesn’t result in more bottom of the funnel customers. Otherwise, you’ll stand to gain more from focusing on the middle of the funnel. Because: loyalty economics.

Here’s where to start.

The Three Components of a Successful ‘Activation’

The middle of the funnel never received a ton of love before Dave.

Sure, self-proclaimed ‘social media gurus’ loved to ramble on and on and on about this “engagement” thing. But they never bothered to stop and actually explain what it meant or how to prove it. Probably too many campfires to croon kumbaya around.

But then in stormed Dave, with his TV-MA, profanity-laced, multi-colored, seizure-inducing blog posts that undoubtedly crippled at least one poor epileptic.

His startup metrics presented a simple framework that connected the dots from Acquisition to Revenue.

This clever device practically made Activation and Retention household names for geeky growth hackers who didn’t quite yet have growth hacking to growth hack about growth hacking.

The Activation piece specifically focused on that all-important, yet least understood part of the funnel: delivering a ‘happy’ first experience so that people stuck around and came back to the site.

This is the ‘engagement’ part. It didn’t just mean signups. But a host of other behavior-based metrics like the number of pages people viewed prior to signup. The number of visits and the time on site. And the number of features used.

Fraser Deans, co-founder of Nickelled, breaks down Activation into three separate buckets in an excellent Medium post. (Also, he gets a +1 for squeezing “bloody brilliant” into the title).

Those three are:

Phase One: Pre-Signup: Messaging that ‘primes’. It introduces, teases, and prepares someone to take a successful action.

Phase Two: First User Experience: The ‘mission critical’ steps to take that deliver utility.

Phase Three: Post-Signup: The follow-on activities to ‘seal the deal’.

Simple and easy to understand. A good a place as any to start.

Phase One: Pre-Signup

1. Begin at the Beginning

As in, the place where peeps are coming from. Because it can tell you a lot about who they are, what they’re looking for, and how to best ‘prime’ them for a successful Activation.

For example, look up your business in Google’s Customer Journey to Online Purchase to understand when people use certain channels.

Great. Now pull up your analytics and check out current traffic over the past 30 days to six months. Where are they coming from?

Perfect. The majority of site visitors here are coming to the site directly or through Search (both Organic and Paid). That means a lot of ‘branded’ traffic.

Here’s why that’s important.

2. Find Out What that Traffic is Looking For

Someone’s ‘path’ through your website can tell you a lot about where they are in the funnel.

One way to spot this is the User Flow report inside Google Analytics. It’s not perfect, but it allows you to view which pages people are going to by the original Source.

Another way to look at this is by going to your most popular content and adding a secondary dimension based on the Source / Medium.

Isolating each Source and its destination helps you connect the dots. It helps you spot different segments and funnels. For example, that Social brings in new people to blog posts while those that click on a Branded Paid Ad already know all about you.

Then you can improve upon it.

3. Optimize these Funnels

Most companies obsess over the home page. Or they obsess over the latest blog posts from the past month.

But when you go through those first two steps, you’ll quickly notice that neither are among the most popular ‘paths’ through your site.

Instead, here are some from ConversionXL to look for:

Image Source

At each step you want to streamline/optimize/improve how people go from one to the other. Often that includes ‘priming’, which means getting your message match spot on, too. Here’s how it plays out with an easy eCommerce example.

Someone looks for a specific product in Google. Maybe it’s “mens chukka boots.” They see and click on the Special Offer.

Which sends them to a product page (because they clicked on a the shopping ad) that features language referencing not only the product but also the Special Offer that was alluded to.

Got it? Good.

On to the next one.

Phase Two. First User Experience

4. Outline ‘Success Milestones’

Now you got ‘em. The trick is to keep them around.

First, start by outlining those “customer centric success milestones.” These are the steps that people take which should equal a ‘happy first experience.’

Often that means the user takes action. They upload something. Add in some details. Or connect some accounts.

For example, Lincoln outlines creating an online store. Which makes my life easy, because now I don’t need to think up an example. ;)

So if I’m BigCommerce, maybe that starts with first helping people pick an eCommerce theme. That’s critical before anything else, because first impressions are design-driven.

Onboarding starts there…

Image Source

… before going to the other boring (albeit important) stuff like determining a URL, setting up payment gateways, worrying about taxes or shipping, etc.

5. Instrument Each Success Milestone

Now instrument these steps along the way so you can measure, iterate, and improve. (Using, oh, I dunno, Kissmetrics perhaps.)

For example, here’s what those individual milestones look like for Patrick McKenzie’s Bingo Card Creator:

Each step is concrete so you can measure which activities (or transitions) lead to the greatest drop offs.

Here’s an eCommerce example using the Shopping Analysis from Google Analytics.

Image Source

Different use case, same steps (or more or less).

Instrumenting these events gives you the ability to zero-in on where people are leaking outside your funnel. Here’s how to fix it.

6. Test Biggest Drop-offs First

Revisiting our online store example from a second ago, let’s say a major dropoff occurs on that initial “Pick Theme Design” step.

People are signing up but not, for whatever reason, moving past all the options they face. Maybe there’s too many options. More options = more complexity = less conversions in some cases.

Ok. So let’s simplify instead.

Where are those visitors coming from initially?

Let’s pass some referral data through the signup process. That way you can immediately show Fashion-related themes to those who just Google “Fashion online stores.” And apply that strategy across the board to increase the rate of users successfully completing that micro-step in your funnel.

Buffer, for example, found simplifying the onboarding process was key to their Activation, too.

Leo Widrich told Chargify that they found success in restraint. Instead of trying to make users actually share something (which is the entire purpose of their product), they instead just wanted them to connect their social accounts, setup timezones, and optimize posting times.

“So we rebuilt our onboarding process to focus on those items first and not push sharing and all other features instead. It made a huge difference in our activation!”

Phase Three: Post-Signup

7. Systematically Move People from A -> B

You’ve iterated on each Success Milestone now. Ran a few tests and know where the problem areas lie.

The next step is to make sure as many people as possible are attempting to complete each. And sometimes they require a little gentle prodding along the way.

This is classic marketing automation, where you’re automatically following up with people about completing the ‘next step’, until… you know… they complete the next step.

No need to overcomplicate this. See: 451% new qualified leads and 34% increase in sales.

So take your pick. HubSpot can do it. And the yet-to-be-release Kissmetrics Campaigns will be able to fire off emails based on certain conditions (e.g. signed up but no login) Stay tuned for the release. Same process (key word there) no matter which tactic we’re talkin’.

The trick is to ‘systemize’ follow-up at each step or milestone. Often in multiple channels.

8. Increase Messaging Frequency with Multiple Channels

Advertising 101:

Reach is the number of new, unique people.

Frequency is the amount of times you hit those same people.

Usually people get the first one. But don’t always do the second.

For example, sending one follow-up email every three days is fine. But often not enough. Not when you’re competing against a few trillion in the meantime.

You can increase frequency, without pissing everyone off, by looping in other channels.

Like reiterating the same messaging with live chat throughout your site or inside your app.

You can also supplement the process with longer, in-depth trainings, too. For example, Contactually is an awesome tool. But like many others, that utility is only gained if people use it consistently over a period of days/weeks/months. And sometimes people need a bit of a head start with some ideas of how to do that. Enter: training webinars.

9. Switch to 1:1 ASAP

A sign up is a conversion. Technically speaking.

But they’re not closed customers until they’re sticking around and you’re charging their credit card.

So you might have them on the hook. But you still need to close them.

The best tactic, bar none, for location-independent closing? Phone calls at 30-50%.

Every other step here emphasizes scale. And they all work well to one degree or another. But taking that final 1:1 plunge is worth it, according to Close.io.

So much so, that they recommend calling signups within five minutes!

“The quicker you can call someone after signup, the higher the likelihood of reaching them and being able to have them in the ‘product frame of mind.’”

Bonus points go to fanatical customer support. Close.io has engineers on their support team that will work outside of business hours in order to make sure each signup’s first experience is, in fact, a “happy one.”

“It’s not uncommon for us to be answering support requests at 4 AM.”

But doesn’t asking for a phone number lower signups initially?

Yes, it does. But it can often be worth it, too.

Conclusion

There’s nothing special about these 9 activation secrets.

They’re not especially clever. Not very impressive hacks.

What is uncommon, though, is the systematic application of each.

Activation, or creating a “happy first experience”, is fairly straightforward. You figure out what people are looking for. What they’re trying to accomplish in order to solve some pain point in their life. And then you make changes in order to better help them do that.

The concept is easy and straightforward. The hard part is doing the work.

About the Author: Brad Smith is a marketing writer, agency partner, and creator of Copy Weekly, a free weekly copywriting newsletter for marketers & founders.

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samiam03x · 8 years ago