#npc dynamics talks

[tiredassmage]

back at it again at the krispy kreme. I, unsurprisingly, caught "miss my boy [the fictional guy that lives in my head 24/7]" disease again, so I went back to [we've lost count of which playthru I'm on] and I think. Tyr and Kaliyo are just kinda neat. So I'm gonna subject everyone to chewing on it on main, lol.

There's elements of them that maybe shouldn't work out, but in the end, I find them so damn interesting because despite appearances on the surface, something about them works out for one another. They have their differences, but in the long-run, they find some kind of... understanding, I suppose I'd call it?

And neither of them will usually really say it directly - Tyr is used to having to veil his feelings between the lines and Kaliyo would at least feign some repulsed feelings about getting too damn sappy, in turn - but that's... really valuable to them, especially later on.

Now, I think it'd be fair to say that there's a part of him that isn't exactly thrilled Keeper suggests her as an asset on Hutta, and he's not particularly convinced she's worth the risk long-term, but his respect for Keeper trumps his personal hesitations. He sees what Keeper's getting at: she has some sort of potential value, and Intelligence isn't in the business of being wasteful of potential resources.

They very quickly establish some sort of quick impressions that aren't the most flattering. She says she's bound to learn something about him at Fa'athra's palace (and, to be frank, she does - and she's not even wrong) and Kaliyo does leave herself open to Tyr's tactical assessment after they leave Hutta that does leave him bluntly telling her he thinks she's the type to get herself killed if the job doesn't do it first.

So they're by no means fast friends. But they see use for each other. I don't think there's ever a time where he's convinced or entirely oblivious to the likelihood of Kaliyo using her new relationship with Imperial Intelligence to make herself funds or what have you on the side, as comes up later in her companion quests. But I'll also say he does discourage Lokin from meddling too deeply with the crew's affairs. Which I suppose sort of jumps around on the idea of there being any trust between these two, but if you can stick with me, I'm... trying to paint a broad picture. Hopefully.

I think... what Tyr finds is that, at face value, she's "unpredictable." It's easy to write her off as such. Easy to write her off as arrogant and self-interested. There are times where she is these things, but... there's something to be said for the fact that Kaliyo... never tries (successfully, at any rate) to sell him on the idea that she's anything but that. She tries a game a time or two, sure, but Tyr never plays into it as far as her exes. I think what happens is more that they realize the other's sort of... core values. And it's not about convincing the other that they should change, so... he entertains her big talks about taking the galaxy by storm at times. And slips in the bites that keep them honest: when is he going to be on her list of ex-partners that have too much baggage?

And I think what it is is that... out of that... weird flavor of honesty about who they are in their working relationship comes something that can be labeled trust, between them. Tyr's not afraid to tell her when he disagrees with her, but at the end of the day, they'd show up for each other because it's, generally, mutually beneficial. And I think, by the end of the class story, they'd do it even if it didn't exactly net them clear benefits.

Tyr certainly would because Tyr ends up trusting her, in their weird kind of roundabout way. It's not a trust like he has with Vector, or Shara, or later Theron. It's not trust in the warm, we trade our hearts openly and freely between us sort of sense. But it's trust in the sense that I know what to expect when I deal with you. In what I suppose you could really only call ironic, her "unpredictability" is what makes her predictable and reliable to him.

And I think... it is very telling, what she learns of him at Fa'athra's: that he isn't reckless. He has a conscious that will affect his decisions on the job in the kind of work that generally isn't too forgiving to that kind of disposition. Something that generally makes her inclined to scoff at him a bit for being soft. And then he proves consistent throughout their time working together in the fact that Tyr shows up for the people he brings into his circle.

Kaliyo is one of those people, despite the areas where they disagree. And sometimes they clash. Tyr's a brand of loyal that maybe isn't surface-level compatible with her. She's thought him foolish for his loyalty to the Empire, and maybe even more of a fool when I think she figured out his loyalty wasn't, exactly, to the Empire as a whole, but to his masters, to Imperial Intelligence. That his sense of ideals and morals is stronger than a paper-level patriotism he claims brought him to enlisting with Intelligence.

It's foolish. It's soft. It's gonna get him killed one day. They bark about what goes down when they return to Hutta. He means it when he says he can't tolerate her working against what he's given his life to. He doesn't directly say they're talking about Imperial Intelligence's reputation, specifically, but she knows enough about him by then, I think, to know that's what he's really bothered about. He's not some young, bootlicking spaceport officer fishing for a promotion. As fuckin' foolish as it is, he's got his heart and soul behind what he does.

And he genuinely asks her why? Why pick a side? Why'd she pick him? I don't think they get a clear answer in the conversation.

But I do think they both already know the answer. Because for whatever else they are, they've stuck with each other this long. It's not purely transactional at this point. Yes, there's... still probably something mutually beneficial about tolerating each other still going forward, but.

Look, neither of them probably exactly use the word "friend" to each other's face. At least not a lot. They bicker. But I think, at the end of the day, they're two people that have very few people that do see them for who they are, really, and have actually stuck around. For better or worse, they stick.

And he'll... defend that decision, ultimately. When she gets caught up in all that transpires as Intelligence is torn down around them, he simply tells her to look for her opening, and do what she does best. Because grand declarations of devotion don't do it for her. That's not their relationship. She's self-reliant and she'll do what she thinks is best... largely regardless of what Tyr's input is. (Except him understanding and accepting that is why he has any clout to argue with her about morality at all. This is important later in KOTXX.)

And KOTXX is... not what I ever expected to be The Clearest Show of their kind of relationship, but I did clip together that video of one run through Anarchy in Paradise because it... is a really good show of how they get along. Why they work for each other.

Kaliyo was never going to be the type to be the first one looking for him if he disappeared, or sticking through a long search. And that's... just fine. Tyr never would've expected her to. Frankly, she probably does understand that a part of him was just... waiting for that kind of day. That he ended up surviving taking a blaster to a semi-immortal planet-consuming Force-entity is... Well, no one was betting on that, yeah?

Tyr, I think, is one of the only characters I've gotten that far into KOTXX that has felt he's got any ground to argue with her on - because he has experience with her priorities, and how she thinks. Sort of... natural when you work with someone that long, right? So, he knows how she operates, he knows how to reason with her, knows what she needs to be offered to take an opportunity. And, in the end, there's that...

"Agent?"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad you're alive."

Which... I think is where I'll wrap because I feel like I just sort of keep repeating the same point, which boils down to... they took an assessment of each other's motivations and... accepted that about each other. I'd even probably say Tyr would never expect her to defend him, to show up without at least some sort of token protest about compensation and what's it worth to her, but I also think, for all of Kaliyo's eyerolling about him, it's exactly that kind of stubborn candle-burning attitude about him that keeps her around, at times. Something... authentic in them both amidst a profession built on masks, deceit, and betrayal.

It's not even quite "someone's gotta make sure you don't get yourself killed, agent" as it is more likely she'd poke that at least being around when it happens would maybe be interesting or entertaining. It's a kind of friendship where they'd still say they'd sell each other to satan for a corn chip.

Except Tyr never would. And, sure, Kaliyo essentially tried. And it didn't work out. So it's just a lot of work for probably little payoff to try again.

So, in the end... Friends? Yeah... Sort of. She's not writing any speeches for a funeral or anything, but she'd maybe have a drink for him. Tyr's the one for remarks about deserving better, or whatever sentimental crap he fills his head with when he's waiting on sniper shots to line up. (And it just... sorta works.)

[merriclo]

i feel like we, as a fandom, don’t utilize A Link Between Worlds (outside of the existence of Ravio) enough. we should talk about Gulley and the blacksmiths and irene and the fact that Legend would likely say stuff like “blew his stack” and “thataway.” albw is a great game and offers lots of interesting avenues to go w Legend’s characterization.

[flovverworks]

something something about the lgbtq+ cast in gbf & promise of wizard and how important it is to me personally that akiras not cishet

[wormvermin]

i want whatever the fuck your wet man and the centaur have going on. and by that i mean i want to watch whatever their deal is happen voyueristically from the bushes with comically large binoculars

you and me:

[brittlebutch]

one of the many reasons Aabria is such a good GM is because of the very keen eye she keeps on the social dynamics and interactions that happens at the table and i absolutely Love her for it

[ragsy]

[placid smile of someone who is seconds away from going apeshit with Big Feelings] my monster of the week game has only two episodes left before it's over

I'm fine I'm normal about this

[thedeafprophet]

en-ee-way ive been thinkin on Jamie backstory stuff and i think when they were like 19 they had a toxic relationship with a slightly older society girl they met while working. who actually provided a fair bit of the resources jamie used for masking and was very much a helpful stepping stone, but was also inherently toxi towards Jamie and eventually dropped them

...also ive been listening to "You're So Vain" on repeat lol

[melancholy-menagerie]

(( -sighs- .... I could probably write director Oguro, too and I just might at this rate, smh ))

[acis-arts]

What's a fandom without a Swap AU?

I'll be talking more about the ideas I have so far down below!

I'm pretty sure this has been done before, since this is a pretty basic (but still fun) AU idea. I just haven't really seen any fanwork from anyone about a Swap AU, so if someone has actually already done their own version of a Swap AU, then I would love to see it!

For now I'll just be sharing my own ideas:

As you can see, I definitely want to swap the Lamb and Narinder as characters! The Lamb now being The One Who Waits and Narinder being the last of his kind, meaning there is no more cars :( It also makes for another fun ship dynamic between them, with the Lamb being a callous yet playful silly God and Narinder being their calculated little Vessel, not admitting to his softer side when helping his Followers.

For the AU bishops, I thought it would be pretty cool if they are 4 of the slaughtered Lambs and I REALLY want to create some cool Bishop Lamb designs! But then I remembered, wouldn't that mean that the original bishops are the slaughtered ones then? But they're not cats like Narinder, so the original Bishops could just be something like regular followers, who eventually grow close to Narinder, becoming his found family. For the sake of having fun with this AU, I will make Bishop Lambs, unless I suddenly realize/someone points out that it really doesn't make any sense.

I don't have a lot more ideas yet, but I just thought about this idea on the spot: maybe the NPCs from the Map Areas could be swapped with each other. Like, swapping Plimbo with the Fisherman and Sozo with Midas, since Plimbo and the Fisherman should probably stay near water while Sozo and Midas really just a swap their obsessions.

Also no idea who the Mystic Seller should be swapped out with, maybe with their Disciples(?)

That concludes all my ideas so far! I'm open for any feedback or suggestions, thanks for reading!!!

[pommunist]

‼️ This is very important so please read ‼️

The ex-admin for Dansir, Lapin, and Sk8ter (a penguin) came out on Twitter with her experience as a QSMP admin and it’s very grim. The user is @/Leasagne_ on Twitter.

I’m gonna try my best to translate from French :

1st Tweet : « Imagine having the first multilingual minecraft server in the world and paying your staff 150€/month and threatening to sue them if they complain. »

2nd Tweet: «  «You signed an NDA blablabla if you speak we’ll sue you. » Yeah Yeah, sure. They think they can gift me a toy and i’ll forgive them and shut my mouth. They don’t know who they are facing »

3rt Tweet : Talking about the NPC she played « Dansir, Tototte, my version of Cucurucho and Lapin won’t come back. Enough of treating people who give a lot of themselves like trash »

She then tweeted art she made for QSMP that she hasn’t been paid for. This include for exemple a Rose drawing, a Lucy drawing and the Techno fanart from Dia de los muertos event.

4th tweet : « Everyone is burnt out in their entreprise but it’s not a problem bc no one can talk or they risk getting sued. »

She then make a serie of tweets explaining why they got fired : « During a stream, Aypierre leaked my name, thanks dude, they saw that i was talking to him on discord, which is a FORBIDDEN THING. I was then accused of leaking things to him, bc on the screenshot, i was talking about DDOSon the server which is considered sensitive information. There was then an investigation on me, which i said was useless as I didn’t have anything to hide and was ready to answer all their questions. I admitted not following the rules (btw it’s forbidden to have chatrooms BETWEEN ADMINS, that’s why I wasn’t following the rules). We aren’t allowed to talk to streamers out of stream, but everyone does it i was just caught doing it. »

She also added some more stuff

-Saying that they were only TWO french admins (the other being Pomme’s) and OP had to do all the translations of QSMP newspapers, as well as adding articles on french CCs as they had been forgotten.

-Said that Empanada wasn’t supposed to be killed that day, it was an accident.

-Said that Pomme’s death, which was reversed, was forced so that « Baghera would have a tragic reaction »

-Said that the QSMP admin staff are all wonderful people with good dynamics, higher ups are the problem.

-Said that she believes Quackity isn’t aware that this is happening.

-Said that now QSMP ccs are aware that this is happening and want to discuss it with the admins.

I’m on my phone so it’s hard to include screenshots or links of everything so if you’re able to feel free to do it by reblog. I’ll add more things as soon as possible.

https://x.com/leasagne_?s=21&t=fDVoT5qDN_AAqnxYhZF3uQ

[carlyraejepsans]

my friend thinks that undertale is a game about pacifism and was talking about how pacifism doesn't work. i feel like that's not what it's about at all, but i don't know how to say it. do you have any thoughts on this?

undertale is not a "game about pacifism", it's an RPG game that deconstructs the violent tropes inherent to its genre. the pacifism undertale deals with isn't the political action, it's the kind that questions the "fight and grind endless enemies with no personality to make yourself stronger" mechanics of its predecessors. and the way it does that is by acknowledging diegetically the power disparity between player and game/NPCs through yet another mechanic through which the player interacts with the game: SAVE files and replayability.

while it's logical for fanworks to explore these types of IRL issues, especially in post pacifist or pre-canon settings, something else that's important to note is that the human and monster dichotomy do NOT represent a realistic, real world conflict between races/ethnic groups. if they were, it would be a white saviorist fantasy to rival james cameron's bluest, wettest dreams... but they're not. they are once again an analogy. a symbolic metaphor for the power dynamic the game plays on, and it would be unfair to criticize Undertale for its handling of a topic that it's just... straight up not engaging with to begin with.

in a lot of battle RPGs, fighting is not an option: it is the only way you are allowed to engage with the world, and often goes unquestioned. undertale gives you not only an alternative, but DOZENS of reasons why a peaceful resolution to the conflict is favorable withint the story. It also gives you a chance to see what happens anyway, with (nearly) no lasting consequence attached and plenty of secret lore you would miss by playing nice. Now are you going to do the "right" thing by these characters and treat them like your friends... or will you treat Undertale like a game. Its characters like characters. Grow detached to your actions. Like the source of entertainment that, at the end of the day, it is.

That is what Undertale is about.

[tiredassmage]

@frauleiiin​ Re: your tags, yES. They are! And since I said I should eventually do a post on Tyr & Keeper/the Minister anyway, we’ll just add this to my collection of dynamics posts, lol.

I’m sure I will get more/better pictures of them together on this run, but this will serve us well for now.

Officially, Cipher Nine’s files list him as an orphan adopted into the Deckard family following the death of his parents in Imperial fleet action by a friend of the family and a fellow officer. Tyr is never particularly close with the family; his relationship with adoptive sister Mavis is borderline antagonistic and his mother, a successful, it not overwhelming Sith who married her husband for reasons more political than emotional, barely tolerates the adoption of a non-Force sensitive into their house when they have a daughter to-be-Sith.

Unofficially and buried well within redacted parts of Nine’s files that ultimately require clearance from the highest authorities of Intelligence, Tyr Deckard is the son of the former Keeper-turned-Minister of Intelligence, from a time when the elder man still operated in the field as a Cipher. In a bid to limit potential operational risks and in hopes he could protect the boy from the trappings of life in the field of shadows, he sent the boy away, entrusted to a distant family association to be raised.

Unfortunately, it seemed fate had other plans.

Tyr does end up in Intelligence willingly. Initially, he enlisted for the Imperial military in his would-be father’s footsteps. When Tyr’s files cross Keeper’s desk for approval to complete recruitment into Intelligence, his hands are rather bound by duty. There’s no logical reason to deny a recruit that performed so well during preliminary training, particularly with the military ramping up operations to probe the Republic for weaknesses. Operations cannot afford to be understaffed, particularly of good talent. Begrudgingly, Keeper cedes he’s been outplayed, and everything Keeper could have wanted to spare him from and more ends up squarely on that boy’s shoulders as he takes on the moniker of Cipher Nine. There’s a fic about it that still hurts my feelings.

Deckard is, also unfortunately, somewhat of an idealistic officer. When he joins Intelligence, he is proper, takes direction well, but thinks on his feet. He strikes a fine balance between independence and loyalty that makes Keeper worry. He’d worry seeing it any operative. Not that it’s helped by looking at his own son.

But Nine is, perhaps thankfully, rather mission-oriented. While Keeper is a mentor to him in a lot of ways, Nine doesn’t dig far enough during their tenure of service to ever quite get to the deepest truth. He’s busy wrangling his entanglement with Jadus, trying to deal with the fallout of the Castellan Restraints, and tearing down the Star Cabal for tearing apart Intelligence.

Tyr would never quite entirely express his full respect for the Minister to his face out of a professional respect for their chain of command. To Nine, he’s the leader that takes risks for them, that is always precariously balancing his duties as Keeper and eventually Minister with an intrinsic level of care for his operatives that sees them all just as much as people as resources for the Empire. It’s why Tyr has such a hard time ceding that the Minister has any real responsibility in his Castellans. Tyr reasons this away as the man’s hands being tied. When the alternative was his permanent retirement for doing his job, Tyr sees the Minister did what he could. How could he not respect that?

Ultimately, Tyr’s loyalty, in the end, wasn’t even so much to Imperial Intelligence as a whole, as an agency, as it was to the Minister, Keeper - formerly Watcher Two. If the Minister called, Nine answered, in full faith that he would not ask something of him without a full assessment of the risks.

When they cross paths again on Rishi, Tyr’s just glad to see the old man’s alive, that he survived the fallout of how things ended. Because even in his bone-deep loyalty to the “old paradigm” of their Intelligence crew, Tyr couldn’t swallow everything he had been subjected to. He struck a deal with Ardun Kothe and told the Minister and the Empire that the Black Codex had been destroyed. In a way, it felt like betraying all that faith they had ever placed in each other, a direct elbow to the nose to that discussion they’d had about ideals and goals and how to balance them, but the old man was the one that was always advocating for and teaching Nine how to look out for himself, at the end of the day.

That was how he chose to do it.

In the end, the old man manages to take his secrets with him quietly into his elusive retirement. After everything Nine goes through, he fears the revelation of their exact relation and all that it had allowed for would’ve been too much on an already incredibly strained operative that had given him nothing but his all during his service.

Nine was a fine agent. And most importantly, he managed to be a fine man beneath it all, even if it wasn’t always easy to manage or keep in perspective. If the Empire had more like him, perhaps they’d all be in a better place.

Perhaps the only two other people with any solid knowledge of this relation are Lana Beniko, as the later Minister of Sith Intelligence and inheriting the appropriate levels of clearance to access such restricted information, and Eckard Lokin, given his long history with the former Minister. Out of respect for his old friend’s wishes and agreeing with the assessment that perhaps it was for the better this truth lay quietly, Lokin makes no mention of this, though I’m sure he has it figured out swiftly by the time he’s settled as part of Cipher Nine’s crew.

Tyr did always see the man more like a father-figure and a mentor than he ever did his relations at home. He’s one of the few Tyr would have reconsidered staying more true to the Empire for, if only because they shared sentiments of reform and change. Tyr would say he owes him a lot for the man and agent he ever became. He hopes, perhaps a bit naively, that the old man’s retirement remained peaceful.

Perhaps at least one of them, then, would have made it out of this whole mess relatively unscathed.

[utilitycaster]

Talking as players outside the game is an incredibly important part of having good PC/PC D&D relationships, and obviously the characters involved in the relationship talking to each other in meaningful ways is crucial, but I think the importance of talking in-game in depth to other people is really underrated, in that it not only tells the other player what your character is feeling without having to reveal it in-game to them, but also serves to engage other characters in the story and deepen those platonic bonds to the point where they might even serve as confidants or wingmen. To give a bunch of examples and what they achieved:

Vax telling Gilmore he didn't want to string him along made it clear out of game that his feelings towards Keyleth were his priority, even though it happened where the other characters were not able to hear.

Similarly, Vex giving her blessing eventually after her initial resistance signaled to Liam that this would not be a major break between the twins.

Vax asking Vex what she intended to do about her feelings for Percy served not only as an opportunity for her to voice them to someone; it also serves as a big green light for Taliesin as Percy to kiss Vex later that episode (which he had already from Vex's resurrection ritual, but it underscores it).

Pike talking about Scanlan with Keyleth and Vex allows her to make it clear that she does ultimately like a lot of things about him despite sometimes being annoyed, and her talking to him through her earring while Scanlan is very much not there but Sam is at the table also serves as this kind of green light.

Jester asking Veth about kissing in relationship to Fjord lets Travis know where Jester is at and invests Veth in-game in the relationship.

Caleb asking Jester if she's "sweet on [Fjord]" lets her openly reassess her feelings after an intense arc and also indicates in-game that Caleb has noticed.

Beau waiting to hear the sound of thunder signals to Ashley (who was not at the table but who was presumably staying updated on events) that Beau has feelings for Yasha; it also allows those playing Yasha (often Matt for pure RP and Travis in combat) to return that flirting, since the baseline was already established.

Possibly the most obvious example, but Beau and Fjord's conversation on Rumblecusp not only clarifies to the whole table where everyone is (opening the door, for example, for the scenes in the beer garden a few episodes later of Caleb having Fjord and Jester dance together and Caduceus encouraging Yasha to pursue Beau) but very much serves as a green light to Ashley and Laura respectively. This is then mirrored by them talking after Beau has asked Yasha on a date and Fjord and Jester have kissed, and everyone involved can "debrief" with their partners not present in-game.

As mentioned, this is mostly about PC/PC relationships because PC/NPC is an inherently different dynamic mechanically though still should be a conversation, but Veth describing Yeza and Jester asking Caleb about his feelings about Essek both give Matt clues for playing these NPCs and how things might be received.

FRIDA mentioning their crush on FCG to Deanna means it's not a complete surprise to Sam, since it is a very sudden relationship, and lets him prepare and decide how FCG would feel in the moment, and also establishes how Deanna will feel about it.

Similarly in the C3 Uthodurn arc, Fearne going to Chetney about Deanna is an incredibly good move from Ashley (to the point that talking about this is what led me to write this whole post). It lets Travis play out where Chetney is. It lets Aabria therefore hear not only where Chetney is, but also know that Fearne is potentially interested. It establishes a ton of the dynamics for a relationship that out of game everyone knows will not have a full campaign to play out since one of the characters involved is a guest. And finally, it signals to Christian as FRIDA what the situation is in case Deanna confides in them.

[piratefishmama]

shit I wanted to ask more about your thoughts on that dynamic with Steve and Eddie but I clicked ask to fast because I'm impatient :)

I'm thinking for this there'd be no upside down, so Eddie wouldn't get chomped, but he's so SCRUFFY. And Steve knows him, because he's very hard to miss in school but he never really had the balls to approach.

Eddie and his big ol wings are kind of. Intimidating. Beautiful, but very intimidating.

It's through the kids that Steve finally winds up talking to him, kids Steve will always be roped into babysitting upside down or not, Eddie still rules the roost in the DnD club, wings giving him the extra somethin somethin to create dramatic flare, are they a cape for a dastardly villain that he uses to cover half his face to create mystery or intrigue, or maybe he gives an extra demonstration of ruffled feathers for an Aarakocra npc!

And more often than not Steve finds Eddie's feathers on the kids, he's pulled a few out of Dustins hair, plucked one or two out of Mike's clothing, he's gathered a little collection (yes he absolutely keeps them they're PRETTY) by the time he finally collars Eddie to help him with sorting them out.

He may have done. A little research into wing maintenance. And maybe... maybe he got the right tools to fix them up, the best oils and things, just... yknow... as a friendly friend thing. Definitely not a "I've harboured a maybe slightly large crush on you for a WHILE" thing. Definitely not.

And Eddie let's him. Or rather he sits there very still, doesn't even joke about it, just sits there like eyes wide mouth zipped shut, trying very hard not to make a PEEP even though ohboyitfeelsverygood

And this happens a few times, eddie tries to make it transactional so it's not like. A thing. Steve helps him with his wings, he gives him a joint or two as a freebie. Transactional, only Steve keeps tucking the joints back into Eddies jacket when he's not looking so it's not transactional and Eddies having a crisis and that inly gets WORSE when he finally can't keep the little whines down when Steve strokes his fingers through his feathers and now he's running away and Steve can't get a moment alone with him anymore and angst!! Pining!!! Misunderstandings and confusion!!!

Steve calling Eddie Angel, though. Cause. Yeh.

[austronauts]

we need to talk about mitch’s interview on 32 thoughts can u please gather around

first of all mitch sounds so congested it’s no wonder he’s always sneef snorfing

i’ve never heard mitch sound more articulately authoritative than when talking about the evolution of building in fortnite (also jeff and elliotte enthusiastically guffawing in reaction to mitch talking about fortnite LIKE THEY HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HE MEANS lmao)

apparently the leafs teammate he plays the most video games with is RYAN REAVES. for about an hour and a half after leafs games to unwind. REAVO. and MITCH. mitch also made sure to point out that reavo has TWO KIDS and is a busy father bc of course he did. “this busy working father of two still makes time after a long grueling workday for me :3” mitchell marner do u hear urself?

also u know how uncles hate mitch bc he plays video games and wears hats and hits the griddy instead of benching testosterroni pizza at the gym to get swole, and they had hopes that reavo would bully mitch into growing tf up and being a MAN - well. the reavo in question is dialed in on CoD with mitch marner rn taking out NPC’s. lol and lmao even

mitch mentions zeus so many times like. so many times. he also takes the time to explain “zeus, my chocolate lab” as if every human and dog in canada don’t already know mitch’s dog is a chocolate lab named zeus.

he mentions his dog so much i got confused when mitch started talking about “the dogg” aka nathan mackinnon bc i was like wait zeus did what now

his story about him and nate at biosteel camp had me GIGGLING bc you can so see nate doing exactly this: “i skated with [nate] at biosteel camp a couple of yrs ago. i didn't make a play to him & you would've thought it was an olympic gold medal game based on how he was talking to me on the bench. i was like 'nate. we're sitting here at this camp. what do you want me to do?’”

obviously i know mitch and nate are fond of each other (the dynamics of which in itself are so funny to me)

but i just love how nate has been like: ohhhh tiny nerdy mitch i wish i could kidnap him and take him to colorado what a great little marns

and then mitch is like: that man is insane!! he yelled at me!!!!!!!

mitch got all modest and shy when asked what it would be like to be on a line with nate representing canada in the olympics and demurred like “ohhhh gosh 🥹🥺 well first i have to make the team and it would just be an HONOUR to be chosen for such a thing 🥹🥺 im just little ole me” like…first of all ok girl we all know ur gonna be there

[cerastes]

With the exception of Arknights what are your thoughts on gacha games?

I don't feel like I need to exclude Arknights from the statement, I can criticize things even if I like them.

In general, I don't like that their widely accepted and even defended business model is "Capitalize on FOMO, exploit gambling addictions, create dependent users". I also think that the use of the "game as a service" model, and one that needs to keep pumping content forever and can't risk to alienate the player, severely limits what can be done with the medium in terms of creativity, because you can't kill off playable characters nilly willy (I actually think Epic Seven was cooking with this, Epic Seven will kill off playable characters and remove them from the plot if it feels like it, or at least used to back when I played, don't know nowadays), relationships and dynamics with characters tend to be limited because otherwise your audience can feel like you are cucking them, and I wish I was kidding but just look at the absolute dumpster fire of a drama going on as we speak (22nd of January, 2024) in Girls' Frontline 2 over in China over one of the characters having interactions with a male NPC, and you can't ever bring a true sense of finality to any given arc because everything ends up having to be foreshadowing, set-up, build-up and so on and on and on. In many cases, you also have a mold cast of Must Have tropes in your playable cast: The Maid, The Idol, The One That Worships The Ground You Walk On, The Underage And Underclothed One, The Underage (But We Treat This One As A Precious Child!) One, Foxgirl, The Cold And Highly Analytical One (But Actually, Loves You), Chuuni, etc, so it feels like in every game I kinda already know at least a third of the cast minimum already and I'm kind of primed to not really want to know them, even though there's subversions I end up liking sometimes (Fenny from Snowbreak is an example of an Idol-type I ended up loving despite not liking Idol-types).

On the other hand, even with these negatives in mind, having a game that periodically updates and adds content, and that you can discreetly play pretty much everywhere on the go due to smartphones being their main 'console', games that foster community and something to talk about with your friends that also play and that will always have something new every couple of weeks, as well as inspire fanart, fanworks, analysis, and commentary, and that tend to be more risque and interesting with their designs is honestly good to have. I personally enjoy the community aspect of gacha games, I consider it one of the two most important aspects for me, because I know I can come here, for example, and see people talking about the story, the characters, the music, the gameplay, and more, every day, and the other important thing to me is how discreet they are, since I can just play a few maps or stages in my phone real fast midst a social situation at work, and then hop back in with a renewed social battery or when a topic I like comes up.

I fully get when people showcase their disdain for gacha, yeah, but if we really want to be nitpicky, the majority of the game industry is kind of a cesspool of toxicity, which is not to say "stop bashing gacha" and instead say "bash the whole thing if you're going to be bashing it anyway" (and we should! Game devs and other personnel in the industry have been crying for better conditions for years now!). Either way, if someone decides to sit at the gambling den, it becomes their responsibility. I want there to be more safeguards for people with actual addictions and to protect them, but with this in mind, if anyone still decides to sit at the den, it's assumed they are going to take responsibility for their actions and financial decisions.

So all in all, yeah, predatory games that suffer in quality due to their own trappings, but also good sources of community, inspiration, and effective at being discreet games you can play anywhere and that get periodic updates (this isn't necessarily exclusive to gacha but it is an aspect of them that bears mentioning, which I point out since no doubt people will want to point out there's good non-gacha smartphone game options out there)