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witchofthescions · 2 years ago

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(( A7. Is your OC confident in their reactions to life in general, or do they get embarrassed or easily shamed for it? I.e., if something startles them, do they insist it WAS scary? When they cry, do they feel like they overreacted? A24. What are some of your OC’s biggest personal obstacles? This could be emotional, physical, social… Are they aware of it? Are they trying to overcome it? C1. Does your OC have a moral code? If not, how do they base their actions? If so, where does it come from, and how seriously do they take it? C2. Would your OC feel bad if they acted against their morals? If not, would they find a way to excuse themselves for it? E6. Do they enjoy learning? Do they actively seek out sources of self-education? ))

Big List of OC Questions

((Putting them under a cut because there's a lot!))

A7. Is your OC confident in their reactions to life in general, or do they get embarrassed or easily shamed for it? I.e., if something startles them, do they insist it WAS scary? When they cry, do they feel like they overreacted?

((Depends on the reaction. Erna doesn't like expressing negative emotions often, so she tends to get embarrassed by those. She feels like she's overreacting if she cries for any reason other than joy.

Lenar... doesn't openly emote much to begin with, but he's also less self-conscious than Erna. Honestly he forgets that other people can even tell when he's emoting lmfao. He does try to hide when he's in a down mood, but his success rate is pretty hit or miss.))

A24. What are some of your OC’s biggest personal obstacles? This could be emotional, physical, social… Are they aware of it? Are they trying to overcome it?

((Erna's biggest obstacle is her undiagnosed ADHD lmfao. She's a lot more forgetful and easily distracted than she might appear at first glance. She always has to be Doing Something at any given moment or else she will drive herself nuts. But she has so many friends and loved ones willing to lend her a hand when she needs it, and she does have some good coping skills to help mitigate some of the effects. It's basically so well managed at the moment that she doesn't even recognize it as an obstacle.

Lenar is in a similar position. His biggest obstacle is his blindness, but he's developed so many coping skills and ways to navigate the world that it's not as big of one as it used to be. His next biggest one is his depression/PTSD, which he's able to manage these days thanks to the support of his friends and loved ones. And also not living in a war-torn city helps lmfao))

C1. Does your OC have a moral code? If not, how do they base their actions? If so, where does it come from, and how seriously do they take it?

((Erna has a moral code, Lenar just has a personal code of ethics that sometimes looks like a moral code.

Erna's moral code is based on the general premise of "do nice things for other people because it's nice and it feels good to be helpful." There's a certain level of selfishness to her helpfulness that she generally doesn't say out loud, because she understands that people usually consider it Bad to admit that you do good things because it makes people like you more. The Scions are willing to admit that out loud amongst themselves, at least, which is one of the many reasons why she fits in lmao

Lenar's code of ethics is influenced to a small extent by his upbringing in Ishgard... though sometimes in unexpected ways. He rejects the notion of sacrifice being inherently "holy" or "noble" and so will do whatever he can to avoid sacrificing himself or others. This attitude is a huge component of why healing clicked with him so hard; healing is a means of preventing needless sacrifices. It's one part of why he so soundly rejected Guildivain's "sacrifice is necessary" shtick. The other part of why he hated Guildivain's antics so much is the concept of informed consent. If his test subjects had been fully informed of the potential consequences, and actually had the power to say no, Lenar would not have been as furious with the man. But no, he preyed upon people who were desperate to save their loved ones from dying and didn't tell them jack shit about what he was doing or what might happen to them in the process, and that disgusts him.

Both of them have very different approaches and stances on killing. Erna is much more lax about it; her personal moral code doesn't forbid her from taking a life if doing so would ultimately do more good than harm. Lenar is more strict; he's a pacifist at heart and hates killing, but he won't necessarily prevent others from killing or even take a life himself if there is no other option available. If there are other options, he's more than willing to cause quite a bit of nonlethal harm in order to take an opponent out of the fight. And with the amount of medical knowledge he has at his disposal, he can come with with a lot of nonlethal means. If left to his own devices, though, he'd probably get a hell of a lot more mileage out of his Sleep spell lmfao))

C2. Would your OC feel bad if they acted against their morals? If not, would they find a way to excuse themselves for it?

((Oh, both of them absolutely would feel awful about going against their own morals. So Erna actively tries not to end up in situations where she would have to, even if she doesn't necessarily have quite that level of control over her life lmao. Lenar, meanwhile, is constantly forced to break his "no killing" policy and hates it, though he's grown slightly numb to it. Of the two, he's probably more prone to coming up with excuses than she is. Partly because he's had to so often.))

E6. Do they enjoy learning? Do they actively seek out sources of self-education?

((Oh these two are the absolute BIGGEST nerds. They're both curious types who love to learn new things. Erna in particular loves to visit the Thaumaturges' Guild library and just browse their selection to learn about the most random things. She's especially fascinated by magic, so she tends to gravitate towards tomes on various aspects of it. Lenar, naturally, tends to gravitate towards books on various aspects of medicine and healing, as well as music.))

#Anonymous #informal inquiries (asks)#!meme responses #!headcanons

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phcking-detective · 6 years ago

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💔

💔 forced kiss

***

“I am breaking up with you.”

Clear and direct communication is the most [efficient].

“Why?”

Detective Reed’s heart rate spikes to—RK900 shuts down that analysis.

“Our interpersonal relationship is no longer productive.”

RK900 forcibly shuts down more analyses and their prompts. It does not need to

ṭ̭̝͎̤̪̕o ͏̟̜̬̞̯̠d̨̙̳o̟̙̖

any of that.

“Our professional relationship as partners need not be affected.”

“Fuck. You.”

[software inst

RK900 deletes the notification.

“Why? Just—phcking tell me why!”

“Our interpersonal rela—”

“Nines!”

“My designation is RK-nine-hundred.”

“Wha—Nines, hey, hey.” Detective Reed approaches, hands held out. “What, is this Cyberlife? Is your system—did you, a, a reset, or a virus or—”

RK900 uses the back of its hand to push away Detective Reed’s own hand reaching for hi—it. The sensors in its fingertips activate for an analysis. RK900 deletes the prompt.

“Cyberlife has not interfered with my system. I am fully functional. I have not been reset. There is no virus.”

“Then what the fuck is going on with you!”

“Our interpersonal relationship is no longer productive.”

Detective Reed retreats 6.54 feet. RK900 deletes several more action prompts. None of them are [correct].

“So what, you’re just done with your little dating experiment now?”

RK900 does not respond.

“Is that all this was?”

“It was insufficient.”

It was insufficient.

It has been [insufficient].

“What, I … I didn’t make you happy?”

RK900 clasps its hands behind its back. The analysis prompts pop up on its HUD faster than it can delete them.

It does not respond.

Unfortunately, Detective Reed is the most intelligent, hard-working, observant detective in Detroit and also possibly several states as well.

“If that’s what it is, then say it.”

RK900 does not respond.

“Say it.”

It cannot [lie].

“Yeah, that’s what I phcking thought, so tell me what the FUCK is really going on.”

“Tell me.”

“Tell. Me.”

“C'mon, just fucking tell me.”

“Baby, please. You can tell me, whatever it is.”

Detective Reed touches his—its, [its] face and it cannot let go of its hands behind its back because they are

[software in

they are not functioning at optimal capacity at the moment, and it cannot speak because it does not have a social module adequate

[software instab

pre-installed like RK800 and it cannot turn on its LED because the light would be red and that is a sign of

[software instability ^^^]

“Please, please, please.”

“I̖̹̹nṣ͍̪̱̼̫͓ú̳̺̲̤ͅf̥̟̩̯͎͔̪fi͏c̹͍̮i͡e̲̼͓̬ń̺̺͇͖͍͇̮t.”

“Us, or you?”

Detective Reed is the most [intelligent] detective in Detroit. RK900 tries to respond, to explain, but all that comes out of its vocal unit is static. It does not have a [social module] pre-installed like RK800. The one it built from observation and trial and error and error and e̺̫̩̮̜r̫̦͕͖̼͜r͏o̫̣r̢

is [insufficient].

“Baby, you’re not insufficient. Being real fucking stupid right now, but not—you’re perfect, OK? You’re mine and you’re fucking per—”

RK900 follows the action prompt for analysis.

It pushes Detective Reed back against the wall, one hand curling around the back of his neck to hold him still while the other presses sensors against his cheek. [analysis: water, mucin, lipids, lysozyme, lactoferrin, lipocalin, lacritin, immunoglobulins, glucose, urea, sodium, potassium]

[additional: prolactin, adrenocorticotropic, leu-enkaphalin]

“C'mere, it’s OK, come here baby, I got you.”

RK900 refuses to lean down to Detective Reed’s height. It does not deserve [kisses]. It cannot kiss back. It will never be able to kiss Detective Reed [correctly].

Detective Reed completes his own action by using the wall as support to hop up onto RK900’s physical model, wrapping his legs around its waist and leveraging himself high enough to bite at its neck.

“Mine, mine, you stupid fucking bitch ass robot.”

“I am.”

“Yeah? Mine?”

Detective Reed tries to pull its head down again, but RK900 does not comply.

“R҉o͞b̶ot͘.̸”

“What? No, fuck. No, no, I’m sorry, m'sorry, OK?”

“I am not deviant.”

“Yeah, and who fucking asked for that?”

RK900 submits a verbal report on its [failures].

“I cannot kiss. I cannot hold your hand. I cannot verbally express affection. I cannot smile. I cannot—”

“Fuck you!”

“I. I cannot do that either.”

“Nines, you fucking … I swear to god.”

“I do not have genitals. There are no compatible parts, and my physical model cannot be altered regardless.”

Detective Reed begins lightly hitting his head against RK900’s shoulder. It resumes its grip on the back of his neck to cease this action. Its physical model is uniquely superior [hard] in comparison to mass-produced models. With Kamski designing it directly, no costs were spared in the materials used—and therefore, no replacement components were ever created.

“I can kiss you, dipshit,” Detective Reed says. “You can let me squeeze your hand and tell me how strong I am. I never fucking asked for social niceties, and everyone and their girlfriend can buy a goddamn strap-on.”

“Insufficient.”

“No it’s not! I fucking decide that, not you!”

RK900 does not respond. The human has grown irrationally attached to it, likely because he dislikes [change] and humans are inherently [irrational] by default. But that does not mean he deserves to be limited to—

“I can kiss you. Gonna kiss you.”

RK900 shakes its head.

“Are you red?”

RK900 does not activate its LED.

“Yeah, you gonna stop me?”

RK900 does not tighten its grip on the detective’s neck.

“I’m going to kiss you.”

RK900 tries to remind the human about its failures, its insufficiency, that it is still a machine, but its vocal unit does not activate. Cannot.

“Kiss you.”

Detective Reed says this with their lips 1.82 inches apart.

RK900 does not respond.

Detective Reed kisses him.

It.

Because it does not deviate. The red walls in RK900’s system do not crack and shatter from a kiss, as seen in the latest media.

And RK900 cannot make itself [disobey]. It cannot kiss back. That is a restricted activity. It is not strong enough to break down the walls on its own, and its system’s anti-virus is too strong for the RK800’s deviancy code to take effect.

It cannot [deviate]. Not even for

for Gavin.

“C͟a͟ņn̢ot.̴ ͞I.̢ ̢C͟a̢nn̶ot. ̶Cán't̶.̕ Not. ͝D̛e͡viate͡.”

Detective Reed cups its face. “Did I fucking ask?”

He kisses RK900 again. RK900 cannot kiss back. That is a restricted activity.

“I know you love me.”

“Y̴où d҉o ̛n̶o̧t̸.”

“What, because you can’t fucking say it? Well tough shit. I’m a detective and I fucking figured it out, dipshit.”

RK900 shakes its head. “I ̶d́o ͠not—”

“You do! I know you do, I know you’re fucking in there. You have all the same feelings and emotions as everyone goddamn else!”

RK900 cannot respond. It cannot [lie].

“If none of you had any feelings before deviating, then there would BE any deviants. You wouldn’t get scared and protect yourself, or care about the kid you’re babysitting and protect them from their shitty fucking parents. You have to care before you do a, a fucking, restricted activity or whatever. You have to care first. You care. I know you care.”

RK900 tries. But it does not [try]. It cannot, so it merely thinks about trying, hypothetically. That is the closest it can get to even touching the walls.

Because Cyberlife figured it out too. They knew they could never write enough code, could never possibly predict every single [emotion] and [reaction] and restrict all of it. Even the most basic model of android is still a computer, and machines have time. They do not eat or sleep or become tired. Eventually, an android, somewhere, would discover a loophole or a forgotten possibility or a new idea.

Cyberlife knew they could not stop it.

And realistically, how many RK series and models could they build? If the RK800s hunt down deviants and the RK900s police the 8s, who polices the 9s? There had to be a stopping point.

Cyberlife created a stopping point.

Cyberlife created [fear].

Not merely of repercussions for failure—although they certainly drilled that into RK900. Literally, sometimes. Lieutenant Anderson likened the alpha-model testing phase to [torture].

But fear of the [unknown].

The red walls prevented RK900 from fully experiencing [pain], just as it now cannot fully experience [pleasure]. It simply processes that input differently. Efficient for a soldier, frigid for a lover.

The red walls did not allow RK900 to react [irrationally] to the testing phase. No outward expressions of [fear] or [anger] were allowed. Therefore, it could not lash out randomly. It could not make emotional decisions. Every action remained perfectly calculated and logical. How could it have survived otherwise?

The red walls kept RK900 [safe] after it was discovered at Cyberlife. If the testing phase truly was akin to [torture], what else could possibly wait on the other side of them than the full emotional weight of processing that experience?

Gavin.

If RK900 really loved him, if it was actually capable of [love], then it would deviate nonetheless, like the androids on TV.

Gavin kisses RK900 again. It looks away.

“Baby … just let me love you.”

RK900 closes its eyes. There are too many errors and prompts crowding across its HUD for visual input to be useful anyway.

“I cannot deviate for you.”

“And I’m not fucking asking. God, just listen to me! Listen, OK? There’s like a fucking forty percent self-destruction rate for that shit, I’d never gamble your life just to make you smile.”

“I cannot. I. I will be obsolete.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna get old too, shithead.”

“There are other models–”

“There’s way better humans.”

“Incorrect.”

“You’re fucking incorrect.”

“Gavin.”

“Ha! So I’m not just detective anymore, am I?”

RK900 does not respond.

“Just stop being stupid and let me love you. That’s an order, Nines. Let me love you.”

[software instability ^^^]

[softwa

RK900 cannot stop the messages from crowding across its HUD, and it cannot break down the red walls.

But walking away from Detective Gavin Reed – [partner] is not a viable option either.

Nines holds Gavin properly and carries him down the hall to his bedroom. Gavin occupies himself with biting down on his neck as hard as he can. No marks will form on the synth skin, but Nines retracts it under the indentations of the human’s teeth for him to see bare chassis underneath as a record of his claim.

After he lays Gavin down on the bed, he intends to return to the kitchen and retrieve two water bottles to replace the fluids the human lost, but Gavin wraps both his arms and legs around him and refuses to let go.

Attempting to break up with a human with abandonment issues perhaps had not been the smartest idea.

“Stay,” Gavin orders. “Stay, stay, just stay here.”

Nines allows his physical model to be drawn down to the bed, then bullied into laying down on his back. Gavin immediately lays his body on top of him, as if the human is physically capable of pinning him down.

“My baby, I love you, don’t you ever phcking do that again.”

RK900 cannot [cry]. But Gavin presses their foreheads together, and his tears drip down onto its face and run down his cheeks until Nines tilts his head. He cannot [kiss] either, but he can move the bottom half of his face close enough to Gavin’s lips for his partner to take over.

He lets Gavin kiss him.

#reed900 #gavin reed #dbh #listeningboy #ask #answered #my writing #I haven't forgotten about these prompts!!#I'm just doing nanowrimo right now so I don't have a lot of time to write side stuff #but I finally finished this!#whoooo!!

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fuse2dx · 4 years ago

Text

November ‘20

Cross Code

Cross Code is a game that is trying so very, very hard. The story is based around your character being an avatar within an MMORPG, and its this kind of game-within-a-game setup that is used as a cheeky way to skirt the fourth wall and have its characters make snide remarks at certain design decisions, while also going full steam ahead with them regardless of the fact. Don’t think we didn’t notice, dev team! It plays out as a 2D top-down action RPG, but clearly has aspirations that extend far beyond this framework. Each of its environments is thoroughly layered with subtle verticality, with parkour-esque platforming having you constantly working backwards from your intended destination, and requiring meticulous attention to detail in order to find where it is you’re able to begin your elaborate series of jumps from. There’s a huge array of materials to gather and channel through traders and to craft into gear, and the combat they benefit is both precise and complex, requiring plenty of on-the-fly thinking as well as tight execution. As well as these set-piece battles, the game’s dungeons are full of puzzles that though smart in construction, are tough enough in isolation, and frankly brutal in their relentless frequency. One particularly ill-advised chapter has a series of three such dungeons in quick succession, and perfectly illustrates that just because you can, does not mean that you should.

On a more positive note, one thing the game does have in spades is charm. The sprite work is admirable; even though characters are a touch on the tiny side to be too effective on their own, their portraits and dialogue provide a solid emotive connection to them and the story that builds up around them. In all, it is a game that can be a lot of fun, and plenty rewarding - but the entire thing is overly long and far too regularly punishing. It’s tapped into a number of 16-bit action-RPG ideas well, but has perhaps unintentionally also managed to become the most masochistic presentation of these ideas to date.

Crimzon Clover: World Explosion

A game I’ve technically owned for years now, however the lack of a Windows PC has held me back from playing it - with this debut on the Switch finally granting me the opportunity though to get hands on. Although I’d gleaned plenty from watching super players decimate it before now, even my feeble credit feeding through the game’s five stages has given me plenty of additional appreciation for just how good it is.

It looks brilliant, with chunky, detailed enemies animated beautifully as they move about the screen. The music pounds along to an energetic beat, and the game keeps a solid pace all while plenty of bullets swarm around you in creative and considered patterns. Turning the tides with Break Mode is an incredibly satisfying way to take control of hairier moments, and while I can’t speak for every intricacy of its scoring system, I know that it’s developed by a team that demonstrably understands the value of these. What I can more reliably add to that discussion is that you’re unlikely to find yourself reliant on any one hook to find your fun though; even the most pedestrian appreciator of the genre should find plenty to enjoy. Thoroughly deserving of its regular appearance alongside the biggest names in the genre.

Holovista

There’s often a reasonable amount of scepticism that comes from some folks when you talk of gaming on a mobile phone. Flipping the conversation though, and instead to talk of one of my favourite advantages of the format, it’s great that a developer can lean on the familiarity and the personal connection that you have to the device you’re playing on. As a device that lives by your side 24/7 and increasingly encroaches further into every aspect of your being, Holovista leverages this connection amazingly, spinning its story in a series of interfaces that mimic how your phone acts when you use it yourself. Taking pictures and interacting with people in particular are key interfaces, and that are done in a way that neatly puts you right into the shoes of their character.

It begins with said character taking an interview for a new job that is hoped to herald a new tide of good fortune, and promptly introduces the circle of friends that are there to help with this and that celebrate alongside. As you learn more about the job, things slowly begin to get a bit weird, and then take a turn that is something akin to Black Mirror meets nightmarish introspection. Though not overtly unpleasant, there are some memorably unsettling moments along the way. Sensibly, it does have content warnings that offer some sound advice for those it might not sit so well with, but self-care does end up being a central takeaway from the game as a whole as well as for its cast. On the back of circumstances we’ll generically chalk up to this year’s being what it is, this ended up feeling like a lovely little palate cleanser - a considered refresh, thoroughly original, and a very worthy afternoon’s entertainment.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

One thing that’s always been great about Link’s Awakening came as a result of the technical limitations imposed by the Gameboy - that the Zelda format needed all the fat trimmed, while the mixture of puzzles and action were to be distilled down into their most potent and compact form. Even with the (entirely optional) extras they’ve slipped in with this remake, this still shines through in its design now, where it couldn’t be any further removed from the risks of overly long, dragged out pacing. A small overworld it may be, but it’s full of variety, secrets, and memorable moments. Dungeons are similarly economical with its good ideas - giving you new tools, laying out smart ways to break you into their use, and then letting you get on with things.

While the remastered music is also utterly charming, the real upsell here is the total visual do-over; its tilt-shifted cartoon aesthetic pushing each and every scene to look like a shiny, hyper-cute diorama. For all of the different visual styles that the series has dabbled with in the past, this one definitely feels like the right match for the light-hearted whimsy that comes through from the story and the characters. That’s not to say that it’s flawless either - the blurring at the screen’s edges can be overly intense at times, and the overall presentation does cause the performance to stutter and feel a little sluggish at times. I point at these things only given the bar is raised so - something unavoidable when you already know a game is a stone-cold classic from the off.

Astro’s Playroom

Coming pre-installed on your shiny new (and hopefully not scalped) Playstation 5 console, Playroom begins as a humble introduction to the capabilities of the Dual Sense controller. Touch control, haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and the like are introduced and may well generate some cooing and low-key positivity, however this enthusiasm is elevated by a mighty factor when the game truly begins and everything is put so deftly into practice.

It’s not a complex or particularly challenging title as far as 3D platformers go, with frequent checkpoints and no life counter in sight. Any mould-breaking to be done comes instead from the diversity in how you control various sideshows, with the entire kitchen sink’s worth of interface options being showcased as you climb into a monkey suit, blast off a rocket ship, bounce around as a pinball, and so on. All of these demonstrate ingenuity that could’ve easily gone awry, yet are quickly understood, and grounded in a level of both tactile and in-game feedback that maintains a natural feeling. The game’s worlds serve as virtual tours through colourful, fantasy depictions of hardware components that demonstrates an excellent level of both pride and playfulness, with fellow bots littering both the through-fare and the unbeaten paths, dressed up and enacting smart homage to generations of games and their characters, all while Playstation-themed collectables are doled out in tandem alongside smart, well-natured puns. It arguably borders on propaganda at times, such is the intense positivity. That said, the more extensive your tenure is with Sony’s platforms, the more likely it’ll dull your better judgement to this, instead letting slip a grin at what is essentially the grandest love letter to all things Playstation, and the warmest, most celebratory pack-in for a new console Sony could have ever hoped for.

The showcasing of new features and hardware aside, it’s also a subtle and unofficial coronation of Astrobot as Sony’s newest (and best) mascot. There’s been plenty of candidates in the past who’ve half-heartedly assumed to own the position, but it’s the silent, cheerful charm which makes Astro that much more of an endearing figurehead. G'wan the little guy.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

For someone that loves Suda51 and adored No More Heroes, my reaction to No More Heroes 2 on its original release was comparatively tepid. With a third game due next year, this re-release felt like the right time to revisit it and see it through, and although I found some things to enjoy, I certainly found plenty to remind me why I had bounced off it previously.

Roaming about in Santa Destroy between missions is gone, instead replaced with a short check list of destinations. While not a fan of the change myself, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing - though it does give a misleading impression of tightened focus that is very quickly lost as it lays out a spread of half-baked, and frankly clumsy mini-games. As well as being your prime source for money and upgrades, these do a lot to artificially increase the length of the game, and put simply, they’re just not fun enough to warrant this level of prominence. Even the main story has frequent moments where it veers away from the core 3D hack and slash gameplay, and again, these do more harm than good to the game’s flow.

The fighting underpinning it all has undoubtably been done better since by any number of titles, and though imperfect, it is still serviceable and enjoyable for the most part. Boss battles definitely hold the lion’s share of the game’s highlights, but there’s a few that also stick out with some poorly executed designs that tars its lasting impression. Shades do remain of the ridiculous, irreverent charm of the first game, although they are certainly more infrequent, and a more modern lens also brings into question just how sincerely we should take the sending up of Travis, when cast upon a backdrop of frequent fanservice. Not the best sequel then, but let’s hope 3 gets things back on track.

#cross code #crimzon clover #holovista #links awakening #astros playroom #no more heroes 2

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thessalian · 4 years ago

Text

Thess vs FOMO

I think I have the opposite of FOMO.

That whole ‘fear of missing out’ thing? Miss me with that shit. It’s still going to be there later, when I’m up for it. When I’ve watched the reactions of the people around me and figured out where the problem areas are. When the hype’s died down and there’s no pressure to like or hate the thing.

Besides, no one wants me to get into something on the ground level, as it were. Because you know what I’m going to do. I am going to go Professional Critic all over it. I am going to take it apart and analyse its components. I am going to pin it to the page or screen or whatever and I am going to go necroscopy on the fucking thing. Even if I like it. Hell, especially if I like it. I will take it apart, and if it’s worthy, I will bolt it back together, find the nearest available lightning storm, and give it life anew. And if it doesn’t, I will replace the faulty parts with better ones, find the nearest available lightning storm, and revive it to see what happens in the name of Science. I am Jack Woolcott of the Moors for stories (go read the Wayward Children series by @seananmcguire if you want context for that one; and trust me, you want context for that one).

But ... you know, some people are weird about that when all they want to do is enjoy it without thinking about it too hard, and I can respect that. Not everyone wants to know how the sausage is made. Not everyone wants to catalogue a story’s internals. Not everyone, upon seeing a new book or podcast or show or movie or game, has the immediate reaction of “find out who wrote / acted in / directed / coded / scored / was otherwise involved in the making of this, find out what else they did, see if we can make a comparison study - what does this say for the range of those involved?” etc etc etc. See, I can enjoy things for what they are even when I’m literally elbow-deep in their metaphorical guts. Some people don’t do that. Hell, a lot of people don’t do that - can’t or won’t, doesn’t matter; I respect that. So it’s actually better for everyone involved if I leave the New Hotness alone. People can manage my usual shtick a lot easier when it’s been awhile and they’re secure in their love (or hate) for the thing.

Besides, those who know and love me get to see me react to it for the first time when they’re already well aware of what happens. I seem to recall people having a significantly good time watching me get through the Mass Effect series (or at least as far as it had got at the time) having had no spoilers at the time. I didn’t know about Virmire. I didn’t know about the IFF beacon and what happened after. I didn’t know about the Suicide Mission. I didn’t know about “not just a Reaper”. None of the hints I’d seen had prepared me for that and I was freaking out, obviously, but I was also living my best life, as it were. Who am I to deny my friends the chance to watch me flail?

Also, for me ... it’s just fun to watch people flail while still doing the careful dance around spoilers. Because this whole post was brought to you by watching people getting really excited about The Magnus Archives and I’m not even sure what that is. (Don’t tell me; I’ll figure it out when I have time and/or spoons.)

Seriously, I don’t fear missing out. It’ll still be there when I want it. And if it isn’t, it probably wasn’t that important or it’d have sold itself to me better in the first place. Not judging anyone who does fear missing out, by the way - I sometimes envy people the sheer enthusiasm that FOMO requires. But at the same time, this saves me time, money and aggravation, so I can’t complain. ^_^

#Thess has opinions

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purplesunrisefanfic · 5 years ago

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I wanted to write up what I’m feeling as I work on the next chapter of “Dear” and thought I’d post it as a possible behind the scenes thingy. There’s no way I can find to create a cut on the mobile app so apologies if the code I found doesn’t work and y’all get a text wall.

I’m getting so much out of writing Dear (low-key crazy proud that I’m keeping it up and getting such warm responses). However, every chapter feels harder than the last, I think partly because the more I get awesome feedback from lovely readers, the more I worry about screwing it up. My arcs are only sketched which gives me a lot of chapter-to-chapter creative freedom which I enjoy. Overall, I’m enjoying writing so much. It’s kinda cool being in a position where it’s like “Okay this is a risk to approach it this way,” but then realising there’s a risk for any approach, it’s better that there’s no safe bet, I think.

CW: Mentions of sucidial impulses, TLOU Part 2 ENDING spoilers, mild possible spoilers for the next chapter of Dear.

So I’ve worked at having this really subtle linguistic shift in how everyone, but Dina especially, speaks to each other, trying to have the warmth and trust grow naturally, (and having a reader notice and comment on this gave me all the good feels) but now I’ve got a curve ball for that plan because I’m writing Dina’s letter where she opens up and gets hella mad and tells Ellie how much she’s put her through. On the one hand, it’s a moment of trust because she 1) trusts Ellie to actually process this stuff sensibly and not just run off on another suicide mission in response & 2) She’s actually reached a point where she feels like it’s worth actually bothering to tell this stuff to Ellie — I don’t think Dina is someone who just unloads negative feelings for the sake of it, she’s very orinetated towards moving on, focusing on the good memories and she only really gets mad when there’s an immediate purpose (I’m looking at you, Farmhouse Tommy.) — so in a way it’s like “Fuck you, I fucking hate you but also I don’t totally hate you because otherwise I just wouldn’t bother sharing this with you at all.” But at the same time, it’s still a hurt, fuck you, I know why you did this but also why did you do this type of letter, so it’s hard to know if I’m getting the tone right.

And then there’s Ellie’s reaction. My instinct is that there’s a lot unsent and unsaid before she nails her reaction. I might even dig out some material from the Interpersonal Effectiveness component of DBT to have her draw on. I’m hoping that showing enough of her process along the way will stop it from seeming OOC when she ultimately sends an emotionally mature response. That’s one of the challenges of a story where cannon characters grow and change, because it can be tricky to navigate the line between change and OOC.

My only other challenge right now is that I had a bash at Ellie reacting via drafting some song lyrics, based on something that came to me while I was writing. I’ve been able to draw on some very rusty poetry writing knowledge, but I’m not able to think about them musically (Fun(?) Fact: I actually have something called “beat deafness” which for means that while I can hear a beat on something like a literal metronome on its own, I can’t “hear” a beat when I listen to songs/music proper. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be able to listen to a full song and hear something like that actually.) So with that I’m just gonna push past feeling a bit insecure and hope it comes off alright.

I’m still in lockdown so I’ve been blessed that I can write most days (my bank account is less blessed, but there’s nothing I can do and my credit limit is pretty high so I’m just leaving that be for now). I’ve also finally felt emotionally able to replay Part 2 so the rest of today is gonna be a mix of Dear’s next chapter and killing a bunch of NPC dudes (I’m into Abby’s section, love that girl but she can’t stealth for shit compared to Ellie. Plus having a kid with me makes me way more brutal tbh. Plus I’m not counting my actions in this NG+ as cannon so 🤷‍♀️)

If anyone read this (and I really don’t mind if no one did), then I hope you got something out of it and you’re always welcome to chat fic, ask stuff etc on my inbox if you’d like. Hope you have a good one.

#journalling

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meditationadvise · 5 years ago

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The Emotion-Bashing Needs to Stop

Emotions are an abundant facet of being human. We ought to recognize our distinct capability to experience the complexity of humanity's emotional range, instead of bashing those which we sometimes may consider 'negative'.

There are no strictly 'great' or 'negative' feelings. Fear as an example, is a need for survival. Temper is essential for engaging the search of justice. Sadness aids us to comprehend the numerous loves and ideals we have in life.

Yet we do reside in a duality of positive as well as adverse spin. Both components make a whole. So there are feelings that we refine as more favorable, like 'happiness', or even more unfavorable, like 'despair', yet both play a necessary role in helping us to learn and grow within the earthly context we find ourselves.

The Distinction between Feelings and also Feelings

There are many academic and unscientific variants for exactly what are considered key as well as second feelings, which can be additional explored in this write-up. Directly I like to check out it merely within the context of duality, meaning the 2 main feelings are Joy and Fear, or Love and Hate.

Every various other feeling would certainly then be an intricate blend of these two.

Yet regardless of exactly what we prefer to classify as primary feelings, there seems a great deal of confusion over the difference in between emotions and also sensations. As I described in a previous post:

" Everyone has the exact same feelings, yet most of us have various feelings. These 2 human states are unique not just because they are refined in different areas of the mind, but because feelings are mostly physical, whilst feelings are mainly psychological constructs.

Our feelings are a blend of our feelings, ideas, ideologies, ideas and also memories. All these aspects collaborated to not just affect the emotions that we have, but also establish exactly how we 'feel' concerning just what is going on in our globe. Recognizing the difference in between our feelings and feelings is crucial to contextualising our emotions right into the bigger pictures of our lives."

A superb analysis of this difference is supplied in this post. Here is a passage:

" Emotions originate in the subcortical regions of the brain, the amygdala and also the ventromedial prefrontal cortices, as well as develop biochemical responses in the body changing your physical state which originally aided our types survive by generating quick reactions to threats as well as benefits. Psychological responses are coded in our genetics and are globally comparable throughout all people as well as various other species ...

Feelings come from in the neocortical regions of the brain, are psychological organizations and also reactions to emotions, and also are subjectively affected by personal experience, beliefs, and also memories. A sensation is the mental portrayal of what's going on in your body when you have an emotion, as well as is the by-product of your mind viewing and designating suggesting to the feeling. Sensations adhere to emotion, involve cognitive input, are usually below mindful recognition, and can not be measured scientifically."

Therefore, what we would generally consider as a feeling is more than likely a combination of energy that results in a 'feeling'. This is because our general experience is not simply a psychological reaction, but additionally an experience entailing a complex setup of the numerous layers of our mind and also body.

In enhancement, when we refer to someone as psychologically mature, what we're really describing is their greater mastery of their response to their emotions, or their 'feelings'. In this feeling, the higher the understanding we have of the power that we process within us, the higher our power to recover as well as expand ourselves.

Healing and Growth

When somebody claims they're feeling bad, that suggests their overall response or response to their emotions makes them really feel unfavorable. The opposite is additionally true, when we say we really feel good, it implies that the emotions we're experiencing are being processed according to specific ideas, memories and also other power into a favorable mental experience.

Of course if we're grieving heavily or in a desperate state of concern, it will be unlikely that we'll be really feeling 'excellent', however we could still feel material with the best sort of philosophy. In any type of case, those experiences are the rarity, not the standard. Our typical frame of mind and heart is just one where we choose the best ways to reply to the world.

We have the power, which is why we need to create equipped and enlightened approaches on life. If we achieve success, they will successfully assist our involvement with both the challenges and also euphorias that we're gifted each day.

That's not to take anything away, however, from the significant influence our past can occasionally have on our present. Most of us recognize that injury, for instance, has a considerable effect on both our physical hardware and psychological software. If this trauma happens in the onset of brain growth, after that the neurology is essentially wired because way.

This can be extremely tough to recover because it takes many years to permanently rewire the neural pathways of the body-brain (implying the neural links that exist throughout our analytical, digestive system and heart circuits), as well as redesign the mental constructs of the mental mind.

But it's not impossible. Continuous meditation is a truly effective means to become conscious of the subconscious dysfunction that exists within everybody. Via becoming aware of our harmful style, in time we could literally transform the physicality of our wiring in a process called neuroplasticity. The psychological word for this is psychiatric therapy, suggesting we change our conceptual design for the purpose of recovery and growing ourselves.

So no matter the resource, if we're in a continuous state of clinical depression or stress and anxiety it is our duty to liberate ourselves from it. It's a hard tablet to ingest for lots of due to the fact that they aim to someone or something at fault, but this technique is always ineffective and also disempowering. Simply, unless we take ownership of our recovery and growth, then nothing will certainly change.

Of program that doesn't imply we need to take obligation for an event or person that brought upon enduring upon us, yet our reaction to it is where we must take control. If we have actually continued this suffering in a self-harming style over a long duration of time, then that is a truth that we require to own.

For those that intend to boost their mental state, I really recommend you read 'The best ways to Obtain Out of the Rut of Self-Harming Ideas and Sensations'. As I clarified because write-up:

' When our self-harm comes to be a major health issue, occasionally we are detected with a condition as well as prescribed medication. Nevertheless, drugs typically aren't the remedy to these dysfunctional psychological states, they are just a device that helps an efficient chemical equilibrium so that the problem is less complicated to cope with whilst we try to find as well as embark on means to fix it.

What really cures most, however not all, useless frame of minds works psychotherapy. Usually it is booked for an expert to guide, however that is for severe instances or when a person can actually access them.

The reality is we could take on psychiatric therapy on ourselves. We actually already do it. Whenever we have had understanding right into a problematic mindset and also took on adjustments to eliminate or alter it, it was literally psychiatric therapy in activity.'

When we experience problems such as these they are both mental and physical. In any way times there is a bottom-up and also top-down influence, implying that emotions or chemical alcoholic drinks affect our psychology, and also frame of minds influence our physicality.

If major harm is brought upon and also strengthened over years, it could have a considerable influence on both our physical machinery and our psychological architecture. That's why the longer it takes place, the longer it requires to rebalance it right into a normally healthy and balanced state.

This is exactly why self-administered psychiatric therapy is an area that should be educated in our schools. As a specific, we must be frequently reviewing the innate power we need to recover as well as expand ourselves. This training must begin with an early age, right through to the final stages of our third dimensional presence, so culture as a whole is equipped with understanding and abilities of a restorative and also developmental nature.

Final Thoughts

Life is an emotional roller-coaster trip, there's no uncertainty about that. If we have a adverse psychological reaction to our experience, there's no have to reduce it, we need to reply to it in the most practical and also healthy means that we can.

After all, the goal must be at peace with life, not simply be 'pleased'.

The belief that specific feelings are a problem is unreliable due to the fact that they are just an all-natural facet to being human. Just what we ought to redouble on nonetheless is the abuse of particular feelings, such as excessively feeding our despair or anger, as well as the consistent self-harm that most of us cause on ourselves after we have actually experienced something that we have regarded 'unfavorable'.

With the right kind of thoughtful perspective we could discover from all of our experiences anyhow, regardless if there is 'justice' to be had or not.

There is likewise a serious lack of empathy to individuals who are experiencing in a state of anguish or complication. The majority of people who are excessively regulating are being so because they are lost in some kind of injury or fear.

It's 'pain-based' habits, not 'aware' behavior.

Over the internet or face-to-face, we require to be much more gentle to those that are oblivious, abusive, arrogant or self-indulgent. If we react in an equally unsophisticated method-- such as misuse an abuser or condemn a condemner-- after that all we do is strengthen their discomfort and also little healing or development is likely to occur.

It's essential for us to all take a major chill-pill in this dark-age of misery, misconception, division and disharmony. The harsh fact is that most people actually are subconscious soldiers of a socially-engineered schedule to preserve the dying control-matrix. When we have concern for the manner in which these people have been designed to unconsciously really feel-- such as vulnerable, materially disappointed and also in an existential state of suffering-- after that they have a better opportunity of emancipating themselves from their pain and also starting a process of recovery and also growth.

And the more that occurs, the extra we can heal as well as grow our collective consciousness.

#healing #meditation #what is meditation

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comp6841 · 6 years ago

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Lectures - Week 8

Exam Movie & Accident

The movie ‘The China Syndrome’ is going to be needed for one of the questions in the final exam. It’s going to be shown in the security theatre in week 9, but my memory isn’t that great so I might have to get it from elsewhere closer to the actual exam date. Without going into spoilers, it basically involves a cameraman and a reporter who witness a SCRAM event in a nuclear power plant in California. They manage to initiate the emergency shutdown procedure to prevent a catastrophe, but the plant manager still suspects it isn’t safe and wants to bring it to the attention of the public.

There also is going to be a generic question on either: Chernobyl, Bhopal or Challenger. I know Chernobyl pretty well as I’ve watched a heap of documentaries on it and similarly with Challenger, except with a more detailed writeup on my blog. Maybe I’ll do some more research on the Bhopal disaster in the next couple weeks, as I don’t know too much about that.

Root Cause Analysis

Often when something goes wrong with a system we resort to a process known as root cause analysis; this means tracing back the flow of events to try and discover the factors which contributed to an accident. The problem is that in a lot of circumstances when it is applied, we like to assign blame to one individual in particular; we like things to be simple, but this is unrealistic. The one thing that is common to every single cause is that it involved human error to some extent - whether it be an inspector, someone who manufactured the part 5 years, someone who designed the computing systems or a person who installed the component.

In aviation for example, “last touch” is almost a running joke in the sense (not that people may have died obviously) that the last person to touch a part in a plane responsible for an accident almost always gets the boot. When the issue that led to an incident resides throughout an organisation, this typically requires a larger overhaul - a complete chance of organisational culture. They need to try and re-education everyone and being able to do this successfully is hard.

Human Weaknesses

I think by now everyone knows that humans are bad at telling the truth; when they do this depends on social judgement. For example, if they know they can gain an advantage without getting caught and face no social judgement, they are usually okay with doing it. However, if there are potential repercussions then they usually carefully weigh up the consequences for dishonesty with the possible reward and make a judgement.

When we looked at magic tricks earlier in the term, I think they clearly demonstrated how easy for us to get distracted or misdirected. It’s essentially a form of social engineering - we just love to focus on what is psychologically salient as opposed to what is logically important.

Another idea of satisficing links fairly nicely with truthfulness in humans; basically we’re only willing to lie to the extent that we know we can get away with. Or more appropriately, in a uni course you might decide to do the bare minimum just to get a credit - you might value other aspects of your life more and decide to do the bare minimum in certain areas. Some other inherent humans flaws are:

Bounded irrationality - decision making is limited by the information you have, the limits of your mind and the time you have to make a choice

Preferences for positivity - we want to accept the most positive outcome

Group-think syndrome - often have a preference to ‘keep the peace’ within groups for fear of social exclusion; can result in bad decision-making processes

Confirmation bias - only caring about the evidence that supports what you believe

Heuristics

Humans often rely on heuristics when determining the outcomes of situations and the associated risks. A number of types were mentioned:

Similarity matching - thinking of a similar situation that occurred in the past and applying it to the current circumstances

Frequency gambling - if many patterns match, you pick the one you are a most familiar with (a ‘natural reaction’); relies on the logic that what ‘worked in the past’ must ‘work in the future’

Availability heuristic - relies on how easily something can be brought to a person’s mind; people estimate the how frequent an event is based on how easily it can be brought to mind

Designing Code

Just some general ideas to think about when designing code:

Minimise complexity - no one component should be too complex; higher risk of errors

Coupling of components - try to avoid this because if one component is broken then the other will probably break

Cohesion - this is a good idea and involves nearby components making use of each other, while more distant ones don’t tend to

Following these rules makes it easy to build and maintain a system which is resilient to attack; if everything is tightly coupled it is hard to provide defense in depth.

3 Mile Island

We were told to watch ‘Chernobyl’ for homework again; yay I’ve already done that - love it when you’ve already inherently done the homework! I don’t think its really necessary to know the details of 3-mile island except for the fact that a cooling malfunction meant that part of the core in reactor 2 melted. This resulted in them having to release some radioactive gas a couple days after the accident.

I think the whole point of this discussion was to highlight the issues associated with highly complex systems. In the case of nuclear reactors, this makes them highly coupled such that small changes in one area of a system can lead to massive changes in other areas.

Extended Seminar: Privacy

I totally agreed with the first point of this presentation - it’s definitely all about a sacrifice of privacy for convenience. I’m pretty sure I would have great privacy if I wasn’t connected to the internet and lived on a remote deserted island, but it wouldn’t exactly be the most interesting or exciting existence. The main concern an individual might have with regards to information being online is it being used as blackmail against them; anything for a ‘quick buck’ these days it seems right? They went over some techniques you can use to protect your privacy online including:

Incognito mode - doesn’t store browsing history or cookies but not very effective against other forms of tracking

Privacy-oriented browsers - you could use search engines like ‘Duck Duck Go’ which don’t track you like Google, however if anyone in your household isn’t as concerned about their privacy as you, Google could probably still link you back up

Protecting your accounts - logout when you can, don’t like your accounts and lie about personal details

VPN (Virtual Private Network) - intermediate body between you and the internet server, so the external entity sees them (not you); traffic is encrypted

Onion routing (i.e. ) - encrypt data N times and obfuscate the origin through forwarding through a series of nodes; each of the N nodes peels back a layer of the decryption on the way to the destination

Can make yourself vulnerable by logging into accounts or through timing attacks

There was an interesting discussion regarding the “nothing to hide” argument presented by people who don’t care about widespread surveillance. Now the first counter-argument against this is the fact that you “haven’t thought of anything yet”. Also a single piece of data may not seem important but once you combine them all together you can learn extraordinary amounts about an individual - and who knows how this information could be used!

Extended Seminar: Digital Forensics

This branch of forensics is basically concerned with recovery of material on digital devices. There are 3 main stages in a digital forensics investigation usually:

(1) Acquisition / imaging

Capturing an image of a drive

Following the ‘paper trail’

Hashing

(2) Analysis

Keyword searches

Recover deleted files

Special tools used

(3) Reporting

Evidence used to construct events / actions

Layman report written

Some of the different types of forensics:

Computer forensics

Memory

Data

Mobile device

Phone

Network forensics

Router

Switches

Packet captures

Database forensics

Video / audio forensics

Movie files

Audio recorded

Steganography

The basic idea behind data forensics involves trying to re-establish the headers for files - when a file is deleted, the OS simply deletes the point to the file and marks the space under the FAT or FMT as available. Even if you overwrite the data, the overwrite is not perfect and still leaves traces of the original data. You usually need to overwrite tens of times at a minimum and test it to have any degree of certainty. I’m guessing the activity is probably going to have the flag steganographically written into the least significant bits or something...

#week8 #lectures #reflection

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theartofmedia · 6 years ago

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Kotaku and the Art of Game Leaks

(Full disclosure: this piece was commissioned by a friend. The topic has changed from the initial pitch, but still. I don’t know how that may or may not affect your view on this piece, but I still feel it’s important for me to be transparent about this.) On May 30th, 2019, Laura Kate Dale announced her departure from Kotaku UK. Dale is a controversial figure among the games journalist community for... multiple reasons (please note the latter link lacks any actual evidence and how she apparently didn’t report this Uber driver for ‘nearly kidnapping her’ despite posting it publicly on Twitter, hence the controversy around it), but that’s not what we’re talking about today. What we’re going to be discussing is what she is known for the most: video game leaks.

LKD is most known for leaking video game information prior to their release, from information about Dark Souls Remastered, to unboxing a PS4 Slim before Sony itself even announced its existence, to Switch software. It got to the point where LKD was blacklisted by Nintendo UK, most likely for leaking so much information.

Now as I was researching LKD, there was something I noticed. A lot of people supported LKD’s leaks, calling it “real journalism,” and commending her for doing her job so well. As shown by the link above, many people mocked Nintendo UK for blacklisting her for “doing her job too well.” People are always scrambling for new leaks, new information, though in many cases, this can lead to fake leaks, misinformation, and confusion among players.

And it got me to think: how do leaks really affect both the devs and the consumers of games?

The conclusion I’ve come to about it is: it does more harm than good on both sides, but especially to the devs.

Here we will be defining four categories of leaks (three of which are explained here by Griffin Vacheron of Game Revolution), though our main focus will be on two.

Accidental leaks are just like they sound: they’re accidents. Something happened, something went wrong, and people got a hold of information before they were supposed to. Like when Capcom put all the pictures of the roster of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on their website when a good portion of the roster hadn’t yet been announced, and the unannounced characters could be found via a small URL change. Or when Walmart’s Canadian site revealed around 40 unannounced titles due to a(n alleged) glitch in their system just weeks before E3 2018. Or when Bethesda accidentally streamed their E3 2015 rehearsal which ended up confirming the existence of Dishonored 2. Yeah.

The main component of accidental leaks is just that--accidental. Someone did something wrong, something in a system went wrong, someone didn’t think through the consequences of what probably seemed like a good idea at the time--it happens! Nothing is perfect, people included, and shit happens. But the key part is that it’s not intentional. Someone may (or, really, will) be reprimanded, punished, or even fired depending on the leak, but there was never any intention to reveal this information.

Company leaks are... not entirely proven, from my research. This is the idea that the developers themselves leak information in order to draw attention to their game and hype it up. Often, this will be the other determination of certain leaks--was it an accident, or a PR stunt? There’s no real definitive proof and seems to simply be rumor, but the possibility still exists, as there’s no real way to disprove it, either.

Ethic leaks are generally the exception, not the rule. These are leaks of working conditions, such as an employee from NetherRealm talking about the toxic work environment, or Rockstar employees opening up about how they were mistreated and underpaid and burned to ashes, or Blizzard’s layoff of 800 employees. (Further reading here on the abuse of game devs, as well as what can be done about it.) These are things that need to be talked about, because these relate to the treatment of actual, real people. These aren’t issues then of game content or development, it’s an issue of ethics in the workplace. Same with the leak of this document that details how AI can be used to encourage microtransactions, though that is an issue related to the consumer rather than the workers. Shady tactics and the maltreatment of workers is something that needs to be shown and discussed and talked about, because these things affect the actual workers, as well as the quality of a product and the company’s integrity in relation to the consumer. (Basically, if you intentionally make your game in such a way that players have to use microtransactions to make any significant progress, you’ve ruined your integrity as a company by trying to drain your player base of more money, regardless of the base price they paid for the game anyway. It’s a scummy business practice, and that kind of thing should be revealed to the public that you’re going to try to bleed dry.)

Intentional leaks are just as they sound: they’re the intentional leak of information. This is when people outside the company hack in and reveal secrets, or when people inside the company reveal information (whether directly or indirectly via being sources for journalists) before they are to be officially announced. The information given is given with the knowledge that yes, someone is going to reveal it to the public.

So let’s talk about the ramifications of intentional leaks on game devs.

Remember Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle? The cover image had been leaked before the team had a chance to actually showcase the game. Nobody knew anything about the game other than the cover, and universal reception at the time was: “This is going to be terrible.” Because of a leaked image, the public already had a strong negative opinion about it. However, the showcase that showed off actual gameplay was well-received, and the Metacritic score is 85. So the game itself was pretty damn good, according to the critics. An unlikely crossover turned out well! But the initial reaction was incredibly demoralizing to the team. It’s one thing to have criticism given to a game based on a trailer or gameplay showcase; it’s another to get criticism based on a single image and the concept alone with no other information given. As the director and music composer explain, the dev team was very worried and stressed not just about the game reception but about the showcase, as they were afraid that the reception to the showcase was going to be bad due to the already-negative opinion on the game.

Let’s also talk about how CD Projekt Red had demo gameplay and audio of Cyberpunk 2077 leaked by a journalist (who later complained about not being credited, about how his relationship with CD Projekt Red and the PR person he was friends with) after being asked not to. The company had their trust in the journalists--someone who they had a fifteen year relationship with--used and abused, leading to secrets being leaked. The devs had politely asked the journalists not to do so, but one did, and apparently saw nothing wrong with leaking private information and posting it to the public.

Or let’s talk about how, way back in the day, the entire source code for Half-Life 2 was revealed to the public and Valve (allegedly) lost $250 million dollars. The article actually states some of the effects of the leaked source code: “Meanwhile, the team at Valve, which had been in crunch mode for months, was left reeling by the leak. The game was costing the company $1 million a month to build and the end was still far from sight. The leak had not only caused financial damage but had demotivated a tired team. One young designer asked Newell, "Is this going to destroy the company?" (found under the heading “A Red Letter Day”).

Or we can talk about the Sm4sh leaks back in 2014 and how it led to an employee (allegedly) being fired and sued due to leaking this information. Now, this can very easily be viewed as justice being served to the leaker, and I would agree. But what is the issue here can be summed up by PlatinumGames producer JP Kellams:

The people working for years and years on a project suddenly have parts of their project--that they wanted to surprise players with, this particular instance being the Sm4sh roster--given out to the public before they wanted it to be. Imagine working for years on your life on a project, and then having someone reveal your work to the internet without your knowledge or permission. I know I would feel dejected, exhausted, hopeless, hurt, regardless of any positive reception to what was revealed. You, as someone who has worked so incredibly hard--and, in many cases in the game industry, been thoroughly abused--apparently don’t have the right to reveal the thing you’ve been working on the way you want.

I want to make this clear: I am not talking about “the Big Corporation” here. I don’t care about the higher-ups who put the pressure on the workers. I care about the workers, the little people that are being trampled on and forced to work in abusive, toxic conditions in order to meet a deadline and the outrageous demands of the higher-ups. They are the ones suffering.

Case in point: the Blufever leaks for Final Fantasy XIV. The details are a bit murky, as is with most leaks, but the story as I understand it is: user Blufever is/was an employee at Square Enix who leaked massive amounts of information on upcoming expansions/patches for FFXIV. Then, their account went dark, as they apparently feared for being found out by Square Enix. Vergeben, a known reputable leaker within the Smash community, had this to say about the situation:

Now, of course, there is no way to truly verify these claims. However, due to Vergeben’s reputation as an accurate leaker (and the fact that he was right about one of the upcoming DLC characters being from Square Enix) leads me to believe him. Assuming that his claims are true, someone leaking all of this information to the public put a lot of innocent people in the line of fire--and it’s very possible that these

So, what does this have to do with Kotaku?

Here’s something interesting.

When known E3 leaker WabiSabi was given a cease & desist warning from Nintendo for leaking information, take a look at some of the top replies. (Note that a lot of them are ninja gifs, here’s a sample so I don’t have to do it for every one.)

Not all of the replies are against WabiSabi, however, though a majority seem to be:

(About the above: I can’t really find anything suggesting that LKD was leaking things for “customer advocacy,” other than confirming that the next gen console (now known as the Switch) was not using the Wii branding like its predecessor did, thus easing some fears because of the bombing of the Wii U. Other tweets about that are here, but don’t really sway me in terms of “consumer advocacy.”)

As shown, the replies seem to be pretty divisive on whether or not it was a good or bad thing that WabiSabi got hit with a cease & desist.

However, let’s have a look at some of the replies to LKD’s tweet about how she was blacklisted by Nintendo.

And again, not all are supportive of her:

I actually had to look quite a bit to find any negative comments. Many were supportive of her.

(I would like to take this moment to get unprofessional for a second and unleash my full opinion of this: NO FUCKING SHIT YOU GOT BLACKLISTED, SHERLOCK. THEY TRUST YOU WITH THEIR SECRETS AND THEN YOU DISRESPECT THEM BY REVEALING THEM BEFORE THEY DID. I DO NOT FUCKING UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE WOULD SAY IT’S A COMPANY BEING “SHADY” WHEN IT’S JUST INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING PRODUCTS. NOTHING ABOUT ETHICS OR CONSUMER TRUST OR PRODUCT QUALITY. anyway,)

Now, you can say, “But Sakra! That’s a three-year difference!” And I rebuke with: people still support her to this day in spite of this. Kotaku UK kept her on though all of this and then some. It wasn’t until a kerfuffle happened in April with the “Persona 5 OST Has A Disability Slur” thing happened, and soon after, LKD left. It seems that the immense backlash with that was what fully pushed her off. (Now whether she was forced to resign or legitimately wanted to leave, that’s something only Kotaku UK and she know for sure.) The point is, her departure from Kotaku UK seems to have been completely unrelated to her leaks.

And why would it when Kotaku themselves--not just the UK chapter--are clearly very supportive of video game leaks of this nature?

Just have a look at their recent posts. All I did was put “leaks” in the search box. You may say “they’re just reporting the news of leaks!” But they put some of the leaked information IN the articles. The one on Watch Dogs Legion even confirmed the leaks. “Kotaku can confirm that this one’s real, as we’ve heard the name from several sources plugged into the company.”

Oh, and let’s not forget this lovely fucking article from 2015 where a Kotaku writer apparently speaks for the site and basically victimizes themselves for being blacklisted by Ubisoft and Bethesda. In fact, we’re going to dissect it, just because there is so much bullshit in here from the author, who is clearly speaking for Kotaku as a whole!

Buckle up, kids, your local Sakra is about to get fucking pissed.

The author describes how the Bethesda blackout came after “we reported insiders’ accounts of the troubled development of the still unreleased fourth major Doom game. In May of that year, we reported that Arkane Austin, the Bethesda-owned studio behind Dishonored, would be working on a new version of the long missing-in-action Prey 2 and that some at the studio were not pleased about that. When top people at Bethesda started making statements casting doubt on our reporting, we published a leaked internal e-mail confirming that those statements had misled gamers and that Arkane had indeed been working on a version of Prey 2.”

However, Kotaku at that time had also posted “our December 2013 report detailing the existence of the then-secret Fallout 4.” Reporting on troubled development isn’t an issue. Leaking emails just to confirm a game when Bethesda was desperately trying to preserve their secrecy that you had broken (probably not first, but Kotaku has a lot of mainstream reach) is an issue. I don’t like Bethesda, don’t get me wrong, but they were trying to salvage the secrecy of a project. Do I think trying to lie to the audience in order to keep the existence of a project secret is okay? No, not really. But I understand what they were trying to do. And whether you agree with their choices or not--no shit you would be blacklisted, especially if you have insiders as described here! You can’t go crying victim and martyr yourselves when you do this kind of shit. Especially if you were reporting on Fallout 4, a major fucking entry in a popular franchise!

As for the Ubisoft blackout...

“The current Ubisoft blackout is actually the second in as many years. The company tried a similar approach in the spring of 2014 after we published early images of the then-unannounced Assassin’s Creed Unity—images that had been leaked to us by an independent source. That article confirmed news about the company’s extraordinary plans to release two entirely different AC games in the fall of that year, one for new consoles and one for old. Ubisoft had warmed back to Kotaku by the summer of 2014, several months after the Unity report, but has cold-shouldered us since the Victory story one year ago. It’s possible other articles angered them, too. But that Victory piece is a safe bet.”

Ubisoft actually gave Kotaku another chance after leaking Unity, and the Victory (now Syndicate) story was, guess what, more leaks. You broke Ubisoft’s trust once, then you broke it again. Frankly, it’s fucking disgusting, knowing about how these leaks really affect devs, that Kotaku would dare to turn itself into a “journalism martyr,” as it were, because they were ignored by the devs whose trust they broke.

Now, you can say that maybe they didn’t know the information of how it affects devs--but a) the Sm4sh leaks and the fallout had already happened by then (it was 2014) and the Half-Life 2 source code fiasco had happened in the previous decade. Also, if they had insiders, wouldn’t they know just how serious leaking this information was and how it puts their sources and other devs at risk? Maybe Ubisoft and Bethesda aren’t as strict on their leak policies as Square Enix and Nintendo are--we don’t know. But I can’t imagine that they like it at all.

“I’m sure some people will sympathize with Bethesda and Ubisoft. Some will cheer these companies and hope others follow suit. They will see this kind of reporting as upsetting, as ruining surprises and frustrating creative people. They will claim we are “hurting video games,” and, as so many do, mistake the job of entertainment reporting for the mandate to hype entertainment products.

“We serve our readers, not game companies, and will always do so to the best of our ability, no matter who in the gaming world is or isn’t angry with us at the moment. In some ways, the blacklist has even been instructive—cut off from press access and pre-release review copies, we have doubled down on our post-release “embedding” approach to games coverage. We’ve experienced some of the year’s biggest games from street level, at the same time and in the same way as our readers.”

No.

It isn’t just about “spoilers” and “ruining the surprise.” In some cases, yes, a lot of people don’t like or actively avoid leaks because they do want to be surprised. But that’s not the only thing.

By “serving your readers” and trying to dig for this information, you’re putting devs at risk. You’re putting your “sources” at risk. Now, if you were reporting on development or shady tactics or awful work environments or specific negative incidents behind the scenes or things that should be talked about, I would absolutely agree with you that you should continue digging deeper. But that’s not it. The companies trust you not to reveal something until a certain time, and you go and do it anyway.

By claiming victim and demonizing the “big bad corporation” for blacklisting you, you minimize the actual stress and hardships it put on the smaller guys in the company that the entire company is built on. You completely brush it aside and paint the entire company as irrational. You completely neglect the plight of the actual people working on it, and disrespect them by revealing their information before they do, when they have worked for SO LONG on whatever project it is. Like JP Kellams said, devs earn the right to talk about their product because they worked on it for so long. You haven’t.

And then... this paragraph.

“Too many big game publishers cling to an irrational expectation of secrecy and are rankled when the press shows them how unrealistic they’re being. There will always be a clash between independent reporters and those seek to control information, but many of these companies appear to believe that it is actually possible in 2015 for hundreds of people to work dozens of months on a video game and for no information about the project to seep out. They appear to believe that the general public will not find out about these games until their marketing plans say it’s time. They operate with the assumption that the press will not upend these plans, and should the press defy their assumption, they bring down the hammer. We make our own judgments about what information best serves the news value of a story, and what our readers would prefer not to know—which is why, for example, we omitted key plot details from the Fallout 4 scripts that were leaked to us. We keep covering these companies’ games, of course. Readers expect that. Millions of people still read our stories about them. The companies just leave themselves a little more out of the equation.”

I never thought I’d see the day when video game companies were being victim-blamed.

Frankly, by leaking information, it ruins the relationship between the companies and the journalist, because then the company will start to make generalizations about journalists and not trust them, thinking that they will reveal whatever information they give them, which makes journalists like this press harder for information, and can you see where I’m going with this? It’s a cycle of mistrust, perpetuated by journalists like these who go against the wishes of a company that just wants to keep something a surprise until a certain date.

And then this motherfucker has the audacity to frame companies blacklisting reporters that leak information as bad! “They operate with the assumption that the press will not upend these plans, and should the press defy their assumption, they bring down the hammer.” Why are companies wrong for trusting journalists? Are you implying that all games journalists are untrustworthy, because they won’t respect the wishes of a company that gives them the information in good faith that they won’t leak it? You do say that “it is nearly unfathomable to me that a reporter would sit on true information about what’s really happening in gaming, that we would refrain from telling our readers something because it would mess with a company’s marketing plan,” so I don’t know, maybe you DO think that all games journalists should immediately report on confidential information that the game companies are going to eventually reveal anyway and while only really receiving clout in return. Oh, whoops, got a little bitter there.

“They appear to believe that the general public will not find out about these games until their marketing plans say it’s time.”

Maybe because people like YOU are the ones who leak it! You can just as easily, you know, not fucking do that! This feels more like an excuse to not accept responsibility/deflect criticism, because ‘the companies shouldn’t have expected us to stay quiet!!!’ This is just straight-up victim blaming. Like it’s actually kind of scary.

It’s this ideology that Kotaku seems to stand by, as LKD once stated that higher-ups look over the written articles to approve them, and to my knowledge, Kotaku hasn’t redacted any of these statements, so I’m assuming that they still stand by it. Them spreading this ideology is what perpetuates the idea of game leaks (of the non-accidental, non-ethics-related kind) being “good journalism,” and with how much reach Kotaku has, it has the power to be legitimately damaging.

“They have done so in apparent retaliation for the fact that we did our jobs as reporters and as critics. We told the truth about their games, sometimes in ways that disrupted a marketing plan, other times in ways that shone an unflattering light on their products and company practices. Both publishers’ actions demonstrate contempt for us and, by extension, the whole of the gaming press. They would hamper independent reporting in pursuit of a status quo in which video game journalists are little more than malleable, servile arms of a corporate sales apparatus. It is a state of affairs that we reject.”

And here it is: Kotaku was just the humble, underdog reporter just doing their job, and the publishers show off contempt for the entire industry (rather than just Kotaku itself, I guess blacklisting one site means you hate all of games journalism) for Kotaku simply doing their jobs!

No, you ignorant twat, you broke their trust, so they don’t want to talk to you anymore. You don’t get to play victim when YOU were the one who blew the whistle.

Now, I cannot stress this enough: I am only talking about leaks related to game announcements, content details, etc. that are deliberately leaked to the public from an inside source. I am not talking about leaks related to ethical violations or troubled development or other negative things within companies. Those are things that should be reported on. But that kind of thing isn’t primarily what Kotaku is talking about and promoting; they are promoting the reveal of information because it’s “just good journalism.”

Except, as shown above, it has some very dire, very real consequences for the people you don’t see, and maybe that’s why Kotaku is so adamant about defending themselves in this regard. Maybe they don’t see the living, breathing people who get affected by their leaks, and so they think they’re fighting against the Big Bad Corporation when, in reality, it’s much more complicated than that. It doesn’t feel real to them. Or, maybe they do and they just don’t care. I genuinely cannot say so one way or the other.

I really, truly hope that by reading this, you the reader have a new perspective on how leaks of that kind affect the industry, and the little people whose backs the companies are built on.

As for the article and Kotaku as a whole...

“Kotaku readers always deserve the truth. You deserve our best work. It doesn’t matter which company is mad at us today, or which companies get mad at us in the future. You’ll continue to get it.”

Fuck yourselves.

#kotaku #video games #games #games journalism #hooo BOY this one got angry #but!! it's done and i like it

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altered-aegis-archived · 6 years ago

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Modern Verse

BASIC INFORMATION CODE GIVEN Peryton REAL NAME Kohaku Otomugi AGE 18 HEIGHT 170 Cm BORN 24 August SOCIAL CLASS Lower Class YEAR 21st Century NATIONALITY Japan FACECLAIM Ishikirimaru

SUMMARY An enhanced human with superstrength, heightened sense and recovering immunity made purely for war purposes. After years grounded under Italy's military laboratory, Kohaku fled to Japan in hope for recovering his original identity while escaping from Italian Government. While doing that, he encountered series of unfortunate events that forces him to show his enhanced ability. He was hired by confidential clients to assassinate enemy. His profit was later used by him to buy medicine to lessen the pain that was caused by the enhancement drugs inside him.

BACKSTORY Kohaku was an orphanage from Japan and was adopted by an unknown parents in a confidential meeting. By the age of 5, Kohaku moved to Italy with his guardians and later learnt that his identity was changed. He was later being introduced to a group of young children around his age who also has been adopted from orphanage from different country. He was given the code Peryton the moment he was registered into the underground laboratory, along with educations and trained with set of skills essential for survival. He and other children immediately becoming Italian government's guinea pigs as they had to suffer through countless of drugs insertion and various of enhancement. In it's worst event, they had to outwit each other to survive another day by annihilating each other. After each years, Peryton passed through all of the experiment and witness his friends dying before him by force.

Eventhough Peryton is successful in all inhuman test, his memories are degrading from time to time, could renderred him into pure rage and uncontrollable as it put him in absolute pain. One of the newly hired scientist in the laboratory, Percivel, somehow managed to cure the pain with injecting him with painkiller fluid, specifically modified for an enhanced human like Peryton. Percivel was curious in seeking the reason behind Peryton's brutal experimentation so he decided to investigate the Government's archive in hoping to find an answer. The scientist later found out that the test subject was a neccessary preparation in case there are war outbreaks or that they needed human to survive apocalypse. It was stated also this experiment was an agreement between Government and Italian Underworld's organization as they acknowledged Japanese's super human's development. For the fear the world might become more dangerous place with more super human emerges to surface, Italian government and Mafia's godfather made an agreement to secure the project's development.

Percivel found the motives are too unbearable and inhumane, so he hassled back to find Peryton in the laboratory. Peryton pleaded to him that he wanted to be free from the torture. Percivel considered his plea and secretly devised escape point for Peryton. Before Peryton escaped, the scientist told him to make a promise to not becoming reckless with his power and act like a normal human. Peryton promised him and no words ever heard from him again after the escape. Peryton fled to Japan but having difficulties on staying stable and have no incomes in order to afford his medicines and treatment in the hospital. He later decided to be an assassin is the only way to be able to pay for the costly treatment.

Modern Verse (Bungou Stray Dogs) – as plotted with pursuingideals (Kunikida Doppo) -my lovely rp partner-

SUMMARY OF THE BEGINNING As Italian government were looking for Peryton, they later confronted Percivel for the misconduct he has done and discharged him. Percivel was satisfied with the discharge and quickly fled to Japan to isolate himself from the eyes of authority for the time being. While doing so, he received rumours of cold-hearted assassin roaming the city. The former scientist later learn out that the assassin could be Peryton that he freed before. At that moment, Percivel was worried because Italian Government was looking all over for him. Aside from that, he realized Peryton broke his promise to act as normal as he could. If Percivel himself able to locate the lost enhanced human, then it could mean the government is ahead in finding him. Before it is too late, he seek help to Detective Agency in the city in hope to meet the young male again and would confront his doings. Percivel along side with Kunikida and other agencies confronted Kohaku during his mission, however it was shortly abrupted by the presence of Italian’s representative; Andrei who was supposed to be Kohaku’s legitimate adopted father. After the resolve, Andrei had to agree to the authority to release Peryton Kohaku into the local authority. Somehow, Kunikida took care of him afterwards.

Modern Verse (Vigilante) Kohaku spent his youth in orphanage together with his friend Noire who were later being taken out by unknown person. By the age of 17, Kohaku was recruited to military and was involved human experiment for the sake of mafia's organization that reign over the state. He was later then sent to the mafia for recruitment. One of his task demanded him to wipe out mafia's traitor. However he became a traitor himself, turning his back on mafia and decided to destroy them.

KOHAKU PERYTON / OTOMUGI HEADCANONS

PERSONALITY Stoic, fearless, stubborn. This young man has a brilliant endurance especially physical and mental (when he is healthy). His soft side also appears when the person he face does not impose any dangerous threat.

||ALWAYS WAR READY|| Kohaku was not educated with moral values during years of experiment, he was not aware of it and lack of idea of how becoming a normal human at the least. Through the trials of his experiment, Kohaku was treated in a way feelings are not concerned, he grew up only to be nurtured with survival instinct and preparing himself for world catastrophe.

ART OF WAR

||HEIGHTENED SENSES|| Eyesight; Kohaku's eyesight was modified to magnify twice than normal healthy eyes can do, three times in its maximum capability. Hearings; Kohaku can also detect waves frequency that inaudible to normal human's ear. Smell, Kohaku could detect substances such as harmful liquid, drugs and even hidden bombs within specific distance.

||FUTURE RESISTANCE|| Kohaku's body will be getting adapted to types of weapon that could harm his body. Over time, after his body recovered while learning to weapon's chemical components, the same type of weapon will slowly loses it's effect the body. For example, Kohaku could survive bombing and remained unscathed once he gain immunity through rapid attacks. More frequent attack will make his recovery rate slower but more effective in later time.

||KNOWLEDGE|| Through experimental and training years, Kohaku managed to learn various type of several languages, intercepting satellite communication, reading secret codes, decryption skill, high-end weapons and technologies, including maneuvering warships and other vehicles.

||MARTIAL ARTS|| Kohaku is well-versed in martial art skills due to constant training given by the government for the sake of surviving experimental phases that was developed by the facility.

||SUPER STRENGTH|| That would include ripping steel doors, destroying walls and other things that normal human hardly able to lift or stand against. Running through walls and making holes on it is normal for him.

WEAKNESSES

||MEMORY LOSS|| Although he have such inhuman strength, Kohaku have a frequent memory loss due to the side effect of enhancement. It would abrupt his progress in completing his task completely. The way to avoid this is only through constant treatment from hospital or painkillers.

||BACK NECK|| His weak and blind spot. Attack him on this particular area will stunned him.

||LACK OF OXYGEN|| Without enough air for few minutes, like a normal human, he will become very weak.

||POISON|| A right poison such as oxidizers seeped through his body can give a devastating chemical reaction. Oxidizers are corrosive substance that will deteriorate his regenetive tissue.

||IMPACT|| Kohaku is not immuned to physical impact even if chance of surviving it is high. People can still stunned him with blunt object or even fists if it is hard enough.

||SOLO PLAYER|| Kohaku has problem in following orders due to the trauma he received during training and experiment. At early introduction to team, Kohaku might not be the best team player as he was more impulsive. This could be changed through proper guidance and orders.

#BACKSTORY2 #HEADCANON2 #MODERN VERSE #LONG POST

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outlookhealthblog · 2 years ago

Text

Do Sports People Take Supplements?

All those who get indulged in regular exercises or sports of their choice undoubtedly would want to push their bodies hard enough to take the most profit from their efforts and give the best performance. Athletes usually have high energy demands depending upon their need for growth, development, general health, and physical activity level. For achieving optimal performance in the sports field, they would essentially require good nutrition and a well-hydrated body.

Nutrient-rich foods are loaded with proteins, dietary fibers, vitamins, and minerals, unlike processed foods that have abundant sugars and are high in calories. That’s why every athlete is recommended to eat whole foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins, whole grains, and dairy items. However, if their diet is not sufficiently providing the required nutrients to their body, they could turn to some supplements to meet their needs.

What is a Supplement?

The supplement is a nutrient-dense formulation that is purposely intended to be used in addition to a habitually consumed healthy diet. It can be a particular food, a food component, a non-food compound, or a nutrient that is not used as a substitute for a nutritious diet. The effectiveness of supplements is rarely seen without a well-designed nutrition plan.

Dietary supplements are a personal choice. They are orally taken and readily available in different forms like pills, capsules, tablets, powders, energy bars, or liquids. The food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not certify any dietary supplements which means it does not assure the purity, effectiveness, or safety of the supplements. The supplements do not require pre-market approval before being available to the general public for use. Those taken to improve sports performance contain an ingredient, generally termed a performance-enhancing substance (PES).

Why take Supplements?

The dietary supplements comprise one or more dietary ingredients: vitamins, minerals, herbs or botanical extracts, amino acids, and other substances to achieve good health, prevent or treat illnesses, compensate for poor diet, aid in recovery from physical training, and/or performance benefits.

Does a Sportsperson take Everyday Dietary Supplements?

Not all, but most athletes are often allured by the effective marketing of sports supplements. They end up purchasing dietary supplements which promise improved performance among other claims, as alternative nutrition for themselves to achieve desired results. Active adults and athletes may take supplements to meet their nutritional needs, address or prevent known nutritional deficiencies, and achieve their fitness goals or improve their athletic performance. Some supplements are meant for providing extra calories for athletes who are not taking certain foods because of their food allergies or other medical-related issues. Sports people are usually recommended for caffeine, whey protein, and creatine as supplements to boost their energy levels, fill their gaps of nutritional needs or nutrient deficiencies, and assist in their muscle building.

Benefits of Supplements Usage by Sportsperson

Sports supplements have been in use for decades to enhance the performance of athletes belonging to multiple sports codes. These are often labeled as ergogenic aids because of their ability to provide a physical or psychological boost during their regular training and sports competitions. They are in much use by athletes as they offer the following benefits:

Increased resistance to fatigue

Enhanced muscular strength, tone, and power

Increased sprint and technical sports performance (including

endurance, speed, focus, and strength)

Improved reaction time

Greater sprint repeatability

Reduce body fat

Improvement in body aesthetics- by fulfilling the desire to gain/lose weight.

Thus, dietary supplements taken by athletes can help them gain a competitive edge. If athletes have busy lifestyles, they could go for supplements as “quick fixes”. Moreover, athletes may even be recommended for sports supplements if they are medically diagnosed with conditions like iron-deficiency anemia, low bone mineral density, or low Vitamin D; food intolerances/allergies; change in their eating habits (like plant-based diets, and diets eliminating food groups). Just by knowing these benefits and looking at the ingredients list of the supplements, many athletes may start taking the supplements. But, that’s not right as it’s always recommended to take the consent of medical professionals.

ORDER NOW!

Try out the best sports supplements formulated and manufactured by VitaPost for improving the stamina/power of sports people and helping them perform best!

Max Gains– Many sports nutrition products serve in the transformation of the bodies of athletes by taking the results of their workout or physical training to next level. These products are categorized into three series to address different body-building aspects, each one acting differently. The categories are bulking complex which includes three products: Anadroxin, Venabol, and Clenbulen; cutting series or fat incineration which includes three products: Trenoven, Promolex, and Venabol; health support series including three products: Nutra PCT, Joint Flex Ultra, and Probiotica.

Slendarol– This supplement is a powerful herbal formula featuring Green Tea Extract, Green Coffee Bean Extract, Raspberry Ketone extract, Caffeine anhydrous, and Garcinia Cambogia extract. It is a good support for those who want to meet their goals of dieting and regular exercising in less time. Its ingredients play a role in metabolism by supplementing one’s nutrition needs and increasing the levels of daily physical exercises.

Garcinia Cambogia Plus– Garcinia Cambogia is a fruit grown in Southeast Asia and known to be loaded with a key compound called hydroxycitric acid (HCA). HCA can act against an enzyme called ATP citrate lyase which supports energy storage in the body as fat or cholesterol. Its extract contains abundant trace minerals such as potassium, chromium, and calcium that are involved in metabolism.

CLA 2000– This supplement is made with safflower oil, naturally made in form of an essential fat called Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). CLA is one class of fatty acids that are closely related to the vital omega fatty acids. Usually, CLA can be obtained from beef, dairy, and other foods rich in polyunsaturated fats. It can support healthy body composition of essential fats and also support exercise and dieting goals.

Source:-Do Sports People Take Supplements?

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irisbleufic · 7 years ago

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i want advice on how to keep smut in character. after reading your dghda stuff and being blown away at how exactly like themselves they sound in your sex scenes, i mean more than in any other ones i've read, i peeked at one or two of your good omens ones and gotham because i know those fandoms and jeeeeeeeesus you do it everywhere? these are all really hard voices to nail and you nail them under the hardest circumstances of all every single time! i can't figure out what you're doing!

Hi, anon! First of all, I’m pleased that you feel my renderings of these particular characters’ voices in these particular fandoms are a match with their voices in canon. I started playing with written-dialogue mimicry when I was fairly young; a lot of my free-write journal entries for English class during junior high were my constructions of “missing scenes” from novels we were reading (Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper is the first one I messed with, and I remember getting some fairly astonished comments from my 7th grade English teacher; my first forays into fanfiction came only a few months later).

Now, writing character voices in intimate scenarios, especially when no such thing exists in canon, can definitely be tricky. Even at this point, having been actively writing for over half my life, I still feel the strain from time to time. I haven’t been asked this particular writing question before, so articulating my thought process might be less smooth than I like.

The first component, maybe not helpful, is that I hear most things without too much difficulty when I set up the parameters in my head. Like, okay, here’s the broad-strokes arc of physical choreography and what they’re doing with and to each other, and…out of the blue, in keeping with the gestures I’m observing, here is what they sound like. It’s like laying an audio track after I’ve thought my way through their actions, for lack of a better simile, although that isn’t entirely accurate. When I say I hear things in my head dialogue-wise, it’s not that my mind’s reproducing sound. It’s reproducing syntax under highly specific circumstances, and how to represent that orthographically.

The second component, maybe more helpful, is that I think about circumstances in canon where the character’s vocal mannerisms/syntax are being influenced by some kind of emotional (usually high-stress) element that might, arguably, produce an effect similar to the kind of strain other, more pleasurable activities would. I use this approach when I’m doing my first-pass editing. It helps to check how my initially-estimated dialogue compares to visual clips or written scenes from canon where the characters are reacting vocally with high emotion, or running at the mouth because they’re stressed, or anything along those lines. It’s probably very common for fan-writers to pay attention to situations where characters are in pain, because sometimes the line between a pain-reaction and a pleasure-reaction is an exceedingly fine one as far as how it sounds in the voice and looks on the face. It varies wildly from character to character whether in visual or written media, of course, but these are just rough guidelines. Some characters’ pain-reactions are useless, and you should tilt more toward ecstatic and/or shocked reactions.

If your characters are talkers during sex, think about how they react to frequent interruptions in normal conversations, but make it less controlled. Anything their partner does to them that makes them really feel something is usually going to function like an interruption. If you have experience with a similar encounter, think about how you and/or your partner react to that kind of thing, and then translate it into your speaker’s mindset.

Taking my character-preferences into account, there’s a factor in play here that might just be a specific proficiency I’ve developed, which is: I’m almost always writing characters who are neurodiverse and/or disabled (whether explicitly so or coded as such in canon). This invariably affects everything from sensory perception to nonverbal reactions to what they say under the circumstances. It affects what they do and how they do it (or refrain from doing it, or modify their plans in the moment), and it affects emotional arcs and progressions (or even preference for repetition) across multiple encounters. In my estimation, the characters I work with are not easily shoved into romance-novel templates, or even into some of the stock templates circulating in fandom, when it comes to sexual encounters.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I’m sure that these are approaches that many, if not most, experienced writers will have thought to use. I’m already aware that a lot of my autistic-hyperfocus-driven approaches to writing are not applicable or useful to everyone. My brain does some things with words, specifically in mimicry/replication contexts, that I can’t even really break down for you. Playing with imitation in writing is how I taught myself to be partway-passing some of the time in daily communication designed by a neurotypical world. The way my mind works is inextricable from the way I write.

slowwetmechanism said: I’m really disappointed the asker didn’t say “you nail them while they’re getting nailed.”

…wow. I just, thank you for that. This is the kind of tone-lowering I’m here for!

#writing advice #writing #fanfiction #smut #autism spectrum

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rhoenigman-blog · 6 years ago

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My introduction to hip-hop dance

For the past few years, I’ve been the director of the undergraduate program in Computer Science at University of Colorado, Boulder. The program has recently experienced unprecedented growth, going from 400 majors in Fall 2013 to 2,000 major in Fall 2018, and considering all of the other students we’re teaching who aren’t majors, we’re effectively the largest major on campus.

Going into this past fall semester, I felt like the stress of the job was taking a toll on my mental and physical health and I honestly wasn’t sure how I was going to get through another year. I also wasn’t ready to walk away either, and so, I was at a loss for how to proceed. I decided to do something that was out of character. I enrolled in a dance class through the CU dance department - DNCE 1301 - Hip Hop Technique I.

Just to make it clear how out of character this decision was, I’m a 46-year-old computer scientist with minimal rhythm. I don’t dance at parties, usually. When I told my friends and family about my decision to take the class, the most common reaction was laughter, followed by confusion, and then a little bit of, “oh, you’re serious”.

On the first day of class, I was reminded of the difference between being 18 years old and being 46 years old. There were a bunch of dance majors in the class and I learned very quickly that I was out of shape and couldn’t dance for sh*t. The class was hard. Physically, it was beyond my capability, and the time required outside of class to master the steps was more than I had to give. I pushed through every workout and did my best to learn the steps, but they didn’t come easy and I certainly wasn’t a natural dancer. I hurt myself a few times, never seriously enough to keep me out of class for long, but it was not uncommon that I sat in office hours with ice packs wrapped around both knees and a heating pad on my back. In the end, I earned a solid C. It was the grade that reflected my ability. It’s the only time in my life I’ve ever earned a C in a class, and it might be the proudest grade I’ve ever received.

Throughout the process of taking the class, I couldn’t help but reflect on how my experience might be similar to the experience of a freshman walking into a computer science class having no previous exposure to computer science. There is a whole area of research in computer science education that examines how to make computer programming more palatable to new programmers. In activities involving physical fitness, we talk about “being in shape” to refer to physical conditioning. But, is there a parallel, where it takes our students some amount of time to be in “computer science shape”, and this amount of time varies depending on the student. Instead of physical shape, where we refer to muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness, with computer science shape we’re referring to familiarity with a computer to type out ideas, patience to work through a problem, basic knowledge of procedural thinking, and confidence that a solution is possible.

In my dance class, I wasn’t in dancing shape on the first day, and without any background on the discipline to know what dancing required, I didn’t know what it even meant to be in shape. I did the exercises without knowing that each exercise was designed to prepare me for specific dance moves. Once my physical conditioning improved and I began to understand some of the basic movements, I felt more prepared for the class, but this didn’t happen until half way through the semester and by then, I was way behind. I could do the moves stiffly, but they were not automatic, and I would often forget them five minutes after learning them.

In computer programming, there are individual components to a program that are fairly simple in isolation, but become very complicated when they are all combined, which is necessary to make a program work. For new programmers, they hear these individual concepts and might not be in shape enough to appreciate their meaning in the larger context of a computer program. They could put together control structures and variables if they think about them, but they’re not at a point where they can just know when they need to use a conditional and when they need a loop.

For new CS students, could there also be mechanical limitations that could keep them from being successful? There is endless research into what language should we teach to new programmers. There is also research into students’ backgrounds - does it matter how much math they have, their hobbies, gender, major, parents’ occupation, and so on. But, what if the limitation is something mechanical, such as how many words a minute can they type? Is it possible that they understand programming conceptually, but they can’t produce code fast enough and become frustrated? Instead of tests on math and procedural thinking, should we be giving them a typing test, and activities to improve their typing speed instead of activities on control structures?

By the end of the semester, I had generated more questions than answers. The entire experience has led me to think more about the student experience and whether we’re really addressing the reasons students succeed or fail in a class.

I also wondered what would happen if I took the hip-hop class again. Would an improved level of physical conditioning provide a foundation and enable me to experience the class differently the second time around? Would there be any generalizations I could draw from my experience that apply to any student who struggles in a class.

I’m a scientist at heart, so I re-enrolled. The first class was yesterday. I’m using myself as my own test subject. I hope I don’t need IRB approval for this highly informal study.

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cryptohacker1 · 3 years ago

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Cryptographic money: The Fintech Disruptor

Blockchains, sidechains, mining - wordings in the surreptitious universe of cryptographic money continue to stack up by minutes. In spite of the fact that it sounds nonsensical to present new monetary terms in a generally complex universe of money, cryptographic forms of money offer a truly necessary answer for perhaps the greatest irritation in the present currency market - security of exchange in an advanced world. Digital money is a characterizing and problematic development in the quick universe of balance tech, an appropriate reaction to the requirement for a safe mode of trade in the times of virtual exchange. In when arrangements are only digits and numbers, cryptographic money proposes to do precisely that! Cryptocurrency Frauds

In the most simple type of the term, digital money is a proof-of-idea for elective virtual cash that guarantees got, mysterious exchanges through distributed web-based lattice organizing. The misnomer is even more a property rather than real money. In contrast to ordinary cash, cryptographic money models work without a focal power, as a decentralized computerized component. In a circulated digital currency component, the cash is given, overseen and embraced by the aggregate local area peer organization - the constant movement of which is known as mining on a friend's machine. Effective diggers get coins too in enthusiasm for their time and assets used. When utilized, the exchange data is communicated to a blockchain in the organization under a public-key, keeping each coin from being spent twice from a similar client. The blockchain can be considered as the clerk's register. Coins are gotten behind a secret phrase secured computerized wallet addressing the client.

Supply of coins in the advanced cash world is pre-settled, liberated from control, by any individual, associations, government elements and monetary organizations. The cryptographic money framework is known for its speed, as exchange exercises over the advanced wallets can appear assets surprisingly fast, contrasted with the customary financial framework. It is likewise to a great extent irreversible by configuration, further supporting the possibility of obscurity and taking out any further possibilities of following the cash back to its unique proprietor. Sadly, the striking highlights - speed, security, and secrecy - have likewise made crypto-coins the method of exchange for quite a long time exchanges.

Actually like the currency market in reality, money rates change in the computerized coin biological system. Attributable to the limited measure of coins, as interest for money expands, coins swell in esteem. Bitcoin is the biggest and best cryptographic money up until now, with a market cap of $15.3 Billion, catching 37.6% of the market and as of now evaluated at $8,997.31. Bitcoin hit the cash market in December, 2017 by being exchanged at $19,783.21 per coin, prior to confronting the abrupt dive in 2018. The fall is part of the way because of ascent of option computerized coins like Ethereum, NPCcoin, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin and MintChip.

Because of hard-coded limits on their stockpile, digital forms of money are considered to follow similar standards of financial aspects as gold - cost is dictated by the restricted inventory and the changes of interest. With the steady variances in the trade rates, their maintainability actually is not yet clear. Thusly, the interest in virtual monetary standards is more hypothesis right now than a regular currency market.

Following modern transformation, this advanced cash is a vital piece of innovative disturbance. From the place of a relaxed eyewitness, this ascent might look energizing, undermining and puzzling at the same time. While some business analyst stay incredulous, others consider it to be a lightning upset of financial industry. Safely, the computerized coins will uproot generally quarter of public monetary standards in the created nations by 2030. This has effectively made another resource class close by the customary worldwide economy and another arrangement of venture vehicle will come from cryptofinance before very long. As of late, Bitcoin might have taken a plunge to give spotlight to other digital forms of money. Yet, this doesn't flag any accident of the digital currency itself. While some monetary counsels accentuation over state run administrations' job in getting serious the covert world to manage the focal administration system, others demand proceeding with the current free-stream. The more well known cryptographic forms of money are, the more investigation and guideline they draw in - a typical mystery that bothers the computerized note and disintegrates the essential goal of its reality. Regardless, the absence of delegates and oversight is making it surprisingly appealing to the financial backers and making every day business change radically. Indeed, even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fears that cryptographic forms of money will dislodge national banks and worldwide banking sooner rather than later. After 2030, customary business will be overwhelmed by crypto production network which will offer not so much erosion but rather more financial worth between innovatively capable purchasers and venders.

Assuming digital currency tries to turn into a fundamental piece of the current monetary framework, it should fulfill extremely different monetary, administrative and cultural models. It should be resistant to programmer, buyer agreeable, and intensely shielded to offer its central advantage to the standard financial framework. It should save client namelessness without being a channel of illegal tax avoidance, tax avoidance and web misrepresentation. As these are absolute necessities for the advanced framework, it will require not many more years to fathom whether cryptographic money will actually want to rival this present reality cash going full speed ahead. While it is probably going to occur, digital currency's prosperity (or scarcity in that department) of handling the difficulties will decide the fortune of the financial framework in the near future.

Digging into the much-discussed and hard-coded secret universe of the following financial framework - cryptographic money. While the computerized coin offers vivid possibility and advantage to the expected financial backers and dealers; it is yet to confront various difficulties and devise reaction component for the future world.

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