#sales for noobs

[noobscomic]

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SALES FOR nOObs

Start at the Beginning || Go to SchoolForNoobs.com

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[girlspecimen]

finally spent a larger amt of my money on smth cuz i felt bad and wanted retail therapy…. my makeups :3c i hope they r good!!!

[littleststarfighter]

Well, I got the print of my calendar back from Lulu and it’s not all bad. Sadly my phone camera is a joke and I can promise they look so much better in reality.  I’m going to be putting these up for sale soon if people are interested. It’ll be a very small pre-order window of around two weeks because it took them about 3 weeks to print them. So I didn't want to be printing calendars in December because I should be posting them out by then. Nothing worse than getting a calendar and missing a whole month.

I was thinking £20 or £25? What do you guys think? Too much? I’ve looked and that's what others seem to be charging, but I can absolutely go lower. I don’t want to be expensive, but man it’s so hard trying to figure this stuff out as a complete noob to selling my works. I was going to put some free stickers in there for those who order as I did some chibi Steve and Eddies and I think they're so cute they have to be stuck on things. I’ll be sharing them to my Patreon soon and with you guys when I get the calendar post up. That's if people are interested. Will be available on my Big cartel and Etsy so you have a choice with who you feel comfortable ordering with.

[soursvgar]

Their favorite pet names ♡

demon brothers x gender neutral reader

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

ෆ Lucifer ━ Darling, Dear

Make no mistakes, Lucifer always prefers hearing his own name, specifically when it's being spilled out of your mouth as a lingering whine, demanding him to avert his attention to you. However, if he already has to settle for a pet name of some sort, he would prefer a good old fashioned term you would use to title the first line of a letter with, if the two of you were star crossed lovers mailing each other through different worlds. (Because he's just dramatic like that, but the truth is, it makes him blush.)

"When you intimated you need my assistance, I didn't reckon a bake sale is what you had in mind. May I remind you of the outright failure we experienced when we attempted to bake hellfire mushroom rolled cigar cookies?" Lucifer shakes his head, sensing defeat from merely facing the ingredients laid across the table. "Well, I haven't invited you here to cook, don't worry. Your role is to supply entertainment and mental support, and also to stand guard in case Beel tries to infiltrate our mission." You reassure him with a grin, carefully tying an apron around his waist. "Now, be a dear and fetch me the recipe?"

Lucifer is quite stunned at your confidence to speak to him at this level, regardless, he cannot deny your dauntless attitude tugging at the strings of his heart.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

ෆ Mammon ━ Babe

No explanation needed, it just makes sense. Use a confident, possessive tone when you say it and watch him quack and become as red as the roulette in the casino. In return, he will probably use a bunch of embarrassingly cringy pet names on you.

"Whaddaya mean you don't want me callin' ya my sweet snuggly crow princess in public?" Mammon frowns, huffing at the rejection of his advantages. "I think crows are cute, and so are you. Cute! My sweet snuggly c-" His sentence is cut short by your lips crushing against his own, leaving him with a loss of words and rosy cheeks. "Come on babe, stop being silly."

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

ෆ Leviathan ━ Weapon of (m)ass destruction

He doesn't have a preference, simply because anything you'd choose to call him feels like someone tore a rift in time and space and crowned him king of the three worlds. With that said, he particularly likes silly ones, or just anything normies wouldn't regularly use. It makes him feel special because you definitely haven't used that on anyone else.

"Hey, let me use your phone for a second. I'm gonna call myself since I can't find my cell." You mindlessly announce, grabbing his mobile device after a couple long minutes of patting the bed in hopes of finding your own. "Huh? w-w-wait, let me do that!" Leviathan hurries to try and eject the device out of your grip, but to no avail. Your fingers had already clicked their way through the different screens, leading you to his contact list. "Hm? You saved me as 'Only second to Ruri-chan in beauty'? Aww, Levi!" You coo, messing his hair. "Now I feel bad I only saved your contact as 'noob'."

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

ෆ Satan ━ Kitten

It is most likely a given (or a chewed up headcanon), but Satan is the embodiment of a cat and likes to be recognized for it; privately, of course. Rumor has it that if you call Satan by the following pet names of kitten, kitty or anything that resembles, it will awaken his inner feline and bring him to rub his cheeks against you, asking to be petted.

"Come here, kitty kitty." Satan looks up from his book at the melody of your voice, at first searching around to scope if a real cat is nearby. But with his sharp mind, he reads the situation almost immediately, cocking an eyebrow at your hopeful expression. "Huh? Are you referring to me?" You nod, holding out an arm as you gesture him to come closer. "Pspspspsps" Satan heaves a sigh, placing a bookmark inside one of the pages before he closes his novel shut and paces towards you. "Such a good kitty!" You praise, holding in your chuckle.

"Say one word to anyone about this, and you're dead meat, human. Understood?" Defeated, he tilts his head towards you and nuzzles against your extended palm. "Now... scratch behind my ear please?"

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

ෆ Asmodeus ━ Prince/ss

No surprises with this one, Asmo is royalty and believes he should be addressed accordingly. He doesn't mind which version of the word is being used, as long as it comes with the acknowledgment that he's the most ethereal, majestic creature your eyes ever had the sanctified right to witness.

"No, no and no! None of these are on theme. I usually find good keeps in majolish, but this season their clothes are all off." Asmodeus falls into the velvet chair allocated at the store's fitting booths. You had accompanied him on a shopping trip prior to an event at RAD as he was in need of a new wardrobe for the occasion. "I kind of liked this outfit. I think it suits you!" You sheepishly smile, praying to be leaving the store before sundown. "Suits me is not enough! It has to be dazzling, breath taking, absolutely stunning!" He huffs, displeased at the selection of items at hand.

"I mean, it's the person who makes the clothes, not the opposite. It doesn't matter what you wear because everything looks so good on you, princess." The corners of Asmodeus' mouth stretches into a smile, but it differs from his usual smug, conceited one. It was a humble display of contentment at your compliment. "That's correct!"

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

ෆ Beelzebub ━ Babycakes, Pudding, anything food related

Think about it, what is one of Beel's biggest pleasures in life? What does he yearn for so much, that he can't clear his mind from it to the point it is brought up in every conversation he's having? Food. So it's only natural that using food related nicknames will make him feel as important to you as food is to him.

Beel licks his lips as his eyes skim through the grocery list. You had brought him along with you to a human world supermarket, assuming you'll be able to keep him at bay, except... you forgot to take one variable into consideration.

"Cheese, cheese! Come try our cheese!" You were doing a good job holding him back from finishing a whole tub of blueberries, but the announcement called from afar by a samples vendor made his ears perk up. It took all of your magical energy to stop him from storming that poor salesperson like a hungry wolf, but you've managed. "I'm so sorry, y/n... you know it's hard for me to resist human world food, and for free too..." Beel was pouting at you, genuinely feeling guilty for scaring the unfortunate human. "I know you're trying your best... you were doing so well today, my little cinnamon roll."

"Mm, cinnamon rolls... can we go get some now? Please?"

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

ෆ Belphegor ━ Baby, baby boy

With every cell in his body, Belphegor loves being babied. As the youngest brother, he's often spoiled by his siblings and gets away with a lot. He's allowed to slack off, be rude or partake in the usual pranks and leave nearly unscathed because he's just so cute. Naturally, his pick to be called by his lover will be along those same terms of endearment and he will absolutely melt whenever you use them to address him.

"Five more minutes, I promise we'll make it in time..." Belphegor mutters sleepily, sheltering you between his arms as he snuggles closer to you. You take a peek at the clock, five minutes had turned to fifteen, but your weary demon refuses to let go of the bed, or of you. Sighing, you accept your upcoming fate of being scolded by Lucifer for your tardiness and reach to caress Belphegor's warm cheek, earning a soft hum in return. "You're gonna get us both in trouble, baby boy."

[sirfrogsworth]

The Manfrotto Saga Conclusion

You ever go past being upset to the degree it becomes funny?

I finally got the courage to open the email.

And it's bad.

But I actually got a good laugh, so at least there is that.

This is what they sent me...

"Thanks for reaching out. We're sorry to hear that this happened.

Unfortunately, this can happen from time to time. The cost of parts and labor are not usually too bad, but when you add tax and shipping, it can become close to the point of it not being worth it.

We don't usually do this, but as a show of support, I'd like to offer you a 30% coupon code to aid in offsetting the cost of a replacement. The code is good on anything on the Manfrotto website, excluding sale items or close-outs. It will expire in 30 days and is not replaceable."

Yes, it was the tax and shipping that put me over the top. Not the actual repair cost being more than the item is currently selling for as new.

Now, you might be thinking that is the funny part.

The funny part is the 30% coupon.

You might also be thinking, "30% is a decent discount! SCORE!"

But you may have missed the "Manfrotto website" detail.

You see, manufacturer's website pricing is mostly used so the actual retailers can point to those prices and say, "Hey, look at this great sale!" even if that is the item's perpetual price.

So, let's look at this geared tripod head on their website. It's what I would upgrade to if I were to stick with their brand.

So with a 30% discount I am down to about $175. Plus those darn taxes and shipping.

Say, what is this going for on Amazon with free shipping?

So, basically what I've learned is... Manfrotto just sucks.

When I bought this originally, I was a photography noob. I didn't realize they were a bit like the Nickelback of photo gear. Very popular, but most experienced photographers try to avoid them if possible. Mainly because they use proprietary plates. If you need a ball head for landscapes and a fluid head for video and you want to easily switch between them, you need two heads from Manfrotto. They trap you in the ecosystem.

Whereas other brands mostly use "arca swiss" plates which are standardized. You can put one plate on the bottom of your camera and switch to any head from any brand that has that mount.

So I am going to save up for something with an arca swiss mount. Something that isn't fucking Manfrotto. Someone already donated about half of what I need (thank you so much) and I think I am going to sell a few things to cover the rest.

IN THE MEAN TIME... I spent all Friday night digging through my basement. I bought my tripod like 10 years ago and I knew it had some kind of head on it originally. And in the recesses of my stuff I found an old ball head.

And while I hate ball heads and think they are a pain in the ass, it will do everything I need at the moment.

Also, it doesn't wiggle.

My big upset about all of this was mostly how wasteful it is. They are going to trash something that can be fixed because they have purposely marked up the parts to force people to buy a new thing. It does not cost Manfrotto $127 to make the parts needed. I'd be surprised if it cost them $10 for those parts.

And it is my big fear that if we win the "Right to Repair" fight, all manufacturers are just going to mark up their parts like this.

But the repair company seems a little scummy as well. I emailed them before I sent in the head for repair. I showed them the video and they did a basic diagnosis.

"The lever may be loose, or the top housing may be damaged."

And they were right, the top housing was damaged.

But they didn't say, "Hey, parts for this are super expensive. It may cost over a hundred dollars to fix."

They didn't say, "We charge $30 to ship it back to you."

I suppose I should have asked, but never in my wildest imagination did I think this repair would cost that much. It was just a wiggle!

So, I'll just get something that suits my needs better. I was planning to do that eventually, but this just accelerated those plans.

[princesilverlining]

I kinda wanna get Jack Jeanne bc it seems like a fun otome dating sim, but there's so much I'm uncertain about?

(Poll after ramble under cut)

I wanna get a physical copy so I can share it with my friend, but the digital copy is usually cheaper and more likely to go on sale.

Plus, the little posters on the inside of the switch boxes give me so much joy. I got a game that didn't have the little poster once, and I was devastated. I love inverting the print on the box so the illustrations are shown on the outside.

I also don't usually play rhythm games because I'm very bad at them. From what I've seen, it's recommended to get good scores for better endings. I'll probably be able to brute force my way to a better score like I do with games like Trauma Center: Under the Knife.

Still, I'm concerned with how difficult it would be for a noob to get good scores.

On top of this, I'm a strong believer in the "one dollar for one hour you spent having fun" theory for costlier games.

The guys in this game are very gnc and cute (especially the blonde emo boy), and I'd be delighted to know if his route is particularly good :)

[omg-snakes]

you mentioned previously that sunglow amels are no longer a thing because of bad breeders- can you expand on this? thanks, snake noob (snoob)

Hello friend!

The shortest possible (grossly oversimplified for brevity) answer is that there are two pathways by which notable color morphs in corn snakes can occur: genetic mutation and selective breeding to enhance natural variation. Mutation is when a specific gene affects one or more specific pigments in a snake's cells. Amelanism is a really great example since it's a simple recessive gene. If the correct genetic "switches" are flipped in a snake's DNA, then the snake has no melanin and is therefore red, orange, yellow, and white with no black pigment. It's a true/false scenario.

The other color morph pathway is selective breeding, where many incomplete dominant genes are at play simultaneously, and the snakes that display the most desired traits are bred to amplify those traits. There's always natural variation among offspring, even if they have the same phenotype. Two amelanistic snakes from the same clutch might look a bit different even though both are definitely Amels.

Think of it like you have a garden full of pink flowers, and some of them are slightly, slightly more pink tinging on red. You decide to put the reddest-flowered plants together and only plant their seeds next season, and then choose the reddest-flowered offspring for the season after that, and so on until you have all red flowers!

Several popular morphs and all of the locality morphs are the result of this type of selective breeding. Unfortunately, these do require conscious and intentional breeding to maintain the look of these lines. Since they're not "on/off" genes, there are no heterozygous individuals and a selectively bred morph won't "pop up" suddenly by surprise in a clutch the way recessive gene mutations sometimes do.

Sunglow Amel is noteworthy for super bright orange coloration with low contrast, high saturation, and absent saddle borders. You can outcross a Sunglow (or any selectively-bred morph, they don't have to be inbred), but you'd need to choose snakes with bright color and minimal borders and then breed those back into the line or it'll basically undo the work of all previous selection. To go back to our garden analogy, if you took one of the red flowers you'd worked so hard to develop and pollinated them repeatedly over generations with the original pink-flowered plants, you'd get less and less red and eventually regular pink flowers.

Reverse Okeetee is another selectively-bred Amel morph, which focuses on bold, thick saddle borders and high saddle to background color contrast. Think of these like white flowers that were selectively-bred from the pink flowers in our garden.

So what happens if you breed a Sunglow Amel with low contrast and no borders (red flower) and a Reverse Okeetee with high contrast and thick borders (white flower)?

You get something in the middle: an average Amel (original normal pink flower).

A bad breeder who doesn't understand inheritance or genetics might do this exact thing and try to sell their regular Amels as "het Sunglow, het Okeetee."

I have literally seen these for sale recently.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Hi BPP,

You must have seen the solo versus OT7 drama that’s been happening on Twitter or seen discussions relating to this on Tumblr. I’d like you to weigh in with your opinion on this.

To those fans who are new to this fandom, say post hiatus or just slightly pre hiatus, this could seem to be very toxic; although, it could be these same new fans who are pushing back 💁🏻‍♀️

Ultimately, the BTS anti wins - seeing a solid fandom crumble in this manner. It seems as though some of these OT7s are Sacrificing Jimin to make a point.

I hope though that Jimin does make the sales he needs and has the impact we think he shall have and that antis don’t win at pulling him down.

***

Hi Anon,

Oh I saw it. Not on Tumblr (I’m yet to see any of those discussions here thank goodness), but definitely on Twitter.

This is one of those situations that causes me to rub my temples because it reveals stupidity everywhere, like tech bros inducing a global banking collapse-type stupid, and there’s plenty of blame to go around. But these exact sort of situations are what’s expected to happen given how the fandom has changed since 2020, and it’s why the byline of my blog references a fandom implosion. Because it’s coming. It just has to. Lol.

I referenced 2020 for a reason. This isn’t the first time the fandom has had to navigate supporting solo work. We’ve done it in 2015, 2016, and 2020, but because of how the fandom has changed since 2020, conflict and implosion is nearly guaranteed.

Many things changed in the fandom in 2020, but one major thing that happened is we had a huge influx of k-pop noobs into the fandom. We all know many of these people happened to be from Western/European countries and typically skewed female, white, and opinionated. According to that ARMY soc med survey, these people now account for roughly 50% of the fandom, and I reckon roughly the same amount found their way into solo stan and shipper spaces. Most of these people aren’t bad in any real sense, but what I’ve observed is they lack the history to have an understanding of the 2nd and 3rd order implications of certain actions within a k-pop space. This is something solo stans are notorious for, for example not understanding the 2nd order implications of sending a truck to HYBE claiming HYBE is mistreating your favourite member, or the 3rd order consequences of trending hashtags to make a point, as another example. Ordered thinking can be intuitive to some people, but to most people they need to have experienced a history that shows what happens 2 or 3 steps down the line when you’re only concerned with the immediate reward, forgetting that nothing in k-pop happens in a vacuum.

Anyway, I’ll say what I think on each player in the drama yesterday.

*

The Solo Stans

Pre-2020, solo stans would have had the sense to not even make that request to ARMYs in the first place. That was their first mistake. Those funds would have eventually made it into ARMY buying channels (because ARMYs have the widest and most efficient systems for chart placements, solo stans do not, despite their enthusiasm), but no solo stan in their right mind would blatantly publicly request ARMY participation - it would’ve moved through DMs or solos creating ARMY cosplay accounts for that purpose. Pre-2020.

You might be wondering, what’s the damage? What’s the big deal in just telling ARMYs there’s 10 grand sitting somewhere that they can request? Shouldn’t we all put aside our ego to support Jimin?

Lol.

The thing is, Solo stans are fundamentally different from ARMYs in that they view the other members as rivals that must be defeated (1). ARMYs are inclined to support any member who needs it. And so, many solo stans simply do not trust ARMYs to spend the funds only on Jimin. And they’re right to have that fear. Most ARMYs obviously would use it for Jimin and what I’ve seen is trusted ARMY buyers and funders are responsible and provide thorough accounts of their activities, but it would be stupid to ignore that hyung-line diet solos, shippers (aka taekookers), etc, would take advantage as well. PJMs were only setting themselves up for grief by doing what they did.

Another reason it was plain moronic to publicly and blatantly announce the funds available and demand ARMY partnership with solos, is that it would set the precedent for Taehyung and Jungkook solo stans during their debuts. And I promise you, $10,000 will only be the starting amount. PJMs didn’t think beyond putting that amount of money to work, forgetting that they’ve now created a situation that demands ARMY working with taekook solos to the tune of $50,000 at least (that’s the amount I recall seeing by their fanbase in 2021 earmarked for their debuts). Nobody was paying closer attention to that drama yesterday, than other akgaes and antis. There's a lot of eyes on the fandom. PJMs, bless their heart, are often just loud, uncouth, and myopic in their thinking.

Because:

At the end of the day that money isn’t going to be sitting somewhere idle. It will definitely be spent on Jimin during his debut. Solo stans of previous eras would have had the sense to privately approach ARMY buyers and use the rest of those funds (because of course most of it will be used to get Jimin’s high chart placements in the 1st week), to support the release from week 3 which is when streams/radio typically fall off, supporting the efforts from the core of the fandom, to give Jimin’s tracks more longevity, and stronger support - a better indicator for a song’s success on the charts. But the only thinking present here yesterday was to get as many 1st week buyers with those funds to make the biggest splash as possible at debut.

*

The ARMYs

As I’ve said before, too many ARMYs are just plain stupid. It’s not an insult, just the facts of the matter I’m afraid. Going by how ARMY typically operates, over the course of this week (week of the release), ARMYs would have raised well over $10,000. Obviously. It’s not something the fandom typically advertises (another key difference between ARMY and solos), but anyone who has worked within these channels would tell you a lot of money gets generated in a very short amount of time and there’s a literal army of buyers in those networks. For pre-2020 ARMYs, it would’ve been enough to say, “we’re good supporting Jimin, thanks.” And blocked the solo stans right away because they’d kick up a stink the moment you actually engaged with them and lead to the exact same situation that happened yesterday. It’s the same playbook to use with taekook shippers. But that’s not what happened, which again, is another key difference between how pre-2020 ARMYs would’ve handled this vs. newer ARMYs.

ARMYs are generally wary of working extensively with solo stans because of (1) above, as it guarantees that solos will weaponize any and all achievements to tear down the other members. As an ARMY (who could bias any member) it makes zero sense to work with anyone who literally actually wants to see another member leave the group, using any solo success over their bandmates as reasons that member should do so. A second reason is that solo stans often belong to rival fandoms a.k.a. Blinks, NCTzens, Shawols, Exols, etc. and the unfortunate reality of what goes down in k-pop fandoms is that people’s lives can get ruined over pointless shit. An Egyptian ARMY who is a dental student in Egypt, was doxxed by Blinks four days ago for saying Yoongi dances better than Jennie. She’s had her living address, family address, faculty information, and medical conditions leaked by Blinks on Twitter. And one traced the leak to providing her information for a BlackPink album giveaway last year. We can joke about how these online fights are silly but ARMYs have seen enough to have more reasons against working with solos and akgaes, than they do to work with them.

It’s frankly not really about ego. It involves money and personal information and there’s real risk here.

Now, why did I say ARMYs are stupid? Because they opened an avenue to have this discussions publicly in the first place. Nothing good comes from hashing things out on the TL (there's too many eyes on the fandom), much less an issue as nuanced as this and even more so when ARMYs had already worked with Hobi and other member funding bases before on previous releases. (But on significantly smaller amounts and not directly through the largest ARMY funding bases.)

It’s not easy to explain all that in a tweet, and I doubt a lot of newer ARMYs even understand the real issues - I suspect many of them just move in a herd and think “solos bad” without fully understanding why it’s a bad idea to approach things the way solos suggested yesterday - so those ARMYs instead used nonsensical arguments like bringing up the Hanbok issue in early 2021, that solos want to take ‘credit’, and the ARMYs who have nowhere to tuck in their insecurities as it concerns Jimin (because there are definitely ARMYs - usually hyung-line and other maknae-line biases - who are extremely sensitive to any mention of how Jimin differs from the rest) let it all hang out yesterday.

Pre-2020, ARMYs would have shut down that argument on the TL as soon as it happened (and that’s if it would’ve happened in the first place), blocking solo stans which would’ve caused (pre-2020) solos to make cosplay accounts and deal with this all in DMs. It’s easier to develop trust and hold accounts accountable (lol) one on one. That’s one way the fandom did this in 2015 with Joon’s solo, in 2016 with Jimin’s Lie and other solos, and in 2020 (although for BE, solo stans tried to sabotage that release by boycotting the album… but like I said, these sort of changes started in 2020).

*

The Exiles

I describe the Exiles as those within the fandom who think they’re not in the fandom. We’ve all seen them, in fact I suspect some of my followers are them - they’re people who constantly think the fandom makes them ‘look bad’ and so they don’t want to be associated with its label. Many of them are sympathetic to solo stan arguments though they wouldn’t call themselves solo stans and could even despise solos for the same reason they hate ARMYs. But at the end of the day, the Exiles still play a role. Because of course they do. Most of the Exiles today also joined the fandom around 2020, and many of them haven’t ever really participated fully in supporting a release, and so they don’t have a real understanding of what goes down, and why it’s a bad idea to do exactly what Jimin’s solos were publicly requesting yesterday. But these types are often very opinionated and just fanned the flames yesterday lmao. But the plus side is this group of people will end up being the bridge when D-day arrives. It’s what I saw happen with Hobi-biased people who don’t consider themselves part of ARMY, for On The Street.

The Takeaway

Consider that mess the dress rehearsal for Taehyung and Jungkook’s solo debut, and we have PJMs to thank for that. Taekook solos would have demanded ARMYs support either way, but now they have additional ammo thanks to PJMs and they’re significantly more in number than any other member’s solo stans. More vicious too. And the core of the fandom will be in worse shape by their debut in the sense that it will be more fragmented because I’m sure yesterday’s mess left a nasty dent on some more impressionable people. These kinds of things are bound to happen given the players that have become dominant in the fandom in the last three years. What I suggest is focusing on the small pockets of followers and friends within the fandom that you know and trust - whether you’re a solo stan, ARMY, or Exile. If you’ve never participated in buying/funding, ask those people questions. Get into the habit of streaming on multiple platforms, and for God’s sake learn how to resolve shit in the DMs.

Jimin will have a lot of competition on March 17th and 24th. The deck is already stacked against him. And maybe I’m weird but all that does is make me excited because whenever things are like this for Jimin, he just… he blows it all out of the water. Contrary to popular belief, most people in the fandom, whether they bias Jimin or not, actually love him. It’s impossible not to. And they will give this release everything they’ve got. I’m already seeing it happening, ARMYs just don’t advertise it publicly because all eyes, including journalists, are on the fandom. Focus on what you can control, find a group of people who love him as much as you do, and enjoy the music when it comes.

[ask-the-toy-box]

Get a copy of @fractiouslemonofficial book here!

[noobscomic]

That's right! The first year of Sales for nOObs is finally out in book form! Every strip has commentary from the creators and there's even a FIVE-PAGE BONUS CHRISTMAS STORY at the end! So what are you waiting for? Be the first kid on your block to own your very own copy of Sales for nOObs: Late with a Biscuit!

(Yes, this is seriously a real book. Treat yourself and buy it today. Better yet, treat your friends and buy copies for all of them!)

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SALES FOR nOObs

Start at the Beginning || Go to SchoolForNoobs.com

Become A Patron || Read My Other Comics

[huggingtentacles]

On "casuals" in From Software games

Just clarifying. I'm not using "casual" as an insult unless I specify that. A casual is not a noob, or an idiot, or any of the things people attach to this term.

A casual is simply a person who plays the game casually. They don't dedicate their time to study the mechanics, they won't hang around when the next cool game comes out, they enjoy the game without going too deep into it. Most of them get a playthrough, a platinum trophy at most, and bounce to the next game. They're not interested in "getting good" or doing invasions or any of the challange runs or digging up lore.

There is nothing wrong with being a casual. However, the following thing about them is that they don't stick around. I've been playing Fromsoft games for years now and I know that I love these games and I'm going to play them for a very, very long time, untill the next fromsoft game comes out. I'm like, almost 2000 hours into Elden Ring at this point.

From Software doesn't develop their games forever. At some point they stop and then they move on. When DLC comes out, there will be maybe 3 patches after that, and that's it, the state of the game with all of it's flaws will remain the way it is, forever. And the only ones who will remain are people like me and those who get it on holiday sales years down the line.

That is why I don't think these games should cater to casuals. I've heard people complain about the nerfs, saying how having overpowered shit in the game is actually fun. And let me tell you, I'm not an idiot, I agree that it's fun to one-shot people with RoB or do 20-metre dodges with BHS. But only the first, maybe 3 times? Yes, it's fun, but is it fun for 1000 hours? 2000? The casuals don't care, they will move on. And the dedicated community will stay in a game that is forever broken.

It's not bad to be a casual, but please be mindful about the limits of your experience.

A game that's good for 2000 hours is also great for 100 hours, but a game that's only good for 100 hours is bad for 2000 hours.

[dojae-huh]

You know what's positive about idols? It's that we see them grow. Naturally, it's part of their sale pack, but it is really something beneficial to the fans. A lot of the times we see the result and feel like only rich or super-talented people can achieve anything. "They were born talented". Or, a variation of the theme, "They got lucky".

Idols, on the other hand start as rookies and noobs and show progress over time, they also share what they had to go through, reveal their insecurities. They both demonstrate that nothing is gained without effort, and that it is possible to change and improve. Like Taeyong who couldn't dance or knew nothing about music prior to joining SM, and who took years to feel like he is worthy to be called an artist after the debut. Or awkward teen Doyoung who debuted with a funny image and is now draws eyes on fashion shows.

Nowadays so many people want right here right now, or, worse, feel like they are owed something. Many give up once something becomes difficult or boring, and find solace in eternal complaining and self-pitying. Examples of effort and determination are needed.

[maricu-mana]

About: CurseBound

Let's talk about how everything began.

CurseBound is the title of my very first visual novel project. (Yes, it's "CurseBound" not "Curse Bound" but don't ask me why, I don't know either...)

In the beginning I didn't think this would actually *be* my first vn. Because before joining a dedicated english speaking discord community for visual novel devs (aka DevTalk), I thought I would just create my huge ass passion project There have been Gods.

Oh what a fool I was.

"Start small", they say. And oh boy are they right. Without even knowing *how* to create a visual novel, what tools to use, how to plan from start to finish, ThbG was way too ambigious and badly organized for a noob like me. (This is not the right moment to go into all the details, but don't worry, we will talk about ThbG later in another post!)

Luckily for me, soon after joining the DevTalk server, a very beginner friendly vn jam was announced: O2A2 (Again!) With a limited scope of only 1k words allowed, only on sprite and one background image, this was honestly the perfect jam for a newbie like me to get their feet wet.

Being scared of Ren'Py (and not knowing better or listen to anyone's advice lol) I went straight into TyranoBuilder (which I just bought a few months earlier on sale) and created my very first finished and playable visual novel: CurseBound.

Without knowing what even to squeeze in just under 1k words, I went for the next good thing and wrote a little scene about the unnamed character that I've used all these years for my profile picture across all social media.

Very simple, no choices, only one ending, terrible timed transitions and probably full of typos (believe me when I say I'm too scared to go back and read this early "masterpiece" again lol).

But! It is and was my very first (finished!) visual novel. And for that I'm very proud. Because if it wasn't for CurseBound, I wouldn't be where I am today, one and a half years later. CurseBound showed me how easy and fun creating (and finishing! I feel like I can't say this enough lol) visual novels can be. It marks the starting point of my new passion.

I feel the need to talk more about *him* and his weird story too, but I'll keep that for another post! So for now, if you want to read a tiny snipped about my unnamed profile pic character, you can check out the game for free on my itch.io page: https://maricu.itch.io/

[anakenway]

Obey Me! Tips, hints and info I wish I knew sooner (with screenshots and tutorials)!

         Let me start off with a quick disclaimer: I am definitely not a pro Obey Me player. I have been playing for less than a full year, and am only on lesson 24. But it is precisely because of that I am still relatively new, that I can offer some useful tips I think would be best to know early in the game. Even if you are a seasoned veteran player, stick around and, who knows, maybe you’ll find out something new! So without further ado, let’s hear it:

1) Save your demon vouchers and devil points!

    Demon vouchers (DV) are your main resource for getting cards through Nightmare. Nigthmare is a luck-based system (often reffered to as Gacha) that gives you a random set of cards. If you perhaps play Genshin Impact, then you know what I’m reffering to. You spend 1 or 10 Demon Vouchers and get 1 or 10 cards. The rarity of those cards is random. The highest rarity, UR, is hardest to get. If you have luck, you can get it on your first 10-pull. I suggest saving DVs as much as possible. The vouchers are not so easy to obtain. How do you decide when to pull for cards then? That is up to you. I like to wish for the cards of characters that I love and are my favorites, but only if I like the design of the card as well. You can also wish if the card has a Sin attribute that you need. Sometimes, you’ll want to wish on Nightmares that give cheat cards for the upcoming events. Cheat cards make it so you get more points and can get higher rewards in an event. But if you are new, chances are you won’t have your cards high enough level and enough resources to competitively compete in the events. And you don’t really need to! It’s up to you how you want to play the game, but I personally started doing some events after a good 4-5 months of playing. So spend DV for cards you like aestethically, or to progress faster through events. And don’t worry about “missing out” either. Events that you didn’t play will be added to Lonely Devil, a system where you can replay old events and still obtain rewards. The nightmares also return periodically, just like re-run banners in Genshin. 

   Okay, that was about Demon Vouchers. What about Devil Points (DP)? They are a very very veeeeery important resource. With these, you can buy energy, more battles, all kinds of sales, demon vouchers, Lonely Devil tickets, glowsticks, items to give to characters and so on. Luckily, DPs are obtained much easier than DVs. You can get them by doing daily tasks. Complete a certain number of daily tasks each day, and you get 18DPs per day. There was even a period when I didn’t have enough time to play Obey Me, so I just did the dailies every day and then exit the game. And before I knew it, I had 1500 DPs. From the intel I could gather so far, their primary purpose is to buy more battles (if you run out of D-Energy, explained later) and restore AP (the energy system of this game). I don’t recommend using them to buy DVs because it’s too expensive and there are better alternatives to getting DVs, through certain sales, mentioned further down the list. 

    In conclusion, think before you spend anything. I always regret wasting precious resources when I am still a noob, in just about any game.

2) Save your D-Energy!

    Wait, you’re new, you don’t even know what D-Energy is you say? Same here, I didn’t know it even existed for quite some time into the game. Have you ever noticed that battles in hard mode lessons and events, have a certain amount you can finish? Usually you can repeat each battle 3 times. Now, what if you need to finish a battle more than 3 times? Maybe you are farming for a resource that a battle drops, or maybe you need to farm more event-specific points and, therefore, need to do more of the event battles? Well, D-Energy lets you repeat a battle an extra 3 times per D-Energy. When you use one D-Energy drink, you get 3 more repeats for your chosen battle. It is actually an important resource when farming for events and birthdays. Usually, if you’re aiming for higher rewards, like UR cards, finishing all the battles just 3 times each day won’t give you enough points to redeem your desired reward. That’s when you should use D-Energy. There are online calculators which tell you how much D-Energy, AP and DPs you’ll need to obtain your rewards. For example, something like this:

https://karasu-os.com/calculator/points

   So don’t waste D-Energy for just anything. Oh let me also add one more thing: you don’t even need D-Energy to restore battle chances. Yeah, you read that right. Then why save them?! Because if you don’t use D-Energy to restore battles, your only other option is using DPs. Which are used for so much other stuff. And should be saved and used sparingly. If you already have D-Energy, the game does not even give you an option to use DP instead. Now, how to get D-Energy? I have no clue. I just checked one day and saw I had 43 of them. Never noticed how I got them, since I didn’t even know what they are. But, I do know that events usually have them as rewards. Anything else besides that, sadly I do not know.

3) Buy the sales!  

    Remember when at point 1) I said you should save your devil points? Well this is one of the things you will be saving them up for. There are quite a lot of different sales going on in this game, but most of them are an easy skip. BUT, there are some which are extremly good deals and should always be bought. Don’t be like me, who was skipping them until I read somewhere that they are the best deals in the game T_T 

   One of the best sales is the Congratulatory sale, which gives you 5 DVs for 99 DPs. It is considered one of the best deals out there. It appears after every 3, or rather 5 levels, depending on your player level. I don’t know all the details of this sale, but there is more info about it somewhere online, I forgot where (try the Obey Me Reddit). Besides that one, there is Solomon’s Sale, which should also be bought whenever possible. Besides these, there is also a summoning flash sale. It appears sometimes after you wish in Nightmare (it can happen on any Nightmare, even Chapters A, M and G I believe). The Congratulatory is a much better deal than this one, but if you REALLY want DVs, then go ahead and get this one. For players on higher levels, where the Congratulatory sale is rare, I also think this is a nice alternative. The AP Flash Sale is really good, but I don’t think you should buy it whenever it pops up. This one appears when you spend all your AP and can happen once every 12 hours. Now, if you’re just playing lessons and going through the story, there is no point in spending precious DP for this. But, for events, when you lack AP to finish all your battles for that day, then this sale is the best deal out there. It restores 200AP for the cost of 10DP. Absolutely buy it.

4) Always have 10 Demon Vouchers ready for your birthday

    I haven’t experienced this myself yet, but there is a special event on the day of your birthday. Amongst many other things, you get to pull 10 cards in the Chapter A Nightmare. You will be using your own DVs, but with a twist: you are absolutely guaranteed to get a UR card amongst those 10 cards! That’s why all players always stack those 10 DVs for their special day. Quite a nice touch from the developers, if you ask me, to commemorate your birthday this way.

5) Get ready for character birthdays in advance!

    Okay, we covered your birthday. But, all the characters also have their birthdays and they are celebrated a bit differently than yours. All the characters get a special event for their birthday. The event offers many rewards, but the main one you’ll be going for is their new UR card. To get it, you need to unlock all battles (preferably on the first day) and then proceed to do all the battles for each day of the event. The birthday events usually last 5-7 days I believe. During this time, you will be spending quite a lot of AP and some D-Energy. If you don’t have enough of those, you will need DP to buy more of them. The online calculator given in point 2) can also be used when the birthdays come, to tell you how much of each resource you will need. So plan ahead accordingly. Besides the playable event, there is also a new Nightmare that has the birthday boy featured. Meaning, if you want to get a card of some specific character, wishing on their Birthday-Nightmare is your safest bet.  These events happen only once per yer for each character and if you miss out on the card, you can’t get it afterwards. At least, that’s how it used to be. Now, they also added the older birthday events into the mix: they start earlier than this year’s event and have a shorter duration than the regular birthday. So if you missed out, don’t panic, you can get it next year. The progress you got will also be saved, so next year you won’t have to start all over again. Which brings us to the next point. But before that, quick little tutorial on how to check when is a certain character’s birthday. Go to Majolish, switch to the desired character and in the top right, click on “Profile”. This opens their Student ID with some more information about a character, along with their birthday. This way you can plan for which character birthdays to save.

5) Progress on events is saved when the event re-runs/is added to Lonely Devil

     Pretty straightforward, all the progress you achieved on active events is saved, even after they finish. In case those events get a rerun (like the birthdays) or when they get added to Lonely Devil (LD), you will be able to pick up where you left off. LD is a system that allows you to replay old events. To access them, you will need to buy a ticket. One ticket costs 10 DPs. With this ticket, you can play the event for a limited time, usually, the duration is 4 days per ticket. This way, you don’t have to go all out on active events or spend cash to get the rewards in time. You can wait for the event to finish, and after a certain period of time (not sure how long, I think it’s about few months?) it will be added to LD. In the screenshot below, you can see that I have progress of 62% in the event “Dark”, even though I never joined this tour (0 times). Meaning, the progress I achieved while the event was live, was saved and transfered to LD.

6) Character clothes are actually easy to get! 

    When I first started playing and saw in Majolish that we can dress up the characters, for some reason I thought it’s some mega-giga-exclusive feature that costs a lot of time/money/effort. And sure, some outfits are harder to get and only were avaialble for a limited amount of time. BUT! That is not the case for all outfits. There are actually quite a few you can obtain from leveling up Devil Trees of SR and SSR cards. Leveling an SR card costs much less in Grimm and other resources than your typical UR card, so getting the outfits this way is actually really easy! Tutorial: the way you can check if you already own a card that has an outfit in it, is to go to majolish, go through each character and click on each of their outfits. They will show through which card the clothes are obtainable. You might find it that you already have some cards in your posession. Or that the cards are easy to get in Lonely Devil and require a low amount of points. Also, a nice little suprise for me was when I got my first outfit, Arabian Clothes for Mammon, and went to battle. After the battle finished, Mammon was the surprise guest and I saw him wear the new outfit I got him. I was in awe. I thought that they wore them only on your home screen. 

7) Set up a Transfer Password!

   This isn’t a gameplay related tip, but nonetheless, it is quite important! Preventing data loss might not sound so big when you start, but later into the game, it can be a huge deal. What this does, it lets you keep your data and progress in case your device stops working. If that happens, you can say goodbye to all your cards and Grimm and DVs, DPs, you name it. That’s why securing your data is of huge importance! Setting up the Transfer code and password, or conneting the game with Facebook is easy and takes just a few mintues. But it’s a life saver if unfortunate and unseen circuimstances occur. In case you lose access to your original device, you can just install Obey Me! on a new device, and choose the option “Transfer Data” from the starting screen, enter your code and password or connect to Facebook, and you’re ready to continue playing with ALL of you progress and cards saved! How cool is that?!    Quick tutorial on how to set all this up: click on the Cogwheel button in the top right corner of your in-game home screen. This opens the Options menu. Select Transfer Data. You can now set up a Transfer password or connect your game to Facebook. That’s it, you’re done. Also, feel free to contact me if you need help and assistance with setting this up.

8) What even are UR+ Cards that have moving pictures?!

    Here, I do not mean the cards that have Animation. I refer to the cards that can have a moving picture and have a little play arrow on the card. I didn’t quite understand what these moving pictures meant. Regardless, the cards had such beautiful style, I fell for them on first sight! I got three so far, “The Perfect Poker Face” Barbatos, “A Roll of the Dice” Lucifer and “Mammon’s Fortune” Mammon. Just after unlocking the moving pictures in the Devil Tree, did I understand what they are. These are not shown in battle. They are instead used as backgrounds for your specific character in Majolish. Example, you have a Barbatos Moving Picture card, you unlock the Moving Picture, then in Majolish you go to Barbatos and in the middle section, right next to the backgrounds tab, pick that moving picture. What this does, it gets rid of your character on screen, and instead shows the moving picture. The picture talks to you, just like any regular character on the home screen. It comes with new voice lines as well. I was surprised when I discovered this. I was so used to having my faves on the home screen, poking them and teasing them. I still prefer to have that over the moving pictures, but sometimes it’s a nice change.

Conclusion

     Whew! If you made it to here, congrats! This was really fun to write.I had the idea of writing this for so long, I am really glad it’s finally come to fruition. Thank you for sticking through the post with me. I hope you learned something new, or if you already knew it all, I salute you! You are a true professional Obey Me player!      This is my very first serious blog post here on tumblr. I would love to hear your thoughts! If you have any suggestions, advice, questions, corrections, please do not hesitate to tell me! I wish you all to have lots of fun playing and exploring the wonderful world of Obey Me!

[dramarising-replacement]

i cant be the only person to have been confused as a flight rising noob by the trading post, crossroads and auction house because of how misleading the names are (whaddya mean the trading post isn't for trading with other users and you don't bid on auction house sales????)

still noobish but im used to it now, still think about it from time to time though....................

[diablur]

It has been quite a while since I seriously played a new game. I mean, I do play games all the time, but other than Warcraft, I dont really play any of them with any sort of longevity in mind.

But that changed when I started watching some of the Diablo IV trailers and gameplay videos a few weeks ago.

I knew what Diablo is/was, but never played much of it. I miiiight have played 2-3 days of 3 last year when it went on sale, but that's really it.

But those videos caught my eye and I ended up downloading 4 last week. Since I'm as new to this series as you can be, I will be learning everything, and I mean everything, as I go

And thats what this is going to be, a noob learning to play Diablo from the ground up. Jumping into a game that has 25ish years of history and lore is probably going to be rough, but I guess I will find out.