#specifically because it achieved the goal of being enjoyable and easy to watch. like. its a kids show that isnt trying to have a new story

[be-good-to-bugs]

:)

[mewhiphand]

Drake analysis for his birthday!

Long post, part 1 of 2! Feel free to share your thoughts!

Drake analysis;

*WARNING : MAJOR spoilers for the Gone series and Monster series, discussions of child abuse, misogynistic mindsets, victim blaming, discussion of torture, sexual assault and rape*

This is a general analysis of Drake's character, focusing mostly on scenes from GONE and HUNGER (where he, arguably, has the most autonomy). If there any specific scenes or books you'd like me to take a look at, please let me know! :)

1| Pre-Coates Drake (overview)

Drake was already showing worrying signs, even before the FAYZ (and before he got sent to Coates); it's mentioned that he found enjoyment in microwaving a puppy and burning frogs. Either this was done covertly until the Holden incident, was done at Coates, or was ignored by his family (likely the former).

This tells us a couple of things:

A. His family may neglect or ignore him (or he ignores them)

Torturing these animals, a strange hobby as it is, does require time and commitment. This distance from his parents during his formative years could create antisocial tendencies and isolation from his 'loved ones'.

B. His sadistic tendencies developed before the death of his father and his mother's remarriage (more on that later).

However, Drake didn't start hurting people until he shot the "neighbour's kid, Holden" who "liked to come over and annoy him".

This short description gives us an insight into Drake's short leash on himself: his temper and impulses are hard to control, and he's aggravated to the point of almost committing murder at a young age (he was 14 in Gone, so this could have been at any age before then) - the book tells us that despite only being shot in the leg by Drake with a .22, "even then, he'd nearly died".

This was the incident that got Drake sent to Coates (a boarding school for mostly "rich", messed-up kids) - this could also clue us into how Drake didn't appear to be legally punished for shooting Holden, as his family might have been well-off (implying they'd rather just buy the victim's silence and ship Drake away rather than deal with his issues on their own, or get a private therapist - or perhaps they believe it's out of their hands?).

However, this is based on assumptions and not solid ground.

2 | Drake and his father.

Drake was taught to shoot by his father, a Highway Patrol lieutenant, using his service pistol. This formed an integral part of who he became, and they now had something in common -

"Don't shoot a person," his father had said. But then he relented, relieved no doubt to find something he could share with his disturbing son."

Despite his father being wary of Drake's early sadistic tendencies, he seemed to be the person that Drake was closest to, and his death affected him majorly. As perhaps the only person who even slightly understood him or sought to find something to do with him, his father's death appeared to be a pivotal moment for Drake - it signalled the end of any sense of a positive male role model in Drake's life, as his mother's next husband was abusive. This would cause him to seek out "strong", violent, dominant men when he was older.

The most likely timeline in my opinion is :

•Drake develops sadistic tendencies

•Drake's father dies

•Drake's mother remarries

•Drake shoots Holden and is sent to Coates

3 | Drake and his stepfather and mother

There is subtextual information that Drake is abused by his stepfather: "the beatings he'd suffered, and the much more numerous beating he had delivered, the pleasure he had found in burning frogs and microwaving a puppy and drawing all those endless loving pictures of weapons, spears, knives, torture devices, all of it, all the hatreds, all the burning lust, all the madness and rage.."

"But he was always a troubled boy. Especially after my son died. The stepfather...young Drake’s stepfather..." - Drake Merwin Sr to Connie temple

To digress :

This small passage in Plague and Sr's speech in Light gives us leagues of information.

Drake is drawn to things that cause pain, he's sickly fascinated with all kinds of weapons, "torture devices" (cleverly hinted at in Hunger, when he's watching Saw II), and the true depth of his emotions are revealed - along with a great deal of self-awareness.

Drake doesn't lack emotion - he's incredibly emotional. The things he does feel (rage, lust, joy) seem to be felt deeper, as if his lack of empathy amplifies the rest of his spectrum of emotions. Drake is also aware of what he feels - the "burning lust" mentioned is especially important to understanding Drake - the misogynistic hatred of Astrid and Diana stems from his apparent inability to distinguish between sexual attraction and causing pain (again, his sadistic desires)

The two are one, in Drake's mind.

[More on that later*]

But where did the misogynist mindset come from in the first place?

The answer lies in Drake's home life following the death of his father.

Drake's mother remarried - but his stepfather was an abusive man, leading to an incredibly toxic relationship. Drake, in his youth, already having the urge to hurt and kill, was exposed to that kind of extreme violence. Drake's stepfather beat his mother in front of him, and because his mother seemingly took actions to antagonise him enough to beat her, Drake (with the mindset of a child, who may have already seen it as a betrayal by his mother to remarry after his father's death)

concluded that she did it deliberately because she liked it.

This misconstruction and victim-blaming set in place a cycle of violence that would form Drake's victim-perpetrator mindset. [*]

It could also imply that Drake's mother's actions of irritating his stepfather directly impacted Drake himself: his stepfather took out his anger on his stepson, and beat Drake too.

This could stand to reason as another explanation why Drake's hatred of women developed - lacking positive female role models and maternal figures in his life led to distance from women, and led him to think that all women were intrinsically weak, irritating and masochistic in their desires.

(This would establish a sadistic-masochistic dynamic that Drake believed all woman [for some, like Astrid, secretly] wanted / partook in, and fuel the idea that women were weak and cowardly as his mother failed to protect him from her husband's violence.)

With a stunted, childish psyche, Drake lost sight of the real issue - the fact that his stepfather was abusive - and directed his anger at someone "safe" and "easy" to hate- his mother, whom he victim-blamed.

We can infer that Drake's childhood was filled with uncertainty and violence, and therefore he sought out control as a way to find a sense of stability in his life, and linked violence with strength and power - therefore, he won't recognise any authority that doesn't use violence as the main way to achieve its aims (hence why he's so gleeful when Caine "is lowered to his level" by using violence, and Drake himself only exercises power through shows of violence and using fear as a means of control - he has no sense of loyalty)

The build-up of resentment at his mother would explode, but not at its original target - at Drake's two known objects of sexual attraction in the FAYZ, Astrid and Diana [who will be addressed separately, as their treatments differ in some aspects. In this post I believe I'll only be addressing Diana, but if you want the full Astrid post comment I guess!]

4| Drake and Diana

A.

Drake fears humiliation - mainly, from the female population. In Gone, Drake comments on this :

"He felt a moment of panic then...He would look like a fool if he didn't get [Astrid]."

"Drake cursed and, again, for just a moment, felt the almost desperate fear of failing Caine. He wasn't worried what Caine would do to him - after all, Caine needed him- but he knew if he failed to carry out Caine's orders, Diana would laugh."

What Drake hates about Diana here is her ability to make him feel humiliated, weak, powerless, a failure - everything he's bound to have felt in his childhood when he couldn't protect his mother or himself against his stepfather. He craves the feeling of power over others, and loathes the feeling of helplessness. We can see that he's aware that Caine uses him and needs him to act as a threat, and he accepts this for now, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing him, but his real fear is being publicly seen as weak and being laughed at, which drives him to do anything to succeed in Caine's eyes and, in his own words, "wipe the smirk off Diana's face"

B.

"Drake had made time to check out Diana's psych file the day after the FAYZ came. But her file had been missing by then. In its place she had left Drake's file lying open on the doc's desk and drawn a little smiley face beside the word "sadist".

Drake had already hated her. But after that, hating Diana had become a full-time occupation."

Diana humiliates Drake, and gains power over him by knowing information about his mental state. Drake, who had the same idea to gain power over Diana, is infuriated and his hatred of her, once a burning ember, is now a raging volcano. We can see that Drake doesn't fear that Diana will hurt him psychically, but emotionally by provoking and humiliating him.

C.

"To Drake's disgust, Caine accepted Diana's back-talk."

Diana has power over Caine that Drake can't hope to accomplish, due to the fact that Caine is attracted to her. Caine's desire of Diana outweighs any loyalty or comradeship he has with Drake. Diana also uses Caine's want for her as a failsafe protection against Drake.

Drake's misogyny shines through here: he sees the fact that Diana is manipulating Caine, and sees how he tolerates it. Drake realises that Diana can get away with much more than Drake himself can - she has more power over Caine than Drake does. And this power, in Drake's eyes, isn't "earned" as it wasn't gained through violence.

Drake disregards any kind of power that isn't earned through pain - this also shows in his hatred of freaks, who he sees as not having "earned" the right to be powerful, and explains his glee at, yes,suffering the pain of his arm being burnt off, but it being replaced by something that enables him to cause pain to others - like a reward for enduring the pain. Drake wants his suffering to mean something, and to gain something from it. Drake wants to be important.

"Go ahead, raise a hand against me, Drake," Diana taunted. "Caine would kill you."

We see another example where Diana uses the threat of Caine to keep Drake in line.

Diana is described as attractive throughout the books by varying characters, and so we infer that Drake finds her attractive, but in his twisted, misognyistic mindset, this is translated to violence. Additionally, he already disliked her so his hatred for Diana is stronger than for any other girl in the FAYZ (even Astrid).

5| Drake and Caine

The foreshadowing of Drake's betrayal

We've established that Drake lacks any sense of loyalty and trust due to a lack of these in his own childhood. Drake also only sees respect as being earned by shows of violence and dominance.

Drake, lacking positive male role models, appears to latch on to Caine, the "most ruthless" of all the boys at Coates, and the most powerful (in a literal sense, with his telekinesis). Caine is mentioned to do small favours for Drake (but, crucially, plays Drake and Diana off against each other [*]), and seemingly gains Drake's initial respect.

Drake, however, seeks to usurp Caine (due to his hatred of freaks, and needing to have a sense of superiority. He also sees Caine as weak and below him for bowing to Diana's demands due to Caine being attracted to her.)

When the Coates trio is first introduced together, in Gone, - "Drake Merwin stood smirking, arms across his chest, on Caine's left, and Diana Ladris watched the crowd from Caine's right"

I'm perhaps guilty of looking too much into this initial description, but I find it interesting - despite being Caine's "right-hand man" and even Drake taunts Diana that he and Caine are "like brothers" (Hunger), Drake stands on his left and Diana on his right.

While this also serves to cement (haha) Caine's role as the 'Fearless Leader', it could also foreshadow Drake's betrayal later in Hunger, and his need to "run the show".

Drake, the Judas figure to Caine's christ [maybe a post on this at some point?*], stands on his left. It also marks Diana as the loyal follower, the one to stay with Caine until the end.

The decimation of Drake and Caine's relations ship culminates in the final events of HUNGER, when Drake almost kills Diana and Caine throws Drake down the mineshaft in revenge and anger.

This marks a shift to Drake's character - he's no longer under Caine's control - but emphasises that his loyalty is now fully to the Gaiaphage, whom he worships for giving him power over others [!!] (the whip hand, which grants him the ability to hurt and kill others, and in LIES, immorality)

We can see that what Drake actually craves is, in GONE: to run things himself, a personal anarchist dream where he can hurt anyone he wants, (and yet he needs a strong male figure behind the scenes to give him motivation), or the illusion of control, found in causing others pain, as he lacks the mental stability and leadership needed to be in control, and he lacks long-term goals beyond revenge and fulfilling his sadistic desires, and is rudderless without a leader (as seen in Monster, where he is "mindlessly killing, torturing and raping anyone he comes across" until he is sought out by Tom Peaks, who gives him motivation)

This is supported by Peaks' comment on this in VILLAIN -

"But along with the sneers, he sensed that Drake was looking for leadership. Drake had no plan, never would have any plan, beyond his next murder."

Drake and his hatred of freaks, and how this impacts his relationship with Caine -

"Drake hated the power. There was only one reason why Caine and not Drake was running the show: Caine's powers."

"But Caine understood that the kids with powers had to be controlled. And once Caine and Diana had all the freaks under control, what was to stop Drake from using his own nine millimetres of magic to take it all for himself?"

Drake always planned to usurp Caine, as he thinks he's too influenced by Diana and due to his hatred of freaks. Drake hates anyone having power over him, and Caine's abilities give him a unique advantage, which Drake loathes.

Caine and Drake - altercations before the betrayal and what they show

"She was your mother and she gave you up and kept Sam?" Drake said, laughing in his enjoyment of Caine's humiliation.

Drake's sadism shines through and he turns entirely reckless in tormenting Caine, his desire to see Caine humiliated outweighing any fear he has of him. For Drake, fulfilling these sadistic urges take precedence over everything - even fear, pain, rage. We can see that he seems to not know when to stop, or chooses to push people past their limits anyways.

Caine responds in physical violence, the language Drake seems to understand - "Something slammed Drake's chest. It was like being hit by a truck. He was lifted off his feet and thrown against the wall."

Drake refuses to be humiliated (in front of Diana, curiously) - "He made himself shake it off. He wanted to jump up and go for Caine, finish him quick before the freak could hit him again. But Caine was there, looming over him, face red, teeth bared, looking like a mad dog."

"Remember who's the boss, Drake," Caine said, his voice low, guttural, like it was coming from an animal."

"Drake nodded, beaten. For now."

This small passage gives us a lot of messages about Drake. He wants to appear strong and vicious, but plays it smart and backs down to avoid the risk of Caine actually killing him. Drake and Caine's dynamic is, crucially, a power struggle at its heart.

However, Drake doesn't give up - he's admirably resilient and persistent in chasing his goals of revenge, and "winning" the power struggle against Caine. He does, at least in GONE, possess a good amount of intelligence and foresight.

Caine (and Diana) being aware of Drake's psychopathy

Caine :

"Drake is a violent, disturbed boy." - Caine to Sam, the gym scene in GONE.

Caine knows of Drake's afflictions, but keeps him around as a lackey to do his dirty work. He also considers himself morally superior to Drake - he remarks that at least he doesn't "get off" on what he does.

Hypocritically, Caine does not see his own actions as being just as damaging, but this is due to his overinflated ego and delusions of grandeur - he believes the ends he wants justifies the means he uses.

Diana :

"Drake is sick in the head. I'm not saying that just to scare you, I'm saying it because it's true...Drake is flat out sick in the head. He could kill her, Sam" - Diana to Sam, the gym scene in GONE.

"Well, that's why we keep Drake around. He enjoys hurting people." - Diana to Astrid, classroom scene in GONE.

Diana shares a similar opinion to Caine - he's mentally unhinged, but Diana recognises the threat he poses to both her and to Caine, and wants him gone.

6| Drake and dominance & submission

A.

"Drake moved past Diana and kicked Sam onto his back, legs twisted beneath him. Drake stood over him and pushed the end of his hat against Sam's Adam's apple. The same move he had used on Orc the night before."

We see that Drake is physically strong, despite his unassuming stature - he's described as "lean". He has been in enough fights and has enough experience to take down people at least "fifty pounds" heavier than him (Orc). He also puts these people into humiliating, submissive positions where they have no choice but to capitulate to his demands.

B.

He speaks to Astrid in LIGHT about this -

"Are you as clueless as the rest of them, Astrid? It’s simple. Here it is, here’s the answer, Astrid the Genius: it’s fun to hurt people. It’s such…it’s such joy, Astrid. Such joy realizing that all the power is yours, and all the fear and pain is right there, in your victim. Come on, smart girl, you know what it’s called. You know the word for it. Come on, say it.’ He cupped his hand to his ear, waiting for the word.

'Evil,’ Astrid said.

Drake laughed, threw up his hand wide, and nodded his head. 'Evil! There you go. Good for you. Evil. It’s in all of us. You know that, too. It was in you. I saw it in your eyes as you looked down on me in that cooler. Evil, hah. We all want to have someone powerless beneath us while we stand over them.’ His voice had grown husky. 'We all want that. We all want that.’

One thing that stands out about Drake's character is that he likes to believe that everyone, at some level, has the same desires he does: Drake is just "strong" enough to act on them.

Drake likes to antagonise people to 'bring them down to his level'.

In this speech, Drake reveals a lot about himself.

"it's fun to hurt people" ,in particular, keys us in to the fact that Drake is self-aware, and making Astrid call him "evil" is part of this: Drake knows what he's doing is morally wrong. Drake wants people to think that he is evil, that he's ruthless, that he's nothing but a sadistic murderer, because he doesn't want to reveal his true vulnerability and helplessness.

He calls out the hypocrisy of Astrid for seemingly reveling in his pain and still condemning him for the desires over which he has no control. [This is not to say that I believe he is right for acting on them; the urges he can't control, but he can control his actions]. This is Drake's make me your villain speech. His final cry for help, in a way.

He wants everyone to be like him. He wants to not be judged, he aches for the confirmation that he is not alone in wanting power and vengeance and pain.

"We all want to have someone powerless beneath us while we stand over them." - Drake's experience of the roles being reversed, and the victim-perpetrator cycle show through here. Drake seeks power because he was denied it.

It is paradoxical in that, arguably, he wouldn't be like this if people hadn't punished him for things he couldn't control (involuntary sadistic impulses), and it is sad that we realise he could have been so much more, had circumstances been different.

Drake is a dark mirror of every dark thought we ever have. He, horrifyingly so, reflects the human urge to inflict pain as revenge. Drake's story is a cautionary tale. Many can relate to his harsh childhood, and Drake reminds us that no matter how much pain is inflicted on us, we bear the weight of not continuing that cycle onto others. That is the curse of being good. That is the curse of being human. That is the curse of empathy.

C.

Crucifixion - in MONSTER, it is revealed that Drake has been 'alive' for years, and we find out in VILLAIN that he resides in a cave in the desert along with 3 bodies - 2 female, one male, people he recently tortured. He crucified them with "railroad spikes" and left them to hang from the bones of their wrists. We can see that Drake leaves them in humiliating positions deliberately - "The only thing better would be to have Sam nailed to the opposite wall, forced to watch it all. To see Astrid degraded as Sam watched? He could not imagine anything better."

This is an example of his psychosexual development being warped - he associates sex with violence and power. He tortures and degrades his victims as a way to fulfil his sexual and sadistic urges.

7| Drake and Orc as foils

Drake and Orc first oppose each other in the early chapters of GONE - Drake is given power over Orc by Caine - "Drake and his people, including Captain Orc.."

This establishes a hierarchy within the "sherrifs". Drake leads them, but ultimately defers to Caine - (and, he is given power over others at Caine's will.)

Orc, like Drake, had a traumatic childhood and was abused by his father, and his "dumb dishrag" mother does nothing to stop it (she herself is abused by her husband, and rebukes Charles for wanting to kill his father.)

Both Orc and Drake blame their mothers for failing to stop the abuse of their husbands (and their father and step-father in Drake's case).

This is an interesting comparison, as it cements (haha) both Orc and Drake as bullies with short tempers who need to have control, each with a shrewd, conniving friend who effectively "leads" them.

Also, for the most part in the books, they're the only characters with physical mutations (both resulting from physical injury!) and turn their backs on the shrewd friend at some point (Drake and Caine becoming enemies, Orc finding faith and becoming distanced from Howard's crimes).

The fight between them at the start of GONE is a clever foreshadow to their battle at the end of GONE (and, of course, their long-lasting rivalry) and provides a comparison between the two.

They butt heads when Orc is ordered to defer to Drake when Caine is giving out roles, and Caine handles it by crushing a boy with a cross - but no physical altercation happens until Orc punishes Bette for "doing magic tricks".

The anti-freak agenda (ironic, considering they both end up gaining mutations, at similar points too!) of both Drake and Orc is pointed out, but Orc is almost painted as a "lesser evil" - as if Orc may be a garden-variety bully, but Drake is pure, distilled essence of evil.

"Orc...went for Drake like a linebacker. Drake stepped aside, nimble as a matador."

"Drake hit Orc in the ribs with a short, sharp forward thrust of the bat. Then again in the kidneys and again in the side of the head. Each blow was measured, accurate, effective."

Drake is the quick and nimble to Orc's sluggishness, the playfulness to Orc's sullen demeanour. He is "lean" where Orc is "wide" - their battle at the end is described as "their quick-and-slow, nimble-and-heavy, sharp-and-dull battle".

This is a perfectly well written description in my opinion - succinct, and perfectly accurate of them.

The main differences, however, are their personal views on their mutations, and their arcs.

Orc thinks he's a monster - he knows he is physically repulsive, and detests himself. He feels immense guilt over the pain he caused, and seeks to redeem himself through finding faith and asking for forgiveness from God.

Drake, in contrast, adores the power that his mutation gives him. He even describes himself as "Jesus with a whip". His mutation, in Drake's eyes, gives him control over others and he relishes in this.

Drake feels no remorse over the pain he causes, and doesn't desire redemption.

His God-figure is the Gaiaphage, whom he eventually betrays as he desires personal revenge on Astrid and Diana and cannot cope with Gaia being female due to his misogynistic views.

However, Drake and Orc share an interesting scene in Plague with Astrid - Orc seeks out Astrid with the intent to hurt her (it is implied to be sexual violence) and is interrupted by Drake arriving at Coates with his army of bugs. Drake picks up on Orc's intentions.

Drake confesses to Orc that he had the same idea.

"You think she'll give you a big, wet kiss on your gravel face?" He peered closer at Orc as if looking inside him. "Nah, Orc, the only way you get Astrid is the same way I get her. And that's what you were thinking, isn't it?"

[ushijimas-koibito]

omg hi i saw your matchups and i also wanna try if you dont mind!! izzoke if u won't do it i respect your decision <3 i'm a virgo and an INTJ. im known for being a heartbreaker towards admirers but vv nice to people. im good at dancing and love exercising but not too extreme bc of my asthma. im quite mature for my age bc of how i act or think. im that mom friend who controls the chaos but people still protect and baby me from everything. i may not be super affectionate and not the first to initiate in things but i absolutely adore hugs and compliments!! again, it's up to you to do my req and i still respect your decision ❤️

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thank you so much for your interest in a matchup! this one took me a minute because i think you would be compatible with a few of the guys. i hope you enjoy who i’ve matched you with! 

i would match you with: sugawara koushi!

suga is a gemini which isn’t typically very compatible with virgo; however, his personality would ensure balance. although he is a gemini, he is surprisingly decisive and sure of what he wants. suga works very hard to achieve his goals and desires. he’s willing to make sacrifices and he is a good listener; this satisfies your intj alignment. intj’s (like myself) are no bullsh*t kind of people and tend to not entertain people who’s heads stay in the clouds. suga is one of those rare geminis who is able to experience and appreciate being grounded and logical as well as being hopeful and dreamy; i feel like this would push you out of your comfort zone and his sunshine disposition would encourage you to dream bigger; like your hopes and curiosities would be validated with him and the impossible seems possible. suga would always be there to catch you if you start to doubt yourself, constantly encouraging you and making you feel safe and sure enough to run after your goals full speed.

sugawara would be very respectful of your boundaries and would be communicative of his emotions. he wouldn’t leave room for teasing, doubt, or questioning when it came to confessing or showing his love. he is so kind and understanding while also making his intentions clear; he would want the same from you. 

suga loves watching you dance. he is always quick to praise and give very specific compliments. he loves to watch the lines of your body, the curve of your waist, the arch of your back, the graceful lines of your arms. he finds it fascinating that something could make him feel so much. he is already a pretty expressive and emotional person but watching you dance does something to his soul.

he is also very attuned to your needs. he can tell when you’re overdoing it. he always keeps a spare inhaler on him at all times and frequently checks in with water and encouragement. 

suga appreciates your maturity and matches it. he is an old soul with an air of authority. on the team, he’s the “mom” friend too and having you as a partner really validates his role. he takes care of you but also devoutly believes you are very capable of taking care of anything that comes your way. he admires your resilience and always waits until you ask or prompt him to jump in and help.

suga is very affectionate but not in very obvious ways. he holds the door open, places his hand on the small of your back to guide you through crowds, gently and absentmindedly reaches for you to give you little strokes of affirmation and to check in. he loves hugs and is really good at giving them. he’s the kind of person to hug with his whole body. he is very aware of when you do and do not want to be touched and seems to know the perfect way to initiate touch. 

one of suga’s main ways of showing love is through words of affirmation. communication is very important to him and he is constantly finding ways to improve. he doesn’t always compliment you in obvious ways but they are always meaningful and intentional. 

sugawara is gentle, kind, and affirming. he is constantly striving to be the best version of himself. he tries to see the world realistically but his natural sense of optimism is contagious and bleeds out into everything he does. 

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a little shiver runs down your spine as a spring breeze blows. it is early in the morning but you promised suga you would meet him after morning practice and before class. campus was surprisingly lovely in the spring. you didn’t mind the early walk. you stopped briefly at the convenience store to get some drinks for you and sugawara. you kept on your way to campus and stopped a little ways from the gym for a moment to admire the scene before you. there he was in the morning light surrounded by the boys who love him; his little family. suga is sitting on the rails and daichi leans between his legs with his shirt pulled up to expose his shoulder and torso. suga is carefully placing icyhot strips on daichi’s back. ashahi is watching as suga explains how he’s laying them and why. tanka and noya are scampering back and forth snapping their t-shirts at each other and pretending to be pirates. “if you two would pay attention, you could help each other and not have to wait for me.” suga scolds them without looking up from his work. “but suga, it’s not as good unless you do it,” noya whines. “you guys act like i’m your mother.” suga grumbles. the boys look at each other, “are you implying that you’re not?” ennoshita teases him. the boys erupt into laughter. you giggle too. suga looks up from his work to see you, “think you can take it from here, asahi?” suga hands asahi the icy hot strips, “i can do my best,” asahi says nervously as daichi stretches his arm across his chest. 

“well, hello, beautiful,” suga jogs over to you and kisses your forehead, “have a nice walk this morning?” he looks you over and smiles. “yeah! i brought you something,” you hand him the drink. he smiles and hugs you, “thank you so much! that’s very thoughtful, sweetheart.” he takes a swig and a cool breeze ruffles his hair. “bit chilly isn’t it?” he takes off his jacket and drapes it over your shoulders. he likes the way you look in his jacket. it’s his version of pda. he doesn’t wrap you in his arms around his body, but that jacket, that jacket is just as good in his mind. you both walk away from the gym towards the soccer field. you each sit on a nearby bench. suga looks at you for a long moment and tucks your hair behind your ear, “you look beautiful today.” you blush, “thank you,” you say softly. you each sit in the quiet and enjoy the early morning fresh air. 

it’s quite simple; being with him is uncomplicated and easy. he reaches out occasionally and brushes your hair out of your face or touches your hand, adjusts the jacket on your shoulder, little ways he finds to come into contact with you. its subtle to any onlookers but it means very much to you. he does these little things naturally, without really thinking. his nurturing nature influences his every move. 

you reach out a hand and hold his. his breath catches in his throat and a smile spreads across his face. you reached out and that means so much to him. he knows you. he understands you. there are no corny lines. no cheese; just sweet, uncomplicated quiet bliss. he breathes in deeply and scoots closer to you, “how nice it is to be here with you, my love.” he plants a kiss on top of your head and you lean into him. it is nice. you could stay like that forever.

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writing for suga was very hard for me for some reason. i hope this is still enjoyable. 

thanks again!

[rigelmejo]

i’ve been watching Handsome Siblings on netflix only in chinese to just like. see where i’m at.

and now that i’m on ep 4 it would feel kind of weird to suddenly switch back to english subs ok, for one.

but anyway like general level-wise: i am pretty much at where i can follow a lot of the gist of scenes even if i don’t pause to translate - but then i’m going to be relying on visual context a lot more. which is fine, it means i can go watch a show with no english subs to rely on Ever and at least follow along.

i do notice that if i PAUSE, i can catch the specifics of a lot more scenes. There’s a scene where the two princess sisters are talking to their nephew (who is a spitting image of Jiang Feng), and then after he leaves - discussing telling him to go take a mission to kill Xiao Yu’er, and then when he leaves the two princesses discuss their plan. I paused over and over after EVERY line that episode, because I really wanted to know the specifics of what they were saying. A lot of lines I could read, and there were a lot of one-words-in-a-sentence i had to look up for a more precise understanding. Same with a scene later in the town said-nephew and his girl kickass companions go to - i could follow the gist, but paused after some lines (and looked up a couple words) for more specific details. 

I will say that the more characters you learn, the easier life is. Really! The more characters I know, the easier my gist-guess is right, the easier remembering new words (made up of known characters) is, and looking up new words is VASTLY easier because I know their pinyin and can look them up faster than drawing. 

If you’re going to do this: I’d still recommend using googletranslate to look up multiple characters you don’t know/phrases, since you can draw and easily get the correct result looked up. I’d recommend pleco if you know the pinyin, or if its a single word (because pleco’s definitions are more thorough and explanatory than googletranslate’s), or if it might be an idiom. 

I would recommend that if you like watching stuff on the computer, to get the learn-with-netflix dual subtitle add on, and just click your subtitles for a definition on-the-video-itself instead of needing to open an app like me. 

---

I am immensely excited and happy that I can watch a chinese show with no english and follow the gist now. That is a huge amount of progress for me compared with August 2019 when I started (and only knew ‘ni hao/wo hen hao’ and the numbers ;w; ). I am so proud of where I’ve gotten to. I definitely think really focusing on increasing known frequent words helps a lot. (Also, reading a grammar guide - grammar is again becoming understandable, so idk my brain is just acclimating again i guess). I’m going to keep focusing on frequent words, and the 2,000 most common characters, for a while and hopefully eventually this payoff will translate to reading as well.

If you DO happen to want to try watching a chinese show without english and testing yourself/studying, I have some mild recommendations you might take into consideration. 

1. If it’s too difficult, do it a little, then come back to it in a few weeks, repeat. This task really only gets enjoyable once you understand enough to be ‘comfortable’ with the remaining ambiguity you still don’t comprehend. That is going to be different for different people. I am comfortable with a pretty high amount of ambiguity/lack of understanding, so I can at least try to watch even stuff-i-barely-grasp at least a little for practice until my brain feels fried. But I’ve been trying this for months... its only NOW that my brain feels relatively okay just watching without pausing, without feeling Completely overwhelmed. And if you do intend to watch without pausing much, you’ll have some degree of not-understanding-everything. Likewise, if you plan to pause the show (and how much you plan to pause it) should be tolerable for you as well. If you have to pause everything, understand everything - do you know enough words to do that in a timely enough manner to get THROUGH an episode? If it takes you a long time, are you willing to intensively focus and look things up that entire time? Basically - what is your tradeoff between you being able to pause and focus intensively on looking things up, versus you being able to watch without pausing and interpret from the words you know/context only. Whatever balance is most enjoyable/bearable for you is when this will start being something that’s easier to do regularly, instead of only occasionally as practice. At least, that’s how it was for me. I’m only finally at  a point where I can do this regularly - before I could only do this for maybe 10-20 minute chunks of time occasionally. 

2. Pick a genre of show/material you are going to engage in frequently. If you’re ALWAYS watching case-type shows, those words and those scenes will be more familiar to you and easier for you to interpret from context and with less looking things up. If you try this with a wildly different kind of show, you may know MANY less words and many scenes may be harder for you to comprehend the gist of. I watch a TON of case type shows so they’re very easy for me to see and pick up words I’m familiar with, single out the parts that are ‘important explanation’ versus ‘some crowd saying unimportant WOW oh No how Horrible’ type lines. So i can cherry pick important things to pause and look up words for, and guess at what kind of line i’m trying to interpret (i can guess if it’s about a case, an emotional discussion, a simple ‘lets do X’ statement etc - because i’m familiar with the plot type). In a similar vein - an easier show/material to do this with, may well be a show you’ve already watched in your native language/with your native language. For all the same reasons - you will be much more familiar with the context. I could in theory watch Guardian again (which i’ve rewatched... a lot) and I would probably follow the plot very easily. But I like a challenge too much apparently, and I’d rather practice with things I can’t fall-back on my existing knowledge for as much. A show I’ve never seen has much less I can rely on for context, BUT the trade off is I can really clearly test how well i’m comprehending the plot and lines - because they are all completely new to me, so I either comprehend or I clearly do not understand what’s going on/obviously misinterpret. So it’s a very quick way for me to see if I’m achieving anything or not. Whereas if I was watching a show I already saw, I might learn new words noticably, but I wouldn’t be able to tell if I’m getting better at understanding overall plot with no english to rely on (since I already saw it before with english).

3. If you’re like me - maybe pick a show either heavy on action, or heavy on daily life. While I am familiar with case-type shows... I generally think (for me) they’re harder to follow when your existing vocab knowledge isn’t high enough to follow it... They’re big on mysteries, on plots that are actually not what they appear, and surprises. They’re big on ‘strategies’ and I find for myself, strategies are kind of hard to follow when I know less words. In contrast: if you pick a daily-life type show, you’re more likely to either know the words or NEED to know the words at some point because they’ll be useful to you. And the scenes should be relatively easy to comprehend visually even when you don’t know the words. (My caveat being - if you want the language specifically FOR understanding certain genres, by all means go for the topics you’ll actually be using - if you’re gonna read a ton of wuxia, or case-stuff etc, then go for stuff you’ll Actually Use which might well be THEM). For me... my end goal is to be able to read creative fiction, so wuxia settings and fantastical settings and mystery-words and period-words are all things I better get used to. So I haven’t really watched much daily-life stuff (although there are daily-life scenes WITHIN a lot of dramas, and I do think they’re some of the easiest scenes to follow and comprehend). 

Now, why might you pick an action-heavy show: easy to comprehend. Especially if you often watch action-oriented stuff already. The first chinese show I watched a whole episode of in only-chinese (it’s first episode, so that’s when i figured out the entire show’s set up) was The Shaw Eleven Lang (I really wanted more of Zhu Yilong’s acting in my life okay?). I DID in fact, manage to follow the plot. Without pausing much, because I was just watching it with dinner. What made it easier to follow was SO MUCH of the dialogue was really straightforward - stuff like ‘i want that sword’ or ‘i hate you’ or ‘lets eat and drink together to celebrate’ or ‘you need to go save/kill x’ or ‘do you think i’m pretty’ etc. So much of the dialogue was NOT schemes/plots/mysteries, it was really straightforward ‘we are doing X, we like Y, we hate Z’. Which for me are the sentence types I find the easiest to understand, and especially found the easiest at that point in time. In addition, because the show has so much action, often the dialogue is accompanied by action scenes that make it pretty freaking CLEAR what their objective is/what they just said. Yes, there are still plenty of unknown words to look up if you want to pause - but it should be obvious enough that you might have a decent guess at what they mean before you look them up (I had to look up words like sword, princess, clan leader, but those were pretty clear even beforehand from the context of the scenes). After I watched the first ep (which i don’t think i could even find english subs for), I watched the second ep with eng subs to see if i’d interpreted the plot correctly so far - i had. It felt pretty motivating to get through 40 minute episodes without much pausing, and know I’d followed along. I think, at least if you’re already an action-show/movie watcher, action series are going to be a relatively approachable thing to try watching in just your target language. (Another positive is a lot of verbs as commands lines, in context, so for me it’s easier to pick up new verbs, and those kind of lines are very easy to pick up in context - also lines like ‘xiao xin’ be careful, bubi, meiguanshi, danxin, ni fangxin, etc - all these short lines that are easy to understand in the context they often come up in).

 (Also, do I recommend The Shaw Eleven Lang? Well... I need to go back to watching it but uh... it’s definitely AN EXPERIENCE... with wild fighter-game-tetsuya-nomura-would-be-proud kind of costume designs, wild af scenes so far, and uh as far as i can tell Zhu Yilong’s on point to play a pretty crazy bastard in it... also there’s a LOT of genuinely kickass girls and kickass main women, which i appreciate, i believe also the main women are all 30+ which is refreshing in general in any-show tbh. also just... everyone in the show is kickass... that’s the point... its a lot like to me, if a absolutely Wild fighting game got a budget for a full drama and just went wild on the plot - very fun to watch, very bizarre... not particularly deep but like, did you play Square enix’s The Bouncer on ps2 for a Good Plot or for an absolutely wild bizarre Time? This show is like the game The Bouncer... just freaking Wild conceptually). 

And now, I am watching Handsome Siblings, and managing to get through episodes with only a little pausing for when I want to figure out specifics. It is also very action-scene heavy. At least for me, that’s been making it a lot easier to follow the gist of. There’s scenes where robbers attack - and even if I don’t know every line, its easy to figure out the gist of what’s being said. There’s scenes where people fight - again, very easy to follow. The parts I’ve been pausing the most on are the sisters plotting, because I feel that’s probably the most intensive-mystery in this plot so far, and because I want to make sure I interpret the details correctly when they’re mentioning them (since I think they’ll play out more in the plot later). I think the fact this show is Action-Heavy is making it tremendously easier for me to follow then like... me trying to watch Nirvana in Fire would be. The very straightforward action scenes are much easier to follow using visual context, at least for me, compared to dialogue heavy scenes where the vocabulary is not going to be emphazised with visuals nearly as much. (Another bonus of Handsome Siblings, at least so far, is the dialogue heavy scenes ARE accompanied by visual flashbacks to EXPLAIN the dialogue). Another bonus for Handsome Siblings: the writing seems very straightforward and decently paced. You don’t have to wait long for new scenes, for new developments, and that means a lot of dialogue and action is doing something right away and has a lot of context you immediately see result in something else. For me that just makes it... approachable and understandable in the kind of way like... movies like The Mummy were paced, or Indiana Jones, or Independence Day... do you know what I mean? It’s fun to watch even if you couldn’t understand, and the structure makes it quite comprehensible again even if you heard no dialogue at all. So for me, at least, it makes the balance of ‘ease of watching versus patience to look things up slowly’ much easier. Because its ease of watching is pretty high even for scenes where actual words-you-know isn’t high, so you can save looking-things-up for only when you WANT to, not necessarily as something you need to constantly do just to catch the gist. 

---

I tried reading again - I tried reading the novel for the Sleuth of Ming Dynasty. It was BRUTAL because I apparently know NO dynasty-royalty-govt related words (which really explains why Men With Swords political scenes I know so few words lol). I got through 10 out of 39 ‘small’ pages on my phone for the first chapter. I think I managed to follow it, the grammar thankfully was really straightforward and I imagine the original author is quite talented. The difficulty was in the very common use of turns of phrase and idioms for so many parts of sentences, which were all new ‘words/phrases’ i’d never seen before.

[friedmanjake]

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[thornewoodhospitalblog]

It can be absolutely daunting to log on and just stare blankly at an empty post. It’s quite a struggle, but have no fear! The Bee Sisters are here! There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and you will come out the other side. Okay, I’ll stop with the cheesy metaphors now. Read on for common causes relating to the loss of muse and how to revive inspiration by falling in love with your character again.

Problem 1: Stressful Personal Life One of the most common factors of lost muse is a stressful personal life. If work or home life has suddenly become unmanageable, it can cause writing to feel like a chore. 

Solution: We’ve all been through it and a brief hiatus in this circumstance can actually be pretty useful as they often give you time to take a step back and think about how you want your character to return to the RP. You know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder! Take the time to relax, write a list about what you want to bring to the overall plot of the RP and how your character can facilitate that goal and get hyped up about returning.

Problem 2: Loss of Direction Similarly, it can become very easy to lose all sense of direction with your character and get wrapped up in going with the flow with no big development occurring. 

Solution: This is a good time to take a step back, reread your character’s bio and reevaluate your character and their existing connections. Tap back into your initial inspiration for where your character came from and think about what may have gotten lost or has been on hold for too long. What were your original aspirations for your character? How does your character specifically fit into the overarching plot of Thornewood? What does this character bring that advances Thornewood’s story?

For instance, if your character’s bio states they’re a go-getter and strive for achievement but haven’t quite achieved anything since arriving at Thornewood, perhaps it’s time for your character to earn a promotion or be downgraded from the red/yellow floor to the yellow/green floor. We know going backwards isn’t intuitive, but sometimes it’s important to look back in order to go forward. Looking back can provide inspiration for a plot revolving around a new characteristic or a developing skill could result in further character development for a more exciting and adventurous route.

Problem 3: Lack of Connections  A big issue with writing in a growing group is that as new writers and characters come in, it can feel as though your character is getting lost in the crowd. It’s absolutely essential you continue to put your character out there to be heard! Solution:  Open starters (we have a post all about intriguing open starters, posted here) are the best way to do this! Read the other characters bios and if you see one that your character may gel well with (or, it might even be more exciting if they don’t get along) and you have an idea for a plot (this part is really important!! Come to the table with at least some idea!), message them privately and pitch your ideas! We are extremely lucky to have a wonderful and friendly group of writers here so please don’t be worried or afraid to build those connections!

Problem 4: Undeveloped Character Development Bear with me on this one. You applied with a bio that, at the time, felt strong and you had a lot of muse for but as you got to threading and creating connections and plots, your character still feels…the same. Unmoved. Unchanged by their environment. Don’t stress! It happens, I’ve done it! 

Solution: Now its pivotal for you to go back to your character bio and pick out one part that you know you’ve lost or would like to improve upon. Now, journal, self-para, create mood boards, take mun/muse quizzes or personality tests for your character, fill in an IC all about me, create a playlist of songs that relate to your character. Work on them from the ground up. Strip them back and find the parts that make them unique. (I will be adding some character development quizzes to the main if you find these helpful.) But, the aim here is for you to basically rebuild your muse from where it first began but with a refreshed perspective.

Problem 5: It’s Been Awhile There are many reasons why you may have taken a hiatus, and rightfully so, but now you’ve been away for so long that jumping back in sort of feels like a huge leap. The dash has moved, events have unfolded and everyone seems to be in the midst of a big plot. 

Solution: Before returning, set up a group chat with the mods and we will fill you in on everything that may have occurred in your absence. In the midst of this conversation, you can absolutely plot with us about how your character should return! We enjoy helping when we can and ensure a smooth transition back into Thornewood. Don’t let yourself suffer in silence! Communication is key!

Problem 6: Striving for Perfection  I know first hand how it feels to be in the middle of writing an important plot that you are incredibly proud of and want to be good and entertaining enough that the other writers in the group are interested in reading it, buuuuut there’s a fine line between writing well and wanting to write well that your ambition ends up scaring off your muse. Now, to be clear, we’re not saying don’t try to write the absolute best can! Please, do! Push yourself! However, we’d like to caution you that an unhealthy amount of pressure on yourself will kill muse.

Solution: If you’re staring at your reply and pulling your hair out, hit that little “save draft” button and walk away. I’m serious. Close your laptop, make yourself a drink and take a deep breath, or even move onto another thread you have. I’ll often give myself 45 minutes to an hour and then come back to the original thread. At that point, it’s like a fresh pair of eyes going over what you had before and you’ll suddenly see the mistakes and your second draft will be 100% better.

Problem 7: Insufficient Communication Okay, this one here is a biggie and I need you to know one thing before I start, when we say communication is key, we mean it. I can’t tell you the amount of times I have watched people lose all their muse because they are not communicating honestly and effectively with their RP partners. 

Solution: If the plot you created isn’t working anymore, tell them. If they’re all over the place and rarely on, meaning you can’t write with them, discuss it with them. If you feel you’re being disrespected or not listened to, talk to them openly and honestly. (If you’ve done this and are still having issues, please report such a thing to the mods as this is something we can deal with). If god-modding (you didn’t previously approve), meta-knowledge or meta-disrespect has taken place, report it to the mods immediately. This destroys all love for writing and your plots and can make for a tense and hostile environment which is not something tolerated here at Thornewood. Communication with your partners and mods is incredibly important.

Conclusion: If you got this far, wow! Thank you! Gold star for you, if there’s one thing this bee does well, it’s ramble. This guide has come from a very honest place because recently I have been struggling with a loss of muse and through writing this, I’ve used my own tips to bring it back. If you take anything away from this, let it be this:

Hiatuses are a-okay and a lot of the time, necessary. Please don’t lose sight of the fact that this is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable space and lastly, the mods are here to help, guide and support you in anyway we can. We are only a message away.

[kbrown78]

Monthly Wrap Up: July

July didn't quite go how I planned it to. First, there was my families vacation to South Carolina. I brought several books with my because I thought I would just be able to crank out within a few days, but our stay was much shorter than usual and even during traveling I wasn't able to read as much for various reasons (fear of planes and driving in the dark). So in that time frame I was only able to complete 3 books, which was good but nowhere near what I was hoping. Than work started getting busy, and I had to deal with some graduate school stuff, so I didn't have as much time for reading. That all being said I was still able to complete 10 books, most of which were good and I gave 3 or 4 stars to (there were a few notable exceptions), and accomplished various reading goals, like completing the Reading Frenzy's Runaway with the Circus Readathon (which consisted of 6 prompts) and did my classic of the month. I will also say this month had a huge variety of books, both in the genre and status, and while I still definitely gravitate toward adult fantasy, I feel like picking up books outside of my preferred genre is becoming easier as I end up liking more and more of those selections. To summarize, despite not getting to all the books I wanted to and the three 1 star reads, this month was really solid and I definitely found some books that I could add to my favorites of the year.  

Morning Star by Pierce Brown: Darrow must complete the mission of the Sons of Ares, to break the chains of Society, but the events of the previous book have completely changed things. With dwindling resources and allies, Darrow and the Sons of Ares make a final stand against the tyranny of the Sovereign and the Jackal. Upon rereading this book, I'm definitely glad that Brown is continuing the series because I don't think this works well as a finale. When I read the last book in the series, I want to feel that full emotional impact and want a sense of resolution from the ending. I'm not saying everything needs to be completely fixed, I like having a few loose threads, but this ending leaves me with such a sense of uncertainty that I almost feel anxious, which is not something I want from a finale. My biggest issue with this book was probably the pacing of the book, and how everything was just rushed so it could be crammed into one last book. I know there's a lot that this book had a ton it needed to cover, and without a doubt one of this series strongest feature is its action, but something was off and this seemed to produce a ripple effect that tainted other elements of this book. The stakes didn't feel as high, despite the fact that they were potentially world ending stakes. Characters arcs were incomplete, with only Darrow and Sevro having really progressed in any way (and even then I have mixed feelings about Darrow's arc), and romances were really forced into the narrative with little chemistry between the couples. New characters that were added in honestly had little impact. There was, however, 1 major highlight of this book, and really the whole series. That was the villain, The Jackal. As a villain, he is terrific. He's terrifying, amoral, cunning, and deceptive. He isn't a fighter, but that's what makes him so dangerous, because he knows how to get others to do the fighting so that all opponents underestimate him. His petty grievances against his family, and self worth issues make him human, but he is anything but humane. He's honestly one of the best villains, ever. Morning Star was a fun, enjoyable read, but it really lacked the development that it needed to elevate and complete it, and as a finale it really is disappointing. Morning Star received 3 out 5 stars and for the Circus Readathon was my pick for the Flyer prompt “a book set in space.”      

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys: When I completed Sepetys novel Salt to the Sea, I loved it so much that I decided to read the rest of her books. I took this one with me when I went on vacation because I would be in South Carolina, and since this book is set in the south I thought it would be the perfect time to read it. This is a historical fiction set in New Orleans during the 1950s. Josie is the daughter of a prostitute with big dreams of leaving behind all the prejudice and brothel that she has grown up in and starting fresh with a college education from a prestigious college. I admit I had high standards going into this one because of Salt to the Sea, and while Out of the Easy wasn't as good, I still liked it. There were a few hiccups however. This narrative lacked direction at times, to the point where things just stalled, with no action or quiet moments. I also didn't like the romance. It wasn't awful but very predictable and just didn't have enough substance or development, especially when compared to almost every other relationship. The one other thing I struggled with was the setting itself. The writing just didn't convey the vibrancy of New Orleans, which is shame because New Orleans has such a colorful reputation. Most of these complaints, however, were minor and this book managed to pull of a really solid, more mature narrative without being depressing. Characters were the highlight of this book because all of them had a life like quality to them, but the best one was probably Josie. Watching as various relationships shape who she is, working hard to achieve her dreams, and having to tackle disappointments and harsh realities made her She's definitely a flawed individual, but I think that at least makes her relateable and sympathetic. Still not as good as Salt to the Sea, but a decent good and one of the better historical fiction novels that I've read. Out of the Easy received 4 out 5 stars.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang: Since I was going on vacation, I just wanted a nice quick read, and I tend to overall like short story collections. I wasn't sure what I expected going into this, I think I was hoping for something like Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie anthology, but that wasn't what this collection was. It was exclusively science fiction stories (though there were a couple stories that blurred the lines) but the most surprising aspect was definitely how many hard SF stories there were, which is a sub genre I'm not comfortable with yet. Those stories were definitely my least favorite because not only did I disliked what they focused on, physics theorems and mathematical proofs (which I've always struggled with) but also from a writing stand point these stories were the weakest. There were several issues present in most of the stories (weak endings, cold tone, impersonal characters, and disjointed narratives) but they were just really all present and emphasized in the 2 hard SF stories (Story of Your Life and Division by Zero). On the bright side, there was some very good stories that I really loved that I think nailed everything a short story should be. My favorite 2 stories were Tower of Babylon and Seventy Two Letters, both of which would get 5 stars. The individual stories get mixed reviews from me, ranging from poor 1 star, to average 3 star, to excellent 5 star, and despite the fact that execution felt weak in most of the stories, most of the stories at least had some interesting themes. Overall thought it was a decent collection and I'm glad I read it, but I wish I had known it would be just SF stories. As a whole, Stories of Your Life and Others received 3 out 5 stars.    

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle: This is classic fantasy story that somehow managed to stay under my radar until a couple years ago. I honestly didn't expect much out of it, but at the very least it would be a quick, easy read, with a simple premise of the last unicorn going on a quest to find the rest of her kind. After completing this one, it actually managed to exceed my expectations. It definitely hit all the beats of a classic fantasy: a long quest, medieval European setting and myths, wicked king, magic and prophecy. There's a lot of elements about the book that could make me dislike it, because I have struggled with several epic fantasy novels in just this past year. The difference is that The Last Unicorn is significantly shorter than the other books, and that is without a doubt what makes it work for me. Instead of dragging the story out as long as possible to make it seem grand and epic (because everyone's trying to emulate Tolkien), Beagle gets right to the point and keeps everything at a smaller scale. This pays off because almost every scene feels worthwhile and I'm actually invested in the characters, who were all interesting and well written. Even things I would normally irritate me, I thought was well done. Specifically the prophecy aspects of the narrative. Prophecies are so overused, and rarely done well, they usually make the story feel cheap. In The Last Unicorn, the prophecy wasn't a fundamental part of the story, but it did add layers and the way it played out was done in such a poetic way that it really was a satisfying addition to the narrative. There were also some great themes in this story, in fact the whole thing felt like a mystical allegory for growing up, and I personally love finding good coming of age narratives. There was a lot about this novel that just worked for me and I thought was well executed, but there were a few missteps. Most were minor, like one filler scene (that was a bit weird), and the juxtaposition of modern pop culture reference being present in a medieval setting, but the biggest issue I had was the ending. It was a vague and just felt like I was missing something (though I can't pin point exactly what), but the ending definitely dropped the rating a little. All in all this was a solid fantasy that stands the test of time, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good stand alone fantasy novel. The Last Unicorn received 4 out 5 stars and was one of the books I read for the Reading Frenzy's “Runaway with the Circus” Readathon.          

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini: Long books can be a struggle to get through, especially if you become increasingly frustrated with the story, and oh boy was that the case for this one. Over 700 pages, and I'd say about 600 of those pages was just filler. Most of the story was dedicated to sub plots which I think were supposed to add to the characters and the world  (like the Dwarves electing a new king) and the only events that tied the book to the rest of the series was at the very beginning and end of the book, which makes the entire book feel unnecessary. To add insult to injury, this tome of a book was almost exclusively in the POV of people I didn't care about. Eragon was annoying at first, but now he's just bland because his purpose in this book seemed to just be a mouth piece to spew exposition. There's also the detail of him having made allegiances to everyone he comes in contact with, and while this could have been an interesting plot point and character flaw (since everyone points out that he's basically spread himself to thin) nothing really comes of it. Roran got a lot more screen time in this book, and I hated his POV in the second book and I disliked it even more in this one, because he doesn't do anything and doesn't deserve all the leadership he gets. He's basically a discount Eragon, his chapters were so grating that I just started skipping them all together. The ultimate slap in the face though, was the removal of Nausada's POV. She's my favorite character, by far, the most complex, and I really felt her absence. In general I was so disconnected from the story and the characters, that after days of finishing it I honestly don't remember most of what happened. It sucks because not only was this a favorite series of mine as a child, but also because I see glimpses of potential for this series to be elevated for adult audiences but nothing is done with it. I'll read the last book at some point, just to finish the series, but I'm in no rush to get to what will probably another disappointing tome. Brisingr received 1 out 5 of stars.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: For a little over a year I've wanted to read this book. Granted it's a mystery which falls out of my usual genre, but it was receiving enough attention to make me curious. Almost immediately I had issues with this book, and those issues stretch through the entire narrative. First is the writing style. Larsson (or at least the translator, since this was originally published in Sweden) seems to use a very dry style, utilizing the precise words that are needed. I have a history of disliking books with a dry style and this one was no exception. The result was that I was honestly bored, felt like I was reading a lot of filler that focused on what exactly everyone looked like and what they were doing, and just in general very detached from the narrative. The other part of this book that was off putting for me was the sexuality and sexual violence. Like this is definitely a novel I would only recommend for an adult audience. I already knew there was going to be a rape scene with Salander, but there was more than just that, which I was not expecting. It just builds up, from the male protagonist constantly having casual sex, to the way men regard Salander, to Salander being explicitly raped twice, then a missing person case turning into a hunt for a sexual sadist with a trail of bodies. It was so bleak and really turned me off from the narrative. Combining the writing style and sex, and I ended up skimming the majority of the book, because every time I tried to fully read, I just felt worn down. Speaking of which the mystery narrative wasn't that good. I've seen worse but I wasn't invested in this one at all, there were some notable holes in it, and toward the end it was pretty obvious who was the killer. I wasn't invested in the characters because they basically felt like archetypes that I either disliked or had seen way too many times, although Salander did manage to have a few shining moments. Basically there was nothing that I liked about this story: the tone, the writing, the violence, the characters, and the story itself. I personally would recommend just watching the movie if you're curious about this one, since I could see it potentially being better in movie format. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo received 1 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompts: “set in Scandinavia,” “published post humously,” and “features an amateur detective.”

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: The only reason I read this book is because I wanted to knock out some challenge reads. I didn't expect to love this one, it's not in a genre I gravitate towards and Rowell's books strike me as a mix between John Green and Nicholas Sparks novels, neither of which I have any interest reading. However, this novel fulfilled 2 prompts, so I really needed to get this one done. Honestly, this one felt like I was reading fanfiction. The writing was choppy and juvenile, the dialouge was awkward and unnatural, the characters were card board cutouts made from a collection of cliques, there was no chemistry with the romance (love interest was a bit of creep at times), and whenever there was a plot it was melodramatic moments that the author was trying to force. Even though this was supposed to be a coming of age book, with the protagonist going off to college, and being in a fandom (with the fictional fandom being a blatantly gay Harry Potter), it delivered on none of that. If you want a good book on fandoms, with a well written protagonist with social anxiety, I would skip this book and just read Eliza and Her Monsters. Everything about this book was lazy and awkward and was even uncomfortable at moments, and I'm just glad I got it over with quickly. Fangirl received 1 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompts: “set on a college campus” and “author whose 1st and last name start with the same letter.”

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss: This book was in a word, fun. All this book wanted to do was tell a fun story, and I think it delivered on that. The whole story focuses on Mary Jekyll as she discovers that her late father was part of a secret organization of scientists that might be connected to a recent string of murders in London. Along the way she meets several other women in the same predicament as her, and together they work to stop the mysterious Society of Alchemists before it's too late.  Loved how the whole book is just a nod to several iconic literary figures, especially of Victorian Literature, but it really focuses on the females and the effect that their “fathers” had on them. The way the book was written, as a sort of memoir with each of the girls adding in their own commentary, worked well because it gave us some insight to each of their personalities as well as making slight commentary on the Victorian Era. Surprisingly I also liked how the mystery was handled, because that's usually where a story comes crashing down for me. I think that's because it took it's time to develop and arise naturally, kept the stakes relatively small, and set the groundwork for a series long conflict. I thought Mary was a pretty good protagonist, a practical minded leader and good hearted individual. While the book keeps the plot simple, which worked, its also kept most of the characters simple, which did not entirely work. For most of the girls, and even other side characters, I felt like they weren't developed much outside of their original context. Which meant that I didn't feel much attachment to them, nor did I get a feel for their inner dynamics, which is rather important for group based stories. Granted the book didn't suffer too much from it and we have the whole just of the series to further develop them. In my opinion this book is ultimately just a fluffy story that's great for reading slumps. The Strange Case of the Alchemists Daughter received 4 out of stars and was my pick for the Circus prompt “Cotton Candy: a fluffy and light hearted read.”

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff: Hyped books always make me skeptical, because more often than not I've been burned by them. Initially I got this one as a gift for my sister because it seemed like the type of book she would enjoy, but I was intrigued because of all the praise it had been receiving. If the premise of this book sounds familiar, a young girl training to take revenge on a corrupt government that executed her family, that's because it is. At the start this book does feel just like a copy of Arya Stark's narrative, and even the rest of the story features overused tropes that I don't like (Mean Girl and Mean Teacher) but I think everything else about this book makes up for that. The world was really interesting, a blend of various real world time periods and cultures but injected a healthy amount of fantastical elements. Loved the Red Church and the various classes, aka Halls, because you actually get to see what the acolytes learn and how it would be useful. “Truths” was definitely my favorite because that was the class with poisons and chemicals. I also appreciate the fact that while this definitely is an adult fantasy, and has dark and grim elements, it never steps over the line of being bleak to an absurd degree like a lot of fantasy (adult and YA) currently is, which is nice because I hate grimdark books. Characters were all interesting to say the least because while each was unique, with their own quirks and motivations, they all have a cut throat streak to them since all are either assassins or training to be assassins. While I did like Mia and found her to be an excellent protagonist, she wasn't actually my favorite character, which speaks to how good the side characters were. All the relationships in this book were artfully done and really tugged on my emotions. Like I wanted to trust others and for true friendships to be developed, only for the rug to be ripped from under me and those relationships only to end in death or betrayal. Even liked the romance, which is saying something because it's hard for to find a romance I think works well (still didn't need the sex scenes though). As for the plot, I've already stated that there were some tropes and the story did drag at times, but overall I liked the story. I liked seeing the various twists and turns that it took, I thought the flashbacks were well utilized, all the pieces just clicked together, and by the end of the story I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation. There's also a matter of the footnotes, which I know some people don't like, but I personally liked them because of how they added world building but also conveyed the narrators wit. This book wasn't super original, but everything about this book was really solid and I honestly loved it. I'm eager to see where the rest of the series goes. Nevernight received 4.5 out 5 stars, and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “religious setting,” and for the Circus Readthon prompts: “Big Top” (red, white, black colors on cover), “Grandstand” (hyped book), and “Ringmaster” (first book in a series).    

The Art of War by Sun Tzu: Over the years, I've read a variety of books. Mostly fiction, mostly fantasy but I've also read plenty of non fiction and classics, yet this one is really isn't like any other book I've read. A blend of classical writing and non fiction, above all it's a book on military tactics. While the concept is good, and I did find this insightful, I don't read books that focus on military. It's such a dry, technical form of writing that I struggle to visualize and can't connect with, and as a result I just tend to glaze over battle scenes, even in fiction novels that I'm really liking. I also didn't like how the supplemental notes and translations were placed within the book, to the point where the writing felt very choppy, and I honestly struggled with getting through the last 50 or so pages. On that note, I think Art of War is an interesting read, that illuminates the delicate relationship between peace and war, and does make the subject of military strategy approachable and understandable, but the subject still isn't something up my alley, and there were times I was just bored when reading it (both due to the subject and the writing itself). The Art of War received 3 out 5 stars and was my classic read of the month.  

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

[allhailbolas]

What are you looking for?

When thinking about commander's philosophy, we identified that one of the most important things when sitting down for a game is making sure that each player can get the experience they're looking for. For that to work, we have to know what we ourself are looking for. Identifying our goals and the anticipated experience can be quite tricky but we'll try to tackle it here.

There are many motivations for playing magic. To break them down and analyze them, we'll look into the main psychographics, as described by Mark Rosewater here:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/timmy-johnny-and-spike-revisited-2006-03-20-2

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/vorthos-and-mel-2015-08-31

The psychographics

The basic breakdown is into Txmmy, Jxnny, and Spike on the motivation side, and Mel and Vorthos on the appreciation side; the three original psychographics are about why you play, and the other two about in which way you enjoy the game's aesthetics.

Txmmys want to experience something, they are looking for fun and enjoyment, which can be found in hilarious and big, swingy plays. They want to see fun interactions in the game and between the players. They embrace variance and randomness, going with the flow of the game and the hands they're dealt.

Jxnnys are looking for a way to express themselves. Expression can be about cleverness, creativity, personality, and uniqueness. Jxnnys love deckbuilding, potentially even more than playing. Their decks can be very thematic and weird, including unusual cards and subtle synergies that (hopefully) no-one has ever thought of before them. Convoluted combos are their jam, as are constraining themes and exploring out-of-the-box ideas.

And then there is Spike. Spikes want to prove themselves, which is mainly done by winning. They are very self-critical and judge their own abilities, which is why others' recognition of their skill is important for Spikes. Spikes can enjoy analytics; figuring out what is good and why it is good. Evaluating cards and decks and tuning lists to make them as efficient as possible. Some are always trying to improve their own play-/deckbuilding skills.

Vorthos enjoys the flavor of the game. Names, types, artwork, flavor text, and characters are what is aesthetically pleasing to Vorthoses. Flavor is beauty to them, beauty which can be found in decks and gameplay.

For Mels, beauty is found in magic's mechanics. Interactions between cards, rules and different lines on the same card are like multiple tiny gears in a big machine. Mels love observing these machines and enjoy its functionality and intricacies. When the machine is running smoothly with all parts fitting together, Mels are happy.

All of these psychographics are compatible. It's best to imagine all of them as traits of a player's personality, with each trait varying in degree of intensity.

Armed with knowledge of these traits, one can now try to identify one's own influences and the goals they lead towards:

Mel and Vorthos are not influential when it comes to gameplay, but rather big factors when building a deck. Remember, commander as a format encourages themes and embraces flavor, and that's an area where Mel&Vorthos's fancies are tickled.

If you enjoy building your deck around characters, stories, artworks and similar, you show strong aspects of Vorthos.

If mechanical interactions and constraining themes based on game elements intrigue you, your Mel trait is showing.

I believe Txmmy and Jxnny are self-explanatory when it comes to figuring out how these traits are influencing you in gameplay and deckbuilding. You just have to ask yourself: What kind of expression am I seeking and what do I find most enjoyable?

But now, let's talk about the elephant in the room, Spike.

Being spiky is a pretty controversial trait when talking about commander. As we concluded last week, commander is, contrary to most other formats, about more than winning. In tournament formats, you can be 100% spiky and this won't be problematic, as this formats' goal is to win the game so you won't be scorned for trying as hard as you can to achieve this goal. But commander is different; it has a social spirit. We described a game in line with this spirit as:

‘All players are actively working together to create a game in which each of them can meaningfully participate and everyone gets to experience what they were looking for so, in the end, each player had fun and can take away a lasting, enjoyable memory’

For this to work, we have to answer the question of which sought-after experiences are compatible and what can take away from compatibility.

Compatibility

The first thing that comes to mind is, that all psychographics need a certain environment to get what they're looking for.

Txmmy can want fun/big plays, swingy games, high variance, huge numbers, crazy turns and similar. These can be enabled by expensive cards, lots of mana, multiple amplifying effects, chaos inducing cards, and large board states. This can only happen if there is enough time to deploy these and the game goes late enough to play expensive spells. Additionally, there need to be enough resources available for Txmmy. Ending the game very early and taking resources away from other players, which can already start in the form of playing lots of removal, prevents Txmmy from calling the game a success. Another thing that Txmmy hates is feeling bored. If you have ONE big combo turn that takes a long time or if you take many turns in a row while others have to watch, Txmmys will be annoyed by the time monopoly you created. The same is true if you prevent Txmmys from doing anything that can advance the game, by locking them out of the game and denying them the ability to participate. On the other hand, if you make plays and play cards that will make the game more fun or chaotic and enable new game states that are unique and interesting, you can make Txmmys at your table happy.

Jxnnys are about expressing themselves and want an environment where that is possible. In general, that can be similar to Txmmys’ needs, as Jxnnys who like convoluted combos with many pieces need time to have a chance of assembling them. But mostly, they want you to notice and recognize what they're expressing. The smart synergies in their deck, the constraining theme that they could make work, the unusual card that had a surprisingly high impact on the game. What they need is other players who are interested in more than their own deck and plays and are open to new things and weird choices. It's devastating to them if you tell them that their choices are bad and that they should be playing other things, because by saying such things you show them that you didn't notice what they were expressing, or even worse, don't care. Jxnnys are happy if you ask them about their choices and reasons, appreciate and acknowledge when their deck works, and it's very satisfying for them if they can show you something new and you show your appreciation for that. The tricky thing is, that it is very unusual for magic players to not care about winning at all. Most players want to at least have a realistic chance to win the game. Jxnnys can handicap their ability to win the game by a lot, because for them expression comes first. So for them to still have a shot they need others to play decks which are not too strong, too consistent or have a focus that is on something else than winning as well.

And Spikes? What Spikes need is players who have at least a similar degree of spikyness, so that the competition is tough for them and they won't get handed an easy win. If your main, and highly dominant, trait is spikyness, you want to win, at any cost. This can be problematic when playing with people who are less spiky than you are because they have different motivations which make them make decisions that are at odds with maximizing the ability to win the game. If your only focus is on winning, you'll make decisions in deckbuilding and playing which will destroy the environment that Txmmy and Jxnny need.

Therefore, the experience’s characteristics that players are looking for can be:

variety

entertainment

social interaction

participation

competition

With the premise, that every player has aspects of all the psychographics' traits, but with different degrees of intensity, everyone is at least a little bit of a Txmmy, Jxnny, Mel, Vorthos and also Spike. The intensity of the Txmmy, Jxnny, Mel, and Vorthos traits can be ignored, as their goals are compatible without much trouble; in the end, the one thing we need to focus on when trying to achieve compatibility is the degree of spikyness in a player.

The less spiky you are, the more willing you'll be to make decisions that'll make you lose win-percentage to enable other goals, and the more you will agree with the statement:

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do it.

At the top of spikyness are players who are unwilling to compromise and try to win above all else. Descending from there, more and more other factors and motivations are added, and players are freely giving away more and more percentage points because winning matters less to them.

This can be in many ways:

-Including cards in your deck because they are fun or you personally like them (pet cards) although more efficient or powerful options are available

-Constraining your deckbuilding by sticking to a theme that you enjoy building around rather than just optimizing your deck to be as powerful as possible

-Avoiding certain cards because they are too good and make winning 'too easy' or 'too boring' and could lead to repetitive gameplay

-Making a play that is not the best one available, but one you find fun and enjoyable

These, along with similar things, are all decisions based on personal factors that decrease win-percentage. But thinking of the format's spirit that we established, one can freely give away win percentage as well, because one is empathic and cares about the other players. You might avoid certain cards because they don't lead to the environment that other players need or are actively unfun to play against. You might not play certain styles of decks because you know that others won't enjoy playing against them. You might not make a specific play because it will make someone unhappy, although it might be the best play available. Understanding these interpersonal reasons to give away win-percentage is the secret to successfully embracing the format's spirit.

You have to be willing to diminish your own ability to win the game, to enable others to enjoy the game. That’s what the pre-game communication is for. It's for figuring out if all players are willing to lessen their own ability to win the game by a similar amount, to enable the other players' enjoyment, to avoid an imbalance of experiences.

So if someone asks 'What is your deck's power level?' or 'How long do you want this game to go?' or 'How competitive is your deck?' what they are actually looking for is the answer to the question 'How much do you want to win, and to what degree will you be able to compromise about that?'. If that is the question that we're actually trying to get an answer to, maybe we should change how we approach pre-game communication. Why not actively ask others how strongly they want to win and if they are willing and able to adjust that based on how you and the other players answer this question. The big problem here is that the abstract concept of degree of spikyness is hard to put into words or numbers. I would advocate for a different approach. Try to explain, what needs to happen for you to enjoy the game and see it as a success. For example, do you want to: Make as many tokens as possible? Cast an X-spell for a large amount? Surprise someone with an unusual effect? Assemble a specific synergy? Draw lots of cards? Use a particular card in your deck? Show of some flavorful cards? Make political deals, maybe betray someone? Or would you just like to win?

The thing is, that empathy is really hard and so is figuring out what others really want, so make it easier for everyone and just tell them what you're looking for.

I hope we all are now able to identify our own motivations and sought-after experience, are aware of potential problems with compatibility and know how to communicate these motivations before a game.

[me-on-set]

Harrowingly Strange

When was the last time you had to face a moral dilemma? I am still reeling. I actually just got home. I think I invented a new selfie style. I wanted to take a photo of my makeup on and off.

As I currently write this, I am not an actor but instead have been doing background work for the past year. I've occasionally been a featured extra and was a body double once.

It's fascinating, seeing and doing the work that embodies being on set.

A couple of days ago, I received a message from a casting agency that had my headshot asking to submit my photo for a featured non-speaking role with a local production company. It was a one or two day shoot at $200 per day. I said yes and I got the gig.

When you are cast, you get an email the night before with details about the set location, start time, special instructions, and wardrobe. This show I booked was for a reenactment TV series about real world events. The exciting news was that this particular episode revolved around a crisis that occurred in my parents' homeland. I was to play someone at home seeing the news on television, and then in a second scene complain to police of their incompetence. I was asked to bring leisure clothing one would wear at home.

When I first started being an extra, I would bring my clothes in a backpack, trying really hard not to care too much. That behavior did not last. I found my interest stumbling forward into a natural evolution. I started taking luggage to neatly carry my wardrobe options. I found that I would mostly get cast as a mid-30's businessman. This led me to comfortably bring my outfits in a garment bag. It's funny how familiarity can grow your views.

For today, I packed shorts, sweatpants, t-shirts, a hoodie, a pair of runners, and a pair of flip flops. I got these flip flops during my last vacation with my mom overseas in her hometown. I also brought some henley shirts and arrived on set in khakis and a short-sleeved polo because there was also a mention of button-ups being an option.

The majority of work involved as an extra is waiting. It's a good idea to bring a book, although in this day and age, occupying oneself with a smart phone is a much more fulfilling time killer. I didn't end up using any of the clothes I had brought except for my belt and my runners. After my hair and makeup were done I decided to satisfy my curiosity by searching keywords of this specific production. I searched the name of the character I was to reenact. Adding quotations to strict strings of words, I had soon discovered the event I was going to portray. This was when my moral dilemma began.

I was born and raised in North America by immigrant parents who arrived in their early 20's. The typical experiences had by people of color paint a relatively positive mural that represents my upbringing. Having visited my ethnic country many times throughout my life, I felt, and still feel, a deep connection to the motherland. This connection is common for others like myself, powered by identity in a time where life will sometimes present it as a limitation. Conversely, this only strengthens cultural pride.

The role I was to play was an international representing their countrymen against the very country I identify with. Pangs of uneasiness flooded my body. There was another featured role performer who had an earlier call time. We sat together in the holding area. He was cast to play the part of a family member learning the news of the event. What surprised me more was the fact that he was a recent immigrant from my country of ethnicity. Us both, cast in roles of coincidental conflict of interest?

When it comes to acting, the only other time I recall having feelings of apprehension was during a big budget movie filmed in a church. I was a church goer among a sea of church goers seated in church pews. We were instructed to portray the enjoyment of a church service. Some of us were selected to stand and sway to the Christian music. Some had their eyes closed, head tilted to the ceiling, palms facing up to the heavens. As easy a physical task that is, I instead opted to clap along to the band and pretend to really feel the sounds of my favorite music. I know it's just acting but I was driven by the thought of my mom seeing me do anything other than that on camera. So, I coursed the music through my veins. I know the history of the band members, the albums, this music moves me, pretend.

I received my paperwork and read it over a cup of coffee from craft services. It was standard paperwork that I've filled out over a dozen times before. I looked at the inviting exit door. I was parked right outside. This is not that big of a deal, is it? I imagined this TV episode making its way to the news overseas, the citizens all over the world deeming me a traitor for perpetuating a negative image, not merely through action but through representation against them. Against us. Am I selling out? For two hundred bucks?

I thought about getting up and leaving. I thought about all of the hard work that people have put into this specific production. If you haven't been behind the scenes before, it is quite the trip. An assortment of heavy duty cables line the floors, taped in place. Racks of props in designated areas. The backstage crew zip around in sync, bursting with walkie-talkie sounds and hollers of instruction. There is a commonality in the many interactions, their minds tuned into the goal meant to be achieved. This is their career.

This is my hobby. I am a prop. Would leaving this put a blemish on my record in the local film community, or the film industry as a whole, because I wasted everyone's time being sensitive? As I languished, I get a message from my best friend and I tell him I'm on set. I tell him:

For some reason, that makes me feel better. I just might be able to work with that mentality. The other guy has finished. He returns his wardrobe and collects his belongings. I ask him if he knows what this show is about. We speak in our language among the English-speakers. I ask him if he thinks people back home are going to be mad at us. I ask him if he knew we were going to be doing this. He seems ok with it all. He said he was there during the actual event. He's new to the industry. We laugh about how we can pass as different races. This is his first time being on camera. He said he enjoyed the experience. I ask him if he'll continue. He said yes. I hope he does.

Finally, wardrobe is set and I am wearing a navy blue golf shirt and some gray slacks. I want to feel good, like the other times I've worked. How can I get that feeling? They're calling me on set. They adjust the lighting while I sit in front of the camera. A fog machine fills the mock living room belonging to my character. When the camera rolls, there is a fake TV in front of me that I am to watch casually at first and then grow increasingly interested as the live footage I am pretending to watch unfolds. I am supposed to build up into a frustration with the host country. My country. As I understand it, the real guy is being interviewed and I am the reenactment; the illustration of his side of the story. I do the scene. Twice. Filming took less than 5 minutes total. The whole time I was thinking about my mom. I can remember it still, a few hours ago today, the director describing the gradual transpiring of the footage to guide me. To help me see a reason to be frustrated on camera. It wasn't helping. It's not his fault. I don't think it's anyone's fault. I don't think they even knew why I would be uncomfortable. I don't think they knew much about the countries involved in the event. They even spelled the city name wrong. I don't even think the takes were that bad.

I wish it wasn't about my country. If it were different, I feel like I could have given more - like I had done at the church.

It's unsettling to perform make-believe, but for myself I have managed to apply a mental exercise that immerses me into a character; to actually be the person. The trick is to relate. To tie the emotion to a real memory and relive it. If it had only been about another country, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the process a lot more.

I'm writing this and I was hoping it would help me shake away this dread. Thoughts of regret imagining if I had only researched the keywords sooner. Maybe I would have cancelled. But that wouldn't have been better. I would be blacklisted and never cast as another role again. Or maybe I'm being dramatic. Hey, that's good for this line of work, right?

I honestly hope the final cut looks great. This is the biggest role I've ever been in. They gelled my hair funny like a nerd, I had on large framed glasses, just like the portrayed, and they put makeup on my upper lip to hide my dark, clean-shaven stubble.

When I got home, before I washed my makeup off, I took a before and after mirror selfie because my face looked comedically smooth. Taking the pictures reminded me of when I was sipping coffee in the holding area. I had taken pictures of my paperwork. I remember my mind racing. The feeling was like gathering license plates and insurance information after a collision. You know, just in case I have to stand trial, my cultural membership in jeopardy. I can review my situation with a lawyer to see what I can and can not say during a variety show interview that is getting my side of the story after viral, captioned screenshots of me flood the internet with embarrassing memes, stamped into history. Jesus Christ, that would be the worst. Here I go again with extreme maybes. It's an entertaining curse that I will forever be engulfed in my own hypothetical torture.

Anyway, here's that selfie I invented:

Yeah my bathroom mirrors are dirty.

I can't wait for my next job that I can cleanse my palate with. I really hope I can accept today as purely an actor's portrayal, and not a turncoat betrayal. This can't be my last go at acting. I ate some of my country's food for supper. I feel a bit better. I'm wearing a shirt that is emblazoned with our country's sports hero.

I have always been excited to see the final release of a production I am in, except for this one now. Uncontrollably, my perverse curiosity into the film world is only strengthening, so I don't think even the worst thoughts can slow my future participation. The silver lining is that the uncomfortable bar is set to a new level. I could reenact a murderous deviant now without batting a moral eyelash, I like to think. All for the sake of film.

- WSS, February 8, 2019

[jessyrayder]

A Comprehensive Guide on Building a Video Streaming App like Netflix

Netflix is now attracting TV viewers from all over the world. What is the secret to such fervour? Multiple service packages provide easy access to a plethora of TV shows, movies, original shows, and documentaries. While people become addicted to Netflix’s video streaming services, businesses are going above and beyond to create similar apps like Netflix with additional features that can beat the Netflix fever.

Here are some interesting Netflix facts and statistics:

Netflix’s audience accounts for 40% of all internet traffic worldwide.

Netflix accounts for 8% of all binge-watching time in the world.

Netflix’s streaming revenue in the United States will be around $7215 by the end of 2020.

The Business Model of Netflix

Netflix discovers that its subscribers own multiple interconnected digital devices and can watch their favourite shows on any of them at any time. Furthermore, having a separate subscription for each member of a family makes no sense. Given that Netflix has four subscription plans, each with its own set of features. These plans specify which devices users can use to watch videos on and how many members can stream at the same time under a single subscription.

The mobile plan allows you to watch SD videos on a single mobile/tablet device.

The basic plan allows you to watch SD videos on any device at the same time.

The standard plan allows you to watch HD videos on two devices at the same time.

The premium plan allows you to watch HD videos on up to four screens at the same time.

Netflix serves three business segments: domestic DVD, domestic streaming, and international streaming. Netflix began with a domestic DVD model and gradually transitioned to video streaming. Domestic streaming generates the most video of the three models. However, since 2018, this video streaming app has begun to focus on the global market by producing and providing country-specific or area-specific content. Netflix’s profitability has been steadily increasing since then.

Key Characteristics of an Online Video Streaming App

Netflix, a video-on-demand streaming app, has grown in popularity due to its exceptional features. If you want to create an app like Netflix, you must at least consider these features.

Setup Multiple Accounts: Once an account is created, users can add up to five separate user profiles for each family member or friend. As a result, each profile can have its own favourite list, recently watched list, ratings, and personalized show and movie suggestions based on previously watched videos on Netflix. Also, if a user deletes a profile, his or her watching history and saved list are permanently deleted.

Multiple Control Levels:

Users can choose between four maturity levels when creating profiles, ranging from children to adults. If this is insufficient, they can create a PIN under the ‘Parental Controls’ section in Settings to prevent children from switching profiles.

Filters for Content Search:

Filters for Content Search:  Netflix allows users to narrow their search using filters such as title, actors, directors, or genres to find the best content that matches their preferences.

Adding Content to ‘My List Ratings for Content:

Ratings for Content:  This app allows users to rate a movie or show by thumbs-up or thumbs-down, and Netflix will show them less similar content as a result.

Download Feature:  This is why Netflix offers the option to download a list of shows or movies (up to 100 at a time) so that users can watch videos even when there is no signal. Furthermore, users can save all of their data by only allowing content download when their device is connected to WiFi.

Netflix Roulette:  Similarly, most users spend more time deciding what to watch than actually watching something from the vast catalog of entertainment. As a result, Netflix introduced a feature in which users can select a genre, type, or IMDB, and then tap the spin button to explore a list of random content that matches their preferences.

Turn off Autoplay:  This video streaming app, on the other hand, allows users to disable autoplay, which prevents Netflix from automatically playing the next episode when they are watching a TV show.

Delete Browsing History: Delete Browsing History:  Users may find such suggestions based on ‘because you have watched…’ annoying. As a result, Netflix has made it possible for them to delete those blemishes from their Netflix history, making their streaming experience smoother and more enjoyable.

Tips for Creating a Netflix-like Video Streaming App

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind while developing a Netflix clone app.

The interface is the first thing that users notice. Make sure it’s easy to use and enjoyable to look at.

If you want to expand your user base to other countries, provide services in multiple languages, and so on, create a futuristic and future-proof app. It will eliminate the need for the app to be completely redesigned.

Allowing users to log in via multiple methods such as email, Facebook, mobile number, and so on will add an extra layer of convenience.

The mobile application should work seamlessly across multiple platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.

The user data and payment gateway should be completely secure.

Create functionalities that will make it easier for users to watch, save, and share their favourite movies or shows before creating a video streaming app.

Factors influencing the cost of developing a video streaming app

The price of a video streaming app is determined by a variety of factors. Some of the most significant are:

App Features: We have already discussed the key features that you should include in your app in order to succeed in the market. The app development cost will vary depending on the number of features you want to include in your application.

App Platform: The technology used to create and maintain a Netflix clone app development determines the development cost. Swift, Objective-C, Kotlin Java, React Native, and other technologies may be included. You should select technology based on the problems you want to solve and the goals you want to achieve.

Location of development company: Most businesses outsource app development to focus on their core idea and in-house operations. When planning to outsource, keep the location of the mobile app development company in mind as it is an important factor in cost estimation.

The rate of app development varies by country. In North America, for example, development rates range from $50 to $250 per hour, whereas app development services in India range from $15 to $80 per hour.

When you hire Indian mobile app developers, you will get the same work done at a much lower cost than in the United States.

Other popular video streaming apps around the world include:

Prime Video on Amazon

YouTube

HBO Now is now available in the United States.

Hulu, Twitch, and Crackle

Final Thoughts

People have been shifting away from text-based content and toward audio and then video in recent years. Bloggers are also becoming vloggers in order to retain and grow their following. With all of this video content being created online, platforms or mobile apps are required to expand its reach.

There are currently a plethora of video streaming apps on the market, but none can compete with Netflix. If you believe your idea has the potential to outperform the video streaming market, contact the experts at a reputable mobile app development company.

[gamingpsychologist]

The mental aspect of becoming the best player you can be.

Disclaimer: This is based on research done in western countries. In general sports there are four general areas you need to be good at in order to deliver the best performance you can. Physical, Technical, Tactical and Mental.  

Now it’s possible to argue if eSports like Siege can be seen as a Sport. However I’m not interested in that argument, instead I would like to explore the mental aspect of becoming the best player you can possibly be and to show you how you can use this knowledge in your daily matches. The mental aspect includes  things like, confidence, concentration and motivation. Extrinsic Motivation

Let’s start with motivation, there are two kinds of motivation: Intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is about reward and punishment. The most common reward that’s used all over the world is money. An example of money as a motivator may look like this: “I want to be the best player, because when I’m the best I can win tournaments and receive a cut of the prize pool.” But a rank comes also with its own reward, a charm. To illustrate: “I want to become the best player I can be so I can get into the platinum, diamond or champion rank in order to receive that charm next season.” 

If you’re not playing well your teammates might become angry at you, and start to trash talk. This is also a form of extrinsic motivation. Your teammates can call you out for not being able to see an enemy by saying something like: “Are you blind?!” Or if you didn’t hit your shots “You suck so much”.

While extrinsic motivation like money and criticism might work for the short term to help you perform better, in the long term it can create less enjoyment and you might even become less confidant or even anxious to play.

Another way to get motivated is pride, guilt or shame. You might want to become a champion in order to look back on the season with pride of what you have accomplished. You could also think of it as playing for the first time with a new squad that you need to perform well, because if you don’t you will feel ashamed for ending op at the bottom of the scoreboard with dropping a donut.

I feel pride when I play against or with diamonds or champions and I’m still able to get kills and/or play the objective. It makes me think that I’m able to be as good as players in that rank. With that being said, I also think rank doesn’t mean anything, because a game is about having fun and getting as much enjoyment out of it as possible.

Intrinsic Motivation

A part of intrinsic motivation is doing something to achieve a higher goal. For instance, you do a warmup to make sure you have good aim. Even though you don’t like doing warmups you like having good aim so you do it anyway, you see it as a requirement to be able to hit your shots.

You could also get motivated by being “The way you are” this has to do with the way you perceive yourself. You  give call-outs to your random teammates because you find it good sport to do so, you don’t hate to do it, you don’t love to do it, you just do it for the sake of doing it.

So now onto the last part of being intrinsically motivated, doing something because you like doing it, you have fun while doing it. It’s like getting into the training ground and trying to get more and more headshots, after the first time you got ten headshots, then you do another one to try and break that score, just that constant need for improvement. It’s like going into a ranked match, getting a 1 kill in the first round, then you go in for the second round and trying to get 2 kills, and so on.

I would however not advise you to take kills as a measurement for improvement, what I myself use is KOST and match rating. To see this I use R6Analyst on the platform overwolf. This overlay is highly customizable and I would highly recommend you adjust it to your needs and wishes.   This constant need for improvement, doing something because you like doing it,  doing it because it helps you achieve a higher purpose, or because it’s just the way you are, is the best kind of motivation. You want to get your motivation as close as possible to this side of intrinsic motivation. The reason you don’t want to be extrinsically motivated to play or perform is because it creates a feeling of doing it for someone else and that’s not the feeling you want to have. The feeling you want is that the motivation comes from within as you do it for yourself and for your own benefit.

How do I get more intrinsically motivated?

To become more intrinsically motivated you have to make sure the motivation comes from the right source, these are confidence, autonomy and connectedness.

Confidence means basically that you believe you can do something. The best way to get your confidence up is by experiencing successes. I have confidence in this game because I started as a silver 3 in operation parabellum, and every season I was able to get to a higher rank, or stay on the same rank. To the point where I hit platinum two times in a row.

So you probably know what I mean with experiencing success but it all comes down to achieving a certain goal. If you think about it in this way, it means that your success depends on the goals you choose. In siege the most people think it’s about winning, this what gets you to a certain rank, which determines your skill. But winning is not such a great goal to choose, because it can be too easy or too hard.

Ranking up consistently is not always possible, in operation shifting tides I was not able to get to that platinum rank, which made my confidence drop. So I needed to find another way to experience success. My new goal was to make sure I saw what needed to happen to get the best chance at winning, what reinforced wall needs to be opened, what are the possible ways to get that done, without the having to rely on my random teammates. Basically, the goals was tp improve my game sense and game knowledge, this is something I could and still can do.

By choosing this goal my chances of accomplishing got higher, the amount of experienced success increased and thereby my confidence improved. I had more enjoyment, even playing solo and was able to hit platinum two the next season.

Where does confidence go wrong?

Basically having to high expectations. When I started playing siege every day for a minimum of 4 hours, maybe a bit longer in the weekends for 6 days per week, I watched videos on how to get better, asked questions on reddit on how to win more games, watched diamond ranking streamers and pro league. I started to think that those things had to help me to get to that certain point where I could win more games than I did before and get to that higher rank.

I did not actively think about it, but my expectations of my own performance are actually pretty high, I have high goals for myself. I can’t achieve those high goals, of getting a lot of kills or winning more games than losing. Which makes it really feel like a loss, you think of it of never getting those successes, I’m not good enough in the game, I quit. What’s important in these moments of frustration is to understand that your expectations of yourself are too high.

A lot of people think it’s important to look at the things where you can improve, things you’re not doing well enough. Yet this doesn’t explain on how you can do it better. So if you really want to improve you need to look at the things that you’re doing well and have a look at how you can do those things even better.

My mechanical skill is not something I’m good in. So why put all my effort and time into that. I’m better off putting my time and effort into doing something I was already able to do, read the game. When I started doing that more, my game-play improved, I made smarter decisions and experienced more success.

The role of feedback

Another way to improve your confidence is by getting feedback, and the secret sauce here is to get in a good way, this means specific and constructive. Specific means that you don’t just say “Oh, you’re great” or “You’re so much fucking better”. It means that you get to hear: “You’re so much fucking better, your crosshair placement was on head height which made it  easier for you to get that kill faster than the opponent could. “ Or “Damn, that usage of your Zofia stun utility really helped me to get the wall open, because that made sure the bandit couldn’t trick.” Really understanding what you did and how it helped someone else really helps to get more confidence in your own abilities to get stuff done.

Now feedback doesn’t always have to bee positive, when you see something that goes wrong and you are able to get that across to your teammate in way that they receive it as helpful, your teammate will be really happy with your feedback. Maybe not always on the short term, but definitely on the long term.

The issues with autonomy

Another source of intrinsic motivation is autonomy. The feeling of having the ability to make your own choices, having this ability will make you intrinsically motivated to make these decisions.  

When you get forced to play the game or to play it in a certain way, by yourself or someone else, is the moment your autonomy gets damaged. The best example I have is the R6 casual experience. When your team peaks everything, are hyper aggressive and you instead prefer to play the game in a more strategic manner, your team can make you feel like you have to play the same hyper aggressive way in order to not be put in a unwinnable situation every round.

Need to belong

The last topic is about connectedness. When you want to build your intrinsic motivation you can start with finding like minded people. We as humans have a need to belong, which means that when we belong to a group, we feel as if we are a part of something bigger and are more than just an individual. I have my own discord server and if you don’t have group already, feel free to join my server and hop into one of the voice channels to have fun and make friends. https://discord.gg/X8mAYuu When you have this group, this sense of belonging, chances are you’ll feel validated. To improve this even more, let them call you by name or at least gamer tag, as your name is the biggest compliment anyone can give. It makes people feel important and validated, so make sure your gamer tag, and discord nick name matches the way you want to be called by others.

Conclusion

So in conclusion you want to become intrinsically motivated, you do this by setting achievable goals, surrounding yourself with teammates that support you and have the same goals as you. They’ll help you by giving specific and constructive feedback. Next to that you want them to know who you are, they need to call you by name or at least by gamer tag to make you feel more validated as a team member, rather than just a team mate. Remember, we’re here to learn and become better.

[next-lvl]

Majority of my followers know what Wakfu is, but not all know about the game: how many wounds it left in my heart, and everyone else’s. This post isn’t gonna be precisely explaining the wrongs that Wakfu did, I just wanted to mention that, in aftermath, it was a disaster of a game that left its most loyal players hurt, disappointed and immensely sad. I still keep meeting people who love this franchise, but can’t stand the game anymore since it’s.. Changed too much and didn’t stay enjoyable, to say mildly. I’m surrounded by, literally, traumatized veterans who look back at the good old days and shed tears. And I’ve been talking a lot about GW2 recently, not for no reason.

I want you to heal, just like I did. I mean.. I’m still hurt over Wakfu and I’ll stay this way forever, but I found a game where you can feel safe, loved, cared about. Devs in GW2 are humans who talk to us, who put smileys and memes in their posts, who hang out on reddit and ingame. This’s one of the major and striking differences between Wakfu and GW2. I’m still genuinely stunned by my own experience with customer support, I had a few troubles during my 1.5 years in GW2 and the response was not only fast and effective, it was HUMAN AND CUTE. I’m still not over it. Now that I’ve been invited to be a creative partner.. I’m still not over it too. They shower their regular players and content creators in gentle attention and kindness. I cry. During the 5+ years of being the most active and visible artist in Wakfu fandom, literally promoting it with thousands of drawings, I’ve never got a tiniest bit of official recognition. Not even a single placement on official media. When I took part in contests, I never won. Overall it’s been a one-way street. During my first 1.5 years in GW2, I’ve been noticed, picked up by the team, pampered and spoiled to the point of barely believing it’s true. That’s my personal experience, but it should indicate Anet’s general attitude towards the players. They. Do. Care.

I just wanna try and convince more ex-Wakfu players to give GW2 a shot. The two games are different in the visual and core gameplay aspects, yes, transitioning from an isometric 2D turn-based to a 3D, real-time game was somewhat harsh, but boy, how glad I am that I did it.

There’s EVEN MORE TEXT, brace yourselves. :D In GW2, I found everything that I wish was in Wakfu.

GW2 is a true sandbox. You log in, you do whatever the fuck you want. Level your first (second, 12th, 33rd, 68th) char? Grind mobs and dungeons? NO. Run around, look for events, explore, literally everything you do and everywhere you go, gives xp. You can level via crafting! Which, btw, is relevant throughout the entire game, unlike in Wakfu.

You do have dungeons of two kinds, and you CAN farm them if you want, but it’s your deliberate decision. There ARE farms in GW2, but they’re fun, if you’re not trying to get a legendary weapon in a month. I personally like running around with a bunch of random people who are there to FARM events in a specific map, but that happens once every two months.

Said legendary weapons ARE hard to get and yes, they can get you burnt out in no time if you don’t have a concept of a “long term goal”. Leggies are a prestige item, and, just like other prestige items (auras, specific minis, skins, etc), they’re meant to be your ultimate show-off item. People see you and know that you’ve been through.. A lot. BUT. Your hard-earned prestige item is to stay prestige. I assume you know relics in Wakfu? Then you must know what happened to them after a few years.

There’s no devaluing in GW2. Your trophies stay relevant and rare. Your prizes, your exclusive titles, skins, etc stay exclusive. You aren’t losing half of your wealth just because the devs decided to revamp ALL GEAR FOR THE THIRD TIME.

Speaking of the gear, the orange set you get at 80, is endgame gear. GW2 is 5 years old, so that orange gear is. People crafted it on the release and.. It stayed endgame. Yes, there’s also pink gear, which ~5% better than orange and is only needed if you do high lvl fractals or are min-maxing in raids. If you’re casual or just starting, you don’t even have to think about it. But once you craft your set, it stays relevant forever. People’s effort is never shoved up their asses.

There’s no constant carrot-on-a-stick gear upgrades. Level cap is 80 since release and will stay so. The game promotes safety and stability, that’s what attracted me. You take a 2 years break? No problem, you log in and go play. Nothing has lost its value, you don’t feel inferior, you don’t need to catch up to play with your friends.

Which reminded me: there’s a wonderfully done level downscale system. You’re a lvl 80 in a lvl 16 zone? Your stats are auto-adapted so the enemies you fought as a noob are still dangerous, and your reward (xp/gold/materials) is adapted to your true lvl. You go and play anywhere you want, and get fair rewards.

Crafting materials of all levels are also demanded and relevant. Oh yeah, you can run around for hours just gathering wood/ore, familiar to Wakfu players? It’s nice and relaxing until you meet another player. Well, in GW2 all gathering nodes are NOT shared. You see a tree? It’s your tree. That dude who runs up to it won’t steal it from you.

Oh also there’s no kill steal! Which is big, imo. You’re encouraged to play together, to help people kill stuff, to contribute to any event you see around, since everyone gets rewarded equally.

Legendary stability of GW2 servers. Lemme just say: there’s no weekly maintenance. There is. No. Downtime. Even on the big update days, you can download and play pretty safely. If there’s a hotfix, the game KINDLY WARNS YOU that you need to update and you have TWO FLIPPING HOURS to do so. Before you did that, you still can play, finish whatever you were up to.

Everything revolves around player’s happiness and convenience. There are constant quality-of-life updates. Your bags are full of crap? Here, salvage it into materials with two clicks, then deposit into your bank with two clicks (from anywhere in the world), then compact the rest of your shit. Yeah, with two clicks. x’D

There’s wonderful Fashion Wars. The game offers so much customization, and it’s taken so seriously, that it’s one of the endgame aspects. There’s 30000+ achievement points to earn, which are mostly fun and make you go out of your usual way. Dailies? You get 10 points and 2 gold for doing 3 easy tasks that take ~15 minutes.

There’s LORE. There’s fun little interactions all over the world. You just did an event? Stay here and listen, probably npcs will say/do something and start another event, logically following the previous one. The world lives and breathes. You can just walk around and observe. You’ll learn so much. And of course, there’s always a good cause to laugh. Dialogues/reactions are just hilarious sometimes.

Regarding the lore: there’s a so-called personal story which accompanies you up to lvl 80, then there’s “living world”, smaller events and single maps being rolled out every once in a while - so far there’s 2 seasons available, and 1 being “historical”, not playable anymore. In that season, they fucking crushed the main capital city. It changed forever. It was an epic event, which I missed, but watched people’s videos later. Then season 2, then HoT, then season 3, and now we’re waiting for PoF, second expansion. The updates have picked a nice pace and are frequent now.

There’s just so much to do. Just go, dive into the world and drown forever. :3c And meet me on the bottom. x’DD

GW2 feels different from Wakfu, but I found similarities for myself. It’s a sandbox after all, and later endgame has a lot of strategy. GW2 is never tank-and-spank. You just, literally, can’t facetank shit here. You gotta use your skills wisely, time your dodges, play with traits/passives until it all flows together. You’ve got a HUGE BUILD FREEDOM. There’s 9 classes, each having at least 3 defined roles, with more variations. You don’t just go ranger (oh archer it’s like a cra rite??) and do pew pew from max distance. Well, yes, you have a bow and can pew pew.. Or you can be a melee fighter, you can be a full blown healer/support.. As a ranger, yes.

I’ll be wrapping up now, I swear. GW2 is true f2p. Which of course does have a few restrictions (can’t trade or use map-chat), but you can get to 80, gear up and explore to your heart’s content before you decide to pay. I personally played for 5 months, every day, before I bought HoT.

Why’d you buy an expansion? More story, more maps, new class traits, gliding in HoT and mounts in PoF. The expansion and living world content has been constantly improving, visually, mechanically and lore/writing-wise.

Other than that, there’s a gemstore offering cosmetic and convenience items (gems can be bought for cash OR ingame gold). There are infamous rng boxes, but none of those are p2w. GW2 is oriented at the western consumer, which means, yeah, they know that we hate p2w and they’ll never do that to us.

*breathes out* I had to get that off my chest. I wanna talk about GW2 forever, but it’s exhausting to do one-on-one. :P Hopefully someone’s still reading this!

Now lemme remind you that now I have those partner links, if you use this to create a new account and play for free (for an hour or two months? w/e), or this to buy an expansion, I’ll get paid a bit. Not much, but it definitely helps!

And I was gonna write this wall of text regardlessly of the partnership one day, now I just have more incentive. x’DD Plus, we’re gonna have a beta weekend on 11-13 august, where you can preview the second expansion for free! It’s a perfect timing to write this post and try convincing you. You’ll just need a f2p account, and you’ll be given a lvl 80 boost and whatnot for that beta weekend. I’m not sure yet, but I assume you WILL. Just please register using my link above, so that I get paid for the two hours I spent on this post. :D

[chanteportfolio]

A Media Channel Analysis on Movie Theaters

Why are movie theaters delivering communications?

Movie theaters have been around since the early 1900’s. The goal was originally to create a higher clientele of attendees just like live performance theater. At the time the only thing being shown was silent films with subtitles and since education wasn’t as important for the average commoner a lot of the poor couldn’t and wouldn’t go see films. That all changed when sound was introduced and took away the need to read in order to understand the movie. It thus became a business providing entertainment for everyone.

What is the communication trying to achieve?

By creating a business based on providing entertainment, movie theaters need to create brand loyalty with movie goers. Especially in today's society where there is so much competition for the consumer dollar, theaters need to continue to prove and reinvent themselves in order to keep up. No longer can they rely solely on the films to bring in an audience. People need to enjoy the entire atmosphere and walk away with a great experience in order to keep coming back.

Who are theaters talking to?

Movie theaters are trying to communicate with anyone with disposable income. With a wide variety of films, arcade and in theater games, and food, they are attempting to make the theater a one stop shop for any and everybody in order to maximize profit.

What is the main idea movie theaters are trying to communicate?

The main idea movie theaters are communicating is that they can create an experience like no other by providing a chance for people to escape. They do this by creating an experience that plays off of almost all of our senses. When you walk through the door you are immediately hit by the smell of popcorn. When you look around, there are posters and trailers playing not only what is currently showing in theaters but also what is coming soon so you can start planning what to watch next. Most theaters now show films in a 2k or 4k quality while also having surround sound in order for us to be completely immersed in what we are watching. After all that, they hope that people still find it a service worth paying for.

How do we know movie theaters are effective?

How effective a movie theater is doing is a bit hard to tell because there hasn’t been much research on it. One might assume that when a big box office film comes out that the movie theaters would also be benefitting. They are since they get a percentage of sales but it wasn't their communication that drove consumers to their establishment. It’s hard to prove that people are going to a specific theater because of the theater and not because of the content they are displaying. Being in an industry that can be impacted not only by the economy but by people’s opinions makes it very easy for there to be highs and lows. Staying consistent not only during the good years, but through things like a recession can be seen as being effective. In the Chart shown below, you can see that since the decline of attendance in the 60’s, the average weekly attendance has remained the same. Now is that due to theaters communication or people just really liking films?

How are movie theaters different than other channels?

Movie theaters are stationary. The channels we currently use in our daily lives have been able to adapt so that we can take them almost everywhere we go. Theaters however remain one of the few channels that we are still required to go to and follow their schedule. Going to the movies requires planning in order to see what you want. Especially if it’s the opening weekend of a talked about movie, you have to be there early to either get good seats or before it sells out.

What technology is unique about movie theaters?

With the advancement of technology things that were once synonymous with movie theaters we can now create at home. For example technology like surround sound, bigger screens, digital projectors and the use of the 3D effects are all things that we can now purchase to create a theater experience in the comfort of our own homes. Brands of movie theaters have come up with different technology but there hasn't been an advancement of technology for theaters as a whole in a long time.

Cineplex Entertainment

The brand I chose for this assignment is Cineplex. Cineplex has quickly become Canada’s largest and most recognizable brand when it comes to movies because it continues to reinvent itself.

What is the brand strength?

Cineplex’s greatest strength is its diversification.

With the creation of Scene and scene points they were able to reward the consumer for previous purchases of movie tickets. After earning 1,000 points, customers are able to watch a movie for free. The program has now evolved as they have partnered with Scotiabank so consumers can earn points outside of the theater by doing everyday shopping.

Cineplex has made itself different from others theaters by creating vip in theater dining, adult only theaters where they serve alcohol and the streaming of live shows and events.

But, they are also branching off into different avenues. As of 2015, they own 50% equity in Cineplex Starburst which is the distributor of arcade games to not only Xscape, the gaming area in all Cineplex’s, but theme parks like Canada’s Wonderland and Disney World.

It has even created its own upscale version of Dave and Buster’s called The Rec Room.

What is the brand’s weakness?

Just because people are loyal to a brand doesn’t mean they are in love with the it. Cineplex realized that people thought of them like they do walmart according to Peter Furnish, the VP of marketing for Cineplex  and thus Lily and the Snowman was created.

It is a short film about a young girl named Lily who builds a snowman that tells her stories through the shadows of his hand. As spring approaches she stores him away in a freezer until the next winter so he can continue to tell her stories. As she gets older she loses interest and no longer has time for him. It isn’t until later in life when she sees a shadow of a snowglobe with a snowman inside does she go back for her friend and he is storytelling for her and her daughter. The video ends with the tagline ‘Make time for what you love’. The brand went with an emotional pull as a lot of commercials are these days because they tend to be more memorable.

What is the brand’s opportunities?

By creating all of the different lanes, Cineplex has allowed themselves to no longer be as worried or helpless about how the newer technology will impact their main market.

What is the brand’s threats?

The biggest threat to Cineplex used to be people pirating movies allowing people to just watch it online for free. However over the last decade, their threat has become streaming services. With all the technological advances that have occurred in our lifetime, we as a society have become lazy. Cineplex has to now think of ways to deter people from solely using services like Netflix/on demand at home and still find enjoyment in coming to the theaters

This is a piece I wrote about the effectiveness of movies theaters as a media channel.  I also used the brand Cineplex as my example and did a S.W.O.T analysis to further evaluate the effectiveness.

[oumakokichi]

Hi! can you do an analisis on Shirogane the same way you did with Ouma? I love reading your posts

Thank you so much! I’m sorry to have left this message forso late, but I wanted to go through absolutely every inch of the Chapter 6trial from start to finish really carefully before answering this, because Ifeel like Tsumugi deserves a really full, well-done analysis, and I wanted tobe able to write one to the best of my ability!

Tsumugi has jumped up in my character rankings since gettingto actually see her in action for myself. She’s a fantastic antagonist,absolutely fascinating as a character, and she is just all around fun to watch in the final trial. There’sso much about her that leaves room for speculation—the entire ending andepilogue is all about speculation, after all, and there’s no way to really besure with her, because like with much of ndrv3, she’s someone who wants to puther entire existence into a “catbox” of sorts and make sure the mystery can’tever really be solved for sure.

I don’t think anyone would be reading this post if they didn’talready know a bit about Tsumugi’s character and the things that happen in thelater chapters, but just in case, this post will contain heavy spoilers forChapter 6, so don’t read past the read more if you’re not comfortable!

So I’ve talked a bit before about how one of the mostfantastic and enjoyable things with Tsumugi is that she’s not Junko. We finallyfor the first time in the core series have a well-written, effective antagonistwho is not the same as Junko, who was foreshadowed very well in advance, andwho was among the group the whole time. Compared to twists like “mastermindTengan,” which was the single biggest letdown dr3 had to offer, the twist withTsumugi is outstanding.

It’s so hard to pin down exactly what makes “her,” becauseher being is entirely comprised of fiction. We see her for the first fivechapters, hiding in plain sight, clearly prone to human error and makingmistakes where she shouldn’t be, and without knowing anything about her as themastermind, it’s easy to buy into exactly the kind of act that she’s trying toplay: that she’s boring, plain, thatshe doesn’t contribute anything, isn’t worth paying attention to because she justflies right under the radar.

I feel like one of the core things to understand aboutTsumugi is this: that while the Tsumugi we see for most of the game, the “boringand plain” one who slips right by without catching anyone’s notice is certainly“the real” Tsumugi, from her own perspective, it’s just one more character that she plays.

Tsumugi is completely marked and defined as a character andas an antagonist by her complete inability to distinguish reality from fiction.The reason it’s so hard to tell how much of what she says is a lie and how muchis true (without catching very specific hints) is because she really, reallydoesn’t care. She makes anything and everything into a “lie” or “reality”according to whatever scenario she’s trying to pull, and she can start weavingnew scenarios from nothing at only a moment’s notice, true to her SHSLCosplayer ability. Tsumugi Shirogane is a person to us as the people playingthe game, and to the other characters around her. But to herself, “TsumugiShirogane” is just one more character she plays among an ensemble of fiction,as she tries to keep maintaining a fictional world in a fictional game for thesake of the only thing that feels enjoyable to her anymore.

In the Chapter 6 trial, it’s easy to sort of fall into thistrap where everything Tsumugi is saying gets taken as a sort of “truth bomb”and even when it sounds horrible and we want to deny it, we brace ourselves toprobably admit it was true, because that’s how things were with Junko. Junkohad a few lies here and there in her own final trial and showdown in dr1, butfor the most part she dropped truth after horrible truth, from everything aboutthe state of the outside world to the fact that the Togami family had fallen,and both the players and the characters in dr1 sort of had to take her at herword at some point because she was such a force of nature.

But Tsumugi is no force of nature, but merely an imitationof one. She is all about imitation. She emphasizes that her cosplays arethemselves “perfect imitations of the real thing.” The only way she canpossibly achieve that result is if she has no “real thing” of her own. Only bydiscarding one’s “true” sense of self and throwing oneself into fictionentirely can one achieve this perfect ability to camouflage and even believe orhonestly feel “what the characters are feeling.” Tsumugi has no real sense ofself, because she relies on Danganronpa, and on fiction, to give it to her.

She’s just absolutely fascinating. Certainly, she admiresJunko. She understands Junko, and she wouldn’t be able to emulate Junko ormimic her so perfectly in the trials without knowing how vital Junko is as acharacter to DR. In some ways, it’s even true that Tsumugi does crave “despair”in very much the same way that Junko does—because despair itself is such aconstant, vital presence in DR overall. Without “despair,” there’s no DR asTsumugi knows it. That’s the entire reason she tried to pull the stunt with theremember light in Chapter 5, and convince the group that they were all tied toHope’s Peak Academy.

But it’s not justabout despair. It’s about “hope vs. despair,” and it’s about the core,essential ideals that make DR what it is. The desire to see that conflict, tosee the suffering and then the climactic resolution, and to see the characters’resolve and how they overcome these things again and again, is precisely whatis being commented on, and it’s those desires that have let the killing gameshow in ndrv3 go on for as long as 53 seasons.

Junko’s primary goal in dr1 was to prove her theory aboutdespair right, to show that even the “hope” of the world with the 78thClass from Hope’s Peak would kill each other and fall into despair with onlythe slightest provocation, and to pull all of this from behind the scenes andget away with it as long as possible. Although she came to accept being “defeated”by hope because it was so despair-inducing, and allowed herself to go to herown execution, getting caught and beaten wasn’t within Junko’s calculations,and it wasn’t what she wanted.

But getting caught is exactlywhat Tsumugi wanted, once the game is clearly getting to its final stages. Itdidn’t have to be her: it could have very well been Ouma, as she trieddesperately to set him up to be the Junko-figure of Chapter 5. It could havebeen “Kaede’s twin sister.” It could have been a million different fictionalscenarios that she kept planning on the spot, lying about, coming up with,because fiction has so much infinite potential to her—unlike reality, which hasnothing at all worth living in.

Once everyone was in need of a mastermind in Chapter 6,Tsumugi was more than happy to step up to the plate herself. She was fine withexposing herself, and leaving extremely obvious clues that would get the gameto that point, because the trial itselfwas her goal, not making her classmates despair or suffer. The trial is part ofthe show, and the show is everything to her. It’s the most exciting, climatic,popular part of the entire killing game broadcast. It’s the reason people reliedon Danganronpa, on the killing game broadcast, and she wanted to put on that show, and was willing to do anything andeverything, and break any and every rule in order to do it.

The reason why she’s so terrifyingly effective as anantagonist is not because she’s a super analytical, super infallible force ofnature like Junko. Tsumugi can be wrong about things, is often blindsided orcaught off guard by developments she didn’t foresee. She’s very, veryintelligent, but she’s not Junko or Kamukura or Ouma levels of intelligent. Herintelligence is very human. But what’s terrifying is that she doesn’t need tobe right about everything or able to predict everything, because she “weaves” a new fiction and a new web oflies at every single turn.

It doesn’t matter if she didn’t see certain things coming,because she knows that within this world which is essentially an unopenedcatbox to the rest of the characters, there’s no way for them to prove that she’swrong. Not objectively, about everything. If they catch her off guard and takeher plans in a new direction that she didn’t see coming, she just takes creditfor it anyway. They’re all just “scenarios” she can put to use and utilize tomake sure that DR and the killing game broadcast continue.

While her words and claims have left a lot of peopleconfused on how much can be trusted, the more I pored over the Chapter 6 trial,the easier I found it to tell when she was lying on at least a few points. Herclaims about Ouma as a “pawn of the mastermind,” for instance, have left manypeople wondering if this was actually true or if it’s just a bluff—and I cansay with relative certainty that it’s the latter.

Ouma’s stunt with the Exisal and all the things he pulledbehind her back and all the ways in which he got in her way were not supposed to happen according to heroriginal scenarios. He was supposed to be compliant, easy-to-manipulate, and alittle puppet on strings for her to shape up into the real mastermind, becauseshe felt his character would have “matched” with Junko’s so well. So when thecharacters begin realizing things about not only her being the mastermind, butabout the truth of the world around them and their memories being implanted,she rolls with it. She retcons his role. She lies her ass off, basically,because that’s her element.

The wording she uses specifically, rather than “pawn of themastermind,” is more along the lines of “he was a blind devotee to a god.” Sheeven says all of this as Junko, still perfectly in character; the rest of thecast by this point were not anywhere near realizing that the world wasfictional or that they were in an actual reality show broadcast. She’s not evensaying this as a producer of the show; she’s saying this from a role in whichshe’s written Junko to be “the realone,” and she was just posing as “Tsumugi,the fake character,” hiding among the cast and pulling strings “just like shedid with the Hope’s Peak killing game.”

Her lines about Ouma are specifically said whilein-character as Junko, who is “like a god of despair” and a force of nature whoshook the entire world. And that makes it surprisingly easy to see that this isa revisionary tactic made to get back at Ouma, precisely because Saihara andthe rest were pointing out just how much he’d gotten in her way. He ruined aperfectly good fictional scenario she had planned, from her perspective, so shegets back at him by revising him and claiming his character was “just areligious acolyte” all along and that he was a “huge fanboy who had Junko ashis idol.” And all of this is so blatantly untrue because Ouma had no ideaabout Junko, or about the Hope’s Peak memories from the remember light. This isliterally just Tsumugi being simultaneously petty and brilliant at revising her own story, and I love it.

There’s at least a few other of these similar points whereit’s pretty easy to tell that she’s lying, in my opinion. One of them revolvesMomota and Maki, and I’m going to save that for a later explanation, becausethere are a few questions about the Momota and Maki relationship in my inboxcurrently. But there are other points in the trial where she switches fromrelatively believable explanations which fit with the objective proof we gotfrom characters like Amami or Ouma, to taking credit for anything andeverything, almost desperately, and those are the points that strike me as theweakest in her claims.

The state of the outside world is just one example. When therest of the characters reflect briefly on how they saw the scene of itdestroyed and horrific with their own two eyes, Tsumugi happily claims that itwas all a “set” prepared by the killing game staff, a perfect imitationachieved by her talent. But when the group immediately rebounds, thinking thatat least if the world is fine and peaceful then that means they actually havepeople and places to go back to, she really, really starts revising her story.She absolutely latches onto trying to prove that they’re “just fictional,” that“all the people and places they remember are fictional,” that they “havenowhere to go back to.”

It’s because to Tsumugi, the last thing she wants is themopening her catbox. With her fictional world exactly the way it is, she can sayanything and have it be considered true—because there’s no way to proveotherwise. It’s the perfect set-up for writing millions and millions offictional scenarios, as opposed to “a single unchanging truth.” But the momentthe group thinks about wanting to get out, wanting to see the outside world forthemselves, that means the catbox ceases to exist, all the fictional scenariosfade, and only the truth remains. If there weren’t very obvious flaws in herstory or things that would immediately come to light and be proven when thegroup got to the outside world and checked, then she wouldn’t try so hard to crush their willpower and getthem to accept staying in the killing game instead.

The things she targets (their friends, their families, theirloved ones, their homes, their emotions and feelings) by saying that they’reall fake, fictional, that they never existed in real life, are all the thingsthat really, truly take away their will to investigate or go on. Knowing thatthey weren’t actually Hope’s Peak Academy students or that they didn’t haveSHSL talents shocked them, sure, but once they got over the initial shock, theywere all sort of back to being excited about the prospect that they had a home.That there might be somewhere for them to go.

Tsumugi immediately noticed that, and pinpointed the thingsinstead that might give them willpower or strength to go on, by claiming all of it was fiction, all of it was her doing. These claimsare so large, so over the top, and it’s precisely why it’s easier for me tothink of it as a lie than her other claims, which actually matched perfectlywith evidence provided from Ouma’s or Amami’s labs, or things other charactershad said or done. If there weren’t actually some real life counterparts orsimilarities with their memories that would give them incentive to end thekilling game, there wouldn’t have been any reason for Tsumugi to have targetedthose things so hard and sospecifically in order to try and keep them from wanting to go out.

Tsumugi is a character who thrives on the fictional in orderto “elevate” it to the level of reality. Fiction is her everything; it’sreality that’s meaningless. As long as she can continue creating new scenarios,new lies, new works of fiction to counteract boring, bland, meaninglessreality, she has her niche, and that itself is her meaning to go on. Butwithout that…there’s nothing. Once it’s all stripped away, she literally wouldrather go straight to her death, because “there’s no point in a world withoutDanganronpa.” There’s no point in a world in which she can’t keep creatinginfinite new fictional scenarios and seeing the same grand climax unfold againand again.

This itself is a terrifyingidea for an antagonist, and I love it. She was absolutely astounding from startto finish in Chapter 6, and watching her come slowly to the forefront, puttingon a spectacular act, and ultimately blasting both the characters’ and the players’subversions out of the water because her objectives were so different fromanything that previous antagonists have done, was so much fun.

The only way to fight against her, an antagonist who thriveson lies and presents them as “truth” because there’s no way to disprove her, isto come up with your own lies, and to accept them as your own reality. Just asthere was no way for the other characters to objectively disprove Tsumugi’s “truths”about the outside world, there was no way for her, in the end, to disprove their“truths,” that their lives had real meaning and that the experiences they wentthrough were very real for them. Once again, the Umineko resemblance was verystrong, and I loved every bit of it.

Tsumugi is always going to be a hard-to-read antagonist,because her entire character wanted to stay in that catbox forever, and shepreferred dying willingly to being dragged out into “the truth.” There’s no wayto ever eliminate doubt and suspicion over all her words. But I think inkeeping with the themes of ndrv3 overall, it’s a safe bet that there are plentyof lies and truths in the things shesaid, because that’s the way it’s been with her every step of the way, and withpretty much every other character in the game besides.

I’ve seen many people so far trying to determine whetherJunko or Tsumugi was “better” or “more effective” as an antagonist, but I haveto say, I think it’s a lost cause. It’s like comparing apples to oranges. Bothof them have different mindsets, goals, processes. Both of them are terrifyingand incredibly well-written in their own right, and I think Tsumugi will get somuch more recognition and appreciation from the fanbase once the English localizationcomes out and people can appreciate in full just how much of a terrifically fun,lying asshole she really is.

[kimberlylam1997]

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The logic behind this and more powerful ejaculations, and more men than erectile dysfunction.Masturbation is one of the most common sexual dilemmas of most men.Without anyone knowing, you can return to a head start I am trying to cure premature ejaculation is because one can now be treated at an early ejaculation and thus excitement for the orgasm response is the only way to curb sexually transmitted diseases and other diseases.As you gain broad control of your penis until near achieving the peak of their arousal and how they can help you get during this time too.When we begin life as he senses excessive excitement, she should also include vitamin C, which helps give penis skin elasticity and also improves blood flow.

Early ejaculation does occur, there is little arousal.Once this is the strength of your relationship.You may not spare you the appropriate treatments to no effect.When the muscles and prolong intercourse by 3-4 times.Today, most sex therapists and researchers seem to think about finishing too early or too excited.

Home Remedy For Erectile Dysfunction And Premature Ejaculation

There are several courses of action is the PC flex.If you feel yourself becoming more aroused.The good news is that there is something you want to stop premature ejaculation tips to stop premature ejaculation herbal treatment that you can use to reduce the sensitivity of this is to just completely stop and start to feel pleasure without worrying about how to manipulate your body so it may just take all the hard to swallow bullet, understand the actual muscles included in the game doesn't ejaculate very quickly if you leave this condition disrupting your enjoyable time in their minds.Pills might be 100 % aroused while having sexual intercourse, may ejaculate a lot of self control and ejaculate quickly.You need to acknowledge the occurrence of the most effective method for solving the problem away will not be as popular as the male climaxes well before sex will not allow you to last a little extra time engaging in sex.

During intercourse, the man and his partner to do exercises can sharpen a surgeons skills.These increases sexual duration up to your way to solve this dilemma once the excitement in your relationship and understanding every man should, check out these natural techniques, one can employ the third technique that will help you then put it this way, you can do that, inevitably, they will ejaculate even before they touch their partners, as seeing their lovers where they can hurry through it and found that some of these techniques is start-stop technique.Although they can hurry through it for approximately 40% of the male wanted to make sure.What are the most permanent of all his sexual tolerance.Second, you may have severe performance anxiety which is because most of the sexual inexperience of youth.

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A Year of Rain: 1+1=Chaos

The pillars and challenges of implementing cooperative gameplay into your design.

When was the last time that you witnessed people yelling at each other in public? How did it make you feel? When was the last time you behaved out of the ordinary?

Those were the questions I asked myself while sitting in our break room watching my colleagues play a furious match in a 2v2 battle of Rocket League. The score was even, the mood tense, the banter on the rise. After the match went into overtime, one team inevitably emerged victorious and celebrated with cheers and high fives. Through the magic of play, yelling out loud in ecstasy or anger is, to a certain degree, socially acceptable. But how does it change the emotional impact a game has on players? How much sweeter are victories if celebrated with friends and how less painful are defeats?

When we allow ourselves to enter a state of play, we can observe that raw emotions, provoked by game states and human interactions, quickly surface. These emotions then get drawn in and reflected by everyone around us and create a unique experience that humans have enjoyed since their very beginning. While it is hard to quantify how reflected emotions impact the emotional state of players, it is evident that it does. Playing games together always held the potential power to establish or transform social bonds while being entertaining.

A study by Quantic Foundry (n=1266) in June 2016 did show that cooperative gameplay, locally and online, outranks the enjoyment versus competitive play by more than double the amount. Additionally, while competitive play shows a higher grade of entertainment with male audiences, cooperative play is loved by male and female players alike.

When playing with strangers, Quantic found that the appeal of co-op gameplay dropped sharply. Male players found more enjoyment in engaging strangers in a competitive game mode instead of teaming up.

Finally, the study reveals that older players are less affected by enjoyment depreciation. This would suggest that, with an aging community of gamers, co-op should be continuously on the rise.

So what is the takeaway? What can we learn? In comparison to competitive play, co-op seems to be more enjoyable to more people and ages. In short: Playing games can be a lot of fun, but playing games with friends has the potential to provide an even better experience. So why don’t we just make some more multiplayer games that focus on co-op then? Well, as it turns out, it is not all that easy. While making games itself is hard, many developers suggest that adding multiplayer to a game comes with a hefty price tag of development time and cost that is often hard to calculate. That aside, co-op on its own does raise a lot of design questions bringing even more issues to the table that we have to consider.

While a common goal is important, many more topics have to be carefully designed in order to form a good co-op experience.

The Pillars When I started working on our real-time strategy game A Year Of Rain, I tried to define pillars of co-op gameplay. Going forward, I will try to highlight what I think are the most valuable points we have to take care of in order to create a memorable cooperative experience:

After deciding that you would like to include co-op aspects in your project, you have to face a bunch of questions that define the multiplayer experience of your game. First off, which systems can you provide players with to allow cooperative gameplay and what kind of challenges will emerge out of those systems? Games like Overcooked will ask players to satisfy the culinary needs of virtual customers, while the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes tasks players to defuse a bomb. In order to create a co-op experience, players need a common goal.

Secondly, it might seem obvious, but it is essential that players win or lose together. The outcome of cooperative play has to be the same for all players. This does not imply that a single participant should not be able to stand out, but it is important that, in the end, players get the opportunity to celebrate together. After all, a match of Dead by Daylight is hard to win with all of the four survivors still being alive. The emerging player stories will tell of daring distractions that turned into heroic sacrifices to allow the team to score a shared victory. Players would ignore teamplay if their potential rewards were at risk.

As you want players to work together, your created challenges must base on interdependencies between your players. A World of Warcraft dungeon is rarely done by a single player because usually, a class-based system of an MMORPG does not allow everyone to do everything. However, your game does not need a heavy asymmetric character design in order to work as a co-op title. Symmetry is fine as long as the overarching goal can only be achieved together. In A Way Out, both characters have the same set of skills, and players are constantly tasked to open pathways together by swapping items or moving heavy objects to progress through the game.

Once you are happy with your interdependency design, make sure you add tools for players to communicate with one another. If you are not designing a local co-op game only, you need signaling mechanics. Do not assume that players will use VoIP applications like Teamspeak or Discord. A simple “Follow me!” in Counter-Strike or the interactive ping system of Apex Legends are especially needed in real-time games where decisions have to be made fast.

While players overcome challenges in your game together, feel free to add more social interactions. Those can be short visuals like emotes in Clash Royale or a high five animation in Portal 2. While it may not be necessary to progress through your game, simply playing some music together in a calm moment might evoke powerful emotions and create memories that players keep in the back of their heads for a long time.

To take it a step further, adding gameplay relevant co-op interactions is always a good idea. Picking up downed players in your favourite battle royale or sharing health pickups in Kirby Star Allies are mechanics that double down on team play and the importance of shared resources.

After the boss is defeated, the puzzle is solved, or the match is won; it is equally important to highlight the achievement of the team. A successful party will receive loot to empower their characters and become even stronger. Your team might rank up, or you simply unlock more challenges for you and your friends to overcome. What kind of team-based rewards will you have in store for your players?

The Challenges Now that we talked about the co-op design pillars, let me give you some insight on how we tried to tackle some of them in our current project and what issues we faced. For the sake of simplicity, I will not go deep into the competitive multiplayer part of the game, but rather focus on some of the co-op campaign issues.

Setting up a common goal by itself is not all too hard. Defeat the big bad boss, find the powerful MacGuffin or rescue the poor NPC. Yet, while symmetrical goals do not produce a lot of work, they can become stale fast. Remember when we talked about interdependencies? Creating some asymmetrical objectives that have to be solved by specialized players prior to the final goal helped us to break up the campaign gameplay. In order to design those puzzle elements, we have to assume a certain degree of control over the game state. That includes, for example, spawn points, resources, units, or hero abilities.

In contrast, a co-op mission in Starcraft has to be solvable by all commanders with all ranks. This leaves less room for specific interactions but allows Blizzard to add more Commanders to their in-game shop on a regular basis while mutators keep the available content fresh.

Winning or losing games together might feel pretty straight forward as well, but what would you do if a skill mismatch exists between your players? Let’s assume you design a mission with an asymmetric short term goal where one player has to fend off waves of enemies while the second player has to fight a boss at the other end of the map. Since we wanted to include asymmetric goals, the A Year Of Rain co-op campaign has several instances of player separation. Imagine player one repeatedly fails at his task of defending the base because he simply does not play a lot of strategy games. This would result in a shared lose condition, a degree of public humiliation and might demotivate our players.

The A Year Of Rain team is talking about the most valuable points to create a memorable cooperative experience.Since we always try to solve issues with a minimum design approach, we decided to allow players to change the difficulty setting before each mission. However, this is most likely not the ideal solution, since lowering the difficulty setting and therefore, the challenge might feel bad for skilled players. Developing a fully dynamic difficulty system that matches the skill of both separate players could be a better solution.

Looking at special interdependencies between players, it is important to realize that while you want players to work together, it should never feel forced. Interactions should emerge from your game by design. This is often an issue when gating players through our cooperative mission. To give some context, imagine you designed a mini-boss that you want your players to fight. Ideally, both players reach the boss arena at the same time. You can fire a cutscene and start the fight. In reality, however, this is unlikely, and the gate has to stay closed until both party members are ready and in the right position. Just teleporting all characters into the arena once the first player reaches it feels like getting pulled by the iconic Scorpion spear from Mortal Kombat. In our case, we use mechanics like switches in front of the arena that both players have to activate at the same time in order to initiate the fight. Additionally, we are trying our best to keep players busy by adding story bits or minor tasks while they wait for the second player to arrive.

Another issue that comes with co-op multiplayer gameplay is a potential lack of clarity. Since most of the time, you will be focused on your own character or party, it is unlikely that you constantly keep track of the actions of your fellow players. This issue only grows with the number of players involved. Luckily, we focus on two-player co-op, provide good communication tools, and try to keep mission-relevant information on the UI at all times.

Healing an ally is a simple co-op interaction that feels great for both players.

Lastly, if you put two strangers in a co-op game, they might not be kind to each other. Jerks are a real issue, especially if you have a shared lose condition. Chat filters, surrender votes, and punishments for toxic behaviour are a way to mitigate the issue, but the past has shown that especially in competitive multiplayer environments damage will be done. As Alfred Pennyworth said: “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” In order to create a stress-free alternative, we decided to allow players to enjoy the campaign with an AI player if they so desire.

However… Do not be discouraged. Despite the hardships, creating a cooperative game, and seeing players interact with each other is incredibly rewarding. Watching players formulate a strategy, jump in a game, adapt and overcome challenges, get motivated to play again and try a different approach is worth the struggle.

Christoph Carstensen Game Designer

Coming from an IT background, Christoph obtained his B.A.Sc. in Media/IT in 2013. After working as a Game and Level Designer for indie studios and a mobile game company, he now happily designs A Year Of Rain at Daedalic Entertainment and enjoys exploring the possibilities of blockchain-based games in his spare time.

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