#studio nano

[toonabby]

Happy double birthdays to Madeline Dorroh (27) and Barrett Leddy (32)!

[erisperitas]

Nano Elivos, the Ranger

I've been hosting themed OC Shares over on Bluesky every other week for the last month or two and have been drawing custom banners of my OCs to represent each theme~

The third one I hosted was "Ranged" themed and it was really cool seeing everyone's spell snipers and sharpshooters~

[ OC Share : Ranged ]

[ Carrd | Patreon | Ko-fi ]

[matteobuccolistudio]

atelier

Matteo Buccoli Studio

[satoshi-mochida]

Game Boy Color-style slice-of-life RPG Petal Runner announced for PC - Gematsu

Publisher iam8bit and developer Nano Park Studios have announced Petal Runner, a Game Boy Color-style slice-of-life RPG about virtual life coming to PC via Steam. A release date was not announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via iam8bit:

About Become a specialized courier known as a Petal Runner for the newest generation of artificial pet technology in this slice-of-life RPG with diverse minigames and wholesome storytelling. Hop on your bike and join Cali and Kira as they explore the sun-soaked city of Sapphire Valley and train to become Petal Runners! Make deliveries, meet new friends, play minigames, and discover a wholesome slice-of-life story about growing up and letting go. Becoming a Petal Runner is hard work, but it’s also a blast. Train with a group of quirky Mentors and learn new courier skills as you encounter the various Petal Runner branches across Sapphire Valley’s districts. Each Mentor brings their own unique stories—and minigames!

Key Features

Love letter to Game Boy Color Era Visuals – Charming pixel art graphics composed of four main colors, inspired by retro games.

Slice of Life RPG With Open World Freedom – Sapphire Valley’s open world is filled with charming discoverable interactions and side adventures that feature other challenges and minigames.

City of Sapphire Valley – Every district of Sapphire Valley is distinguishable by unique accent colors, making the environment itself its own main character.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

[shironezuninja]

I cannot deny how enthralled I was to be experiencing Pokémon’s popularity in 1999 while Spider-Man Unlimited got overshadowed. Hell, I don’t think I ever knew that the cartoon existed in the media as Pokemon ceased my childhood disorientation. But I do feel sorry for the Unlimited Spidey show’s abrupt end now.

[gzintle]

I Found The Best Pro Graphic Designer on Fiverr.com!

Hey everyone! Welcome. Today, we’re diving into the world of graphic design on Fiverr. If you’re looking to hire a skilled designer for your next project, you’re in the right place. Finding the perfect graphic designer can make or break your project, and Fiverr is an awesome resource packed with talent!

Did you know there are over 1.5 million graphic designers on Fiverr? Yeah, that’s a HUGE number! With so many options, it can be a real challenge to find the right one for your project. So, how do you sift through all that talent without losing your mind? Stick around, and I’ll help you out!

Alright, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. When you start searching for a graphic designer on Fiverr, it can feel like you’ve opened a floodgate of options. I mean, with over a million designers, you might think, "Wow, I’m spoiled for choice!" But here’s the kicker—this overwhelming selection can make it tough to find someone who’s really good and fits your needs. You’ll often come across profiles that look amazing but might not deliver the quality you’re after. Plus, there’s a huge variety in styles and expertise, which can add to the confusion. Maybe you’ve seen a designer with a great portfolio, only to realize their client feedback is less than stellar. It’s like searching for a needle in a haystack, right? So how do you cut through the noise and find the best designer for your project? Let’s explore some strategies!

To start, you’ve got to consider a few key factors when evaluating potential Fiverr graphic designers. First off, take a good look at their portfolio. This is where you’ll get a sense of their style and capabilities. Are their past projects similar to what you have in mind? If you’re looking for a minimalist logo, but their portfolio is filled with vibrant, complex designs, it might not be the right fit. Next up, client feedback is crucial. Make sure to read through reviews and ratings. Look for comments that mention communication, deadlines, and overall satisfaction. This gives you insight into what it’s like to work with them. And speaking of communication, it’s super important! Reach out to potential designers and see how they respond. Are they quick to reply? Do they ask clarifying questions? Good communication can save you a lot of headaches down the line. Lastly, check if the designer offers any revisions. A great designer should be open to tweaking their work based on your feedback. This flexibility can make all the difference in achieving the final product you envision!

Now, here’s the golden nugget of wisdom: the best strategy to narrow down your choices is to create a shortlist of designers based on your specific project needs. Start by filtering your search results using Fiverr’s built-in tools. Look for designers whose style resonates with your vision and who have positive reviews. Once you have a shortlist, reach out to each of them with a clear brief of your project. This not only helps you gauge their professionalism but also gives you a feel for their understanding of your needs. Ask them about their process and any ideas they might have for your project. This step is super important because it helps you see who truly gets what you’re looking for. By engaging with them, you can easily figure out who aligns best with your project goals!

Alright, let’s wrap this up! Today, we talked about the challenges of finding the right graphic designer on Fiverr, and I shared some key tips to help you out. Remember to focus on portfolio reviews, client feedback, and communication skills. And don’t forget to create a shortlist and engage with potential designers to find that perfect match for your project! So, what do you think? Have you had any experiences hiring graphic designers on Fiverr? I want to hear your stories in the comments below!

Follow the short link to hire a top pro Graphic Designer on Fiverr.com. Click Here to hire a top pro Graphic Designer on Fiverr.com: https://tinyurl.com/ysakez4n

[queencordite]

Nanowrimo has eaten me so please enjoy this kinda old art of the main characters that I did...uh...last year probably? Ill redraw them soon.

[bradsbackpack]

Nano X Shimmer Diffussion Filter

Nano X Shimmer Diffusion Filter: Our Verdict Nano X Shimmer Diffusion Filter Star Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Pros Lightweight Can fit all sizes with the step up rings Cons Subtle changes Technical Details Main Materials Aliminium and glass Thickness 3.3mm Where to buy a Nano X Shimmer Diffusion Filter The link below will take you to Amazon if you would like to purchase the…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“Brand safety” killed Jezebel

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library this Monday, November 13 at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

Progressives: if you want to lose to conservatives, all you need to do is reflexively praise and support everything conservatives turn into a culture-war issue, without considering whether they might be right. Because sometimes…they're right.

Remember early in the Trump presidency, when conservatives all woke up and discovered that America's spy agencies – excuse me, "the intelligence community" – were dirty-tricking psychos who run amok, lawlessly sabotaging democracy? Progressives have been shouting this ever since Hoover's FBI tried to blackmail MLK into killing himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_letter

But millions of progressives forgot about COINTELPRO, CIA dirty tricks and CIA mass spying when this "intelligence community" temporarily set out to wrong-foot Trump. Remember James Comey votive candles?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/08/30/james-comey-fbi-memo-leaks-trump-inspector-general-report-column/2157705001/

Anthropologists have a name for this phenomenon, in which one side reverses its positions because their sworn enemies have done so. It's called schizmogenesis, and it goes like this: "If they hate it, we love it":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/18/schizmogenesis/

Schizmogenesis is an equal-opportunity delusion. Within living memory, white evangelicals supported abortion, because their sworn enemies – Catholics – opposed it. Some of those white Boomer women who voted Trump because abortion was literally the only issue they cared about held the opposite position on abortion not so long ago – and completely forgot about it:

https://text.npr.org/734303135

The main purpose of the culture war isn't immiserating marginalized people – that's its effect, but its purpose is to distract low-information turkeys (working people) so they'll vote for Christmas (the ongoing seizure of power by American oligarchs). For the funders of conservative movement politics, the cruelty isn't the point, it's merely the tactic. The point is power:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/09/turkeys-voting-for-christmas/#culture-wars

Which brings me to "woke capitalism." Conservative string-pullers have whipped up their base about the threat of companies embracing social causes. They (erroneously) claim that corporations have progressive values, and that big business is thumbing the scales for causes they despise. The purpose here isn't to sow distrust of capitalism per se. Rather, it's to stampede talk-radio-addled supporters into backing the oligarchy's agenda. Remember when culture war leaders told their base to support being gouged on credit-card junk fees "to own the libs?"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

That's schizmogenesis working against the conservative rank-and-file, tricking them into taking the side of a cartel of wildly profitable payment processors who are making billions by picking their pockets (credit card fees are up 40% since the covid lockdowns), because (checks notes), Target pays these profiteers a lot to process its payments, and Target sells Pride merch (no, really):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

It's easy to point and laugh at conservative dopes when they're tricked into shooting themselves in the balls to own the libs. This is not a hypothetical example:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/28/holographic-nano-layer-catalyser/#musketfuckers

But progressives do it, too, particularly when they embrace monopolies as a force for positive social change. Remember 2019, when people got excited about playing loud pop music at Nazi rallies in the hopes that the monopoly video platforms' copyright filters would make any video from that rally impossible to post?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/23/clever-hack-that-will-end-badly-playing-copyrighted-music-during-nazis-rallies-so-they-cant-be-posted-to-youtube/

I warned then that if this tactic worked, it would be used by cops to prevent you from recording them when they're macing you or splitting your skull with a billyclub, and yup, within a couple years, cops were blaring Taylor Swift music in hopes of preventing the public from posting videos of their illegal conduct:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/07/moral-hazard-of-filternets/#dmas

Conservatives are (partially) right about woke capitalism. It is a threat to democracy. Concentrating the power to decide who gets to speak and what they get to say into the hands of five or six corporations, mostly run by mediocre billionaires, is bad for society. The moderation decisions of giant platforms are a form of (commercial) censorship, even these don't violate the First Amendment:

https://locusmag.com/2020/01/cory-doctorow-inaction-is-a-form-of-action/

(The progressive delusion that censorship only occurs when the First Amendment is violated is a wild own-goal, one that excuses, for example, the decision by school book-fair monopolist Scholastic to remove books about queers and Black and brown people from its offerings as a purely private matter without consequences for free speech):

https://www.themarysue.com/scholastic-response-to-authors-and-illustrators-on-diverse-books/

Conservatives are only partially right about woke capitalism, though. Here's what they're wrong about: corporations don't have values. Target isn't selling Pride tees because they support progressive causes, they're selling them because it seems like a good way to increase returns to their shareholders. Individuals – even top executives – at Target might endorse the cause, but the company will only durably support the cause if that endorsement is profitable, which means that when it stops being profitable, the company will stop supporting the cause:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/23/business/target-lgbtq-merchandise/index.html

The idea that corporations have values isn't merely stupid, it's very dangerous. The Hobby Lobby decision – which allows corporations to deny basic health-care expenses for women on the basis that a Bronze Age mystic wouldn't approve of an IUD – rests on the ideological foundation that corporate personhood includes corporate values:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burwell_v._Hobby_Lobby_Stores,_Inc.

Citizens United – the idea that corporations should be allowed to funnel unlimited funds to politicians who'll sell out the public good in favor of investor profits – also depends on a form of corporate personhood that includes values:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC

There are undeniably instances in which corporate monopoly power benefits progressive causes, but these are side-effects of corporate power's main purpose, namely: taking money and power away from working people and giving it to rich people. That is what monopoly power is for.

Which brings me to ad-tech, "brand safety," and the demise of Jezebel, the 16 year old feminist website whose shuttering was just announced by its latest owner, G/O Media:

https://www.metafilter.com/201349/This-is-the-end-of-Jezebel-and-that-feels-really-really-bad

Jezebel's demise is the direct result of monopoly power. Jezebel writes about current affairs – sex, politics, abortion, and other important issues of great moment and significance. When we talk about journalism as a public good, necessary for a healthy civic life, this is what we mean. But unfortunately for Jezebel – and any other news outlet covering current events – there are vast, invisible forces that exist solely to starve this kind of coverage of advertising revenue.

Writing for the independent news site 404 Media, reporter Emanuel Maiberg and former Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler go deep on the "brand safety" industry, whose mission is to assist corporations in blocking their ads from showing up alongside real news:

https://www.404media.co/advertisers-dont-want-sites-like-jezebel-to-exist/

Maiberg and Koebler explain how industry associations like the World Federation of Marketers' Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) promulgate "frameworks" to help advertisers automatically detect and exclude real news from consideration when their ads are placed:

https://www.peer39.com/blog/garm-standards

This boycott makes use of scammy "AI" technology like "sentiment and emotional analysis" to determine whether an article is suitable for monetization. These parameters are then fed to the ad-tech duopoly's ad auction system, so Google and Meta (who control the vast majority of online advertising) can ensure that real news is starved of cash.

But reality is not brand-safe, and high quality, reputable journalistic outlets are concerned with reality, which means that the "brand safe" outlets that attract the most revenue are garbage websites that haven't yet been blacklisted by the ad-safety cartel, leading to major brands' ads showing up alongside notorious internet gross-out images like "goatse":

https://www.404media.co/sqword-game-dev-sneaks-goatse-onto-a-dozen-sites-that-stole-his-game/

More than a fifth of "brand safe" ad placements end up on "made for advertising" sites, which 404 Media describe as "trash websites that plagiarize content, are literally spam, pay for fake traffic, or are autogenerated websites that serve no other purpose than capturing ad dollars":

https://www.ana.net/miccontent/show/id/rr-2023-06-ana-programmatic-transparency-first-look

Despite all this, many progressives have become cheerleaders for "brand safety," as a countervailing force to the drawdown of trust and safety at online platforms, which led to the re-platforming of Nazis, QAnon conspiratorialists, TERFs, and other overt elements of the reactionary movement's vanguard on Twitter and Facebook. Articles about ads for major brands showing up alongside Nazi content on Twitter are now a staple of progressive reporting, presented as evidence of Elon Musk's lack of business acumen. The message of these stories is "Musk is bad at business because he's allowing Nazis on his platform, which will send advertisers bolting for the exits to avoid brand-safety crises."

This isn't wrong. Musk is a bad businessman (he's a good scam artist, though). Twitter is hemorrhaging advertisers, notwithstanding the desperate (and easily debunked) stats-juking its "CEO," Linda Yaccarino, floats onstage at tech conferences:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/11/math-problem-for-linda-yaccarino-if-90-of-the-top-advertisers-have-come-back-but-are-only-spending-10-of-what-they-used-to-how-screwed-are-you/

But progressives are out of their minds if they think the primary effect of the brand safety industry is punishing Elon Musk for secretly loving Nazis. The primary effect of brand safety is killing reality-based coverage of the news of the day, and since reality has a well-known anti-conservative bias, anything that works against the reality-based community is ultimately good for oligarchy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

We can't afford to let schizmogenesis stampede us into loving things just because conservative culture warriors have been momentarily tricked into hating them as part of oligarchs' turkeys-voting-for-Christmas project. "Swivel-eyed loons hate it, so it must be good," is a worse-than-useless heuristic for navigating complex issues:

https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/

A much better rule of thumb is "If oligarchs love something, it's probably bad." Almost without exception, things that are good for oligarchs are bad for the rest of us. I mean, this whole shuttering of Jezebel starts with an oligarch imposing his will on millions of other people. Jezebel began life as a Gawker Media site, beloved of millions of readers, destroyed when FBI informant Peter Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against the publisher in a successful bid to put them out of business to retaliate for their unfavorable coverage of Thiel:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/02/hogan-thiel-gawker-trial/554132/

This, in turn, put Jezebel under the ownership of G/O Media, who are unwilling to pay for a human salesforce that would – for example – sell advertising space on Jezebel to sex-toy companies or pro-abortion groups. G/O has been on a killing spree, shuttering beloved news outlets like Deadspin:

https://deadspin.com/this-is-how-things-work-now-at-g-o-media-1836908201

G/O's top exec, an oligarch named Jim Spanfeller who answers to the private equity looters at Great Hill Partners, is bent on ending reality-based coverage in favor of "letting robots shit out brand safe AI-assisted articles about generic topics":

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ai-articles-disinformation-future-g-o-media-rcna95944

Three quarters of a century ago, Orwell coined a term to describe this kind of news: duckspeak,

It was not the man’s brain that was speaking it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words but it was not speech in true sense: it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness like the quacking of a duck.

When investors and analysts speak of "content" (rather than, say, "journalism"), this is what they mean – a warm slurry of platitudes, purged of any jagged-edged fragments to render it a perfectly suitable carrier for commercial messages targeted based on surveillance data about the "consumer" whose eyeballs are upon it.

This aversion to reality has been present among corporate decisionmakers since the earliest days, but the consolidation of power among large firms – ad-tech firms, online platforms, and "brands" themselves – makes corporate realityphobia much easier to turn into, well, reality, giving advertisers the fine-grained power to put Jezebel and every site like it out of business.

As Koebler and Maiberg's headliine so aptly puts it, "Advertisers Don’t Want Sites Like Jezebel to Exist."

The reason to deplore Nazis on Twitter is because they are Nazis, not because their content isn't brand-safe. The short-term wins progressives gain by legitimizing a corporate veto over what we see online are vastly overshadowed by the most important consequence of brand safety: the mass extinction of reality-based reporting. Reality isn't brand safe. If you're in the reality based community, brand safety should be your sworn enemy, even if they help you temporarily get a couple of Nazis kicked off Twitter.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/11/ad-jacency/#brand-safety

[hyperactivelyanxious]

i want a season two of thamepo but with jundylan as main couple, where dylan's brain crashes every time jun is too close, tries to brush the tingling feeling off his skin whenever they accidentally touch, isolating himself in his studios but ends up writing tonnes of love songs featuring his confusing one sided crush for jun, making everyone in the group question themselves and the said man, and most importantly jun going through "am i really in love with his grumpy man?" crisis where he awkwardly asks po for relationship advice. Also it would be fun if nano would narrate the moments secretly

[toonabby]

Happy birthday, Julia Gu!

(Updated to add image)

[thebibliosphere]

My only complaints about Gotham Knights are 1) i want to get exp for killing cops and 2) I think Barbara should have been Oracle and Cass Cain should have been Batgirl. Batman not really being there is a plus imo

I would have loved Cass to be there, but I also like how they handled Barbara as Batgirl and her recovery.

I like that she still uses her wheelchair when she doesn't have her back brace on. I like that the Belfry has been adapted to be wheelchair friendly. I like that her suit is augmented to compensate for her back. and that she talks about physical therapy in terms of ongoing rehabilitation and not "I worked really hard, and I'm cured!"

It's just nice to have those little nods to dynamic disabilities in a world where you can nano-bot/magic your way out of erasing them.

I think if we'd ever gotten a second game (we still might, but IIRC, the studio went under during covid), we'd have seen more expansion of the Batfamily. It certainly feels like space was being set up for them.

And I actually think it's funnier that they don't give us XP for killing cops. Like, the game gave me a reminder the other day, "Remember, you don't get XP for attacking the GCPD," and I'm like, oh, no, bestie, I'm doing this for free.

I will gladly dropkick a cop into oncoming traffic outside the donut shop on my own time 😂.

[tamapalace]

Bandai Announces Jurassic World Rebirth Tamagotchi Nano

To commemorate the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth movie that is set to be released on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025 Bandai has partnered up with Universal Studios to deliver another Jurassic Tamagotchi Nano! The Jurassic World Resurrection Land Tamagotchi comes in two different shells, Spinosaurus (light gray) and Mosasaurus (light blue).

Three new dinosaurs that are featured in the movie have been added to this Tamagotchi, and additional movie scenes from both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World Series are both featured. Along with three mini-games which are the same as the previous model.

The official release date is set for Saturday, July 12th, 2025 for ¥2,860 including tax. Amazon US has listed them for $24.99 USD with a release date of August 12th, 2025.

[bkdk-dump-blog]

I've been thinking about this for a while and drawing it made me confirm my confliction...

Today I finally drew Deku's future suit and all I could think about was how the suit was complicated for the sake of being complicated

When I first saw the suit for the first time I was like "Oh, that's it..?" but a lot of people said that they loved it so I thought it was a personal thing for me (which all of this is. It's an opinion)

Maybe if we actually got to see what the suit actually does than maybe I would change my mind but the story just keeps on refraining from it for some reason (maybe it's in ultra age. I haven't checked)

let me show you an image of the suit

Don't get me wrong. I'm perfectly okay with costumes and mecha suits just being complicated because, but in the actual story every suit is tailored to the person and with this suit specifically Kacchan, 1-A, and Mei designed the suit for him

The suit does the nano Iron Man thing which fine it's cool but I'm still sitting here like "WHY?!". The shooter things on his knuckles, on the back palm, underneath his wrist, AND forearm?!?! The weird wires that align with his crotch for some reason. And don't even get me started on the shoes 💀 I'm sorry for the people that like them but they look atrocious!

When I tried to draw my suit all my brain wanted to do was simplify it and try to make some sort of sense with it

Another elephant in the room is how is anyone supposed to animate this?!?! Studio Bones just simply has to simplify this. The amount of effort to do just 10 frames of this suit would just be a waste of time! If they do try to draw all of the components they'll probably just animate his hair and his cape

AND another thing, why can't I find a single image of the suit where the top half is shown? If you're not going to show the top half of the suit THEN WHY MAKE THE SUIT- You know what, I'm gonna stop there

(I didn't even realize his masks was underneath his cape until now. It's a cool detail but I wished I could actually see it in the design overall...)

I felt like I got spoiled by the fandom. You guys took like half of the suit and ran with it. I adore what people came up with and I honestly prefer a lot of it over the actual one

I hope you don't take this post too seriously. This post wasn't really a "look how wrong this is" and more "oh thank god I'm not the only one" type of rant

If anyone can find an explanation on the suit and the actual full picture of the suit don't be afraid to dm me, tag me, or write a comment <3

[autolenaphilia]

Deus Ex (25th anniversary review)

Deus Ex was developed and released by Ion Storm on June 23, 2000, and thus it celebrates its 25th anniversary today, is a classic video game for a reason.

It’s a rpg/first-person shooter hybrid game, set in a cyberpunk world, that was definitive for the immersive sim genre. Many of the people working on the game were previously at Looking Glass Studios, and Deus Ex is a spiritual successor to games such as System Shock and Thief.

Premise

The game is set in the 2050s, when the world has become a cyberpunk/sci-fi dystopia. You play as JC Denton, a cyborg agent for UNATCO, literally the world police run by the UN. Denton is augmented by nanomachines to have superhuman abilities. Yet despite having a promising career fighting terrorists as a supercop, Denton begins to doubt who is good and evil as he comes across a worldwide conspiracy.

Gameplay and graphics

Immersive sim means an emphasis on player choice, and Deus Ex is really good at this. The game’s levels are large and fairly open, and you pretty much always have multiple ways to approach a situation and accomplish your objectives. Being stealthy and going in through the vents, hacking your way through a door, talking to people to get information and help, or even going in guns blazing, you often have a choice. The game also adapts to your choices.

The game design is more traditional linear style, where you progress from level to level after accomplishing your objectives, rather than open world, but this is honestly for the better. Open world games often lack focus and drive, and the world is too large for its own good. Deus Ex’s approach with a series of large open levels works better. It has a lot of the narrative drive and focus of linear games, while also has the sense of player choice and openness open world games strive for.

The gameplay, as you might expect from such an ambitious game released back in 2000, is often a bit clunky and awkward.

There is some classic rpg bullshit in this game where you can easily screw yourself by putting your skill points wrong. Despite the emphasis on player choice, some stats are clearly much better than others, and you have to choose wisely (or look up guides).

For example, your computers skill can be bumped right to the advanced level in the character creation screen, and the hacking skills it will give you will basically break the game, as you no longer need to find passwords for the computers you find. You have hollywood-style hacking powers whereas a lot of the game expects you to do realistic hacking, finding passwords people left lying around.

But there are other stats (such as swimming and environmental training) that are so useless that in practice they are only traps to make the unwary player waste precious skill points.

You also get nano-machine augmentations. You get a limited number of slots for them, and you get a choice between two augmentations to put into each slot. And some like your skills are clearly much better than others. Regeneration (of health) and speed enhancement downright break the game, while their alternatives are far from being as useful.

The gunplay is also rather clunky, though this is somewhat by design, since the game tries to be more realistic than other shooters and really try to merge the rpg mechanics with the FPS mechanics. The gunplay is mostly about your accuracy, and that is very variable. If you literally run and gun like in other fps games at the time, you won’t be very accurate, just like in real life. You have to stand still and aim for some seconds to become accurate (your crosshair shows how accurate your aim is) and you will lose that accuracy by moving again. And with more skill points put into your weapon stats your character will become more accurate, as his skills improve.

You can also upgrade your weapons and these can literally break the game. The laser-sight upgrade basically means your weapon is perfectly accurate, meaning skill points put into weapons are less relevant. I’m not complaining though, getting that kind of upgrade is very welcome for the level your firearms skills are at that point in the game.

The Thief-esque stealth system is also kinda janky. It is viable for most of the game, but you have to rely on quicksaves and knowing the game’s weird quirks. These quirks include such things such as moving while crouching makes you completely silent, silent takedowns also being silent, enemies not reacting to unconscious bodies, enemies weakpoint to non-lethal weapons such as the baton being the small of the back (just above the belt), your low-tech weapons skill impacting how effective you are with non-lethal melee weapons, and so on. It’s doable and very useful to avoid combat and save precious ammo, but it’s vey weird, and you have to figure this out or read about it online.

Another good example is how crouching in dark shadows basically make you invisible, just like in Thief, but you can’t really know this, because unlike in Thief you don’t have a visibility meter.

So the gameplay is kinda janky whichever way you play, though it’s still perfectly playable. And what really makes Deus Ex fun to play is exploring the world.

The world, graphics and sound design

The game’s level design both contributes to gameplay but also adds to the sense of an immersive beliveable world. Multiple ways to achieve the same objectives adds to the sense of the world being real. And the game’s story and world to some extent adapts to your choices too. Even little things, like you can get an optional sidequest to break into a shop, and if you already found the shop and broken into it, JC will mention that when she gets asked to do it.

It all creates this sense that the world is real. It’s a far more immersive world than most later AAA games, whose worlds despite being more bigger, less linear and with more detailed graphics feel fake and video-gamey in comparison to Deus Ex.

And the graphics are actually good. The graphics of old 3d games from this era are often quite charming in their low-polyness, and Deus Ex has that in spades. A lot of that charm is thanks to the art direction, which uses every polygon available and low-res texture to add beliveable amount of detail to this world. And the soundtrack rules. The Game of the year edition actually came with a separate soundtrack CD, which tells you how justly proud Ion Storm was of the music.

Story and themes

A lot of what makes the world beliveable is the writing. And one of the things that most impresses is the care given to side characters.One of the main details that add so much versmillitude to the game are the people you meet. There is so much thought put into the random npcs not important to the story that they often feel like real people. They maybe don’t have a lot of dialogue, but what they have reveal so much about who they are and what they think that they feel real. Like for example, you can have an entirely optional conversation about politics with a bartender in Hong Kong where he defends the rule of the CPC in China. The conversation is optional, not that long and you can’t really to talk with him again (except to buy drinks from him), but he feels like a real person with opinions someone might have.

It’s a lot of work put into people you can run into in one level and who don’t affect the overarching plot at all. And the game’s main story and sci-fi worldbuilding is one of the more thought-out stories and worlds in video games. It goes deep into political and philosophical themes.

Spoilers from here on out.

The game’s setting is a classic cyberpunk one, where corporations have become even more powerful, and use the advanced sci-fi technology to survey and control people.

However, you start the game as a very not-punk thing to be: a cop. A good cop. People might expect some copaganda police story, but the game quickly gets away from this. You get hints that UNATCO are not on the side of the angels, and that the terrorists you fight are not evil. In fact, the terrorist leader you apprehend at the end of the first level gets you into the first of many political-philosophical conversations you can have and he has complex and sympathetic reasons for his terrorism.

And JC Denton soon learns more, UNATCO is just a tool in the hands of a global corporate conspiracy to take over the world, run by Majestic-12 of UFO conspiracy lore (though the game doesn’t go much into UFO and aliens stuff). And as is the fate of every good cop in real life, Denton realizes he is part of the oppressive system, and quits the force and defects. In fact every good person in UNATCO becomes a mole or a defector at that point. JC becomes a classic cyberpunk hero rebel fighting against the establishment.

It’s here that the game’s writing and politics gets into problematic territory. For what the game is trying to do is appropriate conspiracy theories. The game takes real-world conspiracy theories about the illuminati and Majestic-12 and uses them to create a kind of anti-capitalist sci-fi story. The conspiracy theory stuff in this game shouldn’t really be taken literally as a statement about how the world works, but as a metaphor for capitalism.

This kind of appropriation of conspiracy theories was popular at the time the game was made and released. The Matrix released the year before in 1999 does basically the same thing (Deus Ex and The Matrix are aestetically and thematically similar pieces of media, probably because they have similar influences) They Live (1988), whose memetic “OBEY” signs Deus Ex references in the Versalife level, is an influential example.And of course on television there was The X-files, an inspiration for Deus Ex, which made conspiracy theories and paranormal beliefs the object of a fun television series.

This made more sense at the time than it does nowadays. Conspiracy theorists were seen as politically marginalized and thus harmless kooks. And their “theories” were thus fair game to be appropriated as part of sci-fi stories.. This is the cultural context for what Deus Ex does.

I have to say; I do like the story of Deux Ex. I actually share it’s appreciation of conspiracy theories as stories, it’s anti-capitalist themes, and both The Matrix and They Live are some of my favorite movies.

But the conspiracy stuff is certainly a part of the game that hasn’t aged well. In the 25 years since this game was released, conspiracy theorists have gone from marginalized extremists to the dominant form of thinking for the right-wing. They are spread by the president of the USA at this point. They are not sources of fun sci-fi stories anymore, but a serious threat.

Thankfully for Deus Ex conspiracy theories have largely moved from Illuminati/Majestic-12 stuff, so the game’s use of them feels retro and nostalgic at this point, but it’s still uncomfortable part of the game today. A major plot point can be best summarized as "hashtag plandemic". Even Warren Spector agrees with this and said a few years ago “I’m not sure I’d make Deus Ex today. The conspiracy theories we wrote about are now part of the real world. I don’t want to support that.”

And even at the time the game’s use of conspiracy theories seems kinda tasteless. The writers seem unaware of the anti-semitic core of these conspiracy theories. Sympathetic characters will bring up how the Rothschilds created the trilateral commission (a complete untruth) and talk about “globalists.” This includes the main character’s beloved older brother Paul Denton, the story’s wise mentor character. I’m sure the anti-semitism of such things wasn’t intentional, but it speaks to a major blind spot of the game’s writers that this wasn’t even addressed.

Besides the politics, the game goes into the typical themes of the cyberpunk genre. It raises the question of what it means for your identity and humanity when you were created with genetic engineering as a tool for a purpose. An overall theme is technology’s danger of being used by the rich and powerful for surveillance and control of other people. A major plot point is the possibility of an AI being intelligent and powerful enough to become a god, the game’s title is derived from the latin phrase Deus ex machina, and the story gives a different and literal meaning to that ancient phrase.

It’s all standard stuff you could find in the cyberpunk books of the era, including the politics. But for the most part and despite its flaws, it’s executed well enough and with an unusual intelligence for a video game that it works out.

Deus Ex really is a flawed masterpiece that has artistic ambitions few games had before or since. And it certainly makes mistakes in trying to realize its ambitions, but it realizes enough of them that it reaches levels of artistry few games have reached.

[drinkumoo]

A Nurse's Recount of the Past [3]

In which a ex-nurse is tasked to figure out a sleep-walking problem alongside a stray cat.

[ the apothecary diaries x gn reader ]

[1] [2] [3]

author's notes are at the bottom, no warnings today

Amber rays streamed through the windows, the dust being highlighted by the light. Brushstrokes hit the parchment as the servants bustled around the hallway outside. Porcelain, glass, and silk flowers fill the shelves, impeccably dusted off. Mahogany creaks as the occupier of the seat leans back. Footsteps fill the room cautiously, like a rabbit entering a wolf's den. The hand writing on the scroll pauses as a servant enters the room.

“Sir, I have your latest financial report,” the servant begins to speak, gently placing each fresh scroll onto the desk, “but I assume that’s of no interest to you.” 

The man sitting at the desk raises his head, staring into the eyes of the servant. His presence was like that of a predator. Unnerving, cold, masked in a cloud of stoicism. Only a slight nod is the servant’s only tell of the master’s response. 

With an awkward clearing of their throat, they continue. “The physician has sent a report regarding the heron.” 

That managed to catch the lord of the estate’s attention. His eyes harden, a simple wordless answer. Continue, his sharpened eyes seemed to speak for him. 

“They seem to have changed overnight; they’re now more active in the medical wing. The spark they once held as a child has seemed to return before Mada–” the servant’s words are quickly shut down by the gruff voice of the master of the house.

“That is enough, Liaoshu. It seems it is time to call my little heron back into their sanctuary.” 

—

When you woke up this morning, a cold wind went down your spine. A stiff groan leaves your lips as you dive back under the sheets. It’s been about a month since the powder incident. A mild cough has already made its way to your throat after trying to confiscate all the containers alongside assigned eunuchs. Some woman even threw her powder puff at you when you tried to take the contraband. 

You sit up, glancing at the room around you. It’s simple, yet the floor space is bigger than your previous bedroom in your old apartment. A square window sits above the bedspace, with papers tacked on the paper-like walls with acupuncture pins. Rough sketches of the human body that are labelled fill the wall space like some sort of creepy wallpaper. A dark wooden desk sits off at a faraway corner, the tabletop filled with stained ink blots and crumbled up pages. You look down, staring at the blanket that covers your legs. Fur, presumably from a bear. While you did not ask Guen about it, his own bed did not have such a luxury. Figuring it was something owned by the previous owner of the body you currently inhibit, you brush it off to the side. 

Thinking back to your old apartment, thoughts of  your old life fill your head. About the hospital, the old payne’s gray walls alongside that ugly beige tiling. The backhanded praise from your superiors. The shouts from patients refusing to cooperate. The grueling work hours you cannot fathom working now. Yet the technology was miles away from what they had here in the Li dynasty. The ability to have blood transfusions for the injured. Machines that tracked the statistical health of patients down to a nano-decimal. The bittersweet comfort of the awareness of survival. None of those exist here. Life and death is no longer a determined percentile, but an estimate only determined by what the gods deem a worthy fighting effort. 

Your apartment, a studio loft that pardon your language sucked literal balls. A tiny little box that was somehow enough to sustain the life of a single human being. You’d argue your previous living arrangement was comparable to a prison sentence that you unfortunately paid for. Smog would fill your dingy little home, causing you to wake up in a fit of coughs every morning. One of the only perks of being a nurse is that people wouldn’t stare when you wore a mask twenty-four seven. 

 While you miss it to an extent, the fresh untainted air of the past is a far more comforting one

The air here was clean, only filled with the scents of incense and herbs. People didn’t have the internet to escape reality to, so the only option to speak with one another at a close distance was socializing. The quality of goods were actually entirely determined by cost, and not as softened by brand. Things had to actually be quality in order to survive the day to day of a regular citizen. The stress of the outside world was non-existent for the inhabitants in this timeline, for only you knew of the events going on outside of the region and in the future. Hell, even your body in this era is far healthier. No smoker’s cough, you actually had some light muscle, and your stamina put your old body to shame! Yet, something nagged at you, much like the coils of the unavoidable polluted air of the future. 

Huuyren. Your only friend when you weren’t aware reincarnation existed. 

He sat by your side through everything. Mostly, everything. You two met in high school when he was the dumb hot jock while you were stereotyped into being a shut-in (not like everyone was wrong, per se.) When you suffered through debilitating exhaustion, he made sure you were taken care of. In his own care, of course, he’d known how much you distrusted hospitals after working in one for so long no matter how much he urged you. You can almost hear his voice still nagging in your ears. 

“Babes. Go to the ER, I can’t keep caring for you like this!” He’d always scoff out, yet he never failed to be by your side when you were bedridden. He rarely called you by name, only by corny pet names he’d learned from western media. “Why do you keep working at that shitty hospital? I can get you a job at Xiangzhou Medical!” 

“You know I’d hate you if you did that, right Ren?” You spat out, before coughing harder in your memory. “I want to work for my income, not be given it on a silver platter. Beside’s, I’ve got the best healer a tank could ask for.” 

… You still feel that guilt gnawing at your heart when you think back to him. About his concern for you. Oh, how you hated seeing his crestfallen face. He came from money, yet never did you see him use it on himself beyond basic necessities. It was always on you, when you didn't decline. Out of everything you long for from the future, he is the only thing that could make the pain in your chest stop hurting. Or maybe energy drinks, that too would suffice. 

— 

“Hi, Maomao,” You greet, writing a prescription for a eunuch. Guen is nearby, grinding herbs while two cups of tea sit on a serving tray. She had been properly introduced to Guen and yourself some days ago. You had to hold back from actively making fun of your mentor’s lethal expression towards the younger girl that day.

“Can you check this medicine?” She asks Guen, who hums and heads to the back to go pour her a cup and get some snacks. 

“Something Lady Gokuyou requested?” You speak from your spot, rising up from your slouched position. 

The green-haired girl shakes her head. “Something I prepared myself.” 

Guen soon arrives with a new tray of tea and snacks, but with only one cup. 

You take a pause, sipping at the tea Guen prepared for the two of you initially. You place a hand at your chin, thinking as to what that said medicine could be.

While you thought, Maomao and to some extent Guen examined you closely, the former far more than the latter. 

They kind of look like a dog. Maomao flatly thought out, imagining you with floppy ears like a Shih Tzu. Maybe a sad one.

Guen thought differently, humming internally about your perceived masculine features. They’re so elegant, if they really tried, they could be a court lady..! Well… I prefer them like this.

“May I have some as well?” The voice of Jinshi cut through the placid conversation. Your train of thought breaks as you huff quietly to yourself. 

Guen stands up immediately, rushing to pour Jinshi a cup as well. You stay where you are, sipping your tea while observing the interaction. 

“Good work,” The purple haired eunuch muses towards Maomao. You can practically hear her bones shuddering as she backs away. Ever so quietly, you snort. Jinshi quickly shoots you a tight smile, causing you to shudder and back off as well. 

“It’s the least I could do,” the short girl huffs, and you can imagine cat ears perched up on her head. 

Both you and Maomao observe Jinshi move towards her right, her face becoming somewhat smug. You feel sweat droop from your temple. 

That’s the face of someone not thinking innocently. Wonder what she could be thinking about, given she kind of hates him. 

He lets out a deep sigh, his head propped up against his hand. “Are you thinking inappropriately right now?” 

Guess I was right. You take a sip of your tea to hold back your snickers. 

“Heh, you’re imagining things,” she looks away as you give her an amused glance. She takes notice, sending you a flat glare. “Don’t look at me like that.”

You shrug, but don’t verbally respond. 

Just as Guen walks back in, Jinshi requests him to search for a prescription. While Guen would typically send you to do so, perhaps the praise of Jinshi is enough to convince him to do it himself.

Guen goes off sulking as Maomao asks, “So, what do you really want?” 

“Have you heard of the ghost sightings?” Jinshi prods at the “stray cat”, who looks away but confirms that she has. 

“How about sleepwalking?” He adds, as you straighten up a bit. Sleepwalking? Seems like you weren’t the only one to be intrigued as Maomao perks up. “Sleepwalking?”

“Seems like I got your attention,” His jab at Maomao only gets her to out in frustration while you’re utterly uninvolved. Thank you, at least I–

“You also seem very interested in this, assistant,” So he intentionally didn’t want Guen in this conversation. You observe, but nod. “... I suppose so, Master Jinishi.” 

He hums, suddenly leaning towards Maomao whilst grabbing her shoulder. You only send her a look of pity. “How can it be cured?” 

She manages to flatly reply, “I don’t know. There is no medicine that cures somnambulism.” 

He turns to you, but you share a similar answer, “Not that I know of. In the west, sleepwalking was simply considered a spiritual manifestation.” 

Turning back to Maomao, he continues, “Is there a cure other than medicine or some sort of ritual?” 

“My specialty is medicine,” the green haired apothecary shoves him off. 

When he looks at you, you shrug. “I’m just a doctor’s assistant, anything wack like sleepwalking is out of my league.”

They both glance at you, probably wondering what the hell you just said in English. Oops, forgot. 

Forgetting that can of worms, The purple eunuch begins to hum whilst getting back in her face, “That’s too bad. That’s truly too, too bad.” 

“.... I’ll do my best,” Maomao scoffs.

When he leaves, you let out a sigh laced with playful mockery. “Need a cold towel after that?” 

“I’d need an ice bath,” she retorts in frustration as you let out an amused laugh. 

—

By nightfall, both you and Maomao take opposite directions to investigate. Because of your “masculinity” you go alone while she gets… Gaoshun?! Why couldn’t you look more like a woman! Well actually that would throw a wrench into things, but it should’ve been you! 

Anyways.

You’re by the eastern wall when the sounds of fabric catch your attention. Glancing up, you see a hauntingly beautiful woman dancing. “Woah. Man, this feels like I just walked into a secret quest-line.”

The sounds of footsteps behind you get you to turn. Seeing both Maomao and Gaoshun, you fight off a blush and send them both a silent nod. 

Shortly after, you return back to the medical building. You report the same sighting to that Gaoshun and Maomao reported, before declaring that you were going to log this down into the palace medical records. 

Shortly after, in the dead of night, Guen enters your room with a letter. “An anonymous messenger sent this to you.”

You take the letter, placing it on our desk as you write down the account in both your personal logbook and in the medical record book. “I’ll read it a little bit, thank you.”

—

By morning, both you and Maomao head down to the estate of Lady Fuyou after learning a bit more about her past. Both you and her are peering at the concubine, both your eyes trained on how… typical, she looks. 

 “Mid-ranking concubine, huh?” You speak absent-mindedly, while your body has an unnatural jerk towards your statement. You glance down, raising a brow. Did past me experience something like that?

“She seems pretty normal, completely different when she was dancing on that wall,” Maomao comments, ignoring your confusion raised to your own body. “She seems unassuming.” 

“Reminds me of a cotton rose,” you add on. 

Maomao turns to you in agreement as the two of you back off from Lady Fuyou’s estate. While she goes to report to Lady Gokuyou, you go back to the medical wing to rest. 

It feels like eyes are observing you. While the feeling of being watched is normal in the modern day thanks to all the cameras everywhere, this feels… Personal. You shiver in discomfort, rushing back with more urgency. Their intent is none of your business and not your problem…! 

—

A few days pass. Apparently Lady Fuyou was gifted to her childhood friend; a soldier. She had faked sleepwalking in order to prevent the Emperor from taking notice of her. You weren’t too interested in figuring out any more drama, so that’s probably why you found out so late. 

That letter on your desk has been distracting you for days by now. With trepidation, you pluck it off and open the fine parchment. It’s sealed with a wax seal, a sentiment usually done in the west. It being on a letter in this place and time urks you a little bit. What you found written on it finds a chill down your back.

“Come home next winter, little heron.” 

WAHHHH this is my first time writing an a/n in years

so sorry i took forever i had exams ;;;;;

btw i'll be opening a tag list if you ever want to be notified when i update!! theres also an ask box if you have any questions about my work, or if you're just bored lmfao