#totally ignore the title of the audio

[tiramegtoons]

since both of you @darkmedolie​ @medys-space​ seem to like them, heres some more sketches

bonus:

“IS THAT YOUR PECKING FURSONA??”

[gingerbreadmonsters]

I feel like all empathy daemons are either too childlike to even know what being in love feels like (Caelum) or they are asexual (Cam)

i.... potentially?? this is a good point, anon, and i fear that you may have opened the pandora's box of lore theorising in my brain 🤠🤠

everything i'm about to say is extrapolated from the only two empathy demons we've actually met - caelum and regulus (i think cam is a serenity demon, and thus might operate on different rules?). as such, it's likely to be wildly wrong, but i just like speculating lmao

in my mind, empathy demons (at least when they're young) can be quite easily impressionable, and actually have significant problems figuring out where the acceptable boundaries for manipulating/commenting on/sharing other people's emotions - they know that humans like feeling happy, and that they can help (well, force) them to feel happy, so there can be a bit of trouble getting them to realise that they shouldn't just reach into a human's brain and turn on the happy juice for a few minutes.

(this is part of the reason why caelum and freelancer's relationship is so important for both of them - caelum needs someone who can show him a healthy perspective of what makes humans feel certain ways, and how he can control the effect he's having on people.)

to me, his general bluntness and willingness to directly tell freelancer how their emotions are changing in real time (although it is very endearing) suggests that his youth means he might not quite be familiar with the general etiquette surrounding stuff like that, where humans tend to be a lot less open with discussing/revealing emotions than demons (seeing as they're not used to the people around them always being able to directly sense their feelings).

that weird relationship with happiness intersects very bizarrely with concepts about love, romance, and relationships in general, and i'd guess that it takes most empathy demons quite a long time to figure out how to negotiate even very basic relationships with humans like platonic friendships, and romantic relationships are even harder.

(caelum and regulus can't really help us in that regard, seeing as caelum is a child and regulus is... well, regulus, and the fact that cam comments on the fact that he's worried about what post-escape regulus will do to his listener indicates that regulus is not a normal example of an empathy demon in a romantic relationship with a human. as such, i'll hold off on theorising about why those relationships might be so difficult in too much detail, if only from a lack of information.)

after all, it's a reasonable problem to have if you're a freshly-coalesced empathy demon: it sustains me, and it makes both me and my charge feel good, so i should create it at all opportunities, right? humans feeling happy is always a positive thing, i am able to induce happiness in humans at will, so why shouldn't i just create happiness at all times?

i might not say that all empathy demons don't know what love (well, romantic love at least) feels like - regulus certainly thinks he does, and he clearly experiences some form of sexual attraction/sex drive:

however, as we said before, regulus is not exactly a model empathy demon, so it's unclear just how different from the rest he is. it's possible that all empathy demons, at least at some point in their lives, are capable of feeling romantic and/or sexual attraction, but it's just as plausible that only some of them do.

or - and this is less likely, but still possible - it might be that regulus is more of an outlier than we thought, and he's sidestepped the general outlook of empathy demons to effectively condition himself into sexually desiring his listener (and/or feeling sexual attraction in general) because sex makes them feel good, and he's addicted to their feelings of pleasure and happiness. considering what we know about regulus, re: how unhinged he is and how much he craves his listener, i don't know that we can rule this out as a possibility entirely.

tldr: we just don't have enough information! we don't know enough typical, adult empathy demons to be able to make an educated guess about how your typical, adult empathy demon behaves. in my opinion i suspect that empathy demons are capable of love, in both a platonic and romantic sense, but whether or not they do feel it depends on things like their own mental/emotional maturity (i expect physical maturity too, but i don't know enough about how demons physically change as they grow older - we know that they coalesce fully formed, but it's unclear whether they retain that form forever, or if that form changes and matures as they grow older and more emotional mature. do demons go through puberty? this excludes incubi to some extent, as we know that they change their appearances at will, basically whenever they like), their personal and individual disposition towards those sorts of feelings, etc.

[ghostflowerdreams]

Audio Drama Recommendations, Pt. III

Click here for part one and here for part two. Recently, I've been drawing a lot, which gives me plenty of time to listen to audio dramas and podcasts. These are the ones I liked the most and found entertaining enough to recommend to others. This is not in any particular order, either.

The Green Horizon – is a sci-fi comedy drama created and written by Paul Walsh. It is sponsored by Faustian Nonsense, an indie entertainment network. It currently has three seasons, with each episode being about 20 - 30 minutes long, but later on it increases to 30 - 40 minutes. A fourth season is said to be coming out soon as well.

It is set in the year 2261, and it focuses on a ne'er-do-well Irish space captain and his rag-tag crew, as they traverse a war-torn Galaxy in search of fame and fortune. [ONGOING]

It was a little chaotic and rough at the beginning, but it does smooth out and become more polished. I can definitely tell that they up their game with the improved sound effects and production quality. The voice actors and the writing for the audio drama does an excellent job at bringing their characters to life, which made it very fun to follow along.

If you like Firefly, Red Dwarf, Orville, Cowboy Bepop, and so on then I think you may enjoy this too.

DERELICT – is a sci-fi narrative audio drama from award-winning science fiction author J. Barton Mitchell, and produced by Night Rocket Productions. It currently has one season titled FATHOM, which consist of 10 episodes with each one ranging from 40 mins to an hour, mostly the latter.

Something has been found at the bottom of Earth's ocean. An ancient artifact that can only be described as a giant door, inset into the sea floor. It becomes known as the Vault. A gigantic enigma, buried and forgotten...nineteen thousand feet down.

To study the artifact, the galaxy's most powerful corporation, Maas-Dorian, has built a massive, self-contained, secret laboratory base surrounding it, named FATHOM. It's objective: unlock the secrets of the artifact and discover what it holds.​ But some mysteries should remain buried. And some doors should never be opened... [ONGOING]

DERELICT started as the first project set up as a kickstarter. They produced one episode to entice backers, but then the pandemic happened, and they didn’t raise enough money for the rest of it. Instead, they worked on a prequel season called FATHOM. It's where the story really starts, and I highly suggest you listen to it before listening to "DERELICT E1 - Through the Gate."

I hope they redo the DERELICT's first episode because there's a bit of disconnection from it and FATHOM. For example, Sarah and Agent Blayne already know each other. She mentions it to the others, but the conversation they have with each other doesn’t make it seem that way.

Never mind. I apparently confused this Sarah with the Sarah in FATHOM. Can't blame me for thinking that when I heard the name Sarah and that she was already familiar with Agent Blayne.

Deviser – is a sci-fi horror audio drama created, directed, acted and produced by Harlan Guthrie. The same creator of Malevolent. It's a 7-part limited series, with each episode being about 20 mins long.

Son wakes up aboard a spaceship bound for earth in an effort to recolonize. What he discovers, however, will change everything he knows about his world and himself. [COMPLETED]

It's not for everyone, so please do not ignore the content warnings because there's graphic description of violence, self harm, body horror, gore, animal death/being hurt, and what not.

Victoriocity – is a detective comedy audio drama written by Chris and Jen Sugden, directed by Nathan Peter Grassi and produced by Dominic Hargreaves. It is an entirely independent production. It has two seasons, containing 13 episodes in total, and each one is about 30 to 45 minutes long. There's also a feature-length special and a up-coming third season with the help of a kickstarter.

It is 1887 in Even Greater London, an alternate steampunk Victorian London, where Queen Victoria reigns even after being assassinated eleven times, thanks to the wonders of modern science.

In this vast metropolis, Inspector Archibald Fleet and journalist Clara Entwhistle investigate a murder, only to find themselves at the centre of a conspiracy of impossible proportions. [ONGOING]

It's put together so well, and I see why people say it gives off strong Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett vibes to it. So if you like their works, then I wouldn't be surprised to hear that you like this too.

Impact Winter – is an apocalyptic vampire audio drama created and written by Travis Beacham (Carnival Row, Pacific Rim). It has two seasons containing 22 episodes in total and each one is about 17 to 30 minutes long.

“They came after the impact and the firestorms. When the sun went dark. Like they’d been there all along. Just waiting.”

In the British countryside, a band of survivors forms a resistance in the fallout shelter of a medieval castle. Darcy is a battle-tested vampire hunter who is at the front line, leading the charge to save humanity. Meanwhile, her younger sister Hope wants life to return to normal so she can go above ground and know what it’s like to live again. And she just might be willing to risk it all. [ONGOING]

It has a stacked cast led by Holliday Grainger (Cinderella, Great Expectations), Esme Creed-Miles (Hanna, The Legend of Vox Machina), Liam Cunningham (Games of Thrones, Hunger), Himesh Patel (Station Eleven, Tenet), David Gyasi (Interstellar, Carnival Row), Caroline Ford (Carnival Row, Nekrotronic), Chloe Pirrie (Emma, Carnival Row), and Bella Ramsey (Games of Thrones, The Last of Us).

This reminded me a lot of the film 30 Days of Nights (2007) with a little bit of Reign of Fire (2002), which were both fun films to watch. I think if you like those two, especially the former, you'll enjoy this or at least be entertained by it.

A Voice From Darkness – is a scripted paranormal horror audio drama. It is written and produced by Jac Rhys. It currently has two seasons, containing 20 episodes in total and each one is about 20 to 30 minutes long. It also has 7 bonus voicemail episodes and 15 Patreon exclusive episodes which are longer than the main episodes. A third season in the works as well.

Join parapsychologist and radio broadcaster Dr. Malcolm Ryder as he helps those who suffer the supernatural, paranormal or otherworldly problems on his call-in radio show. It is also interspersed with segments, one of which is called 'Today In Odd America' that delves into the origins of a holiday, local traditions, and history. [ONGOING]

If you like Welcome To Night Vale then I think you'll like this too. A Voice From Darkness is a bit more serious and not as long-drawn as Night Vale was, with a perfect mix of storytelling and lore. It also reminds me a bit of The Magnus Archive too.

How i Died – is a mystery audio drama that brings a "new twist on the true crime genre." It is an Audiohm Media original production, co-starring Vince Dajani as Jon Spacer and Shaina Waring as Sheriff Fran Crowley. It currently has three seasons with 39 episodes in total, not including bonus episodes. Each episode is usually about 20 mins, give or take a few minutes.

Bodies are piling up in the strange town of Springfield, and forensic pathologist Jonathan Spacer intends to find out why. But, Jon isn’t without his own secrets… He can talk to the dead, for starters. [ONGOING]

Ooo, a character that can speak to the dead? It's always so interesting to see what they'll do with their ability and where the creators take them. This has been entertaining, but at times I do think they can do better in developing their characters a bit more. For example, I can count on one hand the number of times Crowley doesn't get angry. Though to be fair, Jon isn't an immediately likable character, but that does change the further you go...sorta.

The Amelia Project – is a comedy fiction audio drama created, written, directed, produced and edited by Philip Thorne and Øystein Ulsberg Brager for Imploding Fictions and The Fable and Folly Network. It currently has four seasons, with a fifth one on the way. There's about 72 episodes, not including prologue, special, and BTS episodes which would up the total to 122. Each episode also varies in length from 20 to 45 minutes long.

The Amelia Project is a secret agency that fakes its clients' deaths, then lets them reappear with a brand-new identity. A black comedy full of secrets, twists... and cocoa. The series starts as a succession of interviews with clients who want to fake their deaths, then slowly a larger narrative begins to emerge... Each episode tells its own story, but we recommend starting with Season 1. [ONGOING]

It was fun to listen to while I was drawing or washing the dishes. I could also follow along without becoming too distracted by it, either. I was worried it would be one of those that take a while to get to the main overall story, but thankfully it did not. It will definitely keep you entertained and interested to know what will happen next.

Community Cat News – is a neighborhood news show done from the perspective of cats. There's currently 13 episodes so far and each one varies from 5 to 12 minutes long.

Local News: The human is opening the fridge! Will we get a taste?

Foreign Affairs: What are those squirrels up to now?

Traffic: WHY is the bathroom door shut again?

Every episode is sponsored by Meow Meow Puffytail, Feline Rights Attorney, who is ready to sue your human for even the slightest inconvenience. [ONGONG]

It's cute, light-hearted, and funny. I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. It even uplifted my mood.

[archangeldyke-all]

reader & Sevika start as co-stars on a netflix series (fans are shipping them bc their press run chemistry is amazing) and they actually end up together irl? sorry if this is a lot 😭😭

aweeeee

men and minors dni

like imagine before you realize you've got feelings for sevika, your manager keeps asking "is there something going on between you guys?? because i need to know before the press finds out!!"

and you're like what???

because you're starring as co stars in a romantic movie, sure, and sevika's been a celebrity crush of yours for years, but you're both professionals!

and just because you guys have amazing chemistry and have become great friends off set doesn't mean you're in love with each other or anything... right?

and then your manager sends you a youtube link to some fan compilations of you and sevika 'being in love for twenty two minutes straight'

you watch it. clip after clip after clip of you and sevika laughing together and sharing inside jokes and nudging and flirting with each other during press interviews.

at first you just roll your eyes. when the cameras are rolling, you and sevika are working. obviously you guys are acting flirty and couple-y, you're selling a rom com.

but then, ten minutes in, a title card flashes. it reads, 'now for the good stuff.' you blink, and then a cropped and zoomed clip of a red carpet interview of a completely different celebrity pops up.

the audio is just the reporter and actor talking, but in the background with the way the editor's cropped the video, you can clearly see you and sevika at a bar, cheersing then downing tequila shots. sevika takes it like a champ, but she giggles and rubs your back as you suck on your lime and cringe in disgust at her.

the video cuts to another clip. footage from a 'behind the scenes' video following the crew on the set of your movie. again, the video's been cropped to only focus on you and sevika running lines in the background. sevika stumbles over her words and you burst into laughter. she scoffs and punches your shoulder, then quickly rubs it when you pout at her.

the next clip is the same-- you and sevika in the background of some video. except in this one, you're chattering away and sevika's nodding along, and the whole time her eyes are on your lips. when she licks her own lips as you babble, your stomach flips over.

oh shit. you totally like sevika.

your manager almost kills you.

"i told you to tell me if there was something going on between you two!"

"but nothing's going on between us, marge, that's what i'm trying to tell you! i just... you sent me that video and it made me realize that, you know. maybe i wouldn't mind if there was something going on between us." you say.

marge heaves a horribly dramatic sigh down the receiver.

the next time you see sevika, you're stiff and awkward.

she pulls you to the side between interviews.

"what the fuck's goin' on with you?" she asks. you blink at her.

"what?" you ask.

"you're brushing me off. you keep acting all jittery and weird around me. for fuck's sake, you're not even looking at me right now!" she says.

sevika looks really upset. your stomach drops.

"i'm sorry. i didn't mean to make you feel like i'm ignoring you or something." you say, honestly. sevika's anger falls from her face, and all that remains is concern.

"just tell me what's up." she whispers. you gulp.

"i just. i recently realized something that's. less than ideal." you say. sevika blinks at you.

"what?"

"uh. i think i have a crush on you." you admit. sevika blinks again.

"what?!" she asks. you sigh

"i know. i'm sorry, it's unprofessional and gross. i mean. i've always found you attractive, obviously, and we get along great... but i promise i didn't realize i have actual feelings for you until filming wrapped. i swear." you ramble. sevika scoffs and you shrink in on yourself, looking away from her.

she quickly reaches her hand out to grab yours. "no, hey." she says. you blink up at her. "that's not-- i'm not laughing at that." she rushes out. "i'm just laughing because i've been waiting for the press tour to end so i can finally ask you out." she says, a little blush appearing on her cheeks. you gawk at her.

"what?" you say. sevika chuckles.

"that's what i said." she says. you punch her arm.

"are you serious?" you ask. she nods.

you quickly look around. no one's looking at the two of you. your next interviewer is shuffling through their cue cards, your managers are quietly chatting, a few PAs are checking audio meters and wrapping up wires. you look back at a grinning sevika and bite your lip.

"do you want to get dinner after this?" you whisper. she grins.

"yes." she says. "but we probably shouldn't go out with the press and all. i can cook for you?" she asks. you giggle and nod, and then shoot up to press a quick kiss to her lips.

sevika's giving you heart eyes for the rest of the interviews that day.

marge sends you a viral tweet that night-- a clip of you kissing sevika from earlier in the afternoon, taken on a shaky camera phone.

marge's caption is just a series of angry emojis. you giggle. beside you sevika nudges you.

"what's so funny?" she grunts. you show her the clip and she grins. "thank fuck. now i can take you out in public." she says.

taglist!

@lesbeaniegreenie @fyeahnix @sapphicsgirl @half-of-a-gay @ellabslut @thesevi0lentdelights @sexysapphicshopowner @shimtarofstupidity

[sparkbugs]

My liveblog reaction post for JRWI Riptide 114! :3 SPOILERS AHEAD if that wasn’t obvious.

I completely forgot. About the bastion/stronghold. IF THEY LEAVE THE SHIP THEY LOSE THE TELEPORTER.

Haha! Ha. Wowie this is extremely stressful to start a session Jesus Christ. Pls get good perception AGGG. The laughter but it’s so stress LMAOOO AAAA

If anyone dies this episode! Haha.

How is this all 10 mins into the episode it’s just a terrible chase scene I am so. Aughhh

THANK GOD TBEY GOT TO THE DOCKS. BUT IS THE SHIP OKAY. if the ship fucking denigrates they lose their teleporter man they need that to get home if anything haha! Aggghghsh

The fucking. Fish shoes. Also PORTABLE HOLE LMAOOO

Gryffon :( my boy protect the ship my guy ily

Godddd because of the title I’m so fucking sure there’s stuff about Jay’s family here. I’m so sure there’s lots of things here but it’s so not safe.

Darkness lets gooo… oh.. that audio… ohhhhggg ahhdnjs oh goddddd

“Hello..?” *unimaginable horror response in a roar*

HOW HAS IT ONLY BEEN 25 MINS THERE ARE UNIMAGINABLE HORRORS THIS IS TERRIFYING

Portable holeeeee that’s a smart play, but that’s terrifying to think bout the helmet

“GUYS YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS” “what is it gill?” “Stairs!” “… that’s a ladder gill-“ I love them so much

More unimaginable horror sounds! Oh boy! This is. It’s been 30 fucking minutes.

Oh yucky.. skin… Jesus.. oh noooogghdjhdns

ITS GONE?!?!? WHERE THE FUCK DID IT GO.

THIS IS NOT THE FUCKING TIME TO BE ARGUINGGGG AAAAGGGG

I hate this so fucking much actually

The bit shoes.. Charlie please

We have made it 40 mins in let’s goooo haha. Ha!

A GLHYPHHJDHHSHS JAY NO WHAT HEY. FIREEE????? 37 POINTS HOLYYYY FUCKKKKK

HAHSJFHSJAIDJSUHWKS CREATURES THEYRE HERE AND THEYRE ANGRY

Haha it’s all fine now. Also the fucking bones aren’t real??? What. HAHAHAHAJGSIW UH OH BIZLY PLEASSEE

LMAOOO HAHAGGGSHDA THE PARANOIA IS SO FUCKING REAL

HAHSHSHSHA THE FUCKING MICROCHIPS IN THE WATER NOO STOP FUCKIN WITH GILL LMAO

Almost an hour in!! Woooooo! No ones dead thank fucking god

Thank god Chip please make sure no one dies thank u skelly man <3

Floor threeeee baybeee surely nothing happens here. :)

There’s someone waiting for themmmmm hahaha

“Jay can you do me a flavor right now?”

AHAHSHSHSHA WHATTTT WDYMMMM EVERYTHING GULLIOKFNXUSHSO GILLION NOOOOOO WHAT THE FUCKSHAIABA also the last quote being Gillion’s last words man. Yikes

Where is my boy where is my boy where is my boy. IS THAT HIS FUCKING SKIN

ITS HIS FUCKING SKINH IM SO MOT OKAY WHWRE IS MY BOY WHEFE IS HE. GIVE HIM BACK THEY JUST GOT HIM VACK

Haha. I’m fine :) I’m gonna ignore that for now haha cause why. Would that be an issue :)

I’m so worried about him actually. Bring him back

THEY WERE FUCKING EXPERIMENTING ON THE ICHOR. I KNEW IT BUT GOD THE CONFIRMATION IS. UGHHHGHDJSK yea this is such a navy thing to do. Yuck

Oh my god they didn’t see what skin the trition in the ground was. What if that was Edyn. Oh I’m so unwell.

GODDD THEYRE USING THE LEVIATHAN AND THE FUCKING ICHOR AS A SUPER WEAPON. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE NAVY.

NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE EPISODE YET WHAT THE FUCKKKKKK

Chip is so me I would totally. Grab bone pieces. EWWWW WHY MORE SKIN GROSS HOW MANY PEOPLE DID THEY FUCKING KILL

DEATHWARD SAVED THIS MAN PLEASE STAY MY GUY I LOVE YOU. this man is being crucified.. oh my god,,

Holy shit.. Kuba kenta :o is that u bitch

ITS HIMMMM HOLYYYY SHITTYTTT HAHSHSHSHAHA he’s such a bastard but also such a good villain… godddddd he’s just a fluffy guy :3

Mmmmmm machineeeeee

Giving me The Core from Amphibia vibes. This is fucking TERRIFYING. I MEAN I WAS RIGHT HERE CAUSE GILLION WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU. PLEASE. GILLION WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT. WHY DID YOU SIT IN THE CHAIR

WHWIDUDISHWJDJEIEJAIWHDIRJE GILLION. WHAT THE FUCK. Oh

Oh my god. 0 initiative. Oh my god Gillion please

“I would like to touch myself… and say- there’s more wait” PLEASEEE CHARLIEEE LMAOOOO

AWAAA RUN GILLION RUNNNNNN

“Oh my god, Gillion’s not fast.” HES RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE RIGHT NOW SO MAYBE HE IS??

It’s totally him right. YEA it’s Gilly :) why hasn’t he told them about Kuba Kenta.

Aughhhhghhfjskb CONDI?!??? LMAOOOO

Why. Are you. I. I despise them so much.

FIREWALL AUGHHGH NOT AGAIN

“CHEEBO” the rest of chips skin is fucking burnt off Jesus Christ

.. oh fuck. There’s more people going in????? It better not be the rest of the crew. INVISIBLITY WENT DOWN IGHDHDHSJS

Bones… gill I’m so sorry man :(

CHIP STOP BEING LIKE THAT YOU LOVE THEM. You love them. They you’re besties.

NATURAL 1 BUT IGS A FUCKING 23 WHAT THE HELLLLLL

Aughhhhhhhh paijnnnm pleaseeee surely nothing goes wrong mannnn what the hell

… conch shell time haha uh oh surelyyyy this will be fine

Jay my beloved <3 you got this girl

AAAA Grandma Ferin… SHES FUCKING CRAZY HOLY SHIT. Vault… time.. oh no. Woahhhh wonder. If that’s the true prophecy in there

CONDI DEAFENED AUGSJHSJGA WHATTT NO BRING HIM BACK OH FUCK

Haha they’re trapping themselves in this room. Uh oh.

OH. GILLION. OH NO. OH NOOO WHAT. HELLO. HEY. Uh oh. Hey. WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKK WHAT IS GOING ON

WHERE IS MY FISH MAN WHERE IS HE WHERE IS HE

THE HORRORS ARE THERE THE HORRORS. THATS WBY HE DIDNT TELL ABLUT KUBA KENTA OH MY GOD

…

The sword. Thank god.

PELASEEEE DONT LET ANY OF TJEM DIE OM GONIFNIBSJA GILLIONS GOING GO SAVE HIS FRIEND HES FOINF AS FAST AS HE VAN

JAY PLEASE GO HELP PLEASE FUCKKKK ING HELL

Ichor creature. Godddddd

I don’t even have words this is just combat that’s terrible and I hate it

Aughhdhxhsishdjsn man. People have been so right about how this episode is Bad bad. Like. Wow.

2 and half hours in. Pain and suffering. Please don’t let Chip die again. Charlie did really fucking good playing his doppelgänger without breaking that’s insane.

Gillion’s yelling at each other would be so much funnier if it wasn’t. A life or death situation

CHARLIE SALUTING IM SO UPSET PLEASSESS LET THEM LIVE

YEAHAHAHAHDHDHS GET HIS ASS JAY

HAHA HEY.

HOW ARE THEY TYING IM GONNA CRYYYY

HE WCJDJDSHS HE DID IT HE FUCKING DID IT OM GONAN THROW UP OHHHHGG MU GOD

GILLIONS STUFF FUCKKKKING WAITAAGGG

HAHAHDHSGWGE KUBA KENTA MENTION.

Oh. He’s. Opening. Kubas cage. Gillion. Hey.

Haha they have to go back UP?!? Well. Riptide pirates, it was nice knowing you.

Chip. Can’t be healed I am so upset. Also I feel like the creatures are just going to escape. And Kuba Kenta is going to be Right There.

Dopplegilly you bitch ass mother fucker give my boy back his stuff

WHDIXHSIDHS THEY PUT HIM IN THE HOLE??? Well. I mean. Go off

I hope they don’t fucking fall into the lava. Like seriously after all that.

Well. Gillion. Please let this man get his stuff. WALL OF WATER THANK GODDDD

How is there a half hour left.

HE HAS MISTY STEP. CHARLIE WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU

I am so. AUEGUESHS THE LIFE DEBT OF DOPPELGILLY GOINF BACK INTK THE HOLE PLEASE LMAOOOO WHAT IS THIS

Please get out of here please just get the ship off the island oh my god

So much murderrr please go n get them and get out im so ahdichdiebz

oh . The fucking. Turrets. LMFAO COUNTER SPELL THE FUCKING ASS TURRETS JDDIDBKS

THE FUCKCONF DECK IM GONNA LOSE IT PLEASE. DONT LET HIM DO THAT PLEASE

WHY NOT JUST FUCKING THROW THE DECK OF CARDS UP. WHY. I’m gonna.

THE IDIOT CARD. OH MY GODDD HAHAHDJDHAUA 3 INTELLIGENCE IM SOGONGNDHSBA

THE VOID. LMAOOOO HES FUCKING GONE THANK GOD. Anyways the TURRETS.

THEY FUCKING DID IT LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

Well. That was. An episode. Well. I can see why everyone was freaking out about it LMAO THEYRE ALIVE THOUGH LETS GOOOO RIPTIDE PIRATES

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

The Wild Bunch 1995 Reggae / Roots Reggae / Rocksteady / Dub

First off, let me just say that I am in total awe of this crop of reggae instrumentals from the 60s and 70s here. So much music since has come with so much more fuss and technological advancements, and yet an unscalable pile of the stuff that came out after this doesn't seem to come close to how good a bunch of these simple tunes still are. In a broad sense, all these songs' formulas are pretty simple, but they really still just manage to click so damn well 😌.

From this comp's liner notes:

During the past eight years, Trojan have pioneered the 'Revival' Reggae scene. Our re-issue programme has preserved some of the best vocals ever recorded in Jamaica, but with the emphasis being placed on some of the island's many talented singers in recent years, the musicians have tended to be ignored. This current release reverses that trend by turning the spotlight onto the 'players of instruments', and in so doing we pay tribute to Kingston's legendary session men.

Now, because nearly all of these are straight-up instrumentals, they all pretty much operate in the same way, and each of them seem to have one thing in common that ends up either making or breaking the tune: the lead instrument. Because reggae riddims are inherently repetitive and steady, if left alone, they will naturally get stale. So, it takes a good melody of some kind to be laid atop that riddim in order to lend the song some much needed variety. And in a whole lot of these 27 tunes, that ends up coming to remarkable fruition.

It's hard to even really know where to begin with this album since there's so much goodness to be found within it, but the thick, whistle-ringing improvisational organ of Lloyd Charmer's "Ling Tong Ting" is an absolutely terrific place to start. Then the JJ All Stars get topsy-turvy with the audio channels on "Memphis Underground," by sending the melodic leads exclusively and *very prominently* through the left, and 90% of the riddim through the right; Herman Marquis' "Tom's Version," whose intro I'm pretty sure I've heard sampled in at least one hip hop tune before (Wu-Tang, maybe? It's honestly driving me crazy that I can't put my finger on it), then follows by doing a wonderful job of harmonizing its organ and trumpet, yielding this fully warm and satisfying haze; the legendary Augustus Pablo, who singlehandedly managed to transform the melodica from a mere plaything for children into an instrument with serious gravitas, shows why on a rootsy piece of dub called "Great Pablo;" and then towards the end, we get a bit of a surprise with a piece of gospel-reggae that's actually not an instrumental: the Harry J All Stars "Holy Moses," which is aided by a small set of female singers whose deployment of soul harmonies reminds of the backup singing that can be found on a bunch of Bob Marley hits.

But the closing title tune by the Music Doctors may be both the most remarkable and most fun track of them all, for the simple fact that it uniquely trades its leads between—not things like guitars, horns, and organs—but just bass and drums. And the bassist just seems to carefreely play this laid-back and very recognizable piece of melody from The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back;" it's so good!

So, a phenomenal collection of rare Jamaican reggae instrumental classics here, from the genre's premier label itself, Trojan. Yesterday, I posted about an excellent metal cassette from 1985 that's also called The Wild Bunch, and given how good that that album was, I really didn't think that this one could outdo it, but it very much did!

Highlights:

Selwyn Baptiste - "Mo' Bay" Boris Gardiner - "Memories of Love" The Dynamites - "Phantom" Sound Dimension - "Soul Food" Lloyd Charmers - "Ling Tong Ting" The Aggrovators - "The Sniper" JJ All Stars - "Memphis Underground" Lynn Taitt & The Jets - "Love Me Forever" Herman Marquis - "Tom's Version" The Tennors - "Copy Me Donkey" Winston Wright - "Heads or Tails" Augustus Pablo - "Great Pablo" Harry J All Stars - "Holy Moses" Music Doctors - "Wild Bunch"

[shocklight]

Evil Genius (2004) Sound Design

I’m making this its own post even though barely anybody is going to see it because I just rediscovered my archive of the extracted sounds from Evil Genius and it’s fucking incredible. At the time I extracted these, I ran them by Rebellion and there wasn't any issue with us hosting them online for people to find, so I don't see any issue with posting them here either. It's a 20-year-old game. The source code is gone. Tiny user archives is all we have.

You are (NOT) prepared for the amount of sound clips this collection contains:

The Normal Bits

The soundtrack to Evil Genius was released a good number of years ago but only features a small collection of actual tracks. The fully extracted audio resource has the decency to also include every overworld ambient track, musical stinger and transition, including some bits that never made it into the release:

What's really funny is that the final stinger files used in the release game are stored internally in a folder named New Folder. So sting24.wav, here, gets perpetually ignored for life:

Whereas New Folder\sting1c.wav gets put into the final game and layered in with the PA (AlertDoorBreach02.wav) when agents break into your base:

The Boring Bits

All the foley that's important to atmosphere but that nobody wants to do is here too. 52 clips of cicadas, 62 clips of crickets, 96 clips of bullfrogs, and 23 seagulls are just SOME of the audio files in the Outside directory, along with the imaginatively titled 'Wavs' directory which has, among others, clips liquid bubbling, distant explosions, distant construction work, thunder, fire, the sea, telex machines typing, and all manner of beepy, bwoopy 60s sci-fi sound effects:

The Incredible Bits

It's the sound clips that are to be matched to animations that's where the sound design of this game shines. Every individual character has a sound clip for every possible animation / action they can take. As an example, the James Bond expy has:

12 martial arts yells

4 yells being launched by an explosion

2 yells being blown away by a giant fan

10 investigative thinking sounds

4 sounds of shocked surprise

7 suffocation sounds

7 fainting sounds

16 exertion noises while doing a combat roll

13 sounds of stretching / back pain groans

4 sounds for being thrown into a holding cell

17 whimpers while being gloated at in a holding cell

4 sounds for being thrown into a giant stand mixer

3 screams while being mixed in a giant stand mixer

3 screams for being bounced on a giant sawblade

15 sounds of exertion when being shot

4 exertion sounds when being crushed by giant bookcases

and 3 sounds made attempting to unstrap himself from a nuclear missile

If you think that sounds like a lot of sounds, you're right! Except you're wrong because these are not even close to the total number of sounds that exist just for the James Bond character. There's another 303 sound clips for him activating every unique trap in your base, including sounds of him being distracted by a fully stocked bar and casino, and EIGHT CLIPS OF HIM BEING ATTACKED BY BEES, which I've compiled into the following clip:

Now remember how many unique characters there are in the game (fourteen minion types, eleven henchmen, five crime bosses, eight enemy types belonging to five factions, the five super agents and the three evil geniuses themselves - not to mention all the extras; tourists, kidnapped diplomats, cosmonauts etc), multiply that by the number of files there are for just ONE of those characters (around 430 for Bond) and you start to see how big an undertaking sound design on this game was.

The true character of the game comes from its voice clips. I only get four more audio uploads on this post so I'm going to make them good ones (and consequently not the horrific white-people-doing-terrible-Asian-accent voice clips that sadly exist in this game because it's a product of That Era).

We'll start with Maximilian having been ordered to execute a minion (which had the in-game effect of drastically increasing the loyalty of minions within line of sight):

Lord Kane, European criminal mastermind responsible for starting World War I, the Hindenburg disaster, and the sinking of the Titanic, on being ordered to attack an enemy:

Biochemical weapons / facial cosmetics expert Dr. Neurocide whipping out a bottle of lethal perfume to spray directly into a fracas:

And finally, colonial British big game hunter Colonel Blackheart, using his ultimate special ability, Pendragon the Berserker Monkey:

We'll probably never see another game quite like this ever again.

[thenightling]

Why Sandman newbies probably shouldn’t rely on the Wikias

This is why you probably shouldn't trust the DC Wikia for your Sandman info... There seems to be a bit of confusion about John Dee / John Burgess And John Dee (Sorcerer) as both have used the title Doctor Destiny in DC comics. DC comics is a continuity mess. The ancient sorcerer version of John Dee belongs to a continuity called Earth Prime.   Added confusion is there's another continuity called Prime Earth.  Totally not easily mixed up! The human John Dee (the one that appears in The Sandman) is not actually connected to the historic figure.  He appeared in the continuity called "New Earth."  New Earth was meant to be DC continuity after Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985 event).   Unfortunately New 52 replaced New Earth but then Rebirth restored most (if not all of it). The version of John Dee that is referenced in The Dreaming: Waking Hours (2021) is the New Earth version.  However on the DC Wikia, because of New 52, no New Earth page has been updated since 2011 or so.   Also the New Earth page for John Dee says Ruthven Sykes (Roderick’s assistant) was his father.  The Sandman audio drama and the 2018 Sandman Universe comics and The Sandman Netflix series all confirm that Roderick was the father. Don't try to make heads or tails of the DC wikia.  It's a mess. The Sandman Wikia isn't much better since there are people trying to overlap the retconned / ignored Sandman Presents continuity with the Sandman Universe (2018) continuity, and they simply can't merge, especially with events like Matthew being perma-killed off in The Dreaming (1996-2002) while he's perfectly fine in The Dreaming (2018) and there's no sign of the characters created by Caitlin R. Kiernan (1996-2002 The Dreaming). And the DC Wikia has the picture of The House of Mystery version of Cain for a page giving the bio for the "first vampire" version of Cain from the very short lived New 52, 2012 revival of "I, vampire..." Instead of trusting the Wikias you may have better luck asking other fans what you want to know.  I know human interaction can be scary but in this case it might be necessary.

[kimboatfloats]

Today’s weeded book was a doozy. The title — intriguing. Very gothic romance and the art style screams Italy countryside. Maybe France.

It was first published in 1978 with this one a reprint in 1992. Could be interesting, right?

Back cover:

‘Where do you live?’ asked Paul.

‘In the big White House on the hill,’ said Maria. ‘Where do you live?’

‘In the little brown house near the market,’ said Paul.

They laughed. But Paul was sad. The house in the hill was big and important.

Maria was rich and he was poor. And Paul was in love.

Riveting. Also fun facts, there’s an audio cassette available for this book.

Please note, I am not making fun of this book for being a beginning level reader. I think these readers are important because they offer content to adults learning to read or learning a different language that is something other than children’s books

I am, however, totally making fun of the content.

This book was absolute trash. Unbelievable trash. With a cool ass name like that I hoped it’d be some kind of gothic, intense storyline.

Instead there’s this dude named Paul.

Paul is a writing apparently. He needs his coffee cup to say “Coffee” on it. He writes by hand. It’s the late 70s after all. Paul loves Maria. Maria looks different in every picture of her.

Maria the changeling is a rich girl that Paul love. No. If she was a changeling, she would be way cooler. Her main trait is that she's rich. That half-chopped woman in the second last image is her rich mother. Her mother's main trait is that she's snobby.

Paul recites poetry to Maria. This is a Paul poem:

I met her in the evening By the riverside Her dress was creamy white And her hair with ribbon tied. She turned and smiled at me, And I asked her for her name. Though I am young and poor, My love will stay the same.

So Paul's main trait is he's poor. He's added one more trait to Maria. She wears ribbons. These two have a riveting romance. Paul likes that Maria wears beautiful clothes. She's lovely. That's about it. They hang out at the river's edge. Maria tells Paul she loves him.

This is enough for Paul to propose to her. But alas! Maria can't marry Paul and she flees.

Paul's mother, who looks like an Edwardian cook in like Downton Abbey or something is all, "Oh shit Paul. She doesn't love you."

Cue angry rich woman that's Maria's mama. She sends her driver in a Rolls Royce down to Paul's place, picks him up, and brings him to the House on the Hill, pretty much just to shit on him. She's all, "You're so poor you stupid stupid boy. My daughter is rich. I've married her off to a rich. Go away poor." She leaves the room and sucks out all the rich with her with ... Except Maria's all, "Well Paul. Mama's right. You're poor. I might love you, but you can't buy me fancy things in the late 70s like a disco ball or a rattan settee." Paul flails down the hill, tears in his eyes, and he's crying, "Maaaaarrrriiiiaaaaa! Why don't you love me? Oh because I'm POOR!"

Paul's mom is all, "Paul. Those people are dicks."

Paul ignores her.

Now this is the section that's like Twilight Part Deux where Paul sits in a room alone, not eating, not sleeping, and then he goes to the river but he doesn't recite poetry because he's not going to cause that cruelty to the world again.

Inexplicably, the local newspaper "THE CLARION" has RICH MAN'S BEAUTIFUL BRIDE as the byline of the main page of the paper. It's a shit byline. Of course that's Maria and her new rich husband. The husband has the traits of rich, old, and fat (of course in this book that seems to be a focus that makes him a monster).

Luckily Paul sees an ad for a Story Competition. Here is the ad:

Somehow Paul thinks, "Yeah if I win this by writing a self-insert fan fic about Maria and me getting together she'll be all over me and super pissed she married the old guy."

There's no preamble. He wins the stupid competition.

Somehow that leads to him being a reporter. I love how he didn't have to go to University or anything for that. Because the newspaper manager (with the story competition?) is all, "Wow you're such a good writer I want to hire you as a reporter!" I guess since they have a shitty byline writer they need someone?

This is Paul, our new reporter. This is Paul's reporting style:

Paul to Celebrity at some big event: "Any more news sir?"

SUCH REPORTING

This is the best multipanel comic ever. I LIKE YOUR NEW STORY PAUL.

WE ARE VERY PLEASED WITH YOUR WORK PAUL.

OFFICE THINGS. CHARTS! RED PHONE!

Paul's still obsessing over Maria. He's working hard asking all the hard questions. He's also an extra in an 80s office setting movie. Look at this image. So much plastic Ken doll hair.

This is the big news room story meeting. I guess. A reporter comes into the office and is all

[scarfacemarston]

Ok, so I’m being an angsty whiny gal right now so feel free to ignore. Like seriously. Don’t know if I need to tag. I feel like I don’t belong right now or can’t do anything right.  I can’t even “do” my writing outlet and I haven’t do so very well since graduate school began. Another example is playing games is hard when I feel like I should be working.   A less serious version it’s the rdr fandom. I felt like I was able to accomplish something here. This is why people have tumblr is to have a community. I feel like I’ve definitely lost my spark and ability to ACTUALLY contribute. Yes, I work very hard on audio files, journals, photos, etc, but I feel like the rest of what I’ve done is rough. Like I haven’t actually written much in ages. History or fiction. I'm not even the Abigail expert anymore lol I was proud of that, but it’s totally not a real title or anything crazy like that so I’m not truly upset. I set up her rp page so excited for example, and I have a few requests I want to do, but BAM. Just feeling like I can’t do much right. I thought I could do escapism right. lol. And that my friends if you’re still here, is my every other month depression angsty self conscious rant. 

[anneangel]

The 10 commandments for anyone who is a fan of anything. Original vs adapted:

One: No adaptation is the same as the original content. Adaptation, of course, is not the same as the original content. Adaptations never are, and range from mild to severe distortions in relation to the work that gave rise to it.

But adaptations have this proposal, to fit in a different format. It would be unusual and bizarre for me to see an adaptation and find it 100% identical to the book, which is impossible.

(Even audio book, I can listen and think "when I read this I imagined another voice intonation", it's complicated on that level!).

Two: Most people don't read anything, it's not specific to some authors or works, but in general. There are far more fans of adaptations, in general, than of books.

Of course there is, it takes you a few hours to consume an adaptation, it usually takes longer to read. That's why movies and series spread faster.

Three: Childishness, criticizing and trying to belittle those who only follow adaptations in general (there are countless adaptations of different literary content, imagine if I start criticizing you for having liked an adaptation of a book I love? Complicated.

-So you haven't consumed any kind of adaptation throughout your life? You wouldn't have the internet, or TV, or radio, or anything).

Four: Everyone has the right to criticize the content either positively or negatively, freedom of opinion is that. But attacking each other is not opinion, it is verbal violence. We need to remember that the same right that some have to hate the content, the other has to love. No reprisals.

Five: Adaptations spread the content to a wider audience, and at least a part of this audience ends up consuming the original work (adaptations usually mean more book buyers, no wonder a work with adaptation has a sales "boom" in its content literary).

Good, that means more fans for the original work.

Six: It's ridiculous when there are fans who think they are more fans because they read while others don't. This always demonstrates how the person's objective is to enhance their own ego, because if they were really going to spread the original content, such person would explain it calmly and patiently, urging those who have only seen adaptations to read the book on the basis of sensible and friendly dialogue, on the basis of to leave the person intrigued and curious, not the toxic thing that exists in several fandoms of "thinking you're superior because read"

(it's ridiculous, because there are likely several titles that I may have read and you don't, imagine if I "enter one of humiliate you" for that? For example, would you think it valid for someone who dislikes the literary genre you like, to humiliate you just because he thinks differently from you and likes something else? I don't think so, right? It wouldn't be cool. Trying to humiliate someone is ignorance and pettiness).

Seven: It is the general consensus of all readers, of any literary genre, that "the books are better than the adaptation". Rare and surprising the opposite happens.

So when a fan says "the book is better", it's not news to anyone, friend.

Furthermore, an adaptation hardly "destroys the author's legacy", on the contrary, the author remains immaculate in its textual form.

Adaptations usually bring in new fans, and at best divide the audience between "those who are fans of the book" and "those who prefer the adaptation". In this case, everyone can stay in their "corner" without being verbally offended.

Eight: There is no such thing as a "right side" or "owner of the truth". There are differing opinions, which is totally viable in a free society. Respecting the opinion of others, even if it is different from what you have, is called cordiality, good manners and sensible manners towards others. Only extremist and toxic societies play people against each other and nullify dissenting opinions just because they "don't think alike, or don't agree". It is possible to live in peace without creating strife with those who "think differently".

Nine: Adaptations, when the content is still "copyrighted", need the blessings of the rights holders. The objective is commercial in all cases. An adaptation is not produced without expecting a financial return, so the distortions in adaptations are not intended to "annoy the fans" but rather aim to attract the largest possible audience, not just "fans of the book".

And in cases of works in the Public Domain, EVEN MORE DISTORTIONS are expected because anyone can use the content.

That's why fans of different content agree that there are two types of content: the Canonical (written by the original author, considered as "official" and "true" material) and the Non-Canonical (written by other authors, adaptations, rereadings, remakes, illustrations that are not by the original author even if it is in the original work, fanarts, fanfics, and "unofficial" content, that is, everything beyond what the original author imagined). In most fandoms both worlds coexist relatively well.

Ten: Works, in general, undergo a reinterpretation of the public that consumes them, both on a collective and individual level. This means that even though you and I have read the same book, we can have different interpretations of the same content. That's because achieved what is individual in each of us. We can discuss the same scene from any work, at some point we will disagree and infer our own and personal opinions that cross our repertoire of life. For example, we can hear the same song or see a painting, and bring a different interpretation of the same sound or art. The same goes for scenes in books, movies and series.

So, you are expected to stick with your interpretation, to seek even people who think like you. But never believe that this is the only viable and absolute interpretation.

[twogyuu]

Hi Holly! (hehe)

Just came to dump my reactions so far to your amazingly curated SVT playlist bc where else would I go for the music thoughts inside my brain???

Thoughts on Love&Letter Repackage:

Wow wow WoW was NOT expecting to love their first full album (repackage ik, but basically lol) as much as I did. Before listening to this I had only heard Adore U and Aju Nice, which were nice (no pun intended), but not necessarily songs that stuck with me for whatever reason, so I didn't think that their older stuff was gonna be my cup of tea and had ignored it basically (carats don't come for me lol). But going through this repackage I literally saved half the songs!

SIMPLE. like ik the original title is in caps but I am putting caps on top of caps bc...like...🥹🥹🥹 idk I first played through the album on a long solo drive (car audio hits diff imo) and when I heard this one while driving it just like...made me feel something??? lol. This was prob the first song on the album that I came to and was like 'w o a h’ 

Also Adore U vocal team version literally made me fall in love with that song. Like I like the original now but I especially like the vocal version ughhhhhh. Can't get the hook out of my head now so help meeeeee.

And yeah wow the song Space - that song really gives off those trainee/early debut days, which I can’t even imagine what that’s like (HARD AF), but hearing the song and then now reading the lyrics it deeply resonated with me - I had similar feelings during my early college days, and college is also when I first got into kpop, so it just makes me wish I’d known about this song back then 😭

In total my faves were: VERY NICE (yes I changed my mind after second listen lol), Healing, SIMPLE, Hit Song, Say Yes (I'm a sucker for a good emotional ballad), Adore U (vocal team ver + original), and Love Letter.

Overall such a light, breezy, feel good album - totally perfect for summer actually so I'm really enjoying it rn lol

Lastly, I am leaving this gif here for absolutely no reason except that this scene in their debut mv literally made me *cackle*. did not know this vernon variant existed until now 🤭🤭🤭

And this concludes part one of my deep dive into SVT content. 

Loving the ride so far! - Dee

Dee!!!

I am oh so sorry, it has taken forever for me to reply to this 😭 I got my L&L Repackage reprint over the weekend and it reminded me of your message!!! I'm so glad you're having so much fun with the playlist and enjoying their content, especially L&L, as much as I do!!!!

Debut Vernon was so cringe LMAO but so cute HAHAHAHA.

I hope you're doing well!!

P.S. I finally went to Ed Sheeran this past weekend!!! 😍😍😍 He is amazing 👏

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[breakingarrows]

Games Media in Review: GameSpot

When doing my review on IGN it was a known quantity. I had been deeply embedded in the site for many years and it hadn't changed much in my absence (though not like I didn't regularly visit the front page to see what was up weekly). With a site like GameSpot I have very little history or knowledge of it so can view it with somewhat fresh eyes. What I ended up seeing was shocking and disappointing.

What's going on at GameSpot? You would think as the #2 ranked website for video game news/reviews/general coverage the site would simply have more than what it does. Crawling the front page you will be inundated with much less sponsored posts, deals, and "Best of [X]" lists when compared to IGN's, though you will still be drowning in guides articles as Baldur's Gate 3's release has unleashed a torrent of guide articles for it ever since release. There is also a noticeable lack of pop culture volume comparatively. You will still run into the occasional stuff on your Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and John Wick, but really games are the focus at GameSpot. You also still run into deals, with two horizontal front page featured wheels all about game deals and tech deals, but it is a noticeable drop in quantity coming from reading IGN for two weeks.

Editorially, it can seem a little bare. Most editorial verticals are basically shows for YouTube. The front page doesn't have an editorial tag to easily bring up a feed of writing, the closest you'll get is their reviews tag. I know they have various contributors and staff writing editorial articles, Grace Benfall has written several such as on Knights of the Old Republic and the Ouya, but good luck separating the wheat from the chaff in terms of article feeds. Most of this is due to the disparity in staff: GameSpot has 40 people listed on its About Us page, whereas IGN has 120. Not everyone is going to be involved in editorial content creation, but that is a huge difference in the amount of people dedicated to this specific website, and some GameSpot staff are also doing double duty as Giant Bomb contributors. IGN does not have an editorial feed but they do have columns which basically serve as written editorials covering a wide range of topics. They have their daily and weekly news show for both games and entertainment, six podcasts, and miscellaneous video shows. Going from that to GameSpot has really laid bare the difference in output between the two.

Comparing the video review feed of GameSpot to IGN was when I first started to realize the difference in resources for the two sites, as the GameSpot video reviews are pretty much only larger titles whereas IGN seemingly has one for every written version they do. GameSpot is still somewhat comprehensive in their written reviews, even covering games ignored by IGN such as Venba [IGN has an editorial for Venba under its Hidden Gems column but the title remains unreviewed as of today and the viewership of a review compared to an editorial is known to highly favor anything under "review"].

This bareness is reflected in the engagement of readership, as there is also a large disparity between IGN comment counts and GameSpot. The biggest example is the highest commented article on IGN was the FTC verdict being reached at 4.1k comments, the same story on GameSpot has a meager 273. Final Fantasy XVI review on IGN: 2.5k comments, GameSpot: 196. Where is everyone?

So what does GameSpot offer? With their focus on video shows they also launched several new ones earlier this year. I've watched almost all their currently running shows in their entirety during this period save for the two longest running ones: History of Games at 31 videos, and Experts React at a mighty 149 videos total in its playlist. These two are also the highest rated in terms of average views with both hitting over 360k average across the sample size videos (all 31 for History of Games and the latest 37 for Experts React).

Audio Logs is basically a copy of Vanity Fair's Notes on a Scene series save for video games. As in, literally the same exact setup and execution from using a marker to circle and draw on a screen to having whoever is talking be alone against a white background. I should really keep a running tab somewhere on my Google Drive of "Examples of Games Desperately wanting to be Film" because this would definitely go on that list for me. I suppose it might also be unfair because you have something like Mark Mylod on Succession and then compare it to Cuphead or God of War, and this isn't as a slight to the developers featured, but there is such a gap between the two mediums it can sometimes feel a little silly how much we collectively try to emulate what film is doing in order to be taken seriously.

Spot On and The Kurt Locker are both basically soap box opinion videos. Spot On has Tamoor Hussain and Lucy Games whereas Kurt Locker is Kurt Indovina by himself. Spot On is fine, Tamoor is very soft spoken Lucy is alright. One episode they were both somewhat reluctant to be critical of Ubisoft games, a company that at least two former GameSpot staff members now work at (Chris Watters and Chastity Vicencio) and have friends within (Youssef Maguid) which was on my mind when voicing their reluctance to harp on how empty Ubisoft open worlds are. Not that they are somehow unique, there is a general coyness all mainstream critics seem to have about being negative or critical of a piece of media for a variety of reasons, the common excuse being, "people worked on it", as if people don't create shit very often (I know most of the things I write aren't truly that great myself!) and are reticent to say bad things. This is how you end up with IGN where the air of forced positivity hangs heavy during casual podcast conversations. At least GameSpot doesn't have that air about it, as this was the only instance of something like that sticking out.

Meanwhile The Kurt Locker I am fond of because it is 100% something I would be doing if I worked at a place like this and was given my own show, it would just be me in my apartment putting to video whatever dumb idea I had for the week. As a solo soapbox Kurt does not have the talent of a Kyle Bosman, but it's a high bar as Kyle was always a favorite of mine when it came to these types of editorial video series.

Experts React is one of the longest running and highest rated in views show GameSpot currently has. Most of the videos are of, "Jonathan Ferguson, a weapons expert and Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries, breaks down the weaponry," of whatever game is the subject of that particular video. There are one-offs with an SAS soldier or Viking experts, or "historian & armor expert," but they all follow the same method of editing together a skype call with someone, showing them footage from a particular game or genre and having them comment on how well said footage captures the reality of the subject. Most of the time this is focused on guns, as video games have a deep, deep love with firearms and rendering them in high fidelity. That video game love of guns is also probably why this series rates so highly, as gamers are invested in how well the game of their choice renders weapons and how it compares to other similar titles. I've thought about this before when writing on Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2, this obsession with rendering guns as accurately as possible, even though firing a weapon in Call of Duty will never be able to accurately portray the reality of firing a gun. Despite this people still champion the most "realistic" weapon sets from whatever the most recent obsession is because this need for fidelity only applies to the fleeting wants of an impulsive public. Ferguson clearly has an understanding of video game mechanics and the necessity for balance differences when rendering these guns, and will sometimes be bewildered by the choices or inaccuracies rendered. I find it a valuable series in both how it lays bare our collective obsession with "real" guns in games despite how often they get it wrong and how they'll never be representative of anything but the fantasy of games.

History of Games is your standard recap series about a game franchise or studio and the Wikipedia text for development, plot, reception, [insert next entry] development, plot, reception, and so on. How it Saved is a little bit similar but zeroing in on one title that "saved" a company or franchise. No HUD is a short lived show about trying to push up against the boundaries of how we play games, attempting to reorient the perspective within the limited toolset a game will give you (or how you can use mods to reach even beyond the "official" toolset of a game). Lastly How To Destroy is the newest show where they do some fancy spy editing/framing to talk about how they would take down a specific video game character, so far covering Geralt from Witcher and Link from Zelda. I did get a good chuckle out of the many instances of Geralt getting killed by arrows in their Witcher 2 footage.

Upon listening to their podcast, GameSpot After Dark, catching up on the past two months of episodes, I noticed specifically during their discussion of Final Fantasy XVI, which was nearly all praise and spread out seemingly over three separate episodes, that they never mentioned the games presentation of slavery, of women, or of people of color. This comes after I listened to the excellent Abnormal Mapping episode with Austin Walker about the game. Had you only listened to GameSpot talk about the game or read its review it would be as if these topics didn't exist within the game! It is such a strange oversight that doesn't help the image of mainstream games media, in the race to complete reviews, never have adequate time or care to dwell and think about the games they are covering.

Something that became clear to me watching these shows was how willing GameSpot is to work with other media outlets and YouTubers within their own content. Multiple shows had instances of individuals outside of GameSpot appearing to give their script delivery and even be promoted. This would be unheard of at IGN, where the company line is likely to keep themselves siloed off from other content creators, even if individual staff members are clearly friendly and have guested on separate shows. I know former staff on both sides of IGN and GameSpot have talked about the long history of the rivalry between the two in the early 2000's that thawed out and obviously fully dissipated by likely 2014/2015 in my estimation. Kinda Funny's exodus from IGN clearly left some bad blood between the two at the time, and so Kinda Funny jumped into GameSpots arms in terms of cooperation, even having a second stage exclusively for Kinda Funny's use during E3 2015. Some IGN staff have been on GameSpot's current podcast, GameSpot After Dark, and the various staff memebers clearly intermix, but as a entity IGN the company has been very much blocked off from external media. I guess when you're number 1 you can afford that, as partly why GameSpot is so willing to work with other media types could be due to their lack of matching resources. I do appreciate it though, as I find the approach of simply acting as if media outside your own site does not help the image of the website as relying entirely in-house for anything and everything.

While I respect their intentions, I think the most value you can get out of GameSpot is either checking their news feed if you're like me and more interested in keeping up on strictly games than other media, though at that point is it really any better than an RSS feed? The other value is in their editorial shows, namely Experts Reacts and The Kurt Locker. I think their review feed is also valuable in that you are maybe more likely to find smaller indie titles here than amongst the noise of IGN's reviews feed, though in terms of pure volume and organization of editorial content I do find GameSpot lacking. Otherwise there isn't alot here and clearly there isn't as large a community underneath it all going by the comment counts, which doesn't help when set against the fact that ViacomCBS sold off CNET, GameSpot, and Giant Bomb only for Red Ventures to turn around and sell everyone but CNET to Fandom after two years. Fandom being Fandom, and the online media space being the online media space, it puts GameSpot in a precarious position despite being pretty much the #2 website dedicated to video game coverage and its ilk.

[csarts]

One day, a person finds a dropped audio recorder as they were about to leave the Student Union Building. They thought of giving it to the Lost and Found, but curiosity won out and secreted it away.

At their home, they plugged the audio recorder to their PC and saw multiple files. They clicked on the first one, simply titled “3/25/23 - Arts and Perspectives”

-0-0-0-0-

*sounds of a cup hitting a wooden table*

Person 1: That hits the spot. So, what did you want to talk about?

*papers shuffling*

Person 2: I’m trying kasi na intindihin yung mga binigay na readings ni ma’am. Naisip ko naman na baka makatulong ka, Guile.

Guile: Hmm, sige. It’s okay naman with me. So…

*throat being cleared*

Guile: Definition of art diba? So, art in itself has many definitions. There’s no one true way of describing it. In my opinion, it’s kind of like that quote about the “beholder” or something.

Person 2: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?”

Guile: Yeah! Thanks, Rafael. So, famous artists around the world sought to popularize their own definitions of “art”. We can see them here…

*papers shuffling and the thud of a finger meeting paper and wood*

Guile: Well, in the Study Guide provided, we can see the numerous ways in which art could be described. Herbert Read states that “art is an attempt to create pleasing forms”, which is essentially Formalism.

Rafael: *snrk* Formalism.

Guile: *sigh* Yes, formalism. The one perspective that’s very simple but the people who have this perspective try to complicate it very much to the point of vagueness. Well, moreso than the others.

Rafael: It tries to use some colorful description when in essence it just means what you see is what you get. Personally, I’m not a fan of this definition for it ignores so much factors.

*throat being cleared*

Guile: Where was I? Oh yeah, so we have Read’s Formalism perspective. We also have the expressionism perspective from Bernedetto Croce: “Art is an expression; it is not intention or talent.”

*papers softly rustling as they were set down*

Guile: Honestly, I always thought modern expressionism is kind of dumb. Apapap- don’t you raise your eyebrow at me. I’m comparing the modern one to its Golden Age one. Back then, it was novel and people were interested how each portrait was a story in of itself that the artist tried to tell with each stroke of the brush. Nowadays, with mass media, people try to look for deeper meanings or opinions that the artist didn’t intend to show. Due to the vagueness of the medium of communication, scandal upon scandal and misinformation upon misrepresentation keeps heaping on these poor artists.

*a big sigh*

Guile: And for what? Just to make themselves feel good about discerning the “true” meaning behind the art, nevermind if it's true or not, or whether it affects the artist.

*A cup being picked up. Sounds of someone sipping liquid*

Rafael: Oh, man this reminds me of the meme “this curtain is blue because of the emotion of the artist” when in reality its blue just cause. It is pretty ridiculous how people think that everything has a meaning behind it. Sometimes the artist just does things for no reason and that is totally fine. It just makes things more complicated.

Guile: Well, regardless of all that, my most favorite of all of this is Herskovits’ perspective. “Art is any embellishment of ordinary living that is achieved with competence and has describable form.”

Rafael: Bakit mo naman favorite yan?

Guile: Because it’s the inspiration to my own perspective regarding art. “There is effort in art and there is art in effort.” I find that there is beauty with the skill and competency of the artist as they create their product. It is kind of Formalism in the sense that the surface appearance is important, but where that perspective restricts itself to form, this one seeks to enhance that with perceived skill and talent it must’ve taken to do it.

Guile: Regarding the embellishment…eh. I don’t have an opinion on that. It’s on the people if they want realistic or fictional.

-0-0-0-0-

Silence returned after that. Only the scratching of pencil could be heard and background noise of what the observer assumes is the SU building.

5 minutes droned on as they slowly lost their patience. Fortunately for the audio recorder, the silence was broken.

-0-0-0-0-

Rafael: Now that I have a better understanding of what “art” is, I can’t help but have a few questions of my own.

Guile: Yeah? Like what?

Rafael: This was brought up by one of our classmates. When do we give the excuse that a work of art depicts freedom of artistic expression or consider it as exploitation or unethical?

Guile: Oh, what about it?

Rafael: Throughout history, there are a lot of artwork out there that can be considered as unethical but defend it as artistic expression. One example that immediately comes to mind is the artwork made by Richard Gomez.

Guile: You mean the giant d-

Rafael: Yes, that. I mean, it is just so obvious that it is clearly something inappropriate, however people still argue it as showing his freedom of artistic expression. I just feel like if a work of art can offend a lot of people for a valid reason or inexplicably inappropriate then it cannot be defended with that phrase. This question really made me realize where I stand on this topic.

Guile: What do you mean by valid reason?

Rafael: It’s the 21st Century, anyone will try to find any reason to be offended. So anyways what are your thoughts on this?

Guile: My stance on this topic is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It can be abhorrent to the majority of people or it can be wonderful to them. We can’t say that something isn’t art just because it offends people - since we can’t just generalize people. Generalizing art is the same.

Rafael: Ohhh, I see. Ah, look at the time I was too immersed that I didn’t even notice it. Sorry Guile I need to go on ahead. I still have a paper due this midnight. Thanks for your time!

Guile: Maliit na bagay anytime. Just ask if you have any other questions.

Rafael: Thanks man, bye!

Guile: Goodbye!

-0-0-0-0-

“Well…” the person muttered. “That was interesting.”

They looked at the other files.

“I wonder what else this little guy picked up?”

[art-h]

I have left this post for a while as I wanted to sit with the experiences and feelings that the pieces evoked. On the 8th December we attended the British Art Show 9 in Plymouth. I have been to exhibitions at galleries previously, but the work on show here was something extraordinary for me. Placed across 4 art galleries & featuring the work of 32 artists of different fields and specialties. I was truly overwhelmed and invigorated with the ideas and forms the exhibitions displayed. I came home totally unable to communicate how much I had taken in, hence needing to sit with the ideas for a while. I decided to select the most inspiring pieces to talk about to make it easier to concentrate.

This piece is an interesting place to start. By Than Hussein Clark; this deconstructed baby grand piano at first glance didn't look like anything to me, so I thought it was meant to represent how, as humans, we only see things as they are presented, not how they could be seen. This idea was astonishing to me as I take it for granted that so many things are just as they are. I do not look at trees and see future tables and chairs or papers on which to be printed. I do not see a table as anything else than a functional, occasionally beautiful piece of furniture. But to look at a piano sawed to pieces and reconstructed as a sculpture really opened my mind to a wealth of new ways of looking at things. It was only when I looked at the accompanying card that I found out that it was meant to be a camel!

This next triptych moved me somewhat. The stained glass pieces by Elaine Mitchener feature scenes from her performance work "Sweet Tooth". I have since watched the performance on the back of seeing this info card. For anyone who is interested, you can watch it here:

I found it deeply moving as it explore the premise and ideas surrounding slavery. Even though I studied the Triangular Trade in school, it never sunk in how it would feel to be treated as a possession. In much the same way as any object. If we broke a plate, we would discard it and probably purchase a new one. In times of slavery, this was no different for humans. If they were no longer up to the use you purchased them for, they would be discarded, either by murder or abandonment. Even in the 21st century - a very current dialogue that needs to be discussed and understood by all.

I went into this piece thinking about the power of audio/visual art forms that we have learned in our Mac Training sessions with Cally and Dan. Most recently, the ideas behind projection mapping. I had never heard of GAIKA or his work but found the sounds on the headphones coupled with the visual shown above to be quite evocative. I wanted to understand more about how he wanted to portray this animation of man by machine, I found the video below very useful for explaining the indescrible emotions the visuals and sounds made me feel.

This final one - was the most profound experience of the day which I am still processing.

An audial and totemic piece, the photo above depict the work of Oliver Beer that he named "Household Gods". I was already drawn in by this title as I am acutely aware of the term from my previous reading of ancient civilisations. Oliver positioned objects belonging to his Grandmother, Mother and Sister with microphones in and around them on pillars of varying heights to show the viewer the sounds objects make in relation to their surroundings. And that sound is being constantly fed into speaking which utterly immerse the viewer in an experience that truly feeds the intellect and stimulates thought that would otherwise be ignored. I went to view this twice, the first time I was alone and I was transcended into thoughts of my own upbringing, how there were items that belonged to my family that still evoke memories of them. What made me stop and think was the idea that objects are subjected to vibrations of all kinds of sounds that, in some microscopic way, might still be reverberating inside them to this day; like the rings on a tree can reflect what was happening in the world around it at the time. It made me wonder how, like the ripples on water, vibrations never really fade away and how sound is an almost ignored sense; for instance our brains are programmed to drown out background noise or focus on a very select sound that could pose threats to us. It made me reevaluate how emotive sound can be, for example I've often wondered how the highest pitch in Allegri's Miserere never fails to bring tears to my eyes and yet I've no idea why. When I did finally leave my solitude in this piece I came across Dan, who was capturing some local shots and was on his way to the Mirror Gallery where this was located. I was aware of his background as a sound engineer and how impassioned he gets when talking about his chosen field. I didn't go into detail about the Household Gods piece, just that there was a piece I wanted to see how he would react to. It was truly an acutely vicarious experience to witness how someone with a deep wellspring of passion for the field felt about the piece. We then sat and discussed the almost metaphysical experiences that sounds and their place within objects have an unseen history. Very much informed by the cliche "If these walls could talk", we discussed at length how objects can in fact "listen" to what we say in their proximity. Our voices work on vibrations which are interpreted by how they bounce off of our ear drums and again interpreted by our brains in microseconds and while objects might not have the interpretive powers of our brains, they can still receive the vibrations of what we say and then once those vibrations dissipate, the sound becomes part of the objects life and existent history.

A fantastic day that inspired me in so many ways. I am grateful beyond words to have experienced all of it.

[far-cry-6-money-cheats-engj]

Far Cry 6 Trainer & Cheat for Ultimate health, Stamina (Download Link Inside) - DigiStatement

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Sign in to add this item to your wishlist, follow it, or mark it as ignored. Sign in to see reasons why you may or may not like this based on your games, friends, and curators you follow. All Rights Reserved. Published by Ubisoft Entertainment. Far Cry, Ubisoft, ubi. All rights reserved. You can use this widget-maker to generate a bit of HTML that can be embedded in your website to easily allow customers to purchase this game on Steam. Sign In. Home Discussions Workshop Market Broadcasts. Change language. Install Steam. Your Store Your Store. Categories Categories. Special Sections. Player Support. Community Hub. Crytek Studios. Freelance mariner Jack Carver is cursing the day he ever came to this island. Recent Reviews:. All Reviews:. Popular user-defined tags for this product:. Is this game relevant to you? Sign In or Open in Steam. Languages :. Publisher: Ubisoft. Franchise: Far Cry. Share Embed. Read Critic Reviews. Notice: The online multiplayer services for this title are shut down but single-player features will remain available. Any in-game News and player stats services will be shut down. For more info, check out the Ubisoft forums. View Community Hub. A week ago, a brash female reporter named Valerie had offered him an incredible sum of cash to take her to this unspoiled paradise. Shortly after docking, however, Jack's boat was greeted by artillery fire from a mysterious militia group swarming about the island. With his boat destroyed, his money gone, and the gorgeous Valerie suddenly missing, Jack now finds himself facing an army of mercenaries amidst the wilds of the island, with nothing but a gun and his wits to survive. But the further he pushes into the lush jungle canopy, the stranger things become. Jack encounters an insider within the militia group who reveals the horrific details of the mercenaries' true intentions. He presents Jack with an unsettling choice: battle the deadliest mercenaries, or condemn the human race to a maniac's insidious agenda. Feel the Far Cry engine - The meticulously designed, next-generation Far Cry engine pushes the threshold of action gaming with proprietary Polybump mapping, advanced environment and character physics, destructible terrain, dynamic lighting, motion-captured animation, and total surround sound. Unparalleled long-range gunplay - Battle to the ends of the earth with Far Cry's utterly unique, meter scalable view system. Lock onto enemies from a distance with motion-sensing binoculars. Then choose your style of attack - from long-range sniping to ballistic close-quarters firefights - and everything in between. Cunning and complex AI tactics - Battles never become repetitive when you face Far Cry's unpredictable, intelligent AI mercenary units trained in advanced adaptive group tactics. Units include snipers, stalkers, scouts, and grenadiers who engage you from all angles, distances, and terrains in coordinated strikes. Commanders will even call for reinforcements by land, sea, or air. Diverse combat action - Master a dynamic slate of combat skills - close-quarters combat, long-range shooting, search-and-destroy tactics, stealth operations, and combat driving skills through indoor and outdoor environments. Heart-pounding atmosphere - Experience unprecedented drama and realism in a misleadingly perfect setting, with incredible lighting and shadows, adaptive audio, and weather effects. Laptop models of the listed cards are not fully supported. See all. Customer reviews. Overall Reviews:. Review Type. All 6, Positive 5, Negative 1, All 6, Steam Purchasers 6, Other All Languages 6, Your Languages 3, Customize. Date Range. To view reviews within a date range, please click and drag a selection on a graph above or click on a specific bar. Show graph. Brought to you by Steam Labs. Filter reviews by the user's playtime when the review was written:. No minimum to No maximum. Off-topic Review Activity. When enabled, off-topic review activity will be filtered out. This defaults to your Review Score Setting. Read more about it in the blog post. Excluding Off-topic Review Activity. Loading reviews There are no more reviews that match the filters set above. Review Filters. Enter up to characters to add a description to your widget:. Create widget. Popular user-defined tags for this product:? Sign In Sign in to add your own tags to this product. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries. VAT included in all prices where applicable. View mobile website.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!