#without the player's input and that's a huge part of what keeps the games engaging! YOU are link. he's not a vessel you occasionally

[blueskittlesart]

me, thinking that i have at least a base level understanding of botw: :)

blue, about to write a 1,000+ word essay that is going to completely revamp my understanding of the game and interpretation of its events: bada bing bada boom

i dont know how you do it. i am incredibly impressed and using all of this for fic inspiration. keep writing

every time someone asks me how i do this shit i have to regrettably inform them that the real genuine answer is that i am fucking insane. my 2 passions in life are writing and video games and the place where the 2 converge fascinates me to no end and i am that special kind of crazy that is capable of latching onto something and not thinking about anything else for 10 years. so. the only thing i have cared about deeply for the last several years of my life has been the way video games are written and constructed. and zelda is one of the most interestingly constructed franchises i have found to date. these games are just like. the absolute perfect story for my brain to work with and i truly do not know who i would be without them. and i am genuinely incredibly grateful that ive been able to build a platform where people like. CARE about what i have to say and take the time to ask me to think about the games because like. i would be doing it ANYWAY but knowing that there are people who actually read my analysis and appreciate the amount of thought i put into this stuff makes me really happy lol

[scentedsongrebel]

Mission: Get Cap the girl

Pairings: Steve Rogers × Reader

Summary: They may be master assasins, ex-soldiers, super heroes and spies but matchmakers they were not.

Warnings: Fluff, cursing, nosy avengers, sexual innuendos, mention of porn 

Word Count: 2944

A/N: Hey guys this is my first time wrinting Marvel so I hope you like it cause I have a lot.more ideas…

Steams of salty sweat ran down his forehead to the end of his face which he wipes off with the mini towel he has in his hand. Making his way through the common living room of the compound he distinctly hears Sam shouting about the unfairness of going on runs with a supersoldier.

He ignores Sam as he reaches the kitchen area and the scene in front of him twitches his lips in a small smile.

She stands in front of the coffee machine mutterring angrily about Tony and his stupid alarm system and saying words that if he dared to speak in the 40’s, his Ma would have rinsed his mouth with detergent.

He is so lost in her as he makes his way towards her, he completely misses the presence of Bucky and Natasha sitting on the bar stools of the dinning table, sharing knowing smirks.

She groans as the coffee machine takes centuries to get the work done but before she can take her anger out on it he reaches her and offers to help.

She grumbles something and then takes a seat nearby. He begins to prepare her coffee which is almost done just needs the addition of the creamer, one tablespoon, just as she likes.

When he is done, he hands her the cup and she moans as the hot goodness hits her throat.

Steve takes a seat besides her and watches as she completely gulps down the entire thing in one more sip and then gets up

“I’m gonna head back to bed suckers” she says as she yawns and stretches her arms

“Didn’t you just wake up?” Bucky asks “and why did you drink coffee if you wanted to sleep again?”

She shakes her head but before she could open her mouth and say something Steve beats her to it

“The coffee was to stop the headache after the stupid alarms wake her up so mercilessly”

All 3 sets of eyes turn to him in confusion, shock and understanding

“What? this happens every morning” he smiles that charming smile that makes her heart flutter

“Yeah well Tony has overridden my commands to stop the alarm system and I’m too sleepy to fix it” she smiles sheepishly and he feels butterflies in his stomach

“Anyways I’m gonna head to bed” she yawns and then touches Steve’s shoulder “Thank you so much Stevie, You’re a life saver”

As she makes her way towards the living quarters he can’t help but touch his shoulder where he can still feel the imprint of her hand and smiles like an idiot.

“This is ridiculous” its Natasha, she is sitting on the bar stool besides Bucky munching on her cereal.

“Agreed” Bucky nods, having discarded eating completely “Just ask her out punk”

Steve just sighs and shakes his head “Its not like that Y/N and I are just friends”

Both Bucky and Natasha look at each other before they start laughing, hysterically, holding each other to maintain balance.

They keep laughing for so long that Steve grumbles angrily before grabbing a tetra pack of orange juice from the fridge and descending towards his room.

Bucky and Natasha keep laughing even when Sam finally reaches them not that breathless after having taken a break.

“What’s going on?” he looks around the rest of the kitchen but it is empty “Did I miss something?”

“Oh birdbrain” Bucky having regained his breath makes his way towards the sink with his bowl “We are just getting started”

“Welcome to Mission: get Cap the girl”

_———————-:)(:———————–_

The moment he walked into an empty living room, Steve knew something was wrong. Never in his time as an Avenger has he found the living room devoid of the presence of one of the Avengers except for when they were on mission.

Steve knew for a fact no one was supposed to be on a mission today and thus he knew something was wrong.

Boy was he right.

As he crosses the hallway his super soldier senses sense presence in the meeting area.

Shaking his head he makes his way in there. They’re playing poker in the meeting room again and even though it is not what the room is for he feels offended no-one invited him.

Fully expecting an intense game he is shocked when he finds himself interrupting what seems to be a serious meeting.

His eyes widen in sink with the others around the table. All around the table is almost all of the team: Bucky, Natasha, Clint, Tony, Wanda, Vision all sat at the table and Sam standing with a marker near the board.

“What the– Why is there a meeting without me?”

He asks looking around and when no one answers he looks at the board where Sam was writing something. Sam tries to hide the Contents of the board with his body but fails miserably.

“-Get them drunk and make them admit their feelings.

-Make them share a bed

-Send them gifts from each other

-Dare them to makeout”

The list went on…..

“What the- What the– What the fuck?” He almost shouts

“Language” Tony says bored

“Oh its nothing Cap” Sam tries to defend but then Steve’s eyes shift to the top of the board

“Mission: Get Cap the Girl”

And suddenly everything thing made sense and he groans throwing his head back

“I can’t believe you people”

“But Steve” its Bucky “admit it, with your track record you need all the help you can get”

Steve feels his face turning red and he glares at Bucky

“No I don’t”

“Please everyone in this room agrees you do” its Natasha. She twirls her pen with her fingers before pointing it at him

“Yeah” Sam says “Even those who declined the offer to be a part of this meeting due to prior engagements like Rhodey, Bruce and Thor agree”

“Oh my god, you contacted Thor for this?”

“Of-course who else would supply the only drink that can make you drunk?” Bucky smirks

Steve shakes his head in disbelief and moves his hand to his forehead massaging it to release some stress while his other hand rests of his waist

“I- I can’t” He shakes his head and then points to the board

“This– stop this, nobody is getting anyone any girl, it is none of your business what goes around with Y/N and me. So stay out of it and-”

He moves towards the board and erases its contents with the duster nearby.

“Abort this Mission: Cap girl whatever it is”

“Mission: get Cap the Girl” Tony says smiling and enjoying this

Steve growls in irritation again

“Abort the mission or I will be your worst nightmare”

He looks so angry that even Vision winces at the intensity of his threat. Steve’s face is completely red by the time he leaves the room and slams the door shut

After a moment of silence it is Clint that breaks the ice

“Just so we’re clear, We aren’t aborting the mission are we?”

“Not a chance”

_———————-:)(:———————-_

Y/N was a spy. A good one. She knew things were happening before they even started showing because of her killer observation skills. That’s how she got into The CIA then Shield and back to CIA before becoming an Avenger because of her combat skills and efficiency in locating and deriving Intel.

She could just tell when something was wrong and she did come in handy a lot of times due to this ability.

That is why she knew something maybe wrong no something was definitely wrong.

Her team was behaving weirder than usual and more than once had she found herself in weird situations. Most of them involving a certain blonde-haired super soldier.

She had found herself and Steve locked in the small suffocating space of the 2nd floor broom closet which even F.R.I.D.A.Y couldn’t open due to some ‘glich’ and which she could’ve sworn was not there before. I mean they have automated cleaning done by F.R.I.D.A.Y and the cleaning staff carried their own stuff.

They had remained locked for more than 2 hours. 2 of the longest hours of her life. With her heart pounding louder than anything with Steve so close to her and any sense of rational thoughts out of her mind.

Then she found herself in the middle of a conversation where Sam was ready to bet a thousand dollars that Steve was huge down there with Bucky agreeing even inputting that the serum worked everywhere.

She had choked on her water at that and had quickly excused herself.

Nat and Wanda had tried to up Steve more than what may be considered healthy and if she didn’t know any better, she could’ve sworn they had a thing for him.

“That dorito figure is so super hot Y/N you can’t deny that”

“The self-righteousness screams sexy to me”

Even Tony who was passing by sighing about the drowning depth of his ocean blue eyes. 

From there being no other option than Steve to be partner for every single  mission to having to share a room with him with only one bed as no other room was available to being sent on missions to warehouses without a single clue of Hydra and was it violin music she could distinctly hear playing in the background with only Steve as company

“Oops sorry wrong information, our bad”

She was sure by now that they knew about her crush on Steve and were teasing her in their own twisted ways.

Which brings her to the situation at hand where the only people showing to movie night were her and Steve.

She knew the moment she walked into the T.V room to see just Steve what was happening.

“Let me guess” she says as she walks to sit besides him on the couch, maintaining a respectful distance “Someone got sick, the other had a meeting, someone has a date, someone has a wife, blah blah blah”

Steve shakes his head and smiles at her offering her some popcorn

“You know they are all a bunch of idiots”

“God! If I didn’t know any better, I would say they were trying to set us up” she says casually popping a popcorn in her mouth and immediately regrets saying it.

Steve’s face turns completely red, eyes wide and he tries to stutter something but then just turns towards the T.V.

“Well why don’t we do what we came here for, leave those idiots” he says moving towards the dvd player because apparently the smart TV wasn’t working. Again suspicious. She also thinks she can hear an angry hiss down the hall but ignores it as she gets to snaek a peak at the backside of the all american glory.

She feels he knows something but doesn’t pushes it much and waits for him to pick a movie. Well if she had to watch a movie with just one person as company, she’s pretty glad with the one she has.

He searches through the dvd’s and she can see his ears going red before he turns to face her, completely red in the face.

She raises her eyebrow and gets up to take a look at what had gotten the super-soldier looking like a tomato.

“Hey! Lets do something else” he says moving the dvd case away from her “Wanna grab dinner, maybe walk around a bit what'da say?.. I mean”

He blabbers and although she feels a flutter in her heart because of the dinner suggestion.. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she tries to sneak a peak at what he’s hiding.

“Come on Steve what is wrong with the dvd’s”

“Nothing Y/N please lets just do something else”

She huffs a sigh

“Fine”

He sighs in relief putting down the dvd case and making his way towards her to lead her out of the door but before he can process what’s happening, she is behind him and has one of the dvd’s in her hand.

She looks carefully at the cover not quiet understanding where she has heard the title before before it sinks in and she drops the cd on the floor.

“Is this… Oh my god”

“Y/N I’m really sorry I just, those morons, fucking assholes they’re just…. Oh god”

Before she can help it she bursts out laughing and shaking her head

Steve looks at her in bewilderment

“Oh god they made you go crazy” Steve runs his hands through his hair

Y/N keeps laughing, holding a hand on to her stomach to settle some of the pain settling due to the laughter

“Y/N are you okay?” He makes his way towards her

“Oh, No no no” she shakes her head “Of-course I’m not okay, I mean do they really think getting us alone to movie night with no option other than porn is good matchmaking? These idiots have the responsibility to save the world”

He doesn’t understand how to react but before he can speak anything she continues.

“I mean I knew it was kinda obvious but this much? Do they really think I’m that horny?”

“W-What?” He stammers now thoroughly confused “obvious? You’re uh h-horny?”

“I’m a lot of things Steve” she sighs starting towards the door “I’m not in the movie mood as of now, sorry for the…. Umm you know. Anyways I’m gonna head to bed now”

But before she can leave Steve rushes in front of her taking hold of her elbow

“What did you mean obvious”

“You really don’t need to know”

“I really do” he moves closer until there is no space left between them “What is obvious Y/N because I am known to be kinda naive when it comes to you

"Steve I-I” but her words get caught in her throat as he bends down until their noses touch

“You?”

She shakes her head unable to speak and just stares at his eyes trying to say whatever it is through her soft loving gaze. He brings his hand to her right cheek and rubs his thumb on it in circles

“I really wanna kiss you right now” he says and all she can see is the deep drowning ocean blue eyes and all she can think of is him

“Why don’t you” it is a whisper and before she can comprehend, soft lips touch one another and there is the attack of butterflies throughout her entire body.

He is desperate, soft but there is an urgency. Like he was afraid it was a dream and he would wake up any second, like she would stop him any moment.

But when she finally realizes what is happening and is kissing him back all he can do is groan as he moves his hands from where they were caressing her cheeks to her waist to lift her up to his height. She wraps her legs around his waist, not breaking the intense moment.

They keep kissing until realization of the necessity of breathing settles in and even then he moves to place tender kisses on her jaw, her cheek, where ever he can from their current position as she regains her breath.

They stay like that for a while, trapped in the moment and each other until voices of celebration break the shell.

She feels confetti fall on her body and looks around to search for the source 

“Mission get Cap the girl is a success”

“I take all the credit for my brilliant idea”

“The only thing you can take credit for is providing the dvd’s birdbrain”

Looking around confused she turns her attention back to Steve who is still watching her intently and moves to kiss her again as she turns to him

“Steve-” she tries to question as she breaks away from the kiss with utmost difficult

“No” he pecks her lips 

“What is-”

“Tell you later” and just like that he starts kissing her again not letting her down from his arms, he doesn’t think he can and suddenly she does not care about the Voices behind her screaming at them to get a room

After what seems like a long while of making out Steve breaks away from the kiss to allow her time to breath as he addresses the group

“Tomorrow morning runs for everyone at 4 in the morning and grade 5 level training after. Also the mission reports I said you can let go after the verbal debrief, I would need them handwritten at my desk my tomorrow evening”

Y/N looks at him with a frown and he kisses the frown off her face

“Not you sweetheart”

“But Cap” its Sam

“I said nightmare Wilson” Steve says not breaking eye contact with the woman in his arms “Nightmares don’t always come at night”

“But Steve” Natasha starts “We were just trying to help”

“Captain’s orders”

“Are you crazy” Bucky says as he moves his hands vigorously conveying his point “It worked, we were of help”

“I’m a man of my word Buck” he says and smiles at Y/N “If you’ll excuse me, I got a girl to impress, see you in the morning 4 am sharp, no excuses”

He re positions his arms, readjusting Y/N so that he now holds her bridal style as she wraps her hands around his neck

“Shall we”

“We shall”

They move towards the living quarters ignoring the whining Avengers blaming each other and complaining about lack of gratefulness at the acts of good.

“Just so we’re clear, I like you” she smiles as they reach his room

“Just so we’re clear I like you more” he says as he places a kiss on her lips before putting her down and moving his hands to her waist

“I guess the mission Get Cap the girl was a success after all”

He furrows his eyebrows at her

“You-”

“I was right there and I have ears you know”

“It was a stupid mission was what it was”

“Ya because we definitely would have confronted each other with our feelings without a mission”

“Definitely”

[womanvinyl]

Best iPhone and Android Apps to Learn Music During Self Quarantine

As the inescapable COVID-19 doesn't appear to end soon, self-isolate has become the need of great importance. When all else fails, compromise is unavoidable and social removing is by all accounts the correct weapon to throttle the pandemic. 

I would lie on the off chance that I said that I didn't locate the social separating odious given that spending time with companions and shopping have for some time been my preferred guilty pleasures.

In any case, with time, I have made harmony with confinement, finding approaches to remain negative (no more +Ve welcome) and all the more critically keep myself engaged by gushing a boatload of entrancing recordings and satisfying the fantasy about learning music.

With a large group of cool music learning applications within reach, the disengagement has unexpectedly ended up being a surprisingly positive development. 

On the off chance that the since a long time ago appreciated wish of acing music despite everything makes you insane, it's an ideal opportunity to investigate the best iPhone and Android applications to learn music during oneself isolate.

Best iPhone and Android Apps to Learn Music (2020)

They state, "All around started is half done." Therefore, several convenient tips about getting a decent beginning would be the correct approach.

All in all, How to Get Started with Music Learning?

These music learning applications for Android and iOS accompany an organized program so you can start on the correct note, with the correct harmony, and obviously with the correct pitch. 

Much the same as an individual mentor, the application will keep a nearby watch on your advancement and offer the required input to enable you to improve. 

That is not all, it likewise offers some pined for remunerations to prop your adrenaline up. All in all, what's preventing you from choosing a guitar or a piano and singing out your main tunes?

1. Yousician

For getting a decent hang of music, I would prescribe you to begin with Yousician. The application covers a few prominent perspectives including piano, guitar, ukulele, bass, and singing and can fill in as a music instructor in helping you ace the little-known techniques. 

Likely the best part about this application is the capacity to let clients play a great many tunes on the genuine instruments. Furthermore, with moment criticism on the precision and timing, it keeps you on target.

Planned by master music educators, the educational plan includes bit by bit video instructional exercises with the goal that you can watch them and learn at your own pace. 

Along these lines, regardless of whether you are an amateur, moderate or as of now into the propelled phase of learning, it can end up being very useful to you. On all, the interactivity where you can bolt horns with your companions in a week after week challenge brings a lot of enjoyment into learning. 

Along these lines, odds are entirely high that your high pitch will keep on searching for enhancements.

2. Vanido: Learn to Sing

On the off chance that you are eager to ace singing with constant visual input, "Vanido" can be the correct solution to your desire. The application offers a completely customized music learning involvement in day by day exercises. 

As each activity is objective based, you can rehearse it to improve each critical viewpoints like head voice, chest voice, and adaptability. 

Much the same as an individual guide, the application likewise offers the required tips with the goal that you can support your planning and furthermore make sense of when you will in general go off the pitch.

Another office where Vanido has admired the undertaking to me is following advancement. Along these lines, you can remain on top of it with how well you are performing and furthermore track down the deficiencies that are forestalling you. 

To bring increasingly enjoyment into learning music, you can set testing objectives and back yourself to accomplish them. Thinking about these apparent highlights, Vanido can without much of a stretch have a special interest of being a top music-learning application for iOS.

3. Piano – Play Unlimited Songs

For the people who have an immense inclination for piano, this application is by all accounts a go-to stage. Highlighting a tremendous index of tunes, you can pick your main tunes to play from an assortment of kinds, for example, rock, pop, kids, pop, rap, and that's just the beginning. 

As the new melodies are included normally, odds are quite high that you will consistently have something out-of-the-crate to give it a shot. Not simply that, you can even welcome your pals for a carefree duel and part with your best to run with the title of things to come musician.

One of my top picks of this application is the capacity to play a melody at the favored trouble level, for example, amateur, middle of the road, and progressed. 

From what I have encountered, it makes a smidgen simpler to become familiar with the subtleties of the piano. In light of your objective, you can rehearse harmonies at your own pace and make cool music. 

Concerning the principles, it's as clear as it can ever get. Essentially, the better you perform at playing tunes, the more scores you get. What's more, with the high scores come a huge amount of worthwhile prizes!

4. Piano Academy

One more application that can let you ace the piano at your own pace. The application accompanies an overly convenient touch console with the goal that you can get the genuine inclination. 

In addition, it brags one the biggest libraries of instructional exercise recordings which can assist you with rehearsing hypothesis subjects like staff, harmonies, notes, and then some. Civility straightforward clarifications, getting a decent grasp on each note shouldn't be a major inquire.

Another component important is the genuine sheet music that lets you work on playing an assortment of tunes and that too with the ideal adaptability. 

Every once in a while, the application continues offering tips to improve your aptitude and furthermore dispose of the blemishes. 

In any case, what makes it a cool music learning resource is an extraordinary assortment of fun games that are intended to prepare your faculties like melodic hearing, hand-coordination, and your feeling of mood.

5. Learn Guitar with Uberchord

On the off chance that guitar realizing is the thing that you are after, you shouldn't neglect to evaluate this application from Uberchord. What makes it stand apart is a very much organized educational plan that shows harmonies, rhythms, and tunes in a deliberate way. 

Including admirably more than 200 titles, the application has got you completely secured most definitely. Furthermore, with an exceptionally responsive instrument close by, you can play guitar to your heart's preferring.

For better control, gain proficiency with each part independently. Furthermore, when you have a decent hang of the entire tune, go for the full drill. As you progress, the application adjusts to your taste and furthermore offers tips to enable you to improve. 

Because of the better knowledge, you can without much of a stretch detect the zones which need more consideration. 

Realizing that finger amendment assumes a crucial job in acing the guitar, the application offers visual input also. More or less, Uberchord can be an incredible resource for learning the subtleties of the guitar.

6. Understand Music

On the off chance that improving the music sight-perusing is the thing that on the highest point of your brain, look no farther than "Read Music". The application may appear to be really light yet accompanies many exercises to let you practice a few crucial perspectives including mood, melodic and then some. 

Since each activity is reduced down, you won't think that its intense to save time for it in any event, during frenzied calendars. Along these lines, I don't expect additional reasons for not having the option to find your diversions.

Being objective based, each activity puts exceptional accentuation on improving explicit parts of music sight-perusing. 

One of my preferred highlights of this application is a pleasant assortment of melodic perusing practices for piano and consoles as they make learning music a delight. Additionally, there are likewise some very much created practices for improving the capacity to perceive notes in the staff.

7. Flowkey

At the point when you have the advantage of a major library with a wide scope of melodies, piano learning turns into a treat. Stacked with an advantageous assortment of tunes, Flowkey vows to be a top wagered for tenderfoots or the individuals who need to learn piano without managing complexities. 

Even better, the application works with both a genuine piano and console, which is decent from the adaptability perspective.

As somebody who consistently wants to have clear guidelines, I have discovered Flowkey's library of instructional exercises extremely noteworthy. 

Guided by experts, they center around each inconspicuous angle and furthermore offers the alternative to pick the ideal level: apprentice, halfway, and master level. 

Adhering to the set principles and clear directions, you can arrive at your objective or besides become the most looked for after piano player in your town.

8. Justin Guitar Beginner Lessons

There is a ton to like right now application. As a matter of first importance, the application gives a completely organized course intended to instruct essential guitar harmonies, strumming designs, finger picking designs, capo, harmony changes, scales, and guitar tabs. 

As an amateur, you will discover the course very supportive. Under the genuine guitar mentor Justin's direction, you can finish in excess of 50 exercises.

Highlighting a self-appraisal framework, the application makes it entirely easy to follow guitar enhancements. 

Concerning the melody assortment, the application has taken a gander at standard to me civility an arrangement of more than 1000 hit tunes. In this way, regardless of whether you need to tune into exciting music or get the flavor of mark music, it can satisfy the charging.

9. Music Theory with Piano Tools

Do you think that its somewhat hard to get it together of music hypothesis? In the event that indeed, I would prescribe you to give a shot to "Music Theory with Piano Tools". 

The application centers around showing the center ideas of music in an enjoyment way. Along these lines, you can get past the exercises effortlessly and that too without extending your brain. 

Moreover, it additionally offers a superior method to learn both the major and minor scopes and their modes. With the valuable music notes and interims, it causes you practice easily.

10. StarMaker

For all the energetic music darlings who try to be the following enormous stars in the music business, StarMaker could end up being a distinct advantage. Definitely, you got that directly as the application flaunts in excess of 50 million clients all inclusive and accompanies a mammoth assortment of both global and desi melodies. 

From Ed Sheeran's "State of You" to Bellie Ellish's " Bad Guy", it has you completely secured. In this way, you can look over an assortment of melodies to chime in with the moving verses.

All things considered, the story doesn't end there as it likewise offers some helpful apparatuses to let you alter your chronicles. What's more, with astounding voice impacts at the removal, you can add the x-factor to your melodies so they can stick out. 

For progressively fun, you can two part harmony with your preferred craftsmen or companions and offer the accounts on person to person communication stages, for example, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook. 

Gracious indeed, in view of your presentation, the application likewise positions you on the worldwide leaderboard, which could constrain you to sing karaoke melodies easily.

[thewoodedbastion]

Roleplay Roadblock

This is something that has been on my mind for a while. I know talking about things and writing them, for me, makes them a bit more tangible. Once something is tangible I often have a better ability to navigate it. I am hoping this is the case with this topic. I want to have a deeper more immersive experience at LARP and in character in general. I want to not so much internally get lost. Like I don't want to be so inside a character that i'm disassociating. I do want to get lost in the process of exploring and expressing a character. I want to be less timid as characters and with how i perform them. Especially at a LARP where i get to spend a weekend away as a character, I want to be able to exist more naturally and thoroughly as a character without second guessing myself and my choices. I have found through thinking about it as well as through talking about this with friends that I have several road blocks. Many of the conversations have come up in regard to future games that I will be soon attending in person. At Seventh Kingdom IGE I was very much a novice to LARPing as a whole as well as still technically a noob in related genre's such as ttrpgs and forum roleplaying. Though i had such a great time, I did not exist in the game as deeply as I could have for as long as I could have. I felt I was just hitting my stride as game was nearing and end. I expressed a desire to up my game so to speak, but in so i had to acknowledge my roadblocks from my previous experience. One thing that kept me from going full tilt in a lot of situations was knowing the power I wield as a performer. I'm not a god tier performer by no means. However I am sitting on a performing arts Bachelors degree, one of which is still actively engage with via my job and my other hobbies. When it comes to performance I know I can turn up as my peers would say. This may sound silly, but I was afraid of taking too much spotlight. I was afraid of accidentally stepping over other people. I know many of my larp peers don't have a performance background. I know many are just gaining the kind of confidence that allows them to take charge of things. I know folks come to these weekends to be heard, and affirmed. To feel powerful and capable. I always would clam up because i had a fear of taking that away from someone else. Its kind of something i saw happened a lot from the background. I watched it happen to other cool people who i thought were smart and capable, but just didn't quiet have the confidence all the time in certain settings. So this was a real fear for me in those moments. I'm not going to say that i never took moments. I definitely got some where sometimes. But even in moments i generated for myself as a bard, I had such a weird feeling of going "hey guys, look at me be cool" and it made me feel icky despite knowing that folks did not feel this way about me. I had a fear of separating myself from everyone else. I know that how I experience things is a bit extreme and the kind of experience is often deeper than what most folks around me want. I've been hearing for most of my life that what I want to experience is "A lot" or "too much". And for most folks it is. It doesn't come from a place of hate. It was never in a bullying sense. It does however make one lonely in the universe. So i've always been afraid to go to the full extent that I want to experience because it feels like putting myself on an island away from other people. I do want to do my thing and be my best me. I have been doing that all my life solo. LARP gave me one of my few real tastes of what it is like to get to be the real me with other people. The deep me that doesn't get engaged with very often. That is still part of my core needs, as much as digging deep into immersion is. Along these same lines, I am afraid of giving someone the wrong impression of me. There are some characters that I want to play that are going to be purposefully scary and off putting. There will be times where i may get into a groove of a character that folks stop seeing who I really am for that time

being. What happens if I accidentally make someone uncomfortable while i'm in character? What happens when they don't feel safe to talk to me? I don't want to inadvertently have a negative affect on folks because of my deep level of immersion On a more personal side ive realized i'm kind of afraid of committing to the bit. I'm afraid of how it might affect me. Its unknown territory, and i'm aware that mentally and emotionally i'm not indestructible. Its less about losing a sense of reality. That I feel pretty solid and grounded in because i love fantasy and immersion so much. I'm afraid of how it might affect me in the long and short term. I'm afraid of possible bleed. I'm afraid of the come down from being in character for the weekend. I'm afraid of how it might affect my mental emotional state if I haven't been doing the best. Its kind of the fear of going to a new place all together and realizing there is a huge world of possibilities both positive and negative. I'm a deep feeler and i know this. I'm also very committed to the things that I do. So i'm just a bit afraid of stepping past that unknown threshold into deep immersion and exploring. Something i've learned recently from a roleplay experience i'm having with a friend of mine is that i'm afraid of the "hard road". I'm afraid of making choices that will make my time at game as a player harder. I'm afraid of not being able to overcome obstacles, and not being able to I guess do cool things or even basic things successfully. In the case of the roleplay i've been doing its been because of the RNG of digital dice rolls, but what I was seeing was still another obstacle being put in my way. I'm often so much better as just me overcoming obstacles so you'd think it wouldn't matter, but for whatever reasons the hard road at a LARP is scary and mentally exhausting to think about. So i know there is a part of me that wants to shy away from choices that maybe genuine but would make things suck a bit. Then of course . . .What if I fail? What if i'm just bad at being in character? What if as my character i mess up a plot or a mod? What if I become an obstacle for people instead of a partner in story? What if I just mess up? What if my accent is awful and insulting? Just general anxiety of an anxious Cabbit. I'm almost certain i'm not the only person who worries about this. So explaining my fears helps at least get them out in a real way. Talking about it is only one part to it. For this situation to improve I need to be able to work past theses issues in some tangible way. I need to make choices and shift my perspective about these situations. I need to remember that I am a player too and have right to be seen and heard like everyone else. Part of my training is the ability to be able to share space with other people. Partnership is part of my gig, and what is LARP if not collaborative storytelling improv. I need to take the chance and speak up. I need to step up into my characters but also keep myself present enough to be aware of other folks around me who are trying to participate. Part of the facilitation I do at my job is bringing folks into conversations and making space for them to speak. I'm proficient in this and I can apply it to how I roleplay with others at game. I don't have to completely sacrifice myself just so others can have space. There is plenty of room for all of us. I'll just have to remember to both step up and step back from time to time. I have no way of absolutely knowing that I will be separated or ostracizing if I go to my full performance potential. I know I can be a lot but there have been times in my LARP history where folks have expressed how much me being me made a good experience for them. Times were I did the absolute most. If I am afraid about being to much I can talk with folks about it and get their feelings. I can tell folks about my ideas for my character expression and gauge their response. I might even get some input. I can negotiate roleplay boundaries with folks I could potentially interacting with, in game, and

possibly create some roleplay partnerships throughout the weekend. Talking to folks before and after game, as well as during NPC shifts will give everyone a chance to see me beyond my characters. This will help create some separation from the characters I play and me as a person. Also NPCing in and of itself will give folks a chance to see me as other characters so the get the chance to just recognize me as a performer and experience me in various characters. If I am worried about my mental state I can up my general self care to hopefully help with any possible adverse effects. I can add grounding and centering routines to my larp weekends before and after event, and during if necessary. I can build a personal debrief/decompress session into my overall larp wellness routine after game is over. I can try to find a buddy to do check ins with during events if I need them, either at game or off site. I need to sit with my discomfort with the struggles of a character. Challenge is part of the game. Obstacles are necessary for a character to have an interesting narrative and to grow. Its ok if things are difficult. Even video games are difficult sometimes (I'm looking at you Super Ghouls and Ghost), but can still be fun. I need to learn to process that discomfort with struggle and not be afraid of it. If I can overcome real life obstacles i can figure out in game ones as well. It will make the character cooler, but it will make me feel like I have actually accomplished something. That is a rewarding feeling. All of these fears I have are super manageable. I really want to be a great character artist someday. Not just in dedication but in actual ability. I gotta screw up a bit before i get there and that is ok. I want to do cool things not just for others, but for myself as well. I want to have fun. My kind of fun. I want to have that fun with friends.

[meditatemoremedicateless]

The Raven (Before the Storm Theorycraft)

Credit to @geekremix for many of her theories of the original Life is Strange, as well as the Geek Remix Lets Plays I’ve been using as my source material for most of my research of the original game.

Since the release of the first trailers for Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the Raven has been a seemingly omnipresent figure. In the opening of many scenes in the game, including almost every scene with Rachel, the setting is shown, followed by the Raven’s entrance or presence in the scene before the player assumes control. It, for all intents and purposes, appears that Chloe is being followed by a bird. But why?

The symbolisms associated with ravens are varied, but both essential properties of ravens as well as myth specifically included or referenced in the game seems like a fair place to look. With that in mind:

- As carrion birds, ravens frequently represent coming death. They are highly intelligent creatures known to follow large groups of humans, such as caravans or military battalions, in expectation of death (and therefore food).

- As referenced in the placard next to the totem, ravens often stand in as trickster spirits or symbols of transformation.

- In many mythos, ravens act as godly messengers, likely due both to their intelligent and ability to mimic language.

 Now, the Raven could be understood as a mere symbol of death, transformation, or a divine message if they did not interact with the cast of their own accord. For instance, the blue jay in Life is Strange may have interacted with Max, but it didn’t demonstrate any awareness of her or anyone else, and doesn’t try to engage with her beyond responding to her actions (such as shooing it in episode 3). However, the Raven is heavily implied to be the source of Chloe’s vision in the junk yard, in which she discovers Rachel’s location and is told that “Sometimes, people need you, though. Even when they don’t admit it.” The way that the vision fragments visually, with William seeming to be more illusion than person, and with the Raven appearing every time the vision fragments.

Because the information that the Raven provided was accurate, I think there are a few safe possible interpretations.

-        The Raven may be a familiar/spirit animal (I detest Life is Strange’s use of spirit animals, so I’ll be replacing them with familiars for the rest of the post) belonging to Chloe, guiding her according to her own intentions. They watch over her, only interfering to help her accomplish things she wants (repairing things with Rachel) and help others (keeping Rachel safe). This would fulfill the ‘messenger of the gods’ role.

-        The Raven may be a guardian spirit for Rachel. I say this simply because of how often the Raven’s appearance is associated with Rachel’s, most notably at the Fire Walk event and the park hill between Arcadia and Culmination. Additionally, the Raven only actually interfered in a way that helped Rachel, both emotionally and in terms of safety (it showed Chloe a vision of Rachel burning, after all, and if she becomes injured she’ll likely require Chloe’s help to get out of the forest). In addition, Max’s special connection to animals in Arcadia Bay appeared at the same time that she developed her powers, meaning the Raven may be connected to Rachel’s relationship to the wind.

-        The Raven may be a puppet of the woman who kissed Rachel’s dad / watched the fire, hereafter referred to simply as The Woman. Because the Woman’s appearances are both directly related to the destruction of Rachel’s life, and because she takes so much pleasure in watching the fire begin (without any apparent excitement or agitation, suggesting she knew it would happen), it’s possible that the woman may be using the Raven to spy on and manipulate Rachel and Chloe in order to cause a sequence of events. More on this in another paper.

-        The Raven may literally be a person. Hearkening back to old theories of a shapeshifting Mark Jefferson, the concept of shamanism or animal shapeshifting in Arcadia Bay has always been a stretch, but a reasonable one. If that is the case, my assumption is that the Raven would be someone with a way to access both knowledge of the future as well as being able to gain a psychic connection to others. The most obvious way that this might be possible is if they have some bond with Arcadia Bay itself – however, whether this person wants to protect the people in the bay or to destroy them so far remains a mystery.

 Now, I have one last theory, and it is a theory that relies on other theories, and also my actual theory. Stick with me as I catch you up on my accepted theories regarding animals following episode 5 of Life is Strange.

-        Both because the butterfly is present for Max gaining powers as well as Chloe’s funeral, I believe that the butterfly is Chloe Price. I follow an interpretation of the Sacrifice Chloe ending of the game that the ultimate justification for Max’s powers was to give Max some of the time with Chloe that was stolen from her upon Chloe’s death. In so doing, Max was able to realize her feelings for Chloe as well as recognize that Chloe could forgive her – in effect, Chloe granted Max her powers so she could make her know how she felt about her, to forgive her, and to give Max a chance at making new connections with people (all the people she got to know in the week she erased).

-        It is heavily implied that the doe in episodes 1-4 is Rachel, guiding Max through her journey so that her body might be discovered and she could gain closure. Because Max is the only one capable of seeing her, it seems clear that Max is capable of seeing a version of Arcadia Bay that other people can’t – a spiritual plane lain over the same landscape. Considering the way in which her reality literally fragments in the Nightmare, it appears that people may exist simultaneously on an embodied and spiritual plane.

If we are to believe that certain animals within Life is Strange are the spirits of people, there is no reason to assume that familiars actually exist in Arcadia Bay. Rather, the Raven is the manifested spirit of someone who needs to resolve something. While William is certainly one possibility, and one of the only relevant dead characters at this point, I simply can’t imagine William becoming a raven after his death – transformation, death, and trickery all don’t line up with anything we know about him. However, someone who was interested in creating death and tricking Chloe would appropriately come in the form of a raven. Currently, the game still seems to be hinting a lot about the storm, so the coming death that the Raven is trying to bring may in fact be the storm. Except, who would gain anything by bringing the storm?

My proposition? A Prescott. Of course. I always come back to the Prescotts, don’t I?

Here's my reasoning. Firstly, the wildfire that Chloe and Rachel cause starts up to the north of Arcadia Bay, between it and Culmination. From what we know of Pan Estates, it is built very near there, and its construction doesn’t seem to have started yet. As such, the Prescotts may acquire the land that is to become Pan Estates after the wild fire deforests the land. Secondly, we know from at least one angle that the Prescotts could potentially benefit by bringing the storm to the Bay: in Episode 4 of Life is Strange, Max and Chloe discover that the Prescott family is responsible for a huge bunker boom in Arcadia Bay during the cold war. This exchange occurs in mandatory dialogue, so it must be significant, but there was never any follow-up in Life is Strange – to the contrary, the bunker beneath the Prescott barn was suggested to have been created with little knowledge or input by Sean. However, if Pan Estates were built significantly inland, and it either was built with bunkers or a large number of people in Arcadia Bay simply have bunkers under their homes, then Pan Estates becomes the obvious choice of real estate once people are forced to relocate during the reconstruction of Arcadia Bay. Lastly, in episode 4 of Life is Strange, if Kate was saved and Max brings up Nathan, Kate remarks that the Prescotts “have something to do with death.” While Nathan may have killed Rachel, there’s no real reason for Kate to generalize this concept. However, if the Prescotts actually have a spiritual connection to ravens, a symbol of death, and this Raven is capable of entering people’s dreams, it is possible that Kate encountered the Raven at some point (most likely when drugged by Jefferson).

So, let’s say I’ve gotten lucky and yeah, it’s a Prescott. Although in my own works I’ve usually pointed the Nathan’s mother as a source of a lot of the potential Prescott weirdness, she isn’t dead in Life is Strange – Sean clearly remarks about his and his wife’s feelings about Nathan’s deteriorating mental state in a letter than Max can read in the Bunker / Dark Room. Kristine, too, is alive as of Life is Strange. So what other Prescotts do we know? While I’m hesitant to suggest it, Henry Aaron Prescott seems like one of the easiest people to point to – with a supernatural view of both the spiritual plane of Arcadia Bay as well as the ability to see the future, the Prescotts’ acquisition of so much of the land and power seems trivial. However, it could just as easily be any other Prescott who has died, Henry is just the only one we know the name of.

Now, while this theory leaves Life is Strange extremely consistent in its supernatural logic, it is precisely because of that that I doubt it. At least under DONTNOD, the mystical elements of Arcadia Bay, including Max’s powers, were never consistent. Even if Max is considered to have say, four different powers instead of the expected two, parts of her powers don’t make much sense, such as her flash forward in the opening sequence of the game. Ultimately, I expect that the Raven will be a familiar to someone implicitly, and we’ll never get anything more explicit than the vision that they appeared in. That being said, there’s already a lot of material to work with on the Raven, so I think this is a good place to start.

Let me know if you have any more ideas about the Raven or animal spirits in Arcadia Bay!

[derekhaleimagines]

The Crime Blogger

Tags: @the-shewxlf, @megant22, @sexywolfsfordays, @houseofrahl, @sterek-basically, @kittycatgirlmaddie, @misshinehou, @unbreakablevoices, @champagneblues, @mixed-up-fangirl, @juliaspnlover, @cineyou, @lipstickstainsandwerewolfchains, @fallenangel-13x, @urwarriorangel, @bless-my-demons, @lunaskyhunter, @arkhamirwin, @fangirlnerd101​, @m-a-t-91​, @meanwhilesmiley​, @edithambroreigns​, @from2016

Word count: 2958

Author’s note: I cannot begin to say how really incredibly sorry I am. I want to apologise for abandoning this blog for such a long time. Thankfully, I had a lot to do, which at least kept me focused on something else than Him. I could write odes about what has been happening to me during these months, but I’m planning to do that somewhere else. Namely, on another blog, so that I can hopefully help others who are in a situation they think can’t solve, or one that’s taking over their life.

Warnings: none (mentions of corpses, but nothing explicit)

Betas: I didn’t send this over to my Pack because I wanted to post this asap, but the list of them is here nonetheless: @i-am-a-misguided-misfit, @lipstickstainsandwerewolfchains, @mixed-up-fangirl, @kittycatgirlmaddie, @fallenangel-13x, @the-shewxlf, @b-chocolatelover, @from2016, @safiac, @random-fandom-fangirl2112​

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The judge was wrong – what he believed to be a mere intuitive leap was a conclusion based on careful observation. Also, I am in the position to announce that the bullet was indeed fired from a Sig Sauer X-5, for having had the opportunity to take a glance at the corpse myself. Therefore, the murder weapon was rightfully named in the court. The police should be looking for it instead of wasting their time engaging in the mind game the murderer set up for them to play.

It weren’t until my partner, Stiles, informed me about this blog. Turned out, it has been following quite a bit of our cases – the worst part however, was the fact that whoever launched this blog was able to pinpoint the important facts and come to the solution days, or sometimes even weeks, before we did.

This is the first post that I had the fortune to come across, and after reading these short, yet pithy lines, I gave myself some time in my office to skim through the rest. Then, following the instructions given to us, we searched for the pistol, only to later catch the killer, too. The case was solved within a week, thanks to that blog.

After then, I made it a habit to always check what was written there, and it never ceased to help me get to the end of my cases faster than I could initially do. The only mystery was this person’s method to always know about all of the evidences first-hand. I had no idea how he was doing it, and I’m still clueless to this day.

. o O o .

My current issue involves a man who has managed to outsmart everyone so far. Among his favourite habits are golf, taking photos, painting, reading, leaving a sign at the scenes of his homicides, chess, and poker.

The latter is the reason why Stiles and I are attending an annual celebration of one of the casinos in Los Angeles. There are more people here than usual, and our profiling colleague, Lydia, said that our man would never let down such an opportunity to shine his talent. Hence, me and Stiles are to play cards, all the while looking for clues as to who could be the interpreter.

After about two hours of poker and Black Jack, I opt to get a drink before continuing the subtle investigation. I spot Stiles at table 29, seeing how much he’s focusing on the game. I scan the room – I can immediately choose from the abundance of seats when a collective shout and a round of applause are paid to one of the players at table 47. Without a second thought, I race to get one of the two vacant seats with masked excitement.

To my biggest surprise, the person everyone applauded was a woman, presumably in her mid thirties; she’s wearing an outfit that reminds me of fifties’ fashion, and with her short blonde hair, blazing red lipstick, long lashes and perfect eyeliner, she looks like Marilyn Monroe herself. Only the trademark mole is missing from her face.

Upon noticing that I’m watching her, she sends a crooked smile in my way, before asking, “Are you here to play or to stalk?”

The people around chuckle at her remark; unconsciously, the corner of my mouth twitches as well, and I request for cards. It doesn’t take me long to realise how good she is. It’s no hardship for her to collect nearly all of the money from the table – after approximately an hour, only three of us dare to still play with her; two men, whose names I learnt to be Jason and Chad, and me. Jason is very good at poker, but not nearly as good as Jane, the woman who resembles Monroe.

Then something clicks in my brain as Alice is shuffling the deck for another round; our killer is exceptionally good at poker. In my mind, I automatically start planning the scene of arresting her and taking her with me to the interrogation room. I was too biased until now to do so much as even contemplating the idea of the murderer not even being a ‘he’, but a ‘she’. Under the table, I warn Stiles with my phone via an SMS, then act as though I did nothing and just keep playing.

The game is far from over when Stiles arrives and stands behind my chair. Jane takes a glance at him, and they exchange a long look with each other – suddenly, she announces it has been enough for her and she proceeds to leave, swiping her chips from the table before standing hastily. As she swiftly disappears behind the crowd, I throw in my cards too, and we follow her with Stiles.

We barely manage to catch her at the entrance. Out of mere chivalry, I refrain from clicking handcuffs on her tiny wrists in front of all these people, but instead I do hold on to her arm with a firm grip. As we lead her to our car, she tsks at me, “You got the wrong person, agent.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask while masking my surprise. How on Earth could she know we’re detectives? She couldn’t have seen either of our guns nor our IDs or cuffs. So how...

“You two are clearly from the police. Add the fact that your current subject is an avid poker player and you get a supervised party in the casino. Wasn’t a difficult leap,” she explains. It sounds logical, but I can still not grasp how she figured out our true identities, nor why she left the party so suddenly. Asking her, I get the following response, “You’re an idiot for a detective,” she says. “Your stance says everything. Then there’s the fact that your bust holster is available from under your suit – not obviously, but if someone knows what to look for, it’s clear.”

“And you apparently know what to look for,” I interject, only to get a disapproving look from her as she twirls around, halting in front the car, facing me.

“If you’re not interested in my inductions, you could might as well let me go,” she retorts. Submissively, I shake my head to sign her I’m not intend to do that until she explained everything to me. A short pause follows, but she goes on nonetheless. “Next, your hands; the skin is calloused where your gun puts pressure on it, and your index finger is flat because you always pull the trigger with that. You approached the table that allured you with the most solid potential of finding the murderer. Conclusion: you’re a right-handed cop who’s gone undercover to catch the poker player killer.”

“Not as stupid as it would make you think at first glance, huh,” Stiles speaks up, shaking me out of my sudden stupor after being unveiled. Her perfect red lips pull up in a smug smirk as she comments, “Paramount mistake to be biased by societal rules.” Jane turns to me then. “Can I go now? Obviously I’m not the killer you’re looking for. Furthermore, you’ve just granted him the perfect opportunity to escape, plus you’ve just told him you’re chasing him.”

I have never felt so stupid in my life as I’m watching her stride away in her high-heels.

. o O o .

The next scene of murder I’m directed to occurred at a hotel near a golf paradise. While Stiles converses with the CSI members, I take the testimonies of some of the people around here – namely the manager of the hotel, a maid who noticed the tragedy first, and the brother of the dead.

From the manager, I get the list of all of the suspicious men who rented a room. Stiles joins me, the brother and the maid, saying, “The CSI is certain it was our man.” The maid snorts under her breath, albeit she does that so quietly that I’m not sure if it was only me or she really did laugh just a moment ago. Looking at her innocent face – the short ginger hair curled into adorable locks, the huge green eyes, the smattering of freckles, the pouting lips – I abandon the idea of her making fun of the situation.

Later that day, I find a new post on the blog.

The police suspects the Poker Killer, even though it is clear as the Sun that it was committed by the victim’s brother. The Poker Killer is a showman, therefore he would never allow himself to ruin a scene by allowing people to see the corpse first, then his signature – he always shows us the signature first, then the body. Always. There hasn’t been an exception, so why would there be now? Also, the brother was more invested in what was going on the TV, and he had a smudged red spot on the back of his neck that he apparently didn’t notice whilst changing clothes and removing the most telling evidence.

. o O o .

Again, the blogger was right.

I’m still clueless about his methods, and I have no idea how he knew about the scene or where did he get so close to the brother to notice that tiny red spot on his nape. At first, I thought it was someone from the CSI group, but I haven’t seen any of them before in my previous cases.

So who is the mysterious genius, then?

. o O o .

Two months later, we find a major suspect, and we visit the jury to get an order to look around in his flat. Stiles shows the paper to the landlady, while I’m already on my way to the room of our supposed murderer. In front of the door, I hear faint noises of puttering inside, so I grab my gun before raiding inside. The noises are switched by a pair of high-heels clicking towards me, and within seconds, a young woman appears.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, lowering my weapon to which she didn’t even seem to bat an eye. I tuck the pistol back into my holster, giving further questions, “Why are you here? Who are you?”

“Natasha Karenina,” she answers with a mild Russian accent. She approaches me, only to hand me her business card. I roll my eyes.

“An investigative journalist?” The deceiving tone cannot be disguised in my voice. Natasha is opening her mouth to add something to the conversation, but Stiles appears, and her attention zeroes in on his figure. For the time being, I survey her; she has long black hair that she’s wearing in a perfect pony tail, her royal blue eyes are raking over Stiles, and she’s wearing a light grey skirt suit with a white button-up.

“Why are you here?” I ask again, earning her undivided focus once more.

“I could ask the same,” she answers, moving her sight up and down on me, “but it’s obvious. You’re here because you think it’s the Poker Killer’s flat, aren’t you.” She put it in a questioning phrase, but I have a feeling she wasn’t actually asking anything. She was stating.

“How did you–” starts Stiles, but she cuts him off fast.

“Never mind. The fact of importance here is that this isn’t where our murderer lives.” I assume she noticed the confusion on both of our faces, because without us having to urge her, she goes on, “It’s enough to take a glance at his bookshelves. We know our killer loves to read, but here, you can only see dust covering all of the thick books that are here in the living-room.” While speaking, she gestures towards said room, and enters it. Stiles and I follow. “There’s also some random stuff put in front of the books. Thus, this man wants to look smart, but would never take the time to actually sit down and start any of these prints. However, if you take a look at his bedroom,” she says, once again going to the place she’s talking about with us hot on her heels.

“You can see on his nightstand that there is a thin book about parenting. There are framed photos of his daughter and him, but the only piece in which the entire family can be seen was taken at least two years ago. What does this say to us?” She turns around to look at us, giving us a chance to add something to the story, but we both remain silent. Natasha rolls her eyes at us before going on, “That he and his ex-wife divorced within the last two years. There are no toys, albeit the girl’s age tells us that she would still require such things. A playing room is also absent; hence the girl lives with her mother.

“Our killer doesn’t have a family, he’s intelligent, loves photography and art, however, there are no signs here of any of them; there’s no dark room, no objectives, just one single camera that usually amateurs choose – not quite the taste of our man, is it? Then the painting hobby: there aren’t any brushes, sheets... nothing. I can’t even smell paint in the air. He doesn’t have a separate room where he could work on his pictures. If this man were to be as bright as the Poker Killer, his thick books wouldn’t be eaten away by layers of dust.”

“Amazing,” Stiles blurts, clearly astonished by the girl. I’m not less impressed, but at the same time, something is crawling around in my mind that I can’t shake off. Something that tells me I’ve seen this before, something like...

“You,” I say before I could stop. Natasha looks at me, and that’s the final evidence that I needed to be sure about my theory. “You’re Jane.”

“Jane?” she asks, trying to act nonchalant and puzzled by the name, but I caught sight of her nerve twitching under her cheek.

“You know what I’m talking about,” I declare confidently, enjoying that for the first time, I have the upper hand, and not her. “I know that sight – you looked at me with the same eyes that night, when I joined your table at the poker party. Then you asked if I was just going to gawk at you or actually play.” I have to admit that her ability to disguise herself is also worth of a generous applause, not only her poker skills, but I would never let her know this.

As soon as she inhales a long breath, I know I got her.

“So what?” she barks at me, dropping the accent and clearly annoyed at having been uncovered. Stiles is blinking at us, eyes commuting between her and I. “I’m after this guy, of course I follow him wherever he goes.”

“You looked older back then,” I point out, only to earn another eyeroll from her.

“Of course. You couldn’t expect me to show up in front of a murderer without any disguise protecting me, could you?” Driven by a sudden idea that pops up in my mind for a second, I can’t resist asking,

“Have you heard about the crime blogger?” I hope she could help me find whoever is running that site. Her answer comes with the same tightness from before.

“No.”

Granted, she’s mine.

She knows about the blog, more so, knows who the author is. And now I know the answer, too. I can get her admittance to my being right with just one single, simple question. “How come someone as good as you is ignorant to such an infamous blog?”

Natasha blows out a long breath, apparently giving to me.

“So, who are you really?” I ask.

. o O o .

Not a week later, we catch the Poker Killer.

Stiles and I elected to involve her in the case instantly after meeting her for the third time, as she later informed us. She told us that her real name is (Y/N) Holmes – it made me question whether she changed her name at some point in her life to a really fitting one, or it was a great coincidence by life that a woman, who possesses the observational skills of Sherlock Holmes also bears the same name as him.

In her real appearance, (Y/N) let us know that she was the maid where the fake killing occurred, from which I concluded how she was able to always get her evidence directly from the crime scene; she always wore a disguise, that’s why no one ever noticed her.

. o O o .

One evening, in the office, after only two or three colleagues are present with us, I approach her – she’s standing in front of the window, eyes raking over the street, particularly paying attention to the people walking by. The ‘Visitor’ tag is hanging on her button-up, the jacket of her skirt suit is neatly spread on her arm, while in her other hand, she’s holding a cup of steaming tea.

Without paying a glance at me, she says, “I know what you want to ask me.”

“Then I guess it’s unnecessary for me to request you to join us as a consulting detective.”

She snickers, sips the last drops of her tea, then shakes her head mildly.

“I wasn’t talking about that,” she says. “I meant the other thing. And the answer’s yes. I want to go on a date with you, Derek Hale.”

As she looks into my eyes, I can’t help the grin that finds its way to my face. I hold my arm out to her, which she accepts, then allows me to lead her out of the HQ of the FBI.

[gamerspasm]

Top 15 Wii U Games

Well, here we are. We all knew this day was coming; it was always inevitable, but it’s still sad that it came around so soon. The Wii U’s life has drawn to a close. Commercially the console could be called a failure. It was unequivocally Nintendo’s “mistake” system, being hit by bad decision after bad decision and undergoing trouble from the very moment the game pad appeared in Satoru Iwata’s hands. It lost support from third parties, mainstream media regarded it as a joke, and no matter how hard it tried it just couldn’t get off the ground. But I’m not here to talk about the obvious and blatant flaws; many other people have been doing that for some 4 years now. No, I want to talk about the successes; more specifically the games. Even though the Wii U had a rocky life, I still defended it for one reason: the games. Honestly, the Wii may be Nintendo’s best selling system, but the Wii U’s library is vastly superior in quality. So, if we are to say goodbye to the Wii U, let’s do it right by honouring the amazing experiences it gave us. And, just to prove a point, I am only going to be including exclusives. Starting with:

15. Xenoblade Chronicles X

Don’t let anyone tell you the Wii U only caters to the young or the casual. Why? Because Xenoblade Chronicles X exists. Simply put, this is, without a doubt, the most complex and hardcore gaming experience I’ve ever played. This is both a good thing and bad thing. Good, because for those who enjoy statistics for days, there’s a lot to love; bad, because for those that don’t, prepare for a rocky ride. There is a gigantic barrier of entry here. Information is thrown at you left and right, and some parts are a little convoluted. It can make your head spin sometimes. So, no, this game isn’t for everyone, but if you’re willing to stick it through and entrench yourself, you’ll be rewarded with an engaging and enjoyable experience. The sheer scale and scope of this game defies description. It is huge. Absolutely enormous; and the best thing about that is the level of immersion it delivers as a result. The genuine feeling of vertigo as you leap off a cliff to the ocean below; the real sense of distance as you make your way toward a mountain on the horizon, and best of all (if you install the game data onto the system) it’s all incredibly seamless. No loading times between areas or lag. It’s all rather astonishing, and when there’s so much to do in this massive world, you’ll be at it for months. Long story short, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a niche time sink and a half, but in terms of adventure, you’re not going to find a greater supply on this system.

14. Nintendo Land

One of the best gaming memories I’ve ever had was getting my Wii and playing Wii sports for the first time. It was a great way to show off the strengths of the console, while still being a fairly decent game in its own right. Even though the Wii U didn’t quite capture the same experience, I have to say the bundled in showcase-game is arguably the better of the two. Not only does this game show off the strengths of the Wii U’s Gamepad, it also has a surprising amount of depth. Even more surprising is that depth has variety. Whether want a quick little mini-game to kill some time, or something a little more adventurous, it’s all here. The game also doubles up as a party game too, offering a lot of laughs as well as some great experiences. Even though the Wii U’s launch was arguably weak, and the first 6 months of its life weren’t much better, Nintendo Land still made me excited for what was still to come. 

13. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker   

It’s true what they say about big things and small packages. One glance at Captain Toad Treasure Tracker and you’d think Nintendo just weren’t trying anymore, and yet, this experience is so utterly delightful, so effortlessly charming, that I dare you not to enjoy yourself. The premise is simple; the design, layered; and the gameplay instinctively fun. There’s also a surprising amount of things to do. There are mission challenges, time trials, and bonus extra mini-games. Not only that but everything looks amazing. Treasure Tracker may not be a full Mario title, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s perfectly good at being what it is, and what it is is wonderful fun.

12. Bayonetta 2

It was clear before the console launch that Nintendo was serious about delivering games. Naming Bayonetta’s sequel as a Wii U exclusive was a huge move. It infuriated a lot of fans needlessly (I mean c’mon, the game wouldn’t be happening at all if it wasn’t for Nintendo footing the bill) but it quickly got on to a lot of people’s “best of Wii U” lists. It’s a shame the game didn’t have the pull to get more people to jump on Nintendo’s side, but regardless it’s still a blast. Platinum keeps its form strong as it echoes the previous cult-classic, whilst also slipping in some new things along the way. It does feel a little too close to its predecessor at times and it can lack the scale, scope, and initial wow factor too, but taken as it is, it’s still a phenomenal title to get stuck in with. Looking for action? This is the game for you. Of course, there’s also...

11. The Wonderful 101

One name: Hideki Kamiya. Bayonetta 2 was missing its size and scope because this man was no longer directing. Put simply, Kamiya likes things to be big. He’s the Rita Repulsa of the video game industry. If he can have a monster the size of a planet, it’s going in his game. If he can fill a screen with so much mayhem and carnage and yet maintain a cohesive experience, it’s going to happen. This is the case for the Wonderful 101. A game I didn’t even know I wanted until I booted it up. An inspired and chaotic game that is completely unique. Its writing is on comic point; its imagery is beautifully creative; its unabashed self-awareness is a breath of fresh air; and it is a wild ride from start to finish. A common complaint from players was that its control style was fiddly and unresponsive inputs tainted the experience, but I very rarely had these issues. It’s a shame this game came out right when Wii U opinion was at its lowest. This game deserves more love. It’s wonderful.

10. Star Fox Zero

Go ahead, call me a fanboy, I’m at the point where I don’t care anymore. I don’t care what you think of me, Star Fox Zero is a good game. I stand by that, 100%. The fact that I am a Nintendo fan makes it harder to convey this authentically. “Oh but the controls are garbage” They’re fine. Seriously, if you think they’re unplayable its because you’re either an impatient gamer or a cynic, or both. I played through the whole first level without using the “awkward” controls at all (granted you have to use them during the final scene but the point still stands), and the more I played, the more adept I became. Also, did I mention that this is the best Star Fox game since the N64? Because it is. Yes, it is more or less a reboot of Star Fox 64 (and I hope they don’t just keep doing this as the series moves on) but if like me you’ve been waiting patiently for another genuine Star Fox outing for some 20 years or so, a reboot is more than welcome. Every now and again I’ll keep thinking about it and I just get the urge to jump back in and have a blast. No other game on the Wii U has that much draw for me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and the internet has handed down its verdict, but as far as I’m concerned Star Fox Zero is excellent. 

9. Super Mario Maker

When it comes to celebrating the 30th anniversary of their mascot, Nintendo doesn’t mess around. Getting the chance to make your own Mario levels has been the dream of a lot of fans since the franchise first started, and the Wii U seemed like the perfect system to let it happen. With a near limitless amount of fun to be had, Super Mario Maker offers a simplistic design to an arguably complex task. Making levels is highly enjoyable, and seeing what other talented designers can come up with can lead to some of the best Mario experiences ever. Realistically, it could do no wrong, but it’s such a shame Nintendo let the side down by failing to curate the content it was pushing. Genuinely brilliant levels were trampled by a stampede of half-baked, terrible ones, and sometimes creating levels has no value when they can just be deleted at random (thanks again for that, Nintendo, I’m not going to get that hour back). However, even with this in mind, I maintain that this is still a strong game. I don’t regret the hours I poured into it, and it was a fantastic way to flex some creative muscles. It also acted as a basic guide to game design. Sure, it’s now on 3DS as well, but I will still class this game as a Wii U title first and foremost; and it’s one of the best too.

8. Hyrule Warriors

Super Mario Maker may seem like a time sink, but that sink is only as deep as the creativity of those playing. If you really want a time sink on Wii U, look no further than Hyrule Warriors. This game has such an inordinate amount of content it can drive people to madness, and all you do is mash, slam, and maul your way through endless enemy forces. And I love it. Being a Zelda fan helps with the world and characters on display here, but realistically you don’t need to be a fan of that franchise. You just need to be a fan of carnage and all its cathartic wonders. Furthermore it suits all gamers - those looking for a half-hour session or those looking for something bigger. Put simply, Hyrule Warriors is fun. Its design is fun. Its stages are fun. It - is - fun. Yes, like Super Mario Maker, it’s also found its way onto the 3DS, but if you’re asking which is the definitive version, it’s the Wii U, hands down.

7. Super Smash Bros. For Wii U   

Super Mario Maker was a little bit of a show-stealer at E3 2015, but it has nothing on the year prior. Super Smash Bros. dominated that stage with its invitational tournament and promise. It was the first of the franchise to go portable on the 3DS, and whilst I personally think the portability makes that the better of the two, when it comes to content and general quality, it has to be the Wii U version. This game just has so much to offer, perhaps not on the scale of say Hyrule Warriors, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in variety. You’ve got 8 player smash; multiplayer in single player modes; events; more courses to choose from; amiibo functionality (for non new 3DS or puck owners) and that’s all on top of everything the series is used to bringing. In terms of direction, this game doesn’t have it, but that’s the best part. What you have here is a playground where you can do whatever you want, however you want, with whomever you want. If I had any drawbacks it would be the DLC. Not that DLC is a problem in general here, but rather the way Nintendo decided to handle it. Having to pay more to get the same DLC on both Wii U and 3DS is not cool, guys, since that actually punishes the loyal fans who bought both copies. It’s stupid. Luckily, you don’t need the DLC to still have an absolute blast with this game. It’s easily one of the best multiplayer experiences on the Wii U. 

6. Splatoon 

Speaking of multiplayer, I couldn’t really make a best of Wii U list without putting Splatoon in there, now could I. This game caught everyone off guard. By all accounts this should have been a massive failure. Not because it’s bad, but rather because the climate around the Wii U at the time was temperamental at best. Not only was the console getting no real support from the media, but also, Nintendo had decided to release a brand new IP for their most unpopular system. With no built-in fanbase, to say this game was a risk is an understatement. Yet, despite it all, it paid off. Almost overnight Splatoon became the Wii U’s most celebrated game. Not only was it a great game, but it also reinvigorated an arguably tired genre, offering a new twist on an already established experience as well as rewarding consumers with weekly updates, keeping the game...well...fresh. Now I will say that multiplayer focused online games aren’t my forte, but even with that said, every time I played Splatoon, whether it was just for a quick few games, or whether I was getting involved in the Splatfests, I had an incredible amount of fun. It’s not hard to see why this game is so beloved and why it’s sequel is already getting a lot of attention on the Switch.

5. Yoshi’s Woolly World

I really loved Yoshi’s Island on the SNES. It’s without a doubt one of my favourite games of all time; but it seems that Nintendo just couldn’t bottle lightning twice. Until Woolly World came out. Finally, we have a worthy successor. Woolly World gets the balance perfect. There’s all the familiar that the fans know and love, but the elements that always felt shoe-horned in before have been dropped. The wool motif isn’t just an ascetic choice either, it’s actually creatively put into the design, leading to some inventive puzzles, as well as ingenious stages. Furthermore, the design here is so tight. This game teaches you about itself as you play. By the last world you’ll be able to see all the hidden areas with ease; and that’s not even going into how each level is completely original. I had so much fun playing I was genuinely saddened when it all came to an end. It’s safe to say that I love this game.

4. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

The fate of Tropical Freeze is quite a sad one. Y’see, at the start of 2014 when this game came out, the Wii U was circling the drain as far as public opinion was concerned. Sure, it had one or two good games in 2013, but let’s face it the Wii U was dead in the water - many people thought. As a result, this game received no love from critics. Criticised for its design being too similar to its predecessor, among other petty things, Tropical Freeze just never really saw much of the light of day. Ask anyone now though, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is probably the best 2D platformer in years. I will admit some critiques stick, but they do nothing to tarnish the strength of this game. Every level is well designed and unique; the introduction of more kongs varies and shakes up the play style; the look and feel is absolutely fantastic; and the music...oh the music. Quite possibly the best soundtrack of 2014, and if you know what soundtracks came out in that year, you’ll know that is saying something. Honestly, I was considering this game for a higher position on my list, but you have to understand, even though this game is amazing (and it IS amazing) there are still 3 games I consider as better. Such as...

3. Pikmin 3

After somewhat of a hiatus on the Wii, Pikmin returned on the Wii U in what can only be described as the series best. I say that in disbelief. The first Pikmin was such a momentous time-management game, and a staple of the Gamecube era; it’s sequel was also a wonderful game, how does the third instalment match up to them? First it truly utilises the Gamepad’s functionality, allowing for insane multitasking feats, and second it reinvents part of its key formula. Pikmin 1 gave you 30 days to succeed; whereas Pikmin 2 didn’t give you any deadline at all. Pikmin 3 however, gives you as much time as you need, provided you can get it. No longer are you searching for salvage in order to escape the planet, you’re looking for food - to survive long enough to escape the planet. Literally, if you are not careful with your time, the game will just end on you. Same pressure, different style. In addition, the game looks gorgeous; has so much love, charm, and character; and has such a draw of replay-ability, my brother actually played it twice in quick succession to try and do things better on the second go. Thinking back, I’m actually struggling to pinpoint anything bad about it. It’s a true marvel.

2. Super Mario 3D World

A lot of people said when the Wii U launched back in November 2012 that it came out a year early. This was because, as I said before, the launch line up wasn’t too impressive, and the wait for some big new games took practically 6 months. Though it pains me to say it, I have to agree. If the Wii U launched in November 2013, we’d have Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 both at launch for a start, But we’d also have Super Mario 3D World on top of that. Whilst the Wii U did launch with a Mario game, there’s no doubt which title is superior. Super Mario 3D World, as many people have said, is the game the console should have launched with. That’s not to say New Super Mario Bros. U is a bad game by any means, but it pales in comparison to this stellar achievement of entertainment and design. Continuing the style of the incredible Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS, 3D World takes everything up to 11. Level design is some of the series best; power ups are new and are actually interesting; a mixture of play styles and characters to choose from to keep things unique; outstanding graphics and music; and a whole boat load of things to do. Just when you think you’ve beaten the game, another world opens up; then another one after that, and then more after that. It’s truly a gift that keeps on giving and it’s all remarkably fun to boot. Not only that but 3D World delivers what I would say is the hardest level ever made by official Nintendo devs: the infamous Champion’s Road. It is as the name implies: only masters of Mario should attempt, and even then they should be wary. All in all, Super Mario 3D World is easily one of the finest Mario games ever made, let alone on Wii U. It’s absolutely fantastic; but it is still not the best game the Wii U has to offer. It is a majestic game to be sure, but if there’s one title that deserves the crown for best Wii U game, it has to be...

1. Mario Kart 8

Without a doubt. What other game could it be? When compiling this list, as difficult as it was to rank all the other games here, I knew this game was number 1. It is the most refined Mario Kart experience yet. Everything looks gorgeous; environments old and new are beautifully presented; the tracks are some of the best in the franchise; the music is extraordinarily brilliant; and the gameplay is not only seamless and enjoyable, its also addictive. Oh but the fun doesn’t stop there, as online functionality gives this game a near limitless amount of play time. “Oh but what if other players just stop playing?” Ha, what? I wager I could boot the game up right now and find people from all over the world playing it. The only way those servers are going to get empty before April 28th 2017 is if Nintendo closes them down. It’s the best selling and most popular game on the system, and with good reason. But, Mario Kart 8 isn’t just an outstanding game, it’s also served as the flagship of the Wii U. Do you remember before when I mentioned how low the opinion of the console was back in early 2014? This game, when it launched in May that year, was so great, it changed the Wii U perception dramatically, and it gave rise to one of the console’s strongest years. Furthermore it was one of the first Nintendo games to do DLC, and it even hit it out of the park there. For a reasonable fee, players were given extra characters as well as four new grand prixs; essentially, players were getting a bonus Mario Kart game on top of the one they already owned. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Nintendo just added a 200cc mode for free. The sheer level of content given to us was astounding. Only a short-sighted battle mode brought this game down from perfection, but as far as I’m concerned that’s barely a dent. Mario Kart 8 is the Wii U’s best game, plain and simple, and if you disagree I will fight you.

[aurelliocheek]

Creating the vehicle for the adventure Far: Lone Sails

What is the coolest part of sailing through a post-apocalyptic world? Right, the unique and urban vehicle you’re sailing on! Don Schmocker, Lead Artist of FAR: Lone Sails gives an insight.

The vehicle in »FAR: Lone Sails« has more means than just transportation. It is a tremendously important part of the game design, the game idea and – of course! – the players experience. It‘s no less than the protagonist of the game. The big question is, how do you put all these pieces together, let them work as one and at the same time craft an eye-catcher, which is stylish enough to be worth remembered? We have absolutely no idea… but luckily we know someone who does. We provide you an insight into the development of the vessel by one of its creators, Don Schmocker. Enjoy!

Dear Reader… …in our game »FAR: Lone Sails« the player drives a big vehicle, on a journey through desolated lands. Instead of a fast racing car, we chose to build a slow old vessel with space inside to move around in and explore its various functions. This article is about the long process of creating such a vehicle, while looking at the aspects of gameplay mechanics, visual design, feel and why it’s much more than just a tool to get faster from point A to point B.

The Okomotive is not only your vehicle, its your home and even your best friend. Its the core of the whole FAR experience.

Crafting the Heart of FAR: Lone Sails Before I start with the whole process and all the problems and difficulties that appear when you decide to put a big complex vehicle in the center of a game, I want to describe what it means for the game first. The vehicle in FAR constitutes practically half the game, even though the player drives through a world with many different challenges and areas to explore. The player spends most of the time inside the vessel running from button to button to keep the engine going, which doesn’t sound very exciting at first. But this core loop of the game is the base, everything else is built around it. We had to ensure that the driving mechanics are engaging enough and that there are synergies between different mechanics inside and outside of the vehicle. The world in FAR is designed to interact with the core loops of the vehicle to create variation and interesting experiences, which allow the player to form a bond between them and the vehicle.

Our goal was to create a unique vehicle that’s fun to drive from start to end and give the player a chance to explore its mechanics. The visual design should define the characteristics of the vehicle and at the same time allow for clear communication of actions and feedback. The feeling when driving and all the mechanical parts of the vehicle should convey a certain realness, like a bigger and cooler toy car.

All of these parts should help establish a close bond between the player and the vehicle during the journey to motivate the player to keep going until the end.

Mechanics The vehicle mechanics in FAR are as follows:

The player character can move freely inside the vehicle and push buttons to trigger actions (e.g. starting the engine, applying the brake, setting the sails). These actions can be sorted into driving mechanics and emergency actions like extinguishing fires and repairing different parts of the vehicle.

The engine and some of the other actions consume energy, which can be generated by burning crates in the oven. These crates can be found on the road, so the player has to stop to gather them.

The vehicle can take damage from collisions and harsh weather conditions. Damage needs to be repaired by the player otherwise the different modules malfunction or if there‘s no health left the vehicle can get destroyed.

For each action within the vehicle we had a set of questions we asked ourselves to see if it was a justified addition:

Is performing the action itself fun?

Is the action meaningful to the player?

Is there immediate, understandable, visual feedback?

How is the player moving to perform the action?

To ensure that the gameplay turned out as intuitive as we wanted it to be, actions needed to be fast and simple. That‘s why we created a button system that reacts to the character itself, without requiring special input of the player. The complexity should come from multiple actions in combination, not from one action on its own. The placement of the buttons was a huge challenge. They needed to be near the module they controlled, otherwise the player would maybe miss the triggered action, but not at a position where they could be triggered by accident. The vehicle also has different floors, so there had to be an easy and compact way to get to them, which we solved by integrating an elevator and platforms the player could leap to.

Despite having very limited space within the vehicle, we wanted a variety of actions, that allowed the player to improve over time. To give more meaning to each of these actions, we centered the level design around them, so the players would be on their journey driving a Swiss army knife vehicle.We observed that it varies a lot at which point during the game players figure out all their means of action and it’s great to watch their reactions in the moment they do. This player progression can also be found in the efficiency of their movement to the different buttons by taking shortcuts and their timing when they press the buttons. For example when they refuel the engine right before the energy runs out and then run back to the boost before it overheats.

The actions in the vehicle work together in a similar way as abilities or spells in an MMO or MOBA. There is a basic action (engine power) that needs a resource the player has to build up (burning crates for energy). When this basic action is used constantly without breaks a powerful ability becomes available (steam boost). Then there are other actions that require immediate attention in certain situations (fire hose, brakes). We tried to find a good balance between these abstract mechanics and the more immersive and reality based tasks a driver or mechanic has to do in a big vehicle.

In the end we had to playtest and observe a lot to find out which mechanics worked and then get all the numbers right, such as the speed, energy consumption and acceleration. Each change in the vehicle had an impact on the level design. If the vehicle moved faster, the distances had to be longer. If the chance of fire ignition from collisions was increased by a mere 5% it would make the game a lot harder.

Many of the changes demanded adjustments in the visual design too, because of the limited space inside the vehicle. It felt a bit like moving a shelf to a different place in a very crowded room.

  A collection of different looks for the vessel. Finding a unique and recognizable style was anything but easy – but they succeeded.

Appearance The visual design of the Okomotive is a weird combination of many different vehicle types, that somehow came together. It started out as a boat that can walk on land and that invited you to stay mostly inside like in a comfortable submarine. The sail was part of the design right from the beginning and had to stay,not only because it looked cool but also because it fitted the windy atmosphere of the game very well. The player should like the vehicle and be proud of it, like a Porsche for someone who likes sports cars. It should have its flaws and a past full of adventures like a rusty boat. It should feel big and powerful like a locomotive and have a character of its own like an animal. There are three reasons for this amount of complexity: The vehicle should feel alien and nothing like you’ve seen before, so it gives room for atypical driving mechanics and exploration. At the same time it shouldn’t be too strange, so it had to have elements we know and associate with certain attributes or feelings. And, last but not least, we really liked all these elements of different vehicles, but only had a single one to put everything into so we sadly had to dismiss a lot of ideas.

During the development, the mechanics became an increasingly bigger influence on the visuals, and determined things like the vehicle’s shape, the locations of the entrances and the sail’s dimensions. And that was only the exterior view. The design should also work in the interior view, where the camera is much closer and only half of the vehicle is visible. It was a painful process to achieve this close interlinking of all the elements, but also helped to make the vehicle design more believable and unique.

The color palette inside the vehicle is similar to the rest of the game. The grey platforms have more contrast than the grey background and the interactive parts, mainly the buttons, are bright red. The energy fluid inside the tank is blue. This meant that most of the vehicle interior had to be designed in greyscale without feeling too cold or too dark. The orange of the buttons had to be applied wisely, because you wouldn‘t want to use a highlighting color excessively, for when everything is highlighted, nothing really is. To ensure that the player is able to figure out what’s interactive and in which way, was one of the most difficult tasks. We have to shamefully admit that we had to go as far as to putting an orange arrow inside the vehicle to highlight a specific mechanism.

The feel of a machine As mentioned in the beginning, the goal was to give the vehicle a toy-like feel. It has the appeal of a miniature train model kit, which allows the player to understand how it‘s constructed. This way it‘s more intuitive to figure out how its mechanics work and behave, which therefore makes it more real and believable as an actual vehicle. To achieve this, we used the visual design and textures, a lot of sound effects and visible moving parts, like gears that depended on each other. The engine gears spin faster, when the vehicle accelerates. After generating energy, the moving fluid is visible on its way to the tank.

Most of the mechanisms had to be simplified, which worked well in the industrial style of the game. It would have been much different, if the vehicle was controlled via electronics only, where action and reaction aren’t visually connected to that extent. The moving parts are a great way to give feedback to the player, e.g. if a mechanism has been activated, how fast the engine is going or if a module is broken. We focused on making the feedback systems in the vehicle as clear as possible. When the player presses a button, the sounds, moving mechanisms, lights and particle effects of the action get triggered. Similar to the highlighting of the interactive elements, we had to be careful to find the right amount of feedback. We used small lamps to indicate whether or not something is active or whenever the vehicle takes damage, for example, and had to make sure that the player will be able to recognize them and understand their different meanings. In extreme cases, when the vehicle is burning in different areas, there are blinking lights everywhere. On one side, this enhances the chaotic atmosphere at such moments, on the other side this massive feedback can make it hard for the player to figure out what to do in this moment. Our priority for feedback effects was somewhat like that: Damage impact > fires > button actions > speed of the vehicle > energy consumption > atmosphere.

The vessel’s sail gives the whole thing a very cool look, but it also fits perfectly into the world that Okomotive have built.

Creating a bond By giving the player a chance to understand the mechanisms and learn the characteristics of the vehicle, we created the foundation for an emotional connection between the player and the vehicle.

The attachment to the vehicle and the rewarding feeling of driving as such are some of the most important motivations for the player. The levels and obstacles were designed with this in mind. We wanted to create a symbiosis: the player helps the vehicle and the vehicle helps the player. On the journey there are occasions when the player has to pull the vehicle instead of comfortably driving inside it. Or the player has to leave the vehicle behind and explore the road and dangers ahead, feeling lonely and shelterless. When you are back in the ‚driver‘s seat‘ after such an event, it feels even more of a reward to be able to drive again. The main reason the vehicle can be damaged and repaired was to make it more vulnerable and require the player to be more careful and caring. The feedback for damage collisions is meant to make the player feel affected, as well ​– ​and it turns out they really feel bad when they see their vehicle in flames, slowly burning down.

It’s the combination of all the different aspects of game design that were required to create this bond. Learning and understanding the mechanics to make the vehicle your own. Experiencing the atmosphere inside a mechanical vessel, overcoming obstacles and mastering the lonely journey together.

The vehicle kept us busy from the very start to one of the last implementations we did during development. We created three working vehicles and had to iterate about every other month.

Like the player, we’ve got to know the Okomotive better and better while it accompanied us during development – until it was finally ready to find its future drivers.

Don Schmocker is Co-Founder and Lead Artist at Okomotive

Don Schmocker is lead artist and co-founder of the game studio Okomotive in Zurich, Switzerland. He studied game design at the Zurich University of the Arts were the development of »FAR: Lone Sails« started. He is really interested in vehicles of all kinds but doesn’t own one, nor does he have a driver’s license. Twitter: @DonSchmocker

  The post Creating the vehicle for the adventure Far: Lone Sails appeared first on Making Games.

Creating the vehicle for the adventure Far: Lone Sails published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[sheminecrafts]

Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box

Facebook wants to take over your television with a clip-on camera for video calling, AR gaming, and content co-watching. If you can get past the creepiness, the new Portal TV lets you hang out with friends on your home’s biggest screen. It’s a fresh product category that could give the social network a unique foothold in the living room where unlike on phones where it’s beholden to Apple and Google, Facebook owns the hardware and operating system.

Today Facebook unveiled a new line of Portal devices that bring its auto-zooming AI camera, in-house voice assistant speaker, Alexa, apps like Spotify and newly added  Amazon Prime Video, Messenger video chat, and now end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp video calls to smaller smart screen form factors.

The $149 Portal TV is the star of the show, turning most televisions with an HDMI connection into a video chat device. And if you video call between two Portal TVs, you can use the new Watch Together feature to co-view Facebook Watch videos simultaneously while chilling together over picture-in-picture. The Portal TV is genius way for Facebook to make its hardware both cheaper yet more immersive by co-opting a screen you already own and have given a space in your life, thereby leapfrogging smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

There’s also the new pint-size 8-inch Portal Mini for just $129, which makes counter-top video chat exceedingly cheap. The 10-inch Portal that launched a year ago now has a sleeker, minimal bezel look with a price drop for $199 to $179. Both look more like digital picture frames, which they are, and can be stood on their side or end for optimal full-screen chatting. Lastly, the giant 15.6-inch Portal+ swivel screen falls to $279 instead of $349, and you still get $50 off if you buy any two Portal devices.

“The TV has been a staple of living rooms around the world, but to date it’s been primarily about people who are physically interacting with the device” Facebook’s VP of consumer hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth tells me at a press event inside a San Francisco victorian house. “We see the opportunity for people to use their TVs not just to do that but also to interact with other people.”

The new Portals all go on pre-sale today from Portal.facebook.com, Amazon, and Best Buy in the US and Canada plus new markets like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, and France (though the Hey Portal assistant only works in English). Portal and Portal Mini ship October 15th and Portal TV ships November 5th.

The whole Portal gang lack essential video apps like Netflix and HBO, and Boz claims he’s not trying to compete directly with Roku, Fire TV etc. Instead, Facebook is trying to win where it’s strongest, on communication and video chat where rivals lack a scaled social network.

“You’re kind of more hanging out. It isn’t as transactional. It’s not as urgent as when you sacrifice your left arm to the cause” explains Boz. Like how Fortnite created a way for people to just chill together while gaming remotely, Portal TV could do the same for watching television together, apart.

  Battling The Creepiness

The original Portal launched a year ago to favorable reviews except for one sticking point: journalists all thought it was too sketchy to bring Facebook surveillance tech inside their homes. Whether the mainstream consumer feels the same way is still a mystery as the company has refused to share sales numbers. Though Boz told me “The engagement, the retention numbers are all really positive”, we haven’t seen developers like Netflix rush to bring their apps to the Portal platform.

To that end, privacy on Portal no longer feels clipped on like the old plastic removable camera covers. “We have to always do more work to grow the number of people who have that level of comfort, and bring that technology into their home” says Boz. “We’ve done what we can in this latest generation of products, now with integrated camera covers that are hardware, indicator lights when the microphone is off, and form factors that are less obtrusive and blend more into the background of the home.”

One major change stems from a scandal that spread across the tech sector, with Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook all being criticized for quietly sending voice clips to human reviewers to improve speech recognition in what felt like a privacy violation. “Part of the Portal out-of-box experience is going to be a splash screen on data storage and it will literally walk through how . . . when we hear ‘Hey Portal’ a voice recording and transcription is sent, it may be reviewed by humans, and people have the ability to opt out.”

Facebook will let users disable storage of Portal voice snippets

But if Portal is battling the perception of creepiness, why make human reviews the default? Boz defended the move from the perspective of accessibility. “We say ‘oh they’re good enough’ but for a lot of people that might have a mild speech impediment, a subtle accent, who might use different words because they’re from a different region, these assistants aren’t inclusive.” He claims more voice data reviewed by humans means better products for everyone, though I bet better sales for Facebook wouldn’t hurt.

Instead, Facebook is leaning on the evolution of the smart screen market in general to help its camera blend in. “The more value we can create, not just any one player but as an entire industry, that allows consumers to feel – ‘yeah, I both am comfortable with how the data is being used and why’.”

One reason Facebook is forging forward despite all the criticism about launching a “surveillance” device amidst its scandals: this is its shot to control its destiny, unlike on phones. Facebook has always been vulnerable to Apple and Google since its app lives in their app stores on their devices. “You don’t have a huge amount of influence over what the phone itself is or what the operating system provides. You’re kind of at the mercy of what those manufactures or developers provide you” Boz notes. With Portal, Facebook can ensure communication tech like cameras stay part of the smart home, even if they’re creepy now.

Hands-On With The New Portals

If you can get past Facebook’s toxic brand, the new Portals are quite pleasing. They’re remarkably polished products for a company just a year into selling consumer hardware. They all feel sturdy and elegant enough to place in your kitchen or living room.

The Portal and Portal Mini work just like last year’s models, but without the big speaker bezel, they can be flipped on their side and look much more like picture frames while running Portal’s Smart Frame showing your Facebook, Instagram, or camera roll photos.

Portal TV’s flexible form factor is a clever innovation, first spotted as “Codename: Ripley” by Jane Manchun Wong and reported by Alex Heath for Cheddar a year ago. It has an integrated stand for placing the gadget on your TV console, but that stand also squeezes onto a front wing to let it clip onto both wide and extremely thin new flatscreen televisions. With just an HDMI connection it brings a 12.5 megapixel, 120-degree camera and 8 mic array to any tube. It also ships with a stubby remote control for basic browsing without having to shout across the room.

Portal TV includes an integrated smart speaker that can be used even when the TV is off or on a different input, and offers HDMI CEC for control through other remotes. The built-in camera cover gives users peace of mind and a switch conjures a red light to signal that all sensors are disabled. Overall, control responsiveness felt a tad sluggish but passable.

Portal’s software is largely the same as before with a few key improvements, the addition of WhatsApp, and one big bonus feature for Portal TVs. The AI Smart Camera is the best part, automatically tracking multiple people to keep everyone in frame as zoomed-in as possible. Improved adaptive background modeling and human pose estimation lets it keep faces in view without facial recognition, and all video processing is done locally on the device. A sharper Spotlight feature lets you select one person, like a child running around the room, so you don’t miss the gymnastics routines.

The Portal app platform that features Spotify and Pandora is gaining Amazon’s suite of apps, starting with Prime Video while Ring doorbell and smart home controls are on the way. Beyond Messenger calls and AR Storytime where you don characters’ AR masks as you read aloud a children’s book, there are new AR games like Cats Catching Donuts With Their Mouths. Designed for kids and casual players, the games had some trouble with motion tracking and felt too thin for more than a few seconds of play. But if Facebook gave Portal TV a real controller or bought a better AR games studio, it could dive deeper into gaming as a selling point.

WhatsApp is the top new feature for all the Portals. Though you can’t use the voice assistant to call people, you can now WhatsApp video chat friends with end-to-end encryption rather than just Messenger’s encryption in transit. The two messaging apps combined give Portal a big advantage over Google and Amazon’s devices since their parents have screwed up or ignored chat over the years. Still, there’s no way to send text messages which would be exceedingly helpful.

Reserved for Portal TV-to-Portal TV Messenger chats is the new Watch Together feature we broke the news of a year ago after Ananay Arora spotted it in Messenger’s code. This lets you do a picture-in-picture video chat with friends while you simultaneously view a Facebook Watch video. It even smartly ducks down the video’s audio while friends are talking so you can share reactions. While it doesn’t work with other content apps like Prime Video, Watch Together shows the potential of Portal: passive hang out time.

“Have you ever thought about how weird bowling is, Josh? Bowling is a weird thing to go do. I enjoy bowling. I don’t enjoy bowling by myself that much. I enjoy going with other people” Boz tells me. “It’s just a pretext, it’s some  reason for us to get together and have some beers and to have time and have conversation. Whether it’s video calling or the AR games . . . those are a pre-text, to have an excuse to go be together.”

This is Portal’s true purpose. Facebook has always been about time spent, getting deeper into your life, and learning more about you. While other companies’ products might feel less creepy or be more entertaining, none have the ubiquitous social connection of Facebook and Portal. When your friends are on screen too, a mediocre game or silly video is elevated into a memorable experience. You can burn hours simply co-chilling. With Portal TV, Facebook finally has something unique enough to possibly offset its brand tax and earn it a place in your home.

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[davewakeman]

More Global Perspectives On Tickets In 2018 (Primary and Secondary)

  I’ve been doing quite a bit of focusing on challenges and opportunities in the ticket industry in 2018.

Today, I want to pull together a few more with a mixture of primary and secondary voices and some international voices.

Patrick Ryan, Co-Founder at Eventellect:

There is a flipping of the roles between the primary and the secondary market that presents challenges and opportunities in the year ahead. As the primary market has increased their initial pricing for tickets and used more dynamic pricing this has decreased some of the activity on the secondary market.

But in the effort to eliminate the spread, teams have yet to feel the impact of needing to use dynamic pricing to bring prices down.

What will happen as the primary market starts rewarding late behavior more? Especially when they’ve historically done a better job of rewarding early buying behavior.

Ian Taylor, Head of Ticketing & Data Management at bigdog Live in the UK: 

For the UK ticketing market, key to 2018 will be trust. In the months until GDPR becomes reality, customers will get bombarded with emails from every retailer they’re signed up with, asking them to revalidate their permissions, Many businesses are seeing this as a threat, worried that their database size will shrink drastically as customers choose to no longer be marketed to by that brand. In reality, this is an enormous opportunity to have better, more invested, listeners to your marketing messages.

But customers will also be swiftly educated, or reminded, that it is they who are in control – so trust between the brand and the consumer will be the highest value commodity that there is. Retaining that customer during all of this ‘sky is falling’ change is all about engagement, which we’re very aware of here at bigdog Live, and we’re working hard to reinforce this into our planning with all of our clients.

Customers will also want to trust the source of their ticket, which at present in the UK is a very thorny subject. Secondary market here is regularly gaining negative press and for many valid reasons – most regarding transparency and ultimately this comes back to trust.  This is a market where many primary channels – ticket agents – are engaged by the promoter directly, and they (broadly speaking) provide a very well established customer offering and a trusted distribution network. Promoters win as this expands marketing reach without marketing budget. But the secondary players are increasingly on the ‘outside’ of this in terms of public opinion and while 2 of ‘The Big Four’ are owned by Ticketmaster, this just leaves the giant StubHub machine (good at PR, lower brand recognition) and the villain of the piece Viagogo. The others seem to be keeping their heads down save a few well trotted out PR lines, while Viagogo are (perhaps rightly) in the stocks being pelted with rotten fruit.

Customers will engage where they trust, but will also probably still buy where they can get tickets – even if that means venturing outside of the primary market. Very much caveat emptor then, as customers may soon learn that their passion purchase via an unregulated source turns to a ruined evening out.

The solution? For starters, venues and agents in the arena/stadium circuit could start trusting each other more and make a connected marketplace a reality; opening api connections between systems (as London’s West End has done in a tremendously successful way) will ultimately enhance customer experience with lower waiting times for physical tickets to arrive, better ability to move prices at the touch of a button (up OR down), and a much much more efficient distribution network. Trusting this at the C-Level of these venues will be the key, and until the fears of lost fees revenue and inventory control are tackled (both surmountable with a change in business strategy), it’s going to be a tough fight to bring the network kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

  Dr. Dave Arthur, The Sports Doctor and Managing Director of the Institute of Sport in Australia: 

From a general point of view I think the opportunities in sport lie almost wholly in grass roots sport. There seems to be significant push back from sports consumers who want the profligate spending on already rich franchises, sports and organisations (including stadia) by governments around the world. We are seeing push back from grass roots about supporting major event infrastructure (referendums about bidding!) or stadia construction that benefits only franchise owners. Need a balance!

They need to support the grass roots but how is both an opportunity and a challenge.

Andrew Thomas, Director of Ticketing Professionals Conference and The Ticketing Institute: 

Challenges: being relevant / staying up to date / managing inputs to my knowledge – how do we find and digest the information we need and cut out the “crap”

Opportunity – as ever, bringing new ideas, fresh thoughts and extra revenue opportunity to people we work with.

Angela Gahan, Antix Management (Australia):

I did a quick survey of the office and interestingly, the answer to both questions was RESALE!

Across the industry in Australia we are grappling with the question of how to interact with the secondary market. It’s a growing sector, it’s complex and it’s not going away. There’s an opportunity to increase yield, test pricing, extend our reach and learn about our consumer. The risk if we don’t participate is that we leave all of these opportunities to someone else.

 Bryan Ralston, Sports Consultant:

Challenge:

For teams and venues the challenge is unleashing the talent of their sales team members. Many organizations are great at running call centers and managing their employees to daily call numbers and other “touch points”. The challenge is to create the environment where sales team members can bring their minds to work to innovate and create opportunities to build relationships with prospects and current customers that lead to long term retention. Maximizing the skills and talents of sales team members is a challenge that leaders must take on. Doing so will increase fan avidity, increase revenues and allow teams to retain their best sales talent for a longer period of time.

Be where your fans are. It’s (almost) 2018, and you can go on any number of primary market ticketing sites on your iPhone – and painstakingly attempt to buy tickets on non-optimized websites.  The challenge is for teams / venues to really walk through the buying process of a potential fan and recognize and fix any roadblocks they experience along the way to a purchase.  I know we’re hyper-focused on collecting data, data and more data! But, what about the fan that just wants to click on the website and see a list of the regular season home games in chronological order? That should be easy, right? Focus on the basics.

Opportunity:

The opportunity for teams and venues is to be bold and think beyond the next six months. For sales leaders, plan as if you’ll be there in three years. How would you approach the market if you were concerned with building long term revenue streams, creating new fans and providing great customer service that would differentiate your brand from all of the competition?  Sales teams that work on the urgent goals of the games coming up next week and carve out time to plan for the games next year create bigger opportunities that have staying power in up and down economies and team performance cycles.

Another opportunity in ticket sales for 2018 will be having conversations.  In theory, people are more reachable now than ever – by phone, mobile, e-mail, text, Twitter, Facebook…and on and on.  And yet – with all that noise, and all the competition in all markets, the average consumer can easily filter sales calls and messaging. Which means, we need more innovative and creative sellers that can fine tune their prospecting strategies to break through and create the opportunities that lead to conversations. That’ll require an evolved ticket sales leadership strategy to bring it all together successfully.

Ken Troupe, Co-Host of #Social4TixSales on Twitter:

In 2018 I expect we will continue to see the streamlining of the market. Teams will continue the trend of partnering with secondary market…

Steph Maxwell, Senior Business Development Manger at Vibe Tickets (UK):

Challenges – Ticket fulfilment will be a big challenge for us from a secondary ticketing perspective. Late dispatch from primary sellers, the increase in mobile ticketing and most likely an increase in ID checks at venues. This will greatly effect the secondary market. The lack of understanding from artists/promoters with gifted tickets may be worth mentioning, as it can put fans off buying, if they are worried about what name is printed on the ticket. Parting with your hard earned cash shouldn’t be a painful experience. It should be a pleasant experience buying things.

The number one opportunity to sell more tickets will be the general public becoming the disrupter and refusing to accept the big four’s business model and fee’s. 2019 will be a strong year for live entertainment. Tickets are becoming more and more expensive and promoters are becoming more and more ambitious. The fans need to take the market back from the big four to develop and grow a true marketplace.

Jo Michel, Michel Consultancy (Australia):

I think one of the biggest challenges especially in the Not for Profit sector here is keeping up with technology changes. Customer expectations change quickly with regard to online purchase and there is an expectation for organisations to adapt and change quickly, but that is a huge challenge especially for regional and local government NFP’s.

The biggest Opportunity is coming from the area of social marketing – new tools are utilising social media marketing and marrying it with ticketing data to increase sales potential and retention. These strategies can be really easy to implement and can make a big difference for an organisation.

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More Global Perspectives On Tickets In 2018 (Primary and Secondary) was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[angelestarleton-blog]

How Will team Be In The Future.

7 Prep works You Need to Make Before Making use of group.

Emilio Innocenzi, ex lover Presidente della Cooperativa Team Service, fa attualmente parte del gruppo dei vicepresidenti di Federlavoro e Servizi Confcooperative. An outstanding leading team delivers real benefits: - they progress the CEO's agenda a lot more promptly compared to a poor or typical executing team and they enable a company to weather the tough times more effectively (due to the fact that all members share and purchase in to the same vision). In 1972, the group led by Wilt Chamberlain as well as Jerry West won a significant sporting activities record 33 consecutive video games. In an effort to maintain high degrees of connectedness, group building interventions are a routine attribute of their procedures. Well, if you are popular and have a representation of a star to the world you need to response to a great deal of people since you have actually become their motivation. When developing a task team, keep in mind that a little team of just three can end up being a two against one circumstance, as well as a group of more than fourteen can result in reduce choice making with some participants who may never ever reach provide their input. Prior to the national championship, each group participates in the closing ceremony where every umpire, player and train is presented and also each receives an event ring and also is sworn in into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Popularity. Goal-getting people are important assets to the company, however in addition to that, it is terrific group work that comprises truth essence of a successful service.

5 Ways group Can Improve Your Service.

The group leader continues to motivate involvement as well as expertise amongst the staff member. It is win/win-- individual employee will be able to improve their ability levels and a competent group will certainly achieve far more compared to one that only has great camaraderie. Include some participants to your team & welcome the other team to adhere to fit if you would like to expand the arrangement time. The phases associated with group building are mostly clearing up group purposes, determining the preventions, and eliminating the inhibitors to attain objectives. An exterior occasion that contains corporate team building tasks might be just what the medical professional ordered.After taking part in the program, individuals commonly comment that they discovered features of their associates they never recognized.

Just what's So Trendy Concerning group That Everybody Went nuts Over It?

People picked for each and every group must be able to engage and also work closely with others while at the same time have the ability to work on their very own and also make essential choices. The technique for changing a hostile and also defensive culture is with focused group structure workshops and occasions. Amy van der Hiel is the assistant to Tim Berners-Lee as well as component of the W3C Communications Group. She has gotten on Team U.S.A 4 times since 2006 and also has actually helped IMG Worldwide, an international business involved in sports, fashion, as well as media. The results are: Time saved, issues solved, more team teamwork, far better interaction, higher morale, more power, synergy, enthusiasm, creative thinking, dedication, engagement and also higher quality work. In 1901 the group started play in the American Organization as well as have remained in the AL ever since. If you are wanting to produce a sustainable online company, after that there are 2 extremely powerful devices that need to turn into one amongst your leading concerns - listing building as well as e-mail advertising and marketing. Philippe Le Hegaret is the Task Supervisor for W3C, responsible to satisfy all the turning points of every one of the groups, facilitate the job of Team Contacts, Chairs, as well as Editors, as well as drive the work necessary to achieve functional success. Nonetheless, there is more to teamwork advancement training programs than just taking place a paid vacation. Whilst there is is a likelihood that increased levels of communication enhance area play it is likewise most likely that boosted efficiency assists to establish more group communication. Adjustments in business objects might indicate huge changes in direction for your business, yet you will not ever before make it there without the remainder of your group steering the watercraft in this way. Their team wanted to play against ours, so we determined to go ahead with the information systems jobs (Hubnutiblog.xyz) plan. Furthermore, you will certainly design a group that will certainly encourage, motivate, test each existing and also other the most effective tasks together. After yet an additional season spoiled by injuries and also offseason back surgical treatment, limited end Rob Gronkowski has been a complete participant in organized team activities. Normally talking, it is far better to have a little team instead of a large group. Having actually produced and also improved this product for optimum efficiency, Chaney and his group began searching for events possibly curious about a test run. As well as commitment is exactly what in group job is most important - it makes the group really feel secure with each other. As soon as your group works with high levels of trust, here are 3 underlying advantages your organization-and its customers-will experience. I use a group with three other girls and we call ourselves the Pointer Sis. From the group's outset, the team leader could initiate every person's possibility to talk to the team's activities. Dispute won't injure the team; it will strengthen the bonds between teammates if you follow these actions. Because of this, it excels organisation method to pay very close attention to group morale in the organization. This write-up focuses on five main areas that should be thought about by team leaders or task supervisors when managing a effective and productive group.

[promotingmedia-blog]

How Bots are Gaining Traction in Customer Discovery

New Post has been published on https://promotingmedia.com/bots-gaining-traction-customer-discovery/

How Bots are Gaining Traction in Customer Discovery

How Bots are Gaining Traction in Customer Discovery

The communication and messaging facilities between machine and human are seeing an enormous shift with artificial intelligence. From postal mail, phone, the Internet, e-mail, message, chat, we’re advancing towards the newest era conversational representative, Bots. Bots will be the present interface simply changing the way we interact with our apparatus to get a function. They’re the newest entrant joining the armada of intelligent technologies created by the technology guru. Voice and text Bots will be the newest crazes to discuss in regards to customer experience and brand image.

How comfortable are you with bots?

Just like the Genie that first appeared in Aladdin, bots are a brand new age Genie…you denote a reply plus it easily fakes just like a person and recognizes your answer. Bots are increasingly taking a larger part in most verticals. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Pandorabots, Haptik, Kasisto, Kiwi, Slack Technologies are few top players already into Bot activity. The power and assortment of Bots are fantastic. Set on some melodies, book a flight, turn on the lights, order pizza… all you need to do is simply let brands/ads that interest one to pop up and start a conversation alongside you.

Bots will be the New Frontier for Brands

In the event that you can recollect, the United States presidential election of 2016 familiarized all of us with this new interaction model; the so-called indigenous species; the programmed; the intelligent conversational voice and also text system – “Bots” – that helped nearly all top news channels for the United States election coverage right in the run up till the voting. Facebook took charge in researching this technology by expanding this to users – enabling them to participate with companies in Messenger back in 2016. The organization is making it huge with bots. With almost 1.2 billion active users, Facebook Messenger is helping thousands of brands to be with their customers and connect with them anytime via bots.

Clients may use messaging service to execute easy jobs. When they click on an advert within their News Feed it immediately opens up a dialog in Messenger with all the business. Bots are no doubt developing its traction in finding customers and supporting them shortly after those micro-seconds are made during any purchasing procedure. Without having to reestablish contacts, bots are here to connect company and customers. They may be a game changer.

Travel Bots – KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

The flag carrier airline of the Netherlands was clearly one of the first couples of takers for messenger bots. Once a customer makes a booking, the Airline conveys further with the client via Messenger. Bots send itinerary, boarding pass as well as check in info. Any postponement can be notified via Chatbots. Clients can communicate directly with all the customer support desk anytime via bots.

Food Bots — Total-Menu Purchasing via Domino’s Bots

Although Domino’s began its service via Messenger bot, the firm recently enabled its customers to gain access to the whole menu via Messenger bot. Users need to simply match it up with Messenger and take up a dialogue. Bots will require an entire charge of ensuring every sequence as purely as you possibly can. Now, we find many brands are roped in with bots to link by making use of their customers. Actually, Facebook is all place with their Chatbots for group dialogues on Messenger.

News Bots — WeChat chatbot NewsChatta from the BBC

Drawing on the news content in the BBC, the chat provides the most recent news and advice that matters to the users. A chatbot developed by the Lagos-based technology company, Codulab, Newschatta is now reachable on WeChat everywhere on the planet. Making news bits accessible directly on to the mobile phones via Bots is a drive from BBC to expand its international audience to 500 million by 2020. Users can socialize with BBC news straight and immediately via this bot. News stories are created centered on user input.

Bots for Social Cause — U-Reporter

Started by UNICEF – the United Nations Children’s Fund, U-Reporter is a messenger bot that lets anyone from any place on earth to report problems, respond to polls, talk about women rights, support child rights and start any social activity which will bring about development by acting as a reporter and communicating directly using the organization.

Bots Marketplace Size

With Chatbots choosing smaller and not as complex tasks of communication with customers, brands and already seeing an increased service strategy. Bots market size is expanding with more players and brands recognizing its edges. Present research report forecasts the marketplace to grow multi-fold in the past few years in the future. E-commerce, Insurance, Hospitality, Health Care, Logistics, Journey are a few of the sectors noted to see more advantages of Bots. Orbis Research expects the marketplace for bots to see an amazing compound annual growth rate of 37.11% over the interval 2017-2021.

Key market drivers:

Ever growing demand for better…

Customer service

Customer attention

Customer relationship management

Are Bots the Newest Extravagance for Time-Inferior Consumers?

Bots are elongating their surface of possible. Several brands are working to fit through Bots to attain their customers immediately. Messenger bots are no more rudimentary. They may be taking larger jobs now and they may be destined to play an ever escalating job in finding new clients and also to keep hold of present customers. Essential players are still investigating all possibilities to transform from just text messaging bots to voice-based interactive bots. Customers that are running short of time to discuss elaborately together with the help desk are finding it an easy task to sort with bots.

Personalized Advertising predicated on Algorithms and Data

Bots might be a strong partner to advertisers also. Advertisements are created that could believe and can possess a direct connection together with the consumers. This fact is supported by the most recent statement From Your Weather Company, an IBM Business which lately introduced weather bots to its users. Users can interact with one of these advertisements by speaking to them. These bots have decided to give personalized content to the concerned user depending on their place. Advertisers can utilize the possibility of similar bots which could develop a personalized one to one advertising or alternative brand-related dialogue on the basis of the taste of the users.

Customer Relationship Management

Among the crucial advantages of Bot execution is the real time 24/7 link with the users. Increasingly relying on AI, Bots are here to create powerful automated answers to consumers immediately. A growing number of companies/brands are taking advantage of the player in recent days. It gets the capacity to choose as numerous jobs as you are able to. When customers are supplied advice which matters to them, there exists an prompt connection to the brand as well as the firm. This immediate strategy can boost the support and service facet nicely forward compared to the other processes. Among all company functions, Customer service is noted to function as the top most beneficiary of Chatbots.

Improve Customer Experience via Bot Analytics

Bots analytics help an extended way in understanding your web visitors. Measuring every engagement with customers helps in customer retention. Brands might get a deep dive dialogue with customers via bots and also this sort of involvement serves every brand to investigate them better, offer what consumers need and be there whenever they need. Examine every interaction and tipping along with your web visitors. Find user actions. Comprehend their participation time and also make choices depending on these sorts of input signals.

What Next?

Quietly working in the background, Bots are no doubt learning from their errors and therefore are always looking at means to enhancing their operation. Technologists work on strengthening bots by enhancing their brains and language comprehension. As we’re sailing through 2017, there exists a feeling these intelligent connectors will go mainstream. Bots are here to link individuals to the company. They have been already societal and will get better also. Guesses are which they can get more business specific and may also socialize better with extensions. Increase impetus will certainly quicken in the past few years in the future.