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prettywordsyouleft · 4 years

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Mistletoe Manor - Part 1

Summary: Christmas is the most important time of year for all those who live within Mistletoe Manor. From the staff to the Hawthorne family themselves, everyone works hard to ensure that the festive season is a success every year! We invite you to see if everyone can pull off another magical Christmas at the manor this year.

Pairing: Park Seo Joon, Bang Yongguk, Brian Kang, Jung Daehyun, Jung Jaehyun, Lee Taeyong and OCs.

Genre: regency au / romance / christmas au

A/N: Becky ( @noona-clock ) and I wanted to create a magical Christmas for everyone and what better way to do that than at Mistletoe Manor! Because of the nature of having several idols, we chose to work with OCs and we hope you love them as much as we do.

Mistletoe Manor will be posted daily at 10am NZST / 4pm EST daily.

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With an estate title of Mistletoe Manor, it was evidently expected that Christmas was the most eventful time of the year. Although the leaves had only just begun to fall now that the summer sunshine had moved on, preparations for the end of the year were well underway. Staff were buffing up the finest silver, examining the most expensive china and preparing long in advance the types of food that would be served over the entire month of celebration. Mistletoe Manor was home to Lord Hawthorne, his wife and three daughters, Cassandra, Evie and Josephine, all in whom helped with the running of the township below.

The celebrations would last for a month, and with the annual winter festival to also prepare for, it seemed there was an increased flurry of events for everyone.

Except there was one member of the family who wasn’t quite ready to celebrate Christmas again.

Last year had been the first time Cassandra Hawthorne had felt overwhelmed by the festivities. Not only did she participate in organising the entire winter festival, but Christmas had even more guests than usual to entertain as she was to be married come the start of the New Year to Earl Daehyun. Along with his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Steerbury, Daehyun had travelled to stay with the Hawthorne’s. It hadn’t been nearly enough time to learn much of the man she was betrothed to and she had spent most of their stay just reminding herself to keep breathing when it all felt too much.

“Cassie, why are holed up in a corner here?” Josephine questioned, looking down at her eldest sister in confusion. “You’re being quiet, whatever is the matter? The most wonderful time of the year is almost upon us and we have so much to do!”

Some days, Cassie wished to live a much simpler life. Although she had faced her own set of hardships with her status, she longed for a journey much different than this. Her hand gripped at the letter she had read for the fifth time since receiving it yesterday, and the subtle movement caught her youngest sister’s attention.

“Have you heard from your husband again?”

“I have.”

“And when will he be back from his expedition?” she inquired, her gaze softening when Cassie didn’t immediately respond. “He will be back in time for Christmas, won’t he?”

“I do not know, Joey,” Cassie answered, her voice shaking ever so slightly. She attempted to smile, heaving herself up out of her chair. There was plenty of time left to dwell over Daehyun’s return. Taking the hand of her sister, she gestured to the exit of the parlour room. “Come, did you not say we have much to do?”

If anyone had told Cassie that this time last year she would be anxiously awaiting the return of her husband, she would have thought them as mad. Her parents had only wanted what was best for their daughters, and although all three girls were raised to strive for their own goals in life, an arranged marriage could be likely for any of them. It was a trend during these times, true love being left for fairytales. Of course, there were exceptions to every rule and had Cassie been actively looking for a suitor, perhaps they would have left her to her own devices.

Marrying the Earl looked wonderful on paper. As a business transaction, both families unifying together was prosperous. It would bring more revenue each year to Mistletoe Manor, which would help fund the ongoing agricultural woes the farmers were having with their crops.

Within the affluent circles, it would lend Cassie a lot of power as well. Daehyun was known to support a lot of communities, and that would put her at the forefront of organising events in their name.

And yet all the good that came with marrying Daehyun meant Cassie would give up her quest for true love. It was foolish really, to desire to fall in love with her choice in a husband. She had dreamed ever since she was a little girl that the man she married would love her wholeheartedly. She hoped for sincerest confessions and whispered intimate moments where love blossomed even in the harshest of winters.

Whilst Daehyun was very agreeable, she barely knew him before becoming his wife. And when she would have been expected to move into her new home, Daehyun had been given orders by the King to join his expedition for almost a year. Back then, Cassie had been grateful for this sudden change whilst everyone else lamented.

“How will your marriage even begin if your husband is overseas? Had we known, I wouldn’t have agreed to this!”

“Mother, it’s fine. Daehyun will return and then we can get properly acquainted. I’m not aged yet either so there is plenty of time for us,” Cassie assured with a smile that felt too reckless for a newlywed. She should have been more forlorn, worried about the distance put between them so quickly.

Cassie was relieved to not have to play wife to a man she barely knew five facts about, and all in which she had learned as information from others.

“Still, waiting for an entire year before you consummate the marriage feels a bit-”

“Prudent?” Josephine offered, trying to keep a straight face as she half-heartedly worked on a cross-stitch across the room. She soon abandoned it with her growing glee, looking towards her other sister reading a book. “Evie, you’re awfully quiet over this. What do you think of Cassie’s situation?”

“It’s only a year apart.”

“So much can happen within even a month!” their mother exclaimed and Evie sighed, returning her attention to the book. “What if he finds himself lonely and takes a-”

“Mother!” Cassie implored and the woman lifted her handkerchief to her mouth dramatically. The eldest daughter moved over to take her hand in her grip. “I promise I will fulfil all that is expected of me in due time. Please, stop fussing when it was only just a week ago where you were complaining about my departure from the manor. Surely, this is a good delay, yes?”

“She’s right; you were a blubbering mess. Isn’t that so, Evie?” Joey pointed out with a laugh and Evie barely nodded in acknowledgement.

Cassie couldn’t hide the pleased expression upon her face at the sudden change in her predicament at all. Choosing to continue on at Mistletoe Manor until her husband returned had definitely eased her worries upon hearing of the news the night of her wedding. She had feared living in some large estate all by herself, except that of the staff, and she wouldn’t even have the ability to take her lady maid Lydia with her either. Here, she could continue her studies and improve her merits before wistfully leaving the place she had known as her home for all of her life.

Another year of freedom felt deliciously wonderful.

As the wintry air warmed with the calling of spring however, Cassie was not as exuberant about her situation. She had started to entertain many thoughts of what her life would truly be like when she moved into Daehyun’s grand estate. He had seemed every part of a gentleman whenever she had crossed paths with him during his stay, and the brief moments she spent alone with him had been less awkward than she expected. However, she longed to have a better understanding of her husband and how she could best support him. Cassie had no desire to be an accessory to Daehyun’s accolades; a wife who did her best to silently promote her husband never suited her. And yet, she didn’t know whether Daehyun would care to hear of her thoughts. Even if it weren’t a marriage built on love, she at least hoped to compliment her husband to the best of her abilities.

This newfound worry led to many sleepless nights and fitful dreams in where she found they had nothing in common, or worse, barely spoke two words at one another. Had she signed herself up for a lifetime of misery, looking the part of a well-groomed wife and daughter of such a prestigious family, but inwardly dying from lack of fulfilment? These thoughts plagued her day and night and soon she fell ill, concerning all those within Mistletoe Manor.

“My Lady, it’s not like you to be this weak,” Lydia condoned as she placed a damp cloth to her fevered skin, cooling upon contact. “Whatever has worked you into such a state?”

“I’ll be fine, Lydia.”

“And I know that you will be,” Lydia agreed, despite her grim expression. “Yet, I don’t fancy being the one to tell your husband either. He’ll worry over you.”

“Will he?” Cassie whispered, blinking back her emotions.

“He looked enamoured by you, My Lady, why would his wish for such a beautiful bride to fall this ill?”

“I hope you are right,” Cassie murmured, closing her eyes and wishing for the return of her willpower. Right now, she was weighed down with too many doubts to even know where to begin to solve them.

Her answer came two days later, thankfully a day after her fever breaking. She had heard Taeyong’s voice long before she had even laid eyes upon the footman. Usually, it would be up to Percy to deliver mail in person to any of the family members, and so when she noticed the way in which her childhood friend had rushed inside, she knew he would get a scolding later for ignoring protocol.

Still, Cassie was intrigued, especially when Taeyong held out the letter in a breathless state. “Why, it must be important if you ran throughout the house to locate me.”

Ignoring her teasing, Taeyong thrust the letter forward repeatedly. “Surely, a letter from your husband should ease your lonesome heart, My Lady.”

“From my husband?” Cassie echoed, barely acknowledging Taeyong’s farewell as she sat down in the closest chair, pulling out the letter hastily.

As she read over his words, her smile grew. Daehyun came across as nervous in his letter; he even stated it at one point, mid-sentence. Cassie found his little additions to his sentences endearing and as soon as she reached the end of the letter full of questions and a promise to provide for her as her husband, she gathered up the pieces of paper and then hurried to quarters, picking up her pen and putting it to paper immediately.

Letters travelled back and forth regularly between them, their uneasy beginnings soon bringing forth great laughter and a sense of understanding. Daehyun wrote fantastical tales of his journey and he equally held no qualms in divulging his feelings. It didn’t take Cassie long to shyly reply with her own, with each letter received, her heart would thud in her chest more erratically and she would send off a piece of it along with her response. Daehyun’s sentiments, even sent as far away as he was from Cassie were sincere.

He wanted to fall in love with his wife and from how their written relationship had transpired so far, Cassie was certain this could be a reality for them both. She would often lay awake rereading their correspondence, clutching at moments where her heart felt as if it would burst out from her chest with how much his words affected her.

But that was all she had so far, words. Would being in one another’s company after the expedition feel as intimate as writing to Daehyun did currently? Would he utter his feelings as earnestly as his pen wrote them? A new wave of emotions had risen within the eldest Hawthorne daughter, and she hadn’t expected any of it.

Plans for the winter festival were well underway. For the village of Mistletoe Manor, this festival meant everything. It not only rewarded all who had worked hard year-round in their livelihoods, it also signalled the beginning of Christmas. On the twenty-fifth of November, the festive lights would be lit around the Christmas marketplace and the Hawthorne’s would announce the start of the magical month ahead.

It was important to Cassie to ensure everything went according to plan, especially since her father had handed over the responsibility of running the event to Cassie and her sisters last year.

After helping Josephine and Evie earlier until supper was served, Cassie had forgotten about Daehyun’s latest letter. Perhaps, she had filed it away in her head and heart for that time, knowing it wouldn’t serve her to be distracted whilst busy making plans. Her cousin Grace would be arriving within the week to help with the festivities and before bed, she had managed to ensure all was set up in the room she would use before retiring to her own.

It was after Lydia had left her to her own devices when Cassie finally moved back to her desk where she had left the correspondence from Daehyun, her eyes falling to the last page as she chewed on the bottom of her lip. With a sigh, she moved towards her bed and climbed under the covers, hopeful that her mood would brighten enough to reply tomorrow.

I fear the King wishes to extend his tour out here and we may not return until the flowers bloom. My love, please know I am trying everything to get back in time for Christmas. I know how much this time of year means to you, and since spending last year in your company, I long to be there again for this year’s festivities.

Until I am truly yours,

Daehyun.

_________________

Part 2

[Christmas 2019 Masterlist] | [Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

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today-only-happens-once · 5 years

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What if Logan is Afraid of Deceit? A Potential Interpretation

So I was re-watching “Embarrassing Phases”, and there’s this super fast moment that I didn’t catch the first couple times I watched it:

I’ve seen a post or two pointing out that Roman responding to this comment from Thomas with “Thomas, don’t invite something else” might be in reference to Deceit. But it’s as this statement is being said--delivered with a distinct lack of confidence--that Logan glances first at Virgil and then gives this look to Thomas. He looks nervous. Maybe even afraid.

And when I noticed this, I started thinking back about other moments we’ve seen. Such as the way Logan immediately jumped on Thomas when he started to lie in “Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?”

Thomas: Ah, knowledge. That’s why I love you, Logan. Today was a flu--

Thomas doesn’t even get all the way through his lie, “Today was a fluke”, before Logan immediately and somewhat aggressively shuts him down. Potentially to prevent the re-appearance of Deceit, who had made an appearance in the video directly prior. And now that I’ve mentioned it...

I firmly believe that this moment screenshotted below is the moment that Logan put it together that Deceit!Patton was Deceit (following Virgil replying “I’m not so sure we are” when Deceit!Patton asked “aren’t we friends?”)

And initially, that’s all I’d taken this moment to be. Realization. But I could also potentially read some urgency there. Then of course we have Logan “I am fearless” Sanders try to play it off (potentially) when he acts as if it has been “obvious” right from the start even though it was only moments ago that he seemed to have his moment of realization:

The fact that Roman “gets it now” right after Deceit silences him indicates that this isn’t a new behavior for Deceit. He’s done this before, and he’s almost certainly done this specifically to Logan before (given that he’s the Logical Side).

And when Thomas finally tells Logan to tell him, Logan doesn’t say his name calmly. He actually yells “DECEIT!” Perhaps out of fear that he will be silenced once again, as Logan has made it very clear that he already doesn’t feel listened to.

All of this is mere speculation. Mostly a “potential interpretation” than a “this is how it is” kind of post. I’ve also thought about Logan’s line “maybe Deceit wasn’t so bad” when Patton makes puns later in “Can Lying Be Good?” and can see that potentially Logan trying to convince himself that Deceit “wasn’t so bad” to talk himself down from the adrenaline rush. (Although tangentially, I think that speaks more to the idea I’ve posted about before regarding how Logan would rather be silent than seen as a joke.)

I digress. Just something that popped in my head and thought perhaps it would be worth sharing. Everyone is totally entitled to their own opinions and interpretations. This was just a potential interpretation that I thought had a little bit of merit and interesting potential. ^u^

#sanders sides #sanders sides meta #logan sanders #logan sanders angst #?#ts deceit

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pink-rathian-official · 4 years

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At the beginning of 2019, I mentioned I would keep track of every game I finished, and sum up my thoughts on all of them at the end of the year. And now I’m half regretting it because I’m gonna have to write out a short summary for each of these games. Oh well. You’ll be able to find all of them under the Read More, if you’re interested. Will be including an arbitrary score next to each game based on how much I enjoyed them.

Just some fun numbers before we jump in to the meat of the post- In 2019, I beat a total of 41 games. That’s an average of 3.41 games per month, which actually isn’t too bad of a rate!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (5/5) 100% complete! Beaten twice! Without doubt, the best Smash game yet. You didn’t need me to tell you this- if you’ve got a Switch, then you’ve probably got Smash.

Bayonetta (4/5) A classic character action game, and an immense source of nostalgia for me. Play this game or I’ll break your knees.

Bayonetta 2 (4/5) I actually went into this game with low expectations, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as the first game. Fortunately I was stupid and wrong and ended up loving it just as much as Bayo1.

Splatoon 2 (3/5) The story wasn’t particularly the most enjoyable thing ever, although I did sink a pretty decent amount of time into the multiplayer. Still not my go-to game if I’m looking for a quick match.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (4/5) It was enjoyable, although kinda started dragging on towards the end. The side content started feeling very repetitive, especially the shrines- but it was still a genuinely great time.

DOOM (2016) (3/5) I raged a wee bit, gonna admit. Although it was fun, I had a lot of frustrations with the late game.

Cthon (3/5) Doom, but a Lovecraftian roguelike. I’d recommend picking it up on Steam, it’s only USD$4.99 regularly, and USD$1.69 during the Steam sale currently going on.

Fire Emblem: Awakening (4/5) I suck at strategy games because I’m a smoothbrain, but FE:A is totally one of the best 3DS games ever released. Lucina is my daughter and the story made me cry.

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (2/5) I already played the 3DS version, and went into the DE expecting it to be a bit more enjoyable- and while it was, I did find myself getting bored rather quickly.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (5/5) The best TES game ever released according to many fans. While I do still prefer Skyrim more, I can see exactly why so many love it. Planning on returning to do the DLCs soon.

Night in the Woods (4/5) I hate story-centric games, but I liked NITW a lot. The exploration was nice, seeing the town change day-to-day was nice, and the ending was freaky in a good way

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (4/5) An incredibly fun game, very similar to Left 4 Dead but fantasy themed and with rat monsters. Launched my obsession with the Skaven.

Fallout 3 (2/5) Yeah just play New Vegas instead mate.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (3/5) If you separate it from the rest of the relatively mediocre AC series, Black Flag is pretty gud. I like being a pirate. I don’t like tailing missions. I really don’t like ship tailing missions.

Ib (3/5) I played this game a few times through during my obsession with RPGMaker horror games. Still holds up pretty strong, although it’s a wee bit short.

Amorous (3/5) 100% complete! Yeah it’s just a lewd furry dating sim. Does have a decent character maker that I use as a reference for my fursona now though!

Way of the Samurai 3 (4/5) I don’t know why this game slipped under everyone’s radar back on release. Just overall a very Nice samurai simulator, albeit with some combat that takes some getting used to.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (5/5) The best MonHun released yet. World is great, but for some reason it just doesn’t hold me like GU does. Maybe I’m just a boomer.

Super Mario Odyssey (3/5) It’s definitely what you’d expect out of Mario. Not a bad game by any means, but I just didn’t really keep attached to it like most others seemed to.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (4/5) I like being a lawyer, and I love the serotonin rush that I get when cornering a criminal on their logic.

Resident Evil 7 biohazard (4/5) The first RE game I’ve played to completion. I don’t regret it at all, because it was super good. Got some great DLC as well.

SoulCalibur VI (Libra of Soul + Soul Chronicle) (4/5) Loved the character creation, loved gitting gud- did not love some of the side missions in LoS because holy Hell a lot of them are bullshit.

Borderlands 2 (4/5) I hated the first Borderlands, and went into 2 expecting more of the same. Ended up leaving surprisingly satisfied. Great loot n’ shoot all around.

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition (4/5) It took me a few tries to really get into this one, but once I did I was totally hooked. The ending battle could’ve used a little more love, but it was still by all means a great game.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (4/5) Despite being a clearly rushed game with a drop in quality towards the last few hours, VtmB is still one of the most solid action RPGs I’ve ever played. Still not exactly gonna excuse the last couple of boss battles though.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (5/5) This went from “tumblr meme game that I had no interest in” to “one of the best fucking games I have ever played, and it hurt me deeply.” I don’t think I’ve ever been so invested in a story before, and the trial system was very refreshing.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (5/5) How did they make a story with twists even more mindblowing than the first game? While THH invested me into the series, GD solidified my newfound love for it.

Which (3/5) 100% complete! A very short experimental horror game by indie animator and developer Mike Inel. Not bad at all, and completely worth the free download.

Skullgirls: 2nd Encore (3/5) I never really got good at this game, although the story mode was still very enjoyable. Not particularly something I’m probably gonna be coming back to.

Hollow Knight (5/5) Absolutely spectacular Metroidvania that gives quite a unique challenge. Fell in love with this game so bad that I was constantly thinking about it at work. Please stop comparing it to Dark Souls, it’s such an amazing game on its own merit without needing that comparison.

Undertale (5/5) It’s Undertale, do you really need me to tell you how amazing it is?

Devil May Cry 3 (Dante story) (4/5) Extremely fun and challenging. If you haven’t played this game yet then you are wrong. Beating the first Vergil battle without being hit filled me with very unneeded confidence- the spectacular final battle against Vergil stripped that confidence away.

Ion Fury (3/5) Very challenging, but still super enjoyable. The heroine is a genuine badass, loved hearing her quips. The final boss was garbo though.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (5/5) Sekiro absolutely deserved the GOTY award. Loved the combat, loved the challenge, loved everything about this beautiful game.

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition (5/5) DQXI singlehandedly changed my opinion on JRPGs. A story that’s equal parts awesome and tearjerking, combat that feels truly satisfying, and a quirky world that had me hooked for all 98+ hours.

Danganronpa Another Story: Ultra Despair Girls (4/5) While it absolutely was a good game, something about it didn’t really hold the charm that the other Danganronpa games had. The story was still superb, and the twist at the end was hooh.

Spyro the Dragon (3/5) 120% complete! The nostalgia factor drew me in, the level design kept me. Except for Tree Tops, fuck you Tree Tops.

WarioWare Gold (3/5) Packed with the best microgames from WarioWare’s history, but not enough content to keep me there past the main story mode.

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3/5) MGS3 is one of my favorite games ever, but the 3DS port’s framerate issues really killed the fun for me.

Halo: Reach (4/5) The story mode was good, but the multiplayer was absolutely sublime. I raged, I cheered, I had the fun I missed out on growing up without an Xbox.

#video games

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blueplanettrash · 6 years

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We’ll Meet Again (Part 8)

It’s literally been like six months since I posted the last chapter. I think I might focus on updating old stories right now until I get motivated to write something new. I hope you guys enjoy! 💙

They still had a long way to go before they were fully merged with each other, but it was clear to the others that at least Shiro and Lance were getting a bit closer in their relationship then they had before.

If they would just fucking stay in the same room together.

Keith didn’t know how much longer he could watch them bump into each other in the halls of in the kitchen and awkwardly stutter and blush their way away from each other. He honestly wanted to bang his head on the counter. Or maybe their heads into the counter. Maybe they would jump up to defend each other. Yes. Next time, Shiro’s head was meeting granite.

Fortunately, the plan to slam Shiro into a counter was interrupted by an emergency transmission by a nearby planet. Although they tried their hardest to stay out of harm’s way, they couldn’t exactly ignore a planet’s plea for help and immediately flew out. It wasn’t long until they were on the ground aiding in evacuation and ground fighting.

Allura and Coran kept their eye on the action from the Castle, carefully sending out instructions to the paladins. As they canvassed the area, they saw Lance and Shiro facing off against a group of Galra soldiers, as the group pushed closer, it forced Lance and Shiro closer together until their backs were pressed against each other. They glanced over their shoulders at each other before smirking and lashing out against the soldiers.

They moved perfectly in sync as if they had been fighting together their whole lives. As Allura and Coran watched in awe, they spun around each other, punches and kicks flying over each other’s back as they ducked. With a grin, Shiro picked Lance up and spun him around the circle of enemies, Lance kicking them away.

They let out laughs of joy as they easily beat the soldiers back forcing them to retreat. They chased them away from the city until they were escaping to their ships. As they disappeared from the atmosphere, they turned to each other wide smiles on their faces. There was only a slight hesitation from Shiro before he scooped Lance up into a hug, his hand going behind Lance’s head to press it into his shoulder. With a small laugh, Lance wrapped his arms around Shiro’s back and squeezed comfortably.

“Good God finally,” Keith’s voice huffed over the coms. With a blush, they jumped apart and started stuttering out apologies and explanations to each other.

“Aw Keith, you just ruined it,” Hunk complained.

“At least it’s a step forward,” Pidge added.

“Can you please stop?” Lance whined with a blush as the two of them started heading back towards the Castle.

There was a moment of complete silence.

“cAn YoU pLeAsE StOp?,” she mocked. Shiro let out a snort and covered his mouth. Lance let out a gasp and gave him a blinding smile.

“We’ve got another spicy memelord on board,”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!” Shiro argued with a wave of his arms. Lance turned to him with a pout.

“Why don’t you want to enjoy the spice with me?”

Shiro looked at him with dead eyes before spinning around, “I’m leaving,”

Lance choked out a laugh and ran after him, jumping up and latching onto Shiro’s back.

“Do they even fucking realize?” Keith droned. At his sides, both Pidge and Hunk shook their heads with a small sigh.

“Of course not,”

He laid gasping against the cold floor of the hangers, hands pressed against the wound in his stomach.

“Zarkon why?” His voice came out weak, his voice hitching slightly. There was no trace of the kind-hearted Galra he knew, his eyes were overtaken by a purple glow.

“I am the only true paladin of the Black Lion,” he growled, before turning and stalking out of the hanger, the black bayard clutched in his hand. Sheeva watched him with wide eyes, not completely understanding what was happening. He tried to crawl forward, attempt to get any sort of help but he collapsed with a painful whine.

“Alluran,” he whispered, squeezing his eyes closed. He curled into a fetal position and attempted to stop the blood flow but nothing was working. He choked as the panic finally took hold and tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Alluran!” He sobbed. All he wanted was to see his fiancé, to hold him close until the pain was over. He paused at the thought. They were never going to get married. They were never going to truly belong to each other. A new sense of urgency dug into him and he attempted to drag himself over to the doors again, if he got out, there would be patrols along the hallway and maybe he would be saved.

He didn’t want to die alone. He didn’t want to be found cold and gone in the hangers days from now. Would they even know it was Zarkon? Would he get justice for his death?

He collapsed only a few yards later, arms trembling with exhaustion. He beat his hand into the floor at his weakness. With a glance up, he could see the door still miles away from him.

In all his life, he never imagined that he would go out like this. He trusted Zarkon with his life, with everyone he loved. He trusted him to take care of Alluran if anything ever happened to him, now he just hoped that he would leave him alone. That thought was quickly dashed though, he knew how powerful Alluran’s emotions were. He worried what would happen to him without him here.

“My love, take your time,” he whispered, as his eyes slowly glazed over.

Shiro’s eyes snapped open with a gasp. For a minute he just stared up at the ceiling and let the tears slide down his cheeks and wet the inside of his ears. He had never felt such crushing sadness before. He knew that what he just saw wasn’t just a dream, but his own memories.

He pushed himself up to sit and crawled out of bed with a rustle of the sheets. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep any more that night, not with the heavy cloud that was looming over him at least. He didn’t bother to change out of his pyjamas and just slipped on his lion slippers before leaving his room to wander the halls.

The first thing he was aware of was the crushing loneliness that was overtaking his body. There was nothing left for him on the face of this planet anymore. His love was dead and the only merit at the moment was that he would be joining him soon.

He blearily looked up at the figures surrounding him, being for him to take a bite of food, or a sip of water, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He knew in his heart that what he was doing was selfish, that he should be helping his people fight back against Zarkon since it was clear that he wasn’t just going to stop after murdering his apprentice. He should be trying to stay strong like Allura always was able to but he just couldn’t.

He knew that Allura would never hold it against him and for that he was thankful. It made the devastation that he was feeling just a bit lighter sometimes.

It was times like that, that he thought of Sheeva and would be drawn back into his mind. He thought of all the times that they wouldn’t get, the memories that they would never get to make with each other. Not in this lifetime anyway.

His fingers weakly squeezed against Allura’s hand, he could feel himself slipping. It was time.

“I’ll see you on the other side,” the words quietly left as his eyes slipped shut.

He woke without a word. Tears were rolling down his face and his heart ached with the memory of loneliness and hopelessness. He curled up on his side, letting himself fall back into the despair for a moment before slipping out of bed and out into the halls.

They were making progress over the past couple of weeks, he knew that the rest of the paladins were getting sick of them but they didn’t know how hard it was to constantly relive the memories of a past life. They didn’t know how hard it was to fall in love again after losing that person before. He was so scared that if he fell in love with Shiro with or without their past selves that he was going to lose him again.

He already knew how much it hurt the first time it happened. If he was killed again, he didn’t know how he was going to react.

He sniffled and wiped his arm across his face. He wanted more than anything to have what Alluran and Sheeva did, but it was hard after seeing what happened to them. But he couldn’t deny the rush of emotions that overtook him when Shiro was near. He felt so safe and happy when they talked or he even just smiled at him.

It was both a shock and relief when he walked into the lounge and saw the top of Shiro’s head peeking over the top of the couch.

“Shiro?” He called, his head turning to look back at Lance.

“Oh Lance, hey,” he responded, head turning to keep his eyes on Lance as he walked closer and sat beside him on the couch.

“Why are you up?” Lance asked. Shiro sheepishly looked down with a blush on his face.

“Nightmares,” he admitted. Lance swallowed and nodded his head in sympathy.

“Me too,”

“Was it about…you know, Alluran?” Shiro asked hesitantly. At the reminder of the memories, Lance bit his lip and nodded his head even as tears welled up in his eyes.

“What about you?” He echoed. Shiro sniffled and nodded his head as well.

“Maybe we should talk about this?” Lance suggested. Shiro didn’t look up but silently nodded his head again.

“Shiro, despite what everyone else thinks I haven’t realized; I am in love with you and I know that you’re in love with me,” he started, not flinching when Shiro reached out and weaved their fingers together.

“Is it that obvious?” Shiro asked with a slight smirk. Lance huffed out a laugh and tightened his hold on his hand.

“I guess you’re just a bit easier to read when I’ve already fallen in love with you before,” Lance teased.

“Sounds about right,” Shiro agreed with a smile but it fell at the frown on Lance’s face. “What’s wrong?” He asked with concern, reaching out to tuck a piece of hair behind Lance’s ear.

“I’m just so scared,” he whispered, leaning against Shiro’s side. “I already lost you once and it completely broke me and now we’re in a war, what if I lose you again?”

Shiro frowned and wrapped his arm around Lance, holding him securely.

“I will do everything in my power to never leave you again, just say that you won’t leave me alone either,” Shiro pleaded, turning to push his face into Lance’s hair.

“I won’t” Lance promised, tilting his head up to rest it in the crook of Shiro’s neck.

They sat in each other’s company, silently shedding tears until they fell asleep, clutched in each other’s arms.

“WAKE UP BITCHES!” The two of them awoke with a shock, scrambling away from each other, breathing hard and eyes darting around wildly. They both glanced over to see Pidge with a shit eating grin on her face and the rest of the team looking on casually.

“Really Pidge?” Sheeva groaned, rubbing his forehead tiredly.

“Wait, Sheeva?” Alluran asked, turning to look at the Altean. Sheeva’s mouth dropped open and he lunged back over to finally embrace his love.

“Alluran!” He cried with excitement, hefting the prince up with a laugh and spinning the two of them around. Alluran giggled maniacally, clutching Sheeva’s neck for support.

“I’ve missed you so much darling,” Allura said quietly when his feet met the ground again.

“As have I,” Sheeva agreed, resting his forehead against Alluran’s. Without a word, Alluran pushed himself up on his toes and kissed Sheeva.

“Fucking finally,” Keith muttered with a grin.

Part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7

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schalaasha · 4 years

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Soundtrack of the Year 2015 Post Archived

Originally posted January 18, 2016 on the old forum.

I don’t have much to say other than ... I’m tired of 2015. Haha. It was a rough year so I didn’t get to listen to everything I’d wanted to! I did get to listen to the Yasunori Mitsuda remix album, and a bunch of albums that Solune and I talked about over the course of a few months. My shortlist was apparently longer than some expected, and I do think 2015 had a lot of great albums. Although the Canadian dollar sank like a tank (and this isn’t going to change heading into 2016), I did try to listen to as many soundtracks as I could. However, I will readily admit that I did not get a chance to listen to everything like I usually do in previous years. Personal life combined with work combined with the crappy dollar combined with falling in love (this is a good thing), kind of made it a little hard try to check out new stuff. I was fairly on top of everything for the first half of the year and then everything kind of fell apart towards the end. The decision between my number one and number two soundtracks was fairly tough. I went through a lot of mental wrangling in terms of the question “do I vote with my heart, or do I vote with my head?” I don’t usually like going with my heart when I vote for game of the year or soundtrack of the year. It feels completely biased on my part, and I feel like I’m not evaluating something with clarity or based on its own merits. Then I sort of realized, “Well, isn’t that the point?” In my head, Undertale takes the win. In my heart, though, something else does, and it’s entirely based on context. So this year, I decided to go with my heart. Listening to my heart feels weird. I feel very strongly about two soundtracks this year, and therefore, I have decided to go with only two. This is also the first time that I think I’ve written a list where I’ve played all the games. I could be wrong on that front, but this comes as a genuine surprise. I am disappointed with the lack of Falcom on my list, but I am not entirely comfortable throwing a vote Tokyo Xanadu’s way because I’m almost finished the game. While I do have a lot to say about Tokyo Xanadu’s soundtrack at the moment, I would much rather experience the music further in context before throwing a vote its way (but the soundtrack is really good, and the game itself is quite fun!). Previous Posts: 2011 Soundtrack of the Year: 1, 2 2012 Soundtrack of the Year: 1, 2, LTTP Post 2013 Soundtrack of the Year: 1, 2, 3, 4 2014 Soundtrack of the Year: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 Soundtrack of the 6th Generation: 1 / 2 / 3 I decided to forego the awards this year, particularly because I decided to forego my Worst Soundtrack of the Year award. My pick for that would be more than a bit controversial, and I think a few folks know what that one is so I’ll let it slide under the rug. Honourable Mentions x. Ori and the Blind Forest : I’d been waiting for this soundtrack for months before the game came out, and it did not disappoint. I was going to make it #3 on my soundtrack list, but halfway through my writeup for it, I felt as though I lost my motivation to write about it. Therefore, I am only including a top 2 this year. A lot of the tracks are incredibly emotional (Light of Nibel, and whenever there’s a rush to quickly platform (Restoring the Light, Facing the Dark), the pacing of the tracks do the level design justice. x. Tokyo Xanadu : Mixing electronica and violins makes this soundtrack fairly classy, from the upbeat yet elegant Strayed into Passage to the characteristic Believe It!!. Falcom hasn’t lost it; the sound is just evolved to fit Tokyo Xanadu’s tone. x. Nights of Azure : Holy shit, Nights of Azure is some hot shit, and I wish more people listened to this soundtrack cuz Solune and I love it so much. Moving from some hard rock (Malicious Roses and Edge of Apocalypse to the jazzy Hotel Ende. I wish I had way more time to spend with this soundtrack and imported the game because the soundtrack is definitely Top 5 material. x. Splatoon : Shooters aren’t my thing. If everyone I tweet didn’t bring this soundtrack up when I was asking for help with the archive, then I probably wouldn’t have known about the soundtrack’s variations. Sucker Punch, Ink Me Up x. Legend of Legacy : I like Legend of Legacy. Or, at least, when I played the Japanese version of it. It had stuff I liked to nitpick and the game is certainly not for everyone. The music itself feels like an extension of Hamauzu’s recent work. Ex: Twin Dimensional Battle, Initium (one of the better town themes he’s composed, imo) x. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse : I didn’t finish this game. I, uh, didn’t feel like it jived well with me, and anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely adore Kirby. But this game has some fantastic tuneage, from Great Cave Escape to Dethskullk Jam to The Final Battle. A lot of the soundtrack drives back to previous Kirby games, which is to be expected. However, the tone of the music moving directly back to Kirby Super Star sounds felt right. x. Transformers Devastation : I had to laugh when NTom64 brought this one up to me, just because I... wasn’t expecting it? I didn’t play the game, so I don’t know if any of the music fits the context at all (never mind that I saw the Transformers movie and I know The Touch fits super-well), but holy crap, the music is incredible and I think it deserves the Badassery Award. Sample: Face the Devastation 2. Undertale

Toby Fox

It’s not even a damn contest. I can reiterate what everyone has said in this thread up to this point about Undertale, but it’s undeniable that this is one of the best soundtracks of 2015. Heck, it might be the best soundtrack of 2015 if the whole “voting with your heart” thing didn’t get in the way for me. Basically, it took a lot of convincing to get me through this game. For one, another GAF member (Shadow Hog) gifted me the game on Steam because I essentially refused to play it at the time. And I’m still thankful that he did. I played through the whole game with Noi doing his own playthrough and we pushed each other through the game. It took some prodding from EmCee to finish off the game and get the True Pacifist Ending to add more meaning to the soundtrack overall (and I took Noi with me in tow for that, too). Now that doesn’t mean I don’t like the game. I just got spoiled on the endings and a lot of things before playing the game because, well, a lot of people wouldn’t shush about it. When I played the game, I felt like it was about the journey not the end. The game’s musical journey is fulfilling. Writing about Undertale’s soundtrack feels like a daunting task simply because there is just so much to say. From references to other games, to leitmotifs being used in single areas, to different types of instrumentation, to different soundfonts being used... there’s a lot of things to say about the soundtrack, and even just glancing through this entire thread, there are a lot of different things that people are saying about it. Undertale’s soundtrack is fairly difficult to review. There are a lot of tracks (well, actually, that part isn’t too difficult; I’ve reviewed 100+ track albums before), they all have extremely varying track lengths, and they all use different soundfonts that somehow create a cohesively-sounding album in the end. Overall, the album encourages the listener to be attentive: to soundfonts, to leitmotifs, to different references to other games, and more. There are twenty-three leitmotifs in the entire soundtrack. Undertale’s soundtrack release also composes of music that hasn’t been used in the game. I think the best way for me to approach the soundtrack, and Noi and I were talking about this last night when he was trying to get me to stop panicking about writing this post in general, is through discussing the leitmotifs. It’s like he said to me, “When you listen to <track>, what do you think of?” Well, there are a lot of things to think of. Nearly every single theme in Undertale references something else internally and externally. There are so many albums and soundtracks that use underlying motifs for everything, but Undertale kind of goes for the nth degree with respect to subtext and motif usage. The soundtrack opens up with Once Upon a Time, serving as the Undertale theme and the primary leitmotif in the game. The thing about the Undertale theme is that I guess it’s supposed to evoke a comparison between either Pollyanna or Eight Melodies. Going into the Start Menu continues a Mother comparison in terms of the Fun Naming themes without the “OK desu” part. More of the Undertale motif picks up in the comforting midi string theme Home, and it’s here that you start piecing together that all of the thematic similarities between each theme and their usage essentially crafts a story. Or at least, it lets the player have expectations of characters or areas. I particularly like the B-portion, where it sounds like it’s channeling some of the acoustic-driven themes Chrono Cross. It is also here that the player recognizes that Undertale’s soundtrack isn’t just a mesh of soundwaves; it uses midi to its advantage and thus steps up soundfont usage even further. The Undertale motif doesn’t surface until much further into the album under the Hotel and Can You Really Call This a Hotel, I Didn’t Receive a Mint On My Pillow themes, which are more flamenco-based, upbeat and resort-like. I particularly like the latter theme simply because it merges the Undertale theme with the uptempo nature of another character’s leitmotif (rather, the leitmotif isn’t used, but the tempo is). The live acoustic with the final Undertale theme in the neutral ending is so, so good. It mixes another leitmotif from His Theme and the Undertale theme to create a piece that’s used in a particular area that weaves in and out of battle and serves as an excellent conclusion for the six-hour journey. The Undertale motif is used in further pieces on the soundtrack, but I will elaborate on those further down the line. Your Best Friend is the next motif and it’s kind of one of my favourites simply because it comes from this stupid two-channel harmony but extends into something else entirely as the motif is used beyond this track. The next track is a major spoiler, but This theme is hilarious out of context because it’s just amazing how much mileage a 23-second loop got in six entire variations with different samples and soundfonts entirely. It makes complete sense in-game, but listening to it out of context like I initially did, I had to wonder why a 23-second initial loop got so much mileage and different soundfonts applied to it in one single theme. Finale has a ton of synth bass applied to it and I adore its pacing with a piano lead turning into a backing. Trying to apply the theme to a synth bass-orchestra is a nice touch too. Ruins is one of the more curious tracks in the game because it’s referenced several times in places that I didn’t particularly expect. I love the B-portion after the introduction because the percussion is so good. It’s the first place where you start realizing that everything is all connected. Ruins is further referenced in Waterfall, for instance, and it’s an entirely different area altogether. In fact, the Ruins leitmotif fits into another character’s motif altogether and gets a bit combined. Undyne has her own leitmotif, which sounds rightfully knightly and gothic (yet the loop is incredibly short), but in battle themes and general themes concerning Undyne, a lot of the leitmotifs intervowen into these themes are that of Ruins. The few themes that are raw arrangements of Undyne’s own theme in another soundfont (and I may add that the sampling is fairly decent for some of these soundfonts) entirely is Dating Tense!, and Run! (which I feel is a better arrangement of the two). Undyne’s battle theme, Spear of Justice is a hot number, with several portions throughout the track dedicated to sampling other themes: from Undyne, to Ruins (specifically, the version of it in Waterfall), Don’t Give Up, to An Ending. The backing makes the theme for me, and the introduction hits the right notes, especially when they’re held. The C-portion with the different arrangements and instrumentations of Undyne’s theme before the loop is so melodic and catchy. Battle Against a True Hero also samples a bit of Ruins itself, bringing a little more percussion and synth strings into the fray. Additionally, the Waterfall/Ruins motif also lends itself to Another Medium and CORE (with those two themes adopting thematic elements based on the characters that integrate themselves into the plot of those areas). Another Medium is probably the biggest theme that popped out at me. I played through Undertale together with Noi and we just sat there talking while this theme was playing in the background while just going “baby, this theme is so good, isn’t it?” to each other. Aeana brought it up with me, and I did indeed feel like it references X-Naut Fortress. And a lot of themes in Undertale, thematically-speaking, references a lot of other themes from other games, whether it’s in terms of a soundfont used, or just... being like Dating Fight! and Oh! One True Love. Temmie Village is fucking stupid and it isn’t even cohesive, and I love it. I enjoy the stupid soundfonts used, and I enjoy that it’s supposed to refer to the music played whenever a character’s behaving like an idiot, due in part to the lack of percussion in the track overall. Death by Glamour is one of the more fabulous tracks on the entire soundtrack. The piano harmonies aren’t as cohesive as possible, and the beat is kind of frenetic, but I think that’s what makes the piece its own. It’s an arrangement of CORE, Metal Crusher, and It’s Showtime! It’s a gigantic showcase of, well, being kind of like… um, Roundabout by Yes. The reference was so good that I had to laugh. Even the bass and percussion was replicated so well. A few folks who’ve played the game, and know where Roundabout is from may also get an additional reference, and then everything will make complete and utter sense. Definitely up there with some of my favourite tracks in the game. From here on, I guess I should probably not discuss names of tracks. The penultimate boss‘s theme is one of my favourites. For all of the emotions it evokes, and for the callback to this theme at the beginning of the game (which I truly enjoy has a few channels compared to the actual theme which uses more channels), I can’t help but to feel like it’s my favourite? It sounds like the most honest theme in the entire game. Even though it’s entirely honest, it’s an arrangement of this small theme from another of Fox’s works. It’s nice to see it expanded into something with greater detail. I love the C-portion of this track, due to the percussion and synth voice degenerating into synth piano and chiptune prior to a piano in a lower range taking over prior to the loop. It assists with making the pacing so smooth and frenetic, and emotional to boot. Even if I didn’t hear the theme in context, I’d still feel the same way. Noi and I did another ending last night together. When we heard Here We Are, I mentioned to him that it sounded fairly... Meguro-like? Perhaps that was an error in terms of analysis on my part, because upon further consideration, it reminded me a lot of OFF and Yume Nikki. It also uses the soundfont for this, though it’s not readily apparent. One of the more interesting tracks, Amalgam is a strange sampling of Earthbound tracks integrated into one thing that’s kind of cohesive taken as one whole product. Finally, what a lot of people feel the theme that caps the entire soundtrack off is the final True Pacifist boss theme. Or rather, both of its themes. Noi and I sang the whole things to each other while we were playing through the ending together. In fact, EmCee refused to let me vote for Undertale until I’d finished off the True Pacifist ending, and I could tell why. The first half of the track I linked is one separate theme for an entire phase, using three different motifs dedicated to stronger Undertale themes, opting for a synth violin opening, then transitioning forward into a synth guitar and chiptune. Undertale likes to lie about its upfront appearance. You suspect the entire soundtrack to drown in chiptune, but it doesn’t. The second theme, completely obliterates that notion, opting for a stronger sense of synth/electronica with a combination of guitar, drums, and a nice little xylophone. It’s a very pleasant and semi-rock-opera-esque way to cap off the soundtrack as a whole. I suppose, that the strongest suit that this soundtrack has, is that it tells every character’s story. The synergy between every piece in an area dedicated to that particular character, and also callbacks to other area themes is so flawless that sometimes it’s not even noticeable until you start to think about it. The soundtrack isn’t entirely flawless. A lot of the unused tracks simply sound like that: unused and unpolished. It’s nice to have them there, but they stick out in not the best way. I feel like tracks on the album should have additional loops. Speaking about the soundtrack in a game context, it’s difficult to narrow down a shortcoming because the way each theme is used is dedicated and carefully placed. Undertale was a pleasure to experience, both the game, and its soundscape. It’s an inspired album, internally and externally. It’s probably a stupid and silly reason, but I can’t help but to compare the soundtrack to what Nier the game was: a collection of different references to everything else and nods to other games woven into one thing. Of course, the collection of different soundfonts and different samples in every theme and from theme to theme is really… strange, but I kind of dig it? It’s a testament to the fact to a lack of cohesion doesn’t necessarily break a product because I feel as though Fox got what he wanted out of the game and out of its soundtrack’s lack of cohesion. It’s all over the place, but it fits. It’s different, and out of context, it sounds like the strangest thing, and even in context it sounds like the strangest thing. But because it’s so strange, it sounds so natural and fitting. Undertale is a strange journey. Its soundtrack being strange, yet so cohesive is absolutely fitting, and it has earned its spot as one of the best and strongest soundtracks of 2015.

1. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (patches 3.0 to 3.15)

Masayoshi Soken (some original tracks by Nobuo Uematsu)

This is where I decided to listen to my heart. I really wanted to give Undertale the first spot, because speaking as an evaluator, I felt that Undertale was the most consistent soundtrack of the year and the most impressive soundtrack from one single person. However, as I keep playing Heavensward and experiencing what I feel and what my friends feel, I can’t help but to think with my heart instead of my brain. I picked up Final Fantasy XIV after years of Noi asking me to play the game with him and I didn’t really want to start playing it because I wasn’t interested in any of the jobs until Ninja was implemented. Perhaps it might be slightly unprofessional on my part (lol “professionalism” when it comes to organizing a thread) to choose a soundtrack based on my personal biases and experiences that is game-specific as opposed to the musicality of a soundtrack. A lot of my decision-making with respect to this soundtrack has a lot to do with personal experiences, so please bear with me. A lot of Final Fantasy XIV’s soundtrack, particularly pieces from A Realm Reborn and the 2.x patch content, can be a bit mixed. While some of it is amazing, like Thunder Rolls or Torn from the Heavens, some of it doesn’t feel entirely cohesive. This is due in part by some of the music being remnants from the game that Final Fantasy XIV was, and the game Final Fantasy XIV is today. It is also due in part to Masayoshi Soken having not come into his own entirely yet. Soken has composed for other games, such as Mario Hoops 3-on-3, but these games typically side-games or games that don’t have a lot of traction outside of niche circles. I believe, even since last year, I was waxing poetic about Soken’s work simply based on out of context experiences with his music. Now that I can say I’ve experienced his work in context, it’s even better, and I understand the following he has. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward is, for the most part, Soken’s time to shine in the sun. Although the main theme, Dragonsong, was composed by series’ veteran Nobuo Uematsu, many of its leitmotifs are carried on throughout the entire soundtrack. I do feel as though Dragonsong is more cohesive than Answers; however, that is a personal bias considering I liked Final Fantasy XI’s theme, Distant Worlds, far more than Answers. Truth be told, I did not start warming up to Answers until my Free Company started raiding the Binding Coil of Bahamut more often. That being said, there’s a lot of what Dragonsong does, which works for me more than Answers did (and I’m typically not a huge fan of Uematsu’s vocal pieces at all). Susan Calloway’s diction is, as usual, incredibly excellent. Hearing her voice feels like a gift. As some may recall, I’ve studied vocal music, trained as a mezzo-soprano, so hearing another soprano with a lot of control feels amazing to me. Physically-speaking, it’s hard to control your voice when you get into a higher range and your voice is more of a power voice than a paper-thin voice. My vocal coach and I spent sessions together trying to get my voice under control for Phantom of the Opera pieces where I did both parts when I was younger, even. I’ve come to admire sopranos who can get it done flawlessly, and Calloway is one of them. It’d be an honour to hear this live one day. While the lyrics describe nothing but the legend of Saint Shiva, Hraesvelgr, and the history of Ishgard itself, the way the music is composed, with many of the note holds, some of the simplicity and elegance melodically-speaking, and the feeling and diction emanating from Calloway’s vocals makes the music more meaningful. I feel that way every time I let the game’s opening trailer roll. Many of the game’s themes revolve around Dragonsong’s motifs. Well, “many” is probably falling short of how many truly use its motif. Despite this, as Thoraxes and I had discussed months ago, this soundtrack demonstrates a lot of Soken’s growth as a composer. Dragonsong appears numerous times in different motifs, from the slowest, most delicate pieces, so the more energizing pieces. I enjoy the redone prelude, since much of the instrumentation used in terms of strings is more evocative of cold and loneliness, which enhances Heavensward’s thematic elements a little more. I’ll personally be sad to see the theme go when 4.0 rolls around, but I love leaving the game on the start screen just to listen to it even more. The boss theme, Ominous Prognosticks, is more melodic than the A Realm Reborn boss theme, and it’s even better. It’s easy to hum, and I love the percussion and brass. The percussion drives the entire thing and the strings and brass carry it all the way through, especially frantic bit in the C-section. When the theme launches into the main melody in D, extending into the main Heavensward melody, with the chorus, it’s paced so well with the percussion hitting hard then extending into the main traditional Final Fantasy battle opener prior to the loop. It’s one of the better boss themes in the series, and it’s incredibly catchy. The Primal themes in this game are different from those of 2.1-2.5. Ravana’s themes demonstrate that Soken’s not all about rock operas or metal. The first half is a hilarious waltz. The strings make this far more than the chorus. But then you’re blasted into the second half with some hot bass (throatsinging) vocals and setting itself far apart from the other upbeat primal themes. The instrumentation doesn’t run far from the vocals, and the brass doesn’t overtake any of the vocals, letting the lyrics play out gracefully. I can just sing “the war still wageth on” when it comes up because I know when it’s coming up in the movement. I like it. It’s one of the better Primal themes in the game because there’s a lot of depth to the instrumentation and care taken in lyrical writing. For the second primal theme, Bismarck, Soken decides to go with more electronica as opposed to rock or what he did for Ravana. More drum and bass, and it sounds really good. It’s the first primal theme out of the two main ones that I gravitated towards because of the bass. The second phase adds some piano and slight vocals. The bass and percussion stand out more in front of the rest of the music and it’s something I always appreciate in any sort of music because bass anything is my sort of jam. The second portion of the track where the piano is added is nicely rhythmically-paced, integrating vocals. It’s hard to say out of the two primal themes which one I enjoy more, but it entirely depends on my mood. Heroes is the final boss theme of Heavensward, and it integrates parts of Dragonsong into the theme. Even listening to it while writing this up, I find myself humming the harmony because it’s my favourite part as opposed to the lead melody or the vocal portions. The portions where the main melody of Dragonsong flows in, it’s difficult not to be enraptured by the string sweeps, the percussion, the orchestration, and the brass. The Azys Lla theme is one of my absolute favourites. I don’t know what to gush about first. The introduction with electronica? The organ melodies (oh hell yeah, the organ melodies)? The theme is a deliberate nod to Final Fantasy VI’s New Continent, albeit with different instrumentation. I love the backing, too. It’s not something you typically hear unless you have a good audio system, but in some good headphones, during the downbeat/piano portion in D, there’s some really nice stuff being done with hi-hats and synth vocals. It’s fairly different from other area themes in the game overall, and it stands out by being a completely different genre from everything else. I have a very deep affection for Coerthas Western Day, and Coerthas Western Night, simply because they were really the first two themes I went out to experience for myself when I got to the Heavensward patch. The instrumentation in both is so melancholy, hinging on strings and piano in a cold wilderness. At the same timeChurning Mists Day and Churning Mists Night don’t get a lot of love in-context because... well, not a lot of people like that place. It sucks. Musically speaking, both themes are really nice inverses of each other and easily told apart due to a complete difference in terms of instrumentation. One is a beautiful piano rendition, and the other is draped in strings and plucking. The introductions of each piece are fantastic and tender and slow. Contention, linked previously, is one of my favourite themes in the entirety of Heavensward, and half of the reason is because it’s a very important theme for me. It is supposed to illustrate a deeper connection between two characters in the Heavensward narrative, and hence it’s a graver arrangement, led by a piano, of Dragonsong. However, in a personal sense, I generally associate the theme with Noi and me fighting then making up, or just being together listening to the theme and telling each other that we love each other very much. Thus, Conviction is very important to me, both as a game-player, and as an individual. Musically-speaking, it’s a wonderful grave piano arrangement of Dragonsong, and it doesn’t necessarily build or change outside of synth strings being added in a layer. Nothing necessarily overtakes the piano until a small grave climax in the theme. It’s very tender and I love it very dearly. I kind of dislike the Idyllshire Day and Night themes, and I find the Hinterlands Day and Night themes fairly unremarkable. I feel like they don’t necessarily add anything musically or add anything with respect to musicality other than “here’s this town theme, it sure sounds like a town theme”. The Hinterlands themes simply use instrumentation that don’t necessarily tug on my ears. By contrast, the Ishgard themes (Pillars : Night / Day; Foundation Night / Day), are much better and more grounded in emotion along with motifs for Dragonsong better portrayed through instrumentation. The piano, the brass, and the organs play out the prestige of a town theme mixed with a main title theme, and it’s a pleasure to listen to every time. However, the main dungeon theme for the dungeon in the Idyllshire area, Ink Long Dry, is one of my favourite themes in all of Heavensward. That jazz piano is some of the hottest stuff on this side of D4. The bass stands out, and while the time signature for this piece is weird, and everything about the piece is so weird, it’s the most relaxing piece in the entire game for me outside of another soon to be mentioned. Jazz fused with some weird instrumental hip hop in the main portion of the track, and it sounds so good. Out of the two postgame dungeons in 3.0, I like The Fractal Continuum more (not just because my damage-per-second shoots through the roof based on my job, but it doesn’t hurt!). While Neverreap sounds like a standard arrangement of The Sea of Clouds, Fractal brings its own fun melody to the table with organs, synth, a nice backing guitar, fun backing percussion and hi-hats, a nice little piano. But man, listen to that percussion. It’s almost to die for and I’d love to drum that myself if I ever got better at playing the drums. The Alexander themes are a true treasure. It’s something you kind of expect from the area, and from Soken himself due to his previous work and which genres he chooses to set his themes. The ambient theme doesn’t get a lot of play, and honestly due to the area, it doesn’t get a lot of love either. I kinda dig it because it reminds me of 90s rave music. The electric guitar melody is pretty hot, the organ is hard to hear but it adds a lot of melody, and the backing synth is jammin’. The one theme that everyone loves (well, not Jucksalbe :V :V) is the boss theme! This shit right here is super-hot. The lyrics are hot (dc, dying, dying, electricity!), the percussion is so fucking good in almost every section of the theme (particularly A-portion prior to a verse, with the electronica). The introduction is so good, and I’d love to hear an entire piano quartet rendition of the entire theme because of that. Sometimes I go in, hum one part of the melody and Noi hums the other for the harmony and it feels so good to know someone else gets it. Metal is probably the one theme that some folks who don’t play the game might know? There was a live version done at a panel and some non-FF14 players thought it was hilarious on my timeline, anyway. The lyrics are lore-specific, with FF14’s Goblinspeak pervading throughout the entire theme. This is where “No Busydeals For the Wicked” comes from, and you can’t help but to sing along to it to have something to laugh at because folks aren’t doing their jobs in the raid and not picking adds up when they should also the tank isn’t stunning the legs ... and... what? Metal is a theme that’s more or less a typical Soken theme. The lyrics don’t kick in until the battle actually starts and someone’s hitting something. The instrumentation is so caustic, particularly due to the reliance on hard percussion coming from all angles. The synth and the electric guitar pick up at a fantastic point during the theme’s chorus, and I especially love the bit during the second verse with some of the off-beat string points. It’s so frantic and sounds added in because they were late to the party, but it fits so well. The 3.1 themes are a bit hit-and-miss. The Diadem and its battle theme sound great for the first few times, particularly because they invoke the traditional prelude, and it hinges on more of an orchestrated sound as opposed to the rock or gothic themes that we usually get for raids. The B-portion of the former theme is probably the best part of it as opposed to the introduction which includes the prelude, because it sounds more militaristic due to the percussion, and yet, it evokes a sense of wonder due to the brass and flute. That being said, like any MMO theme like this, it gets very repetitive very quickly, particularly before its loop. The battle version of the Diadem theme is really cool due to the pacing of the track, and because it integrates the classical Final Fantasy battle theme introduction. I like it far more than the exploratory theme, and I kind of wish it had a longer loop because I’d rather hear that for 90 minutes straight as opposed to the exploratory theme. The two dungeon themes in 3.15 are really good, though one is old. Pharos Sirius only got a new (very excellent) piano introduction, and I wish the rest of the piece were more arranged to set it apart from its easy mode predecessor. Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum is gorgeous. I’ve used it as study music. The woodwind introduction, with the piano D-portion is my favourite. Never mind that the dungeon itself is gorgeous; the pacing of the track itself, particularly in its C-portion with its pacing piano prior to the loop and the B-portion relying more on strings and guitar, allow the player to perceive a sense of beauty and magnificence with respect to a slight reference to Final Fantasy IX. It’s a very nice arrangement of the Dravanian Hinterlands theme, and it makes the theme even more respectable. The new Vanu themes are so well-done to me. They’re so evocative of some Genso Suikoden III pieces that tried to inspire the same tribal tone but those themes weren’t always so successful at it. I especially enjoy the piano in this theme, combined with the underlying backing and percussion. It sounds so frenetic and disjointed, but it works so well, and I’m glad that these themes were integrated into the patch. The Gundu theme may not start off as strong, but its final portion before the loop has an excellent orchestrated background with a flute lead. I couldn’t help but to think, upon hearing the themes in the patch for the first time, that Soken grew a little bit. He’s not confined to rock anthems or electronica anymore. He can still land into traditionalist territory and set himself apart. I don’t have much experience with the Lords of Verminion theme because I don’t usually do the event. But man, it reminds me of Mortal Kombat. It’s so easy to dismiss it because of the electronica backing and the percussion, but the best part of it is the violin passage. Even then, it’s unfortunate that the loop is so short, when matches are apparently five to ten minutes long. The Void Ark themes are probably the best new pieces of music in the 3.1 patch. While traditionally gothic, it’s not every day that we get organ and piano-filled themes like that in Final Fantasy XIV. Void Ark’s Calm Theme relies on its organ, its piano, plucking, and softer percussion. I feel like I know the melody in and out because I have someone humming it in my ear every time I run through the dungeon with him. There are times when I literally have to tell him to shush because I’m concentrating on healing or hitting a thing, but it honestly makes me love the melody more because it tells me that the melody is quite catchy. Even during the battle theme, I can’t help but to sing the main melody along with Noi because it keeps me at ease when I’m in a tough situation. I do enjoy that the brass became more prominent in this version as opposed to the organ and piano in the former. The Echidna boss theme is still a variation of the Void Ark theme, but it includes choral work, more brass, and more percussion. The bells return and there is a sweet interlude in the C-portion with the original organ and flute before picking up to the main instrumentation. The final theme added in patch 3.15 is the (final boss spoiler) Primal Extreme boss. Some people kinda hate because it’s not enriching enough, but I love it. I love the B-portion, post percussion introduction, with the piano prelude joining an arrangement of the main final boss theme/Dragonsong arrangement. It’s a good arrangement in a completely different key. After the big bombastic portion finishes, a piano transition occurs which I absolutely adore. It’s backed by synth and very little percussion, and the portion slightly arranges the Azys Lla theme. It then transitions to a paced choral portion of Dragonsong with a final brass fanfare before looping. I haven’t done the fight yet because the running joke is that my FC is busy doing silly distracting things instead of new content (hey man, 3-4-manning content is plenty fun!), but man I’m sure I’ll love it in context when I do finally do it. I had asked Noi to run the Aetherochemical Research Facility with me on Friday because I was still struggling to vote between my heart and my head. And after our run was over, I realized that I should go with my heart. Listening to Dragonsong arranged with more percussion and emotion (brass/piano) made me realize a lot of things. Heavensward as a whole brought me closer to a lot of other people whom I consider good friends of mine. It brought me much closer to Noi in ways I wouldn’t have dreamed of three years ago. Talking about our experiences with the soundtrack, a few of us singing the soundtrack to each other, going “whoa” at some new pieces of music, and gabbing a whole lot about different parts of it made me realized that maybe it’s not so bad to go with your heart once in a while. From a technical perspective, Heavensward’s soundtrack is not perfect. It definitely has a few duds. Speaking from standpoint reflective of soundtrack cohesion, while Heavensward elects to use Dragonsong everywhere throughout its entire soundtrack, it isn’t successful in some areas, and it ends up being dragged down because of it (ex: Sohm Al; this is an arrangement for the sake of an arrangement to me). Heavensward’s highs more than make up for its inadequacies, however. This soundtrack, despite essentially being a motif arrangement soundtrack, demonstrates that Soken has grown very much as a composer since A Realm Reborn. And patch content demonstrates that he still is growing. I look forward to seeing what Soken does next, and I genuinely hope that he gets attached to a mainline single-player Final Fantasy game for everyone to experience his work.

#soty2015 #undertale #finalfantasyxiv #heavensward

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fuyonggu · 7 years

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Legend of Jiang Wei: Battle of Mianyong (1)

We begin the game with our hero, Jiang Wei, taking stock of the Shu army gathered near Hanzhong. We’ll get more into his (bad) ideas in a moment.

Cutscenes in the LoCC world are mostly limited to characters walking around and displaying emotions (every now and then they will swing a sword). Despite this, I still find them to be pretty entertaining. However, they can get to be a bit long on repeat viewings, so LoJW included a new fast-forward feature by holding the Space bar.

I mentioned in the introductory post the art assets for the mod. As you can see here, the portraits for the game are borrowed from Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11 (including using the “young” and “old” versions for those who have both, as time passes). The actual character sprites are modeled after their RTK portraits, and I believe that these are original creations for the mod. Almost every single person with a name has a custom sprite made to fit their portrait, which I consider most impressive.

Note the “alignment” bar in the top right. Unlike Legend of Cao Cao, where this bar determined your ending path, Legend of Jiang Wei mostly has a set story path, with one short branch into a Bad End that should be easy to guess. Instead, this bar is used for the romance subplot of the game. Jiang Wei has three women who are interested in gaining his affections, and the bar measures which of them he is more inclined towards (keeping it perfectly neutral is the option for the third woman). For those already groaning, the romance angle plays a relatively minor part in the story, so don’t be too concerned about half the plot being taken up by lovey-dovey stuff (it will already be taken up by questionable decisions by characters in other aspects).

But let’s get back to Jiang Wei, and his companion.

Yin Shang runs up to the edge of the cliff to chastise his buddy Jiang Wei for another one of his hare-brained schemes. If you’re not familiar with Yin Shang, I can’t blame you, but this should be a warning sign that LoJW will be covering almost everyone you can think of for this period, by reference if not by actual appearance. I am not certain of any historical relationship between them, other than both being in Tianshui during this time, but in LoJW the two of them are close friends.

You may be wondering about the lack of space in his name. LoJW has a character limit of eight spaces for people’s names. Although each Chinese character takes up two spaces, this is still no problem in the original: no character has more than four characters in their name, and most are just two. Unfortunately, in English this is often not the case, and certain sacrifices must be made. Yin Shang should be glad he was lucky enough to get the full name in. Sharp-eyed observers may have noticed that “Jiang Wei” with the space is actually nine spaces. Why is Jiang Wei the exception to the eight spaces rule? I don’t know, I just know that he is.

Here, Yin Shang is mad at Jiang Wei for dragging him all the way to Hanzhong, which is quite some ways from their home at Tianshui, not to mention deep within Shu territory. But Jiang Wei defends himself by saying he was following up on reports of a Shu army being assembled for an invasion, and wanting to scope it out for himself. When Yin Shang points out that the army they’re looking at is only about ten thousand men, he believes this is sufficient grounds not to worry. Unfortunately, Jiang Wei has other ideas.

He points out that the flag with “Zhao” on it must mean that Zhao Yun is there, and correctly deducts that this small army is really just a decoy. Those familiar with Zhuge Liang’s first northern campaign will know that this is the same decoy army being sent to feint towards Chang’an. Jiang Wei then further realizes that, since this is a decoy, there must be a real army which is heading for their hometown back in Tianshui.

The cutscenes are broken up by a quick summary of the preceding events of the Three Kingdoms, quickly going over things from the Yellow Scarves through Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao’s rise, the Battle of Chibi, Wu’s conquest of Jingzhou, and on down to the Battle of Yiling and the death of Liu Bei.

We’re also given a quick backstory on Jiang Wei himself, and his place in Tianshui.

Jumping back to the present, Jiang Wei reveals to Yin Shang his real reason for coming out here so close to the Shu army.

Since he knows that Zhuge Liang’s main army won’t move until after Zhao Yun’s decoy army sets out, he’s planning to launch a pre-emptive attack on Zhao Yun first, to slow him down if nothing else. I feel like this is a good introduction to the sort of strategic thinking that Jiang Wei displays in the rest of the game. Yin Shang is understandibly concerned about the merits of this plan, but is convinced by Jiang Wei to go along with it.

While Yin Shang worries himself over nothing, Jiang Wei considers how he wants to go about dealing with the upcoming battle, and this presents us with one of the interesting gameplay mechanics of the mod.

At some point during the cutscenes before every battle, we are presented with an option similar to this one for how to handle things. Despite any implications that may be given beforehand, this sort of choice always plays out the same way. It is a subtle way of giving you the difficulty option for the upcoming battle, either Normal or Hard, and the options are always presented in that order. The game is a little less obvious about the clear superiority of the first option as things go on, but again, I feel like now is a good time to get the essence of Jiang Wei’s insights. I’ll get into the differences between Normal and Hard for the individual battles as we cover them.

As Jiang Wei goes charging off to either set up his plan or just rush headlong into things, Yin Shang muses to himself about how reckless Boyue really is. This is the first inclination we get of something covered in more detail later: not only are Jiang Wei and Yin Shang friends, but in the backstory of the mod, Jiang Wei was actually married to Yin Shang’s little sister Yin Xiang up until three years ago when she passed away. This will be a plot point that will be brought up several times, so no need to worry about forgetting it.

We cut briefly to Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi at their camp, where evidence of Jiang Wei’s plan is already underway. Zhao Yun decides to go look into this incident himself, despite Deng Zhi’s warning that the leader of the army shouldn’t personally be fighting.

And with that, we’re off to our first battle: Mianyong.

Zhao Yun leads some soldiers to investigate the disturbance in the camps, and...

Soon finds himself surrounded by fire, cut off from his troops.

Jiang Wei then shows up, expecting to deal with a few generic soldiers, when he notices the size of his catch.

Naturally, he decides that he’s a match for Zhao Yun and decides to go after Zhao himself. This is the kind of person that Jiang Wei is.

Had we gone with the Hard mode option, Zhao Yun would have remained with his soldiers, none of them would be impaired as you can see above, and Jiang Wei and Yin Shang would be on the two center tents instead.

I assume that, by the merits of gameplay abstraction, it is not just literally only Jiang Wei and Yin Shang here, but sometimes it amuses me to think that it is, so I leave determining the truth as an exercise for the reader.

And now the battle starts! As in most strategy games of this sort, the winning condition is usually to defeat all enemies (as it is here) or to defeat some particular boss enemy. This stage is a good introduction to the game mechanics, as despite being outnumbered three to one, the enemies are much weaker than you are and you can simply camp on the tents to heal up and hit them as they approach. Obviously, being on Hard mode makes this quite a bit tougher.

Characters are divided into classes, along the sorts of lines you might be able to guess. Infantry have high defense, cavalry have greater mobility, archers have range, and strategists have various spells to help you or harm the enemies.

Speaking of numbers, you can probably guess that as he is the main character, Jiang Wei is also a permanent member of your battle party. The same cannot be said for poor Yin Shang; he is not an actual party member, but is an NPC that you can control. Legend of Cao Cao often had NPC units that were on your side, but which were under the control of the AI. I have to applaud Legend of Jiang Wei in that almost every stage has at least one, and usually several, NPCs you can control, to give some of the one-hit-wonder people of the RTK era a time to shine. There will be many more of these as we go on.

Yin Shang is important in another aspect: The “Seal Condition” for this stage is to keep him alive (you will only lose the battle if Jiang Wei himself is defeated). In the original LoCC, Seals were items sold in shops between battles, and your units used them at levels 15 and 30 to advance into more powerful versions of themselves. Legend of Lv Bu was the first mod to put a spin on this idea: it required you to fulfill certain conditions in battle, such as keeping someone alive, or triggering all duels and conversations, in order to earn seals at the end of battle. LoJW follows the same principle.

What are duels and conversations? The latter is simply when certain characters who have some connection with one another move adjacent to each other in battle and have a little chat. Often there is no direct impact beyond seeing more of the story, but sometimes you earn stat-boosting items from them or force an enemy to retreat.

As for duels, they follow the same idea, but... a bit flashier. If we move Jiang Wei next to Zhao Yun...

This triggers a glorified cutscene which involves the characters involved beating each other up, accompanied by increasingly silly attack names shouted out shonen-style. There is no player input involved; the duel always plays out the same way, usually with the enemy character being defeated. This was a feature of Legend of Cao Cao as well, but subsequent mods like LoJW have really upped the ante in this regard. Duels have the added feature of almost always causing the enemy to retreat from battle, though not always. If we were playing this battle on Hard mode, Zhao Yun would have lost some health, but still stuck around until we actually defeated him the normal way.

Since this is only the first battle, there’s not too much of interest to say about mopping up the generics. Once we’ve cleared the battlefield out, Jiang Wei and Yin Shang decide to beat a hasty retreat, just before Deng Zhi arrives with some reinforcements.

Zhao Yun assures him that he’s alright, and that the invasion will still go on as planned. Deng Zhi asks if he should mention the incident to Zhuge Liang.

We will see how this plays out for Jiang Wei, for Shu, and for the world, next time.

#Legend of Jiang Wei

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charlesjening · 5 years

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Experts: Kids These Days Don’t Give a Shit About Making Partner

Over the years, we’ve written countless articles mocking the paranoia constantly brewing in the accounting profession over [insert threat here]. Usually it’s robots coming to take your jobs or something something Millennials, and although we’re happy to rip on Alex Jones fanbase-level fear over threats real, imagined, and/or exaggerated, there is often a smidge of merit to these fears. Robots will probably take your job some day, but that’s OK because you’ll have a new job as a robot handler.

For all our cynicism, there’s one doomsaying danger to the profession we can acknowledge: the talent shortage. And I’m not talking about accounting failing to seduce enough halfway conscious young men and women into accounting as a major, I mean the soon-to-be critical shortage of accounting professors and partners. I guess you can add the accounting profession to the already lengthy list of things Millennials have ruined.

The other day, Accounting Today did an interesting piece on the value of the CPA. We’ve done the topic to death but as the profession is already careening toward total disaster if it can’t find enough bodies to fill all the chairs, it’s always an important subject to cover. The AT article was centered around a recent Surgent CPA Review webcast entitled Is the CPA License Losing Its Luster?, which tapped a bunch of Olds to complain about how everyone just got the CPA back in the day and didn’t think about it, whereas kids these days can just Google “what does an accountant do” and call it a day. I’m not kidding, one of their panelists said that.

Mark Mayberry, strategic initiatives director for the Assurance Office of Tomorrow at Top 10 Firm BDO USA, agreed: “With the introduction of the 150-hour requirement a few years ago, people are now studying for five years and perhaps there isn’t enough incentive for people [to do that]. When I took the exam, it was a right of passage … but now with the Internet, they can research and read about what public accountants do. And unless they’re going into public accounting and auditing, maybe there isn’t enough incentive to really pursue the CPA [license] anymore. It used to be the thing to get, and I don’t think it is anymore.”

Yeah, uh, we can blame the internet for a lot of things but I’m not sure it’s fair to pin this one on it. In all the head-scratching over why the next generation isn’t rushing to get the CPA exam over with like generations of accountants before them, it seems no one is asking themselves if the profession itself has lost its luster. Rather, the old “work your ass off for a decade and maybe you’ll make partner one day” model, which to be fair hasn’t worked for a long time or we wouldn’t be getting constant articles about talent shortages and difficulty in recruiting “top talent.” Spoiler: “top talent” has better shit to do than grind away for you for a decade and a half in the hopes of making partner just because that’s what the generation before them did. Those darn kids these days actually want just a little more out of their career, and I’m not talking about ping pong tables and jeans Fridays.

Chuck Kovach, national director of learning at Top 100 Firm CohnReznick, echoed this claim: “The gap. we think, is growing between young people coming out of school and the traditional value proposition of accounting firms, meaning the long-term view of what it means to build an accounting career,” he said. “We feel we’re getting less and less traction on the [mentality of] ‘work hard for 12 years and you may become a partner and your career will then be so much better.’ I think that raises a lot of questions for our younger people … to the extent that the exam is a long-term process and what it leads to, We just think may be some of the reasons that some people aren’t motivated to sit for that exam.”

Ya think, Chuck? Hate to break it to you but “dedicate a year and a half of your life to this shitty, life-draining exam just so you can slave away for a public accounting firm for 12 years” is a really bad recruiting tactic. The funniest part is the Olds are baffled as to why “Millennials” didn’t fall for it. Sounds to me like what the profession needs is a PR team to shine up this old turd and get those young bodies in the chairs.

There will always be people to whom the partner model appeals, and good for them. But unless we’re getting iPartner AIs to fill the gap by the time Gen Z grows up and starts dominating the ranks, the profession is in for a real shock. You think it’s bad now? Just wait until an entire generation nourished on memes about how much life in public sucks is the one left from which to pluck potential partners.

The post Experts: Kids These Days Don’t Give a Shit About Making Partner appeared first on Going Concern.

republished from Going Concern

#Technology #Finance

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terabitweb · 5 years

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Original post from SC Magazine

AI’s value on the endpoint still a work in progress, but it’s improving

AI is great for solving yesterday’s endpoint attacks, but the jury is still out on solving tomorrow’s. Esther Shein explains.

Today it is almost impossible to talk about cybersecurity without someone turning the discussion to artificial intelligence (AI). Sometimes it is appropriate, sometimes not. The trouble is, AI has become the go-to acronym for everything from threat intelligence to data protection to picking your next password. The problem is, when so many security pros bandy about AI as the end all, be all of security, the waters get muddy and the truth becomes harder to see.

Ask Tufts Medical Center CISO Taylor Lehmann about his use of AI platforms to protect cloud-based systems and he will tell you he is both ahead of the curve and behind it compared to other hospitals.

“It’s sort of unavoidable right now — anyone looking to improve their security posture, which is everyone — is inundated with products and services selling AI solutions,’’ Lehmann notes. “You can’t buy anything today without AI embedded.” But, he adds, “Responsible security officials don’t buy products but form a strategy” first. For Lehmann, that means striking a balance between the need to keep costs low while implementing security and threat protection offerings “that don’t require us to hire a bunch of people to run.”

Tufts Medical Center, part of a seven-hospital consortium in eastern Massachusetts, has a solid security infrastructure and Lehmann’s team has visibility into what is running on the network, he says. Right now, Tufts is “investing heavily in building an insights-out capability for security. Where we’re behind is in getting a better hold on third parties we share information with.”

The challenge, Lehmann says, has been identifying insights from within the data: Where is it going, to whom, the volume and the role of vendors in the care delivery process as it moves off the network. With an increasing amount of data being moved to the cloud and third-party providers, can AI help secure endpoints? Although the medical system is only in the early stages of using AI in the cloud, so far, he says, the answer is yes.

“We see the value in investing in AI, and we think there’s more opportunities for us to increase our use of AI that will make our lives easier and reduce the costs of the medical system and improve the security of our medical system,” he says. When your endpoints extend beyond the network and into the cloud, however, the obligation for securing data and applications becomes a shared responsibility, Lehmann stresses.

“When you put data in the cloud you’re sharing responsibility with someone else to protect it,” he says. “Where it’s our role, we’re using network-based and endpoint-based AI to do that. It’s important that our vendors do the same.”

AI on the endpoints today

Many others are also banking on AI to secure endpoints. The cloud endpoint protection market size was $910 million in 2017, and is projected to exceed $1.8 billion by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate of 12.4 percent, according to Markets and Markets Research. “The growing need for effective protection against cyberattacks on endpoints is expected to drive the market,” the firm notes.

Antivirus and malware detection technologies remain a moving target and the volume of new malware and attack techniques continues to grow. Couple that with the increasing volume of data being moved to endpoints like the cloud, and “and it’s clear that scaling these products to deal with such speed and volume requires a heavy investment in AI-like capabilities,” notes the Gartner report Lift the Veil on AI’s Never-Ending Promises of a Better Tomorrow for Endpoint Protection.

Nearly every day there are eye-catching headlines about how AI will transform everything from data management and backups to customer service and marketing, not to mention every single vertical industry. Heck, it even promises to change the economy — and deliver a better cup of coffee.

But in the rush to use AI components for endpoint protection, it is important to look beyond the hype, security experts insist.

Almost all endpoint protection platforms today use some data analysis techniques (such as machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, Naive Bayes Classifiers or natural language processing), the Gartner report states. They are easy to use and “require little to no understanding of or interaction with their AI components … However, it is critical that SRM (security and risk management) leaders avoid dwelling on specific AI marketing terms and remember that results are what counts.”

The Forrester report Mobile Vision 2020 is projecting that many organizations will be using AI and cognitive computing to generate business and security insights from unified endpoint data by 2020.

Forty-six percent of respondents to a 2017 survey said they anticipate the amount of endpoint data they collect will increase between 1 percent and 49 percent over the next three years, while 50 percent are bracing themselves for growth of 50 percent or more, according to the Forrester study.

“Organizations can gain significant intelligence from endpoint data, particularly for threat detection and remediation purposes,” the report says.

Security experts and enterprises that have started utilizing AI systems to protect data and apps in the cloud say that the technology certainly has merit but is not yet the panacea for defending endpoints.

“I think the hype is very, very dangerous and … I’m really worried, and don’t believe the hype will live up to everything it promises, but [AI is] very good for certain things,” observes Johan Gerber, executive vice president of the Security and Decision Products for Enterprise Security Solutions team at Mastercard. Gerber is based in St. Louis.

The credit card company acquired an AI software platform in 2017 to help it expand its ability to detect and prevent fraud and monitor the network, to enhance the security of customer information, Gerber says.

Since then, “we’ve been able to increase our fraud detection by 50 percent and decrease our false positives by 40 percent, so the application of advanced AI has really helped us in this use case.”

Gerber says he is “very excited about the potential of AI, and we’re using it every day and, in my world, it’s living up to promise and doing a tremendous amount for us.”

Mastercard is building models using a combination of neural networks and decision trees, as well as some AI open libraries. But Gerber says the “hybrid approach” is best when it comes to securing endpoints.

“I don’t believe in silver bullets; you need to have a multilayered approach … and we have an interesting mix of true machine learning supervised and unsupervised learning to help us know when it’s an attack we’ve seen before and an attack we haven’t seen before,’’ he says. “You need to look at the specific problem you’re going to solve and figure out whether AI will get there. The notion it will solve everything is dangerous .”

For AI and machine learning to be effective at securing endpoints, you have to have the right data and the right model, he says. “Machine learning learns from previously known patterns so [there is a] risk of it not being able to find anything it hasn’t seen yet. You teach the model and then say, ‘Figure it out using algorithms.’ I will not trust AI around securing data in the cloud; I will rely on a layered approach.”

That sentiment is shared by Zachary Chase Lipton, an assistant professor of business technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, who says a lot of people discuss AI without knowing what they are actually talking about. “The term is being used like an intellectual wild card,’’ he says.

People get excited about using machine learning algorithms to recognize suspicious traffic patterns that are predictive of previous security incidents, Chase Lipton says. The model has potential, he adds. But the catch with using pattern recognition is that “you make a giant assumption.”

When people make what Chase Lipton calls an “inductive assumption;” utilizing different types of data to say, “This is unkosher traffic on your network,” there is a chance they might not have all the information they need, or even the right information, he notes.

While machine learning might predict a pattern in one instance accurately, “that machine learning model could break” in another, he continues.

“With security, you’re dealing defensively with an adversary who’s actively trying to circumvent the system,’’ he says, when you rely on machine learning to do pattern recognition to try and protect a system. “People writing malware have a strong incentive to change what they’re doing and screw with things to fool the machine learning system.”

In that case, you can no longer say a system is 99 percent accurate; it is 99 percent accurate on what was in the past; it is not guaranteed to be correct in the future, he says.

Taking that into account, Chase Lipton thinks there will be “incremental usefulness” of AI systems to secure endpoints. “But what people have to watch out for is a machine learning system can potentially be gamed.

“Obviously, it’s very exciting technology and the capabilities are pretty amazing; the fact that we can [do] high-quality translations between languages and recognize images and generate believable audio and video using generative models,’’ are great use cases of machine learning, he says. “But the problem is, people use general excitement about AI and machine learning to make untethered kinds of [statements] like ‘It’s going to solve security. You don’t have to worry when you use our product.’ That kind of stuff is hooey. But there’s danger of people buying into that because of general excitement about AI,” he says.

AI is being used today to prevent spam and spear phishing attacks and many people are hoping that use of these platforms will mature rapidly, says Paul Hill, a security consultant with at SystemExperts Corp. of Sudbury, Mass. Echoing Chase Lipton, he says “this approach is just as likely to make the attackers step up their game. I worry that the result will be that attackers will develop tools that will make spam that is stylistically identical to the author that they are attempting to impersonate.”

In all cybersecurity AI tools, the learning algorithms need to be more transparent, Hill believes. To fully gain a customer’s trust, “it should be possible for independent third parties to examine the learning model and data. Furthermore, a lot more work needs to be done to understand how an adversary might affect the learning model.”

By manipulating the learning model and/or data used to teach it, it may possible to subvert the AI tools, he says. “Before AI cybersecurity tools enjoy widespread adoption these issues and how they will impact various customer deployments need to be better understood.”

AI in action

Tufts Medical Center is moving an increasing amount of data into the cloud. One of its electronic medical records systems is almost entirely cloud-based and IT is planning to move other clinical systems off premises, says Lehmann.

As the center expands its investigation of using AI to protect endpoints, officials are looking at whether their third-party vendors have appropriate protections in place in their data centers to leverage modern security technologies, he says. Their service level agreements will incorporate language indicating a “high expectation for their security program and mandating they implement certain controls like behavior and deterministic software solutions that protect data well.”

The medical center is also utilizing machine learning to monitor network traffic flowing off premises and protect its connection to the cloud, he says.

“For example,” he continues, “we often see certain spikes in traffic that could indicate an anomaly and … where the promise of AI is, is when we can turn AI on to correct a behavior. We’re getting to this point; not there yet.”

The goal is when there’s a “high fidelity hit on something we think looks bad, telling the AI [platform] to turn it off,” Lehmann says, explaining the medical center is looking at doing this to learn more about what could be threatening.

“Our next step will be to use that same AI to take action about a knowing threatening thing we’ve discovered,” he says. “That’s the nirvana; that’s where the value of AI exponentially increases. Now I don’t have to send a team to investigate that anomalous thing. The system knows what to do immediately if that occurs.”

The bleeding edge

The goal for Lehmann is to be able to walk into any surgical unit at the medical center and know a doctor has “relative assurance” that the equipment, services and procedures will be safe.

“That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do with any spend,” he says. As AI and machine learning technologies mature, he believes IT will be better able to secure endpoints in ways they were previously unable to do — or could only do if they “deployed a team of 50 people to figure it out.”

But when it comes to patient safety, Lehmann is leerier about using AI to secure data being exchanged between their internal systems and systems in the cloud. Although AI holds real value, “Can we say, ‘Is that wireless infusion pump operating normally and delivering drugs in the right frequency and what is has been programmed to deliver?’” Lehmann’s not sure. It becomes a lot trickier for a hospital if an infusion pump gets compromised and starts sending too high a dosage of medicine, he observes.

“These are patients’ lives we’re dealing with and I’m not sure we’re at the point where we can trust AI for [patient care,]” he opines.

For years, people have been recommending that organizations understand their baseline level of network activity in order to deploy a security information and event management system [SIEM] and create useful alerts, notes Hill. “However, many organizations don’t have the resources to really understand what their correct baseline traffic should be. AI should help solve this problem.”

Machine learning has already made available technologies we did not have even five years ago, Chase Lipton notes. “But the kinds of promises being made and way [the technology is] being thrown out vaguely like, ‘We can solve security with AI,’ is a little bit unhinged.”

There are a lot of small victories “probably happening every day,’’ he says. It is easy to train a machine learning system based on data from last year and have it work, “but the problem is, how do you keep it working accurately and develop best practices for auditing it? Those are huge challenges.”

That, for Chase Lipton, would make AI systems more palatable. “I’m sure progress will be slow and steady, but I don’t think it’s an overnight silver bullet that AI will solve in security.”

As endpoint protection evolves, it will need to use data from across multiple endpoints to AI recognize and react to threats, the Gartner report states. To cull all this data, endpoint detection and response (EDR) offerings are starting to emerge. These systems record all the technical and operational data of an organization’s endpoints as well as event, application state and network information.

This gives security response management teams a large pool of data that they can use to search for known indicators of compromise (IoC) or indicators of attack, Gartner says. Already, machine learning is a data analytics technique being used successfully “in areas where lifting signals from noise and removing false positives are problems,” the report says. “A well-trained [machine learning] algorithm can help identify IoCs in large, complex datasets that humans might miss.”

Along these same lines, the Gartner report says user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) techniques can identify behaviors that applications display that are anomalous to standard baselines.

Yet, the technology is not there yet. “Unfortunately, AI is only beginning to make progress in [endpoint detection response.] However, it seems to be following the same pattern we have seen other technologies (such as SIEM management and network analytics) follow,’’ the report states.

“The technology comes on the market quickly but generates amounts of data that quickly overwhelm human users and contain false positives that limit its attractiveness. AI and advanced analytics are applied, and the tools become easier to use and yield more valuable insights,” the Gartner report says.

The bleeding edge will likely be the day when security administrators can quickly query their environments and take coordinated action across their endpoint environment in a unified manner, maintains Forrester, saying, “Furthermore, new analysis capabilities will present opportunities for endpoint security and management teams to pull deeper and more meaningful business insights from their increasing amounts of endpoint data while lowering operational friction and TCO (total cost of ownership).”

The post With AI, promises still outpace reality appeared first on SC Media.

Go to Source Author: stephenlawton With AI, promises still outpace reality Original post from SC Magazine AI’s value on the endpoint still a work in progress, but it’s improving…

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thehairytraveller-blog · 7 years

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Seeing the World | Pai, Thailand

If you speak to any wanderer who's backpacked across Thailand and ask them where their favourite place was, 9/10 people will say the hippy paradise, Pai. Located in the Mai Hong Song province of Thailand, Pai is no easy feat to get to. The only road into the town from Chaing Mai is notorious for it twists and turns through the forest, 762 curves to be precise.

A lot of people opt to drive the 136km from Chiang Mai, and plenty of companies offer scooter rental with drop off in Pai or vice versa for a certain amount of money, however if you take the bus (which we did), be aware that you are likely to get travel sick. Coming from a person who doesn't get travel sickness, this route is a test for the best of you; the first hour will feel fine, but before long the turns start to take a toll on your stomach. Eventually, after a couple of hours and a few false alarms we arrived in Pai. The bus drops you in the centre of the town and from first impressions you can see why this place is so popular for backpackers, everyone isn't rushing around and there is an easy-going atmosphere in the air. Tamsin and I strapped on our backpacks and took a nice stroll through the town towards our accommodation, Pai Backpackers Paradise. For about £35, we were greeted by a semi-detached bungalow with air-conditioning and our own en-suite bathroom. Outside of the room were twisting paths that led to a bar and little bridges over the small dykes in the ground; we knew we were going to like it here. We stayed here for 4 nights and we loved it so much, that we ended up extending our stay an extra night. Most backpackers tend to stay in the more popular hostels in Pai, like Spicy Pai and Pai Circus, but we'd decided to find somewhere quieter where we can escape the party if we wanted to and I'm glad that we did, those places can get hectic.

To see anything outside of the town you are probably better off with renting a scooter, as the main attractions are a fair distance from the town. For 150? you can rent a scooter with helmets and most of the time, they're in really good shape (some places will try and charge more, but you can usually barter down to 150?). One of our first experiences in Pai was the Sai Ngam Hot Springs in Huai Nam Dang National Park, for PRICE you gain entry into the beautiful national park however you do need to pay an extra PRICE in order to get into the hot springs. Upon entry, you're greeted by a few wooden huts that were made to be changing rooms (I avoided these due to the spiders) and two layered pools of beautifully warm water, that flow into a river below. We stayed here for hours submerged in the gorgeous bath, whilst the rain decided to coome down; it's the best place to be as you get the warmth from the water and the cool droplets of the rain, creating a lovely temperature, it really makes you appreciate the warmth of the water.

Up until now, one of the greatest things I think I've done during my travels is pay a visit to Conserve Natural Forests, based just outside of Pai in the Mai Hong Song province. At first I was skeptical about any kind of 'elephant sanctuary' as although they claim that they are humane and don't ride the elephants, they're still chained up and not treated how they should be. Any skepticism or doubt in my mind disappeared the moment I arrived here. We arranged our visit through their website (conservenaturalforests.org) and within minutes we'd received confirmation and directions to the pick up point. We paid 500? each (all of which goes back to the elephants and conservation) at the meeting point and we were picked up in a pick-up truck and taken just outside of Pai to a 79,000sqm conservation that didn't have any walls. Instantly we knew the elephants had the closest thing they could to being wild. There are only two elephants in the conservation, a mother and a daughter. Maemoon, the daughter is 36 years old and Kamjan, the mother is 48 years old and they've been there for about 2 years. Whilst you're there, CNF will provide you with bowls of pumpkin which you can feed to the elephants and you can help wash them in the river that flows through the sanctuary. Due to being in captivity for so long (they paid 5,000,000? for each of these elephants from riders), these beautiful creatures cannot just be let back into the wild instantly as they cannot clean themselves correctly, however CNF is trying their utmost to teach them and prepare them to be released into the Sublangka Wildlife Sanctuary. Although the elephants are a huge turning point for custom, they are not the whole reason that CNF is around. They are a non-profit company and Their idea is to help grow forests again, as well as teaching the locals how to replant their trees rather than burning them all when the seasons come. During our time there we were able to plant two tree seeds into recyclable plastic, and a sproutling into the ground; the seeds will be ready to plant in about two years time. The owner, Miguel Tenorio Tagle, is an extraordinary man; growing up in Mexico, he has spent a lot of his life putting his own hard work and expertise into supporting wildlife and forests in anyway he can. About 5 years ago, he opened something similar in India, looking after Indian elephants and they're currently looking for a new place in order to look after sea turtles and their eggs. Talking to Miguel was honestly one of the highlights of my day, he's a brutally honest yet gentle man, who you can tell deeply cares about his venture, the people that work there and the elephants they look after. If you're an animal lover and visiting Thailand, please drop by Conserve Natural Forests and help them continue all the good that they are doing. I cannot recommend this place enough, it's easily one of the highlights of my trip.

Out on the outskirts of Pai on a beautiful hill that overlooks the Mai Hong Song province, is a small Chinese village that stick to tradition and still live in the 'old ways'. When driving into the village, it's like you're going back in time. The houses are all old style and they even have an old ferris wheel in the centre of a courtyard. We spent a good 45 minutes exploring this village as well as riding on the wheel, which a wonderful local showed us how to manoeuvre. To ride the wheel, there is a box that accepts donations for the upkeep of the village and whilst this isn't compulsory, I feel it's polite to donate something to the village. Just a little up the road but still within the village is a beautiful look-out spot on the top of the hill. From here you can see for miles and it's all stunning. You don't have to spend long at the village, but I recommend you visit it if you get the chance!

Lastly, another site worthy of recommending is the bamboo bridge. The bridge, named Kho Ku So or The Bridge of Merit, is 815 metres long and stretches over beautiful rice fields, finishing at a temple risen on a hill. The walk is absolutely stunning (even though it was dry season and there was no rice) and I can only imagine the beauty in the right season. There are small herds of cattle that graze in the fields with little calves by thier side. Along the bridge, there are opportunities to feed the fish in the ponds for a small donation and it's just a peaceful place to relax. I'd recommend taking your time when heading over the bridge and just taking in the scenery; it's free so there's no time limit. Unfortunately, the temple at the end is only open to men, but women, take my word for it, it's a beautiful temple with a modern twist on it.

The reason that Pai is one of my favourite places in Thailand is that anyone can be anyone here and there's something for everyone; you want to chill? you want to party? you want to sight see? Arriving in Asia, Pai was relatively unknown to me and I'm so grateful to those people that recommended it to me. If I can recommend any place to visit, it would be here. We spent about a week exploring and relaxing in Pai and I don't think it was enough time.

From now on, I’m going to be posting my blogs per place we visited, rather than country. It’ll mean they’ll be more often and focusing solely on one thing.

If you have any questions about my time in Pai, hit me up on social media or via email and I’ll be happy to answer them as quickly as possible.

Stay blessed, stay you.

#pai #thailand #asia #southeastasia #backpacker #backpacking #travelling #travel #pailand #traveller #globetrotter #jetset #adventure #travel the world #see the world #travel couple #couple

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peterjcameron · 7 years

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Low Email Conversion? See How Influitive Increased Click-Through Rates by 800% with Video

Breaking through all the marketing noise is hard enough on its own, but when your audience is other marketers, you have your work cut out for you. How do you engage people who spend every hour of their workday thinking through the same problem? We can create blog posts, ads, and case studies to grab the attention of our prospects, but when they know all the tricks of the trade, creativity is key.

At Influitive, we’ve worked for the past five years to build a whole new category of marketing—advocate marketing—to help B2B companies ignite growth through the voices of their customers. Our platform gives marketers the ability to discover, nurture and mobilize their customer base to reach a wider audience, accelerate the sales pipeline, and improve customer engagement. It’s my job to educate our prospects on what advocate marketing is, why it’s important, and why they need it.

In 2015, Influitive created a new industry event focused on advocacy, customer engagement, and experience. We called it Advocamp. The first year was a huge success and we wanted the 2016 event to be even bigger; our goal was to more than triple attendance. But it wasn’t going to be easy to get the attention of so many more B2B marketers and convince them to attend our virtually unknown event. Oh, and did I mention that we only had three months to get everyone registered? No sweat.

We had our normal promotion vehicles—the website, email, content, and social ad campaigns—but we knew to stand out in a sea of events that look more or less the same on paper, we were going to have to get creative.

Enter Camp Counselor Buck.

Show, Don’t Tell

To convince people to attend a brand new marketing event instead of or in addition to the dozens of other events out there, we couldn’t just tell them Advocamp was the best conference ever. We had to show them. We had to make them feel something.

When you have to grab people’s attention quickly, and don’t have the luxury of a 1,500-word post to explain the awesomeness of your event, the best tool to accomplish this is video. It can help build that emotional foundation, and it’s much easier to be funny, sad or joyful through video than almost any other form of content. But sometimes it’s also a lot harder to produce.

87% of online marketers use video. What’s your excuse? @Vidyard #videomarketing (Tweet This)

This is where our video partners come in. We had worked with a video production company called Sparksight on many video campaigns in the past, including some basic Advocamp commercials in 2015. Among these Advocamp promo videos was a camp counsellor character named Buck—think B2B marketing meets summer camp with a large helping of physical comedy. We called these videos Buckshots.

While the early Buckshot videos from 2015 were super funny and people seemed to enjoy them, we could only use them for brand awareness, which is marketing speak for “we have no way of measuring the impact of this.” We made them, put them online, and hoped they would take off. I’m sure you can guess that they didn’t. They got a few hundred views each. But we weren’t done with video. We realized we had to put significant distribution efforts behind them just like any other piece of content we produced.

Although we couldn’t tie registrations and hard ROI directly to these original Buckshots, we did get a lot of positive feedback from our colleagues, partners, customers, and other Advocamp attendees. Marketers attend so many events every year, and often they feel like just one big advertisement. We heard, however, that we had hit the mark when it came to instilling a different kind of emotional impact associated with our event. It made a promise about the event experience that stood out from the competition. More importantly, attendees told us we delivered on that promise a few months later at Advocamp.

Brand awareness = ‘we have no way of measuring this’ Stop spraying and praying! @Vidyard (Tweet This)

When 2016 rolled around and we set that stretch goal to register nearly 4X the number of Advocamp attendees from the previous year, we knew we couldn’t produce videos that merely entertained. We had to convert. We had to change our strategy if we hoped to come even close to our goal, so we started investigating ways to make an engaging medium like video turn into an ROI-driving, seat-filling tactic.

A few months before we started promoting Advocamp 2016, we started using video marketing platform Vidyard to host all of our video content. The cool thing about Vidyard is that it integrates with your marketing automation platform (in our case, Marketo) to track and measure the impact of your video content. Video can be more costly and time consuming to produce than any other type of content, so it’s critical to tie those investments back to sales pipeline and revenue.

Around that time, Vidyard also introduced some innovative new functionality that allowed marketers to personalize video campaigns in the same way we personalize emails.

Personalization

Dale Carnegie said, “A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” When someone uses your name in conversation, you feel respected and important. While our previous email campaigns used this tactic—Hi {first_name}—it was lacking in our videos.

The first batch of Buckshot videos in 2015 were all about Advocamp and how much fun the conference would be. But they didn’t put the viewer there, right next to Buck, experiencing the fun for themselves. With Vidyard, we could easily create hundreds of personalized video invitations without having to shoot hundreds of unique Buckshots.

By now, you’ve probably seen these types of personalized videos; they usually involve a character holding up a piece of paper with your name on it. But we couldn’t have Buck in the middle of the woods holding up some random paper, so we stuck with the theme and inserted the personalized text field into a merit badge sash (check out the video below to see). Now all we had to do was get these videos in front of the right people.

Delivery

In the past, if we wanted to email personalized videos to folks in our database, we’d have to create thousands of unique videos and thumbnail images for each of the recipients and insert them one by one into the emails. This is just way too many steps. With Vidyard, all we needed to do was send them our list, and through the integration between Vidyard and Marketo, we could automatically send unique thumbnail images with a link that would open their personalized invitation—all housed and hosted on Vidyard’s platform.

The Results

Our previous Advocamp promotions (email, social, and through our customer AdvocateHub) yielded modest results: 16.1% open rate, 0.7% click-through rate and 4.5% click-to-open rate. The personalized video campaign crushed those numbers:

29% open rate

5.5% click-through rate

18.7% click-to-open rate

The click-through rate was 8X higher and the click-to-open rate 4X higher than their other campaigns!

The key to #marketingpersonalization? Carnegie said it’s all in the name. #videomarketing (Tweet This)

These numbers told us that clearly way more people were seeing our message, engaging with our emails, and then following through to watch the video. But these metrics don’t mean much unless we could put people in the seats. Luckily, we did that too. While we fell slightly short of our ambitious goal of 4X attendance, we tripled our attendance from the previous year. And we learned a ton.

Learnings

With most email campaigns, you work hard to draft a catchy subject line, engaging copy, and a compelling CTA. Then you send it out and…crickets. Or, if you do hear anything back, it’s almost always negative: “I don’t know how I got on this list!” “Take me off!” But with the personalized video campaign we received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. People loved their videos and asked us how we pulled it off—and these were our fellow marketers! People who know all the tricks of the trade and spend all day everyday looking for new marketing magic. That’s when we knew had achieved our goal of conveying the emotional spirit of the conference.

That special feeling and “magic” of innovation was now associated with Influitive’s brand, which was something that would’ve been near impossible to achieve through traditional marketing plays. It also laid a great foundation for our future Advocamp marketing efforts.

In addition to the personalized video invitations, Sparksight also recorded all the sessions at the event. These were first available to attendees and then to those who were unable to attend. These session recordings gave us a soft-touch to follow up with the people who didn’t attend, and to this day one of our most watched videos (out the more than 500 we have hosted on Vidyard) is Daniel Pink’s keynote on “Advocate Marketing and the Science of Motivation.”

If you’re considering adding video to your marketing campaigns, make sure to give yourself plenty of lead time. Video takes a while to get right, and it’s not something you want to rush. Also, one thing we didn’t do this last time that we’re hungry to get into for the next campaign is testing. A/B test your subject lines and email segments to better understand what content resonates most with each customer segment. In addition, video isn’t cheap, so optimize to ensure you’re getting the biggest return on your investment. And finally, find a trusted video expert to help you through each step of the process—you and your audience will be happy you did.

Note: This post was originally featured on upshot.

The post Low Email Conversion? See How Influitive Increased Click-Through Rates by 800% with Video appeared first on Vidyard.

from Peter Cameron Business Consultant http://www.vidyard.com/blog/low-email-conversion-how-influitive-increased-click-through-rates-with-video/

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logancfrench · 7 years

Text

Low Email Conversion? See How Influitive Increased Click-Through Rates by 800% with Video

Enter Camp Counselor Buck.

Show, Don’t Tell

87% of online marketers use video. What’s your excuse? @Vidyard #videomarketing (Tweet This)

Brand awareness = ‘we have no way of measuring this’ Stop spraying and praying! @Vidyard (Tweet This)

Around that time, Vidyard also introduced some innovative new functionality that allowed marketers to personalize video campaigns in the same way we personalize emails.

Personalization

Delivery

The Results

29% open rate

5.5% click-through rate

18.7% click-to-open rate

The click-through rate was 8X higher and the click-to-open rate 4X higher than their other campaigns!

The key to #marketingpersonalization? Carnegie said it’s all in the name. #videomarketing (Tweet This)

Learnings

Note: This post was originally featured on upshot.

The post Low Email Conversion? See How Influitive Increased Click-Through Rates by 800% with Video appeared first on Vidyard.

from News By Logan French http://www.vidyard.com/blog/low-email-conversion-how-influitive-increased-click-through-rates-with-video/

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mahtewtwook86 · 7 years

Text

Low Email Conversion? See How Influitive Increased Click-Through Rates by 800% with Video

Enter Camp Counselor Buck.

Show, Don’t Tell

87% of online marketers use video. What’s your excuse? @Vidyard #videomarketing (Tweet This)

Brand awareness = ‘we have no way of measuring this’ Stop spraying and praying! @Vidyard (Tweet This)

Around that time, Vidyard also introduced some innovative new functionality that allowed marketers to personalize video campaigns in the same way we personalize emails.

Personalization

Delivery

The Results

29% open rate

5.5% click-through rate

18.7% click-to-open rate

The click-through rate was 8X higher and the click-to-open rate 4X higher than their other campaigns!

The key to #marketingpersonalization? Carnegie said it’s all in the name. #videomarketing (Tweet This)

Learnings

Note: This post was originally featured on upshot.

The post Low Email Conversion? See How Influitive Increased Click-Through Rates by 800% with Video appeared first on Vidyard.

from http://www.vidyard.com/blog/low-email-conversion-how-influitive-increased-click-through-rates-with-video/

0 notes