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ghoulish-art-tendencies · 29 days

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Opinions about the movie it: Specifically, about Richie and Eddie and their whole deal. and How they defeat Pennywise the first time.

Also have you read the book?

SPOILERS AHEAD, in can you could not have guessed.

Okay so IT. IT is one of my top 3 movies of all time (if not all time) in which I watched it about 5 times in a week when I first got into it. (I also have not read the book yet but I have been planning on it for a while, just need to get my hands on it.) I really enjoyed it personally, and I don't think it is that scary anymore, but I was originally scared shitless the first time I tried to watch it years ago when I was not into horror yet. Even though it was made in 2017, it still has that 80s horror feel to it that I love, and I love the dynamic between the group of 7 in the first movie.

Now buckle up, because I am about to go full on special interest on this ask and yap about its inherent queerness and how it affects the story line and how it could've been used more.

Richie, Eddie, and the inherent queerness between the two. It was very clear that Richie, if not Eddie as well, were very much implied to be interested in each other.

But more specifically Richie. I honestly wish they did more with them, but it was very clear that they were a duo; a pair within the original group of 4. Putting it out now: I have not actually seen IT Chapter 2 all the way through as I kept crying over Stanley's death, and I honestly was extremely disappointed in how they handled the film as a whole, and the decline in quality. So, my information may not be entirely correct, but in the end of IT chapter 2, we see a clip of Richie carving he and Eddie's initials into the bridge. As well as I believe when Eddie dies later in the film, Richie tries to go back to get his body/doesn't want to leave him behind. Richie was obviously head over heels for him from the start to finish, and you could tell. From the constant bickering; teasing; borderline obsession that he had for Eddie. In the book, I believe Richie would also call Eddie "Eddie Spaghetti" multiple times, don't quote me though. All of this to say, Richie loved Eddie. A LOT. To the point that in the second movie Richie was out as gay but STILL hadn't found a lover, whilst we see both Stanley, Bill, and Eddie married, as well with Beverly with a boyfriend (in the beginning of the film, at least). I am not saying that some of these relationships are healthy by any means (especially Eddie's which I will explain soon), but it goes to show that many of the people from the core 7 found relationships, and yet Richie did not.

Now Eddie is slightly more complicated, as all throughout IT we see the toxic relationship between his mother, and how she gaslit him into believing he was sick all the time. This would then later end up with him marrying someone else very similar to his mother who treated him very much the same. Then, at the end where he ends up dying, it ends very tragically where his whole life he had to live with people being very controlling over him and him never getting to experience that freedom he deserved. I bring this up because in IT, we see near the end where Eddie is told that his medication are placebos, and he tells his mother he's tired of her trying to keep him away from his friends. He realised there that he was happier and more free when he was with his friends, and (though not said) specifically Richie as well in my opinion. Richie was unabashedly himself, and wasn't afraid to be weird with his friends. I know it is strongly theorised that Richie is ADHD as well, which could also play a part. All the while both Stan and Bill are more reserved in my opinion, both as Bill was self-conscious because of his stutter, and Stanley being bullied for being jewish (both of which we see happen in the beginning of IT). Eddie felt more comfortable around his friends, and specifically Richie because he truly did not care enough about acting weird. Though I believe it is never actually shown that Eddie had a romantic interest in Richie, I strongly believe it could've been something if the writers allowed it.

Now, Eddie and Richie's interactions with each other (in the first movie, because as I have said I have not seen enough of the second movie to speak on it much). Many times, we see specifically Richie and Eddie interacting. To be honest, they are probably the 2 people we see interacting the most throughout the entire movie. One scene I want to bring up specifically, which took me multiple watches to catch, is that at I believe the Derry festival, Richie comes back with 2 ice cream cones, and gives one to Eddie. Now, whether Eddie had directly asked him to get him a cone, or Richie just buying it for him, I think it shows just how much Richie did care about him. I think it shows a little bit of how they interact with each other when we don't see them (on camera). And sure, you can buy ice cream for your friends, but would you not also either ask if anyone else wanted one? You could make the argument that he couldn't carry it but it doesn't disprove the fact Richie specifically bought ice cream for Eddie, which shows how he cared for him.

Richie and Eddie are also constantly bickering back and forth. From when Eddie is trying to help Ben after getting stabbed and him telling Richie to shut up with the silly voices, or in the sewer scene where Richie constantly bickers to Eddie about him being afraid to enter. You can obviously see Richie being the comedic relief, but always more-so to Eddie. To me, I interpret this as him seeing that Eddie is almost always on edge, and trying to distract him to make sure he's happier. And while we do see Eddie get annoyed at Richie, I don't think we ever truly saw him get angry at him or be upset, other than slightly annoyed or exasperated.

I know l am yapping, but to answer your next question about how they defeated pennywise the first time, I think Richie and Eddie's relationship still play a fairly large role. They learn that in order to defeat Pennywise, they have to stop being afraid. We see Richie constantly worry about Eddie when in the house, and basically stuck to his side. In the scene where they are in Bill's garage and watching the projector, when Pennywise shows up on it, we see in the background Richie grabbing onto Eddie, and Eddie grabbing onto him. In a moment of fear, they automatically reached towards each other. This to me they they feel most safe when they are together/close. This makes me think that Richie was really the one that helped Eddie be brave enough to face Pennywise and defeat him. While I think Richie was able to be brave enough to defeat Pennywise because he not only cares about the group but also wanted to keep Eddie safe.

All of this to say; Richie and Eddie were very much implied to be queer (in the movies); even more-so when Richie was confirmed to be gay in the second movie. I really wish that we got to see Richie and Eddie get together to not only have that queer representation, but because I honestly think it would have been a healthy relationship, like it was in the beginning. Richie constantly distracting and teasing Eddie; then comforting each other in times of fear; doing little things for the other. They both cared about each other a lot and I am truly disappointed on the fact we never got to see a happy ending for Eddie, where after years of being in an abusive relationship where Eddie is made to be dependent on the people that are supposed to be your most trusted, he just, dies. We never get to see him get out of those relationships and find someone better (AKA Richie). I truly think the story of Richie and Eddie after IT Chapter 2 could have been its own movie or mini series/book (even though it wouldn't have been). To see Richie be in contact with Eddie again and maybe help him realise he's in an abusive relationship and help him get out of it. At that point it doesn't when have to be romantic but just a deep and intense love for wanting the other to be happy. It would have made a great ending of 2 characters finally finding happiness in each other again after years of struggling.

So there. You asked about my opinion of IT and here it is. This took me like an hour as I immediately started writing after getting this ask, but I enjoyed it. It's nice to finally put my thoughts on this movie into a (hopefully) coherent analysis. Even if like 1 person reads this lol I am happy I got the opportunity to yap about my all time favourite movie. :D Thanks for the ask, and again, sorry about the excessive yapping.

#IT #it chapter one #it the movie #it movie #it chapter 2 #it chapter two #reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #analysis #long reads #long post #yapping #queer analysis #queer #movie analysis #asks #answered asks #yapyapyap

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atimburtonfan · 3 years

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How Tim Burton influenced my life

I haven't posted very much on here in the past months so I tried to find the reason why and thus decided to write down how Tim Burton's films and art have influenced my life. I also like to divide his films into three distinct periods to explain how his works have changed over time and what might have been the catalyst behind this.

First period: 1982-1999/2000 These above mentioned years I like to classify as the first period of Tim Burton's films and fame. It started in 1982 with the production of his short animated film, Vincent. It was during this time that Tim Burton started to produce/direct films for a world wide audience and that he started to build up a name for himself.

The short films of Vincent, Frankenweenie and Hansel and Gretel are nowadays true Burton classics and show his distinctive style of art. The beginning of the 80's were basically the beginning of the imagery that nowadays people call Burtonesque. It's this period during which Tim Burton could truly be called an outcast in the film industry, making eclectic films that would captivate millions.

Each of the three periods is also defined by a woman and it was during the first period, 1992 to be exact, that Tim Burton and Lisa Marie met each other, they got engaged in the following year until the start of the second period which is defined by another female actress, the woman most people associate with the name Tim Burton.

In my opinion it was during this period that Tim Burton made his most personal and creative films, my all time favourite film was made during this period. It's clear that Tim Burton was able to express himself quite purely before he got influenced by the studio that once rejected him. Some of these personal and creative films include: Ed Wood, Mars Attacks, Beetle Juice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Pee-wee and his adaptations of the Batman films.

It was also during this period that I was born and introduced to his films at an early age. The first Tim Burton film that I have ever seen was Mars Attacks, an underrated comedy that I still love to watch these days. Even though I saw his films during the 1990's, I never really concerned myself with learning the names of directors or even be remotely interested in the background of them or recognize their distinctive art styles.

Second period: 2000-2012 These years are what I like to call the 'golden age' of Tim Burton's fame and influence. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, alternative music such as metalcore, nu-metal, gothic and industrial metal started to become incredibly popular in mainstream culture. Many teens became obsessed with this type of music and it was especially the explosion of the Emo-culture that introduced many teens, including myself, to Tim Burton's distinctive artstyle.

Shops like Hot-Topic became incredibly popular and many people began to dress themselves as if they were a character of a Burton film. Therefore it isn't very surprising that Burtonesque merchandise started to appear in the same shops where Emo, alternative, gothic and metal teens liked to shop, further fueling his fame as the lonesome different gothic filmdirector.

Why 2000 you might wonder? As I have said earlier, each period is defined by a woman in his life and it was during this year that Tim Burton met Helena Bonham Carter on the set of Planet of the Apes. They quickly fell in love with each other that eventually resulted in them having two children and living inside two homes that were connected to each other. Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton together formed one of the most eccentric couples that Hollywood has ever seen and they were much beloved by their fans.

It was during this period that films such as: Corpse Bride, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, Big Fish, Alice In Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Planet Of The Apes and Frankenweenie were made. They captured the hearts of millions of people throughout the world who felt like an outsider in this society and gave them a place they could call home. This was the era of the golden trio, Burton, Depp and Carter.

I myself became an awkward gothic teen at the age of 12 when I first entered high school. It was a time before youtube, the internet was still a relative new thing therefore it was incredibly hard to get your hands on anything remotely Burtonesque. I can remember reading magazines of alternative shops like Large and the McFiber and begging my mother to buy me some stuff.

As I grew more awkward and awkward, eventually getting an autism diagnosis, I got deeper involved into the alternative scene. All of my friends were exactly the same, different, alternative and thrown out by mainstream society. Many of us had serious mental problems which resulted in self harming and even episodes of attempted suicide.

It was then that I started to find comfort in his works. I could identify myself perfectly with the characters of his works and I adored the image and lives of the adorable couple, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter. I became truly obsessed with some of his films and started to finally learn English in order to write fanfictions about Sleepy Hollow. The alternative/emo scéne reached its highest moments during this period and it was almost fun to be that weird outsider who liked the art and films of Tim Burton.

Third period: 2013-present day This is what I like to call the decline of the alternative scéne and thus also the decline of Tim Burton's popularity. There are of course multiple reasons why Burton eventually became less popular but I think the most important reason is the fact that the alternative scéne is slowly dying. Most of us who were teens during the early 2000's have now grown up and most have shed off their unique gothic/ alternative/emo skins and entered adulthood life.

The internet has also changed. Platforms such as myspace, vampirefreaks and the countless of forums have died, these spaces were havens for alternative kids. Youtube was by then well introduced and started to commercialize quite badly, I honestly miss the times during which Youtube was just a free platform to share your videos without any intent to make money.

Like I said at the beginning, each period is defined by a woman in the life of Tim Burton and it was around the end of 2012 that the relationship between Burton and Carter started to wobble. It was also during this year that Eva Green made her debute in Dark Shadows. Rumours quickly rose that Eva and Tim were having an affair and in 2014, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter separated, which was absolutely stunning news to their fans as they were long viewed as the ideal 'gothic' couple.

In my honest opinion, the quality of Burton's works started to drop dramatically after the separation. The period of the classic Burton/Carter films was now officially over and this era is defined by films such as: Miss Peregrine, Big Eyes and Dumbo. None of these films really felt like a classic Burton film and I feel like he has sold his soul and creativity to Disney. Where he once was the outcast, the one who opposed Disney in order to produce his own unique works, he is now fully part of the Disney company and his distinctive style is now barely visible.

He also has made barely any works since 2012, the aforementioned films are basically the only ones he directed since the last decade. At this current moment, there is no work in production, although there are rumours he is making a sequel to Beetlejuice and his own adaptation of the Addams Family but this can't be verified. Most of his original fanbase have grown up and either shed the alternative scéne skin entirely or are still stuck loving his older works.

I can place myself in between. Truth be told, I also lost most of my interest after 2012. I became an adult and the emo scéne I once loved so much, was now officially dead. I didn't like the films he produced after Frankenweenie (2012), it somehow lacked that classic Burton magic. Not to mention that Tumblr itself has also been dying, and still is.

I still love his early works very dearly and rewatch them quite often until this day. I have however stopped obsessing about them, with the exception of one film, Sleepy Hollow. Tim Burton created a home for teens and young adults who didn't fit into modern society. I was one of those teens and his films have really helped me get through an extremely difficult period of my life. He made me feel that I belonged to something and the weekends I have spent holding Tim Burton marathons with my alternative friends were the best moments in my life.

I'm so sorry for this incredibly long post but I wanted to try to explain how Tim Burton influenced my life and how this eventually led to me barely posting anything on this tumblr account in 2021. What do you think of Tim Burton currently? Do you agree with the three periods that I have defined?

#Tim Burton #Personal #Influence

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mwolf0epsilon · 4 years

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What was Sammy's upbringing like? His parents sound a bit like jerks, also where did you get the inspiration to make him a single parent kinda figure?

Honestly, Sammy's upbringing was pretty average for the time.

His father was a farmer in a cattle ranch up south, and his mother was a stay at home mom that took up seamstress work for extra cash. The two had very different styles of rearing children that clashed regularly and only just barely met at the middle.

Samuel Sr. was a strict no-nonsense Catholic man who wanted his son to be the poster child of his ideals and beliefs, so he forced them down his son's throat whenever he could.

Mrs. Lawrence (which I still haven’t named) was a very kind and meek lady that encouraged her son to pursue his interests because she cared more for his happiness. She didn't care what he'd become, as long as he was good to others and truly fulfilled.

Throughout this mess of Catholic upbringing, well funded education, and a mix of extra farm work and chores, 11 year old Sammy Lawrence was already well on the way to becoming a talented composer and instrument player. He was a ray of sunshine, was very well spoken, did good in his classes, and could do a lot of the farm work his father assigned to him whenever he was done with school work (he especially liked helping his father tend to the flock of sheep since they were his favourite farm animals), so overall his father didn't complain about his kid being too wimpy like those lazy city boys he often grumbled about. However when Mrs Lawrence died all traits of softness kinda went with her.

Traumatized by his mother's death, Sammy began to question religion. In the mind of a child why should he trust in a god that took his mother away from him? Then of course the stress of moving to the big city where he knew no one, having to restart the grade he was on, enduring his father's decline, being stuck with a step-mother who despised him, and slowly realizing he wasn't as straight as he should be, turned him into a bit of a grouchy asshole.

In his 20s Sammy went from the apple of his mother's eye to a closeted bisexual with internalized homophobia and a share of his father's bigoted views. The standard of the era, as sad as that is to say.

The one redeeming quality my version of Sammy has that the novel's Sammy doesn't, is that his role as his sister's sole caretaker and provider, as well as working with Jack and Norman, made him a little less of an intolerant douchebag.

His sister was inherently kind and disliked his racist comments, often calling him out on them after her nanny Mrs. Harrison taught her about learned behaviours and knowing when to correct them if you ever wanted to better yourself (Abby wanted Sammy to be the best self he could be because he was often unhappy).

Norman knew how to teach Sammy that his kinda views would get him killed if he mouthed off to the wrong person (he gave Sammy quite the a shiner on his first week working at the studio, and promised to kick his ass if he ever caught him saying any of the shit Sammy tried to throw at him upon meeting him).

Finally when Jack was hired Sammy gave him a chance and found that he greatly enjoyed the lyricist's company and musical talents (some of the other lyricists Joey tried to pair him up with were abysmally terrible).

My inspiration for Sammy's role is my grandmother actually!

Since her childhood she was always a tough cookie. She would get into fights at school and come back with her glasses broken and clothes ruined, worked in her father's store and forcing his mistresses to pay the right amount instead of letting them take stuff for free like her father often did (which nearly bankrupt the store by the way), and eventually not only worked in a medical lab as an assistant but also opened up her own successful clothing store.

She was revered in her neighborhood like the VIP of the era, but most who didn't know her considered her a controlling angry bitch. She gave everything up to take care of my mom.

She's also a racist, but often encouraged my sister's and I to have our own opinions because she knew teaching us to dislike other people wouldn't fly well as times changed.

That's the sort of person I can see Sammy being. Unapproachable to those he isn't closed to, trying to do good by his one remaining family member, and coming to terms with the bigoted views his father forced down his throat since childhood. He could have changed for the better too... If not for Joey Drew.

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #sammy lawrence #headcanons #long post

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mycarlydotcom · 4 years

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Looking Back at iCarly

In...5...4...3...2...

Hello internet! This blog lives on, and so do I! My Nickelodeon heart still beats, and here I am in 2019, having recently finished re-watching iCarly…again. Admittedly, there is a part me still clinging to this fandom and I don’t think it will ever go away. So, I recently sat my grown ass adult-self down to re-watch the series, and I feel the desire to just talk about it.

Let’s preface everything with an acknowledgement to nostalgia and the impact it has on how we view things we enjoyed in the past. Nostalgia is typically viewed through rose colored lenses that disguise the truth about whatever it is we remember so fondly. I realize this, and fully acknowledge that nostalgia is probably the biggest reason for my enjoyment during this re-watch; but whether it was nostalgia or not, I have no shame in saying that I loved it. I loved every single second of it. Yeah it was a little cringey at first, (Honestly, that’s to be expected when looking back at shows like these with more mature eyes) but that feeling settled pretty fast, and it didn’t take long for me to fall right back in love with the show.

I love this show. I watched it frequently as a preteen into my teenage years (Around the ages of 11-15 I’d say). I watched until about Season 3 but I ended up falling off with it as I grew older; so I never saw anything from Season 4 onward during its initial run. Fast forward a few years later, and somewhere around 2013 an iCarly clip found its way into my YouTube suggestions. I don’t remember the specific clip, but it had something to do with Sam and Freddie (It may have been the elevator scene from iLove You). It caught my attention because I always remembered thinking that Sam and Freddie would end up together. Curiously enough, I clicked it, and that served as the impetus to make me watch the entire series. I watched it all, and I loved it. I loved it so much that I even made this blog dedicated to it, and other shows cut from the same cloth. I had my heart stolen by Sam and Freddie, and obsessed over the pairing like many others had done before me. I became so attached to the characters, and as corny as it sounds, I felt like they were my friends. I just loved it all. I was hooked, and the series known as iCarly ended up leaving a lasting impression on me. Going on that journey was such a blast; but like all good things, it eventually came to end. After a while I started using this blog less and less. I slowly stopped watching reruns of old Nickelodeon shows, and I eventually fell off completely. So now, we fast forward one more time and here we are in 2019, I have watched the series again, and it turns out that I still harbor that deep connection to it that I had before. The fandom still lives within me, and I’ve realized it will never go away. It is always going hold a place in heart.

Now that my long-winded introduction is over, let’s move on to talking about the show itself. Upon this most recent viewing of the series, I will say that in my humble opinion, the show peaks in Season 3. While I may love the series as a whole, I cannot deny that its glory days are definitely in its earlier years. During this re-watch, I noticed a subtle dip in the quality of show from Season 4 onward. It’s not like it falls off a cliff or anything, it was still very enjoyable, but it definitely felt like they were losing control. This trend continued in Season 5, and parlayed right into the final season as well. By the time you reach the end, it’s apparent they were desperate for ideas, or were just ready to move on. Again, it’s not awful, but it’s not firing on all cylinders like it was in the earlier seasons. There are a plethora of issues we could point to when discussing this, but I think the biggest culprit to the show’s decline in quality was the “ships.” That entire craze definitely had a negative impact on the series overall; even as a “Seddier,” I can admit that. I’ve actually previously, briefly discussed (Here) how I believe “shipping,” directly changed the original, intended story of Sam and Freddie; and I still believe that. The creative direction was undoubtedly influenced by the divide in the audience, and I don’t think that can be disputed. But regardless of the slight dip in quality, I will say that iCarly is still tremendous overall, and Seasons 4 through 6 still have their moments and some great episodes. Season 6 itself recovers wonderfully by the end, with the last five episodes of the series serving as a splendid return to form for the show.

iCarly was one of the most successful Nickelodeon shows for a reason…because it truly is great. In many ways it was a glimpse into the future when you think about the power of the internet and its ability to influence and create success nowadays. It capitalized on that ever growing popularity of the internet, and did so wonderfully. Who didn’t want to have their own version of the iCarly web show? Everyone did, it was the coolest concept. Couple that with the amazing cast they gathered to play the character’s we all came to love, and the show had a recipe for brilliance.

Let’s actually talk about casting on this show because it is absolutely tremendous…

Miranda wonderfully transitioned from the devious little sister, Megan, on Drake & Josh, to the lovable protagonist known as Carly, and she was perfect for the role. Carly is portrayed as the best friend that anyone could ever ask for, and Miranda fills that role so believably well. You truly feel that she cares deeply for all of her friends, and honestly, I think that’s just an extension of Miranda herself. All you have to do is listen to any of her fellow cast member’s talk about her, and it’s not hard to understand why she played Carly so well.

Then there is Jennette; what else can I say about Jennette McCurdy that I haven’t already gushed about on this blog? I adore her to pieces, and her on screen counterpart known as Sam Puckett, I adore even more. I’ve heard Jennette be critical of the show and the role she played, especially as she’s gotten older and distanced herself from the Nickelodeon bubble, but I honestly think she doesn’t give herself enough credit for pulling off Sam the way she did. There is nobody else they could have cast to play that role better than her. There are many layers to Sam Puckett, and while the show tends to shy away from truly fleshing that out, we still get glimpses of it throughout the series. It’s the biggest reason why I love Sam so much, and Jennette excellently captures that contrast within the character. Sam is a tough as they come, and rarely displays compassion or vulnerability, but underneath her rough exterior is a wonderful person with a heart of gold. Much like that character, it often seems that there is a lot more than what’s displayed on the surface with Jennette as well, curiously enough. She herself, is somewhat of an enigma (which I plan on discussing one day as well). The character, and actor are very similar in that regard, and I think that’s why Sam was so great. For the purpose of comedy, Sam is a totally over-exaggerated character, and much more of a tomboy than Jennette is in real life, but beneath all the comedic hyperbole, there are some striking parallels between the character and the actor.

Of course, there is Nathan Kress, who played the role of Freddie, and did a splendid job capturing the loveable tech nerd Freddie was; especially in the earlier years. Nathan also deserves major props for continuing to pull the Freddie character off as time went on because let’s be honest, Nathan matured into quite the handsome young fella right in the midst of this show airing. It was funny juxtaposition to see him still have to portray Freddie, as Sam might say, a “nub,” when he very clearly wasn’t. So again, props to him because he still made it believable that Freddie was just a big dork who struggled with girls and whatnot despite his dapper, physical appearance.

Who doesn’t love Jerry Trainor? He comes across as the most fun person to be around, and I have to imagine that working with him is a total joy. All you have to do is watch the blooper episodes, iBloop and iBloop 2, and you can see just how much fun he makes the work environment for all of his fellow actors. He, as Spencer, is low key probably everyone’s favorite character. He was the perfect choice to portray Spencer, and while he does all the whacky humor and eccentric behavior perfectly, he also captures the moments where Spencer needs to be a responsible adult, arguably even better.

And last but not least, Noah Munck as Gibby. From starting as a reoccurring character with a strange quirk where he persistently took his shirt off , to transitioning into the main cast where announcing his own name in exaggerated fashion became a staple of the show, Noah took this peculiar character and brought him to life in the most entertaining way possible. To quote Gibby himself, Noah made the show, “a lot of fun,” and provided some of the best laughs in series.

I cannot say enough good things about iCarly. It is an all-timer as far as Nickelodeon shows are concerned, and those who were part of the fandom know just how special it was. I’ll forever hold it in my heart, and remember the joy it brought me whenever I “need a laugh, cheer, or random dance.”

And, we're clear...

#icarly #carly shay #sam puckett #samantha puckett #freddie benson #spencer shay #gibby #miranda cosgrove #jennette mccurdy #nathan kress #jerry trainor #noah munck #mine

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aurelliocheek · 3 years

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2021 predictions for mobile marketing

Last year’s predictions post: 2020 predictions for mobile marketing. Note: this is the first part of a two-part prediction series. Part two will be published next Monday, December 28.

I considered not publishing a predictions post this year because 2021 feels fundamentally unpredictable. Apple’s announcement at WWDC that it will deprecate the IDFA and introduce the App Tracking Transparency framework was foreseeable; I presented a hypothetical chain of events catalyzed by IDFA deprecation back in February, and frankly, I had expected the IDFA to be deprecated at WWDC 2019.

But 2021 is different. Every player in the ecosystem has been put into a defensive posture and sits on far less stable ground than they did at this point last year. Perhaps the lack of clarity around how the mobile advertising ecosystem will evolve in 2021 renders a post like this even more necessary. But if the degree to which 2020 has progressed through a series of anxiety-inducing announcements continues unabated, 2021 certainly promises to be lively.

Daniel Barnes, COO & Head of Platform (NSP) at N3TWORK INC.

2021 will be dominated by the privacy-focused changes initially from Apple and then maybe from Google. We already know the format of the SKAdNetwork changes to some extent, but the ramifications of those changes will be seen throughout the year.

Firstly, I believe that that will be an arms race for the ownership of conversion values. Ultimately the owner of the conversion value will dictate where the majority of UA spend on iOS goes. This will result in Facebook, MMPs, and developers contesting who decides the schema of conversion values. My bet is Facebook wins by owning or effectively owning conversion values through a bridge to their internal data set.

I do not believe that Google will make privacy-related changes to the extent that Apple has. Google already believes that GAID is privacy compliant, and given that they are an ad network at heart, they have much more skin in the game when considering the impacts to their revenue.

Data is a lagging indicator, and as such it has led to a set of high-iteration, low-value behaviors in UA. The above privacy changes will, in my opinion, result in the pendulum swinging back to somewhere between product marketing and performance marketing. This will lead to a general increase in the quality of creative that we see and a reduction in the “Data only” focus that the majority of UA teams have.

I believe this year will be the year that we truly see a decline in Hyper-casual. The main driver of this will be the fact that the advertisers who were bidding high CPIs on that traffic, in the hope of finding one or two high-value payers that pay for all of the other wasted impressions, will dissipate. The reason for this is advertisers who use high-risk, high-cost, high-reward strategies will no longer have the user-level information that they had before to enable them to understand which strategies work and which do not at the level of the individual user. The only thing that they will understand is aggregate level information and as such, they will be more risk-averse, leading to lower CPIs and lower eCPMS on the ad monetization side. The margins will become too fine for Ad networks and as such hyper-casual will become unviable.

I do not believe that having many DAU combined in hyper-casual titles is actually a viable strategy against IDFA deprecation. The reality is the percentage of those users that have IAP capable payment processing means is extremely low and as such the value is really only in showing another advertising impression. This means the strategies that companies like Zynga have employed to stave off the risk of IDFA deprecation will prove to be shortsighted.

Lastly, the true winners of 2021 will be the products that understand that LTV and CPI are two sides of the same coin. Hyper-core will be a dominant strategy in 2021. Games that have high IPM, low eCPI, but exceptionally high early conversion to payer will be the staple in 2021. We will not see another Game of War-esque success.

Filippo De Rose, Chief Growth Officer at Traplight

The biggest challenge for people in our space, especially in 2021: get out of our comfort zone and adapt to the paradigm shift in tracking as privacy impacts how we execute and measure marketing. Two cliché buzz words we need to “deconstruct” and relearn are: creative and incrementality. Health warning here: these are all predictions, inherently data fewer theories!

Creative, which is often misconstrued as the least scientific aspect in our field, is indeed becoming perhaps the only element we can have real total control of in marketing, so what it really needs is a solid data infrastructure to support it. If you took a simple approach, we could breakdown into 3 distinct pieces:

a background, setting the scene,

a midground showing the MC of the message (human, alien, machine, etc),

a foreground with some interaction, or speech, or object, etc.

These are the variables you can control with your assets and they can be associated with a verified KPI, ideally IPM. Once we have built a significant number of assets in this fashion, we can then run intelligently as many permutations as needed to scientifically find the winning combination that drives successful creative.

2021 might just be the year we finally push business intelligence to creative in order to “rinse and repeat” these permutations because as your audience grows, so should your message change to appeal to different personas. Of course so should the store page but let’s park that can of worms.

Whatever becomes more data-driven in 2021, creative or not, we need to demystify incrementality. In a business where there is no “official truth” (aside from what the stores pay you in revenues!) you have to establish the meaning of “lift” relevant to your business by answering a few simple questions (which could be cohorted by geo/channel/platform) e.g. freemium game :

How much more conversion to pay are we seeing from paid media?

How much more FTUE conversion is being observed by buying users?

How much is the revenue incremented by investing in both channel A and channel B or can we just invest in channel A?

We are going to have to step out of our comfort zone that ROAS that has provided us for years with a false sense of “deterministic security” based on widely adopted inaccurate attribution models. With lift driven KPIs we can build scorecards for every channel based on the weight of each KPI and invest in that media accordingly. We should also be able to understand better the “true value” that the SANs bring to the table without having to “default” to them as standard.

Last thing for 2021: talent management. As the damned 2020 taught us, there are pros and cons to Work From Home, but most importantly we have to learn how to manage and retain talent in these distributed virtual teams. Most talent practices are constrained by physical presence and now we must strive to appreciate what matters to employees not just in the office but also at home. Management must get “personal” as we enter each other’s homes and OKRs should take care of one’s health and family as much as the business.

Paula Neves, Product Manager, Square Enix Montreal

Product and UA teams become one

With iOS14 coming in January, more than ever the product and user acquisitions teams will need to be one and the same.

With SKAdNetwork’s complex timers for conversions, UA will start shaping more and more the way the player journey and monetization is designed within games (rather than the other way around). There will be an even bigger need to focus on the first 24 hours of the users and these two teams will really need to design together the First Time User Experience.

The Battle pass type monetization will grow in 2021 as it proves to be a model that is more compatible with the post-IDFA UA world. Games will be looking for higher conversion at lower price points because UA teams won’t be able to afford to bet $50 to acquire a whale when they can’t target historical monetizers. This will be especially true for hardcore games, which will need to shift their monetization strategy to focus more on the top of the funnel.

Lastly, this could also impact the nature of M&A in 2021, where more companies will be looking to acquire big user bases to potentially own their IDFVs.

Eric Seufert, analyst and owner of Mobile Dev Memo

2021 is likely to be a year of foundational stabilization: Apple disturbed the status quo, and the major participants in the mobile advertising ecosystem will need to establish new operating norms. This will entail a great deal of experimentation and trial-and-error, some of which may result in novel new advertising products and services.

ATT will be made mandatory in March. I don’t believe that Apple will offer any additional delays to ATT implementation or change its scope, and developers will need to implement ATT as it is currently understood. No substantive workarounds or loopholes will surface that allow developers to evade the impact of ATT.

App advertising spend on iOS will contract by 30-40% over the course of Q2 following the rollout of ATT. Advertisers will immediately scale their spend back once ATT is made mandatory as they observe how CPMs, install rates, etc. react. This pullback will persist over Q2 2021 and will be meaningful: 30-40%.

Advertisers with products in the “broad middle” will scale their ad spend in the second half of 2021. CPMs will decrease as competition for the best-monetizing users abates (since they are no longer specifically targetable), but some companies with products that fit into the “broad middle” of consumer appeal may not see their funnel conversion metrics degrade to the same degree, allowing them to scale spend.

Demand for PMPs and programmatic direct placements will increase. Large, multi-product companies will recognize the need to in-house programmatic advertising, with contextual analysis being seen as a competitive advantage. PMPs will become increasingly popular as companies seek to buy relevant, pre-vetted traffic, and so will direct placements.

Facebook experiments with projects that blunt the impact of ATT and marginally increase efficiency. Facebook will test a number of methods for improving ad targeting with contextual or aggregated signals and differential privacy techniques, some of which may be successful at marginally winning back some of the efficiency lost with ATT. I also think Facebook will make more aggressive moves in shifting content either entirely to within its app (eg. Facebook / IG shopping, which takes place in FB-loaded modals and is entirely first-party) or on the open web, such as with its new gaming platform. The war between Facebook and Apple will intensify, accelerating the world closer to the future of mobile content platforms.

Android becomes the new battleground for advertising inventory and some apps abandon iOS advertising altogether. Android might become the only platform on which certain types of apps are able to capably advertise; as some developers shift their focus to more broadly-appealing content themes, others simply stop advertising on iOS and focus exclusively on Android as their apps. The most attractive Android inventory becomes even more competitive than top-tier iOS inventory.

D2C advertising spend decreases by as much as 50%. Facebook dropped a bombshell on the advertising industry last week when it announced that app-to-web campaigns would be impacted by ATT restrictions, which means that D2C campaigns will become much less efficient as ad performance is aggregated at the campaign level. Most D2C companies are almost entirely dependent on Facebook’s ability to target historical spenders and email lookalikes for growth, and this change to app-to-web targeting and measurement will imperil the D2C business model.

Google will announce a privacy preservation policy with respect to the GAID near the end of 2021, but it won’t be as impactful as ATT. I don’t think that Google will fully deprecate the GAID, instead electing to keep it hidden from advertisers while still processing it via Firebase and passing it to ad networks (including its own!).

2021 predictions for mobile marketing published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

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paulriedelposts · 4 years

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Theatiner Kirche (Church) in Munich

Visiting Munich has many privileges itself. Restaurants, bars, sports buildings, carnivals, breweries, and other facilities are available to see in town. But, what we are going to focus on now are churches in Munich. It is well known for my side that I am an atheist. Regardless, I always liked visiting churches everywhere I go. In my humble opinion, churches in Munich has a very big significance in German history. They always provide some special feeling since you cross your first step into it. No matter if you are a believer or not, we are all the same in the end. And because of that, I will always be very pleased to visit these places, especially across Munich.

Theatiner Kirche's founders and style

The Theatiner Church is located in southern Germany in Munich. Certainly, it is one of the most famous among the churches in Munich. The construction from this Catholic church was from 1663 to 1690, almost full three decades. In the year of 1662, a long-awaited heir to the Bavarian crown, Prince Max Emanuel is born. And for the honor of that, the church’s founders Henriette Adelaide of Savoy and Ferdinand Maria founded it. This church is also known as the Dominican Priory of St. Cajetan because it is administered nowadays by the Dominican Friars. The one whose idea came to realization is the Italian architect Agostino Barelli. Barelli was a Baroque-style architect. This church gained his style too. As I know, he gained inspiration from Sant’Andrea Della Valle in Rome. Theatiner Church has 71 meters high dome and two 66 meters high towers which weren’t originally planned. They were added on later by Enrico Zuccalli, the successor of the architect Barelli. This building is almost 16 meters wide and 72 meters long. So, I'm sure you'll be astonished seeing it. Do you know why this church has so big significance in Munich? It is because after its construction the colors of it became a worldwide known symbol for the city. Its Mediterranean appearance and yellow coloring have a big impact and influence on Southern German Baroque architecture. That influence never stopped its presence. When you see this church for the first time, these colors will not leave your head and thoughts for a long time. That’s how astonishing it is. And that’s why this church is so special.

History of the Theatiner Church

A lot of places worthy of visiting Munich has a huge background and long history. That is also the case with the churches in Munich too. Throughout history, this church gained a good reputation. That reputation was going only uphill, but that unfortunately changed in the late 18th century. During that period, an increasing decline of religious discipline and the monastery finances became visible. Because of that, the monastery had to finish closed by the Elector Max IV Joseph, later King Max I Joseph. The official date of closing is on the 26th of October 1801, before the secularization. For those who don’t know perhaps what it is, secularization is a process of converting something from religious to secular possession or use. Also, in some places, it can occur as disassociation or separation from religious or spiritual concerns. Nevertheless, the Theatiner Church remained Collegiate Church and the convent attracted the remaining 3 electoral departments. Justice, Finance and Spiritual Affairs. Before the dissolution of the monastery, in 1799, one of the departments moved into the Theatiner monastery. It was the Department of Foreign Affairs of course. Like many other facilities in Munich, this church also went unfortunate during World War II. Particularly in the final years of the war, the church was the target from bombs. They destroyed the west wing. Also, the altarpiece of the foundation of the church was wiped out. But I assume that some ‘paranormal force’ looked up this church and it shined once more. Its restoration from 1946 finished nearly 10 years later. Since then, the Dominicans have ministered at St. Cajetan. From 2001 until now, a massive rebuild has been in progress in which the Theatiner Church will get a new sanctuary design.

Interior of the church and its tombs

One of the first impressions you will possibly get from this church is from its appearance. When I looked it for the first time, I just stood in awe. The 71 meters high cupola gives a grandiose feeling of space. It is also richly decorated with stucco and this is something that really can take the breath away. The dark wood of the pulpit has 1681 contrasts with the white and grey tones that dominate elsewhere. And that contrast is something I like the most when it is about this church. It is truly fascinating how it is all embedded. I can’t forget the amount of excitement I have every time I remember it. A whole interior of the church is in white stucco. That provides a very bright appearance and sets it apart from most of the other Munich churches. The ones who are responsible for creating the statues and stucco decorations are German sculptor Wolfgang Leutner and Italian Nicolo Petri. Around the great black altar inside, from Andreas Faistenberger, are numerous paintings. Carlo Cignani, George Desmarees, Caspar de Crayer, and Joachim Sandrart are all the names you could find up there. When it comes to tombs at this church, many people are inside Theatiner Kirche. The first ones I got on my mind are the members of the Wittelsbach family. There is a small chapel which contains the remains of King Maximilian II and his wife. Also, there is a crypt where their son, the prince, laid his remains. Charles VII the Holy Roman Emperor is another person who remains laying here. The sepulture from the exiled King Otto of Greece about who I was writing is also here.

My vision of churches in Munich and religion

As I already mentioned, I am an atheist. But that is not much important indeed. What I would like to achieve is just understanding and mutual respect about everything in life. So, religion is the same. I know how religion is important in every person’s life. Many find their peace and inspiration to move on in it. I really don’t have anything against it. I am aware of how big influence can it provide in people’s lives and I am always trying to understand it in the best possible way. Hopefully, I can get that from you too. Because I think that no matter what your religion status is, what’s the most important is how people behave. And, what is in their heart. All the Christians, Orthodox or Catholic, share the same religion. Others are Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Some are atheists like me or gnostic perhaps, but all that is every person’s private choice. Nobody can’t take that from us and I am glad it is like that. What I deeply want from you, my readers is to understand other’s feelings and choices they make. Regardless of their religious determination. Because everyone deserves a chance to show his qualities and eventually become your friend or maybe a partner. No matter if they are a part of other religions or are not religious at all. I would like to achieve that mutual respect in every part of this world, not only in Munich. Unfortunately, probably I will not be able to travel that long. In the end, we are all humans and we will end up the same. Whether we are believers or not, hetero or homosexuals, rich or poor. So, if anyone can learn about this from me, my heart will be fulfilled with joy and peace.

Short guide around the Theatiner Church

As I have some personal experiences from visiting churches in Munich, I will try to provide you a short one for this too. What will you find here is a delightful Rococo style exterior with creamy yellow colors. The facade is two-tiered, flanked by two towers with clock faces and rich ornamentation. The church interior is a high Baroque style. The nave's design is Corinthian-style columns and more stucco ornamentation. The delicately carved Baroque style pulpit is worth a look-see as are the side chapels. You can allow yourself 10-20 minutes for visiting Theatiner Church. For nice photos of the church facade, you should walk across Odeonplatz, standing in front of Residenz. From here, you should be able to cover the entire church in your camera lens.

Private walking tour in Munich

The enigmatic art from the Asam Brothers

Churches in Munich Read the full article

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hangonimevolving · 5 years

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Beyond the beyond.

It has been a season of heartache and life lessons around here.

My last post was about my dad’s coronary bypass surgery, which obviously was a very nerve-wracking and sobering experience for our entire family. I am happy to report that today, about 7 weeks post-surgery, my father is doing well, is getting better and stronger each day, and has even returned to his work, which he loves and which keeps him going in life. I am grateful for this.

But amidst my dad’s recovery from a life-altering illness and surgery, my family has experienced another shock and heartbreaking loss.

On October 2nd, less than 3 weeks following my dad’s discharge from the hospital, my beloved uncle Marley was rushed to the hospital for difficulty breathing. I wrote about Marley in my last post, and how prior to my dad’s heart attack and hospitalization, I was actually more worried about him because he has been in declining health for some years, and was looking pretty frail when I last spent significant time with him in August. During my visit home in September to help my dad recuperate, I spent many days with Marley, who was instrumental in helping my mother get my dad to the ER when he initially showed signs of illness, and helped connect my dad with the cardiologist and the vascular surgeon who would eventually see him through his LAD stunting and bypass procedures. Marley was there to support my mom through it all emotionally, and to provide a listening ear and his own professional connections when needed, as well as important doses of humor and good spirits whenever they were warranted. So it was a huge punch in the gut to hear that after all the kind and generous help he’d given us in a time of need, that he was now suffering with shortness of breath and needed to go to the hospital.

Marley was admitted to the ICU immediately and put on a CPAP machine to help him try and breathe more effectively, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to help him, and it soon became clear that he’d need to be intubated and put on a ventilator. He, his wife and daughters, as well as my mom were all present throughout these medical decisions and conversations, and it was a heartbreakingly emotional experience because it was fairly clear that if he were to go on the ventilator, there was a real possibility he’d never come off of it. Marley has suffered for many years from interstitial lung disease, and was now being diagnosed with some sort of pneumonia or infection that was making his scarred and damaged lungs even more ineffective at breathing.

About 24 hours after his admission, Marley was sedated and tubed, and placed on the vent. Thankfully, his wife and younger daughter (both physicians and residents of New Orleans) were at his side throughout, and his elder daughter (a psychologist) was able to fly down from Washington DC to see and speak with her father before he was tubed. Everyone was beside themselves, but they knew the only chance he had for recovery was to be intubated and put on mechanical ventilation, so that his body could conserve energy to try and fight the infection and recover.

Days went by, and sadly, Marley did not show enough signs of improvement to be taken off the vent. About a week later, another blow came - Marley suffered a stroke on the right side of his brain, which while not disastrous since he is right-handed/left-brained, was still a significant blow. His left leg and arm were knocked out, unable to move, and it was clear that he would only have a chance of recovery of his leg if he were to heal completely from the lung issues and then engage in a rigorous course of rehab. But that wasn’t happening. The average length of time that a patient can be intubated and ventilated is about 10-14 days, and the window was soon approaching where decisions would be made. The family considered placement of a tracheostomy which would entail a more permanent tube inserted directly to his windpipe from his neck, which would allow for the removal of the tube in his mouth. He would remain on the ventilator machine this way. But in doing this, he would also have to get a PEG to allow him to receive nutrition; he would not be able to consume food by mouth. The risks and effects on quality of life of these different procedures and medical accoutrement are considerable. Just when all of these options were being considered, Marley found a way to communicate, even while intubated and ventilated. He made it clear to the family that he did not want to live any longer under these conditions.

Hearing him express this sentiment was like a knife through the heart - but we all understood his feelings as well. Marley is himself an experienced physician, a world-renowned expert on Parkinson’s disease with over 50 years of time caring for patients, and he knew exactly what he was talking about. The way he lived his life, the joy and spirit that he always exuded, and the humor and cheer that he spread around him came with a very incisive, often irreverent honesty about his opinions on things. On MANY, many occasions, he had shared with me and everyone close to him that he would never want to live under such circumstances. So we all knew that he wasn’t making this decision in the spur of the moment or under duress; this was truly the way he felt.

The entire family literally flew to his side the day after he made his wishes clear. Every single one of us, his nieces and nephews, traveled from around the country to visit Marley in the ICU and say our goodbyes to him. It was pretty much the most gut-wrenching thing I’ve ever endured - but there was no way we could NOT go. He saw each and every one of us, communicated with us with his eyes and mouthing words, held our hands, and we lavished him with hugs and kisses, hand squeezes, and lots of loving words. For my part, I took a 6 am flight on Saturday, October 11 and Lyfted it with my sister directly to the hospital, spent a few hours with him, then Lyfted it back in time for a 9:45 pm flight home to Florida. It was quite a day.

Marley was extubated at 10 am on Sunday, October 13, 2019. He died around 7 pm, surrounded by his wife and daughters, and made comfortable by a wonderful team of palliative care physicians and professionals.

Around that same time, in Miami, Dr. Spouse and the kids encouraged me to take a walk outside, where we were greeted with this sight.

Marley was cremated on Friday, October 18, and a number of rituals and ceremonies were performed by his wife, daughters, and my uncle R, in accordance with Hindu tradition. I was not able to be present for these events, but later that evening, Dr. Spouse, the kids and I all flew into New Orleans for the weekend.

The memorial service was held on Saturday, October 19, and I don't know exactly how many people were in attendance, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was a few hundred. He was so loved, and by so many - members of the family, the Indian community of New Orleans and other parts of the country, his community of colleagues and friends locally, and dozens of patients from his Parkinson’s support groups all came to pay their respects and offer their condolences to us all. It was a bittersweet experience, to see how many folks shared our grief.

My aunt and cousins asked me to be the MC of the memorial service, and I don’t think I will ever be so deeply honored in my life as I was, to perform this duty in my uncle’s memory.

We arranged for the kids to be watched at my parents’ house in New Orleans during the memorial - my two kids along with my sister Rithers’ kids H2O and NiNi,, and my cousin Neets’ daughters S and M. Later that evening, Marley’s wife, my aunt Shreeks, hosted the entire family at a gathering at her house, where an Indian community member and friend who owns several restaurants in the city had generously donated dinner for us all. Shreeks and her daughters had requested that each of us come to the dinner prepared with a few funny and lighthearted videos of our kids, so we could have a short and hilarious film festival after dinner to help lighten our spirits and take our minds off of our grief for a few minutes. It was a poignant gathering - the last time we’d all been together was back in August, only a few short weeks earlier, for Marley and Shreeks’ 50th anniversary party. It was hard to believe that we were now sitting there without him. But we did our best to enjoy each others’ company and carry on with our family traditions of joking and laughing together - I think we all can agree that its what he would have wanted.

In Hindu ritual tradition, the thirteenth day after a person’s death is highly significant, and a number of important rituals take place on this day to honor the person’s journey from a member of the living family, to the installation of that person in the panoply of ancestors that watches over the family as guardians and protectors. I wasn’t able to be present in New Orleans for this day, Friday, the 25th of October, but it was at the forefront of my mind when I went to bed the night before, and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up. As soon as my eyes opened on this morning, I was aware of the fact that the sun had already risen, yet it was raining heavily. I jumped out of bed and ran to the double doors in my bedroom that open up to my backyard, with its pool deck overlooking the lake behind our house. And I was greeted with this sight:

All these rainbows. I’ve never seen so many, in such vibrant color, in such a short time. But here they are. Each time I see one, I think three things:

1) Oh, how beautiful.

2) I’m going to miss Marley.

3) Man - there he goes again, championing the liberal agenda. You do you, Marley! Love ya! :) (Marley was a bleeding heart liberal, a registered Democrat, and a kindred political spirit and role model to me)

Of course, the fourth and most poignant thought I have, and one that I hope is true - I imagine that Marley is being greeted in the Heavens by his parents, my grandfather and grandmother, and his sister JM, who tragically died in 1973 at the age of 24 during childbirth. My grandmother and JM were both avid producers of kolams and rangolis - the South Indian artistic tradition of decorating the home’s threshold with colorful rice flour patterns, as a means of welcoming people into the house. I imagine them both in the heavens, making spectacular kolams to welcome Marley home.

My aunt had asked me to help find a meaningful passage or excerpt from the Buddhist to be read at the memorial service. Although ultimately, the decision was made to read another excerpt, this one had really spoken to me about Marley.

selected excerpts from the Buddhist “Dhammapada”, book 26: The True Master

Wanting nothing With all your heart Stop the stream. When the world dissolves Everything becomes clear. Go beyond This way or that way, To the farther shore Where the world dissolves And everything becomes clear. Beyond this shore And the farthest shore, Beyond the beyond, Where there is no beginning, No end. Without fear, go. Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work, with mastery.

...

Like water on the leaf of a lotus flower Or a mustard seed on the point of a needle, He does not cling. For he has reached the end of sorrow And has laid down his burden.

...

He wants nothing from this world And nothing from the next. He is free. Desiring nothing, doubting nothing, Beyond judgment and sorrow And the pleasures of the senses, He has moved beyond time. He is pure and free. ... Desire has left him, Never to return. Sorrow has left him, Never to return. He is calm. In him the seed of renewing life Has been consumed. He has conquered all the inner worlds. ... In him there is no yesterday, No tomorrow, No today. Possessing nothing, Wanting nothing. He is full of power. Fearless, wise, exalted. He has vanquished all things. He sees by virtue of his purity. ... He has come to the end of the way. All that he had to do, he has done. And now he is one.

I am writing a longer and more personal essay about what Marley has meant to me throughout my life. It is filled with memories and episodes involving him from throughout my childhood, adolescence and adulthood, and really speaks to his wit, sensitivity, humor, intelligence, and trust that he had in me, and all his nieces and nephews, at a time when men of his generation and from his background were not necessarily known for their ability to engage with kids in an emotionally intelligent capacity like this. I will definitely post the essay here, but I am going to try and get it published online somewhere else that might have more reach to speak to those who have been touched by Marley’s life. I will update about this.

But for now, here are a smattering of pictures of Marley from the last few years - walking me down the aisle at my wedding along with his brother, my other uncle R. Holding 3-month-old Vev. Engaging both my kids with funny monkey videos on his iPhone just last summer. Together with his siblings - my mom Ajima/VJ, my uncle R and my aunt VT. Goofing around with my grandma, his mom J, before my cousin’s wedding a few years ago. I imagine the two of them sitting on a sofa together somewhere up in Heaven, joking around and laughing, the Saints game probably on in the background. At least, I hope so.

Marley - I am going to miss you so very much. I am not sure how we are going to go on without you. You were my uncle, and like another father to me - but you were also my mentor, cheerleader, comedic guru, and friend. I will love you forever.

#family #loss

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lostsolsdestinyblog · 5 years

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D2 PvP dropped below 500k players yesterday. Is it time to discuss player population and the state of the game yet?

14 million people/accounts have played D2 since launch. Yesterday's population:

PvP- 490.5k

PvE- 570.9k

Edit: shout-out to Bungie.Net member TattooedOni who pointed out that DTR numbers include Gambit. I did not know that. Yesterday's Crucible was actually 345,415 and hit a low water mark of 268,000 on February 9. Those are as bad as the game has ever seen.

It will be interesting to see what they bump back up to with the release of the Season of the Drifter, but these numbers are reaching the same lows the game saw in D1 year 3 and D2 year 1.

One could obviously make the argument that it's just players siphoning off as the game gets further into each content release, but here's the issue with that; we have been told repeatedly by the anti-sbmm crowd that SBMM was there reason population numbers dropped in D1 and D2 Y1. We also saw the game bombarded by all the "dead game", "D2 sucks", etc comments all throughout year 1 from both community in general as well as from the major influencers.

Yet here we are, after an expansion in Forsaken that was extremely well received at launch and generally hailed as one of the best Destiny content releases and one that "brought back the hobby", and yet we're approaching half-way through the annual pass and not only are people not logging on in droves, there's not even a hint of excitement for season 6.

This isn't indicative of a game that's returned to "hobby" status and it's incredibly worrying for the remainder of the year. So my question is, what went wrong and why are so many leaving the game?

Obviously there's a lot going on right now with Apex having it's huge surprise launch, as well as Anthem and Division 2 out/about to release, and we are in the final week of the season. Those things taken at a glance and in a vacuum would definitely explain away a lot, but it doesn't come close to telling the entire story.

For as much as Forsaken added to the game in terms of investment and things to do/chase/grind for, the numbers have been in a decline since before this season began and have continued to fall throughout. This is something that all these changes to progression and the amount we have to grind for everything was supposed to curb.

"SBMM makes people stop playing", so Bungie removed it and people have stopped playing faster than than they ever did in D1 and considering the current lack of a massive anti-Destiny campaign like the big name influencers waged in year one to help drive people away, it's staggering how quickly players have left what should have been a light-years better Crucible experience over year one with the complete sandbox overhaul and return to 6v6.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Summit and I know the narrative players had going in, the quality of interaction we experienced and now I've seen where we are and there's a massive disconnect for me. I know most of the people in the rooms wanted a far more grindy game, but I never thought that every positive change vanilla D2 gave the game and franchise would be shuttered and we'd see another massive overcorrect; and yet that's what has happened in my opinion. Forsaken and subsequently Black Armory went too far.

I'll start with matchmaking because I've already mentioned it as well as written volumes on the topic over the course of the season. I think we can finally dispel the notion that skill in matchmaking is what's driven population declines, again particularly seeing how well received the sandbox is now vs year one.

I've said this many times already, but we never got to experience year 2 PvP and all the positive changes with any semblance of fair matchmaking in QP or Comp. Comp has its own fair share of issues there, but QP was easy. Just don't remove skill factoring. Yet that's exactly what happened and in a season where I have ranked up valor 9 times, only 1 of those ranks has been in QP because it's so freaking brutal. It's also made my friends stop playing it outside of needed bounties or quests. No one I know wants to log in just play QP because it's fun, like we did throughout D1 and even in D2 Y1.

It also says something that as broken as IB is with rules and scoring, that it's still so incredibly fun with the new Sandbox paired with decent matchmaking and more fair player vs player engagements, that I've ranked up almost 9 Valor ranks playing it.

Then there's the sandbox that is admittedly a lot better than year one and at one point in Forsaken, I thought maybe the best ever. I've dialed back from that a bit as year 2 has progressed and we start to see a rippling of little issues that grew throughout D1 with balancing.

I never thought year 2 needed kill times dialed to 11 and I think that's starting to be an issue with no ceiling for great weapons without breaking play. Special weapons were really well balanced in year one and just simply adjusting the ammo economy and reworking the slotting would have been a huge start there. They didn't need to have best-in-slot weapons in every slot though or the massive performance boosts to shotguns.

Primaries were in a very good place as well by the end with exotics showing how kill times could be quickened without removing the ceiling across the board.

Grenades and ability cool downs needed the biggest buff going into year 2 and those were nailed perfectly. I still contend that had year one had the grenades and CDs we have now, it wouldn't have tanked nearly as badly.

Heavy was too prevalent in year 1, but it had to be to break up team shooting since that was the only way to use special weapons and again, grenades and abilities were so poor that there were no real neutral games.

Then we got fun new supers in year 2, but inexplicably they were given insane damage resistance, durations and/or damage, as well as mods to get them faster. Players with supers in the first minute isn't uncommon. They were too slow charging at launch, but buffing them up to D1 rates would've been great. Instead we went well beyond.

Then finally there's PvE that I used to play all 3 characters every week for years. Now I have played less an hour of PvE in the last month. I haven't played my Titan or Warlock since last November and I'm not looking forward to SotD pushing power to 700 and having to regrind another 50 levels and deal with the ridiculous infusion economy to just be able to wear and use what I like and already have again.

Beyond that, the further up the cap goes, the less and less desire I have to ever even think about leveling one of my other characters again. As long as the current infusion economy exists and forces me to play wearing and using gear I don't like, I won't be touching another character; and for all the awesome content Forsaken did bring to D2 PvE, the experience of playing it was really soured by not getting to use what I had and loved and absolutely hating my characters because they looked like such garbage.

I'll never understand the hard stance taken on this or what meaningful infusion adds to the game. It's the single worst change to PvE ever made.

Then there's the oversaturation of RNG. Grind is fine. Things like Titles were great. RNG dialed to 11 in everything? Not so much.

And finally, I think random rolls were done wrong. I don't think they're bad with the variety of weapons they've added, but making them random rolls of each was a mistake.

Destiny is a looter-shooter and so lots of loot is good. Destiny does in a sense have a lot more loot now, but it's completely undermined by how it was implemented. My 10th version of Better Devil's is still just another Better Devil's dropping. Cashing in a pile of Crucible tokens and getting 6-7 Anonymous Autumn's isn't any more interesting.

What could have been a lot more interesting is if instead of making the different rolls random versions of the same weapon, is had they been their own named weapons. Even if they had the exact same skins, seeing all the different weapon names all with their own unique set rolls would have been way more interesting.

It also could have solved the collections problem for not being able to pull random rolled weapons out. If each was it's own unique named weapon, that isn't a problem anymore. It also gives more clear rewards to chase with a specific named weapon vs a random variation of one, and yeah not all would be as good and there would be standouts, but it would also make kill feeds a hell of a lot more diverse which would go a long way to curbing nerf requests, and if a particular weapon was way too prevalent or good, it would be a hell of a lot easier to tune that one gun vs tuning Better Devil's and having that affect all variations, which seemed to me the entire point of static rolls to begin with.

I hope that these and other player concerns are at least topics of conversation within the studio. I really feel a huge disconnect from this game that I still do love and think could very easily be course-corrected to a game that truly is a hobby game that has something for all levels of investment, but that starts with understanding that the balance needs to fall in-between what D2 was at launch and is currently and ending the cycle of pushing too far when all that's needed is a light touch or digging in and refusing to acknowledge issues as players leave in waves.

We're all here because we love the game and franchise and want it to succeed. I hope the future is bright.

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lilac-milk-moon · 4 years

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What are personal core values?

Identifying your personal core values is critical

What value does identifying your personal core values offer? Let me start by asking a different question — do any of the below thoughts sound familiar to you?

I just can’t make myself feel motivated to save for retirement.

How do prioritize my hobbies, time with my family, and my career? They’re all important to me.

I’m overcommitted with too many social and volunteering obligations. But I don’t know what I can say “no” to because they’re all good things!

Why would I ever I quit my job? I could always work at my job just a little longer. The transition might be hard. If I keep working, I can always keep saving more and more.

I never seem to meet the goals I set for myself.

If you find yourself having thoughts like these, identifying your personal core values may help bring clarity to your life.

An article from Psychology Today explains that identifying your core values offers nine benefits:

Reducing your stress

Boosting decision-making skills

Inspiring better habits

Revving up your willpower

Helping you act more assertively

Helping you communicate with more compassion

Making wiser career choices

Bolstering your confidence

Increasing relationship intimacy

Why are personal core values important?

Identifying your “why”, or your personal core values, helps inform how you build the rest of your life.

Greg McKeown, in his book Essentialism, says “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”

In the past, I have often been victim to this. It’s so tempting to say yes when asked to join an organization or go to an event. It can be hard to feel like you’re disappointing the person who invited you if you decline.

But if you’re not intentional, you’ll realize that your life doesn’t reflect your own priorities! Your time is limited, so you need to learn to say no to spending time on things that are just “fine,” or even “good,” if they’re not absolutely essential to your goals and values.

As McKeown writes, “If it isn’t a clear yes, it’s a clear no.”

Personal values vs company values

Companies, schools, and other organizations frequently have core values, too. I don’t think it’s helpful to view personal core values the same way, though.

Examples of company core values

Company core values are meant to unify a group of people towards a common cause. These core values tend to be very general and morality-based.

These tend to be nouns or adjectives.

Here are examples of a few popular ones:

Accepting

Caring

Hard-working

High integrity

Honest

Hospitable

Innovative

Kind

Professional

Responsibility

Thoughtful

Quality

Broad-sounding values like these may be appropriate for companies or organizations, but they’re too vague to be meaningful in your personal context.

I’ve found it more helpful to identify personal values that are specific and actionable.

Accidental values

An article from Harvard Business Review explains the difference between aspirational values, permission-to-play values, and accidental values. They discuss these topics in a the context of company values, but I think they’re meaningful in a personal context too.

Aspirational values are those that you currently lack but need to succeed. You want to gain these.

Permission-to-lay values are the minimum values required of any employee.

Accidental values arise spontaneously without being cultivated by leadership and take hold over time.

Be careful not to let accidental values be the guiding principles in your personal life.

Examples of personal core values

A helpful tool to force your thinking into a long-term perspective is to ask “How do I want to be remembered after I die?”

Think of personal core values as the big themes throughout your life.

I recommend formatting your personal core values as verbs — things you can tangibly do.

Here are examples of possible personal core values:

Build something valuable

Create something beautiful

Experience something meaningful

Give to a cause

Go somewhere significant

Lead a group

Love a person or people

Pursue a passion

Serve an organization

Teach children or adults

I made those pretty vague, but I encourage you to explain your own very specifically.

Try to think of the 3-5 personal core values that matter most to you.

I encourage you to literally write them down.

My personal core values are:

Love my wife and our family well.

Serve people in our church and community.

Make our travel goals a priority.

Teach young adults.

Those are topics I think about a lot, so in a sense, choosing them as my personal core values was easy. But, as I was deciding, I noticed that having a high-profile career with lots of accolades, for example, did not make the cut. Occasionally I’m tempted to want such a career, but in the long-term it’s not what is most important to me.

Ultimately, identifying your personal core values is not a practice of saying yes to a few things, but of saying no to the non-essential elements of your life so that you can invest your time in what’s most important.

The exercise of actually writing down your values can help you identify what’s truly most essential in your life.

Personal core values can lead you to specific goals

Next, think of goals as the specific things you want to do to fulfill your personal core values.

Re-evaluate your goals and consider setting new ones.

Pursuing goals that reflect your personal core values will bring clarity and meaning to your life. Goals that are relevant to your core values will help you take forward steps towards those values.

For example, here are goals I have that correspond to my values:

Value: Love my wife and our family well.

Goal: Make time for my wife every day. Understand her values, goals, and needs and invest in them.

Goal: Be present and active in our future children’s lives. Help equip them for the future.

Value: Serve people in our church and community.

Goal: Serve in our church when possible.

Goal: Pursue adoption in our 30s.

Value: Make our travel goals a priority.

Goal: Go to California this year. Go to Europe in 2020.

Goal: Visit all 50 states in my lifetime.

Value: Teach young adults.

Goal: Facilitate discussion and practical knowledge in the Semi-Retire Plan community.

Goal: Semi-retire to a teaching career at a local college.

Beyond your goals and values, you can also write down your financial bucket list to keep yourself accountable.

Forward vs backward steps

Whenever you consider spending time on an activity, ask yourself if it helps you achieve your goals (and therefore if it helps fulfill your personal core values).

For example, I have political opinions and I think following politics is interesting. But if someone invites me to join a local political action club, I am going to say no! This club may be a good thing, but it does not relate to my goals or core values, and therefore it is not the right way to spend my time. It is not essential.

You have limited time, so anywhere you choose to invest your time necessarily has a trade-off.

Time you spend pursuing anything non-essential is taking time away from an activity you value more.

Semi-retirement

This set of tools is practical for semi-retirement too.

If your full-time job strongly aligns with your goals and values, you might actually prefer to not semi-retire. And if that’s the case, great!

For the rest of us, once we have our plan in place and enough savings to leave our full-time work, it may be tempting to delay. We may think, “Why not stay at my job a little longer and save more?”

If your full-time job is helping you achieve your goals and values, then it can be considered essential. Once you have enough savings in place to semi-retire to meaningful part-time work, though, that crappy office job becomes a clear no!

Are you finding it hard to decide how much of your current income to spend versus save? Consider if spending it would help you move towards your goals or values. Consider if saving more would help you move towards your goals and values.

For example, travel is important to my wife and me, so I refuse to feel guilty for spending a moderate amount of money on it each year.

Having a new or impressive car would be fun, but it’s not essential for me. So, I drive an 8 year old paid-for Camry and I plan to keep driving it for several more years. Spending more money on a nicer car is a clear no for me right now.

What changes do you find are needed in your life once you identify your personal core values? What are some seemingly good things in your life that you are now prepared to say no to?

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paulriedelposts · 4 years

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Theatiner Kirche (Church) in Munich