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mokeonn · 4 months

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Since I found out steam does a year in review (I had no idea until this year) I have decided that I must play video games more and play every game in my steam library so that my year in review is 100% accurate next year and I don't get told that my top 2 games were Disco Elysium and Baldur's Gate 3 because I would Hyperfixate on one game for a whole month (or three) and play nothing else, and still have my genre graph have nothing to do with those two top games and instead have "cats" as a genre while calling me a fag

#simon says #I need to play more games anyways since I have like 80 games in my library but I have only played like... 30 #so I'm already working on adding more games I would enjoy to my wishlist and installing games I've been wanting to play but haven't yet #i know the counter doesn't start until jan 1 but I'm having fun already #my spider graph needs to be SO much more accurate #I played ONE cats game and ONE cooking game and it said my most played genre is city builder??#bitch just because my third most played game is city skylines does not mean that's my main genre #i do lean towards simulators and puzzle games though #it's on the right track #but I don't think steam understands that my favorite games are games with beautiful and interesting art styles #games with wonderful narratives #and games where I get to own a funnie little shop and manage stuff #management should be my number 1 genre lmaooo #I do so many simulator games because they're just so fun like yeah I DO wanna make a little zoo or a little potion shop or a pizza place #i hate sales but I love doing it digitally where I get to just do the fun parts (making things and saying silly things)#and puzzle games. I'm a fuckn puzzle master #so yeah my goal is to play just... more games that I own and get more games that look fun #and also more rpgs. i need to play more rpgs #i am making an rpg I need to get some INSPIRATION #anyways that's my rant for now #I'm super sick right now so I don't have much to do besides eat sleep and game #I'm doing pretty well mentally though so I'm excited to feel better and start working on projects and whatnot soon #i also updated my icon recently #i changed my fursona #i will make a post about it later #I'm keeping the calico boy as an oc and also a sona of some sorts #so don't worry about Sock #but i wanted to be a tiger :3 #i love tigers :3 #also I got a book of dinosaurs so i wanna make a dinosona soon

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thormanick · 2 months

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Me, going about my day: i really like alhaitham and kaveh and whatever is happening between them. precious boys need to keep them safe

Evil Thoughs tm popping up in my head once in a while: canonically, Kaveh wants to be remembered. Alhaitham is a Scribe, which implies that he's keeping records. Alhaitham is closest to Kaveh and knows him really well. Alhaitham will be the best at remembering Kaveh. Therefore it might be a possibility that Alhaitham will outlive Kaveh, and by much-

Me, suddenly distressed: shut up shut up shut up-

#ah yes don't you love it when your thoughts go and do. that #anyways wishing nothing but the best to the boys may their respective reruns happen soon #genshin impact #genshin impact thoughts #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact kaveh #genshin impact alhaitham #haikaveh #kavetham #alhaitham x kaveh #afinna explores teyvat #this was actually partially inspired by the idea that Vision holders give something up in order to receive a Vision #and if the Vision encompasses the most sincere wishes of the weilder #what will happen when the weilder achieves these dreams while still being alive #in my hc achieving the passion that Vision symbolizes like. annihilates you from existence on a certain level or smth idk #on this point. in-game we've seen people gain visions. get their visions taken away. and die while having a vision (kazuha's friend).#i wonder what will happen to a person when they achieve the goal that allowed them to get their vision in the first place #i think that would be interesting #also idk sometimes i look at kaveh and go 'ah yes you have the narrative potential of dying at some point of the story and I. Am. Worried.'

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yellowocaballero · 27 days

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Been a fan of your fics for YEARS. I was just telling my friend how despite how much I read fics I never actually love them, with some of your fics (especially TMA) as the exception. Felt the need to reread some of them and saw you reblogged some ISAT fanart. So. Any thoughts on ISAT you'd like to share?

Hope you have a wonderful day!! So happy I found your fics again!!

I avoided answering this for a while because I was trying to think of a way to cohesively and coherently vocalize my thoughts on In Stars and Time. I have given up because I don't want to hold everybody here all day and I have accepted that my thoughts are just pterodactyl screeching.

I love it so much. I have so much to say on it. It drove me bonkers for like a week straight. I have AUs. It's absolute Megbait. They're just a little Snufkin and they're having the worst experience of anybody's life. Ludonarratives my fucking beloved.

I am going to talk about the prologue.

The prologue is such a fascinating experience. You crack open the game and immediately begin checking off all of the little genre boxes: mage, warrior, researcher, you're the rogue...some little kid who's there for some reason...alright, you know the score. You're in yet another indie Earthbound RPG, these are your generic characters, let's get the ball rolling.

Except then you realize that these characters are people. You feel instantly how you've entered the game at its last dungeon, at the end of the adventure. They have their own in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They get along well and they're obviously close, but not in a twee or unrealistic way. They have so much chemistry and spirit and life. I fell in love with them so quickly.

But Sif doesn't. Sif kind of hates them, because they will not stop saying the same damn thing. They walk the same paths, do the same things, make the same jokes, expect Sif to say the same lines. They keep referencing a Sif we do not see, with jokes we never see him make and heroic personality he never shows - they reference a Sif who is dead - and Sif can't handle that, so he kills them too.

They become only an exercise in tedious frustration. Sif button mashes through their dialogue, Sif mindlessly clicks the same dialogue options, Sif skips through the tutorial, Sif blows through the puzzles. Sif turns their world into a video game. Sif is playing a generic RPG. Sif forgets their names. They are no longer people with in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They're the mage, the warrior, the researcher, and...some random kid.

I did not understand the Kid's presence at first. I had no idea what they contributed to the game. They didn't do anything. As a party member in a video game, they're a bit useless. Why is the Kid there?

Because Sif's life isn't a video game. Because the kid isn't 'the kid'. They're Bonnie. Bonnie, who the party loves. Why is Bonnie there? Because they love them. There is no room for Bonnie in the boring RPG that Sif is playing. And then you realize that Sif is wrong, and that they've lost something extremely important, and that they'll never escape without it.

Watching the prologue before watching ISAT gave ISAT the most unique air of dread and horror, because you crack open ISAT and you see the person Sif used to be. You realize that Sif used to be a person. Sif used to be the person who made jokes, who gave real smiles, who interacted with the world as if they are a part of it. And you know you are sitting down to watch Sif lose everything that made them a person, to lose everything that made them a member of this world, and turn them into a character in a video game who doesn't understand the point of Bonnie at all.

At the climax of the game, when the others realize that something is deeply wrong and that Sif physically cannot tell them, they realize that there is nothing they can do. So Bonnie declares snacktime. And for the first time they have snacktime.

What is snacktime? Classic JRPGs don't have snacktime. There's literally no point to a snacktime - not in a video game, and not in Sif's terrible life. It's not fixing this, because nothing can fix this. But Bonnie gives Sif a cookie and Sif eats it.

It's meaningless. It's a cutscene. It didn't save Sif and it didn't change a thing. It will make no difference in the end.

But it did make the difference. It made all of the difference in the world. Bonnie is a character who you really don't understand the point of before you realize that Bonnie was the entire point.

ISAT is about comfort media. Why do we play the same video games over and over again? Why do we avoid watching the finale of our favorite shows? What is truly comforting: a story with no conflict, or a story where you always know what is about to happen? Do you want to live in a scary, uncontrollable world, or do you want to play Stardew Valley? Do you want a person or a character?

When I beat Earthbound for the first time (and if you don't know, the prologue/ISAT battle system is just Mother) and watched the ending cutscene where the characters part ways and say goodbye...I felt a little bit sad. I wanted them to be together forever. But that's something only characters could ever be.

#these aren't deep or unique thoughts they're just the specific aspect of ISAT that made it one of the most interesting gaming experiences #i actually like the prologue much more than ISAT for just this reason #its honestly a video game art piece that's created to give the player a very specific experience #that makes them an aspect of the narrative that is told #it's. incredible.#in stars and time #start again start again start again #start again: a prologue #isat #god and there is so so so so much more to say here #what a rich and complex and fascinating game that made me cry like a baby #i dont even kin sif. we arent similar at all.#i cant imagine how devastating this game would have been if i did #but I do have a deep relationship with escapsim #and i write about it a lot #and video games about being video games are wonderful #as are stories about being stories #and why we consume stories. how we use them. how they save us and hurt us.#never played a video game that used its medium so well #i bet undertales also pretty good at that but this is more so i think #stories about stories have to be about why we love stories #and im not an artsy person and i roll my eyes a bit when people talk about the spiritual neccesity of art #i think people need stories because the world is sad and hard and boring and we want to think about something else for a while.#some people need to be anywhere but here #and sometimes if you're Lil Depressed-Ass Snufkin that looks like being here forever #baby cringe-ass snufkin big hat idiot

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n--n · 11 months

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You know the saddest thing abt Mhin is that they keep their distance from everyone bc they’re scared they’ll get hurt but given all of the others are monsters both literally and metaphorically they’re technically dodging like a ton of bullets

#mhin touchstarved #touchstarved #touchstarved game #MHIN MY BELOVED #Hate how their wariness of everyone (even themselves!!!) is low-key validated by the narrative #and by hate I mean love it on a story level since you can squeeze SO MUCH angst/dramatic irony on their route out of it #but at the same time feel so bad for them #Love how tragic every character is set up to be #tbh gonna go Mhin>Kuras>Leander>Vere>Ais at this point maybe #also hate to say it but they’re right about Ais and Vere even tho I love those two #Ais does do terrible things!! Mhin just doesn’t realize Kuras and Leander don’t judge bc they have crazy skeletons in their own closet lmao #I wonder if on Mhin’s route they come to see what terrible things Kuras has done and lose a bit of that admiration for him hmmm #since Mhin despite also being a terrible person at least seems to have a code? I think it’ll really really depend on #what Kuras’s Crime Against Humanity (and Monsters) ends up being

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frootbyethefoot · 4 months

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actually sick to my stomach i love half life so much

#hl1 gameplay vs hl2 gameplay is maybe my favorite piece of storytelling in half life and its so unintentional #and is clearly just me digging too deep but i love it anyways #hl1 gameplay is so unforgiving and cruel because the game wants you to know you're some scientist with almost zero gun training #going against armed soldiers and it does not want you to forget #you have to play hl1 so differently compared to hl2 or even just a lot of fps games at the time #its a game about strategy and problem solving first and foremost #by hl2 gordon has reached the status of an old legend #a story resistance members tell in order to inspire hope and change #hl2 is so kind and forgiving combat wise compared to hl1 #and i can't help but wonder if its because the narrative has shifted around gordon so much #hes not just 'some theoretical physicist' now hes humanitys savior and final hope #sorry. what was i saying. oh yeah half life is a good series and hl2 is gonna be 20 this year.#half life

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snowberry-pie · 7 months

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love you bg3 but man act 3 you are. not the best

#bg3 #don’t get me wrong. i like the whole game. however.#act 3 is very clearly the most unpolished and has the most cut content #which i get they cut out the upper city stuff for narrative streamlining but part of me wonders whether or not it would have benefited more #from being kept in #because it seems to have done the opposite of what was intended

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beck-nightengale · 6 months

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Bitch just devoured her own soul. If that ain't metal as fuck, I don't know what is.

#let's roleplay enderal: forgotten stories #enderal #enderal forgotten stories #vynblr #jade the prophetess #the implications that you can use 'devour soul' on your own corpse but not sirius is very... hmmm...#it's probably unintentional but still kind of sus #and in case anyone is wondering how the hairstyle of her corpse looks like how it did at the beginning of the game?#editing magic that's fucking how #i am if nothing else a creature of narrative consistency #but seriously the more i play with entropy the more i kind of love it #sinistrope is sinisdope

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sleepdepravity · 8 months

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Sometimes playing uchikoshi games is just like “oh my god this is such bullshit (fondly)”

#malky plays games #ai: the somnium files #finished the second game like yesterday #sometimes the main twists I just can’t help but respect how bullshit they are #like. what the fuck. holy shit.#though it’s interesting because honestly close to the reveal #I *was* noticing odd things and then I started wondering if it would tie into #the mandala effect since characters were mentioning that #but nope! it was a different thing that was completely insane #honestly it’s interesting to see the building blocks that went into setting it up #from a narrative building perspective. maybe I’ll make a different post under a readmore to not spoil people

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aquitainequeen · 4 months

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Sometimes writing is glorious. There are moments where you puzzle endlessly on how to make a world that is so dysfunctional that it's impossible to fathom how it could actually function, and then you realise: 'Wait, it can just be this corner of the world that's this level of dysfunctional. The rest of the world is also fairly shit, ngl, but this! This is where it gets trippy!!!'

To quote James Goldman's The Lion in Winter, 'Oh god, but I do love being king!'

#On writing #My writing #Basically it's like those posts/threads where people wonder what's going on in the rest of the world #While narratives like The Hunger Games or Mad Max are happening

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rawliverandgoronspice · 9 months

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Since u've already had the topic a few times abt the way the framing in totk is. Here's another one: It feels moreso than in botw, like everyone is acting AT Link, instead of INTERACTING with him. It's like Link is there, but he barely is ever really acknowledged. Even when others talk to him, they just talk AT him. It worked more in botw maybe bc the entire game was built around Link being "new" in the world. But in totk you're meeting Link's "friends" and it just feels sterile, and like Link doesn't matter.

I think one of the issues of TotK's storytelling in general is that it often gets really busy explaining contrived lore that never really deepens the world or the characters and their relationship, and that a lot of cutscenes (in the main quest, I think sidequests are infinitely better at this and makes the world feels more lived-in) are focused on re-explaining the status quo, restating things that just happened or making strange connections between unrelated events to tell the player it's time to go from point X to point Y (thinking of the Zora questline, which got a looot of those).

So I agree that it ends up being a looot of telling, without a whole lot of showing, and even less playing (= here I mean playing as in, doing gameplay actions that are meaningful to the story, character development or themes). And Link do end up taking the blunt of it.

(the widespread use of his little "explaining" animation was kind of a huge indicator to me that maybe this game is a little too focused on re-explaining things that just happened and aren't that complicated or interesting for its own good, while also not following up on the new developments re: Fake Zelda and Dragon Zelda in a organic and revelatory way, among other things)

#asks #thoughts #totk #totk critical #link #writing #see it's hard to go at games neutral as a game writer/narrative designer #because when you start to notice patterns you Can't Unsee #it's kind of a curse honestly ;_;#(unless the game is well managed and then you marvel at everything all the time and it's wonderful)#I am Unbearable to my entourage which is partially why I don't consume media around people usually :((#sorry for being Like This #when will my brain return from the imprisoning war...

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jontheredrc · 10 months

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I watched the SAW movies when I was in high school, but they got really samey and lost my interest after awhile

but I do kinda miss how unhinged it is, because Jigsaw claims “ooh, I’m not a serial killer, I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you, you had every opportunity to not be chopped into salsa by my custom-made kill-collar that I made and then strapped on to you, you whizzed the opportunity right down your leg, you made your choice, I didn’t do anything, I’m not touching you”, and people start genuinely agreeing with that? both in the movie universe and out? fuckin genius comedy tbh

#saw #horror #jigsaw #john kramer #the last movie i saw (heh) was the one where he put health insurance agents on a merry-go-round rigged with a gun #at that point the traps had gotten comically elaborate and the narrative groaned as it bent backwards to justify the kidnapping and murder #i also played the first saw game on xb360 and it was surreal how you'd rescue someone from a jigsaw trap and they'd blame you for it #''it's your fault i'm here!'' hey! i'm not the one who put you under a swinging blade and rigged a bunch of gear puzzles to it!#this upset me when i was trying to genuinely enjoy the franchise but now that i'm ready to find it funny i wonder how far they take this bit

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thegreatyin · 6 months

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