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nian-7 · 4 months

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hello, i hope you’re having a great day!! could i request a romantic matchup for pjsk and hypmic?

i go by T, i’m a virgo, and my mbti is INTP-T

i like all kinds of art (visual arts, music, dancing) and i love video games! i mostly play rpgs and rhythm games!

i don’t like people who can never act serious and take responsibility. i also don’t like people who draw to much attention unnecessarily cause i’m pretty shy and get embarrassed easily 😓

i have trouble taking the first step to become friends with anyone, but once i get close to someone i love to spend time with them. i could talk with someone i like for hours.

while i am introverted, i like going out and exploring as long as random people aren’t paying a ton of attention to me. i guess i like to be a bystander.

with the people i’m close to, i always want to be there for them if they need me and i rarely get angry or annoyed.

(i hope this is enough for a matchup! i’ve never really made a request before, but you put so much thought into your work so i thought this would be fun. thank you so much!)

hi, T! i hope you like your matchup!

I match you with...

Nene Kusanagi!

-Nene doesn't draw much attention either and so you both have that going! She's able to act serious and once you get through to her and actually start dating, she'll show a more soft side that's behind her more seriousness.

-Both of you are introverts so it might be hard to even really 'meet' unless it was through a mutual friend like Rui. It was probably a bit awkward at first since it would take the two of you a while to warm up.

-You and Nene could both play some video games together! Maybe a new mmo came out that you're both interested in. Or maybe you both just want to play singleplayer. Either way, she enjoys talking about whatever games it might be.

I match you with...

Ichiro Yamada!

-I was going to match you with Sasara but, the big thing there was I could see way too many situations where he'd draw unnecessary attention thus here we have Ichiro!

-Ichiro can be playful or lighthearted a lot but, part of the reason I matched you with him was because he knows when to be serious but he also knows how to be more playful!

-He'll be like your extroverted boyfriend and introduce you to his friends and brothers while being there in case you get too shy to talk to them.

-Although Ichiro does draw some attention in Ikebukuro, he hopes you don't mind too much and can get used to it so you both are able to go out on dates a lot!

#nian-anon #gender neutral reader #fluff #ichiro yamada x reader #ichiro x reader #ichiro yamada #hypmic x reader #hypmic #hypnosis mic #nene kusanagi x reader #nene x reader #nene kusanagi #project sekai x reader #project sekai

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dear-wormwoods · 1 year

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What do you think the South Park characters would do in their spare time?

Generally I think the show does a pretty good job of showing what the kids’ interests and talents are currently, so I’ll expand on that with some high school/college headcanons:

Kyle: He is actually one of the harder ones to do for a couple of reasons, namely that he’s not as much of a ‘main’ character as Cartman or Stan and his storylines tend to involve him reacting to things other people are doing or being in some kind of danger or unfortunate situation. The result is that we don’t really get to see what he does in his spare time as much. Even when we see glimpses of it, he’s usually just hanging out with Ike doing what Ike likes to do or eating dinner with his family. And the few times he does express interest in something, his parents tend to act like it’s not that serious because his interests seem to be pretty fleeting - he’s super into basketball one time but never plays on the school team again, music is his LIFE for one episode but he never picks up the bass guitar again, etc. It makes sense in a way, because I think a lot of kids get really into sports or hobbies for like a year or less and then quit and never look back.

Anyway… Kyle is very close with his family and so I think he spends a lot of time with them instead of hanging out alone in his room, and I think that would continue as he gets older. I like to think he helps his mom out around the house and probably helps her cook in middle/high school and gets pretty good at it. Other than that I think he reads a lot, and plays video games (I headcanon that he sticks with MMO’s like World of Warcraft long after the other boys get bored of it). I think he’d be the most likely out of the boys to get really into journaling because he has a lot to say and a lot of feelings but no one to really talk to who would truly listen and not rag on him. At school I think he’d try debate club but wouldn’t be very good at it because he’s too reactive and can’t keep his cool (especially because Cartman would join too just to make Kyle embarrass himself). He’d definitely be in National Honor Society though, and write for the school newspaper with Jimmy. I’ve also always liked the idea of him doing track for a sport (I truly don’t like basketball Kyle because of the episode it’s ripped from). He’d get a job and do some sort of volunteer work, too, because you really need to be well rounded on college applications you know? Can’t just rely on your grades these days.

In college he’d do a work study involving kids, probably as a classroom assistant or a tutor, and continue to expand on his writing. He’d keep doing track, probably just intramural track though, and even after college he’ll go running for fun and get cardio in every god damn day. I really like the idea of Kyle writing “fictional” essays about his experiences growing up and publishing them, if he can find the time between counseling and raising a family. I also think - and maybe this goes against popular opinion - that Kyle is more likely to dabble in drugs recreationally than some of the other characters. I think he generally sticks to marijuana and non addictive hallucinogens, though. Mostly he starts smoking pot in high school and does shrooms more than once in college. Maybe he tries peyote once or twice, too. But he stops once he gets going in his career and decides to start a family.

Stan: Unlike Kyle, Stan has a lot of really obvious interests that tend to have more continuity throughout the show. These are things he’d likely stick to as a teen/young adult. I think he’d play football in the fall season and nothing in the spring to make time for his other interests. Namely, I think he’ll continue to get more into tabletop gaming and move away from playing video games too often. He probably gets into Dungeons & Dragons (he’d just be a human fighter probably named Stan the Great, because he’s not that creative, but he has a pretty good backstory for him), and he tries to get Kyle to do it too, which he might once in a while but he never gets as involved as Stan is. He doesn’t really do clubs in high school unless there’s one for tabletop gaming, but gets a job as soon as he can - something like stocking shelves at the grocery store - so he can save up to buy a car, since he gets his license first being one of the oldest in the grade. I think once he can get himself around he’d start volunteering at the local animal shelter too, taking care of and walking the dogs mostly. He continues to play the guitar and write music, but it really depends on what his mood is or what’s going on in his life - if he needs to vent or is struggling with something, he’ll spend more time on music, but if things are going well then his guitar can get a little dusty.

I think in high school but especially in college Stan would struggle a lot with creating a “healthy” (in his mind) relationship with alcohol. He really thinks he should be able to drink socially at parties, in moderation, without it becoming a problem, but it always veers into problematic territory and starts impacting his grades, which aren’t amazing to begin with. It takes a while for him to accept that he can’t party like the other guys can.

Cartman: He has a variety of interests and talents, but I think he’d end up focusing on photography, debate, and languages in high school and college. Cartman has a natural affinity for learning languages and I think his best grades would be in language classes, and he’d probably minor in a language in college (maybe Spanish, maybe German, maybe both if he can squeeze the courses in!). He’s actually pretty good at photography so he should stick to it, even if it ends up being a lot of candid shots of Kyle that he keeps in a creepy secret folder on his computer. He initially joins debate club to piss Kyle off/force time spent together but quickly discovers he’s actually really good at public speaking and willing to take on all the devil’s advocate positions other people are wary of.

Cartman is good at hockey but doesn’t play for the team because he’s lazy. He doesn’t do any sports for that reason. In fact he also doesn’t get a real job in high school for that reason, he just spends a lot of time thinking up get rich quick schemes with Butters. And he watches a ton of TV. When it comes to substances, he’s kind of a square but will drink socially at parties on the rare occasion he’s invited because he wants to fit in. But for the most part he’s judgmental about drugs and sees it as something that would hinder his success as a businessman.

Kenny: Honestly I love the idea of Kenny continuing to be Mysterion in his spare time when he’s older and genuinely being a hero who solves crimes and fights bad guys. I think in late middle school and for the first year or two of high school he’d probably waste a lot of time looking at porn. I also think because of his power he’d be more of a risk taker in terms of partying and stuff, so he probably OD’s a couple of times before deciding that just because he CAN do whatever he wants with no permanent consequences doesn’t mean he should. Eventually he buckles down in school and studies a lot with Kyle to get his grades up, realizes he actually really loves physics, and joins the school’s Robotics team and/or STEM club. He gets a job as soon as he’s old enough, works a lot of hours, more than he reasonably should, and puts every penny into savings accounts for himself and Karen. So he spends most of his spare time working in high school and college, though he does still find time to tinker and experiment and be a hero by night. Also he’s amazing at video games.

The only other character I have strong opinions on is Tweek, who I think is a man of many talents and would absolutely be a theatre kid who also likes to bake and continues to be very good at playing the piano. Basically he’s unstoppable if Craig is there to support him.

#asks #south park #kyle broflovski #stan marsh #eric cartman #kenny mccormick #sp hcs

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shiroselia · 1 year

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No actually hold tf up I’m in an opinions kinda mood so here’s my breakthrough of why I don’t think breeding would benefit SSO purely based on player count

Two issues

a) People who are casual fans or play SSO for certain reasons will definitely not like it as an implementation

b) People who want to play breeding games won’t find it here

Point A expanded: Since I’m pretty damn close to the demographic I think will consider quitting due to this feature let’s set my own situation up: I’m a full time university student, I like SSO because it’s the only MMO ever that lets me genuinely play the game solo, It’s very straight-forward and it doesn’t work on real time very much, so I like that’s it’s not that demanding and I don’t have that much time anyways.

So, let’s say that breeding will be forced co-op and work on real time (genuine concerns that have been brought up by other people), well, first and foremost, it would be weird for Star Solo Online to suddenly make the player forced to work together, currently the only time that has ever happened is for a fucking cosmetic collector item (one of the stars in Harvest County, and stars don’t matter for shits), it has never happened for anything that actually matters. Now let’s say that that’s a really big positive for you, what would happen if you were suddenly completely forced to cooperate with other players to even Use a feature? Let’s drag that even further; I’ve personally brought up the concern that breeding is a core mechanic in every game it appears in. And by that I mean that I think it’d be a bad fit into SSO because we already have a core horse getting feature, meaning that breeding is either doomed to be a tack-on, or SSE are forced to make it as important as buying horses, or make it the Main way we get horses now (which is already fucking ridiculous after a fucking decade of one core mechanic but that’s another point). So. Let’s say I’m now a) forced to put effort into getting horses that I didn’t have to previously b) I’m forced to work with other players, which I didn’t previously. Meaning that my core way of playing SSO suddenly isn’t valid anymore. And this is such a big part of the game core that if it changes how the game works too much, people will suddenly have their playstyles invalidated, and they will either choose to change that either against their will or becase they don’t mind, or they will quit because the game isn’t for them anymore. Now let’s add the other point, real time.

Only the perfectly skippable seasonal events or the championships ever work on real time in this game. And while the events are usually fun (unless you’re Halloween 2022) they are NOT a core gameplay feature and the are NOT mandatory. Likewise the championships, they’re option and give you cosmetic, useless items (because being a money grind isn’t an actual use when that’s just a player made invention). Now let’s say we implement breeding with real time (as in a time system based on the real world time, like the events), and I’m going a little worst case scenario here but others have done it so why can’t SSE. What happens if I, super busy university student, is suddenly forced to log in every for something from a week to months plural to get a foal? And what if the foal is something I don’t even want? (I know they said no gambling but a) that can mean many a thing and b) there are other issues that can be caused by breeding that aren’t rng related) Well that’s wasted fucking time. Either I can’t breed as often as other players because it takes ages to gain a new horse, and I don’t have that time. Or I can’t breed as much because it might requite daily log-in (for you flight rising peeps you will know what I mean by this). People don’t have the time to log in 24/7 just to maintain a feature that might suddenly have replaced a quick and straightforward feature, or is just not worth it because it’s not that major, or it’s not worth it because it eats at my time that I have to spend maintaining real life. Either way, depending on how you do it, you might just not be able to use the feature unless you adventure your real life obligations. And either way real time takes a lot more of your, well, time. Maybe I won’t find the feature worth it, especially if it replaces the purchasing. This especially goes for us casual players. If I’m already barely playing why the fuck should I log in to use a feature actively incompatible with my playstyle? Welp guess I’m playing even less.

(Also this is a good place to bring up that these things will be more or less of a problem depending on How they implement the feature in the end but that’s why I’m working on many hypotheticals because there’s many ways to do breeding)

Point B Expanded Upon: (And I think this will be an issue Literally no matter how the feature is implemented)

SSO is not a horse breeding game. It never has been. It probably won’t be even after the feature is inevitably introduced. As I’ve said more times than needed, SSO is not Built on breeding, and even if they god forbid Force it to become the main horse getter mechanic, it still won’t be a horse breeding game. SSO is an MMO focused on, at its core, quests and story. You have ten billion other things in SSO other than the horse getting. Even if breeding is added, it won’t be the focus.

What I’m saying with this is that if you want to catch more players to play your game with breeding I don’t think it’s gonna have much of an effect. Breeding mains certainly fucking don’t see SSO as a game cathering to them, and neither do SSO players. But lets say that breeding gets added in 20whatever. And let’s say I’m a horse breeder main.

I see SSO has added breeding and go “Oh maybe that’s actually for me now.”

A few scenarios.

SSE ads it as a tack-on, it’s not a main feature, but it exists. A few problems; Breeding game mains want a game that’s Focused on breeding, they realize SSO is not this, and they quit on the spot. Maybe they do think the breeding is nice and would like to try it out, however; Maybe breeding is level locked or quest locked. And suddenly this might not be what you want. “Oh I have to do these other mandatory things I don’t even want to because I’m required to do it to get what I want? But I don’t give a fuck about quests :(” SSO is an MMO. SSO is not a breeding game. And adding a feature alone does not change your core, even if you try to force it. Quests will always be the main focus of this game, and someone starting SSO for breeding alone will very soon realize this. As in; Either they go “I was wrong” and quit on the spot, or try to play the game, quests and all, and realize “Nah fuck this this is not what I want.”

Point being, players who come for breeding might not stay for a multitude of reasons. Because maybe they don’t like the rest of the game which they might be forced to participate in. Or, let’s say they don’t Mind the quests, but maybe the breeding system just. kinda sucks. The promised absence of RNG alone will fundamentaly change how SSE might implement the feature. And while RNG being removed might be promising for breeders, the rest of it might not be enough. Say it’s just an optional tack on; It might not be deep enough for certain players, it might not be with a system they enjoy, maybe it takes too much time for no reward, maybe it costs too much so new players can’t afford it anyways. (And lbr, it *will* cost star coins, no matter what anyone says, this will definitely cost star coins because otherwise they, god forbid, lose money) And maybe they don’t wanna invest REAL MONEY in a game they just started just to try a feature out that might not be what you expected and SUDDENLY you’ve wasted money, which is definitely something that keeps new players around (lie).

Even worse, maybe you have to wait EVEN LONGER to actually use the feature you want to try out because it might be locked behind already owning horses. Or maybe it takes too long in real time to get a foal. Wasted time AND money for a game you “just wanted to check out”. And wasting a new players time and maybe money is not a good way to keep them around. Which once again, SSO is not a breeding game and won’t be even after the feature is implemented. Meaning that you probably won’t catch breeding game mains because that’s not what you are and you can’t provide them what they want without them investing time and money in your game. If I have to wait any longer than minutes to try out a feature in a game I feel nothing for, that I’m just checking out, 90% of players will quit. The human attention span is 7 seconds, you sure aren’t making any new players care if you have to wait weeks or even months depending on how much real money you cash in. And that’s before the potential length of waiting for a foal. Point being, this feature won’t catch a single fucking new player unless they’re inhumanly patient.

TLDR: Just because SSO *has* breeding now does not mean that the breeding game mains even care, nor stick around. And while you can never satisfy everyone, I think we all know that SSE would atleast Appreciate catching some breeder mains, but that doesn’t mean they’ll keep them. Not to mention the very real scenario of existing players jumping ship because the game might fundamentally change in a way which they do not desire.

And either fucking way, trying to pull new players in by either a tack-on or a shoed in “main” feature that can be implemented in 10 billion different ways seems a little high risk low reward to me. Especially cause it kinda relies on them also liking your Actual main feature, quests. Don’t be fooled, SSO will never be a breeding game.

#sso #Main tagging this even #I can not overstate #I think this is a stupid addition and while I want to be proven wrong I don't think I will be

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curestardust · 11 months

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Dust Watched: Aggressive Retsuko Season 05

Genres: Comedy, Social Commentary // 10 episodes // S01 (x) | S02 (x) | S03 (x) | S04 (x)

Seeing as this is the alleged (I don’t trust anything Netflix says) last season of Aggretsuko, I thought a normal essay format would be better to express my frustrations with the run of this show.

If you asked me what I thought of Aggretsuko in the beginning I would’ve said without reservation that it’s one of the best anime out there. Unfortunately, with each season, it was beginning to be more and more difficult to recommend this show and this final season was the worst kind of icing on the cake.

Season 5 has some incredibly great moments sandwiched inbetween incredibly dull and non-sensical moments that ruin the flow and make the ultimately great message of this season get lost among everything going on.

I guess it speaks to how much I cared for Haida and Retsuko’s relationship that I didn’t even bat an eye to the fact that they’re dating from the very beggining of this season despite the last season ending on an (another) will-they-won’t-they moment. I never thought the two of them had much chemistry but the show was pushing them so hard that it was pretty much a given that they would end up together.

Haida having suffered a basically complete character assassination in Season 4, turning him from a wet tissue paper to an *annoying* wet tissue paper, almost made me give up on S05 from the second it began as we start out with Haida having taken over as the protagonist. This only lasts a few episodes but these few episodes surprisingly turned out to be the best this season had to offer. Alas, this plot thread still isn’t carried by Haida, but a new character.

Haida, who is now unemployed, spends his days playing a gacha MMO (the horror) where he hangs out with another player called Shikabane. We’re shown one scene of him being sucked into spending a shitton of money on some gacha pulls, which plays a lot less importance than it could have, and on top of that he is getting kicked out of his apartment as his family who’ve been letting him live there for free found a tenant.

This puts us into one of the best short arcs from the whole anime. Haida decides to live in an internet café where he actually ends up meeting Shikabane in person. She is a 21 year old girl, who actually does “live” in a net café. She has no house, nor has any interest in subjecting herself to the fake facade people need to put on in a “normal” 9-5, instead living off of occasional freelance work and sleeping in a net café. But.. is that really what she thinks? Put a pin in that.

From here-on I’ll speedrun the rest of the season with SPOILERS upcoming.

Haida gets himself a gruelling physical job that pays like shit, suffers a bit, Retsuko and gang find out about it, he moves in with her, there’s like 1 episode focusing on how their relationship isn’t sunshine and rainbows, while we get some scenes of how Haida struggles with getting hired (put a pin in that n.2).

The second actual arc is bonkers and starts way too late into the season for it to have a satisfactory conclusion. Haida and Retsuko meet Haida’s family, we find out his dad is a politician and his other son, Jiro, will be running in the election for their Ward instead of him. Meanwhile, Retsuko’s former idol group are hamfisted into the story for no other reason than to force the other half of the plot to happen. A politician from the “Rage Party” saw Retsuko’s death voice videos and thought that she could represent today’s society’s Rage and win a seat for the declining party. Thus a few episodes are spent on FORCING Retsuko to take part in the running against Jiro, we get some minimal social commentary on what this Rage is (put a pin in that n.3).

Then, I kid you not, we get literally 5 seconds of some papers flashing that Retsuko and Haida are getting married (????), the vote (Retsuko lost), Shikabane apparently being convinced to “get her life together” from a single karaoke session, Haida getting a job (we don’t even know where or what!).... and. That’s it. The final scene is a looping back to the beginning of the whole anime. Retsuko being smooshed in the train while on her way to her normal office job.

Yeah, so, this season was messy enough as is but as a final season, it was even worse. The pacing was catastrophic, it was too slow where it should’nt have been and too fast where things happened we actually would’ve cared about (the marriage??? hello???).

But really, my main disappointment comes from those few moments where the show shines like it used to.

Aggretsuko might be a comedy but it’s just as much a social commentary. Now, the names of generations and how they are seperated differs from country to country but for the ease of things I’ll just use the western categorization.

Retsuko’s original premise is what life is like for “millenials” starting out at their first traditional jobs. How the previous generation still rules how things should be done, the power structure, the fake facade, the overtime. While not exactly translating to the west, it’s an incredibly relatable setting for the generation who was in the same shoes as Retsuko and the show itself explores all of it quite well in the first 2 seasons.

The following seasons became more bonkers, focusing less and less on the office or realistic scenarios and more on the comedy from outside sources. It was easy to kind of forget just how grounded the show used to be.

That’s where Shikabane comes in. Shikabane represents the new generation who just hit adulthood, or as we know them, Gen Z. I’m a late millenial myself, but I definitely saw a lot of how I think but especially how my younger sisters think about the world as it is now.

There is no planning for retirement, planning on buying a house or a car, settling down to have the perfect family while working a traditional job.A lot of young adults have lost hope and the drive to make a future for themselves because they cannot see how it would be possible in today’s climate. Surviving one day to the next, with no particular goal in sight, because it seems impossible. Working a 9-5, putting on a fake smile, abandoning your own personality and *hating* every second of it just to make enough to live paycheck to payckeck is something a lot of them refuse to do. But at the same time, the world is still run by the same people it was 50 years ago. Times have changed so much but they themselves refuse to change. Society is afraid of change. So what else is there to do but... give up?

That is the story you can see told through Shikabane. And in the final episode there’s a metaphorical “torch pass” between her and Retsuko. “My life isn’t what people need to see now. It’s yours.”

And despite how many problems I had with this season, despite how I wish it ended seasons ago, I’m glad Shikabane exists today because she reminded me of what I loved about this show in the beginning.

I wish I could bid farewell to this show in a better way but hey, it is what it is. And for every Shikabane out there; keep fighting.

My Rating: 4/10

#aggretsuko #aggressive retsuko #dusty reviews #if y'all liked it im glad ok!!! but i have a mouth and i must RAGE #edit: i ended up finishing this at 5am so the last part got really sappy #i made myself sad

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autumnslance · 2 years

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Hey, just got a writing question when it comes to fanfic. How do you balance "leave most of the setting out since everyone knows what it is" vs "explain it anyways for reasons like making it known to non-fan readers"?

This got long again, and I’m hoping I answered the question, or at least gave some ideas on where to begin and what to consider when trying to balance narrative and descriptions in fic writing (or any other kind). Coming from someone who used to terribly overwrite my descriptions, no less; I like to think I’ve gotten better that over the years!

When writing fanfic, I tend to assume my audience will be primarily of that fandom, so if writing a FFXIV fic, I shouldn't have to go into too much detail on what a moogle of that setting looks like...unless it's my point of view character's first time ever seeing one, and their perception of that creature will be revealing of not only the moogle, but also how they see people, how they describe them, what they pay attention to.

So some of it is going to be up to the point of view character; what do they focus on, in terms of sights, sounds, smells, but also random facts, trivia, history, knowledge they have?

Like in original fiction, how much is too much to get the point across to the readers without bogging down the narrative in too many setting details Victor Hugo-style? A lot of times, writing fanfic setting and character info can be done just like in original fiction, with a lean on slightly lesser, as there is canon material the reader can reference if confused, or simply curious.

Can also depend on how close to canon one is hewing, or if one’s doing completely alternate universe set ups, where you’re going to have to delve deeply into those changes to environment and people anyway.

When it comes to fandom, we do have room to play around, particularly in an MMO setting; the game world is a small representation of the places the characters inhabit, a condensed view of important points, it’s all a visual shorthand. There are places beyond the walkable map, certainly, but also in the maps themselves; those villages, farms, fortresses, houses...none of it's actually sustainable by itself, and many places we know have rooms or spaces we never access. It's only showing us what's needed for story (and developer ease, as well as time; you don’t actually want realistic travel of days or weeks, after all).

The rest is headcanon; so in those cases, I may take some time to describe how I see for example the set up of the Rising Stones outside of the public areas we get in game; how are the Scions' personal chambers handled? How would I describe it for each character? Thancred's room isn't going to look like Y'shtola's, after all; they will reflect the characters' personalities (and again filtered through characters’ POVs, even if the POV is that NPC). How much do I need to describe to get across Thancred's current mood, depending on expansion?

I've spent a lot of time going over game maps, screenshots, and descriptions of Eorzea as it was in 1.0 for some of my stories set pre-Calamity; in those cases, things are similar, but just "off" enough to require descriptions (like the shifting of the aetheryte location in Limsa). But I don’t have to get it 100% accurate either; I can headcanon a lot, and really, who’s going to check up on it as “wrong” more than a decade later?

I'm also currently struggling in a story I'm writing for a fanzine with how much of the NPC's backstory do I reiterate in the intro. I have only 2500 words to get my story across, and have already sacrificed quite a bit. But there are elements I'm working on in the main story where reiterating his history, even in short, makes some sense. Again, I know given the nature of this zine, most people picking it up will likely be familiar with the NPC's background, but my spin on that for this particular tale has an impact. A few other writers for the same fanzine are having to make similar choices, for their own takes on the character, their own stories, to meet both deadline and word count.

Some things can be skimmed over, if trying to keep things short, and trusting the audience to either pick up context clues, look it up, or already be familiar. Sometimes one might pepper in things like mentioning Snowlight is a chocobo in the first paragraph, the next time I mention Snowlight a couple paragraphs down I might include short description of bird-like features or sounds, as a way to break up the info but also give context and reminders. I do the same when writing Miqo’te; I may mention their race or clan, but as they talk to other characters, their ears and tails are mentioned as part of their reactions and pointing out their mood and how they say things. My POV characters after all usually know what a Seeker is, so I don’t have to say “X’rhun’s a person with cat ears and a tail” and try to describe his eyes and the marks on his face. The POV will just note his expression (maybe his craggy brow furrowing deeper in thought), how his ears flatten when annoyed, how his tail twitches, woven through the conversation.

This works even in original fiction; a lot of times, a writer might offhand mention specifics of the setting mixed in with the mundane/familiar, expecting the reader to get context clues. I don’t have to describe every detail of Limsa’s docks; a few descriptive words of the city (perhaps the white stones, the boardwalks between islands, the sight/sounds of the crowd, the taste of the salty air, the warmth of the sun, the smell of fish and wet wood and some rot, mixed across a couple paragraphs as my characters act and talk), a few mentions of common things in any port, and the idea gets through even if it’s set in a magical world.

Somewhere there's a Rule of Threes*; you don't want to have much more than 3 descriptors for a specific thing, usually meant to limit over-describing things like a character's appearance (especially trying to avoid long-winded descriptions of eyes, hair, figure, and so on). It can also be applied to other elements where you don't want to bog yourself down, or need to parcel out information over the course of the scene or story, not all in one lump at the start, and encourages finding strong words/phrasing to remain concise instead of rambling.

So it kind of becomes a blend of 1. PoV character; their perceptions and personality, how and what they describe and why. 2. Headcanons for expanding the world we see in game, adding in logical information that should exist but doesn't due to engine limits. 3. How do I describe my own spin on a known element? 4. How much is it bogging down the narrative? Can I space out my descs? Use stronger wording and phrases? Cut some and trust my readers? 5. If this is for a challenge/zine/etc, do I have a word count requirement and deadline?

If you feel you want to include screenshots or art to break up the text and give visuals that can work too (but then you may have to include alt text to describe the pic for those using screenreaders...). But overall, find a balance, parcel it out, and trust the readers to fill in what they don’t know with their own imaginations. Cuz they will anyway.

---

*Like every creative writing "rule" (they’re more whatcha’d call guidelines), this can be bent or broken as needed, once one has an understanding of why it's there to begin with.

#Lyn Prompts #Writing #Fanfiction #Description #Setting #Characters #Narrative

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late-to-the-fandom · 1 year

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🎲 If your OC played a pen and paper RPG, what class would they pick? Warrior, mage, thief, ranger, cleric, paladin, druid, necromancer, bard (or other, if that’s not enough).

🎮 If your OC lives or would live in the modern world, would they like video games? What would be their favorite game?

👎 Is there someone your OC can’t stand, despite them being on the same side or sharing basic values?

🌈 Does your OC speak more than one language? If so, how many and which?

For your an OC of your choice <3

All right, I really loved these and couldn’t decide who to do them for so I did both the Maw Walker and Renathal

🎲 If your OC played a pen and paper RPG, what class would they pick? Warrior, mage, thief, ranger, cleric, paladin, druid, necromancer, bard (or other, if that’s not enough).

The Maw Walker would be a warrior. She is secretly embarrassed she’s quite terrible at hand to hand combat, and in a fantasy life she’d love to rectify that.

Renathal would want to be something close to what he already is which is … did anyone decide? Warrior? Thief? Death Paladin? Idk he’d probably want to invent a hybrid something that matched his perception of himself

🎮 If your OC lives or would live in the modern world, would they like video games? What would be their favorite game?

The Maw Walker would play the sort of video games that had no specific aim or were open world. She wouldn’t play anything with a PvP or competitive element. She would play the shit out of Animal Crossing.

Renathal would say he only plays for fun, but be secretly stupid competitive. He would play those sort of popular mmo pvp games like League, Overwatch, etc, but he’d only play until he started to lose. I think he’d also enjoy a good puzzle game in his spare time, but if no one else he knows plays the game he loses interest (if no one can see his achievements they don’t count).

👎 Is there someone your OC can’t stand, despite them being on the same side or sharing basic values?

The Maw Walker dislikes the Kirin Tor, honestly for no good reason except a basic mistrust of governing bodies and arcanists who think they know better than everyone else. Renathal doesn’t like pretty much all the other Harvesters except the Curator. The Accuser is a great example of someone he respects but who is just too different to ever be real friends with. He’s also not overly fond of any of the Kyrian Contingent (although again, he respects their purpose).

🌈 Does your OC speak more than one language? If so, how many and which?

The Maw Walker is a prodigy with languages. In spite of her relatively brief time with the Horde, she’s earned ambassador status, and speaks other alliance languages too (plus neutral languages). Once heard, always remembered is her and languages (but she’s fucked if she needs to remember someone��s face).

Renathal speaks no other languages. When people die, souls end up all speaking the same sort of Shadowlands Allspeak, so he’s never had to learn any other languages. The Maw Walker does make fun of him for this, yes (imagine being older than time and speaking only the language you were born with)

Thank you for the asks, sorry I doubled up 😅

#ask games #writing games #my writing #renathal x maw walker #headcanons

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dragon-snoots-a-boopin · 1 year

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Ranking The MMOs I’ve Played

This is similar to the post I did ranking Call Of Duty games and this time I am going to be doing it for the MMOs I’ve played. This will be shorter since I’ve only played five of them, so I’ll talk a bit about what I like and dislike about each one. Three will be my least favorite and one is my favorite.

#5-RuneScape

A friend recommended I try this because it’s free even though he himself isn’t a fan due the game being too grindy. Myself, however, there were a few reason why I didn’t like this. One is that there are too many tutorials because there are too many systems in the game. Two is that everything is just really slow like walking and combat.

#4-Tower Of Fantasy

I still don’t believe that this game is an MMO but their official website labels it as an MMORPG so it gets to be on the list. I honestly just got bored of the game. It’s really just an okay game that I honestly never saw another player while I would be playing. It’s still more fun to me than Genshin Impact but I just got bored and stopped playing it.

#3-Lost Ark

If you’ve seen my recent post about this game, then you know my frustrations with it. It is a very fun game. I like the combat and I like a lot of the animations for the magic attacks. I had a lot of fun playing and wish I could again but I will not until the game is fixed.

#2-Star Wars: The Old Republic

I like Star Wars and MMOs and this one seemed all to perfect to try this one out. There’s a lot about SWTOR I like the standout has to be the dialogue options and interactions between my character and other NPCs. I love how I can be nice or an out right piece of shit to them and it’s great. The only thing I’m not a fan of is the combat is just a little slow for my liking.

#1-The Elder Scrolls Online

This is probably obvious especially when I have over a thousand hours in the game. There’s so much I love about ESO. There’s a ton of quests to do. Getting to explore all the various locations in Tamerial is just so awesome. Making a house that one can be proud of. I’m in guilds that are just great and helpful. Personally, the part of ESO I don’t like and will never participate in is PVP but that’s really it.

#video games #the elder scrolls online #star wars the old republic #runescape #mmorpg #lost ark #tower of fantasy

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caulo · 2 years

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@watchingforcomets

not to advertize the hyperfixation that consumed my life, but they've been adapting the game a lot over the past few years! they're slowly making all of the dungeons soloable (they have the main A Realm Reborn story done, and some of the later dungeons), and they've been adjusting quests in the early story to make it tighter paced and less of a slog. i've heard good things about it! if it's the gameplay you aren't into though, can't help with that sgjfkhsglsh. but maybe watching a movie would work! tho honestly... especially in the early story, ESPECIALLY with the english dub, cutscenes Aren't All That Great, and imo most of the impact of the game comes from like. getting invested in your little character - tho that's my personal take and i have friends who are just happy not caring about their toon.

but yeah, early english dub is.... rough. like, made me really really dislike a good few characters, because the acting was just... bad? i heard japanese is better tho! and there's a lot of fetch quests. but they've been tightened up. but yeah, the later story (from the first expansion on)... well, i have way too many hours on this game over the past three years. obviously i'm INTO it lmao. but if it isn't for you... that's fine too!!

my last attempt to get into ffxiv was summer of last year, so i think i was already playing when a lot of those changes were going through!

i believe i made it to post-heavensward, so i was definitely past the slog of ARR that a lot of people warned me about. unfortunately, given how far into the content i’ve gotten, i’m inclined to believe this it is simply a ‘not for me’ situation.

cut for rambling, if you’d like to read my long thoughts on it. but the tldr; the game has never hooked me for a number of reasons, but it’s hard to say if ‘stress from subscription fees’ isn’t the only one that really matters.

when i said that i can believe there’s a compelling story to invest into if you’re not distracted by everything else, the main ‘distracting’ things for me are:

1. the paid sub is unavoidably the largest issue for me, because i’d play the game just to craft and hang out with friends otherwise lol ( i love fishing in the game dkjalfj ). it’s a constant stressor and source of anxiety, where i feel like i need to be playing and getting the most out of the game, all the time, or i am wasting not only that month’s sub fee, but the money i’ve already paid before. this makes me feel like i’m wasting time if i’m not getting a fulfilling experience, which leads to me rushing through in an effort to find something worth investing in, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts when the main selling point of the game is its story. i can’t really enjoy the pay off of long-term storytelling when i feel compelled to rush through the slower parts. so i’m basically constantly being pulled out of the world by this real-life factor.

2. that said.... i feel like the storytelling is regularly in conflict with its medium, as the flow of gameplay, cutscenes, and ‘cutscenes’ ( as in, events where you are clicking through people’s dialogue ) is very messy. i don’t mind the voice acting .....usually. but pacing and tension gets cut a lot by the way the game is constantly stopping for long periods of time to give you information. and while i have plenty of ideas of how that could maybe be improved on, i actually think this it is something that i could embrace easily enough if not for point #4, because i have enjoyed plenty of games that.... we’ll say struggle with the concept of being an ‘interactive storytelling medium’ lol.

3. i just don’t like the game balance. i don’t mind the gameplay itself - actionbar games aren’t my favorite, but i can enjoy them - and i don’t have a problem with the MMO holy trinity. but i am a support player in games like these, and ffxiv’s healing classes are..... not interesting or satisfying to play to me in that specific vein, because it feels like they kind of didn’t bother making them interesting in a supportive style, by just opting to make healers hybrid damage dealers instead. when i learned that, even playing a white mage, i’m responsible for a considerable amount of DPS in dungeons/raids, my interest in that entire aspect of the game died pretty much on the spot because that’s not...... what i play a healer for lsdkjflk

which isn’t to say i’m against min/maxing or anything. if there’s no supporting to be done in a moment, it makes sense to do damage, but the gameplay loop of even the most supportiest-of-support classes + the fights themselves in ffxiv are designed with too much expectation of focusing on DPS for my liking. and obviously the single player PVE is nothing special. SO, being unable to invest in the story, i find myself also unable to look forward to the gameplay content that unlocks from progressing.

4. is just that the all of the above are in one game. i’m inclined to believe i could enjoy ffxiv if i only felt two of the three points. because i enjoyed WoW ( which also has #1 and #2 ), and i enjoyed Guild Wars 2 ( which has #3 sortakinda in the sense that ‘everybody can do everything’ to such an extent that, at least last time i played, your choice of play style felt very impact-less in dungeons ).

as is, i entered the game excited for some of the late game content i’ve seen videos of, but lost that excitement when i realized there wasn’t a job with a playstyle i’d enjoy while doing that content. and i had a roleplay blog for ysayle, because i was invested in her character/writing with some friends . . . and then i accidentally skipped her death cutscene because i had so little patience for the game’s actual methods of storytelling at that point LOL

i could, maybe, try approaching the game with more investment in my player character, but i don’t think that would work for me very well. i’ve never found much to enjoy about how MMOs approach your player character’s ‘special-ness’. even when i was playing with the most patience for trying to embrace the game and taking everything at face value, seeing my ‘warrior of light’ as anything more than a filler character for things to happen to/experience the story through wasn’t something i experienced.

but it seems like #1 is the point that’s most likely to maybe change for me one day. it’s basically the opposite situation of how i’ve learned to unstuck myself from predatory mobile games LOL. every now and then when i’m playing a game with in-app purchases, i ask myself ‘if i had infinite money to put towards it, would i still enjoy anything about this game?’ and if not, then chances are i’m not playing out of enjoyment of the game itself. but with ffxiv, if i had infinite money to put towards it, i’d just enjoy trying all the features of the game without stressing about the subscription service skjfldf

if i’m ever in a financial situation where i feel like i can throw $10 a month at something and not feel like garbage for not wringing out every cent of that, maybe then i can give the game a more laid-back, patient approach that would allow me to get drawn into the story. and happily grind away at crafting alongside it LOL

#watchingforcomets #annoying high pitch ringing in your ears #the only thing i have a subscription for ( unless you count like ...... bills LOL ) is discord nitro #which i value for the practical purpose of sending files and all the 'fun' stuff is just a side bonus #i can very easily fall victim to individual micro-transactions but subscription fees send my anxiety into overdrive #so if i could trick myself into seeing ffxiv's monthly sub as just $10 to get a thing #rather than paying $10 to start a timer then maybe. . ... ....#OH wait i forgot i do have one other sub - i pay for the switch family plan thing for myself and my friend group once a year haha

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thebmatt · 1 year

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Gonna go on a bit of a WoW ramble just because I need to get these thoughts down somewhere. Skip if you aren’t interested.

Dragonflight launched today. It’s the first expansion in the game’s history I haven’t been hyped for. I feel like I should have been. Like I shoulda resubbed for the prepatch to get everyone’s new talent trees situated and their hotbars setup, done the pre-patch event for gear and testing out possible new mains (like I ever didn’t come back to mage) and trying to figure out how my personal headcanons would fit into the overall next narrative chapter.

But then I would always stop myself and think “Do I really want to do this? Am I going to play this expansion? Is this a narrative setting I feel like I can jump back into?” and then I would stop myself. Because the answer to those is “no, not really”.

FFXIV has changed me. I knew I wanted the kind of narrative-driven MMO it is, but until I tried it, I had no idea that it existed over here. A cohesive unified story leveling experience that you can’t “outlevel” and move on to the current story. One that doesn’t lock major story developments behind raiding, but absolutely offers optional (and really freaking good) story content if you’re willing to do it.

I can’t imagine being a longtime XIV player and trying WoW now. “Wait, we don’t finish this story chapter? We’re just expected to drop this whole plot and move on?”

That’s to say nothing of the narrative inconsistencies that are marked by mass upheavals in the writing teams with little care for what came before. Shadowlands’ depiction of WoW’s afterlife lore absolutely just broke me. For one, they never bothered to be consistent on “Are the four covenants the only afterlives or are their unlimited others?” and even if the answer is “the latter is true” they certainly don’t back that up with the rest of the story. Three of the four afterlives are kinda horrifying to end up in, let’s be real, You become an unreasting dead soldier in a neverending war, you end up being tortured until you break, or you become an angel that loses all sense of its former self and culture.

And the less we talk about the Jailer/Sylvanas/Anduin/Arthas’ epilogue....the better.

I’m told that Dragonflight is moving very far away from all of the neverending gameplay systems that require completely separate grinds and the “borrowed power” concept, and I get that they’re putting in a bit of a timeskip to move us as far from the events of Shadowlands as realistically possible.

But I see no evidence they’re moving away from WoW’s many many narrative mistakes. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think they have any intention to. It’s never been a priority for them enough.

And now that I know there’s better out there, I don’t see a reason to go back. But heavens help me, I really do miss all my characters that I left behind.

I think I would like to close out this chapter in a narrative format. Something where the Old Man and Old Lady Franks are able to say their goodbyes to their friends on Azeroth. Maybe get a bit of closure on Dahkar’s (the troll archmage, not the Au ra) illness.

#World of Warcraft #bmatt thoughts

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lotrojourney · 2 years

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1, 10, 30, 39?

LOTRO ask game!

(I’m going to do both 38 and 39 because I have A LOT of opinions on the soundtrack, you have been warned.)

1 - How did you first get into LotRO? Do you remember when you started playing?

Aw man, I remember I started playing in the summer of 2014 when I’d just turned 13 and had no idea how MMOs worked but loved Tolkien to bits. I don’t remember exactly how I found out about LOTRO, but I’m pretty sure it’s just the fact that I like games and I like Tolkien that led me to it by chance on an internet search. My first character was a Burglar? A Hunter? Named Bronvien who never made it out alive from the server closures in Snowbourn. I’ve kept her there since out of posterity and remembrance, but maybe I’ll transfer her to Crickhollow or Landroval when transfers are open again, or remake her entirely.

10 - Do you have any favorite reputation faction(s)?

Anything Rangers-related has my heart, they’ve been there since the beginning and continue to be a huge part of the game, so I make it a point to get to max rep with them whenever I can. A few other factions that are especially memorable to me the most are the Riders of Stangard, Men of Dunland, the Wilderfolk and the Grey Mountains Expedition!

30 - Do you take a lot of screenshots? (have any to show off?)

Absolutely, have these from some of my favourite outfit photoshoots! (Also going to shamelessly plug my outfit blog that’s going to be updated with new outfits very soon!)

38 - Do you have any favorite soundtracks from around the game?

Buckle up kiddos, y’all are about to hear some OPINIONS.

First off, I need to write a disclaimer, because absolutely nothing will ever top the Riders of Rohan and Helm’s Deep soundtrack for me, so anything from those two expansions are immediately off the table, but I’m still going share one favourite track from each of those regardless so you know where I’m coming from.

So to start, here are my two favourite tracks from Riders of Rohan and Helm’s Deep:

Riders of Rohan - Roaming Free I feel like if I had to pick one track that encapsulates Rohan, this is THE track. The chorus!!! The strings!!! I love everything about this so much and this reason I spend so much time in Rohan, even at level cap.

Helm’s Deep - Across the Divide On the other end of the spectrum, we have something more somber and foreboding. This one just tugs at my heart strings so much, and knowing what’s about to go down in Helm’s Deep makes it all the more oh-so-deliciously-tragic.

Anyway, there’s a lot of tracks that I love, but since so many of them are pretty well-known and beloved (like this dreamy track from Evendim), I’m going to talk about the tracks that I always stop to listen to and don’t think get enough attention:

Siege of Mirkwood - Gathbúrz A lowkey number that is only played in very specific parts of Southern Mirkwood. A hauntingly beautiful and dark track that ebbs and flows and keeps you on your toes as you approach Dol Guldur. I can listen to this one for days. I once accidentally put this on my phone speaker during class but it was so quiet and understated I didn’t notice it for a good half an hour.

Rise of Isengard - Nan Curunír variation Such a strong and memorable piece! The moment the trumpet and drums came in, I was hooked. It’s mysterious and menacing, but at the same time very grounded. It lets you know that it’s there and doesn’t shy away from being bold without being obnoxious.

Minas Morgul - The Sons of Isildur A gentle but powerful track that really captures the former glory of the Kings of Gondor. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had something so soft but so regal. This one’s not in a hurry, and carries with it a certain weight and grandiose amplified by the soft drums in the background. I have a lot of feelings about Minas Morgul and it shows.

Where Dragons Dwell - Memories of Tharrazhâr I don’t think I’ve heard a more beautiful track since Riders of Rohan, Bill Champagne really hit it out of the park with this one. There’s hope and desperation in equal measure in this track, it’s a whole journey rolled into five minutes and forty-two seconds. I remember playing through the expansion back in April 2020 in the middle of the pandemic and just being awed by the music and how well it fit Ered Mithrin and the writing.

And now with some honourable mentions:

Riders of Rohan - LOTRO Legacy This one holds so many memories for me, it was the menu music when I first started playing. It used to catch me off guard with how LOUD it was but now that it’s gone, I miss it dearly whenever I’m not running around in the Gap of Rohan.

Mines of Moria - We Cannot Get Out Whenever I get tired of Moria, this one picks me right back up. This one’s like a gulp of fresh air and a glass of cold water when you’ve been underground for way too long.

Shadows of Angmar - Prancing Pony variation A delightful little jig that warms my heart, this is the one I keep in my Breeland houses.

39 - Are there any soundtracks you particularly dislike?

All of the following should not be taken as seriously as my “soundtracks that I like” essay review. I’ve had plenty of “girl why do you hate fun” discussions about the game with my best friend of 13 years and counting who also plays LOTRO, in which the soundtrack was brought up plenty of times. There may be some hot takes.

Shadows of Angmar - The Dunedain I actually like this track a lot, but the thing is this only plays in short bursts in so many “save the Rangers” and “fight by the Rangers” instances that it’s left somewhat of a bad taste in my mouth. It’s like only having the smallest crumb from the crust of your favourite pie. I LIKE this track. A LOT. But it’s just never played in full enough for me to appreciate it while playing the game, so I ended up listening to it outside of the game. No, seriously, I have it saved in my music folder so I can listen to it offline.

Pretty much everything that plays in Gondor EXCEPT THIS BELFALAS TRACK To me, every single track (except that one track) in Gondor feels...garish, gaudy, and intrusive. Everything is just too much and over-elaborate for me to enjoy. I’m also willing to give this Dol Amroth track a pass, but it’s on thin ice.

Shadows of Angmar - War Pipes I liked this track, until I didn’t. Incidentally, I also hate doing the Trouble in Tuckborough instance because I keep getting turned around in the dark in the godawful urban planning of The Shire. It’s not very fun trying to find your way around Tuckborough in the dark with bagpipes blasting in your ears. If it weren’t for Trouble in Tuckborough, I’d like this track more.

Elf music in general, unless there’s harps A very controversial take, but I can’t stand the cacophony of high-pitched flutes and vocals and shrill strings. I do enjoy the tracks where the harp is the dominant instrument though, like this one. I think it’s the amount of back and forth with Elrond in Volume 1 of the Epic that’s worn out Elf music for me.

#asks #lotro #lord of the rings online

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lilisette · 2 years

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saw a lost ark Q&A on Twitter (made by a Korean Twitter user named Shushire, can't find their original post... found it by someone reposting it) and I want to do it so here it is!!

(I Google translated all the questions so they are not 100% accurate)

1. The reason you why started playing Lost Ark?

I was waiting for Blue Protocol (still waiting for it) and had no major mmo to play so I tried Lost Ark out. never thought it would suck me in so bad tbh

2. Favorite class?

At the moment, Esoteric Flurry Striker/Casting Reflux Sorceress

Most likely would fall in love with Arcana when it comes out in July (literally saving all my mats now in preparation for it, tbh I think I’ll even switch mains for it)

3. Prettiest skin in your opinion?

Going by what we have currently, the Dawn skin for scrapper 👀 holy crap its so good it almost made me make a scrapper (but then I learnt it was undyable and was like nvm, its still gorgeous though)

4. Favorite skin?

The Banquet skins for men, all 3 versions of them 😭 I love them so much and was about to buy a third one for my pally and a fourth one for my future scouter but the crystal prices......

5. Favorite region?

Rohendel, hands down no questions asked. Vern is a very close second (totally not because of Thar/Lahart being there)

Rohendel main story quests are sooooo looooong but damn I love how pretty it looks and the aesthetic

If island, I actually love Shangra. Would've taken a lot of screenshots there if I wasn't busy farming for dews and peaches all the time 😂

6. Best looking ultimate?

I haven't played all the available classes (played sorc, bard, pally, gunlance, striker and sharpshooter) but among those 6 I played, sorceress apocalypse call makes me feel like a badass, who doesn't love summoning a meteor shower?? (too bad Enviska’s Might is better for general content)

7. Prefer melee or range?

Honestly I love both but at the moment, ranged because ping 😂 easier to dodge mechanics and still deal damage

8. Prefer burst dps or continuous dps? (not sure if they're asking this because of Google translate tbh but I'll pretend they're asking this for now)

Continuous dps, more reliable and don't have to worry about missing the dps window

9. Favorite NPC?

Thar/Lahart ❤️ I'm a Thar/Lahart simp so of course he would be my favorite 😂

(Thirain is calling for me in the background but I'm ignoring him until he gets over his four letter word allergy)

10. Favorite OST?

Song of Starlight... the amount of fic ideas I have because of that song is INSANE

Brelshaza/Albreshud legion raid OST is a very close second, followed by funny clown man legion raid OST

11. Rapport gift you'd like to receive

I love pearls so transparent pearls I guess?

12. Favorite emote?

THAT STAR DANCE THING YOU GET FROM AMETHYST SHARDS 😭 I don't have it yet but I saw my guildie use it and I was like ok I need that

13. Favorite screenshot?

Oh this one is a hard one... I have so many so I’ll leave this question for last

14. Current title?

Thar's Romanticist. will change to Thar's Sun when I finally finish 100 Punika Sun level 3 or above chaos dungeon runs

(I wanted Thar's Rider but the Rider title is currently unobtainable in the game so 😭 crying over what could've been)

15. Hardest raid?

With our current content and at the appropriate item level?

If abyssals, definitely Alaric's Sanctuary. Made me lose my shit many times back then 😂

If guardian raids, Velganos hands down no questions asked (If they ever add a Velganos challenge guardian raid... BYE I AM SKIPPING)

Favorite screenshots

If cutscene screenshots:

If selfie mode screenshots:

If dialogue screenshots... I have a compilation lmao

Yeah.... the Sylvians in this game have me on a tight grip AND I DON’T MIND (I’m still doing Azena’s rapport but I just KNOW she will have me on a chokehold too)

#lost ark #lostark #lost ark Q&A #i mean yeah i can do this on twitter but...#i love tumblr more tbh lmao #yeah a lot of thar simping on a q&a post too #i love this man so i will mention him EVERYWHERE

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aggressive-almond-cookie · 1 year

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I guess I haven’t really said this out loud, but I feel like my current development plan (lol) is to 1) finish 1-starring all the weapons 2) play around a little more in-depth with each of the weapons that I felt a good connection with during that process 3) ACTUALLY PICK A WEAPON to stick with for a while and get really comfortable with (and try to not put way too much thought into it and paralyze myself into making any more progress ) and then 4) actually try out anarchy modes with said weapon in hopes that I can focus on learning the mechanics of those game modes without worrying too much about the mechanics of my weapon at the same time 5) once I am comfortable with those mechanics, if I feel so inclined, play around with weapon choices again and go from there.

It’s an imperfect plan but at least it’s a plan, so I’m more likely to stick to it instead of just meandering. I just really gotta stop myself from moving the goalposts even further out again because I’m intimidated by anarchy modes. I know I’m going to have fun in anarchy modes. I’m excited to hop into it. Chances are pretty high that once I take that step my life is just gonna revolve around it for a while. But I’m also still often overwhelmed by very basic mechanical aspects of this game and I feel like I’ll have more fun and be less likely to get frustrated with it if I go into it with as few additional hurdles as possible. At least that’s what I tell myself. Part of me still feels like that’s just another excuse to put off trying them.

I mean, I know I’m never going to feel ready. At the very least I need to set myself some boundaries and limitations in steps 2 and 3 to make sure I don’t spend way too much time deciding what to pick and putting it off again. Like, if I play a weapon past three stars and am still enjoying it I should just go with it. I don’t have to marry it, I keep telling myself.

And anyway, maybe this entire plan is fundamentally flawed in the sense that like, anarchy modes might play entirely differently. Maybe what weapons feel good in turf feel awful in other game modes. Or maybe some weapons that I played in turf that felt bad only felt bad because matchmaking in turf is terrible and in ranked I would actually be getting a more even experience with them. But it’s really just impossible to learn everything at once. Part of the process is going to involve learning things that you wish you knew before. Like even just recently, realizing suddenly what it actually means to have control of an area has me questioning every other weapon that I’ve already played and wondering if I would feel differently playing them again, knowing what I know now. So was all the time I spent playing while not knowing that essentially wasted? There’s just. so much. There will always be more. Maybe not starting with anarchy was a mistake because maybe if I had I could be learning many things all at once and that would have been a lot faster than this slow and steady incremental approach.

And really, my whole goal here is like not even to be super competitive about this game, but I just want to get to a point where I can play with friends and feel like I’m more or less on par with their skill level, that I’m not the obvious dead weight dragging the team down. That motivation is definitely a holdover from my MMO days, when damage meters and such made it pretty clear who was underperforming (it was usually me :C ). Like if I’m being brutally honest with myself, I think one of the reasons my preferred playstyle is ‘be annoying and distracting’ is probably because that means I don’t have as clear a numerical metric by which to measure my personal success or failure, so I don’t have to feel horribly demoralized over a ‘bad’ score like I might if my main job was splatting, lol. I know that’s not really a mindset that helps me get better though.

I mean, I guess really-really, my main goal is just to build enough confidence to not worry about that. To just be able to focus on the game itself and the fun times I am having with my friends and the satisfaction of our efforts paying off. I guess that would be helped along if I actually got into a more static group where we could like...uplift each other. I do have a more friends that I play with now, but it’s intermittent, and a lot of people I might like to group with regularly live timezones away and I’m a boring 9-5 adult who has a limited time to play in the evening and has to go to bed on time.

I am starting to wonder though, even though I “don’t want to be competitive” if the kind of gameplay experience I am looking for (finding a team on my level to ‘grow with’ in which we support and encourage and enrich each other in a shared goal) is just....something I might need to go into the more competitive communities to find.

I mean what am I even saying when I say I ‘don’t want to be competitive’? I do want to learn the game, inside and out, as much as I can, because it’s fascinatingly deep to me and I enjoy exploring that. I do want to get better, and to some extent that means I want to win. I do want to have fun, and generally speaking the most fun that I have is when I get into those intense, even matches where it really feels like I have to fight for my victories and my losses aren’t for lack of trying. I do want to have a cohesive group experience and build teamwork-abilities and learn clear communication and have that feeling of playing in-sync with others and cleanly executing plays together.

I guess what I don’t want is to get invested in a win-loss ratio, get invested in my rank, to get involved in groups that are so invested in the outcome of the games that I get stressed out on their behalf, to ever get involved again in a situation where there is honest bad blood between rival teams, etc.. And I feel like, realistically, ideally, in my perfect world imagination, good competitive teams probably don’t get overly invested in those things and take care not to stress each other out, given how much of this game is mental and how much stress negatively impacts that. Maybe? Maybe.

There’s also the sheer time investment aspect and the need to balance spending enough time practicing to improve with the fact that I do work full-time and also have other hobbies. There’s also a lot of little general social anxieties, like I think if I got into a situation where I got on a team I really felt like I vibed with but they started rapidly outpacing me in skill and then they voted to replace me, I would have a hard time not letting that crush me, lol. Or possibly worse, I get on a team where I’m clearly holding everyone back but they know that voting me out would crush me and no one wants that guilt so the team just limps along while secretly everyone is bitter about it until it implodes dramatically one day (look, I have been through some MMO guild drama nonsense and I have a little trauma, lol). But to some extent I would have to be willing to risk having those experiences, I guess. A positive experience, after all, would absolutely be worth it.

But anyway, I’m thinking way too much into this right now, because even if I did start to explore that, no one is going to take me seriously if I step into a competitive area of the community still having never played anarchy modes, so... I really gotta get there by whatever process I gotta get there.

I guess this has always been a point of difficulty for me in any context, feeling like I gotta ‘work on myself’ to a point where I’m ‘good enough’ to get involved with other people, when odds are if I got into a peer group I would grow so much faster, but I don’t know at what point it’s like, acceptable for me to go group-hunting, because I never really feel like I’m good enough.

I guess the easiest way to figure that out would be to do some lurking in those communities and see where other people are at.

But seriously, first I need to actually play anarchy modes ahjsdfghasjf

#whoops this got long again!!#I ramble way too much in the mornings on caffiene #splatoon #aiko plays squid games

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snugglyporos · 1 year

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D&D Thoughts Update

// Since a bunch of people liked to engage with my thoughts on 5e the other day, and having seen the leaks where Hasbro has decided to become Games Workshop, I figure this is a good time to talk about my views on 5e before a bunch of Hasbro IRS agents come to silence me and demand royalties.

So, at first I was very confused by 5e for two reasons. One, it was very bare bones. Two, it was oddly confusing in places. Why 6 different saving throws? Why do you have electrum coins at all? Seriously I could go on a rant about how dumb that is, given how they’re described and their place in history. It’s a weird bit of hyperfocus in a game about simplification.

But then I delved deeper and I realized... this is just 3.5 with a whole lot of content stripped out.

Don’t get me wrong, I love 3.5. It’s the best edition, imo, because it’s entirely modular, and every d20 based game can be added into it. It’s broken and a bit too confusing, but I like that it’s broken. It’s why I never really jelled with Pathfinder; making D&D3.5 but not broken is like making cookies that taste like salt. Missing the point!

But when I realized that 5e was just essentially the house rules version of 3.5, to the point that most of the things that were removed weren’t needed, or could be added, I understood it a bit more, and disliked it less.

Granted, I still don’t like it.

Two reasons for this. One, the game feels like it’s designed to be played specifically in public settings, where the entire game is boiled down to ‘here are the adventures we prepared for you.’ I didn’t understand why so many people talked about the Curse of Strahd until I realized that it’s basically one of four sets of adventures.

The other reason is that, well, it’s clearly a game with no ideas of its own. Let me explain.

1e is extremely hard to play today. 2e can be fun, but it’s weirdly anal about things that most modern players don’t really want to do. 3 and 3.5 are great fun, but they’re rather complex to grapple with. And all of these are unique games made by the original creators, 3.5 being the 3.0 system under new publishers.

It was clear that WoTC wanted to make a brand new, all unique system with their next edition, which is why 4e is an entirely new and separate thing, for good and for ill. It’s basically MMO the RPG, to the point that you can visualize an ability bar like it’s tabletop World of Warcraft. Nevermind there is a 3.5 series of World of Warcraft books that’s actually pretty good, tbh.

But 4e is not particularly fun to play? It can be in the same way that other wargaming can be fun to play, where if you’re running with a clear setup it works. But it’s not conducive to freeform playing.

And with that failure, they made 5e, which feels to me a bit like someone copied someone else’s homework. Like the person who made 5e looked over at the guy who made 3.5e, copied what he could, and claimed it was something new and different. It’s close, but not the same.

It also doesn’t feel like a game that the development team have much faith in? 5e was released in 2014. So it’s been around a decade, and there is only one monster manual? For contrast, 3.5 has five monster manuals, not including all the new monsters in the various sourcebooks. Or, looking to another series of games, White Wolf put out dozens of sourcebooks for each of their properties, to the point that The Old World of Darkness has like, three hundred individual sourcebooks across eight different games.

5e does not feel like a game that the developers actually support. It feels like they just wanted to get away from 4e, and make something that would allow them to run games themselves, sorta like how White Wolf has their World of Darkness where individuals who sign up with them can be a part of the wider world, and games can flow into each other.

Honestly, if they did want to steal White Wolf’s idea, it would make sense that they’re now stealing Games Workshop’s idea and trying to do with D&D what GW did with Warhammer.

Personally, not sure that’s a great idea. Mostly because D&D didn’t explode until 3rd edition with the introduction of the open d20 license. I’m old enough to remember the time of 2e, and D&D being so restrictive is what led to the creation of things like White Wolf publishing, as well as a dozen other games like Mutants and Masterminds.

For the record, don’t recommend playing Mutants and Masterminds, as it’s a clusterfuck of a game. Unique, daring, but not one I would play again.

I think also that D&D has lost a lot of connection with its roots? For good and for ill, tabletop gaming in the 80s and 90s, even in the real early 2000s was very much underground. And that created a lot of unique games and communities. Part of this is how nerd culture is now pop culture, with things like comic book properties being hotter than ever. Like, trying to imagine big name actors wanting to be associated with comic books in the 90s is impossible. Now, there’s hardly an actor who hasn’t been in a comic book property.

But D&D going corporate means that while it lost the edge lord part of itself (good) it also lost the part that made people like it (bad). D&D the game is giving way to D&D the brand, which is probably a death knell for it as a property, much like how continued bad ideas from the White Wolf guys got it bought out by Paradox, who amazingly have dragged the property back to where it mostly should be.

But again, you’re talking to someone who remembers the days of Loremaster, Sword and Sorcery, Ars Magica and more. granted I was a child, but as I got older I got an appreciation for them. And I know they wouldn’t have existed if D&D had moved over to the d20 in 2000.

Remember, before 3rd edition, the d20 system wasn’t used in D&D. and it’s adoption basically wiped out all the competition, who transferred over to it. Removing that means we’re probably in for a new generation of games, assuming they aren’t just made as video games.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on 5e. And D&D in general.

#ooc #long post

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selarne · 1 year

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2022 Fic Writing Stats

I found this a couple months ago and tossed it in my drafts, because I was proud of how much I’d written in 2022. Of course, that all stopped when I started playing FFXIV...but I still wrote a lot in the first part of the year!

Word count on AO3: 40,279 across two accounts Number of fics on AO3: 21 Average Words Per Story: 1,918 - about right, I’m a shortfic writer! Fandoms written for: DC Comics, mostly Batfamily Total Words Written: I have too many drafts for this. But I would say there’s at least 15k unpublished I wrote this year.

More under the cut, contains discussion of explicit content.

Shortest Story: Cut Open by Your Hand, 772w, some quick knife and blood play

Longest Story: Omegaverse harem heat porn, because I had to write so many people having sex! But only just over 5k.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? Well the end of the year got sidetracked, but I definitely wrote more though a lot didn’t get published because I agonized over editing.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write most? My descent into DC Comics and the Batfam continued, as did my descent into problematic smut writing. Let’s just say I really let my preferred kinks fly.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? I’m glad I got to write a Green Lantern fic! I know the overarching fandom is overrun with Batfam, so I’m glad I could contribute a little and sneak in some Guy/Arkillo.

Did you take any writing risks this year? Let’s just say there’s a couple of kinky smut fics that have 0 comments and leave it at that.

Do you have any fanfic or general writing goals for the new year? The nature of MMO subscriptions makes me want to get the most bang for my buck, so I don’t know what my writing looks like for the next year. I have some stuff I want to finish, but maybe I’ll dip my toes into a new fandom? I might have to make a third AO3 account for readerfic.

From the past year of writing, what was your...

Most popular story of this year (by kudos): Smut: omegaverse non-con somno fic. Gen: little vampire Dick Grayson in Bit Off More Than He Could Chew, which got a nice bump from the DC vs Vampires comics giving us Vampire King Dick.

Personal favorite: TimRa’s enemies with benefits in With the Enemy (For Good Reason), because people just don’t write the pair how I’d like so I did it myself.

My favourite fic to write: Bit Off More Than He Could Chew, how to introduce Batman to the idea he has a smol vampire in his house

Most fun to write: The Temperature’s Hot Enough to Hatch a Stone, But Will It Hatch an Egg was very fun. Just a bunch of silliness.

Story with the single sexiest moment: Oral cock warming into face fucking. Like I said, I let the kinks fly this year, oh man.

Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: Probably that omegaverse noncon somno fic I mentioned earlier. It also comes with a side of underage, incest, and forced mating.

Most challenging to write: I have this unpublished fic that’s gone through about three rewrites at this point...it includes multiverse shenanigans and lots of feels, so the limited 3rd POV I normally write in didn’t seem right, tried a different POV, tried combining into 3rd omni, and that’s where I left it. I will get it done!

Funniest fic: Temperature’s Hot Enough, accidental baby acquisition but it’s an egg instead is great

Fluffiest fic: Bit Off More probably, I just think baby vampire Dick is so cute

Saddest fic: I don’t do a ton of sad, the closest is probably the accidental incest fic (they didn’t know they were related but one of them learns)

Fic I’m proudest of writing: Temperature’s Hot Enough, like I said, more non-Batfamily stuff!

Least popular fic: Well, Temperature probably because it’s the only thing that doesn’t include a Batfam member.

Biggest disappointment: tbh, the zero comments on my werewolf boyfriend smut.

General writing reflections: Ignore the readers, write the things you love! Clearly these readers don’t have good taste. (Ok, there are some lovely commenters, but I wish they’d show up on some other stuff!)

Ok I’m too lazy for the rest of these, but I’m leaving them in maybe for next year. But overall, a good year! I’m glad I could really get back into writing. I do hope I can rededicate some time in 2023.

Favorite character to write:

Favorite opening lines:

Favorite closing lines:

Other favorite lines:

#fanfic #year in review

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zephiesjournal · 2 years

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monday, october 24th, 2022

ugh. alright let me talk about the first parts first. i cleaned a bit because the dirtvibes were making it hard to think straight, and i was getting worried the shower caulking would get permamould again. i don’t know why i couldn’t just quickly wipe that down and it instead had to be part of a full cleaning deal, i mean i do know why i always know why whenever i say that it’s because of my brain i just don’t know why my brain is like that i mean. was it all the video games i played and false sense of accomplishment i chased throughout the years. i wonder how neurotypical i’d be if i never touched runescape in my life i would probably have million dollar by now and be god of a land.

i resubbed to ffxiv so now i am paying monthly for three different mmos like a cool person genius with lots going on in life. sorry warcraft shoulda told your game’s story in the game itself now i want to see those scions again. i started leveling a rogue and going through new game+, i’ve forgotten how many times i’ve started that now and replayed the first couple hours of the story. i do wonder how fast i can go through it if i just chill and focus on the msq, i’ve still never been caught up and now that i feel a need to go through everything again i doubt i ever will. maybe i should go through another big depression period and play it for months on end so i can get that done, we’ll see.

i finished off the cider in my fridge while playing and for some reason took a caffeine pill at 11pm and that’s when things became hell. i started thinking again about when i used to do matched betting and lamenting getting sucked into the casino stuff, which makes it all the more surprising that i just went and fully did that again and worse than it ever was before, because i was drunk this time. i looked for a casino site that wasn’t on gamstop and just, starting gambling again. i think i blew like £200! oh how did this happen again oh me oh my. i remembered how i briefly thought, i hope i don’t intentionally empty my bank account before the end of the year to really emphasize the “fresh start” of it all, and started feeling okay with doing that. it all just came back dude all that brain poisoning watching those slots spin.

i want to believe this only happened because i was drunk but i didn’t stop after i’d sobered up. i’d deposit £25-30 at a time, quickly lose it all, and deposit again. i really did briefly feel okay with the idea of losing it all and starting my bank account from scratch, at which point i realized how desperately i need therapy. i can’t believe how much worse my ocd has gotten the past couple years what in the absolute hell is “throwing away all my money and starting fresh” what in god’s name is wrong with me. tomorrow i’m probably going to sign up for as many casino sites as possible just to self-exclude from them individually to make sure this physically cosmically cannot happen again. i started picking out pc parts planning to pull the trigger as soon as possible so i don’t have all this money to blow anymore, i got a ~£1k build i think i can still somehow afford after i get paid in a couple days. i was up until about 6 looking into that because of the caffeine.

i want to believe there’s a silver lining after going to bed with a newfound motivation to get my life together now that i’ve done this. like yeah i blew £200 in one night for no reason but if i hadn’t then i probably would have sat playing video games doing nothing and spending too much on food for another two months until new year’s came around. this was the first time in a while i felt like immediately getting things together instead of waiting for a perfect moment to do it because i just really feel i need to make up for things. still a bunch of stupid gamblethoughts roam my mind like, it didn’t have to be £200 to get me motivated it could’ve been less, may as well continue to dwell on that which has already happened and i can no longer control. also the newfound knowledge that i can in fact very easily continue to gamble despite being on gamstop. i really thought every website would either be a scam because it’s not regulated or whatever or you’d have to jump through insane crypto hoops to play anything. but no there’s just more casinos out there ready to wrap their slimy hands around me and the most i can do is try to nip each individual one in the bud while resisting every part of their website that isn’t the self-exclusion section that i don’t know if will even work. if it’s not regulated and they are purposely not on gamstop who’s to say they won’t just let me sign up again, quite frankly i am terrified to find out.

#october 2022

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