Tumgik
#not just the people that can afford a video game console or want to play their own game in a room w other people
puppys-tiny-space · 2 months
Text
👑Tips for littles on a budget👑
This is some tips for tinies (or carers looking for gifts for kiddos) on a budget! Of course you don't need any gear to be a good regressor but a lot of us like toys etc. and it's okay to want them!
🧸thrift stores, a lot of thrift stores have toys and plushies, sometimes they are a bit broken or dirty but there are lots of tutorials on YouTube for cleaning and restoring plushies and toys🧸
🐾e-books, you can find kids books online as e-books which are often pretty cheap or you can watch tiktoks of people reading those books🐾
🩷diy onesies, a lot of regressors like onesies but the prices are pretty steep, if you can't afford them don't fret! Its super easy and affordable to make one yourself all you need is an old t-shirt and snap buttons plus a way to attach them, just get a big t-shirt, sweatshirt or even hoodie and add 2-4 snap buttons in the crotch, boom you have a super cute and discreet onesie!🩷
🧸diy toys, there are lots of toys you can make yourself either by sewing or crafting and there's lot soft videos on YouTube for it, or get creative🧸
🐾mobile games, I love to play video games when im regressed but game consoles are expensive so free mobile games are a great alternative🐾
🩷dollar store etc, while you shouldn't rely on stores or websites that use cheap labor for everything it's okay to make exceptions every now and then, especially for toys, pacis, sippy cups and similar🩷
🧸pull ups, instead of cute printed diapers get big kid pull-ups in the baby-section or medical diapers from a drugstore, they are less then half the price of a pack of adult diapers from brands like tears etc.🧸
🐾learn to diy, making things yourself is often the most affordable thing to do, not with everything obviously but with a lot of things, learn as much stuff as you can so you can make lots of gear yourself🐾
🩷look for affordable stores, lots of paci stores on Instagram are very affordable and the ones that aren't often have sales so keep an eye out for that, lots of shops also have promoter codes they are happy for you to use, for example with my code 'bunnybab' you get a small discount at pacisbybunnie and cozypacicorner🩷
🧸buy second hand, thrift stores are a great place but if you want little specific stuff looking on vinted, swoop or even insta is a great idea! Lots of people sell gear they no longer connect with🧸
Tumblr media
Fun fact of the day: Bluey's pilot was only a minute long and never actually aired
561 notes · View notes
tymime · 7 months
Text
I'm very alarmed by how many people are dismissive of the lost media community, even going so far as to spread misinformation about them. I've seen them characterize lost media seekers as ignorant whiners and brats, and that they're wasting their efforts. Do these people have any idea how difficult it actually is to find this stuff? It can take years, if copies even exist. Don't they value art preservation?
You'd be astonished by how many shows that are barely twenty years old that have simply vanished, with no clear indication of whether or not the copyright holders kept a record of it. When fans try to contact the people involved in the show, they often refuse to answer emails. These aren't old, aging shows from fifty years ago, decaying in some film can. These are shows from as recent as the 2000s and 2010s.
There's been a toxic attitude going around big media companies for a couple decades now, treating their IPs (and their customers) as disposable, moving on to the next thing as soon as profits dry up. This is a big part of the reason media becomes lost in the first place. Old show not getting enough ratings? Need to make room for a new show? Just get rid of it! Now, some of these examples aren't lost media, admittedly- but they definitely could have been, if not for an on-the-ball internet pirate downloading and backing them up. There's a series from 2002 called Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? which hasn't been on the air in about twenty years. The original audio track was missing for many years, and had to be pieced together from several sources, with the video elements coming from a foreign dub. There was a music track heard in an episode of SpongeBob called "Humpback Hop" with several minutes cut from it, unheard of for two decades, and even the composer had lost all of his copies of it. It seemed like even Nickelodeon didn't have it in their archives, because they rerecorded it for a DVD menu. It's a miracle somebody finally tracked it down. There's a series from 2007 called Out of Jimmy's Head, whose original English version is still half missing. Even though by all accounts it's a crappy show, I still want to see it. (update: This show has been found, thank goodness.) And even though I'm not a fan, there are dozens of 2010s Cartoon Network shows that were once on HBO Max, that are simply gone. They're not in reruns, they're not officially streaming. You have to resort to piracy to view them. I wouldn't wish this fate on anybody. The Willow series from 2022 was taken off Disney+ mere weeks after its debut, just because not enough people watched it. It's stuck in the middle of a storyline.
Nintendo has been notoriously bad about this. They don't want you to play any NES, SNES, GB, or N64 games that aren't the most iconic best-sellers. They take down ROM websites, even if most of the games there aren't first party or being sold in any way. The only way to legally play a game that isn't available on the Switch is to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a working console and cartridges. Most people can't afford to do that.
If it hadn't been for the efforts of unofficial programs like Ruffle and Flashpoint, thousands of flash games and cartoons would be unplayable and unwatchable.
Even if the cartoon is safe and sound locked away in some vault, instead of missing entirely, it still winds up unseen that way. The public has a right to see a show they used to be able to see and enjoyed, instead of it being unviewable for all eternity. "Oh, but they have a right to not let us see it! They own the rights to it, after all, and can do whatever they want!" some might say. What if WB went out of their way to destroy every DVD, Blu-ray, and video tape of Looney Tunes, and locked away all their copies? Would you feel the same way then? Would we not have a right to see them? Would you just roll over and take it, and let corporate overlords tell what you can or can't watch? Just shrug it off and say "Oh well, guess I'll never see it again"? How would it not irritate you? TV and movies aren't the same as some painting or statue where usually only one version of it exists in some museum or private collection. Media is meant to be distributed and seen worldwide, for everyone to enjoy in their homes. If they're stuck in some warehouse on some hard drive, they may as well not exist.
It extends out into other aspects of our lives- old buildings get torn down instead of getting restored, vintage interiors get torn out or covered up by something modern or ugly. There was a time when films and video tapes were routinely destroyed to make room for new ones, because nobody thought anybody would want to see them again. We need to get past this destructive pattern.
Am I grateful for streaming services and the content they make available? Of course I am. But as many have said before, they could take it all away, and a show can simply vanish, leaving fans to resort to piracy just to see it, if anyone even bothered to save it beforehand.
Being dismissive of these efforts is the sort of attitude that's part of the reason media gets lost in the first place.
25 notes · View notes
canmom · 24 days
Text
VR observations, 10 months in
I've been a game dev for 10 months now. It's pretty great, I'm enjoying it a lot, I get to spend my days doing crazy shader shit and animations and voxels and visual effects. Hopefully the game that will come out of all this will be one people enjoy, and in any case I'm learning so much that will eventually come back to the personal ~artistic~ side of things. I can't talk about that game just yet though (but soon it will be announced, I'm pretty sure). So this is a post about other games.
Mind you, I don't actually play very many VR games, or games in general these days, because I'm too busy developing the dang things. but sometimes I do! And I think it's interesting to talk about them.
These aren't really reviews as such. You could project all sorts of ulterior motives if it was. Like my livelihood does sorta depend on people buying VR headsets and then games on them. This is more just like things I observe.
Headsets
The biggest problem with VR at the moment is wearing a headset for too long kinda sucks. The weight of the headset is all effectively held on a lever arm and it presses on your face. However, this is heavily dependent on the strap you use to hold it to your head. A better balanced and cushioned strap can hold the headset still with less pressure and better balance the forces.
The strap that comes with the Quest 3 is absolute dogshit. So a big part of the reason I wouldn't play VR games for fun is because after wearing the headset for 30-60 minutes in the daily meeting, the absolute last thing I'd want to do is wear it any longer. Recently I got a new strap (a ~£25 Devaso one, the low end of straps), and it's markedly improved. It would probably be even better if I got one of the high end Bobo straps. So please take it from me: if you wanna get into VR, get a decent strap.
I hear the Apple Vision Pro is a lot more comfortable to wear for long periods, though I won't have a chance to try it until later this month.
During the time I've been working at Holonautic, Meta released their Quest 3, and more recently Apple released their hyper expensive Vision Pro for much fanfare.
The Quest 3 is a decent headset and probably the one I'd recommend if you're getting into VR and can afford a new console. It's not a massive improvement over the Quest 2 - the main thing that's better is the 'passthrough' (aka 'augmented reality', the mode where the 3D objects are composited into video of what's in front of you), which is now in full colour, and feels a lot less intrusive than the blown out greyscale that the Quest 2 did. But it still has some trouble with properly taking into account depth when combining the feeds from multiple cameras, so you get weird space warping effects when something in the foreground moves over something in the background.
The Vision Pro is by all accounts the bees knees, though it costs $3500 and already sold out, so good luck getting one. It brings a new interaction mode based on eye tracking, where you look at a thing with your eyes to select it like with a mouse pointer, and hold your hands in your lap and pinch to interact. Its passthrough is apparently miles ahead, it's got a laptop tier chip, etc etc. I'm not gonna talk about that though, if you want to read product reviews there are a million places you can do it.
Instead I wanna talk about rendering, since I think this is something that only gets discussed among devs, and maybe people outside might be interested.
Right now there is only one game engine that builds to the Vision Pro, which is Unity. However, Apple have their own graphics API, and the PolySpatial API used for the mixed reality mode is pretty heavily locked down in terms of what you can do.
So what Unity does is essentially run a transpilation step to map its own constructs into PolySpatial ones. For example, say you make a shader in Shader Graph (you have to use shader graph, it won't take HLSL shaders in general) - Unity will generate a vision pro compatible shader (in MaterialX format) from that. Vertex and fragment shaders mostly work, particle systems mostly don't, you don't get any postprocessing shaders, anything that involves a compute shader is right out (which means no VFX graph), Entities Graphics doesn't work. I don't think you get much control over stuff like batching. It's pretty limited compared to what we're used to on other platforms.
I said fragment shaders mostly work. It's true that most Shader Graph nodes work the same. However, if you're doing custom lighting calculations in a Unity shader, a standard way to do things is to use the 'main light' property provided by Unity. On the Vision Pro, you don't get a main light.
The Vision Pro actually uses an image-based lighting model, which uses the actual room around you to provide lighting information. This is great because objects in VR look like they actually belong in the space you're in, but it would of course be a huge security issue if all programs could get realtime video of your room, and I imagine the maths involved is pretty complex. So the only light information you get is a shader graph node which does a PBR lighting calculation based on provided parameters (albedo, normal, roughness, metallicity etc.). You can then instruct it to do whatever you want with the output of that inside the shader.
The upshot of this is that we have to make different versions of all our shaders for the Vision Pro version of the game.
Once the game is announced we'll probably have a lot to write about developing interactions for the vision pro vs the quest, so I'll save that for now. It's pretty fascinating though.
Anyway, right now I've still yet to wear a Vision Pro. Apple straight up aren't handing out devkits, we only have two in the company still, so mostly I'm hearing about things second hand.
Shores of Loci
Tumblr media
A few genres of VR game have emerged by now. Shooting and climbing are two pretty well-solved problems, so a lot of games involve that. But another one is 3D puzzles. This is something that would be incredibly difficult on a flat screen, where manipulating 3D objects is quite difficult, but becomes quite natural and straightforward in VR.
I've heard about one such game that uses 3D scans of real locations, but Shores of Loci is all about very environment artist authored levels, lots of grand sweeping vistas and planets hanging in the sky and so on. Basically you go through a series of locations and assemble teetering ramshackle buildings and chunks of landscape, which then grow really big and settle into the water. You can pull the pieces towards you with your hand, and then when you rotate them into roughly the right position and orientation relative to another piece, they snap together.
Tumblr media
It's diverting, if kinda annoying when you just can't find the place the piece should go - especially if the answer turns out to be that there's an intermediate piece that floated off somewhere. The environments are well-designed and appealing, it's cool to see the little guys appearing to inhabit them. That said it does kinda just... repeat that concept a bunch. The narrative is... there's a big stone giant who appears and gives you pieces sometimes. That's it basically.
Still, it's interesting to see the different environment concepts. Transitions have this very cool distorted sky/black hole effect.
However, the real thing that got me with this game, the thing that I'm writing about now, was the water. They got planar reflections working. On the Quest! This is something of a white whale for me. Doing anything that involves reading from a render texture is so expensive that it's usually a no-go, and yet here it's working great - planar reflections complete with natural looking distortion from ripples. There's enough meshes that I assume there must be a reasonably high number of draw calls, and yet... it's definitely realtime planar reflections, reflections move with objects, it all seems to work.
There's a plugin called Mirrors and Reflections for VR that provides an implementation, but so far my experience has been that the effect is too expensive (in terms of rendertime) to keep 72fps in a more complex scene. I kind of suspect the devs are using this plugin, but I'm really curious how they optimised the draw calls down hard enough to work with it, since there tends to be quite a bit going on...
Moss
This game's just straight up incredibly cute.
youtube
Third person VR games, where you interact with a character moving across a diorama-like level, are a tiny minority of VR games at the moment. I think it's a shame because the concept is fantastic.
Moss is a puzzle-platformer with light combat in a Redwall/Mouse Guard-like setting. The best part of Moss is 1000% interacting with your tiny little mousegirl, who is really gorgeously animated - her ears twitch, her tail swings back and forth, she tumbles, clambers, and generally moves in a very convincing and lifelike way.
Arguably this is the kind of game that doesn't need to be made in VR - we already have strong implementations of 'platformer' for flatscreen. What I think the VR brings in this case is this wonderful sense of interacting with a tiny 3D world like a diorama. In some ways it's sorta purposefully awkward - if Quill walks behind something, you get a glowing outline, but you might need to crane your neck to see her - but having the level laid out in this way as a 3D structure you can play with is really endearing.
Mechanically, you move Quill around with the analogue stick, and make her jump with the buttons, standard stuff. Various level elements can be pushed or pulled by grabbing them with the controllers, and you can also drag enemies around to make them stand on buttons, so solving a level is a combination of moving pieces of the level and then making Quill jump as appropriate.
The fact that you're instantiated in the level, separate from Quill, also adds an interesting wrinkle in terms of 'identification with player character'. In most third person games, you tend to feel that the player character is you to some degree. In Moss, it feels much more like Quill is someone I've been made responsible for, and I feel guilty whenever I accidentally make her fall off a cliff or something.
A lot is clearly designed around fostering that protective vibe - to heal Quill, you have to reach out and hold her with your hand, causing her to glow briefly. When you complete some levels, she will stop to give you a high five or celebrate with you. Even though the player is really just here as 'puzzle solver' and 'powerful macguffin', it puts some work in to make you feel personally connected to Quill.
Since the camera is not locked to the character, the controls are instead relative to the stage, i.e. you point the stick in the direction on the 2D plane you want Moss to move. This can make certain bits of platforming, like moving along a narrow ledge or tightrope, kinda fiddly. In general it's pretty manageable though.
The combat system is straightforward but solid enough. Quill has a three button string, and it can be cancelled into a dash using the jump button, and directed with the analogue stick. Enemies telegraph their attacks pretty clearly, so it's rarely difficult, but there's enough there to be engaging.
The game is built in Unreal, unlike most Quest games (almost all are made in Unity). It actually doesn't feel so very different though - likely because the lighting calculations that are cheap enough to run in Unity are the same ones that are cheap enough to run in Unreal. It benefits a lot from baked lighting. Some things are obvious jank - anything behind where the player is assumed to be sitting tends not to be modelled or textured - but the environments are in general very lively and I really like some of the interactions: you can slash through the grass and floating platforms rock as you jump onto them.
The story is sadly pretty standard high fantasy royalist chosen one stuff, nothing exciting really going on there. Though there are some very cute elements - the elf queen has a large frog which gives you challenges to unlock certain powers, and you can pet the frog, and even give it a high five. Basically all the small scale stuff is done really well, I just wish they'd put some more thought into what it's about. The Redwall/Mouse Guard style has a ton of potential - what sort of society would these sapient forest animals have? They just wanted a fairytale vibe though evidently.
Cutscene delivery is a weak point. You pull back into a cathedral-like space where you're paging through a large book, which is kinda cool, and listening to narration while looking at illustrations. In general I think these cutscenes would have worked better if you just stayed in the diorama world and watched the characters have animated interactions. Maybe it's a cost-saving measure. I guess having you turn the pages of the book is also a way to give you something to do, since sitting around watching NPCs talk is notoriously not fun in VR.
There are some very nice touches in the environment design though! In one area you walk across a bunch of human sized suits of armour and swords that are now rusting - nobody comments, but it definitely suggests that humans did exist in this world at some point. The actual puzzle levels tend to make less sense, they're very clearly designed as puzzles first and 'spaces people would live in' not at all, but they do tend to look pretty, and there's a clear sense of progression through different architectural areas - so far fairly standard forest, swamp, stone ruins etc. but I'll be curious to see if it goes anywhere weird with it later.
Weak story aside, I'm really impressed with Moss. Glad to see someone else giving third person VR a real shot. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of it.
...that's kinda all I played in a while huh. For example, I still haven't given Asgard's Wrath II, the swordfighting game produced internally at Meta that you get free on the Quest 3, a shot. Or Boneworks. I still haven't finished Half Life Alyx, even! Partly that's because the Quest 3 did not get on well with my long USB A to C cable - for some reason it only seems to work properly on a high quality C to C cable - and that restricts me from playing PCVR games that require too much movement. Still though...
Anyway, the game I've been working on these past 10 months should be ready to announce pretty soon. So I'm very excited for that.
9 notes · View notes
scolpimpisdiary · 2 years
Text
Team Bucciarati Home HCs!
How would their homes look like?
Tumblr media
Guido Mista🔫
His house probably wouldn’t be that big or have a lot of things, but would somehow still be messy anyways. He’d also be in denial about how messy it is.
The main culprit of it all? Random things just piled up in random places. Mista’s probably the type of guy to put something down and completely forget about it.
I could imagine Bruno coming over to his apartment and just trying to help him clean up as much as possible while scolding the hell out of him in the process
“Jesus Christ Mista! How could you let your place get like this?” “Oh come on Bucciarati, it isn’t THAT bad!”
Sex Pistols are responsible for half of the mess, especially number 3. Destructive lil bitches
But once the place is clean it’d actually look really nice and rustic! Wooden wall panels, carpeted floors, etc
Yes mista and Sex Pistols will probably mess it up again
Narancia Ghirga 🌼
He’d probably live with one of the team members and split the chores with them, so his living space wouldn’t be that bad overall
But Narancia would spend lots of times trying to get out of the chores or bribe someone into doing it for them.
I can also see him having a LOT of posters and also video games just scattered all over his room. And yes, he’d never let anybody play on his gaming console. Including Mista, which ironically shows the most interest in it.
“Come on Narancia just let me play on the console for 15 minutes!” “No way man, buy your own!”
Bruno would def make them share like the good momma he is
Narancia would also hold on to a lot of things that he literally doesn’t need whatsoever, but will still keep them because it looks cool. Like, no Nara you don’t need an entire set of miniature airplanes!!
Bruno Bucciarati 🤐
Bruno prides himself in keeping up appearances. We can see this in the way he treats and decorates his home. He’ll have sculptures, paintings, and a lot of antique things in his home most likely passed down from his family.
The home would be pretty neat in general, maybe some misplaced items here and there but nothing noticeable.
Even though his home is very warm and welcoming, I don’t see Bruno inviting anyone over. Being the capo of a highly influential criminal organization puts a huge target on his back, and he can’t risk having anyone follow him to where he rests his head.
He DEFINITELY encourages his teammates to do the same thing as a safety measure. But considering that majority of them are angsty teenagers, he probably knows a good chunk of them won’t listen.
Giorno Giovanna ⭐️
Ah my lovely golden boi! Giorno’s place would be clean also. Before becoming the don, his dorm lacked a lot of decoration in VA. I could imagine that once he gets access to all of the riches and property that Passione brings him, Giorno would probably splurge more on designer items to decorate his home in.
He’d also have a lot of greenery around his house as well. I see Giorno being a huge plant dad, even having his own private garden that he’d stroll through to clear his head (as a don obvi)
Giorno is a pretty neat person in general, so mess wouldn’t be too much of a concern before or after becoming a Don. If anything being a Don would make any messes easier to deal with, hiring a maid or cleaning service to just clean up for him.
Surprisingly I could see Giorno actually being more open to inviting people over than Bruno, and by that I mean mainly networking with other powerful figures in Passione. Even throwing dinner parties as well! But the people that are invited are very important people, and are in likely in tight-knit groups. He could also probably afford to have guests escorted to and from his place as well. Before becoming a don, he probably never had much people over.
Leone Abbacchio 🫖
His house would be a mix of messy and neat. Abbacchio would probably want to be productive and tidy his house, but if it’s taking a long time and he just came home from a long ass mission, he’d just give up halfway and neglect/ignore it until he builds up more energy which is literally me in a nutshell but anyways
He wouldn’t really invite anyone over, not because he can’t but because he just doesn’t want to. Abbacchio is very much like a cat, he likes naps, peace and quiet, and is grumpy. I could also say that these are reasons he probably wouldn’t have roommates either. He doesn’t like dealing with other people and the issues that come with them.
I don’t think he’d have much decorations outside of some photos? But his house would be pretty moody and have a lot of dark neutral colors. And yes, he’d definitely have those lil LED light strips on his walls too (if they existed in 2001 ofc)
Pannacotta Fugo 🍰
I can see Fugo’s home being tidy, like eerily tidy. He seems to be the type of person that would be easily bothered with filthy or unhygienic things, so he’d most likely stay on top of his chores unless he were to come back from a long mission and needed to relax.
Similar to Abbacchio I don’t see him having a lot of decorations either? Fugo would probably feel no need to have a decorated house and prefer to keep things minimalistic. Now this man would have a lot of books, and I mean a lot. Textbooks, notebooks, or just reading books honestly. Mainly to preoccupy/entertain himself tbh.
Fugo doesn’t have many people over but wouldn’t be outright unwilling to invite people. He’d invite maybe Narancia to help him study. Even Bruno or Giorno if they really had a reason to go over there. But he’d get very upset if anyone were to cause damage to any of his possessions ( which is why he doesn’t let Mista go over there lmaoo)
For some reason I could also see Fugo having a tiny aquarium in his house with pet goldfish. It just seems like something he’d have, just to be able to watch the little fishes swim around peacefully after a long day would definitely bring Fugo joy. He’d probably even name them after his favorite author or something (which would be so cute byee)
267 notes · View notes
blazehedgehog · 1 year
Note
In one of your earlier posts, you said Sony is being snooty. What did you mean by that?
In the back and forth of the game industry Sony has been many things. There was a period where, hot off the success of the Playstation 1 and Playstation 2, Sony clearly felt invincible.
This lead to one of the most famous E3 press conferences ever, where they announced the Playstation 3. The original pitch for the Playstation 3 was insane.
Tumblr media
Sony's Ken Kutaragi was saying it was going to have something like 7 USB ports and 2 HDMI ports. When they announced the price of $600, they were out there talking about how they wanted the PS3 to be "The Ferrari of Video Games." They wanted it to be a status symbol, something you needed to work two jobs to afford. If you had a lot of money to burn, you had a Playstation 3.
It was a disaster for them, and they were severely humbled for it. Within a year of launch, Ken Kutaragi was out. It took them four or five years total to really recover and finally get the Playstation back in the right direction.
This lead to the opposite direction for the Playstation 4: ironically, all the hubris that damaged the PS3 was passed on to Microsoft, after the success of the 360. Amid swirling leaks that the Xbox One was clamping down on used games, and forcing you to always be online, Sony came out to a roar of applause that the PS4 would be a normal game console. No online limitations, no weird TV or set-top-video features. Just regular video games like you've always known them. And the balance of power shifted again back in their direction, making the Playstation 4 the best-selling game console that did not carry the Nintendo logo.
Now back on top, all the people responsible for making the PS4 into this friendly, welcoming, all-inclusive thing have had their roles reduced or they have left the company entirely. And we're right back to the same Sony that gave us the PS3: The Playstation 5 is a $500 game console with a $550 VR add-on and a $200 "elite" controller. It solidified the trend of $70 being the new normal for game prices.
And those $70 games, what is becoming the "Playstation House Style," are all things that almost seem ashamed to be video games. They'd much rather convince you they're big budget movies or prestige TV shows on a streaming service. Sure, there's equippable gear and stats and quests if you really look at them, but the image they project is something "bigger and more important than just video games."
Playstation is a brand for People Who Can Afford It and are lucky enough that their number comes up during the waiting list lottery. Playstation is a brand that will do the bare minimum to support their back catalog of past-generation titles because they'd much rather you be spending all your money on the newest, full price ($70) products instead of replaying your old PS2 games on the cheap.
And if you really, really, really want to play PS2 games on your Status Symbol console? Well, for the low low price of $120 a year, you can experience their mediocre official emulators and the table scraps of filthy retro games they bother to support. As long as your payment never lapses, of course.
It's kind of gross if you look at the complete picture all at once like this.
Edit: Ironically in the time since writing this post and it getting posted, Sony's Jim Ryan did something legitimately extremely arrogant, furthering the points I make here.
10 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
Title: Welcome to the Underworld
Part 1 of my "16-Bit Heart" series!
Parings: None!
Summary:
Mirai wants to game again, and when his new friend Lilia introduces him to an online game, "Forever True", he meets some new friends.
cw: None!
Reblogs are appreciated, just use my custom tag, #TheMaladaptiveWriter12, if you do!
Cross posted from my Ao3: TheMaladaptiveWriter12
Since coming to Night Raven College Mirai has come to learn so many new things. Things like the existence of magic and magic academy’s, things like signature spells, talking pictures, and things like Overblots. There was so much to do, so much to see, but in the end, Mirai missed playing video games. Mirai was a gamer at heart, and he was bummed out he was without his gaming console that was back at home. So Mirai asked Sam, he always had the most random things in stock, and even if he couldn’t afford the system now, at least he would know how much he would have to save for it. 
Mirai left the shop a little broken-hearted, but a little more determined. They went for the price as most systems go, but with how much he made working two days at Sam’s and how much he spent a week on food and such, he’d have to save for several months. He guessed he’d have to stick with his mobile games for now. 
“Hello, Dear Prefect,” an unfamiliar baritone voice called.
Mirai whipped his head around and was met with an unfamiliar, yet familiar, short Diasomnia student. “Uh, have we met?” Mirai asked wearily.
Mirai had heard many things about the students from Diasomnia, most of which wasn’t good, but Mirai was never quick to judge, especially if it was from the mouth of another person. But from experience, Mirai was always on guard of people who addressed him with familiarity, especially when they didn’t know each other. 
“Yes, but briefly. Does the name Lilia Vanrouge ring a bell?” the short male Mirai now knew as Lilia Vanrouge asked.
After a moment of thought, Mirai remembered Lilia from his first day there at NRC. He had “poofed” himself between Ace and Deuce to introduce himself personally. 
“Ah, I do,” Mirai nodded, “You teleported across the room to our table.”
“Yes I did,” Lilia smiled, “You have a good memory.”
The pair sat there in an awkward silence, well at least to Mirai it was. Lilia just stood there, a wide smile on his cherubic face, but his sharp teeth made it a little unsettling.
“Uh, so, do you need something from me?” Mirai asked, teetering back and forth on his feet, fiddling with his phone in his hands. 
“Oh yeah,” Lilia perked up, “So I couldn’t help overhear your little conversation with Sam, so I thought I’d make a proposition. You take Malleus with you to the Housewarden events, so he is able to attend, and I give you my old gaming PC.”
Mirai briefly lit up before his face fell again, “That doesn’t seem like a fair trade.”
“Oh but it is, my sweet child. You see, Malleus never gets invited to these things, he’s always out of the loop. I can’t help but to feel bad for him. So, you inform him or take him with you so that he can attend with his fellow Housewardens.”
“No, no,” Mirai said steadily, “I’m pretty sure you, having me, inform your Housewarden on events that everyone forgets to invite him to, does not pay the price of a gaming PC.”
“Why not?” Lilia asked curiously, tilting his head to the side, touching his finger to his chin.
“Because it costs money. Wouldn’t you want to get your bucks worth for your things?”
“But I’m not using it anymore. So why not just give it away when it still works just fine?”
“I’d just feel bad for taking it without giving you something for its worth.” 
“Stay for dinner tonight and then I’ll give you the PC,” Lilia said, pulling a piece of candy from his grocery bag, pressing into Mirai's hand. “And come to Diasomnia on Thursdays for tea, we don’t get visitors much.”
Lilia waved with a wide smile and skipped off towards the Hall of Mirrors. 
“O-Okay,” Mirai muttered.
Mirai stayed for dinner that night, his desire to game far too strong to ignore. It wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. The food was good and so was the company. Malleus and Lilia were happy for his company, Silver was indifferent so to speak. Whereas he didn’t have anything to say about his presence, he was either soft spoken and quiet, or he was trying to stay awake at the table. Sebek Zigvolt didn’t seem to want him there, always grumbling, making his displeasure known. But all in all, they were a nice bunch to hang out with. After dinner, Lilia brought him to his room to get the PC, and Mirai was ecstatic. When Lilia said old, he thought it was gonna be more than five years old, but Lilia had said he had won the better model in a contest and the PC was only a year old, and it was modified. 
“Got any recommendations?” Mirai asked as they toted the system back to Ramshackle. 
“Depends on what you like,” Lilia smiled.
“I like anything, really. RPGs, FPSs, MMORPGs, survival, farming, romantic dating sims.” 
Lilia smirked, eyeing him knowingly.
Mirai paused, catching the last thing he had listed, “Forget you heard that last one.”
Lilia chuckled before perking up, “Oh! I have a recommendation you might like!”
Mirai checked out the game right after classes the next day. Lilia said it was one of the most popular MMORPGs at the moment. You could create your own character, which Mirai spent three hours doing the first night, not even getting to actually play, which he was bummed out about. Mirai could also choose a race of people ranging from Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Feas, Humans, and more. Mirai made his character a Werecat. Although he didn’t want the character to look exactly like him, Mirai still made it in his likeness. He was blonde like him, but he made his hair long and flowy. Mirai gave the Werecat scars as well, they littered his arms, his face, and back. He gave them tattoos like he had, the images and Cat tribal markings on his back and arms, and Mirai gave him piercings like his, except they were in his cute pointy cat ears. He was very tall and slim, curvy and fair. And lastly, Mirai had to choose a class. There were so many to choose from and in the end, Mirai picked the Bard, but he danced. When he healed he would sing and play an instrument, the song different for each ailment, and to rally an ally, he would dance, each dance different for what he was rallying his team for. And for the hardest part playing these types of games, naming the character, and it took a while. Just like how these types of games go, you can’t have repeat names and such, which led Mirai having to spend thirty minutes trying out name after name. But luckily, the name Apollo worked. 
He was actually quite proud of what he made, the overall look was elegant, yet fierce, kinda like a number of guys Mirai knows around here. But that happy feeling was short-lived, because when Mirai looked at the time, it was three in the morning, which meant no actual gaming tonight, so he saved his preset and went to bed. 
 Mirai was three weeks into playing the game Lilia had suggested, Forever True was the name, and he was hooked. Lilia gave him his friend code and they had been playing together ever since. Mirai liked Lilia’s character, Crimson Muscle. He was really tall and buff, long black hair, pale skin and pointy ears. But he was strong. He could fight from the shadows and suck people’s life sources, perform sneak attacks with a huge broadsword, and summon little monsters that helped in the fight. And did Mirai mention that Lilia’s character could heal himself with the blood of his enemies? And of course Lilia and he had many photo ops everywhere they went. In the little bakery? Yep. How about in the middle of the town plaza? Absolutely. On the bloody pile of their dead enemies? Totally. The contrast between Lilia’s character with his black cloak, and red body armor, and Mirai’s Werecat’s white dancer outfit and gold bangles, they looked good together.
 The game also had a story mode, side quests, and character stories you could complete. There were also daily events, and challenges you could complete for gold or points. And if you weren’t feeling any of that, you could just chat with people and friends, do silly emotes, and chill.
Lilia had walked him through the prologue, and after a while, Mirai found that Lilia would have Mirai rally him, just so that he could see his character dance, not that he was mad or anything, because he liked the animation as well. But there were some days Lilia couldn’t play, or some days when Lilia’s guild needed him. Mirai didn’t mind playing solo, but sometimes it was nice to have a friend to play with. 
“I’m sorry I couldn’t play with you yesterday,” Lilia apologized through Mirai’s headset.
“It’s okay, Lilia,” Mirai reassured. 
“I have a suggestion, why don’t you find a guild for yourself, or start one? I’d love to have you join mine, but sadly, I’ve reached my member limit.”
“It’s okay. I don’t, I don’t know if I could handle being guild leader, but joining a guild doesn’t sound that bad.”
And it really didn’t. That way he could make some friends, and play with them when Lilia wasn’t around. That also gave him access to team events, the Guild Store, extra XP, the Guild Hub, and not to mention Guild Wars. 
“Marvelous,” Lilia chirped, “I’ll help.”
Lilia helped Mirai the first day, but they couldn’t find anything that he liked. The next day Lilia couldn’t sign on, so Mirai continued his search on his own. Mirai spent hours looking through the Guild List but nothing stood out to him. Too many of them had either inappropriate guild names or descriptions, too many of the same class, or weren’t serious. Things like “chat and date,” “just for fun,” “I don’t log on for days at a time,” and so much worse. Mirai was a serious gamer, he took all his games seriously, he wanted a guild that had the same mindset as him, and as the night waned on, he still found nothing.
The next night Mirai came across a guild that had posted a wanted order on the Guild notice board.
“Gloomurai here. We’re looking for a new healer for our guild, since our last one quit. At this point, we don’t care what lvl you are, we are willing to train you, as long as you log in, do your dailies, and are able to participate on Friday’s for our dungeon raids. Pls DM me if you are interested. - Gloomurai.”
Mirai got his hopes up a little. He was a healer, he did his dailies, and he needed a guild. Mirai hurriedly clicked on the guild leader’s name and shot them a message, hoping that they were still online to see it. In the meantime, Mirai got up to use the bathroom, taking a detour to the kitchen for a snack, and when he came back he had a little red dot over his inbox. Mirai hoped it was from the guild leader as he hurriedly opened his inbox. It was. 
Gloomurai: Do you have a mic? It’d be easier.
Apollo: I do.
Gloomurai: Cool. Let me add you to a private voice chat. 
A couple of seconds later, Mirai got a voice chat invite. 
“You hear me okay?” a deep lethargic voice asked.
Mirai froze, his heart literally skipping a beat at the deep, almost gravelly sound of the guy's voice. Mirai tried to keep his cool, but he was failing miserably. 
“Y-Yeah,” Mirai answered.
“Kay, cool. Ima cut to the chase. I’m picky with what people join my guild. I didn’t get to be one of the top guilds in the server with a bunch of scrubs and noobs in my guild.”
“I-I understand.”
“So tell me about your character. Class, HP, MP, level, stats, like abilities and stuff,” Gloomurai rambled.
“O-Oh sorry, uh, I chose, I chose the Bard,” Mirai stammered.
“Oh, we don’t have many of those in this server, and we don’t have one in our guild, continue.”
“I’m level fifteen, my HP is twenty-four thousand, six hundred and three, my MP is twenty-three thousand, five hundred and eighty-five, uh, my stats, uh, I choose the subclass of dancer and I heal with music and buff with dancing.”
“What abilities did you pick?”
“I have the Harpestry skill for nullifying poison, paralysis, magic seals, and I’m currently working on one for bleeding, and for the buffs, I can add shields, I can up attack damage, magic damage, and I’m working on critical hit damage.”
“Cool, we can work on sharpening those skills,” Gloomurai said thoughtfully, “Do you log in daily?”
“I mean, I just started, but I do, but I’m in school right now, so I can’t log on until after classes,” Mirai supplied.
“Ditto man. Wish I didn’t have to though.”
Mirai internally rejoiced that him being a student wouldn't be held against him with the Guild Leader being a student as well. But Mirai also couldn’t help but be surprised with how much the guy was able to accomplish with being a full time student. 
“Next question, are you serious about playing? Of course we’re all here to have fun, but I play to win,” Gloomurai asked. 
“I’m a tryhard through and through,” Mirai smirked.
Gloomurai giggled and Mirai hoped that it was a good sign rather than a bad one.
“Friday nights at nine, we start a dungeon raid. These are mandatory. The more we raid the more the guild ranking goes up, the more EXP we get, and the more rewards we get.”
“Uh, I have something to do on Friday evenings, but other than that, nine is normally free for me.”
There was some silence on the other end, all Mirai could hear was the guys breathing and quiet muttering through his headset. Mirai jumped when the guy spoke again.
“You are the only person who's gotten this far in my interview, so Ima do this,” Gloomurai proposed, “Let me see you in action, let me see how you work on the field, under pressure. If you can pass that test, then you’re in.”
“Okay, fair enough,” Mirai accepted.
Gloomurai chuckled again, “Good. Hope you’re ready, because I don’t go easy on newbs.”
A couple of seconds later, Mirai got a guild invite. He accepted it.
“Now that you’re in the guild, you can see all your guild members on the map. Teleport to me,” Gloomurai instructed. 
Mirai opened his map and low and behold, he had a bunch of blue dots on his map. Mirai hovered over them and all of them were loads of levels ahead of him, not one in the double digits like he was. Mirai made his way over to one that had a crown in it, which he assumed was the Guild Leader, and when he hovered over it and Gloomurai’s name lit up. Mirai clicked it and a couple of options popped up, he clicked teleport, and after a brief loading screen, Mirai’s character was teleported into an open field standing next to another player. It was Gloomurai. His character looked so cool, he just had to be a veteran player. His character was tall with pale skin with piercing gold eyes, and the side of his face was bone. His hair was long and white, with an obsidian crown atop his head. He was in a mixture of black robes with gold chain armor on top, and his character seemed to glitter and sparkle, black fog billowing from the bottom of his robes. And on his back was a black bone scythe, dripping with red.
“That Scythe is so cool,” Mirai gushed, walking his character around Gloomurai’s so he could get a better look at it.
Gloomurai chuckled, “Thx. It took me forever to get this weapon. It was a limited edition reward for their anniversary event and I had to farm for six days straight just to meet the requirements, not to mention that it will never break or have to be repaired. Only the top ten got the reward, and I came in first place.”
“Congrats,” Mirai said.
“Thx. You don’t look bad yourself.”
Mirai scoffed, “Oh save your empty praises. We all know the newbs look the worst.”  
“N-No, no, really, you look great.”
Suddenly three more players teleported into the area. One an Elf, another was a Skeleton, and the last some type of giant, maybe an Ogre. 
“Here, join the guild chat,” Gloomurai said, sending him another invite. 
Once Mirai joined the chat, there were so many other voices ringing out in his headset. 
“Oh! Is she our new healer?!” the Ogre with a mid ranged voice asked.
“She’s cute! How old is she?! Is she single?!” the Skeleton with a sultry male voice asked, his character jumping up and down.
“Gloomurai’s cat fetish is showing,” the Elf with a soft voice teased.
The other two laughed.
“Between you and me,” the Ogre started, “Gloomurai here as a cat fetish. Anything related to cats and he goes berserk.”
“I do not,” Gloomurai shouted, offended.
“So why does our guild’s common room have cat cushions?”
“What about the cat rugs?” The Skeleton asked.
“What about the three actual cats in our guild house?” The Elf asked.
“Shut up,” Gloomurai grumbled, “My dorm doesn’t allow pets okay?!”
The three laughed at Gloomurai’ distress. Mirai giggled as well.
“Aw! She even sounds cute,” the Skeleton cooed, “I’m Rocinante! And don’t worry hun, Roci here will treat you real nice.”
“Roci’s being nasty again,” the Elf whined.
“Leave her alone,” the Ogre shouted, “And don’t come crying to us over Keyboard when you’re reported again.”
Gloomurai sighed, “Apollo is a guy, not a girl. No he is not our healer yet. I wanna see if he can keep up with us. And Roci, say something like that again and I’m muting you, you will use nothing but in-game commands.”
Rocinante fell silent.
“Oops, sorry dude,” the Ogre said, “Your cat looked kinda girly so I assumed. I’m Khan by the way.”
“You say that, but everyone thought Leslie was a girl for the longest,” Roci laughed.
“Leslie is a guy's name too,” the Elf shouted.
“Says you,” Rocinante muttered. 
Suddenly the Elf pulled out a lance and began stabbing at the Skeleton.
“H-Hey! Hey,” Rocinante shouted, “He’s stabbing me! Leslie’s stabbing me!”
“Bzt! No purposeful friendly fire,” Gloomurai droned. 
Rocinante’s health was extremely low, his character hunched over, holding his middle as he bled out onto the ground. Mirai clicked his healing ability, and his cat pulled out a harp and with flourish, and Rocinante was back at full health.
“Thank you, my little angel,” Rocinante cried, “At least someone cares for me!”
“Aww. His little dance at the end was so cute,” Khan cooed.
Gloomurai’s chat bubble appeared on the side of the screen, but no words were being said.
“Gloomurai?” Rocinante called, “Gloomurai? You okay there boss?”
“Gloomurai.exe has stopped working,” Leslie laughed. 
The three laughed.
“So, what are we supposed to be doing boss?” Rocinante asked.
“U-Uh, uh, we, we, uh, we’re training! We're training Apollo,” Gloomurai stammered. 
Khan, Leslie, Rocinante, and Mirai laughed.
“We’re gonna go kill some mobs and I wanna see if Apollo can keep his cool under pressure and if he can take commands if need be,” Gloomurai explained. 
“Alright cool,” Khan said.
Gloomurai led the group over to where a horde of Ligers were grazing. There were six of them in total and they were levels way higher than Mirai’s.
“U-Uh,” Mirai stammered, “I don’t think I can take those on. I’m, I’m only level fifteen.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Gloomurai said, “All I want is to see if you can heal. I won’t count it against you if you die, and if you do, I can resurrect you. I’m a reaper afterall.”
“O-Okay.”
“Ready, Apollo?” Leslie asked, wielding his lance with a flourish. 
“Yeah.”
The battle wasn’t even halfway over and Mirai was feeling the heat. Khan, the Ogre was a Tank, subclass Berserker. He wielded a great sword and a huge shield. His HP bar was quite high and he came with a built-in shield as well. His attacks were heavy in damage, but he sacrificed his mobility for his strength. He had this move where he would spin in a circle and carve through a group of enemies, sending them flying, and another where he slammed his shield on the ground, stunning enemies for a short period of time. Mirai knew he could leave him on his own for a bit and he would be fine, but he also made sure to boost his speed with a dance.
The weakest was the Skeleton, Rocinante. He was a Thief, subclass Wraith. He was quick, his attacks from behind doing the most damage because of this, he had the lowest HP of their little group, not including Mirai himself that is. Rocinante would jump, flip, and spin as he threw knives at the Ligers and when he got hit, Mirai was quick to heal him. And when Rocinante went into the shadows, Mirai would boost his attack damage, helping him land fatal attacks. 
Leslie, the lancer Elf’s subclass was knight, and was strong, but his attack speed was kinda slow. When he swung his lance, it left him open for a good amount of time, and if they were going against actual players and not a bunch of mobs, he would probably be a goner, so Mirai made sure he had a shield at all times. Leslie had a move where he would launch himself off his lance before summoning it again, spearing the Liger in the head. Mirai liked that move the most.
Gloomurai was better off than the rest of them. He was level six hundred and eighty six and way stronger than them all. He really didn’t attack anything, since he was way too strong for the Ligers and killed one in one hit. Even though it was just a game, Mirai felt as if he was actually being watched, but all in all, Mirai hoped he was making this guy's expectations. 
When the last Liger dropped to the ground, leaving a bloody corpse behind, Mirai let out a sigh of relief. Mirai never died like he thought he would, and he managed to keep their little team alive as well. 
“Whoo,” Leslie cheered, “That went well, great even!”
“Better than expected, honestly,” Khan said.
“You held yourself pretty well out there, congrats,” Rosinante said. 
“Th-Thanks,” Mirai stuttered, flushing under the attention. 
“So,” Khan pried, “How’d he do boss?”
“He did pretty well, better than what I expected. And he can take commands really well, not only that he didn’t cave in a fight. Although for him to reach his full potential, I need to help max out his healing class, but give him a means to attack so he can also help with our damage output, and defend himself. How about a lance? A javelin? Maybe throwing knives?” Gloomurai rambled. 
“This sounds promising,” Khan sang.
“It’s gonna take a while, but at least we got what we were looking for, not to mention a class we don’t have, and he’s a cat.”
Mirai and the other three snickered.
“So, Apollo, how was that? How do you feel?”
“Uh, uh fine? Good?” Mirai stammered.
“Good. I wanna help you with leveling up your character’s stats, can I do that?” Gloomurai asked.
“Y-Yeah, sure.”
Gloomurai giggled, “So how would you feel about becoming our new Bard?”
“I, uh, yes, if, if you’ll have me that is.”
“Well, then, Apollo,” Gloomurai said, “I hereby announce your acceptance to the guild. Congrats.”
“Yes,” Rocinante cheered.
“Congrats, dude,” Khan said happily.
“Alright,” Leslie hollered.
“Th-Thanks guys,” Mirai flushed.
“And without further adieu” Gloomurai said, his character doing a little cheer, sparkles coming off of him, “Bum bum ba-da bum bum bum bum! Welcome to the Underworld, Apollo.”
5 notes · View notes
reddragoncatsblog · 10 months
Text
Console Wars: Playstation vs. Xbox vs. Nintendo vs. PC
I've been seeing people post and/or talk about game consoles, like which console is better and PC master race and all that. So here's my take on the subject: Which console do I like?
My answer: All of them.
See, I call myself an omni-gamer. I play any and all game consoles. The only condition that I personally would offer is this: Make sure that there are fun and creative games on there.
Now, what is considered "fun" and "creative" is quite subjective. But for me, I want to see deep and tight gameplay - with responsive controls that force me to use my head, and it tickles my curiosity. Also, I want to get to places that kinda make me sad to leave, knowing that I won't be able to make progress if I stay.
But while the games themselves are essential to a console's success, a lot of people, as far as I've personally seen, often compare consoles with hardware and graphics. However, there should be other factors you should consider before you buy a particular console.
One factor that I would definitely consider is: Can you afford it?
Affordability is vital to making a decision on which console you want to buy. You shouldn't forget that you have responsibilities, especially if you are gaming as an adult. You have bills and rent to pay, you have medicines to pick up, you also need to grab personal care like shampoo, conditioner, and razors, and have food on your table. You also need bus fare or a car with car insurance.
Another factor that you should consider before buying a console is size. How big is the console? Can I put it in my space?
Now, if you ever decide to get a PC, you're not going to have room for anything else, depending on where you put it. What else do you plan on placing in your space? Figurines? A clock? A Blu-ray player? You should think about what else you want to put in your entertainment center before you buy a console or PC.
This leads me to another factor you should consider: How heavy it is. Can you lift it?
One thing you should be thinking about is the circumstances that involve you moving into another home. Now I do understand that you may hate moving. I hate it, too, honestly. But think about the reasons why you should move. If you were to move, you should lighten up as much workload for you and your movers as possible, and this includes whatever game consoles you have.
2 factors I would definitely consider are accessibility and efficiency.
I saw a YouTube video a while back by Linus Tech Tips regarding the efficiency of PCs, and they do bring up a lot of great points regarding how wasteful some PC rigs can be. Let's look at just the CPU alone with my rig. My PC uses an AMD Ryzen 5 3600, and that CPU draws up to 65 wats of power. That's pretty wasteful, isn't it? And it can put in one hell of a hurting on the electric bill.
Now accessibility is quite subjective, as it is dependent on whether you have physical or mental disabilities, or if it is your first time picking up a controller after dissing gaming for so long. Whatever the case may be, accessibility is an important factor in a console. There is no point in selling something when you can't get people with disabilities to play your console.
Now comes the final question: Which console should you get?
My answer: It is ultimately up to you.
Consider the factors I've mentioned, then answer some questions in your head:
Do I want to play games competitively?
Do I want to play games casually?
Do I want to play games solo?
And more.
At the end of the day, play the games you want to play, own the console you want to play. And if you've decided on a console or PC, good on you, and good luck on your gaming journey.
2 notes · View notes
rubberduckyrye · 2 years
Text
I am not (Dis)Abled (Enough)
I'm having a time right now so here's a thread on being Disabled in America but being Denied Disability.
I am physically disabled due to some kind of injury to my spine. I cannot stand, walk or run for more than five minutes at the best of times. I'm in chronic pain most of the time. Sitting in certain chairs hurts my back. The Chiropractors and Physical therapy didn't work. I can no longer visit doctors about my back due to my insurance not covering more than 30 or so visits a year. I used up all but two appointments in less than the first half of the year, so I can’t even get proper treatment year round. But because one doctor said that I could stand for 4 hours (a blatant lie), the government thinks I am not “physically disabled.”
I am mentally disabled. My ADHD causes me to lose track of common chores and task and I often forget what I was doing. I have to be reminded of certain tasks constantly. I also have C-PTSD, which makes me have panic attacks when someone in authority scolds me or makes me feel unsafe. My panic attacks are so bad that I cannot bring myself to go back to work after having one that is work related. My depression consumes me and my ability to shower, take care of myself in general, and see the joys of living even in the most mundane things. My insomnia disorder prevents me from having a stable sleep schedule for more than two weeks at most. I have severe Agoraphobia where I can't even leave the house by myself unless I am escorted by my partner or for medical appointments. However, because after my father's passing I decided to obliged my mother's insistence on visiting her and my brother in Florida, and because I spend my days "writing, drawing, playing video games and talking to friends" I am not considered disabled.
I cannot work. I cannot do ANY kind of work. Freelance, a normal 9 to 5, nothing. The combinations of my mental and physical disabilities prevent me from maintaining and sustaining a job. However, I'm being told that I'm not eligible for Disability for the bajillionth time and I feel hopeless. I feel worthless. I don't know what to do. How am I supposed to live in a society that won't provide me with a job I CAN do for a livable wage, and refuses to acknowledge that I cannot do the work it wants me to?
I've been in tears all day, ranging from hatred at myself for things that I cannot control (I.E. "Maybe you're just too lazy/maybe they're right) to hatred of the world I live in (I.E. "Greedy people don't want me to get help, they want me to be a good little dog and slave away at jobs I cannot maintain) but never the less, left feeling utterly hopeless. I can't financially support my friends when they are struggling. I cannot even buy myself new clothes to wear. I can't buy the new video game console I wanted, and I won't be able to repair/replace my computer/phones if it ever breaks on me and I don't have a warranty. If not for food stamps, I wouldn't even be able to afford food. If not for the Student loan income based repayment program, I would be in absolute financial ruin.
With the state of the government taking away my right as a human to get an abortion, I do not have confidence that I will even have these government-funded programs for much longer. I fear for my safety and my life. I will not survive like this. My only hopes are to randomly get the "discipline" these fuckers think I can get, and maintain a job that way. That, or write the next biggest hit novel/video game/comic/streaming/whatever that comes to market.
So my only options of survival are: get lucky, or break your body and get to work.
7 notes · View notes
adelaidedrubman · 2 years
Note
👾 — video games, 🌍 — knowledge of the world, ⚓️ — sailing for Jestiny; 🎵 — singing, 👊 — fighting, 🔧 — engineering/mechanics for Jenna
THANK YOU BELOVED sorry these took an eternity!!
Tumblr media
👾 — video games
jessie has little to no experience with video games, she’s never really been able to afford a console or a decent computer, and even if she had the extra cash video games wouldn’t be the first thing on her list to spend it on. so she probably hasn’t had much experience beyond the occasional arcade game. i think if she did give them a try, she’d be fairly decent — she has extremely good hand eye coordination and reaction speed. however, her competitive nature would be a double edged sword — little miss “whatever, i could do that if i wanted to” is going to get very upset when she’s not instantly better than everyone and let it rattle her and throw her off rhythm so that she does even worse, then she’ll go on a tirade about how video games are rich people bullshit and don’t mean anything and only losers and assholes play them, then act like she didn’t just through a tantrum and everyone else is being uptight about the situation, actually.
tl;dr: she’s not a hot gamer girl.
🌍 — knowledge of the world
in terms of experiential knowledge, very little. she’s never been out of the country save for a quick trip over the border to canada to go bar hopping for her eighteenth birthday, other than that all her travel has been domestic, and even that’s been fairly limited. and as for education on the world generally, like with most things, the knowledge she does have is fairly sporadic and fragmented. her formal education was subpar and interrupted, but she is a skilled learner and absorbs knowledge very easily and for the most part eagerly. so she’s definitely not ignorant, although she may be unaware of certain things that would seem obvious — and then pull out an obscure fact she’s picked up in the same conversation.
⚓️ — sailing
she would deride you for even asking the question. who the fuck goes sailing? in 2018? what kind of rich people bullshit is that?
she can operate a jon boat (yes, she hates that they’re called that) and knows some sailing knots, that’s as close as her skill set gets.
Tumblr media
🎵 — singing
music has never been her personal passion or something she’s studied professionally, but i would say she has some singing skill! she’s never had vocal training, but she does have a very naturally pleasant singing voice and can carry a tune. you can often find her singing along to her bubblegum pop background music as she works. she’s good enough that on the occasions he’s acutely troubled by jenna’s rather obvious lack of actual spirituality, joseph will attempt to inspire more earnest religious devotion by pressuring her to join the choir. she always respectfully but firmly declines — while singing can be fun for her to do absentmindedly, she thinks there are far more interesting things to dedicate her time and energy to, and beyond that she prefers to be a spectator over having an audience herself. she’ll do the occasional duet with faith, though.
👊 — fighting
(she works out at the library and etc.)
she knows only the very basics of self defense and combat readiness taught to all project members during initiation, and frankly even on that she probably skirted by and learned less than the average peggie as her usefulness was elsewhere. she does make sure to take care of her body in all aspects, and getting regular exercise is part of that. but while she’s in shape i wouldn’t say she’s particularly athletic, and physical combat has just never been of interest to her. if she were to do well in a fight, it would be less on account of any physical prowess and more thanks to her ability to maintain cool under pressure, analyze and react to situations intelligently, and her knowledge of the human body and its weaknesses.
🔧 — engineering/mechanics
she probably knows more than the average layperson — she understands the physics behind how machinery functions and what chemical reaction occur to generate power. but it’s far enough removed from her field i wouldn’t call her an expert, and it’s not something she’s really practiced at. she’s proficient enough to say, fix the centrifuge in her lab on her own, but that’s about it.
4 notes · View notes
pizzalordmike · 2 years
Text
The famous quote by Gabe Newell, the CEO of Valve Corporation, the company which created the following critically and commercially mega-successful franchises:
Half-Life,
Counter-Strike,
Team Fortress,
Portal,
DOTA 2,
and the biggest digital store for buying games, Steam, goes something like this:
“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.” (Source:  “How Valve Experiments with the Economics of Video Games.” GeekWire, 23 Oct. 2011, www.geekwire.com/2011/experiments-video-game-economics-valves-gabe-newell/. )
And thus, pro-piracy advocates have taken that statement and ran with it. They tell you how successful Steam is in places that have had huge issues with video game piracy such as Russia, and they talk about how music piracy cratered once Spotify and Soundcloud and Bandcamp and all the other music streaming services came out, and they jump up and down and say “See? See? People WANT to spend money on things! They WANT to give artists and large companies money! They want to spend money on books and movies and TV shows and video games and other consumer media! Just let them have easy access to it at an affordable price, and people will stop pirating! It’s not because piracy lets them have it for free, it’s because piracy just lets them have it at all in the first place!”
My response is two-fold, and has been for a long time:
1: Anyone who pays money for media they can get for free is an un-serious idiot and should be ignored completely.
2: How can anyone make a better service than piracy?
For point 1: Several months back I was at a local Barnes and Noble. I was looking through their bargain bin section when I saw a book called The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid. It looked so new, it seemed like it had just been pulled from the shelf. A “Cheap $5″ sticker was attached to it. The MSRP? $17.99.
I saw the book, picked it up, read the synopsis on the inside of the dust jacket, and figured that I wanted to read this book and support this author by buying it. But I realized that I had a choice on how to do that. I could purchase the $5 book, which was in as near pristine a condition as a book in the bargain section could be, or I could go and purchase the full price, $17.99 version of the book, either online or at a different store.
Anyone with a basic understanding of economics will probably look at that dilemma and go “That’s so stupid! You OBVIOUSLY pick the $5 book! You get the exact same thing at a lower price!”
So piracy advocates: Why should I, a reasonable consumer, pay money to any streaming service like Netflix or HBO Max or pay any amount of money to any store when I can find a place to have access to all of it, in one place, for free, without any ads or other interruptions?
For point 2: Steam is one of the biggest video game digital storefronts in the entire world. It has more video games for sale than anyone can feasibly keep track of, with more being released on the platform for purchase every day.
Except for Nintendo products.
If you like Pokemon, Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Smash Bros., Kirby, Splatoon, or any other product made by/for Nintendo game consoles, you’re shit out of luck. You have to buy Nintendo made game consoles to play them.
Unless you pirate them. In which case you can play any of those games on an emulator on your computer.
So, Steam isn’t the best possible service, right? It doesn’t have the most video games accessible to their audience, piracy does by having games for nearly every console you can think of and even a few you might have forgotten about. It doesn’t have the best price, because piracy is free. And it doesn’t even consistently have the best product; time and time again people who release pirated versions of games also take the time to make a better version of it. Case in point, when Metroid: Dread was released, Kotaku had a whole article about how the pirated emulator version had a better visual quality than the official version available for sale by Nintendo for their Switch console. (Source: “Metroid Dread Is Already Running on Switch Emulators.” Kotaku, kotaku.com/metroid-dread-is-already-running-great-on-switch-emulat-1847833403. Accessed 6 May 2022. )
This extends to movies, tv shows, but particularly to stuff that’s made outside of the United States like manga or anime. The manga and anime you can have access to from your bookstore or retail store or even from websites like Amazon or RightStuf is constantly limited by licensing agreements, companies going bankrupt, and other factors that result in “official” material becoming out-of-print and much more expensive than it should be. My personal favorite manga ever, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, has been out of print for YEARS and despite an anime adaptation coming in the near future as of writing this, there is no way to legally purchase the five omnibuses that make up the series without being willing to spend HUNDREDS of dollars.
Now, before anyone calls me a consumer whore licking the boots of the corporations because I’m criticizing people who advocate piracy, I want you to understand something: I am 100% in favor of having art of all kinds being readily accessible to everyone, everywhere, all the time. I work at a library, for God’s sake! A library! A public service that lets people access more books, movies, TV shows, music, and other media than you can shake a stick at for the low, low price of $0! Newspapers, cookbooks, art instruction books, craft instruction books, audio books and large-type books for the visually impaired, children’s books, young adult books, multi-lingual books, databases, books about local history, books about world history, documentaries, magazines, poetry, short stories, stories with BIPOC characters, stories with LGBTQ+ characters, books written BY BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors, even some video games in some libraries, and if we don’t have it physically in the library, we can either place a request for it to be physically shipped to us for you to check out or you can probably find it online with one of the MANY library apps that let you check out EVEN MORE THINGS! Everyone should LOVE libraries and have a library card and check out all the things you want for free! Libraries are AMAZING! Everything should be like the library: readily accessible to the public, free, and easy for anyone to use.
And piracy, time and time again, has proven to be the closest thing to a library that I have ever seen. Piracy is the best way for the consumer to find what they want, get what they want, and keep it forever.
But so rarely do I ever see people who claim to be “pro-piracy” ever behave like they are IN FAVOR OF piracy. They always talk about piracy as if it’s a bad thing, that it’s a thing they HAVE to do, that they wouldn’t pirate stuff if they had any other option. And as someone who doesn’t pirate on purely ideological grounds (the “Piracy feels like I’m stealing and I don’t like stealing” argument) that do NOT stand up to scrutiny in any way besides being 100% emotion driven, I have to say you all sound like unserious idiots and bigger corporate bootlickers than I could ever be. The corporations who make the media you want do not care about you, have never cared about you, and will never care about you; why do you spend time trying to change that?
Just say “Fuck ‘em”, and take what you want. You don’t have to bend yourself into pretzels over who it is or isn’t morally correct to pirate from, you just pirate.
Of course, that makes you sound like entitled assholes who just want shit for free, but hey, at least it’s honest and straight-forward.
13 notes · View notes
eralegal28 · 2 years
Text
Need Extra Time? Learn These Tricks To Eradicate Minecraft Servers
Similar to Hyper HD Realism, Higher Foliage is a visual Minecraft mod that improves how the sport appears to be like on a pair of assorted ranges. Impartial of the game's specifics, merely logging in imposes a considerable burden on that server's computational sources, one that threatens to undermine the sport expertise for all. By contrast to the enterprise fashions supporting different games, where all servers are managed by a single skilled entity, playing Minecraft with others often means logging into an openly accessible server, someplace on the planet, that's being offered by an unpaid beginner without professional experience in governing strangers or managing server resources. Are you on the lookout for a Minecraft server hosting at an affordable price? You've got up and running server as soon as you could have registered and paid for the account. Whether or not it’s the Creeper Woman expressions or Steve that first caught your consideration, and whether you’ve invested in your own Minecraft server or have joined a dedicated server for a greater multiplayer experience, Minecraft has become greater than just a video sport. Although this paper focuses on purposes within Minecraft, our software, which we've got made publicly obtainable together with our dataset, can be used on any set of game event sequences.
This paper introduces a method for analyzing event sequences by detecting contrasting motifs; the goal is to discover subsequences which might be considerably more comparable to 1 set of sequences vs. Non-public Servers are hosted by both you or a good friend of yours where solely your folks will likely be on the server. And thats the way you join a minecraft server. On April 15th, ID@Xbox games Rain in your Parade (cloud, console and Pc) and Pathway (Pc) will be part of the lineup. A Minecraft server is actually a non-public community that any player can create for a multiplayer expertise, allowing different people to join and play collectively. Maybe you want to play with your pals or test out completely different mods. Play Minecraft at the identical time. Minecraft Servers hosted within the cloud, on the other hand, uses enterprise grade network routes to ensure every participant has the best connection to your server and a low latency gaming expertise each time they connect. 75,000), we had a corpus of 5,216 minimally viable, minimally comparable on-line server communities, 1,837 of which have been additionally minimally profitable (full element in S1 Text).
Columns report regressions fitting features of 1,837 minimally profitable communities to log2 of population size. Effect of rule count and other measures of regime complexity interacts with population dimension. Rule depend and different measures of regime complexity are better in bigger minimally successful communities. By default, these servers are publicly accessible via the Web and don't have terms of use. As soon as logged in, the game is in a position to make use of the launcher to obtain the game (much like how Java Version works on Laptop) after which uses the customized-developed wrapper to run the Java application, with modifications, on Quest. The introduction of crowd-sourced modding for Minecraft changed the game. When you host a Minecraft server by yourself laptop, you want to keep the pc powered on 24 hours a day and logged in. Powering a computer 24 hours a day, 7 days every week can be an costly endeavour.
With a Minecraft server hosted in the cloud, you can count on a 100% network uptime assure and distinctive server reliability to know that your Minecraft server will be on-line and accessible for gamers 24 hours a day. With a Minecraft server hosted within the cloud, you'll be able to rest simple knowing your game server can have devoted assets to run perfectly. This distinction leads them to work to maximise impressions (unique fairly than return visitors) and to concentrate on distinguishing themselves from different giant servers, modifying the sport environment and mechanics so heavily that they are scarcely recognizable as servers of Minecraft, in terms of the challenges they face or how they handle them. The online communities in our inhabitants are all servers of the multi-player "digital world" video game Minecraft. Journey Map mod for Minecraft solves this downside by mapping your world as you go around exploring. We examine the hypothesis that capitalist economies generate inequality by wanting at the distribution of wealth in a virtual world. These results counsel that market economies generate important “natural” inequality, and that government insurance policies are efficient in moderating the inequality-inducing impression of capitalism. Game servers We discovered these unregulated economies to have higher wealth inequality than any single nation's financial system.
2 notes · View notes
bynummcgee27 · 8 days
Text
Perhaps you are of the belief that video gaming is for kids alone. You could not be more wrong! There are many games out there adults may enjoy, including those with exercise and army themes. The world of gaming is huge, and within this article are ideas to help.
Become familiar with video game ratings. The realm of video games is not just for children, and thus, not all games are meant for the entire family. Game rating range from EC, which means Early Childhood, up to AO, which stands for Adults Only. If you purchase a video game for someone else, make sure that it's appropriate for their age. If you are playing a sporting game, and you don't have any experience with it, set the difficulty level to rookie. This will help you pick up on the unique features of the game and learn your way around the field. If you set it higher than that, you are likely to get frustrated and not have any fun. Playing video games is a great way to relax after a tough day at work or at school. Don't let a difficult level on a video game detract from this relaxing activity. Even the most experienced gamers sometime need a cheat code to help get through an exceptionally hard level. On koreapoker , there are some great sites that provide cheat codes and strategy guides for various video games. Get the most for your money and buy video games used. If it isn't necessary to buy video games when they first come out, wait until you can buy a used copy. You will be able to save a little bit of money this way and still enjoy the game. Stay at home and save money by playing video games with your friends. Many people use these games as a form of entertainment. Most games nowadays are available to play online with others. You can also chat with your friends while playing. Cut back on expenses by staying home and playing games. You should be leery of playing games online. Sometimes you have to pay every month to play. If you have a child who wants to join an online-gaming site, then you should check it out first. Find out all fees and determine whether the investment is worth the return. You can use your local library to test play a game first. The public library offers a number of game titles that you are able to play for free. Libraries generally have games for each current system so give them a call and figure out if they carry the games you wish to try! Consider buying video game items used. To help you save money and save the environment, buy used items. You can usually find used game systems, games, controllers and anything else you need or want. Either look online or at a local video game store that sells used gaming items. Play video games to help you learn. Video games are not only a lot of fun, but they can be quite educational, too. If you or someone you know is having a hard time learning some concept, look for a game that will help teach it. You will be surprised at just how much a video game can teach you. For a cheaper way to enjoy great video games, look into "classic" games. These titles are years (or even decades) old, but they've been upgraded to run on modern computers and consoles. They're usually quite affordable and usually very beloved. When a game stands the test of time, you can be fairly certain that it has considerable quality. To make video games more fun, try experimenting with multi-player options with your friends and family. Playing video games on your own can be very enjoyable, however, playing with friends and family can make video games a lot more exciting. Nowadays, most video games come with a wide range of different multi-player options. Even adults enjoy video games today. To find your way safely through the sea of titles and options, use the tips offered above. These tips will allow you to get more from video games, no matter what kind they are.
0 notes
esbensenwerner07 · 3 months
Text
Perhaps you are of the belief that video gaming is for kids alone. You could not be more wrong! There are many games out there adults may enjoy, including those with exercise and army themes. The world of gaming is huge, and within this article are ideas to help.
Become familiar with video game ratings. The realm of video games is not just for children, and thus, not all games are meant for the entire family. 키노픽 rating range from EC, which means Early Childhood, up to AO, which stands for Adults Only. If you purchase a video game for someone else, make sure that it's appropriate for their age. If you are playing a sporting game, and you don't have any experience with it, set the difficulty level to rookie. This will help you pick up on the unique features of the game and learn your way around the field. If you set it higher than that, you are likely to get frustrated and not have any fun. Playing video games is a great way to relax after a tough day at work or at school. Don't let a difficult level on a video game detract from this relaxing activity. Even the most experienced gamers sometime need a cheat code to help get through an exceptionally hard level. On the Internet, there are some great sites that provide cheat codes and strategy guides for various video games. Get the most for your money and buy video games used. If it isn't necessary to buy video games when they first come out, wait until you can buy a used copy. You will be able to save a little bit of money this way and still enjoy the game. Stay at home and save money by playing video games with your friends. Many people use these games as a form of entertainment. Most games nowadays are available to play online with others. You can also chat with your friends while playing. Cut back on expenses by staying home and playing games. You should be leery of playing games online. Sometimes you have to pay every month to play. If you have a child who wants to join an online-gaming site, then you should check it out first. Find out all fees and determine whether the investment is worth the return. You can use your local library to test play a game first. The public library offers a number of game titles that you are able to play for free. Libraries generally have games for each current system so give them a call and figure out if they carry the games you wish to try! Consider buying video game items used. To help you save money and save the environment, buy used items. You can usually find used game systems, games, controllers and anything else you need or want. Either look online or at a local video game store that sells used gaming items. Play video games to help you learn. Video games are not only a lot of fun, but they can be quite educational, too. If you or someone you know is having a hard time learning some concept, look for a game that will help teach it. You will be surprised at just how much a video game can teach you. For a cheaper way to enjoy great video games, look into "classic" games. These titles are years (or even decades) old, but they've been upgraded to run on modern computers and consoles. They're usually quite affordable and usually very beloved. When a game stands the test of time, you can be fairly certain that it has considerable quality. To make video games more fun, try experimenting with multi-player options with your friends and family. Playing video games on your own can be very enjoyable, however, playing with friends and family can make video games a lot more exciting. Nowadays, most video games come with a wide range of different multi-player options. Even adults enjoy video games today. To find your way safely through the sea of titles and options, use the tips offered above. These tips will allow you to get more from video games, no matter what kind they are.
0 notes
arisaur · 6 months
Text
pardon my continuous venting, but people who get mad at- and gatekeep fandom members for not owning/playing a game the fandom is for irritate me.
AAA games are $100+ here, and $80 in america. consoles are $600. decent gaming computers that will be able to run games a short 2 years into the future cost anywhere from $2000–$4000. a lot of games are console- or PC exclusives, for systems people don’t own and don’t want to own. we’re in an awful economy. not everyone can afford all that for a video game. not everyone likes the game playstyle, just the lore. some people physically cannot play the games (amputation, carpal tunnel, joint issues, epilepsy, motion sickness, poor hand/eye coordination etc).
you do not need to own every game a fandom exists for to be part of the fandom.
1 note · View note
novelmonger · 7 months
Text
Tagged by @rainintheevening
Rules: Pick an oc you'd like to talk about and answer the questions for them! Then tag ten people, or as many as you can. 'Underdeveloped character I adopted' is fine, too! Absolutely no pressure to play, though.
Also, if some of it can't apply to your ocs, just answer what would be the answer - like if they're in a historical setting, they likely can't watch movies, but what is a movie they'd like?
(Also, most people have many ocs, so feel free to retag people and answer as many times as you get tagged! Or get really wild and just answer for as many ocs as you'd like! :D)
For this one, I'm going to do Korey Johnson from my Captain America WIP Take Me In.
1. What is their favorite movie?
Some Indiana Jones movie, or maybe the Bourne movies? Some action/adventure-type thing that takes you to a bunch of different countries and beautiful locations. I feel like Korey is more into TV than movies, though, and I don't watch enough TV to pick one for him. (Like, I would say The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but that's quite a bit before Korey's time ^^') How about this? Korey likes [insert TV show that is funny and relatable to a Gen Z kid in New York City].
2. What is their favorite season?
He likes summer the best. Korey dropped out of high school, and is also short and skinny for his age, so he would attract suspicious looks if he hung around the wrong places during the school year. In the summer, though, no one looks at him like they're about to ask why he isn't in school. Also, he can stay out for hours and hours and not have to stay cooped up at home.
3. What do they find annoying?
If we're being honest, his little brother Kevin. He loves his brother, and Kevin practically idolizes him, but...Kevin never shuts up. Korey is also annoyed by people who "disrespect" him - sometimes, that's actual disrespect, but his definition also extends to people telling him what to do, or refusing a request he makes (even if it's unreasonable). After the events of the story, Korey also finds his previous friends and their favorite pastimes (e.g. doing drugs and sleeping around) rather annoying too. He's trying to stay clean, and his old friends wheedling him to come and "hang out" irritates him as much as it tempts him.
4. How would they like to spend their Christmas or equivalent holiday?
Having spent the past few Christmases high as a kite and then coming home to his mom screaming at him, Korey really just wants to go back to being a kid on Christmas morning again. To look up at a beautiful Christmas tree with wonder and anticipation, and unwrap his presents (however few) and then go outside and have a snowball fight if possible. He wants to make-believe that Santa is flying overhead in his sleigh, and not have to feel guilty about how much Mom spent on presents and Christmas treats, and worry about whether that will put them behind on rent payments. Again.
5. Do they play an instrument? If so, what? How good are they at it?
No, he doesn't play an instrument. He likes to sing along to the radio and try his hand at freestyle rap, but he isn't very good at it XD
6. What's their favorite meal to eat?
Deep-dish pizza. Korey is a New Yorker through and through :P He likes just about any kind of pizza, as long as there's nothing green on it. He likes to pair it with orange soda.
7. Do they have a favorite video game or board game?
Korey's family has never been able to afford a video game console, so most of his gaming is done on his phone. Unfortunately, I don't do mobile gaming, so I'm not sure what titles he plays ^^' My guess would be various sport and racing games. I'm not sure exactly how he'd get exposure to it, unless maybe just watching playthroughs or streams, but I think he'd love the Uncharted games.
8. Do they celebrate their birthday?
Korey's mom always tries to get something special for him on his birthday, but often she has to work, and so he has to spend his birthday alone or just with Kevin. In recent years, that would usually mean he would celebrate by going out and partying with his friends. After the story, I think he would spend his birthday at home, thankful for what he has.
9. What's their bedtime routine?
Korey is a talker. He likes to lie awake in the darkness and talk with whoever is there. At home, he and Kevin would often talk in whispers late into the night, at least until Korey started drifting away from his family and ended up coming back at some ungodly hour of the night, if at all. After the story, he ends every day according to some advice he got in the program he went through to help him get off drugs - he keeps a simple journal, writing down a list of successes he had that day, whether that's "I got the job!" or just "I apologized to Mom for yelling at her yesterday." Then he writes down a handful of things he wants to improve on for the next day, and turns out the light.
Once Kevin pesters him to explain what he's writing, Kevin starts doing the same, only instead of his goals being things like "apply for a job" or "remember to wait five seconds before responding if I'm angry," Kevin's goals are more like "practice interview answers for when I'm famous" and "think of more things I could do if the Force was real" :3
10. What's an oc (or canon character) that they like to spend time around? What do they tend to do together?
Korey becomes friends with Bucky through the course of the story, and they end up spending an awful lot of time together for a while. Because they're bored and have nothing else to do, they end up playing a lot of card games. Eventually, Bucky convinces Korey to get his GED, and helps him study for it. Korey thinks the world of Bucky, not least because he's best friends with Captain Freaking America ;) Different in almost every way, they make a rather odd pair, but they have a bond of shared understanding and concern for each other. I like to think they'll stay friends for years to come, even if they don't hang out super often.
Tagging anyone with an OC who ended up being a much bigger deal in your story than you realized at first.
1 note · View note
stuyouknow · 9 months
Text
I Remember the times before.
I am old enough to remember when society was not actively at war with kids.* (In this context, "kids" refers to anyone under 50) We got to play outside, roam neighborhoods in little packs as we socialized and frolicked in communities. I remember that being taken away.
I remember the police coming as we congregated, telling us to go home, go to the park just go somewhere else. So we did. Then the skate parks, the unused fields, and the other places we went were shut down. Suddenly groups of kids weren’t welcome at parks you must be with parents.
Our parents were busy, just told us “go play outside” blind to the fact we couldn’t anymore. They voted to throw money at the police, who used that to make sure kids, especially teenagers couldn’t get a moment’s peace when outside. Suddenly the arcades and malls were all we had.
The arcades and malls worked for a while. Then we were chased from the malls. The arcades closed down or became too expensive for child money. We were kids and we got squeezed to play and congregate. We couldn’t afford it, so the arcades shut down. Then the era of home consoles-
Suddenly we had something we could do. It just happened to be in our homes. That meant you could have friends over but only in smaller groups. Then parents got sick of 6 kids that weren’t theirs eating their food. We were told to play outside. We couldn’t anymore.
So we, well now just me, could either play alone at my grandparents house, or read or play video games, alone. Alone alone alone. Introverts like me were fine for a while. The non introverts weren’t. They got angry, antsy, depressed. It was hell for them.
Then suddenly, the internet. People could find others to talk to. We felt less alone. Then the moral panics came for the internet. They couldn’t shut it down, but our new refuge was under siege. The only place for kids to socialize, was schools. Schools have cliques. Always have
Suddenly the youth had been carved up into cliques and small, predictable groups. We were made manageable, more homogeneous. And the adults picked favorites, and played favorites hard. The outcasts retreated further, while the favorites only had community until they graduated.
Is it any wonder people flocked to social media? They found an echo of what humans crave. Community. Then those spaces were used to pit each other against each other. Now we live in a world of chronicly lonely people who cling to the only connections they have.
But here is the thing. Even that pale echo is being taken from us now. Our spaces are crumbling, our leaders scheming to control and clamp down further with tick tok bans and stricter content guidelines. The youth have been hounded for most my life.
"ok Boomer" is nothing compared to that. millennials to gen-z can only lie in the bed others have made for them. Everytime we carve out spaces, they collapse because of corpo greed or puritanical meddling with any finical system attached. It is a tiresome pattern.
Want to know what would fix all this? Make people less chronically online? Give people their spaces back. Let people congregate and not be chased off for loitering, let us gather. Like we could before. Vaccinate, cause Corona is still a thing, and your politicians ignored it.
Make walk-able communities, set aside spaces for parks, libraries, gardens. Stop sending the cops after anyone just minding their own business outside their homes. Stop caging us like animals, and we will feel less like caged animals. We might even stop wanting to hate each other.
Fight for your place in the world. Make the places you fight for homes for everyone, including people not like you, and to do that, you absolutely can not tolerate those who will not tolerate the other. There is enough anger to go around as is, don't let yourself fall into contributing to it.
0 notes