#the crux of the story is the gaming

[phoenixkaptain]

I wanna talk about You Boys Play Games Very Well because it is the funniest story I’ll ever read in my life.

First things first: Ling Meng. MengMeng. The best boy. He’s just like me fr his head is full of only video games and food. He also puffs out his cheeks like a pufferfish when upset and that’s just too relatable. Anyway, he’s also super tiny but calls himself Lemon Daddy, and I can’t explain to you how funny it is when he does a face reveal and everyone is so upset and thinks he’s underage-

And Shan Zhu! (His brother’s name is Shan Zha and I know it’s written in characters not English, but in English it’s equivalent to naming one kid Charles and the other Charlie, it cracks me up and the author definitly knew this, okay, they knew-) Shan Zha played one game when Lemon Daddy told him to take things more seriously and he went “…he’s got a point” and became one of the top players. Because someone on a game told him to take things more seriously.

I have a lot to say on Shan Zhu, okay, he is the funniest love interest of all times. First of all, his nicknames include Mango, Mang God (God Mango), Mangosteen, and Apple. He’s called Mango because his name Mangosteen got mispronounced. He started a small account, Apple, because Ling Meng thought Mang God was going to the same school as him and started a tournament to see, and Shan Zhu joined because he wanted the second place prize.

WHAT - you ask - WAS THE SECOND PLACE PRIZE? I’m so glad you brought it up! Ling Meng told everyone it was his nudes, but it was actually a picture of him in the bath from when he was a baby, but yes, Shan Zhu joined a tournament under a newly made account name just so he could deliberately throw the match at the last second and win Ling Meng’s naked photo (which is especially funny because he’s called a walking calculator; he does wildly impressive math all in his head in a couple of seconds and so he deliberately did the math to make his missiles miss, his talent level is off the charts). WHY - you ask - did he do ANY OF THIS? Because he got told by Lemon Daddy to take thing more seriously, then the second time they met, Lemon told him “You boys play games very well” and honestly, who wouldn’t be smitten?

(Also, they made a bet and he did manage to get Ling Meng to try and buy condoms at the school store, so- Look, just read the novel, it makes sense, definitely, just read it-)

But Shan Zha (the most obvious man who has ever existed) and Ling Meng (the most oblivious man who has ever existed) are not the best characters, that honour goes to Xiang Jiao, or Banana, or Guava. Guava is the absolute best character of all time, because he has the biggest crush on Ling Meng yet does absolutely nothing about it. The multiple scenes where he just asks Mango and Apple (which are the same person) if he wants to go pro are very funny, because Shan Zha responds with a no every time, but Guava keeps asking.

Guava has a shit ton of money and uses it almost exclusively to send it to Ling Meng. My favourite part is when someone asks him his hobbies and his coach mentions that he’s been watching a streamer lately (Ling Meng) and Guava says it’s an entertainment streamer (he isn’t really) and says he watches because it’s funny and the coach says “He’s never laughed once.”

Also, Guava asking Ling Meng for his autograph is just hilarious.

Also also, the sex scenes are entirely fruit and rollercoaster metaphors. I don’t know why. But I like it a lot.

So yeah, 10/10, recommend, read You Boys Play Games Very Well, it’s all worth it for Guava being the biggest Lemon fan, and Shan Zhu being the biggest Ling Meng trumpet blower and defender. (Ling Meng is good at everything. Promise, he definitely is, would the extremely biased and smitten Shan Zhu lie to me??) And the chat is pretty funny too. Very good, very funny, so funny, like honestly I laugh so hard every time I read it.

#cnovel #you boys play games very well #ling meng #shan zhu #xiang jiao #the inane ramblings of a madman #long post #novel #listen i realize i didn’t bring it up #but this entire story is interspersed #with incredibly detailed sections #of gaming footage #the crux of the story is the gaming #i probably should have mentioned that #but oh well #better late than never #please read so i can talk to someone about please

[mihai-florescu]

Hm... i do wish it was normalized to talk about how yes you can have an interesting meaningful story involving characters with ocd coded or intrusive thoughts towards younger characters and it can be an important character trait that doesnt define them or one that is indicative of a set of values etc but you as a fan need to simultaneously be aware of the context of the story. Why do you think i lament being forsaken to like gacha games stories. The choices are made with intent to sell and appeal to an audience that will pay. I just think it's important to keep it mind that, and it pains me to see people who express concern at intentionality being labeled "freaks cuz they thought of that in the first place" i promise you theyre not the freaks for being concerned. So while i do think HE is definitely trying to appeal to new younger audiences with modern teen characters and the use of tiktok, it is important to keep history, audience, and possible further interests in mind too. Well from the bottom of my heart i hope none of the new characters ever get cards like that one hyena aira 4* but it is always good to stay cautious. I dont understand how ppl parrot being "critical of the media we consume" but then not being ok with talking about such fanservice that is undeniably there. Yet i understand reluctancy to admit you're not the target audience, and the willingness to just ignore anything you dont like... i might've been guilty of it myself at points.

#delete later #topic makes *me* uncomfortable but i feel like conversations about it are never really conversations its someone expressing concern- #and someone else jumping in with some caps lock “you need better media comprehension skills if u think x is a shotacon” #well. isnt context awareness of the game's position also part of media comprehension... #yes in universe i can explain x y z things i can very much do so #doesnt mean a certain audience wont project themselves or gain gratification from it as it is #i have been more and more aprehensive of engaging in fandom activities. well you see me talking abt my interests and interacting w a few ppl #but im realising more and more i fundamentally dont like the fandom minded approach to enjoying media #but i do like observing it... #fandoms. like an anthropologist. and then i try to look at stories both as narratives but also as things that have an impact on people #that's the crux of my entire graduation project in a way isnt it. well you dont know im shy to talk about it. but it is #once again delete later

[gothamcityneedsme]

There is something deeply flawed and just wrong with s4 of the harley quinn show and im like. Trying to make a concise point about it but its really difficult to not make this a 20 min rant

#Shitpost #im trying to tldr this but i cant #talked to my sister for like an hour about it lol #the MAIN issue is that its trying to be vbros in a universe that doesnt WORK as vbros #like. A crux of vbros is that. 1. It isnt a superhero genre focused story. It is a boy adventurer hanna barbara cartoon spinoff #Vbros is Johnny Quest before it is superhero genre #And 2. In vbros the paperwork and systems of arching are developed slowly AND inherently work. Because in vbros THE VILLAINS AND HEROES. #ARE. TO A DEGREE. PLAYING A GAME. a ridiculous pretend where sometimes people die and like. If anyone takes it too seriously they are seen #as psychopaths that need to be put down. Etc #the harley quinn show is trying to have the same universe while using the dc universe which has over 80 years of history #and established characters. And it is NOT working #like on a fundamental thematic level #S 1-2 werent that strong. S3 was the best so far. S4 is hot garbage though its such a fucking mess #Another factor is that this show doesnt treat its characters with respect which leads to like #there is almost no engaging secondary cast. It doesnt use its characters well #because it isnt taking them seriously #the only character other than harley and ivy who is taken seriously is batgirl #So a show full of characters has 2 main characters and 1 secondary one #and like. Thats SUCH a terrible design #also the forced joke writing is a mess #and the 'mystery' of this season just shit the bed so hard in the ep that just came out #legitmately making this entire season pointless and. Sort of miserable to watch tbh? #just. Wow. I am amazed at how theyre using so many moving parts and literally none of them are fitting together #even the harlivy feels so forced and nonexistant this season #like their chemistry fucking died #And harleys arc is just so fucking shit this season. Like. Wow it shit the bed hard #i was giving it a chance but this most recent ep. Wow. It was so bad. #I dont think the season can be fixed now

[eosofspades]

i hate how difficult making massive projects is when it comes to art i am having the GREATEST idea for a video game but the only way it can come to actualization the way it needs to be to make it work is if i could get it picked up by a triple A studio

#its a third-person post-apocalyptic urban(?) fantasy digital!eldritch horror that #doubles as a cosmic horror in that certain characters *understand that they are in a video game* #with a DELICIOUS twist at the end and all these different stories lining up #and a very specific way where you can have multiple saves of different characters - skyrim style - #and different choices you make and the way they impact the narrative from there on out - #literally bleeds across game files. the crux of the plot is that the 'code' of the universe is corrupted and falling apart and #there are all these glitches and if a character gets 'corrupted' - different versions of them from other game files will #merge with them sort of and they react to the player based on what decisions they made involving that character in a different save #AND THERES A WHOLE PLOT WITH THESE TWO PRIMORDIAL BEINGS AND THEIR BATTLE AS OLD AS TIME (THE GAME ITSELF) #AND HOW ONE OF THEM KEEPS RESETTING THE GAME EVERY TIME THEY GET CLOSE TO LOSING #SO EVERYONE'S MEMORY IS WIPED #AND ITS WHY NO ONE KNOWS HOW THEY GOT TO THIS WORLD OR WHY THEY HAVE CERTAIN ABILITIES/ETC #and theres magic but its like shitty unbalanced magic where people can sort of casually fuck around with time loops and vortexes and #give themselves cool body modifications like horns or wings or something (like character creation!!!) #I JUST. ITS SUCH A GOOD IDEA IN MY HEAD I NEED A STUDIO TO COME PICK IT UP P L E A S E #bungie i am looking directly at you i know you'd do my vision justice #mine #hhhhng #the game is called the spider and the songbird btw and i'm going to rb this post with all the tags to my wip blog if #anyone is interested in seeing more. theres not much on there yet but there will be :):)

[magemegane]

if this keeps up im probably moving to my secondary blog and making it private i cant live with my ass out on the same website where people are making powerpoints about how s*bastian is Always Perfectly Civil when he “debates” and*rs

#can two wretched queens not be at each other's throats? #also see this is the crux of the problem. this is not a Social Website to me #this is the website where im made to see people treating video game characters as their real human friends and not vehicles in a story #i mean he's MY friend. but thats my business

[mrmallard]

Question to the One Piece fleet (or whatever the fandom calls themselves): is One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 a good way to get into the franchise? I hear there's a story mode that covers the entire franchise up to a certain point.

#one piece #like obv. it's going to have its quirks and foibles compared to the deliberate and measured pacing of the show and manga and stuff #I'm gonna be mowing down wave upon wave of disposable goons in a way that probably isn't congruous to the series #but like. as someone who hasn't experienced the franchise before #is the story mode at least good at conveying the story and the appropriate story beats in a way #that would communicate what one piece fans love about one piece? #keep in mind that before hyrule warriors I had barely scraped the surface of zelda #i didn't have a lot of the platforms for zelda games and even when I did they were extremely expensive #but after playing botw and hyrule warriors I considered myself a zelda fan through and through. because I love that fuckin franchise now #about to play as many of the zelda games as possible via the switch online emulators. including ocarina of time for the first time #and I would not be this gung-ho if not for hyrule warriors. like I tried emulating oot as a kid and I Didn't Get It #and had massive hype aversion for yeeeeeears #but hyrule warriors was the moment that got me and had me like. oh fuck. i think I'm a zelda fan now #so like the crux of my question is this. it probably won't be the Definitive One Piece Experience. i know that #but will it be enough of like an approximation of - and unabashed love letter to - the franchise #that might make me stop in my tracks at one point and go 'oh fuck. i think I'm a one piece fan now' #like is that a vibe you could see coming from a newbie who's playing pirate warriors 3 as their first major exposure to the franchise?

[luminarot]

WHAT KIND OF LOVE ARE YOU?

Love as a Threshold.

Your love does not ask for much. Your love does not take. Your love is free, and unquestioned, and here for wherever needs it. When you fall in love, it is as gentle as a breath in the night. It is quiet, and it is effortless. It is tender. If your love was a house, it would readily welcome all who come through. If your love was a hearth, it would warm the hands of whoever stopped by, whether for a day, a month, a year, or forever. When you fall for someone, it is without strings, without conditions, without need. You love for the sake of loving, for the sake of caring for those who need it. You love with a giver’s heart and a giver’s hands and are made so much stronger for it. Being loved by you is to always feel at home. Your love may not always be well-received by those unprepared to linger, but it is unforgettable all the same.

#muse: pat. #dash games. #hc: shifting of the sands. #(( maybe I will cry about it!!! ugh this is so accurate )) #(( the irony of the last line when the crux of his story is running away… but not running from love! never that. )) #(( the unforgettable bit had me tearing up I’m NOT GONNA LIE YALL!!!! thinking about him dying alone and haunting the woods alone )) #(( never being found. watching his friends drive off in the van without him. his sister realizing somethings wrong but so many others - )) #(( INCLUDING his parents saying he probably just ran away again or got too lazy to write and just generally. not caring )) #(( pat being a largely forgotten missing person amongst thousands of others. BUT NOT BY THISE WHO RLLY KNEW AND LOVED HIM )) #(( not by those who HE realy loved… bc it IS unforgettable. to be loved just for the sake of it without expectation unconditionally )) #(( pats just full of love and so so warm and just. will pour all of that affection into a person without thought. )) #(( talks to strangers like he’s known them his whole life. loves you just because he can with every fiber of his being )) #(( anyway I’m going through it with my emotions and this is Pat to a T!!!! couldn’t have said it better )) #(( also shhh I stole this so I am. not gonna tag anyone lmao ))

[demonlordcosnime]

lets play genshim impact part 51

#youtube #lets play #genshin impact #part 51 #exploring #battle #fight #quest #competition #story #boat #trip #inazuma #crux #funny #gameplay #gamergirl #gaming #youtube channel #cosnime

[wantmoregame]

Game inside Game | Within Gameplay } Horror Game | Narrative driven | Ri...

#youtube #horrorgaming within narrativegame narration game tamilgaming tamilgamer storyrichgame story intensescare triller crux gamestudios

[q-nihachu]

I've been thinking about what it is so specifically about Minecraft roleplay that involves so much sharing of interpretation between creator and audience. And what I've landed on is that the crux of it is something entirely separate from either. There is a third party providing interpretation—that of the "world" (the video game) the characters occupy.

See, there are a lot of different game worlds used for storytelling. For example, The Sims. When a creator tells a story using The Sims, the actions are provided by the game. There's very little that is vague in terms of what the characters are doing. The creator may still provide the characters' thought processes and link everything together for you, but the game is doing the heavy lifting of the storytelling.

Take an opposite example. D&D provides quite a lot in terms of worldbuilding, but most of the story is told via an entirely separate medium: speech. If one character stabs another, the game provides, perhaps, two minis colliding. That doesn't tell you much. So, the creators narrate every aspect of the what's happening, from the characters' thought processes to the sensory impact of what they've done. The actions themselves still leave little up to interpretation because you've heard them directly from the creators' mouths.

Finally, take Minecraft. In contrast to the other two, the actions characters take are often ambiguous. We know if one character hits another, but we don't know what that means. It could be nothing, or it could be a deep betrayal. The same action is used by a QSMP egg to say "hey, I have a sign for you to read" that c!Wilbur uses to violently and righteously beat c!Dream to death in his fantasy. So, in the ambiguity of the action lies a tricky situation. The game doesn't detail what the action is (a tap on the shoulder or a punch to the face), but the creator can't either. It would be a betrayal of their medium to do so. They have only the tools of context and reaction to indicate what an action means. And these are very useful tools! It's clear that when Wilbur beats Dream, it's to be taken with the gravity of a real-world beating.

But because of this unwritten rule that actions can't be clearly stated, Minecraft roleplay creates a story that requires the audience to interpret themselves what, exactly, is happening. They can choose not to engage with this. If two players bump into each other, the audience doesn't have to say what that means. The creator can also choose to state things outright at times. Perhaps when those players collided, it was a hug. But the gift of the medium is when neither of those things happen, and the audience gets to say, "They did that on purpose to be hostile!" Maybe that wasn't what the creator intended with the action, but they kept to the rule—so the story now, uniquely, belongs to the audience to create.

#dsmp #meta #mcrp

[flowercrownsanddaggers]

YOU CALL HIM 'PRECIOUS'

Featuring: Diluc, Kaeya, Kazuha, Xiao, Albedo

You caresses his cheeks.

"You. You are precious. You deserve the world."

— — —

DILUC

He'd ask why you got in his face all of a sudden, clasping his face—

And then you spoke gently.

You think he's precious? Compared to what, you? No, you were the most precious thing ever! Not that he was able to say that. You see, you stood so close, and you held him so sweet, and your eyes—

He blushes. Probably clears his throat.

"Well... thank you. That was very kind of you to say."

KAEYA

"O-Oh...?"

Most may think that he'd just flirt back, laughing it off.

Most would be wrong.

Deep down, he's a shy guy. Yeah, he got game, but he's also a sweetheart who buries himself in dark secrets.

"Well, that certaibly makes my day," he smiled. To be important was... quite nice, he supposed. Then, his eyes glaze over. He seems to remember something. Something terrible.

"Say, it truly is an honor to have gained a new ally such as yourself, and all without a timely notice," he says, successfully diverting the conversation for less unpleasant thoughts.

XIAO

No one can know for sure what happened, as you were both alone, but you swore he blushed.

He'd deny the pink in his cheeks. Would tell you that he was simply surprised. Oh, if only you knew the turmoil it caused.

The main reason for being so socially isolated was for the protection of mortals, and yet here you are, breaking those walls. It wasn't easy, nor painless, to build something so sheltering to the soul. Depriving the bird from inside, starving it of sunlight as it sat in its golden cage, feathers falling—

No, he did not blush. He cannot afford to have you mixed up in his personal matters. You were too precious. So no, he didn't blush. Just... say his name if you ever need him again, okay...?

ALBEDO

...

Okay, but how are you measuring preciousness? When compared to others, what traits does it take to earn that attribute? Physical appearance may cause the phenomenon of 'cuteness' to be triggered, but he wouldn't say he has a cute face or body. Was it his hair? Soft things are quite nice to the touch.

You'd just sit there, listening to his questions and rambles. "Well, eyes do decieve, so appearance doesn't really matter, but yours—" and off you'd go, off on your own tangent.

You both would take turns listening. It's only in the middle of yet another hypothesis that he realized something.

You were precious, too.

KAZUHA

Ah, but the wind tells him a different story.

"It is you who is precious, love." Hey, he's just relaying its message. It's true, you see, because—

"...and your voice. Your voice is a form of music, one that only you have been able to play. Ah, and your eyes—"

"Kazuha, stop itttt!!!" You blush and smile, playfully hitting his shoulder. He lightheartedly gufaws at that.

He truly is grateful to have a companion like you by his side. Not even Beidou could imagine a life without you on the Crux.

(EDIT: I forgot I removed Ei and Wanderer; I left them in a McDonald's parking lot. You can find them there. ^_^)

#kazuha x reader #kazuha x y/n #kazuha headcanons #genshin impact kazuha #kaeya x reader #kaeya x y/n #kaeya headcanons #genshin impact kaeya #albedo x reader #albedo x y/n #albedo headcannons #genshin impact albedo #xiao x reader #xiao x y/n #xiao headcanons #genshin impact xiao #diluc x reader #diluc x y/n #diluc headcanons #genshin impact diluc #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact headcanons #i think these are headcannons? #would they be imagines? #oh well whatever #I fixed Kaeya's mischaracterization

[numberonetrashwitch]

Some observations about Baldurs Gate 3 that hit too close to home.

After another few runs i will probably just make an in-Depth Character Analysis for every character simply because they are good reflections of actual trauma-manifestations and how abuse can manifest in people. They are also so well written that it serves a narrative purpose to explore all the material that is out there about them. I am also personally cursed with actual medically-relevant levels of Empathy and Hyperfixation; so writing this helps me put a pin in it and move on.

But so far here are my highlights

(SPOILERS and obviously content warning bc these are deep)

before you ask; i have almost 300h in this game.

You have to convince Shadowheart to eat the Noblestalk. She actually stells you she rather get her memories back from Shar but when you hit the persuasion or intimidation (what the fuck) check to get her to eat it she'll tell you about her childhood friend. Not her name, not her parents but her best firend. Possibly because she has had a closer bond to that person after being abducted and indoctrinated. With her believing herself to be an orphan, she would've looked elsewhere for comfort and sought out her own family, this is why she falls hard and heavy for Shar and builds the backbone of her indoctrination. She is literally ripped out of her home & given a new identity to server her from all she has known. Religious indoctrination, Gaslighting, Abduction, being forced to let go of your personality are her main themes.

There is a scene out there floating around in which you see Astarions pespective of the night when he bites Tav for the first time, in his meditations he is confronted with the rules Cazador put on him, including that he can't eat intelligent creatures, can't be away from Cazador unless allowed to, has to obey every command and that they are should know that they are property. Which in turn means that Astarion literally didn't just have any autonomy, he was objectified (and not just through seductive/sexual measures) and that is really the crux to understanding why he doesn't believe in kindness, but rather shows self-serving behavior in most cases. Since we know that Astarion was extremely young for an elf before he died and became immortal (literally stopping the aging /maturing process) it is also very telling that Cazador constantly calls him brat, boy or other very juvanile names, refering to them as a family... well it is also the story of a very controlling parent. Themes of (Bodily) autonomy, infantilization ( & puer aeternus, forever-child), slavery, depersonalisation, corruption of life and torture to break someone.

Gale isn't just a guy hung up on his Ex, but also a victim of abuse. In this case a power imbalance none of us can fathom; She is described as being a jealous goddess and rules over the domain of mysteries and magic. So with Gale being a Wizard, she is literally his boss. He admits that he was foolish enough to aspire to be an equal to her, but she is so jealous that she tells him he can't really be worthy as long as he takes breath. She could just take his powers away and be done with it, that would be more than enough punishment for a guy who literally made Mystra and her domain his life's purpose, but she rather makes him do it himself. Add to that, that she literally only tells him this after years of self-isolation (after he put down so many wards that he could've blown up a whole army as he says if you click the right dialogue) to really fuck him up well. He also talks about death pretty much constantly, not surprising giving your situation, but he will tell you that he will kill himself at several points in the game, for instance after he comes clear about his nethrese orb. Themes of romantic abuse, power-imbalance, toxic work enviorment, self-isolating behavior, suicidal ideation

Wyll ... well from the looks of it he is the most well adjusted of all the companions (my opinion) but he has something that i'd describe as the "eldest daughter"-syndrome, more commonly known as parentification. This pattern usually occurs within single-household parents and is commonly described as a parent looking to their child for emotional or practical support, rather than providing it to their kid. We meet Ulder and see that he talks over Wyll a lot, not listening but expecting him to follow the standard he sets for him. That is also why Wyll repeats his fathers words like gospel (because this is what, in his mind, fullfills the expectations bestowed upon him) and why he loves fairytales / bard tales so much (because they are an ecapist view of the job he set out to do) Ulder literally exiled his teenage son because Wyll did the only thing he could to save an entire city, by sacrificing himself. Thats a lot to expect from a 17 year old - even more so, he doesn't stop with the heroics. He expects himself, as a human who hasn't even reached the age of 30 to hold up to mystical creatures such as Astarion or Karlach, or even Gale who is a accomplished Wizard. Themes of parentification, escapism, self-harming through putting himself in danger, chronic-self-sacrifice

In plain words; Gortash, Karlach's Idol sold her to a Devil. But add to that that she must have been pretty young when she was sold (late teens to early twenties possibly) and being that if you play as a Tiefling, you face a lot of predjudice she was likely forced into that position as well. Starstruck she was, with a juvenile naitivy that Gortash used. Appropriately, as he is the chosen of Bane the god of "tyrannical oppression, terror, and hate, known across Faerûn as the face of pure evil through malevolent despotism" (Source: Forgotten-Realms Wiki / Bane) So she pretty much was raised in a toxic enviorment, which forced her to become a killing-machine, first figuretively, then with the extraction of her heart, literally. Themes of slavery, oppression, misuse of trust, being taken advantage by a more powerful/older(?) person, being drafted.

Jaheira - to be honest, you need to know the lore of the previous baldurs gate games or just listen to her dialouge, ask her all the questions. She is a war-veteran against Bhaal, the good of ritual murder, and has a long history of fighting to achieve some sort of balance of power. She lost her husband and several close people all to this, or any other war, but due to her wisdom and strength people look to her for guidance. Themes of: Survivors Guilt.

Halsin - he is really closed off at first but then just casually hits you with "i was captured in the underdark and spent 3 years chained to a bedroom wall by a pair of drows who used me as they pleased". He is reprimanded by some of his druids for leaving the grove as soon as opportunity struck, just to get back and leave the next day, and if you talk to him about his position in the grove he is actually very forthcomming. He actively holds himself back; indulging in simple hobbies because he knows what lies within his heart. He is afraid of himself and his potential (canonnically he can't control his wildshape, which is very weird for an ARCH-druid) Themes of: impostor syndrome, avoidant-based self-harm, sexual opression, loss of control, emotional regulation.

Lae'zel is a very tragic case, and one that closely resembles the stories of Shadowheart and Karlach. Her entire existence is based upon a matriachial war society allowing her to live if she proves she can be of use and that in a culture which only values brutality, dominance & service. All of that culimating in her finding out that her oh-so-beloved Queen is actually just an imposter, and that everything she has lived for up to that point is merely political propaganda created to make her, and the rest of her entire species, willing pawns in a war that has no longer bearing on their survival alone, but is fought to justify Vlaakith's (the reigning monarchs) personal ambitions. Not only is she forced to reconcile that she is turned into the thing that controlled her kind for hundreds of years, that the only cure she knows of would kill her and then on top of that, that her hopes and dreams were lies and that she is now the Nr 1 enemy of the person she has served with all her being. themes of: oppression, propaganda, casual violence, objectification, child-warfare, eternal warfare

Minthara in short, her story is about being shamed for growing up in the same scenario that Lae'zel grew up in. Lolth, the god of the Lolth-sworn drows is a crazy queen who values scheming & backstabbing so much and is so volatile that you can't know what to expect of your deeds (and i mean it; there were people who were appraised by her for scheming against her, but also those who were killed. It's almost random.) She considers Lolth to be cruel and abandoned her for the Absolute, only to then be used and abused the same way Lae'zel has. Not with promises, but erasing her memory and exposing her perceived weakness. Themes of: casual violence, violent culture, her own ambition colliding with her desire to be safe, being a pawn in a larger game.

#baldurs gate #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #non-witchy #baldurs gate iii #baldurs gate character #background to baldurs gate 3 #character analysis #analysis #fan theory #media analysis #astarion #wyll #karlach #minthara #halsin #jaheira #lae'zel #gale #minsc will have to wait #im sorry its so long #yeah some characters are a bit more shallow #i will go in depth sometime #dark urge has a grip on me i swear #please do yourself a favor and look up the earlier 2 games

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon’s financial shell game let it create an “impossible” monopoly

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

For the pro-monopoly crowd that absolutely dominated antitrust law from the Carter administration until 2020, Amazon presents a genuinely puzzling paradox: the company's monopoly power was never supposed to emerge, and if it did, it should have crumbled immediately.

Pro-monopoly economists embody Ely Devons's famous aphorism that "If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse

Rather than using the way the world actually works as their starting point for how to think about it, they build elaborate models out of abstract principles like "rational actors." The resulting mathematical models are so abstractly elegant that it's easy to forget that they're just imaginative exercises, disconnected from reality:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/03/all-models-are-wrong/#some-are-useful

These models predicted that it would be impossible for Amazon to attain monopoly power. Even if they became a monopoly – in the sense of dominating sales of various kinds of goods – the company still wouldn't get monopoly power.

For example, if Amazon tried to take over a category by selling goods below cost ("predatory pricing"), then rivals could just wait until the company got tired of losing money and put prices back up, and then those rivals could go back to competing. And if Amazon tried to keep the loss-leader going indefinitely by "cross-subsidizing" the losses with high-margin profits from some other part of its business, rivals could sell those high margin goods at a lower margin, which would lure away Amazon customers and cut the supply lines for the price war it was fighting with its discounted products.

That's what the model predicted, but it's not what happened in the real world. In the real world, Amazon was able use its access to the capital markets to embark on scorched-earth predatory pricing campaigns. When diapers.com refused to sell out to Amazon, the company casually committed $100m to selling diapers below cost. Diapers.com went bust, Amazon bought it for pennies on the dollar and shut it down:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/13/18563379/amazon-predatory-pricing-antitrust-law

Investors got the message: don't compete with Amazon. They can remain predatory longer than you can remain solvent.

Now, not everyone shared the antitrust establishment's confidence that Amazon couldn't create a durable monopoly with market power. In 2017, Lina Khan – then a third year law student – published "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox," a landmark paper arguing that Amazon had all the tools it needed to amass monopoly power:

https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox

Today, Khan is chair of the FTC, and has brought a case against Amazon that builds on some of the theories from that paper. One outcome of that suit is an unprecedented look at Amazon's internal operations. But, as the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Stacy Mitchell describes in a piece for The Atlantic, key pieces of information have been totally redacted in the court exhibits:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/amazon-profits-antitrust-ftc/677580/

The most important missing datum: how much money Amazon makes from each of its lines of business. Amazon's own story is that it basically breaks even on its retail operation, and keeps the whole business afloat with profits from its AWS cloud computing division. This is an important narrative, because if it's true, then Amazon can't be forcing up retail prices, which is the crux of the FTC's case against the company.

Here's what we know for sure about Amazon's retail business. First: merchants can't live without Amazon. The majority of US households have Prime, and 90% of Prime households start their ecommerce searches on Amazon; if they find what they're looking for, they buy it and stop. Thus, merchants who don't sell on Amazon just don't sell. This is called "monopsony power" and it's a lot easier to maintain than monopoly power. For most manufacturers, a 10% overnight drop in sales is a catastrophe, so a retailer that commands even a 10% market-share can extract huge concessions from its suppliers. Amazon's share of most categories of goods is a lot higher than 10%!

What kind of monopsony power does Amazon wield? Well, for one thing, it is able to levy a huge tax on its sellers. Add up all the junk-fees Amazon charges its platform sellers and it comes out to 45-51%:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

Competitive businesses just don't have 45% margins! No one can afford to kick that much back to Amazon. What is a merchant to do? Sell on Amazon and you lose money on every sale. Don't sell on Amazon and you don't get any business.

The only answer: raise prices on Amazon. After all, Prime customers – the majority of Amazon's retail business – don't shop for competitive prices. If Amazon wants a 45% vig, you can raise your Amazon prices by a third and just about break even.

But Amazon is wise to that: they have a "most favored nation" rule that punishes suppliers who sell goods more cheaply in rival stores, or even on their own site. The punishments vary, from banishing your products to page ten million of search-results to simply kicking you off the platform. With publishers, Amazon reserves the right to lower the prices they set when listing their books, to match the lowest price on the web, and paying publishers less for each sale.

That means that suppliers who sell on Amazon (which is anyone who wants to stay in business) have to dramatically hike their prices on Amazon, and when they do, they also have to hike their prices everywhere else (no wonder Prime customers don't bother to search elsewhere for a better deal!).

Now, Amazon says this is all wrong. That 45-51% vig they claim from business customers is barely enough to break even. The company's profits – they insist – come from selling AWS cloud service. The retail operation is just a public service they provide to us with cross-subsidy from those fat AWS margins.

This is a hell of a claim. Last year, Amazon raked in $130 billion in seller fees. In other words: they booked more revenue from junk fees than Bank of America made through its whole operation. Amazon's junk fees add up to more than all of Meta's revenues:

https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2023/q4/AMZN-Q4-2023-Earnings-Release.pdf

Amazon claims that none of this is profit – it's just covering their operating expenses. According to Amazon, its non-AWS units combined have a one percent profit margin.

Now, this is an eye-popping claim indeed. Amazon is a public company, which means that it has to make thorough quarterly and annual financial disclosures breaking down its profit and loss. You'd think that somewhere in those disclosures, we'd find some details.

You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. Amazon's disclosures do not break out profits and losses by segment. SEC rules actually require the company to make these per-segment disclosures:

https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3524&context=lawreview#:~:text=If%20a%20company%20has%20more,income%20taxes%20and%20extraordinary%20items.

That rule was enacted in 1966, out of concern that companies could use cross-subsidies to fund predatory pricing and other anticompetitive practices. But over the years, the SEC just…stopped enforcing the rule. Companies have "near total managerial discretion" to lump business units together and group their profits and losses in bloated, undifferentiated balance-sheet items:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2021/dec/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragons

As Mitchell points you, it's not just Amazon that flouts this rule. We don't know how much money Google makes on Youtube, or how much Apple makes from the App Store (Apple told a federal judge that this number doesn't exist). Warren Buffett – with significant interest in hundreds of companies across dozens of markets – only breaks out seven segments of profit-and-loss for Berkshire Hathaway.

Recall that there is one category of data from the FTC's antitrust case against Amazon that has been completely redacted. One guess which category that is! Yup, the profit-and-loss for its retail operation and other lines of business.

These redactions are the judge's fault, but the real fault lies with the SEC. Amazon is a public company. In exchange for access to the capital markets, it owes the public certain disclosures, which are set out in the SEC's rulebook. The SEC lets Amazon – and other gigantic companies – get away with a degree of secrecy that should disqualify it from offering stock to the public. As Mitchell says, SEC chairman Gary Gensler should adopt "new rules that more concretely define what qualifies as a segment and remove the discretion given to executives."

Amazon is the poster-child for monopoly run amok. As Yanis Varoufakis writes in Technofeudalism, Amazon has actually become a post-capitalist enterprise. Amazon doesn't make profits (money derived from selling goods); it makes rents (money charged to people who are seeking to make a profit):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Profits are the defining characteristic of a capitalist economy; rents are the defining characteristic of feudalism. Amazon looks like a bazaar where thousands of merchants offer goods for sale to the public, but look harder and you discover that all those stallholders are totally controlled by Amazon. Amazon decides what goods they can sell, how much they cost, and whether a customer ever sees them. And then Amazon takes $0.45-51 out of every dollar. Amazon's "marketplace" isn't like a flea market, it's more like the interconnected shops on Disneyland's Main Street, USA: the sign over the door might say "20th Century Music Company" or "Emporium," but they're all just one store, run by one company.

And because Amazon has so much control over its sellers, it is able to exercise power over its buyers. Amazon's search results push down the best deals on the platform and promote results from more expensive, lower-quality items whose sellers have paid a fortune for an "ad" (not really an ad, but rather the top spot in search listings):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/29/aethelred-the-unready/#not-one-penny-for-tribute

This is "Amazon's pricing paradox." Amazon can claim that it offers low-priced, high-quality goods on the platform, but it makes $38b/year pushing those good deals way, way down in its search results. The top result for your Amazon search averages 29% more expensive than the best deal Amazon offers. Buy something from those first four spots and you'll pay a 25% premium. On average, you need to pick the seventeenth item on the search results page to get the best deal:

https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3645/

For 40 years, pro-monopoly economists claimed that it would be impossible for Amazon to attain monopoly power over buyers and sellers. Today, Amazon exercises that power so thoroughly that its junk-fee revenues alone exceed the total revenues of Bank of America. Amazon's story – that these fees barely stretch to covering its costs – assumes a nearly inconceivable level of credulity in its audience. Regrettably – for the human race – there is a cohort of senior, highly respected economists who possess this degree of credulity and more.

Of course, there's an easy way to settle the argument: Amazon could just comply with SEC regs and break out its P&L for its e-commerce operation. I assure you, they're not hiding this data because they think you'll be pleasantly surprised when they do and they don't want to spoil the moment.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

Image: Doc Searls (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/4863121221/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic #amazon #ilsr #institute for local self-reliance #amazon's antitrust paradox #antitrust #trustbusting #ftc #lina khan #aws #cross-subsidization #stacy mitchell #junk fees #most favored nation #sec #securities and exchange commission #segmenting #managerial discretion #ecommerce #technofeudalism

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Ramming Speed

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

The idea of ramming space ships into each other as a form of combat maneuver was beyond many galactic military minds comprehension.

A single spacecraft, let alone a military grade class vessel, would cost up in the billions of credits. Entire galactic economies had nearly bankrupted themselves trying to maintain a fleet large enough to secure their borders, so in turn each military ship became an asset not to be squandered lightly.

Perhaps it was this conservative mindset that nearly shattered when these powers first looked upon the Terran ship codenamed “The Ram”.

Unlike other modern vessels the ships of this new classification lacked all weapon emplacements. No energy cannons, missile launchers, rail guns; it was entirely free of weapons. What it did have was excessive amounts of armor plating, several separate shield generators, and a pair of overly powerful engines that could reach max speed in roughly five minutes.

The first time it was observed in combat was during the Terran/Crux war. Both powers had sizable fleets at their disposal and for the first couple months the two powers played cat and mouse games between each other; each trying to find a more advantageous position to commit their forces. Much to the dismay of both powers the first large scale battle was triggered by mere chance than a tactical decision.

A Crux patrol stumbled upon a Terran patrol emerging from a dense nebula in the Viper System. Both patrols requested reinforcements. Nearby patrols were soon diverted to the engagement and within short order what was a small skirmish ballooned into a full scale battle.

There were no battle lines or frontlines as ships opened fire at near point blank range with each other. Even when higher rank Admirals arrived to take charge both sides were too embroiled in the slugfest to make any more nuanced tactical moves without exposing themselves to the enemy.

It was here that the Ram emerged and showed its prowess.

Crux warship crews were not trained on how to handle enemy vessels rushing towards them. What’s more several gun crews became panicked when they saw the Ram ships rushing headlong towards them without diverting course.

With the extra armor and shielding the Terran ships not only struck head on into Crux ships but emerged from the attack relatively unscathed. In most cases the prow of the Ram ships punched clean through the entire hull of the Crux warship and emerged through the other side.

The Crux fleet desperately tried to regain order and form battle lines but each time they did so the Ram ships would plunge head first into their formation and take out the command ship coordinating the effort.

As more and more Terran ships arrived and formed their own battle lines the tide of battle soon drastically changed. After thirteen hours of intense fighting the last of the Crux fleet withdrew from the battle leaving the Terrans the victors.

A full fifth of the Crux navy was lost during the battle with the Ram ships having personally claimed 45% of the kills.

While the war itself would continue for another two years, the Ram ships and their unorthodox tactics had earned them a modicum of respect from the wider galaxy, and a great measure of fear from the Crux.

#humans are insane #humans are weird #humans are space oddities #humans are space orcs #scifi #story #writing #original writing #niqhtlord01

[hollowingearth]

I'm sorry but the more I think about the Rebirth ending the more I love it actually like. The whole trilogy has been a meta commentary of sorts and, specially, Aerith's death is at the epicenter of it. She both dies and doesn't die exactly because us, as an audience, want both things to happen.

People have been clamoring to be able to save Aerith since 1997, there were fake hidden hacks, AU fictions, retellings, everything. Everyone has been at Squeenix's doorsteps begging them to let us save her. Like, it's at a point where the "Square will let us save Aerith if you pay for the DLC" joke is much more than a decade old.

On the other side, there's this very expressive unwant for any change whatsoever from the source material. It's not a feeling that is exclusive to FF7 either, there's this very clear pushback against any new remake/adaptation that deviates, even slightly, from it's original. People don't want new content, they want the old one they experienced when they were younger, but prettier, they want to both feel the nostalgia and experience everything as if for the first time again.

From that camp, I think the most prominent argument is that FF7 is about loss, right? And they're not wrong. Aerith's death is the crux of the story, it's the very thing that made FF7 as known as it is, there would be no actual weight to what it's trying to tell if the heroine doesn't die in the middle of it, an unexpected, hurtful, avoidable death. What's the point of a narrative about grief if you can just... avoid losing someone? Avoid having it be cruelly taken from you?

And yet, you see, if want someone to die, if you want something to be taken from you, are you really losing it? In the original, part of the impact was that no one could see it coming, it was a straight representation about how death is sudden and takes away opportunity from you. Aerith doesn't go into the sleeping forest willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good, she has barely started her adventure, she makes a promise to go on the highwind, the group is one location away from finding out more about her ancestry and her family.

That's not true for the remake, tho. Everyone knows about her fate, about what is going to happen to her. That's probably the most spoiled moment in video game history. I personally knew about her death before I truly understood what Final Fantasy even was. So now we have an audience that is extremely aware of what, when and how her death is going to happen. That's why the Confluence of Worlds is put at that moment, because it's the single most expected moment in the entire triology, it's the one moment that made the narrative resonate so well.

The impact is impossible to recreate now, even for newer fans of the series. People want a 1:1 retranslation but such a thing would always be a gimmicky shadow of it's original. It's why the focus shifts, now the most emotionally impactful scene is not the killing of her but of her goodbye, in the church after the dream date. "Thank you," Aerith echoes "It's been fun", a callback to her conclusion on Remake where she says "I'm grateful for all the words we shared. All the moments and the memories. You've made me more happy than you know."

So she dies and she doesn't, both at the same time. Effectively in limbo now, narratively explained by lifestream shenaningans. We put her there ourselves, by refusing to move on, refusing to accept her death but also refusing to change, allowing a different outcome. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, at least, Aerith's words sound like the very sincere feelings of the developers, who are grateful for all the love we all have powered into their work all these years.

I just love it so much, I could spend hours talking about it.

#ff7 rebirth #ff7 rebirth spoilers #ff7 remake #final fantasy vii #aerith gainsborough #aerith #meta analysis #ff7

[victorgrwrites]

Gortash Age/Timeline

For my prelude, see live footage of me at work below. (PS: Mac on the right there is basically my wife, she was very kind to let me ramble about this.)

Here we go. And I think it goes without saying, but spoilers ahead.

So, we have a better idea of Durge's timeline than Gortash, which is helpful since we know that they knew one another before the events of the game. On top of that, we know what each was doing when the other was doing something else. At least, to a point.

We'll start with Durge.

Exhibit A: We know that Sceleritas Fel appeared to Durge on their "age of majority", which is generally accepted to be 18. Could be 16, but we're going with 18 for the timeline.

---

Exhibit B: We know that in the prequel Blood in Baldur's Gate, the main antagonist is Dark Urge, and Sceleritas himself appears multiple times in the story. We also know for a fact that this happens in 1477, 15 years before BG3.

Therefor, we know that Durge CANNOT BE YOUNGER than 18 in the year 1477, and therefor cannot be younger than 33 in BG3.

It's important to note for later on that at this point in Baldur's Gate in 1477, it is very likely Durge has already started the cult of Bhaal or is on the verge of starting it. --- Like I said, easy as Hell, now on to Gortash. Cause he is definitely trickier; we'll be needing to work backwards for this guy. Exhibit A:

Gortash is intent on making a memoir of his life, and has given us a helpful order of events, if without dates and such.

Exhibit B:

We'll start with the heist at the House of Wonders. If you don't know what the House of Wonders is, imagine a giant museum/research university run by NASA. It's a big fuckin' deal, and holds some insane things.

We don't know everything they stole, but we do know some. 1. A Bhaal torture device and some preserved Bhaalist bodies (unimportant for our conversation), and 2. Schematics which served as the basis for the Steel Watch, as well as the submersible.

((I can't find the specific screenshot for the Steel Watch schematics, but just trust me, it exists.)) We can assume that Karlach was sold right around this time, maybe before, most likely right after. The reason why she was sold around this time is because... ---

Exhibit C:

Karlach is a proto-prototype Steel Watcher, or at least of the infernal engines the Steel Watch use. What Gortash most likely got for Karlach were plans/materials/development for the infernal engines.

So let's recap. We now know that ten years ago Durge and Gortash pulled their heist, traded Karlach, figured out infernal engines, and started production or development on the Steel Watchers. Neither were the chosen of their gods yet, and the Crown of Karsus wasn't even on their radar.

Let's keep going. --- Exhibit D:

The first and second listings in Gortash's memoirs are him founding the Bane cult, and then discovering that there was a Bhaal cult already started. I would posit that Gortash established the Bane cult right around the time of the previously mentioned Blood in Baldur's Gate. At the bare minimum we know that Durge had to have been already active and Sceleritas already trying to guide him. So we can likely say that Gortash established the cult of Bane in 1477. Which means he was not in the House of Hope any longer in 1477.

The Crux of the Issue:

Here is where we get into speculation, and there's several questions we have to answer that don't have a clear answer. 1. How old was Gortash when he was sold off?

2. How old was he when he escaped the House of Hope?

3. How long after that did he establish the Cult of Bane?

I'll give you my answer for these questions, and my reason why.

Given my previous post, you might know that I subscribe to the idea that Gortash had a knack for artifice when he was young. There's no way a devil/warlock would pay even a small amount for a useless kid. So, at what age is a kid "useful" while still being a kid? My guess would be as old as ten, as young as eight.

Based on the conversation with Nubaldin, I would say he was still fairly young when he escaped. The way he talks about Gortash establishes that the jailor remembers Gortash as a 'sniveling little shit' and 'mischievous little blot of a boy'.

I would put him at about sixteen, absolute tops.

3. I believe he would have started the Bane cult very, very soon after leaving the House of Hope because I have a sneaking suspicion that Bane's influence started at the House of Hope. Might be how he escaped in the first place, or maybe he heard about Bane while there. Either way, I don't think he took very long.

In my head, he's probably around 17-19 when he starts the Bane cult. But also, if there's age discrepancies, this is probably where they come in.

---

And there you have it. I don't focus on his in-game model much, because looks can vary so wildly. Especially when there's years of demonic torture, obsessive artifice study, and dead god cults. The game narratively describes him as a young man, so I generally erred on the side of "young" when figuring out this timeline.

If you've got questions, comments, additions, go on and lay them on me.

#bg3 #bg3 gortash #enver gortash #lord gortash #durge #I'm tired #This took me longer than I thought it would #Youtube