I was talking a bit about this but I think part of the reason iterators are designed as these small little doll-like puppets is both to humanize and dehumanize them by the Ancients. The puppet, at is core, is a means for communication with a great biological machine- to give it a face and features and ground it as you ask its advice or it's progress. This massive, world-altering creation simplified down to this little thing that had all the features of a person. But its also small, cute, Ancient-like but clearly not an Ancient itself. They're colorful and simple, like a toy for children. And I think thats largely how Ancients saw them- often not as a person with desires and opinions but as an extension of the Ancient's work, a personalized character that represented their cities and people, whos citizens could like them and were comprehensible to their children, but was not them- and would not reap the reward of being them when a solution was found. Each one pretty and unique to make them individuals, but not seen- truly- as individuals by many- just as parts of their cities, something under the Ancients. Like if every town had its own personal My Little Pony they could ask advice on where the next community center should be built.

I forgot to watch content all week so i wrote about games ive been playing

9/2/2021: The Truman Show

You should fear your fears but embrace them and use them to guide you into the unknown, to explore and experience what life has to offer. Fear stands between you and the fullest experience of life so you must pass through it to better yourself. Heed not the walls built about you and the chains made to hold you. Though the architects insist it will preserve your life, containment is anathema to life. Do not take in faith the benevolence of powers that be; instead trust those who would support and liberate you, guide you through fear and into life.

As best I can lay it out, I think this is the philosophy of the Truman show but there is so much more to read into it also. There is critique of systems of commodification and celebrity (i.e. capitalism) reducing human beings to a consumable good as well as encouragement to find and pursue your goals despite adversity and even sensibility which is also tied to the illusion of economic responsibility. You can’t put a camera inside a human head, you can never “know” them without being an active and intrinsic part of their life, but also there is need for reciprocation. If one half exists with ulterior motive then the entire relationship is rotten; sincere humanity is what creates real connections. Without such your world is fake. A world built around one person is a world where no one can truly live. All these actors have given up basically their entire lives for the sake of watching Truman have his life built around him by outside forces, have allowed themselves to be commodified and dehumanised for the good of one man, Christoph. The man at the top has delusions of grandeur and thinks only of his own bottom line, he cares not for his subjects but simply wants them to do as he tells them because it benefits him to commodify their lives and interactions. Even then he cannot stand to lose control and in seeking to demonstrate Truman’s “realness” he structures his life so thoroughly that eventually there’s no reality left, only a script and adverts. But the people watching still empathise with Truman because everyone in the working class understands what it is to be trapped because real life is our own Truman show and one day we must all pass through fear, step out of the dome and create a real life for ourselves outside of the system of commodification which consumes everyone’s life and removes all realness and sincerity and emotional catharsis from it.

I unreservedly love this film.

14/2/2021: Assorted Game Reviews

Horizon Zero Dawn (Unfinished due to technical issues, 45 hours inc. parts of Frozen Wilds): This game is really cool and really fun. I think it is defined by its incredible setting which somehow creates a fresh feeling post-apocalyptic environment. Said environment creates intriguing alt-future lore and some very interesting environments to explore. I love the machine designs (especially tallnecks!) and was very sad to hear one of their contributing artists passed away recently but I’m glad their work lives on in this visually stunning game. I’m a sucker for Ubisoft-style open world games simply because it tickles a certain kind of itch and somehow this non-Ubisoft game has outdone Ubisoft on their own formula, which is hilarious, but also good for me as running around this world exploring and clearing map markers is engaging fun. Not least because of the combat. I have a minor criticism here that the combat feels slightly awkward on mouse and keyboard, the arrows never seem to go where I’m aiming, but aside from that the experience of fighting is a grand one. Enemies never lose their threat and I love the weak spot system the game employs which makes every tool useful in niche circumstance and rewards curiosity. It specifically manages this in a way that I feel the Witcher series could learn from if it ever returns; by making head on assault less viable and encouraging tactical hunting. I do feel this system makes hunting robots so fun that by contrast hunting humans becomes a chore however, though I noted this improves in the dlc with the addition of humans with elemental weaknesses limited in number as they are. I cannot speak for the story in entirety but what I encountered was pretty good, though I feel as if it was only just really getting going at the point where I could not continue. I find Aloy to be a compelling and well portrayed protagonist and though I can guess about her origin and the ultimate end of the alt-future apocalypse I still want to see how it plays out on screen, so will return to this as soon as I’ve fixed it.

Rimworld (122 hours. Familiar with but do not own Royalty Expansion):

Rimworld is one of those super special games that I don’t think I have a single problem with. Fair warning it can be brutal and is heavily dependent on RNG but this allows it to create truly unique and interesting scenarios on a constant basis. In the wider perspective it could be described as formulaic, with regular cycles of managing the settlement between raids and random events, but the devils in the details. Colonist traits, health and skills dictate how you play and sometimes you’ll be forced to adapt as some colonists simply refuse to perform some tasks. The depth of health particularly amuses me, in that each little part of someone’s body is modelled in a way. If you’re in a firefight you may take a single bullet which grazes your finger and you’re fine. Alternately it could pierce your human leather cowboy hat, your skull and kill you instantly and the game will tell you exactly what happened. The risk/reward element is addictive enough, and that’s without accounting for just how cool it is to see your colony slowly expand. Establishing more and more options for crafting is fun and shows off the full range of different items in the game which is fucking extensive. Between clothing, weapons, armour, sculpture and drugs to name only a few you have the opportunity to create many varied production lines either for your colonists or to trade for money and there is a lot of fun to be had here as well as it is quite satisfying to see psychoid you have grown personally become the cocaine your colonists snort to help them stay awake on limited sleep. From an archaeologist’s perspective it is especially cool to look back over your base and see the hints of how and why structures were built and remember the history of your limitations and development through structure. I think the lore of the universe is really cool too, a very 40k-esque kind of place except with far less order, somehow. But the universe does an excellent job of feeling alive and moving constantly on both a planetary and interstellar level. You can fully believe that while you build wooden shacks to shield yourself from terrifyingly low temperatures there are simultaneously rich pieces of shit living it up on the glitterworld that’s one system over. The music does an excellent job of creating the wild west frontier atmosphere the game cultivates to great effect. Ultimately, for just being a grid with a series of different numbers attached, this game does a fantastic job of creating a compelling, brutal and very real colony management experience. I dont think I can properly put into words the grandness and scope of this one. I didnt even mention the modding scene, which is expansive and tailors to basically any need you could have. The Rim is a terrifying place but theres so much fun to be had.

Factorio (86 hours, mostly 1.1): Having completed a game of Factorio I can tell you reliably that this is one of the best games ever made, thoroughly addictive and fun. If you like numbers, logistics, TRAINS, its gonna be your thing. Not to mention its probably the only documented case of a game with no bugs (so far as official forums are concerned). Strictly speaking this games combat is not the most engrossing thing but good lord do you feel it when you acquire a flamethrower. The way each aspect of the game (production, research, logistics, combat, upgrades for everything therein) feeds into the next is a really well constructed balancing act such that you must experience the full game in order to complete it and I always appreciate this kind of design. I think its one of the best tenets of factory game design especially as its something present in Satisfactory too. Beyond all of this generalised good the game is also excellent in its intricacies, the architecture necessary to build a maximum efficiency base, the level of planning and organisation that can be employed is mind-blowing. Not to mention the mod community, factorion is already an extensive experience and some mad bastards have seen fit to complicate it further, hats off to them. This really is a great moment in gaming.

 Destiny 2 (198 hours, all expansions, played some post Forsaken release, mostly Season of Arrivals onwards, spent roughly £20 on microtransactions):

This is a very interesting and enjoyable experience, but I must say it can be a bit controversial at times. What its does particularly well is moment to moment gameplay and design in all aspects. The game is stunning; between environments, cosmetics, shaders ships and ghosts there’s a vast range of incredible things to see, all rooted in the “pseudo-magi-science” aesthetic it’s got going on. The class design is excellent and you really do feel like you embody this rampaging madman / agile gunman / space wizard archetype, whichever you choose to play. The abilities, especially supers, are very satisfying. Everything has heft and power behind it which can be felt in all aspects of design; sound and animation is top notch. Movement is cool, you can feel how fast you move both on foot and in vehicles and the navigation has a little fun subtlety depending on your class jump, even if you can bounce unpredictably occasionally. But for the love of god why is the wall kick in there? It has only ever served to push me from a ledge into a bottomless pit. You're looking to remove antiquated content? Start there. Some guns are not so good to shoot but there’s such a great range of guns that are fun its like complaining about one drop in an ocean; and enemies are fun to shoot at, each faction distinct in meaningful ways and presenting an effective challenge. Speaking of oceans, that’s one way to describe the lore. I haven’t dived too deep but it keeps going down forever and everything I’ve read is intriguing. As a former Elder Scrolls lore nut this is something I could definitely sink my teeth into, though its much more of a pulpy sci-fi vibe than a pure nonsense vibe. I do think the game has a bit of a loot problem, primarily in regards to the conflict between high stats and looking good. This should never be a conflict, and yes you can apply ornaments to any purple gear but that’s not enough when I spend the entire time grinding power levels and thus must change armour and weapons on a constant basis to progress. This game needs a true transmog system and if not that, rethink how gear power level works. Perhaps rather than earning new instances of gear you always possess a version of it and the loot you acquire in missions just upgrades your instance to your current overall power level? This would serve to do away with the current upgrade system which I think is a needless additional grind. Perhaps it could be retained in using enhancement cores to empower gear as present but necessitating a whole upgrade module to keep your favourite weapon on hand is kind of painful honestly. There is also at present the issue of sunsetting gear, mildly controversial to say the least. If it’s necessary to streamline the game and make it function moving forward so be it but surely loot pools should be adjusted so you can actually get useful loot from older locations? And why sunset personal instances of gear which can be acquired at the regular power level anyway? I had to throw away my favourite bow and hunt down a new version of the exact same weapon for… what reason? I do think destination navigation leaves a little to be desired also. I get that having a physical hub world is meaningful but Destiny does not have a very extroverted community; I can count the times someone noticed me in the tower on one hand. And its not even like there’s fun activities to be found in the same sense as say Deep Rock Galactic, which really does take advantage of its hub. Perhaps for players who simply want to go about their business all of the vendors could be set into a menu system where just clicking an icon takes you to their menu from anywhere in the system rather than, per se, having to go through an entire loading screen (Which takes you to orbit and back) to reach a location which serves simply as the front for four menus. These are established player problems. As a dedicated PvE player I can say that this game is immensely fun in combat and growing in power does feel really good. It’s something I recommend getting into, there’s just some very large creases that need ironing which the Bungie should really take the time to address rather than pushing out new in game content every three months.

Blurt it into existence

Happy Bi-visibility Day 🎉 here is a little thing I couldn't get out of my head and somehow finished just in time! If The Old Guard is my comfort movie well Julie and the Phantoms is my comfort show 😆 Enjoy Reggie figuring some things out! This is Julie/Luke/Reggie cause they all have 2 hands 💖

It's sort of the little things that Reggie usually misses but they keep happening more and more that even he notices.

It's when they harmonize and it feels like their all one amazing voice. It's that heated tension when they share a microphone. How proud they are after performing or practicing or practicing something they've just made.

The small things build to big things which becomes a new thing and something he's still trying to figure out which means he has 2 things to figure out.

Eventually he solves the new thing pretty quickly but doing something about it takes longer… or as long as his self-control lasts which isn't exactly stellar.

Finally Reggie can't hold it in anymore and blurts it out to Luke when it's just them practicing riffs.

"I think I like Julie?!"

Luke shrugs and keeps playing.

"I like Julie too."

Reggie just shakes his head frantically and his bass disappears so he can grab Luke with both hands by the shoulder and pulls him close to stare him right in the eye as he says this.

"No like actual feelings man."

It finally dawns on Luke what Reggie is trying to say but still there's no reaction as he keeps playing, shifting to a slower sound before making his guitar disappear.

"Oh well I like Julie too. With actual feelings." He frowns in thought and crosses his arms in defence. "Which both you and Alex teased me about remember?"

Reggie chuckles at that. "Huh ya you both are really obvious but like what do I do? I mean I know she loves us and you a bit more but what should I do? Ignore it? Try something? Find someone else?"

Luke eyes him in thought before grinning, a mischievous look Reggie knows means fun trouble.

"Ok well why don't we just tell her and see what she thinks?"

Reggie goes silent for a moment before a bright smile breaks across his face, one Luke reciprocates.

"Ya maybe if I tell her she'll help me figure this out. God feelings are weird. How do you guys do it? I'm just used to fun easy crushes that are well fun and easy but actual feelings kinda suck."

Luke's smile turns smug and he presses a messy kiss to Reggies cheek. "Cause I'm a genius and always know what to do Reggie. Now come on."

Reggie stares in shock before frowning at him.

"Hey, you gotta stop doing that Luke. I'm still trying to figure out the weird feelings I've got for you man."

Luke just pats him consolingly on the arm still attached to him.

"I know Reggie I know, now come on. Julie should be done studying by now right?" Luke questions and slings an arm around Reggie.

"Ya she should be it's like almost dinner time."

They drop in front of her door and knock because if theres one thing Julie Molina knows it's how to get people to do what she wants. Now occasionally the boys remember their manners.

Then Luke has to go and poke his head through the door.

"Julie Reggie has a question for you."

The odd tone Luke uses makes a feeling of nerves settle back again and Reggie's about to pull Luke back so they can be anywhere else but it's Luke who yanks him through the door instead.

Reggie barely resists the urge to poof away because Julie has those cute butterfly clips in her hair and she's just so pretty. She's also giving Luke an annoyed look which makes him feel better.

"See this is why I like you, you defend me when Lukes being annoying and look cute doing it."

Luke gives Julie a look as he motions his hands to Reggie and sighs.

"What-oh right. Julie I'm possibly in love with you in a more than friends way… what should I do?"

She looks from him then Luke and there's also that same mischievous look in her eyes too. Reggie feels like he's missing something he should already know.

"You're asking me… What you should do?" She questions and Reggie just nods.

"Ya cause we know you and Luke are an almost something and I'm not trying to mess with that but I'm not usually a full on feels kind of guy. So like is there a way for me to… not be? Also help me figure out these feelings I have for Luke too cause Alex just stares at me like I'm missing something but never tells me what." He squirts at Luke in annoyance. "You too. Both of you stop waiting for whatever I'm missing and just tell me! It'll save everyone time."

Julie seeing the signs that Reggie is heading for an actual freak out, takes his hand and brings him to sit next to her on her bed.

"Hey Reggie I promise you after today you'll have all of this mostly figure out alright? Now I'm gonna need you to answer some questions I'm going to ask." She squeezes his hand which instantly calms him. "Just blurt it out without thinking."

"My specialty then! Alright I'm ready. Go!"

Both Luke and Julie laugh at that which makes him feel way too warm and giddy.

"Okay favorite thing about Luke?"

"Eyes."

"Favorite thing about me?"

"Smile."

"What do you feel when you think about me?"

"Happy."

"What do you feel when you think about Luke?"

"Also happy."

"My favorite song?"

"Trick question you said you'd never be able to have one cause all the songs you love are special in their own way."

"Luke's favorite guitar?"

"Also trick question because just like you, each on is special and has its own unique use."

"Do you think how you feel about me is the same you feel about Luke?"

"Probably?" 

Reggie finally pauses in thought before gasping. 

"Omg I'm also in love with Luke." 

He snaps his head to look at Luke who just winks at him. "Luke I'm possibly in love with you too!"

He goes silent again and before throwing a pillow at Luke who let's it pass through him. "Wait you knew and you didn't tell me!"

Luke doesn't even look ashamed at this and proceeds to throw himself onto both Reggie and Julie's lap.

"Dude I tried to see if you were interested even before we died. You just never reciprocated so I let it be."

"What! You know how bad I am at that stuff! WE COULD'VE BEEN TOGETHER SOONER IF YOU JUST TOLD ME. WE COULD OF DOUBLE TEAMED TO SWEEP JULIE OFF HER FEET LIKE SHE DESERVES." He starts slapping Luke in the leg then pauses for the third time during this whole thing.

"Wait you were into me back then?"

A hand flies to his chest. "Aww man that's so embarrassing you had a crush on me even then."

Julie's hand pokes him in the chest.

"So did you Reggie."

"Oh huh right." He takes hold of Julie's hand and starts fiddling with it.

"So does this mean you love me too?"

The fond look she gives him makes Reggie blush.

"What do you think Reginald?"

"That I'm in some weird fever dream." 

"Well if hearing it will make things seem more real then yes Reggie, of course I love you too."

Reggie face breaks out into a blinding smile because he's so happy.

"Dude did you hear that? Julie loves me!"

Julie and Luke laugh again because they do love their ridiculous boy.

"Well I also love you too." Luke adds and pats his cheek, leaving it there for a second longer than usual before dropping it.

"Why do I feel like both crying and proofing to the roof to yell?"

Reggie feels like he's too full of emotions he might actually explode.

Julie tugs his hand and pulls him closer.

"Come on group hug."

They all laugh in joy as they crash together and hold each other tight.

"Wait what do you guys like about me?" He asks as they all fully settle on Julie's bed fully comfortable.

He has his head in Julie's lap and his feet on Luke's. Luke has a hand gripping his ankle and his head on Julie's shoulder.

"You always make me laugh. Luke always makes me smile." Julie answers and they both look to Luke.

"Kinda the same for me too. You both just make me happy."

Humming in happy contentment as Julie runs her hand through his hair and Luke taps his fingers on his ankle, Reggie just asks one more question.

"How'd you guys figure out you liked me?"

He opens one eye to see both of them starting to blush and he has an inkling of what it could be.

"Oh my god you guys wrote a song about me didn't you!"

Julie tugs his hair but gently at the comment.

"Got it in one Reggie. Not gonna lie though it was a bit frustrating cause it was after I accepted I felt something for Luke."

"She was so mad when I realized what the song was about before her. Mainly because I had the first part done and she finished it."

Reggie chuckles at that.

"Well duh we've known each other longer but Julie was able to finish it right, like it needed her."

"Reggie man that was insanely poetic.

"I can be from time to time."

Julie rolls her eyes at that.

"Very rare times."

They all bask in the quiet for a few more seconds before Reggie rolls over and looks at them.

"Wait how are we going to tell Alex?" The raised brows from both Julie and Luke answers that for him. "Oh he knows doesn't he? That's why he just stares at me like I should already know!"

Luke sighs loudly and drops down to take the spot Reggie left.

"Yup he definitely fits the disaster Bi thing you were showing me Jules."

Reggie looks at them confused at what that means.

"What the heck does that mean?"

"Well you know Alex is Gay cause he likes only boys? Bi or bisexual is when you like both genders or more. That's at least how I describe it and feel. Luke thought he was too but then he found out about being Pansexual and said that felt more like him."

Reggie stares at them in awe.

"There's a word for it." He whispers and tries to go launch himself off the bed and open Julie's laptop on her desk but two hands latch onto him to keep him stationed on the bed.

"Nope. Enjoy the cuddling."

"Reggie we were having a moment!"

He struggles weakly before relaxing back into their arms.

"You can't just say there's a word for something I couldn't name most of my life and expect me to chill right now!" He argues but stays where he is.

They both pat his chest to comfort him.

"You can research all you want tomorrow while I'm school. I'm sure my dad can answer some questions too since he was the one who helped me figure out I was bi."

Some unknown tension lifts from Reggies chest but it's not the two hands resting there.

"Your dad is so cool."

"Cause he has such a cool daughter."

No one disagrees.

After that it's as if they've been doing this since the start. Sometimes they're all together or with at least one other person, never alone unless they need it.

For now it's enough.

bron thots and hcs 99% harvested from rambling i sent to charri and didnt wanna retype yet

thinking about avicebrons workshop as i write. it is... a nice place to be i think. in my terms of nice. avicebron keeps it comfortably warm bc he likes it better that way. it smells like earth. warmly lit. there are various comfortable chairs because he used to just have one or two for himself and then he realized people kept coming by so hes just [sighs and adds another good chair and someone else drags in a bean bag or some shit]. hes got a bookshelf full of things. theres clutter but its an interesting kind of clutter and he knows where everything is anyways and the floor is cleared so ur not gonna trip over anything except maybe a golems whos keeping it tidy. its a chill place to read a book and if u ask nicely u can use some of the clay he keeps to makes lil figures with for fun. thonk bron: im going to make a place i like being in as a workshop narrator: this means other people will also like being there and sometimes hang out with you, which means you will be forced to acknowledge The Existence Of Other People bron: fuck. ive played myself

one day i will reread my source on kabbalah and itll be the end for everyone bc ive been interested in it since freshman year but its hard to find sources. and i have Thots about his golems but ill properly phrase them once im able to look thru my other primary source, for now i just ramble but basically his current golems except Adam arent like True Golems and even Adam is iffy because its moved past what a golem is

so proper golems are entities made thru certain specific magical rituals, and they are beings created generally by rabbis with a background in mysticism in order to help the community. a proper golem is highly autonomous and able to think on (almost) human level on its own, somewhat similar to a homunculus in proper homunculus lore but also, not. dont worry about it. i dont have the time to get into it. but one day. thats a threat. the final piece to animating them is writing on either them or an amulet they are given, which they can be returned back to earth by erasing the first letter they are, specifically, made to either help or protect which is why the reactor core thing is [singsong] bullshiiiiiiit

avicebrons golems are quickly made things that are more like basic familiars, as they possess a lower level of thought and dont follow ritual, the handoff of being less autonomy in exchange for being able to make a lot of them very quickly and easily so he doesnt count them as Proper Golems but he also classes them as More Useful For Our Situation Than A Proper Golem they can do chores and they will keep u safe but they also dissolve after a few hits

look the man’s disabled and he uses golems to make up for the fact, he doesnt need them to be durable or fully sapient he just needs them to do chores when he cant move his arms all the way and his back hurts

adam however (his NP) is a Proper Golem Plus Some. im ignoring the part where its like 'in fgo he also would need a mage or high level reactor to be its core' because thats stupid a proper golem doesnt need a core it just needs mystic words and some other stuff, but in exchange ill say he writes life into it using some part of his own magic plus whats drawn from his master, and the rest of Adam's unique reality marble ability is that it can pull mana from the earth directly quickly made familiars have mineral cores in order to like..... cores are the equivalent of when u pull back a ball on those clacker desk toys, where they keep going back and forth for longer than they should? the core jump starts the mana conversion procedure allowing it to create energy to move bc gems in fate are a good prana conduit

he can still do the thing of like. fuck i forget the word for it. earthbending. like he does in apoc where he just kinda draws shapes out of soil, but its only for various kinds of dirt. cant rly fuck with gems or metal but hes got bigass clay jars in his workshop full of dirt and clay and Various Rocks to make stuff ut of that he can control with a hand wave. it makes his life easier. bron vc do i LOOK like i can lift anything. i thought not.

uuhhhh other random bron infodumps bc i made other posts and then deleted them

no legge, prosthetics start at the hip ball-and-socket joint. arms yes. the second pair of arms is removable and attached to a thin plate that he can attach under his shoulders. the secondary shoulder joint is technically hypermobile and its easier to dematerialize/rematierialize them instead of putting them on and off. theyre usually not out unless he needs them for something. he is ambidextrious with all four of them and will show off in the name of efficient multitasking.

got a lotta facial scars from having acne as a young adult. pockmarks and the like. on top of his whole body being fucky.

does not like the cold!! makes both his physical and prosthetic joints feel stiff. will not mention it but will just [slowly recedes further into his cloak]

his hair is not as fun as it looks (to me). he hates having a body in general and so he will intentionally refuse to care for any non-prosthetic part of himself properly for it until it gets bad, so his hair is generally kinda dry and messy. its not Bad bad but its not great.

he takes better care of his fake legs than he does the parts of his body he cant replace and u should yell at him for it.

his cloak is also not as heavy as it looks like it should be. its carefully balanced. he can and will however bonk you with the pointy bits if you stand too close to him. forcibly mandated 4-ft personal bubble.

THIS MAN CLICK CLACKS WHEN HE MOVES AND I DONT CARE WHAT APOCS LACK OF SOUND EFFECTS TRIES TO IMPLY. this man WILL go click clack between his feet and the metal decoration thingies on his cloak bonking each other.

people who know shit about golem lore feel free to tell me all my books are packed but thoughts ping like ping-pongs

actually just tell me about folklore in general from any of u i like legends and mysticism 

if u have read this far tell me about some of ur folklore

A  rundown on my thoughts on Vesperia (I’m at the beginning of the second part, am a chunk of the ways into the Nordopolica Coliseum stuff). Under the cut, broken into “what I liked”, “what I didn’t”, and “what I feel nuetrally on”.

Postives:

The characters are so lovely, I am so attached to all of them, especially Yuri, Flynn, and Estelle. I love the sliding scale of idealism to cynicism they have going (though none of them are 100% either), it’s so fascinating and endearing

Yuri. I’ve been told that he’s almost far and away one of the most popular characters in the whole series and man, I completely get it. The fact that he turns to morally grey actions because he cares so much about the well being of others, even people he knows he’ll never see again, is just so unique for a protagonist that it makes him so hard not to love. You can tell that he wants to be able to be cold, to be unfeeling, but he just can’t, he loves and feels and desires to help others so strongly that he can almost never say no to anything that’s asked of him, even if he’ll offer token complaint along the way. He’s just. A treasure. And he’s a goddamn adult for once, like young protags are fine but seeing a character who has a bit more life experience under their belt is so refreshing

Found family bitches!!! I legitimately teared up when Yuri pat Karol’s head to comfort him. He’s such a big brother to Estelle and Karol it’s so precious!!!! You can really feel that Yuri enjoys having people who rely on him, and whom he can rely on in return. He’s always so supportive!!

Estelle is an angel descended upon this world, I love how shes in many ways sort of a more typical protag than Yuri but instead the game examines the pros and cons of being Like That. That to have that inherent goodness and selflessness is a great thing, but it can also be very selfish. And watching her discover what she really wants in life is a fascinating journey I can’t wait to finish with her

Karol isn’t my favorite child in media but like I want to give the poor boy a hug, like everyone chatises (outside of Brave Vesperia) him for being a coward but like he’s only 12 years old????? I find it perfectly reasonable for him to run??????? He’s a fucking 7th grader. And his reaction to finally getting the acceptance he’s always craved? Mwah

Where I’m at in the story Flynn’s only been in and out and only playable once so I don’t know him as well but he’s an archetype I love so I have immediate bias for him lmao. I do like how they continually go out of their way to show you that him and Yuri have the same same goal, the same morals, the same hopes, but they simply cannot reconcile each other’s methods no matter what. That is exactly how you make amazing rival characters. Even when they opposed each other you could always feel the overwhelming care they have for each other, it’s so good....

Judith is a Queen, I don’t know much about her yet since she’s a relatively recent addition to my party but I love that like the designated fanservice girl has like an actual Reason to be so and like, isn’t just titties out for no reason and actively enjoys it. Her slightly moral ambiguity is also really well done, like you can super tell that she’s a good person but she’s done some shit that was at least callous to the consequences of her good deeds. Also, flirty friendships are my jam Yuri/Judith BrOTP 4 lyfe

Rita is a baby gay and I wish her the best of luck on her journey to come to terms with her lesbianhood. For the most part imo she’s a fairly standard tsundere but like, sometimes having an Archetype...but Gay(tm) is all you need to be a good character

I have no strong feelings on Raven since he’s also been in and out and I don’t really like how he’s voice acted. He’s like, chill, he’s the funky uncle

I tend not to retain much about the story of an RPG the first time I play it since theres so much dialogue and flavor text to plow through but I do kind of like the loose structure of it, it feels very natural, like I’m just along for a random ass adventure these people are having. It’s really linear but it never feels like it’s on rails or anything

Negatives:

I’m not super into the gameplay, I can’t tell if its not good, I’m just bad at it, or a mix of both

Okay the fact that you can’t see enemy health bars in combat unless you hold down a button which also pauses the action is Bad imo, it makes every fight feel way longer bc I’m getting no immediate feedback on my progess

It’s. So. Fucking. Obtuse on what it wants you to do sometimes!!! Like a lot of the time its obvious but then sometimes the only reason I didn’t need a guide is I was blindly spamming A or Y (for shit with the Sorcerer’s Ring) and running into the walls praying something was interactable. I know people complain about games these days holding your hand too much or something but geeze.

Related to the above, minimaps for the dungeons and towns please, like its nice to have on the overworld but honestly I get more turned around and lost in indoor locations, since a lot of the backgrounds aren’t super unique looking. It could be progessively filled out as you go like the overworld map. Please.

I LOVE the story and characters and as I said above but like. The cutscenes break up the action every fucking five seconds, these people can walk and talk!!!! Like not to somehow bring a Bioware comparison into this but like, some of the skits could be had while you’re traversingt he world map instead of stopping you dead. It makes the pacing very “stop and start” and jarring

The puzzles. Wait, that’s not accurate, the long ass sections where you just spam the Y button to hit shit with your socerer’s ring an back track. They suck. The game’s already plenty long, didn’t need padding

No strong opinions on:

The aesthetic. Standard fantasy setting, some of the monster designs are cute and fun, some feel lazy, I likely won’t remember any of them in the long run. 

Same for the music. The Dahngrest theme is the only one that ever stood out to me as “oh, I like this”.

Worldbuilding too. The names are a bit Much so I can barely recall a lot of them, and the ones I do I def can’t spell lmao. And I find it hard to retain a lot of the background stuff that you find out when it’s mostly infodumped at you by Estelle like she’s Ye Olde Google

All in all I’m enjoying my time with it, though honestly more for the interactive experience elements than as a game.

What/How I write [Pt.2]

Ipliers:

Darkiplier: Dark is a little more complicated than Anti. While he tends to stay on the evil side, if there is a large threat (which he highly doubts will happen) hed team up with the good, but only for that moment. He is usually calm and collective, and tries to stay away from most other egos, the few exceptions being Host, Phantom, and maybe one or two more. He's less fond of the Neutral people (like Mare) than he is of the Good aliance, as he believes it should be good or evil, no in between.

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @leobashi !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

Dr. Iplier: Not quite on Schneeps level, but Dr. Iplier is still a skilled individual! If Schneep ever goes missing, or is the one who needs medical help, Dr. Iplier is there to help! He's closer with the Septics than the other Ipliers, as most of the Ipliers are alligned evilly, but he does hang with them only for the purpose of feeling like a contributing ego for the Ipliers. The others usually dont mind him being around, but they also dont acknowledge him as much, which can be depressing. Luckily Scneep is always there to back him up!

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @freckled-words !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

Googleplier: Primary objective is to answer questions as quickly as possible. Secondary objective is to destroy mankind. Google is as nuetral as they come. This AI hangs around almost everyone, with the exception of Anti. Almost always obeys commands unless they bring harm to himself. Google memorizes everything he witnesses and can easily recite sayings and events word for word and moment for moment. He's also great at reading others emotions and decisions, and can usually tell what they're thinking. The only person he can't get a read on is Paultin...

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @luckydanart !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

The Host: Host is another character/ego I'm not too familiar with, but the concept of him is enough to make me want to write about him! Host is most connected with Dark, as they share a unique bond with each other. As for the way I write him, I guess you'll just have to see since I dont really know myself!

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @tintas-galhadas !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

Wilford "Motherloving" Warfstache: Mmm yes, where to even begin with Warfstache! He isnt alligned with the good or the bad, nor is he neutral! Wilford is basically the stand alone guy who goes with the first thing that comes to mind. He is the only ego along with Paultin with the ability to break the 4th wall, and that's always fun to write! The only person he really spends time with is JJ and sometimes Paultin, as they both share some similarities with him. At first he wanted to use JJ, but then actually grew attached to the younger dapper and now teaches and protects him. Theres a good guy in there after all!

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @cyanacity !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

Nwtb's:

Natemare: The original Natewantstobattle ego. While technically born in the community first, Mare is the younger brother of Phantom. Mare is neutrally alligned and whomever he's with he enjoys to make a scene and cause chaos. There are days where he'll help Phantom and there are days where he wont stop until he knows his brother is pissed off. Mare doesnt know 'Magic' per say, but he has the unique ability to show others what they fear most in life. When this happens, a purple and black cloud wraps around whom he desires and until they are aware it's a spectral they are trapped in its course.

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @reverseblackholeofwords AND @st1ck-m1st3r !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

Paultin Seppa: The best Bard boi! Paultin Seppa loves how his name is a pun on Salt 'N Peppa, and finds it absolutely hilarious! One of the interesting things about Paultin is he's a 4th wall breaker, and loves interacting with the audience. Paultin is extremely talented with magic and music, and people usually notice who he is when they see him. There are actually times where he and Marvin will perform together, and when that happens everyone adores it. Paultin has a 'son' named Simon, who's quite the jokester!

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @mysnyasper !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

Pluck: Pluck is our bird boi who lost his ability to fly. While not quite as skilled at magic as Paultin or Marvin, he knows quite a bit of spells. Pluck usually prefers to stay out of fights and watch from the sidelines, but he'll join in if he realizes it's important or life threatening. The downside is when things get rough, he tends to encase the area in complete darkness... Pluck technically is a father to 6 lizard babies: Graven, Willan, Xrits, Alidiana, Davward, and Marvyre. Pluck loves his children greatly, even if they do tend to cause some trouble.

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @chatterghosts !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

The Phantom: The Phantom is basically the exact opposite of his younger brother, Mare. Usually calm and collected, Phantom thinks his plans through and is a manipulative person in general. He runs Phantom's Dream Emporium, in which many unsuspecting visitors have lost their souls to him. Having been through many timelines and eras, Phantom knows exactly what someone desires. In fact, in contradiction to Mare, Phantom has the unique ability to show others what they desire most in life. When the two work together, they are an unstoppable team. Phantom knows a much broader variety of spells than any other ego. Something to take note of is he often keeps and eye on Marvin... Wonder why...

THIS ART IS NOT MINE AND BELONGS STRICTLY TO @the-viiovi-soldier !!! DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT FOR THIS ART!!! FOLLOW THEM TO SEE MORE AWESOME STUFF!!!

Zack Spade: Zack is a mercenary, who was formerly known as The Deathslinger. He wields two dischargers (known as guns in this world) and is extremely skilled at using them. Zack usually keeps a stone cold expression, talking in a serious manner. Not many people are able to get his locked up emotions to show, but when he wants to he can crack a "joke" or two. The best way to see Zacks true colors is to challenge him to a drinking game, and Paultin knows this all too well.

See Part 1 Here!

Can we have the fluff and angst asks with Matilda and Solas 😔...

oh FUCK yeah babey!! thank u griff 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

1. What are things they both find funny?

they’re often dry and snarky with other people, which amuse each other. alone together they usually do stupid deadpan humor. solas seems very serious but really his sense of humor is just niche and very subtle unless you know exactly how to get at it, which matilda does. 

2. If they could each describe each other in one sentence, what would it be?

answered here

3. If they complimented each other, what would they say?

answered here

4. What would be their ship name?

listen there’s just not a good combination of matilda/tannen and solas. solen? tanas? TAN ASS? “ma ghilana vhenan” fits them well as a descriptive/poetic phrase. 

5. What activities do they enjoy together?

i cannot stress enough that they’re basically inseparable from the attack on haven until the temple of mythal, however long that is. they do everything together. solas is an absolutely horrendous cook but he helps as best he can, they eat all their meals together. they spend hours in bed reading separate books together. they go on walks or rides together. when he’s painting, she’ll sit on the sofa and crochet to keep him company. they explore the fade together literally every night. 

6. What is/are their love language(s)?

they have quality time. unique to solas is words of affirmation, unique to matilda is acts of service. 

7. Write a ~300 word love scene for them. 

how great his responsibilities, how short his time, and how he could not help himself.

it was early, early morning, mist curling off distant fields as the rising grey sun burned it away, in a silent, secluded garden off a little stone manor house, all but drowning in ambling wisteria vines, such that the rough bricks beneath them were hardly visible.

a lack of courage in facing the front door had brought him there. the garden, half in shade and all in bloom, was almost enough, so steeped was it in her. he could almost breathe in the smell of every herb she ever cooked with as it grew here, and know that matilda’s tender hands planted them, and he could love her and go without ever troubling her.

almost enough. he fingered one of the petals as if he'd never touched a flower before.

he had been content to receive occasional news of her, content to linger, mostly unnoticed, in her dreams. content to shoulder the burden of longing heartache and imagine that it granted her freedom.

as his hand dropped from the flower, as though he had summoned her with the motion, the white-painted door that led into the house from the garden opened. were this the fade, this was the moment he would have vanished. but it was not. he was stuck, stiff, in this solid, sluggish earth, bare feet sinking into the soil. he could not flee, and so he gaped.

matilda was half-way to putting up her hair, red waves gathered but not secure, and she was every bit as beautiful as he remembered. more beautiful than he remembered: how could simple, fallible memory ever do her jusice?

she froze, too, and gaped, one foot on the neat clay tiles just inside the threshold and one on the rain-wet dirt, and she searched his face with a sequence of silent whats and whys and hows that came in shadows across her face. and then her face crumpled, and he only had time to see her eyes water before she threw her arms around his shoulders, and buried her face in the crook of his neck, and they were pulled by their collective weakness to their knees in the dirt.

8. What were their first impressions of each other?

ok so. matilda is waylayed on her way to the conclave with her retinue, she and a handful of other mages get cornered in a keep in the hinterlands and lysas asks the inquisition to go find her bc fiona might listen to her. that’s the setup. 

anyway solas already knows who she is before they officially meet and he respects her marginally as an influential player in the mage rebellion. he also immediately respects her magical ability because when they fight their way through the templars to reach her, she springs a trap on them and could definitely have killed them if she wanted to. 

matilda doesnt kill them mostly because of solas. he’s the mage in the party and she’s willing to believe him if he says they’re not with the templars. so she immediately trusts him more than she’d trust most people. 

9. Have they made each other cry?

OH BOY HAVE THEY. 

she cries during crestwood like straight up in front of him. he waits to cry until later. uhhh they’re both prone to bouts of Angst about one another between the breakup and trespasser, which sometimes end in crying. matilda cries during trespasser mostly because she’s afraid of him, and that just tears him up inside. listen they cry a Lot that’s what solavellan is FOR

10. Write a ~300 word argument scene for them. 

im so sorry i literally cant write arguments i’m not argumentative enough to relate

11. What causes them to fight?

not a lot? they both have very few things that they care strongly enough about to fight about, especially solas, and the things they DO feel strongly about, they agree on. 

12. Do they have differing political opinions?

a little. obviously matilda is more attached to this world and more eager to identify herself with it. but like lmao in general “stop enslaving/imprisoning people, stop treating people like second class citizens” they agree on. the underlying philosophy of the inherent freedom owed to all sentient beings, they agree on. 

though theres the big difference where he wants to end the world and she doesn’t but, yknow. 

13. Name something they would never do for the other person. 

there’s not a lot, man. i mean, with sufficient reason they’d do literally anything for each other, except i think kill one another, which, in case da4 doesnt happen or is bad, matilda fucking GAMBLES on during the Final Confrontation. 

like i’d say matilda wouldn’t kill for him, but she would, if he persuaded her it needed to happen for some necessary reason. yknow? this is a cop out answer. 

matilda wouldn’t kill an innocent for him. solas... listen i don’t know what he wouldn’t do. 

14. What would be a dealbreaker?

again, no dice. home boy straight up came out and said he’s a godlike being hellbent on ending the world and she’s still like heart eyes at him. i don’t know that there’s anything matilda would do that would make solas stop loving her. like there are things she could do, but nothing realistic. she’s not gonna start torturing and enslaving people.

15. What are traits they dislike in one another?

now this is a good question. 

solas is too secretive. he refuses to take moral stances on things and will turn around and lecture her about seeing things in black and white when she does. he’s too often unsympathetic, unemotional. and he’s hypocritical. 

matilda is modest to an at-times modest degree. he always expected that -- that she would insist on playing second fiddle to everyone in her life. she lets anger cloud her judgement on too many things, damn the consequences. 

16. If they broke up, what would be their opinions of each other?

for the purposes of this question, since they’re still in love and want to be together, i’m not considering them really broken up. mutual “this isn’t working, we should end this” though -- they’d probably still be friends, honestly. they’re in love because they respect and trust one another and just because they decide to break things off doesn’t mean they stop clicking. 

although, given the other real life dudes like solas i know, he’d probably be the kind of guy to cut all contact with exes. matilda definitely tries to be friends with her exes. 

Hi I’m Kosmic. I draw webcomics and my webcomics are really long sprawling huge cast ones that will go on for years and they’re non linear and all this stuff that makes ppls heads spin when they try to explain wtf they’re about. I ask myself this question a lot: How the fuck do I maintain this motivation for continuing projects that are honestly, probably bigger than i can possibly feasibly create??? How do i avoid swallowed up by anxiety of my own creations???? is that energy going to run out at any time? should i be worried?? Well! For some reason I... don’t? like i get winded sometimes but in the end, I actually quite like what i do and I don’t care that it takes literally years to make my stories. but when I step back and look at it objectively it does make me scratch my head and wonder how i came to be in this situation. So, sometimes i  try and write a few things that help me with understanding my own process, for whatever reason. Or at least I’ll TRY to articulate some of the things i seem to tell myself again and again that help me feel very comfortable with my writing/creating process. So if you want an insight into tips that i give myself.. this is that! 

TIP #1 - Everything you Plan will take longer than you planned, but you can make it easier by unexpectedly including information you might have otherwise withheld.

Secrets are cool in your stories. I have so many of them, but I also understand that they’re much more fun to share than to always keep locked up and out of knowledge. I often overshare to the point where ‘info dumping’ happens which is often considered an unattractive quality in comics. But IDM it so much because my comics just need to be drawn and you can’t glorify and hold every flaw over your shoulders when in the end its not going to be that big of a deal. I think its better to give out more information than finding reasons to bend around a story to avoid revealing things. I feel it might even be more obvious if you attempt to do that.

Also, I feel that everything planned in a story can happen quite quickly, and feel much shorter than actually drawing it. Even with the experience ive gained, i still am surprised just by how much i must throw out to make my long scenes shorter and snappier. even then, they are still really long scenes. I don’t mind doing this, I like to make my stories this way- but ive also designed my comic to serve this pace by making my pages less intensive physically to make. I’m not going to go in depth about this as ive already discussed this many times before, but I do think its important to understand that generally, a commitment to a comic is going to be bigger and longer than it appears in your mind or even on paper as a script or thumbnails.

(my comic eggshells, for example, was originally going to be 340ish pages long. but back then, my pacing was much different-- and my pages were generally twice as wide with around 15 panels per page..sometimes more. but i would over-render and make them hard to read, and now i draw very few panels per page and my comics are much ‘longer’ in page count.)

TIP #2

-Accept that your ideas are bigger than what you can draw and enjoy the private context and history of your work without feeling like its less accomplished for not being all out there. Validate yourself but also understand that your readers are not going to understand the depth from your perspective and they will be engaging with the view they’ve been exposed to.

This is kind of a complicated one but I think that its both humbling to accept your work as this multi layered experiences of contradicting perspectives.. theres the planning and your engagement with the goals, the work of translating your creation to others and the vulnerable exposure of these ideas to the audience. As the creator, you get to see things in a very unique way that no one else can but... the one feeling you will never get to see is the audience who has no idea what will happen next. You can anticipate it, but in the end its so vast and unpredictable that it will be impossible to judge what they ALL will FEEL and sometimes? their perceptions can alter your own enjoyment of your work. I guarantee it will change it in SOME way.. that’s part of the sacrifice.

TIP #3

-Allowing change, flexibility and growth into your series- and letting go of control over all facets of it.

As time goes on things just change. Its hard to accommodate or prepare for that kind of investment in your work when you feel like you havent even gotten through the starting gates of your story. Comics are particularly difficult for that because once you draw a thing, it takes time to edit and you cant really undo and go back. Each panel informs and builds on the next. You have to use what’s there and figure out how it can be a structure for the future.

Accepting the past that has helped create the situation and platform of your comic in the present, which will lead into the future. Personally, i’m not a fan of retconing* certain decisions that have been already made into the canon-- however, i think if a new conclusion or idea is discovered in the process of writing and it works to include because it creates a new and alive energy in the work that will help push it to the next stage.. i think that’s very helpful and useful for sustaining the growth and motivation in a story. Making choices like this can be tricky, however, but even small ones can give a lot of natural growth and flexibility in the comic. The problem can often come with letting go of that unseen, unrealized version we had intended. I know for myself, i can get very nostalgically attached to old ideas but-- if i think of something better that works or makes more sense, I’m always thankful to let go and let my stories grow into a better thing. I try to remember where it came from, however. Because that helps inform me where to go.

(*generally my definition for this is altering events of the past, certain core plans of the comic, character motivations, or facts that are connected to the worldbuilding. im kind of a hoarder so once its in the story aka on a specific page-- its not going anywhere. until then things can be up in the air. for example, the characters knife and spoon were not originally intended to be mutually in love and it was more of a one sided idol worship, but as i fleshed their characters out i realized that it was mutual and it changed and altered the story because of that. now it cannot/will not be “undone” for whatever reason bc this is.. an established fact in the story. but at one point, it was not! i hope that makes sense.)

SO TO SUMMARIZE... plans will always be “”bigger”” in the ever expansive space of your mind so also dont be afraid to get to the point sometimes even if it feels a little, like. less exciting than you thought? accept your story is going to be different for YOU vrs your audience and make peace with that disconnect even tho its disorienting + upsetting sometimes & accommodate the ~natural personal and artistic growth~ you will experience and let go of things that might be holding you or your work back from improving with you. but also dont try to cut out too much of the past because.. it is what helped you get to where you are right now? focus on the present & allow growth for the future, dont try to alter the past and pretend it didnt happen. bc that will be confusing as fuck for everyone involved and also probably hurt the story more than help it. esp if its a long one. ur building a tower dont pull out too many foundational blocks and try to make it too much of something else unless its growing there on its own.. u kno? 

When I try to write these tips these are just things I find myself doing in a cycle as i create that seem to keep re igniting my passion for my story again and again. It makes me curious because it also is a very instinctual thing so I thought I might try and write it out!!!!!!!!!! ENJOY.

ALSO some bonus thoughts!!!!!!!!!! I will say that I’ve never completed a long format comic series, so take it w/ a grain of salt imo. HOWEVER...I probably will, eventually. Even if I don’t, I do enjoy writing really big ones and I feel very happy with the work i do on them! and still feel no inclination to move onto other things. Or even when I work on other things, I don’t have a feeling of dropping a story entirely. (for example, i still intend to work on my older series eggshells and don’t really feel a desire to ‘quit’ that story even when i have matured as an author/artist since starting it.)

When I read really long comic series I wonder a lot of internal decisions that happen out of sight, since the timeline of a comic that you read is so much different than the timeline it takes actually creating the thing. its so easy to write/plan/form ideas for lifetimes of work that will never be realized, so what is it that we actually get in the pages? What aspects of this author are we actually seeing? how much have they grown since beginning and what about the story we will never know? I know I’ll never know, because, I am only the reader! And as the creator, I will never know what the feeling of my work as the reader. or the cool and interesting things they predict will happen based on their perseptions, which are so different from mine. Yet!! we are all engaged in the same story unfolding, never fully discovering what its like on the other side but only getting little glimpses and thats fascinating how a story is almost this vast illusion of experiences maintained by so many different minds. 

Long format comics captivate me because they are just, really time consuming to make and the pacing of them are so different and less consumable than other stories. They like become.. this place you live in! Why are they my favorite to enjoy even when its natural that, when a story becomes longer, its going to end up attracting more & more issues? Why do i Not care about resolutions to long stories sometimes bc my expectations for them are different?? (also lets face it, experience writing long stories is going to be different than writing short ones because it takes time to write longer things & we are not going to have as much experienc having more than one completed super long multi-act-multi-characterplot story vrs a bunch of smaller ones. it doesnt mean its EASIER to write shorter ones, if anything id argue its probably much harder to write good short things + isolate a story down to that focused vision than making tons of long ones that avoid endings) but..yet!! here i am...

why am i constantly drawn to trying to understand long format stories when I probably could improve faster by writing shorter things??! i dont really know! but i follow my heart and my heart likes to do things this way......

anyway, this entire post is mostly inspired by the fact that many of my favorite stories started before i was even born or have been going on for decades and i wonder if we’ll ever read the endings to many of them.... would it.. matter? they’ve already inspired me so much even without a resolution because i can imagine my own endings to things.. but in the end that is not what happened in the actual story. it was only in my mind.. and yet it never happened, and was an illusion unknown to anyone but myself.....and sometimes my favorite stories are my favorites because of the things i imagined them to be, rather than what they actually were or how they actually turned out.. i dont know how this happens..... but i wonder about what this means with my OWN comics, and how my perceptions of what they could be vrs what they are is like, this weird illusion that also exists only in my mind and no one else can see it. yet we are both looking at the same thing. and i want to know what others see and i never will get to??? ....stories are......... so fucking spooky!!!!!!!!!! AHHH!! ok thats all. thx for reading

God I hope this is not a stupid question but I love you and your dog and I've been wanting to get my own dog for almost 20 years now but some ppl are like it's the biggest responsibility ever your life has to change etc and some say it's chill? Like I'm 24 and live alone and have lots of free time and I know I would take care of my dog like my child and I know it's for life. I just wanted to know your experience, do you find it really hard and challenging?

Not a stupid question! I’ve always had dogs, my mom would keep strays she would happen upon and we usually had a pack of them running around. I was basically a lil Mowgli as a child and chose to spend most my time outside with our gang of mongrels. I even thought I too was a dog and convinced my parents to let me sleep outside in a tent when I was four. My current dog Putin was a stray I found limping outside my last home. His nails were very long and he was skinny and defensive. I tried to find if he had an owner and no one claimed him and he became my baby. All my dogs have either been strays, from the pound, or given to us by owners who cannot take care of them. Some had be abused by previous owners and other had health issues which require special help. I’ve had mutts, an Afghan hound..you name the breed I’ve probably had it. My dog Putin the chihuahua is probably the most high maintenance dog I’ve ever had but we are so bonded that I love it. He is like a little baby and wants to constantly be held and follows me around like a baby duckling. Chihuahuas are known for having a favorite person they imprint on. He follows my lead and is receptive to who I feel is safe. We have an unsppoken otherworldly attachment. He is scared of water so I get into the bath or shower and hold him so he feel secure. He has separation anxiety and can’t be left alone, so I either take him with me when I leave for short trips a lot or have my brother or someone close to me, that Putin trusts take care of him when I have to go out of town. He is very expressive and emotional. He can sense when I am upset and gets excited when I am excited. He is so special, sometimes I feel like he is a little pokemon. We jokingly say he is a gremlin too sometimes. He has helped my life so much and I often wonder what I even did before I had him. Putin provides me with so much bliss and euphoria. He is truly my little angel. He is majorly protective of me and if I am sleeping and someone walks into my room he goes into attack mode haha. Almost everyone who meets him thinks he is very special and unique. He is the bravest and most clever dog I’ve ever had. He brings me endless laugher and comfort, I wish everyone had a dog like him. 

Here are my personal rules for having a dog:

-Adopt from a shelter or take in a stray (Fostering  a dog for a bit is a good way to get used to having a dog if you’ve not got much experience and can lead to adoption but isn’t initially a permanent responsibility and can ease the transition and give you time to decide if it’s right for you)

-NEVER hit, abuse or neglect your dog. Do not deny your dog any essential need and only ever show your dog nurturing and kind behavior. Don’t put your dog into a shock collar or spiked training collar and please do not get your dogs ears or tail clipped for cosmetic reasons. Having a dogs nails trimmed is good though and should be done so they don’t get ingrown nails which can affect their gait and potentially cause serious pain. 

-Take your dog outside often but also do not leave your dog chained up outside alone all the time either. Have adventures with your pup and treat him/her as if it is just a regular part of the family. Basically don’t ever do anything to a dog you wouldn’t do to a helpless little child.

-Every dog is different just like people are. They have their own personalities, likes and dislikes. You can only learn this by tending to and connecting with your dog. 

-Make sure you get your dog properly vaccinated and groomed if needed. Find a regular vet who can help if theres any health issues. An annual or even bi-annual full physical is important. Vet insurance is a good idea because emergencies happen and paying a smaller monthly fee is better than being hit with a huge vet bill all at once if something bad happens.

-NEVER ever ever ever ever abandon a dog! If you ever are faced with not being capable of taking care of your pet don’t under any circumstance leave it or drop it somewhere random. Please don’t take it to the pound either, that is probably one of the most gut wrenchingly tragic things to do to a pet which trusted you, loved you and relied on you. If worst comes to worst and you have to get rid of a dog, take it to a NO KILL shelter where it will not be faced with being put down...or find an adoptive home. Do you research though on the new possible owners and be certain that they are loving and will not hurt or mistreat them. 

-Understand that nothing a dog does is done because it is “bad.” If a dog bites it is because it is frightened. If a dog soils the carpet or has an accident inside, it is because it either hasn’t been properly taught to be potty trained or wasn’t taken outside (which is the owners fault.) Dogs are incapable of being vindictive, mean, or rude. Dogs only do what their instincts are telling them to do and it’s natural for them, getting mad at a dog is a silly thing. If you dog is having behavioral issues it may be a good idea to take them to a training class. Many pet stores offer them, although I’ve never taken any of my dogs to training I hear they are often successful. Dogs look to their owners as part of their pack and put their entire trust into you and it’s your duty to ensure they feel secure, safe, and loved. 

-Be devoted. Having a dog in your life means they are your priority and their well being is fully in your hands. They need you and you can’t avoid your new job of taking care of them.

-Research the different breeds of dogs. Each is known for different characteristics, temperaments, and needs. They all require different things and should be encouraged to flourish in the situations they were made for. For instance if you live in an apartment, a smaller dog is ideal because to them an apartment is pretty big, but they also need lots of time to go outside and explore. If you live in a cold place, choose a dog that was built for enduring cold weather, and if you live somewhere that gets hot it’s best to choose one that has short hair and won’t overheat. If you’re super active get a dog that can go on hikes with you or likes getting dirty and play. If you’re more of a homebody get a little lap dog that will want to cuddle you and cozy up while you lounge around.

-Always keep your dog on a leash when you go for walks, because they might run away and get hit by a car, get lost, get into a fight with another dog, or bite someone. Don’t let your dog go out where it is unattended ever. Small dogs can get picked up by large birds sometimes even!

-Provide lots of water in multiple rooms (in case it ever accidentally gets stuck in a room without water, its a good idea to have a few bowls around your home.) Feed them everyday as required, give them lots of toys and play with them as much as possible. 

-Every single night I give Putin a massage. I pet him all the time but he loves to be massaged. It’s calms him down and relaxes him to have him back, shoulders, legs, and head rubbed. He sleeps curled up with me every night and we are bonded because he knows I won’t even hurt him or abandon him. 

-Talk to your dog and sing it songs and include them into anything you do that they can also take part in.

Having a dog is such a special relationship. Although we cannot speak to our dogs, they are so empathetic and intuitive. They remember if they’ve been hurt and are so pure. It is a responsibility but the work it takes to have a dog is rewarded 50 fold when you feel the love and joy they can give to you. I would rather hangout with dogs over most humans. It seems like you’ve put thought into this and showing your concerns tells me you’d be a caring, attentive, and appreciative owner. There are days when it’s 8am and I am deep in sleep and Putin will start barking at my head because he is hungry or needs to go potty, and even though I feel groggy and wish I could stay asleep I know he relies on me and I absolutely owe it to him to help him with his needs. Imagine you couldn’t feed yourself or use the bathroom without assistance? Never get upset at your dog, even if it eats your favorite shoes. When stuff like that happens just learn that maybe you should keep your shoes away from the dog. If a dog annoys you or upsets you just go take a break and breathe and calm down, never lash out at the dog. Learn constructive healthy ways of handling unsavory behavior. Give your dog your whole heart and treat it exceptionally. It all depends on you going into it with a calm, patient, and sweet approach. People that complain about their dogs just need to identify with the dogs perspective and get into it’s head to see it from their view. Dogs are too good for us truly. All pets of any species are wonderful and beautiful.

Please keep me in the loop about this! I would love to help you find a good match and tell you about different breeds and ways of going about this search. Then if you do end up adopting a dog I’d love to see pictures. I love talking about animals and want all of them to have amazing lives. Thanks for coming to me for advice it means a lot because animals are my favorite topic xx

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... Young Sheldon /S01\/E01\ Pilot Airdate: September 25, 2017 @CBS Ratings: 16.57 Million :: 3.7 18-49 Demo Share Score: 6.75/10 @SpotlightSaga @CulturePit *************SPOILER FREE REVIEW************* Oh, what a shame... Did we miss the party? You know, I’m not really sure who the demographic is that is giving ‘The Big Bang Theory’ all of its monstrous numbers... Ok, well, I have an idea... But I’d hate to get ahead of myself like my other half, Cody Cole. Besides, everyone is allowed a handful of ‘Guilty Pleasures’, right? I sure as hell know that I’ve got mine. Even tho I don’t use the account anymore, I used to have a Spotify Playlist for songs that appeared on the UPN turned CW Series ‘One Tree Hill’. And yes, that’s embarrassing, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s very much true. I love ‘One Tree Hill’ and I cried like a little baby in S9 when (of course, you know I’m not going to reveal any spoilers, right?) the culmination of the main story arc that started the show off, came to one of the most tearful & satisfying conclusions ever on television. Yes, I love that show that fn’ much, ridiculous, I know... I pretend that S8 didn’t happen... But hey, when you run 9 Seasons of 20-25 Episodes, you’re bound to get some bad ideas some of the time. Now’s when you breathe your big sigh of relief... Judging by its pilot, ‘Young Sheldon’ doesn’t appear to fall in the category of ‘Guilty Pleasure’. Quite the opposite, actually. Remember how we all felt after the 1st Season of CBS ’Life In Pieces’. That hopeful, feel-good spirit was attached to something uniquely constructed with a powerhouse cast, something that didn’t normally happen on CBS, at least in such high quality... A Single Camera Sitcom. While ‘Young Sheldon’ may not look completely unique at first glance, its admittedly giving off a ‘Goldbergs-Mature’ vibe, and that’s hard to deny... But what originality it lacks within the walls of its narrative construct, it more than makes up in a fresh, restrained approach. The normal, tv-family chaos is still there, but at the epicenter of the organized madness, we have an observer... He’s not exactly a reliable narrator in theory, but he is in character. You see, Sheldon tells it like it is... And since this is something that pretty much all human children are known for... Famed Co-Creators & Co-Writers Chuck Lorre & Steven Molaro make sure that Little-Man, Iain Armitage (YS), turns up the awkward observations, just like his very own grown version and narrator, Big Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) from TBBT. I’m not so sure Young Sheldon is meant to be abnormally cute, or likable for that matter. The show approaches normal, southwestern families in the 80s with a pragmatic point of view. It’s existential in nature, and feels like a show that could also feel right at home on a Streaming Network like Amazon Prime. Lorre & Armitage also know that since this is from a child’s POV, the world is scary is nature... Even to the smartest, brightest minds around. Rarely do we cover CBS Sitcoms, although we’ve been known to indulge in Bear Claw Heaven with Kevin James on ‘Kevin Can Wait’, and we’re basically almost there with the aforementioned ‘Life In Pieces’... It just had a rough S2. You see, CBS has been gearing up; polishing up the CBS All Access Network, of course TBBT is always a Network Focus, reshooting entire episodes of Star Trek, and making sure Big Brother #768 (or whatever season its on) keeps steady numbers... It’s strange when you think of all the factors that can have some sort of snowball effect on the finished product of a Big 4 Network TV Series. It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that clearly the Network Giant’s focus has also very much been on this show as well. It’s clear, crystal clear, that CBS is very much behind ‘Young Sheldon’. To say this series was handled with care is an understatement. It’s polished, introspective, and brushes off chances to pull cheap laughs... Everything a normal CBS Sitcom doesn’t do. Even the placement of its pilot’s timeslot, garnering such big numbers off of the Season Premiere of its parent show, TBBT, has never really turned results in such spectacular fashion as it did here... Holding all 16.5 Live Million Viewers from the first half hour and keeping the mass majority of its coveted 18-49 demographic too. I guarantee they nurse this bad boy all the way through an ungodly amount of episodes. Why not? Honestly, it works. ‘The Goldbergs’ are growing up, right out of the 80s, and AMC’s ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ is heading into its 4th & final season. There’s a niche and it needs to be filled, and it looks like we have our first guest. Many of us have a deep connection to this era the show is set in, but none of us have seen it through this kind of lens. The big question isn’t the quality... You know CBS, it’s about money and longevity, because longevity not only brings in a steady supply of money, it also gives them something to brand... But that’s kind of why it’s so surprising that ‘Young Sheldon’ isn’t coming right out of the gate trying to push anything other than its own value. I have a strict policy when it comes to Sitcoms, whether they’re multi-cam or single-cam, doesn’t matter... Each series gets a fair shake... And a 21 Minute Episode built off a general idea will not tell you how far a show can go or how good a show will be.... Theres just no way! All kinds of shows out there start slow and then end up turning out relentless bangers on a regular basis, a few episodes, or even a season or 2 down the road... And then there is the exact opposite, where we see a show start out red hot and straight up fizzle out like a fading star right before our very eyes. I think it’s important for everyone to not judge this one too quickly... Maybe ‘Young Sheldon’ isn’t for that same ‘TBBT’ audience, maybe it’s meant to strike a different chord. It sure feels like it. ***************Written By Kevin Cage**************** TVTime/Letterboxd/FB/IG/Path/Pin/Tumblr/Twitter: @SpotlightSaga 📺 TVTime📺 http://www.tvtime.com ✅Spotlight Saga FB Page! Give us a like!✅ http://www.facebook.com/spotlightsaga 🚧Spotlight Saga's Main Page is Under Works🚧 http://www.spotlightsaga.com 🔥The Culture Pit FB Group🔥 http://www.facebook.com/groups/ArtsEntertainment @CulturePit Kevin Cage // Justin O'Malley // Cody Cole // Jerry Wilson // Kat Holiday // Carolyn Holt // Yackarette Borge // Carina Enered //

Breathe

Something that I’ve realized after 2 years of self-reflection is whats underneath all my faux confidence in myself. It was really just a comfortable spot of indecision that masked my insecurities and self doubts. I never realized how extremely fearful I am of vulnerability. I’m afraid of what people will think of me when I no longer control my narrative. I’ve gotten really good at determining what other people see in me and feeding into that narrative. It’s not necessarily who I am all the time either. Its who I assume I should be in the most basic sense. A long time ago people decided who I was ...stereotyped, classified, and judged me before they even met me. My closet friends decided who I was in their eyes without bothering to ask what I thought. And i went with it. The narrative was close enough and it shinned a bright light on me. It gave me an avenue to succeed in, but it made me complacent. I became vulnerable and eventually insecure with how I applied myself - I think my family suffers severely from the fear of vulnerability and failures. I started striving for just above average and I was good at it. This narrative of me allowed me to work hard, but not for myself. I wasn’t completing projects for me I was doing them, because they were expected of. Which works out fine for a while, but this narrative began effecting me as a human being. Because feelings always find their own way to express themselves. I was so unhappy with myself. Entities of my life that were most important to me, reflected nothing of me. I realized that non of my friends were anything like me. I always valued uniqueness in others and had no problem befriending those who were. But now I find myself surrounded by people who i accept are so different from me, but who don't accept my differences. And from fear of rejection I found a way to get comfortable with who people wanted me to be. I allowed people to to create my prison and I redecorated and made myself at home.  And when my narrative began to fail me, it really shook me to my core. I found things i desired to be unattainable bc of this prison I called home. I realized how unhappy i was with all those entities in my life. This narrative had found a way to infiltrate the most important parts of my being. It shifted from a social facade to a coping mechanism for any sign of failure and vulnerability. Love/rejection has caused me more pain than I chose to acknowledge. I’ve always been a lot more emotional than I let on. My passion for life scares me. I love soo easily and so hard that it’s easy to be hurt. It hurts so much because I am aware of how much I can extend for others. How much I truly love other people. I also am aware of how little people share a passion like that as well. I don't want to attach myself to someone who can not love the way i am willing too. My mom doesn't understand, but my need to distance myself from relationship is because i deem them worthless. Not the concept of them but the ideal people have of them. They have all been empty to me. And I refuse for my relationship w that much weight to half full or half empty. I refuse to let something the dictate my being be so empty. All of mt relationships have been like that - except with my youngest  brother and my mom - and even then they have made big strides since I went away to college. I’ve worked on being open with them and thats why i deem them my best friends because they know me for who i want to be. People don't understand how suffocating being someone else can be. Pretending to be someone so similar to who you are but with no depth to your actual being is fatal. I know so many peers who are stuck in this grave others have built for them. It suffocates you. But the only difference in my pain is I was told the air was so supposed to be this thin and that i should be appreciative of my “air” quality because it is much better than others. But what does the air quality matter if im still dying from it. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and people rolled their eyes as I squandered. I was so disregared. Everyone again assumed something so uncharacteristic of who I really was. Everyone assumed I was being unappreciative of the privileges or was overthinking. People ignored my actual pain because of accomplishments that I achieved for others. It confused me so much because the identity other has of me was a beautiful expensive glass vase with nothing in it. And when I tried to explain that there were flowers too. People told me that I should just be happy with th vase. I told so many people that i was struggling and all i asked for was for someone to listen. I got a counselor, looked for help from friends, coaches, parents. But people lie. People say it all the time, but what they don't add to it is that people lie, but only to themselves. the worst most painful lies stem from people lying to themselves. Saying to someone “You can come to me with anything” but by anything they mean “you can come to me with issues that I want to hear about”.  That is a lie. You don't actually care about what I’m saying. If you sound like anything from a Tyler Perry movie or a damn CW/Showtime original they're all ears. But when you present someone a problem a bit more complex that requires a bit of self reflection of your own and a solution that doesn't come easy, people tend to not care. Strangers I understand, but people I thought loved me? well that hurt more.  I never was sentimental albeit as emotional as i am. I never was one to jump the gun on titles as platonic as the friendship may be. But as low as the bar was set for my loved ones, they never failed to disappoint me. I felt as if most arguments or drama that ensued with my friends were with the perceived me and not who I actually am. I don't mind me called out negatively for who I am. Self-reflection is KEY. But I’ve been called out on character that is not true. It’s the worst version of me that doesn’t exist. This person that people have created around me is illogical and conniving. But that can't be more unlike me. Mean words mean nothing if you don't feel truth behind them. I’ve done mean messy things, sure. But there is always reasoning behind the things I do. Well-thought out. and if i do them they're completely, they're not directed toward anyone. its simply selfish desires of my true self that never got the opportunity to make decisions for her own. The side of me that's just trying to see the light. It slips out and people deem her unworthy, but thats not even my bad side. Thats my selfish side, mores the unfiltered side that doesn't really give a **** about the stupid shit rules that other ppl have randomly made up. The funny thing is no one has ever seen my mean side. I’m never mean or mad at anyone. So for someone to say I was acting in meanness..is wrong. because if I wanted to hurt their feelings, the conversation of my behavior wouldn't be had. We would no longer be friends. My temper is not short , but it matches the deeply passionate side that i fear because of too much emotion. 

I use sex and my sexuality to free myself of all vulnerable restraints. It means something else that what society wants me to understand it as. Sex means nothing to me. Because it means less to me doesn't mean i have no restraints or logic behind it. it holds the same regards to me as kissing/making out with a guy. Same rules apply; don't kiss ugly guys, don't kiss guys of the same friend group, choose your kissers carefully, etc, etc. That type of vulnerability is a language not as stunted to communicate. Everyone seems to be on the same page and can speak it very clearly. If a guy wants to have sex and I too want to have sex, it very straight forward. The only rejection comes with the double standard that women bear. but aside from that everyone understands the rules and each party gets pleasure from them. It’s the perfect agreement. Its very logically. You like this you continue. Its all about face value there's no depth. Everyone is happy in the end. Theres still respect if thing fall out. And if you show too emotion your the one who is in the wrong. Its very clear. Very little room error. And im sure sex is better when your in a relationship but a relationship is not built on sex. sex is still sex. But emotional intimacy is where the pain comes from.  Emotional intimacy has no rules there no understanding. People will lie to your face. It can be one sided. You can put this amount of energy into it and the other half put nothing into it. No matter how careful you are you can still wrong. You can be solid for years and still be wrong. There no rules. Theres no grounds of trust that don't require you to have the opportunity to not be enough. There no logic to feelings. You can do everything and still very wrong. Emotional Intimacy thats where pain comes from .And that is what I keep at arms distance.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Another Hero King (Shadows of Valentia) Impressions

***No Story or Character Spoilers***

I dont speak or read a word of Japanese so I couldnt give my thoughts on the characters or story even if I wanted to.  In addition to missing out on the story and character development I also only scratched the surface of the skill(tech) system as well as the sidequest system.  All of that is enough to make me not want to call this a review; I need to play it in English and do the postgame content to have a complete opinion on the game, but as it stands I still have a lot of thoughts about the game after one complete playthrough. So...here are those thoughts:

Presentation:  I dont think I can praise the presentation highly enough.  Its always been the case with Fire Emblems on the same console that they look slightly better than the one before it, and thats no exception here.  The music, color palate, animations, menus, character and weapon designs are all among the best in the entire franchise.  Even though I couldnt understand the words, it was incredible to play a Fire Emblem game with full voice acting.  It really elevates the experience and I’m very pleased we have finally gotten to that point.  No idea if the localization will have good voice acting to make it work, but what we have heard so far has been great and generally speaking I think the 3DS games have done a good job in the area of localizations so I am not too concerned.  If I have one gripe about the presentation its in the fully animated CG cutscenes.  They still look very nice but the animation is a step down from what we saw in Awakening and Fates.

Gameplay other than combat: Fire Emblem Echoes, like Gaiden, is as different from any other Fire Emblem game as it could possibly be while still having that Fire Emblem feel.  There are a lot of things that work together to make the game feel so unique.  In addition to the world map that was in the original Gaiden and brought back in Sacred Stones and Awakening we also have towns and dungeons.  Now, towns and dungeons were a thing in Gaiden but they were the definition of minimal.  Towns consisted of one or two buildings where you talked to everyone and they either joined the party or warned you of a tough enemy coming up, and once in a while there was a chest as well.  Now towns are 4 or 5 screens with many more npcs to talk to and more items to find, as well as a blacksmith (who in Echoes is a cool buff lady instead of the normal gruff guy in most FE games!) in most of the towns.  It must be said that in the original game you could walk freely around the towns and now they are split up into screens and function more like a visual novel.  Some people are upset by this change, but I personally dont really care either way.  Being able to walk around would be slightly more immersive and the visual novel style is slightly more efficient and makes it easier to not miss any items, and I think both those things are valuable. 

Dungeons, on the other hand, are just a straight upgrade.  In Gaiden you walked down a hall and did a fight, sometimes thats repeated x2 or 3 times.  It got a little more complicated near the end in Celicas route and then again at the end of the game, but not much more complicated.  Now they are actually dungeons with secret passages and breakable objects and treasure and enemies that you can ambush or can ambush you.  All the dungeons have a really great atmosphere and feel unique from one another.  I admittedly dont play a lot of dungeon crawler type games, so I dont have a huge frame of reference here, but to me it felt like it was on the simpler side of dungeon crawlers, but not too simple that it wasnt enjoyable.  Aside from the lost woods which is a maze with a lot of signs that I couldnt read, I liked all of the dungeons in the game, and I expect that I wont have any problems with the lost woods once I can understand them better.  The fights themselves are simple and much easier than what you face in the main battles, so its overall just a fun atmospheric break from the main game where you win some easy fights, collect items, and maybe grab a promotion if anyone is ready. 

Oh, I almost forgot, fatigue is a mechanic in dungeons.  But just barely.  At no point was fatigue ever more than the most extremely minor inconvenience.  I really cant understand why they put it in the game.  It usually only even sets in if you stick around in a dungeon longer than normal to grind, so I assume its meant to penalize grinding, but that doesnt make a ton of sense because 1) dungeons are there for you to grind and 2) its not even a big punishment because its so easy to get around via just leaving the dungeon or using one of the ample foodstuffs to cure it.  So basically, its a bad mechanic that was poorly thought out and executed, but it barely matters so its easy to ignore and forget about.

I dont know what it is about finding weapons in a dungeon or picking it up from a castle you gained access to after a hard battle on the map, but it really makes them feel incredibly precious to me.  That feeling is made even stronger by multiple design elements: first, like Gaiden and Fates before it, weapons are unbreakable, so you can keep using them as long as you want and get more attached. Second, as your characters use the weapons they unlock techniques that they can use if they have those weapons equipped.  Last, forging has been added to the game and it uses a tiered system where you keep upgrading until you reach max level and then can upgrade it to an even better weapon entirely, letting you stay with your weapons throughout the game.  And unlike Fates which added a bunch of drawbacks to the S rank weapons to offset their power and infinite durability, the legendary weapons in Echoes are just great. I think its an amazing system.  I didnt fully understand the rings or shields, though I did use them as well, I got more out of having weapons equipped in general, but rings all have big descriptions as to their effects so I will have more to say when the game releases in English. 

I also didnt get a ton out of the skill system.  Since most skills dont double, I dont think youll be using them much on your mercenaries, pegs, or fast cavaliers, meaning typically worse off units like knights and archers might benefit from it.  I mainly used two skills in my playthrough: A very strong double attack from Alm’s personal weapon and a super accurate attack with Atlas using an iron bow which in conjunction with his massive attack stat meant big chip damage.  Ill have more to say about this later, but I am tentatively pretty excited about this system.

Battles in Echoes: The actual combat in Echoes is significantly different than any other FE game.  Three major things really work together to make that true: Theres no Weapon Triangle, Growths are pretty low across the board, and when you promote you are brought up to the class baseline in stats.  These things in conjunction with each other make it so that classes have a far stronger identity than ever before.  Every class is well suited to fighting certain other classes, and you really dont want to send one of your units up against an enemy type that is good against them.  This means that juggernauting is mostly out of the game as you really need to fight with your whole army to be able to deal with all enemy types.  And thats right, I said the whole army.  There are no deployment limits other than in dungeon battles.  This is a pretty big deal and really makes the gameplay different than other Fire Emblems.  The only other main game with no deployment limits is Genealogy of the Holy War, however in that game I almost always found myself either not fielding a few of the units or fielding them and then they never made it to the fighting because of low movement.  In Echoes, I always wanted to use everyone and they almost all were useful in some small way.  This hugely changes the feel of the game for me.  I know a lot of people were concerned about there being no pair-up and how that would diminish the feeling of bonds between units, but this game gave me a stronger feeling of togetherness between my army than any other FE game prior has done and it wasnt even in a language I understood! It was just the game mechanics working to tell that story.  I always had to keep my army in a tight bunch, both to try and keep them all within their three tile support range and to be close by to attack the enemies who attacked their friends. It feels really great to fight with my whole team, even my armor knights, for the first time. 

Compared to Gaiden: I am already a big fan of Gaiden so inevitably I couldnt help but to compare it with the original while I played.  Some of these things might not even be noticeable for anyone who didnt play Gaiden but they mattered to me and I want to point them out in any case.  First the biggest thing to Gaiden fans: all the buffing and nerfing.  Generally, I didnt really notice a lot of the buffs.  Clair and Mae were both a lot better units than previously but otherwise I couldnt tell you off the top of my head who else was improved and how.  Nerfs were a lot more noticeable: Falcoknights and Dread Fighters, while still amazing, are much less impressive than they used to be.  I suppose it makes sense but I cant help but feel disappointed.  Gaiden/Echoes pushes rpg elements and is generally a game that seems to encourage grinding, letting the player have overpowered things at endgame seems like it compliments those design decisions.  Similarly, they nerfed mummies in a major way.  Before they appeared in big groups near the end of both routes for the player to easily grind up the entire party in a very short amount of time if they wanted to do so.  Now they appear randomly, run away from you, and when/if you do get to kill them they barely give any exp unless you are extremely underleveled.  Its a game where grinding could actually be fun but they dont include any way to level up past level 12 or so without it taking a miserably long time.  On the opposite end of things, I really approve of the nerf to warp.  Before you could warp any unit to anywhere on the map and it really lent itself to letting Alm’s half become an Alm solo.  With it now having a much shorter range, its more encouraging to use your entire army and not just Alm, and I think thats a good thing. 

My One Big Fear:  This goes hand in hand with my big complaint from last section, but I think this game might just have the scummiest dlc practice of any Nintendo game.  The original Gaiden gave players easy access to endgame grinding to level up all their units to max very quickly and easily if they so desired.  Echoes changed it so that those enemies now give an insignificant amount of exp and they are selling a new way to grind easily as DLC.  That really sucks.  Theres nothing else to say than cutting something out of a remake and selling it separately is a really really shitty thing to do.  I hope enough people become aware of what they did and protest.  DLC practices have gotten progressively worse since Awakening but this is the worst of the bunch, and I really hope this trend doesnt keep going into the Switch FE era.  I also am very worried about the money in this game.  I did not have nearly enough money to do all the forging that I wanted to do and I am aware that a gold farming dlc is planned.  This would be just as shitty of a practice as with exp if the money situation is as bad as it immediately seems because giving everyone forged weapons would make the game more fun, and that fun is blocked by a paywall.  That being said, I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now because I didnt do many sidequests, and its possible that theres a lot of money to be earned there or elsewhere and I didnt know it.  If in-game gold is actually as rare as it seems and buying a dlc to getit more easily is heavily encouraged then I will be very disappointed.

In conclusion: Theres some seriously troubling aspects of monetization that actually hamper enjoyment of the game, and fatigue and food seem to largely be a waste of time, but that aside Echoes is a fantastic game and a real treat to Gaiden fans and Fire Emblem fans and video game fans in general.  Its all around an enormously fun experience that I know will get even better once I get to play it in English. 

KZK Discord Digest [Week of Dec 20 - Dec 26]

SUMMARY: Hope everyone had a good Christmas, or at least, a good Wednesday! The last round of Elemental Kirins - featuring the Teknika, Nova, Aeterna, and Ragnarok - is finished! You can catch these four and the previous 10 Elemental Kirins in Okarthel now - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Okarthel/205/47/16 The Teknika was originally released without a Bento tail, opting instead for a Bezier curve tail to avoid warping. A Bento tail has been added - grab the redelivery if you need an update. There have been a few bugfixes for the Elemental Kirins as of the other day - a few fixes for the new 4 and a permissions fix in the Glacia (and Ender, if you haven't gotten that fix already). Drop by Okarthel and hit the Purple redelivery terminal to get new copies. The Teknika, Nova, and Ragnarok include VERY BASIC mesh bodies in order to make use of materials, especially emissive maps. No, we don't intend to start making mesh bodies in the future - the designs for these kind of required them. I'll be working with Kat soon to get some appliers out for folks who'd prefer to use their existing body. These kirins follow the same rigging format as the previous kirins - unrigged hands, legs, neck, etc. This is mostly to keep them uniform design-wise with the previous kirins, which came out before we adopted bento hands & rigged necks / legs, etc. Kat's taking the next two days off to rest and recharge.

______

Dec 22

KatLast Sunday at 5:01 AM @everyone Stick a fork in em cuz the Kirins are Done! Out now, are the third and final wave of Elemental Kirins--The Ragnarok, Nova, Aeterna, and Teknika!

If you've already preordered,  then just hang tight, and your redelivery should be sent to you shortly. And if it doesn't deliver within a couple of hours, just swing by the main store and poke the purple terminal.

Or if you're one of those folks with too much L and plenty of avs on your hands, I'm more than happy to do a manual send so you don't get nuked if you poke the terminal.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

As part of this sale, you can also purchase the previous 10 Kirins: Ember, Ender, Lumina, Oceana, Terra, Zephyr, Glacia, Alloy, Magicka, and Storm! @everyone Apparently at some point flame issued an update to the resender to allow the return of individual purchases. I'd completely forgotten about this--that said, hang tight while preorders are delivered!

KatLast Sunday at 5:58 AM @everyone seems theres some demand for a bento tail for the teknika. I elected to go with the scripted option because I wanted the inorganic shapes to remain rigid. I will patch in a bento tail tomorrow evening. (Technically tonight)

KatLast Sunday at 6:15 AM @everyone last message for tonight, promise. Please forgive the spam:

Just report any major issues in #Kinzart-support I'll review everything in the morning. All updates will be free, so please do not worry. Thank you all for patience and understanding.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need sleep.

KatLast Sunday at 2:15 PM @everyone Didn't get as much sleep as id've liked but I've got a lot to get done today.

Today I'll address a lot of reported issues: Alloy vendor has been fixed, if yours failed to send please message me.

Ragnarok Female body will be fixed, Teknika bento tail will be added.

The ragnarok and nova necks 'cut off' at the bottom. These necks aren't rigged, so not much I can really do about that. Adding rigged parts to everything will add a significant amount of work to my plate, and raise the prices.

Kirins predate my wider adoption of Bento hence why it lacks Bento hands/fitmesh legs. The final 4 Kirins were released this way to remain in line with previous releases. Future content of this nature (for other avatars) will use current/updated design philosophies.

These LE kirins have always been about designing unique parts, specifically for modding, hence their static nature.

I digress, Blau's been cataloguing issues in Support for me so I will be sure to review that and address them in an update either tonight or tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

______

Dec 23

KatLast Monday at 8:35 PM @everyone I've been picking away at the fixes for the recent release of Kirin Elementals, specifically addressing the glitched scales for the Ragnarok and the lack of a bento tail for the Teknika (intentional but there was enough of an outcry that It seemed unreasonable not to comply).

I've also heard the cries for a stripdown for the latest wave. I will only be including a stripdown function for the Teknika, as its the only one of the LEs to include a large number of scripts. Ones like the Nova and Ragnarok only have scripts in the Static tail, head, ears, hands, and jaw objects(not the mask) I hope that is amenable to you all.

I'm also going to take the time to address permission issues for a few of the older Elementals. If you have noticed a permission conflict with any of the attachments for the previous waves, please post about them in #kinzart-support.

Lastly, I'll be addressing the lack of a proper unpacker, missing adult overlays(only for System body), and the other small stuff I typically packed. It was so late when I was packing things, and I was so tired from burnout that I'd missed a bunch of stuff.

Everything should be ready to go later tonight or tomorrow, depending on how early I log off tonight. Thank you all for your help in squashing these annoying bugs, and for bringing issues to my attention.

And, I have heard a few complaints about texture resolution issues for the Nova scales, and concerns about the bottoms of the necks having 'edges' where the scale prims cut off. As I've said before, these Kirins are static, and predate my wider adoption of bento/fitmesh parts. I wanted their design philosophies to be unified, so that each retains the same versatility as the previous waves.

In the future, when I make stuff like this for newer releases, Those will use newer features. On the Nova's texture resolution concerns: Be aware that those layers use the SLUV. It has awful texel density, and there's fuck all I can do about that. I wanted textures that could be used on both the SL body and my own custom scale layers so.. they're sadly a fact of life. Blame SL's garbage sampling and compression.

______

Dec 24

KatLast Tuesday at 4:36 PM @everyone The Nova, Ragnarok, Teknika, and Aeterna Kirins have been updated to include a proper unpacker, missing miscellaneous odds and ends. In addition, the bugged Female Ragnarok basic body scale weighting on the right shoulder has been resolved. The Teknika now includes a Bento tail(as the default unpack), along with HUD controls. The Teknika also included an AUC specifically for stripping down the non essential scripts once you've finished editing your avatar. Remember to keep backups of your boxes, or a scripted modded version in case you want to go back and make changes, or need replacement parts.

The Glacia left thighfur permissions have also been fixed, and a reminder that at some point in the past, I fixed the bugged tailspade for the Ender.

If you guys run into any more issues, pertaining to the performance, permissions or glaring visual issues like rigging or incorrect textures, please let me know.

As mentioned before, I'm going to work with Blau to get some appliers made and available for you all, as the BASIC mesh bodies included with the Teknika, Nova and Ragnarok were not intended to be anything beyond showcasing the materials and textures made for the body. Remember that our skins will fit any body that supports the SLUV.

Thank you all for your patience! You can retrieve a replacement from the redelivery terminal now. :slight_smile:

KatLast Tuesday at 4:55 PM @everyone Mk not.. entirely sure what's the hangup--the redelivery terminals are being infuriatingly slow. I don't know the cause, or how to improve it at all. I've already messages Flame to see  if we can look into the issue. In the meantime, just.. avoid using the terminals, I guess. If you need something redelivered, message myself, Blau or Straylight. We can issue resends from the server. :slight_smile:

______

Dec 26

KatToday at 1:41 PM @everyone I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas morning, for those that observe it, and a great Wednesday for those who don't.

I myself took a nice 10 hour sleep last night because that's the most sleep I've had in weeks. I'll be taking today and the next 2 days off, to recharge my social and artistic batteries and address the ever growing issue of mess in my house. My fiance's mother keeps sending her home with shit and we've yet to sort the first 3 loads she's sent us with because of how busy we've been XD'

However I'll still pop on daily to answer any messages, resolve any delivery issues, ect. :slight_smile:

How to Implement a National Tracking Strategy

Posted by TheMozTeam

Google is all about serving up results based on your precise location, which means there’s no such thing as a “national” SERP anymore. So, if you wanted to get an accurate representation of how you’re performing nationally, you’d have to track every single street corner across the country.

Not only is this not feasible, it’s also a headache — and the kind of nightmare that keeps your accounting team up at night. Because we’re in the business of making things easy, we devised a happier (and cost-efficient) alternative.

Follow along and learn how to set up a statistically robust national tracking strategy in STAT, no matter your business or budget. And while we’re at it, we’ll also show you how to calculate your national ranking average.

Let’s pretend we’re a large athletic retailer. We have 30 stores across the US, a healthy online presence, and the powers-that-be have approved extra SEO spend — money for 20,000 additional keywords is burning a hole in our pocket. Ready to get started?

Step 1: Pick the cities that matter most to your business

Google cares a lot about location and so should you. Tracking a country-level SERP isn’t going to cut it anymore — you need to be hyper-local if you want to nab results.

The first step to getting more granular is deciding which cities you want to track in — and there are lots of ways to do this: The top performers? Ones that could use a boost? Best and worst of the cyber world as well as the physical world?

When it comes time for you to choose, nobody knows your business, your data, or your strategy better than you do — ain’t nothing to it but to do it.

A quick note for all our e-commerce peeps: we know it feels strange to pick a physical place when your business lives entirely online. For this, simply go with the locations that your goods and wares are distributed to most often.

Even though we’re a retail powerhouse, our SEO resources won’t allow us to manage all 30 physical locations — plus our online hotspots — across the US, so we'll cut that number in half. And because we’re not a real business and we aren’t privy to sales data, we'll pick at random.

From east to west, we now have a solid list of 15 US cities, primed, polished, and poised for our next step: surfacing the top performing keywords.

Step 2: Uncover your money-maker keywords

Because not all keywords are created equal, we need to determine which of the 4,465 keywords that we’re already tracking are going to be spread across the country and which are going to stay behind. In other words, we want the keywords that bring home the proverbial bacon.

Typically, we would use some combination of search volume, impressions, clicks, conversion rates, etc., from sources like STAT, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics to distinguish between the money-makers and the non-money-makers. But again, we’re a make-believe business and we don’t have access to this insight, so we’re going to stick with search volume.

A right-click anywhere in the site-level keywords table will let us export our current keyword set from STAT. We’ll then order everything from highest search volume to lowest search volume. If you have eyeballs on more of that sweet, sweet insight for your business, order your keywords from most to least money-maker.

Because we don’t want to get too crazy with our list, we’ll cap it at a nice and manageable 1,500 keywords.

Step 3: Determine the number of times each keyword should be tracked

We may have narrowed our cities down to 15, but our keywords need to be tracked plenty more times than that — and at a far more local level.

True facts: A “national” (or market-level) SERP isn’t a true SERP and neither is a city-wide SERP. The closer you can get to a searcher standing on a street corner, the better, and the more of those locations you can track, the more searchers’ SERPs you’ll sample.

We’re going to get real nitty-gritty and go as granular as ZIP code. Addresses and geo coordinates work just as well though, so if it’s a matter of one over the other, do what the Disney princesses do and follow your heart.

The ultimate goal here is to track our top performing keywords in more locations than our poor performing ones, so we need to know the number of ZIP codes each keyword will require. To figure this out, we gotta dust off the old desktop calculator and get our math on.

First, we’ll calculate the total amount of search volume that all of our keywords generate. Then, we’ll find the percentage of said total that each keyword is responsible for.

For example, our keyword [yeezy shoes] drew 165,000 searches out of a total 28.6 million, making up 0.62 percent of our traffic.

A quick reminder: Every time a query is tracked in a distinct location, it’s considered a unique keyword. This means that the above percentages also double as the amount of budgeted keywords (and therefore locations) that we’ll award to each of our queries. In (hopefully) less confusing terms, a keyword that drives 0.62 percent of our traffic gets to use 0.62 percent of our 20,000 budgeted keywords, which in turn equals the number of ZIP codes we can track in. Phew.

But! Because search volume is, to quote our resident data analyst, “an exponential distribution,” (which in everyone else-speak means “gets crazy large”) it’s likely going to produce some unreasonably big numbers. So, while [yeezy shoes] only requires 124 ZIP codes, a keyword with much higher search volume, like [real madrid], might need over 1,000, which is patently bonkers (and statistical overkill).

To temper this, we highly recommend that you take the log of the search volume — it’ll keep things relative and relational. If you’re working through all of this in Excel, simply type =log(A2) where A2 is the cell containing the search volume. Because we're extra fancy, we'll multiply that by four to linearly scale things, so =log(A2)*4.

So, still running with our Yeezy example, our keyword goes from driving 0.62 percent of our traffic to 0.13 percent. Which then becomes the percent of budgeted keywords: 0.0013 x 20,000 = tracking [yeezy shoes] in 26 zip codes across our 15 cities.

We then found a list of every ZIP code in each of our cities to dole them out to.

The end. Sort of. At this point, like us, you may be looking at keywords that need to be spread across 176 different ZIP codes and wondering how you're going to choose which ZIP codes — so let our magic spreadsheet take the wheel. Add all your locations to it and it'll pick at random.

Of course, because we want our keywords to get equal distribution, we attached a weighted metric to our ZIP codes. We took our most searched keyword, [adidas], found its Google Trends score in every city, and then divided it by the number of ZIP codes in those cities. For example, if [adidas] received a score of 71 in Yonkers and there are 10 ZIP codes in the city, Yonkers would get a weight of 7.1.

We'll then add everything we have so far — ZIP codes, ZIP code weights, keywords, keyword weights, plus a few extras — to our spreadsheet and watch it randomly assign the appropriate amount of keywords to the appropriate amount of locations.

And that’s it! If you’ve been following along, you’ve successfully divvied up 20,000 keywords in order to create a statistically robust national tracking strategy!

Curious how we’ll find our national ranking average? Read on, readers.

Step 4: Segment, segment, segment!

20,000 extra keywords makes for a whole lotta new data to keep track of, so being super smart with our segmentation is going to help us make sense of all our findings. We’ll do this by organizing our keywords into meaningful categories before we plug everything back into STAT.

Obviously, you are free to sort how you please, but we recommend at least tagging your keywords by their city and product category (so [yeezy shoes] might get tagged “Austin” and “shoes”). You can do all of this in our keyword upload template or while you're in our magic spreadsheet.

Once you’ve added a tag or two to each keyword, stuff those puppies into STAT. When everything’s snug as a bug, group all your city tags into one data view and all your product category tags into another.

Step 5: Calculate your national ranking average

Now that all of our keywords are loaded and tracking in STAT, it’s time to tackle those ranking averages. To do that, we’ll simply pop on over to the Dashboard tab from either of our two data views.

A quick glimpse of the Average Ranking module in the Daily Snapshot gives us, well, our average rank, and because these data views contain every keyword that we’re tracking across the country, we’re also looking at the national average for our keyword set. Easy-peasy.

To see how each tag is performing within those data views, a quick jump to the Tags tab breaks everything down and lets us compare the performance of a segment against the group as a whole.

So, if our national average rank is 29.7 but our Austin keywords have managed an average rank of 27.2, then we might look to them for inspiration as our other cities aren't doing quite as well — our keywords in Yonkers have an average rank of 35.2, much worse than the national average.

Similarly, if our clothes keywords are faring infinitely worse than our other product categories, we may want to revamp our content strategy to even things out.

Go get your national tracking on

Any business — yes, even an e-commerce business — can leverage a national tracking strategy. You just need to pick the right keywords and locations.

Once you have access to your sampled population, you’ll be able to hone in on opportunities, up your ROI, and bring more traffic across your welcome mat (physical or digital).

Got a question you’re dying to ask us about the STAT product? Reach out to [email protected]. Want a detailed walkthrough of STAT? Say hello (don’t be shy) and request a demo.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

How to Implement a National Tracking Strategy

Posted by TheMozTeam

Google is all about serving up results based on your precise location, which means there’s no such thing as a “national” SERP anymore. So, if you wanted to get an accurate representation of how you’re performing nationally, you’d have to track every single street corner across the country.

Not only is this not feasible, it’s also a headache — and the kind of nightmare that keeps your accounting team up at night. Because we’re in the business of making things easy, we devised a happier (and cost-efficient) alternative.

Follow along and learn how to set up a statistically robust national tracking strategy in STAT, no matter your business or budget. And while we’re at it, we’ll also show you how to calculate your national ranking average.

Let’s pretend we’re a large athletic retailer. We have 30 stores across the US, a healthy online presence, and the powers-that-be have approved extra SEO spend — money for 20,000 additional keywords is burning a hole in our pocket. Ready to get started?

Step 1: Pick the cities that matter most to your business

Google cares a lot about location and so should you. Tracking a country-level SERP isn’t going to cut it anymore — you need to be hyper-local if you want to nab results.

The first step to getting more granular is deciding which cities you want to track in — and there are lots of ways to do this: The top performers? Ones that could use a boost? Best and worst of the cyber world as well as the physical world?

When it comes time for you to choose, nobody knows your business, your data, or your strategy better than you do — ain’t nothing to it but to do it.

A quick note for all our e-commerce peeps: we know it feels strange to pick a physical place when your business lives entirely online. For this, simply go with the locations that your goods and wares are distributed to most often.

Even though we’re a retail powerhouse, our SEO resources won’t allow us to manage all 30 physical locations — plus our online hotspots — across the US, so we'll cut that number in half. And because we’re not a real business and we aren’t privy to sales data, we'll pick at random.

From east to west, we now have a solid list of 15 US cities, primed, polished, and poised for our next step: surfacing the top performing keywords.

Step 2: Uncover your money-maker keywords

Because not all keywords are created equal, we need to determine which of the 4,465 keywords that we’re already tracking are going to be spread across the country and which are going to stay behind. In other words, we want the keywords that bring home the proverbial bacon.

Typically, we would use some combination of search volume, impressions, clicks, conversion rates, etc., from sources like STAT, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics to distinguish between the money-makers and the non-money-makers. But again, we’re a make-believe business and we don’t have access to this insight, so we’re going to stick with search volume.

A right-click anywhere in the site-level keywords table will let us export our current keyword set from STAT. We’ll then order everything from highest search volume to lowest search volume. If you have eyeballs on more of that sweet, sweet insight for your business, order your keywords from most to least money-maker.

Because we don’t want to get too crazy with our list, we’ll cap it at a nice and manageable 1,500 keywords.

Step 3: Determine the number of times each keyword should be tracked

We may have narrowed our cities down to 15, but our keywords need to be tracked plenty more times than that — and at a far more local level.

True facts: A “national” (or market-level) SERP isn’t a true SERP and neither is a city-wide SERP. The closer you can get to a searcher standing on a street corner, the better, and the more of those locations you can track, the more searchers’ SERPs you’ll sample.

We’re going to get real nitty-gritty and go as granular as ZIP code. Addresses and geo coordinates work just as well though, so if it’s a matter of one over the other, do what the Disney princesses do and follow your heart.

The ultimate goal here is to track our top performing keywords in more locations than our poor performing ones, so we need to know the number of ZIP codes each keyword will require. To figure this out, we gotta dust off the old desktop calculator and get our math on.

First, we’ll calculate the total amount of search volume that all of our keywords generate. Then, we’ll find the percentage of said total that each keyword is responsible for.

For example, our keyword [yeezy shoes] drew 165,000 searches out of a total 28.6 million, making up 0.62 percent of our traffic.

A quick reminder: Every time a query is tracked in a distinct location, it’s considered a unique keyword. This means that the above percentages also double as the amount of budgeted keywords (and therefore locations) that we’ll award to each of our queries. In (hopefully) less confusing terms, a keyword that drives 0.62 percent of our traffic gets to use 0.62 percent of our 20,000 budgeted keywords, which in turn equals the number of ZIP codes we can track in. Phew.

But! Because search volume is, to quote our resident data analyst, “an exponential distribution,” (which in everyone else-speak means “gets crazy large”) it’s likely going to produce some unreasonably big numbers. So, while [yeezy shoes] only requires 124 ZIP codes, a keyword with much higher search volume, like [real madrid], might need over 1,000, which is patently bonkers (and statistical overkill).

To temper this, we highly recommend that you take the log of the search volume — it’ll keep things relative and relational. If you’re working through all of this in Excel, simply type =log(A2) where A2 is the cell containing the search volume. Because we're extra fancy, we'll multiply that by four to linearly scale things, so =log(A2)*4.

So, still running with our Yeezy example, our keyword goes from driving 0.62 percent of our traffic to 0.13 percent. Which then becomes the percent of budgeted keywords: 0.0013 x 20,000 = tracking [yeezy shoes] in 26 zip codes across our 15 cities.

We then found a list of every ZIP code in each of our cities to dole them out to.

The end. Sort of. At this point, like us, you may be looking at keywords that need to be spread across 176 different ZIP codes and wondering how you're going to choose which ZIP codes — so let our magic spreadsheet take the wheel. Add all your locations to it and it'll pick at random.

Of course, because we want our keywords to get equal distribution, we attached a weighted metric to our ZIP codes. We took our most searched keyword, [adidas], found its Google Trends score in every city, and then divided it by the number of ZIP codes in those cities. For example, if [adidas] received a score of 71 in Yonkers and there are 10 ZIP codes in the city, Yonkers would get a weight of 7.1.

We'll then add everything we have so far — ZIP codes, ZIP code weights, keywords, keyword weights, plus a few extras — to our spreadsheet and watch it randomly assign the appropriate amount of keywords to the appropriate amount of locations.

And that’s it! If you’ve been following along, you’ve successfully divvied up 20,000 keywords in order to create a statistically robust national tracking strategy!

Curious how we’ll find our national ranking average? Read on, readers.

Step 4: Segment, segment, segment!

20,000 extra keywords makes for a whole lotta new data to keep track of, so being super smart with our segmentation is going to help us make sense of all our findings. We’ll do this by organizing our keywords into meaningful categories before we plug everything back into STAT.

Obviously, you are free to sort how you please, but we recommend at least tagging your keywords by their city and product category (so [yeezy shoes] might get tagged “Austin” and “shoes”). You can do all of this in our keyword upload template or while you're in our magic spreadsheet.

Once you’ve added a tag or two to each keyword, stuff those puppies into STAT. When everything’s snug as a bug, group all your city tags into one data view and all your product category tags into another.

Step 5: Calculate your national ranking average

Now that all of our keywords are loaded and tracking in STAT, it’s time to tackle those ranking averages. To do that, we’ll simply pop on over to the Dashboard tab from either of our two data views.

A quick glimpse of the Average Ranking module in the Daily Snapshot gives us, well, our average rank, and because these data views contain every keyword that we’re tracking across the country, we’re also looking at the national average for our keyword set. Easy-peasy.

To see how each tag is performing within those data views, a quick jump to the Tags tab breaks everything down and lets us compare the performance of a segment against the group as a whole.

So, if our national average rank is 29.7 but our Austin keywords have managed an average rank of 27.2, then we might look to them for inspiration as our other cities aren't doing quite as well — our keywords in Yonkers have an average rank of 35.2, much worse than the national average.

Similarly, if our clothes keywords are faring infinitely worse than our other product categories, we may want to revamp our content strategy to even things out.

Go get your national tracking on

Any business — yes, even an e-commerce business — can leverage a national tracking strategy. You just need to pick the right keywords and locations.

Once you have access to your sampled population, you’ll be able to hone in on opportunities, up your ROI, and bring more traffic across your welcome mat (physical or digital).

Got a question you’re dying to ask us about the STAT product? Reach out to [email protected]. Want a detailed walkthrough of STAT? Say hello (don’t be shy) and request a demo.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

from The Moz Blog http://bit.ly/2ARnd0w via IFTTT

How to Implement a National Tracking Strategy

Posted by TheMozTeam

Google is all about serving up results based on your precise location, which means there’s no such thing as a “national” SERP anymore. So, if you wanted to get an accurate representation of how you’re performing nationally, you’d have to track every single street corner across the country.

Not only is this not feasible, it’s also a headache — and the kind of nightmare that keeps your accounting team up at night. Because we’re in the business of making things easy, we devised a happier (and cost-efficient) alternative.

Follow along and learn how to set up a statistically robust national tracking strategy in STAT, no matter your business or budget. And while we’re at it, we’ll also show you how to calculate your national ranking average.

Let’s pretend we’re a large athletic retailer. We have 30 stores across the US, a healthy online presence, and the powers-that-be have approved extra SEO spend — money for 20,000 additional keywords is burning a hole in our pocket. Ready to get started?

Step 1: Pick the cities that matter most to your business

Google cares a lot about location and so should you. Tracking a country-level SERP isn’t going to cut it anymore — you need to be hyper-local if you want to nab results.

The first step to getting more granular is deciding which cities you want to track in — and there are lots of ways to do this: The top performers? Ones that could use a boost? Best and worst of the cyber world as well as the physical world?

When it comes time for you to choose, nobody knows your business, your data, or your strategy better than you do — ain’t nothing to it but to do it.

A quick note for all our e-commerce peeps: we know it feels strange to pick a physical place when your business lives entirely online. For this, simply go with the locations that your goods and wares are distributed to most often.

Even though we’re a retail powerhouse, our SEO resources won’t allow us to manage all 30 physical locations — plus our online hotspots — across the US, so we'll cut that number in half. And because we’re not a real business and we aren’t privy to sales data, we'll pick at random.

From east to west, we now have a solid list of 15 US cities, primed, polished, and poised for our next step: surfacing the top performing keywords.

Step 2: Uncover your money-maker keywords

Because not all keywords are created equal, we need to determine which of the 4,465 keywords that we’re already tracking are going to be spread across the country and which are going to stay behind. In other words, we want the keywords that bring home the proverbial bacon.

Typically, we would use some combination of search volume, impressions, clicks, conversion rates, etc., from sources like STAT, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics to distinguish between the money-makers and the non-money-makers. But again, we’re a make-believe business and we don’t have access to this insight, so we’re going to stick with search volume.

A right-click anywhere in the site-level keywords table will let us export our current keyword set from STAT. We’ll then order everything from highest search volume to lowest search volume. If you have eyeballs on more of that sweet, sweet insight for your business, order your keywords from most to least money-maker.

Because we don’t want to get too crazy with our list, we’ll cap it at a nice and manageable 1,500 keywords.

Step 3: Determine the number of times each keyword should be tracked

We may have narrowed our cities down to 15, but our keywords need to be tracked plenty more times than that — and at a far more local level.

True facts: A “national” (or market-level) SERP isn’t a true SERP and neither is a city-wide SERP. The closer you can get to a searcher standing on a street corner, the better, and the more of those locations you can track, the more searchers’ SERPs you’ll sample.

We’re going to get real nitty-gritty and go as granular as ZIP code. Addresses and geo coordinates work just as well though, so if it’s a matter of one over the other, do what the Disney princesses do and follow your heart.

The ultimate goal here is to track our top performing keywords in more locations than our poor performing ones, so we need to know the number of ZIP codes each keyword will require. To figure this out, we gotta dust off the old desktop calculator and get our math on.

First, we’ll calculate the total amount of search volume that all of our keywords generate. Then, we’ll find the percentage of said total that each keyword is responsible for.

For example, our keyword [yeezy shoes] drew 165,000 searches out of a total 28.6 million, making up 0.62 percent of our traffic.

A quick reminder: Every time a query is tracked in a distinct location, it’s considered a unique keyword. This means that the above percentages also double as the amount of budgeted keywords (and therefore locations) that we’ll award to each of our queries. In (hopefully) less confusing terms, a keyword that drives 0.62 percent of our traffic gets to use 0.62 percent of our 20,000 budgeted keywords, which in turn equals the number of ZIP codes we can track in. Phew.

But! Because search volume is, to quote our resident data analyst, “an exponential distribution,” (which in everyone else-speak means “gets crazy large”) it’s likely going to produce some unreasonably big numbers. So, while [yeezy shoes] only requires 124 ZIP codes, a keyword with much higher search volume, like [real madrid], might need over 1,000, which is patently bonkers (and statistical overkill).

To temper this, we highly recommend that you take the log of the search volume — it’ll keep things relative and relational. If you’re working through all of this in Excel, simply type =log(A2) where A2 is the cell containing the search volume. Because we're extra fancy, we'll multiply that by four to linearly scale things, so =log(A2)*4.

So, still running with our Yeezy example, our keyword goes from driving 0.62 percent of our traffic to 0.13 percent. Which then becomes the percent of budgeted keywords: 0.0013 x 20,000 = tracking [yeezy shoes] in 26 zip codes across our 15 cities.

We then found a list of every ZIP code in each of our cities to dole them out to.

The end. Sort of. At this point, like us, you may be looking at keywords that need to be spread across 176 different ZIP codes and wondering how you're going to choose which ZIP codes — so let our magic spreadsheet take the wheel. Add all your locations to it and it'll pick at random.

Of course, because we want our keywords to get equal distribution, we attached a weighted metric to our ZIP codes. We took our most searched keyword, [adidas], found its Google Trends score in every city, and then divided it by the number of ZIP codes in those cities. For example, if [adidas] received a score of 71 in Yonkers and there are 10 ZIP codes in the city, Yonkers would get a weight of 7.1.

We'll then add everything we have so far — ZIP codes, ZIP code weights, keywords, keyword weights, plus a few extras — to our spreadsheet and watch it randomly assign the appropriate amount of keywords to the appropriate amount of locations.

And that’s it! If you’ve been following along, you’ve successfully divvied up 20,000 keywords in order to create a statistically robust national tracking strategy!

Curious how we’ll find our national ranking average? Read on, readers.

Step 4: Segment, segment, segment!

20,000 extra keywords makes for a whole lotta new data to keep track of, so being super smart with our segmentation is going to help us make sense of all our findings. We’ll do this by organizing our keywords into meaningful categories before we plug everything back into STAT.

Obviously, you are free to sort how you please, but we recommend at least tagging your keywords by their city and product category (so [yeezy shoes] might get tagged “Austin” and “shoes”). You can do all of this in our keyword upload template or while you're in our magic spreadsheet.

Once you’ve added a tag or two to each keyword, stuff those puppies into STAT. When everything’s snug as a bug, group all your city tags into one data view and all your product category tags into another.

Step 5: Calculate your national ranking average

Now that all of our keywords are loaded and tracking in STAT, it’s time to tackle those ranking averages. To do that, we’ll simply pop on over to the Dashboard tab from either of our two data views.

A quick glimpse of the Average Ranking module in the Daily Snapshot gives us, well, our average rank, and because these data views contain every keyword that we’re tracking across the country, we’re also looking at the national average for our keyword set. Easy-peasy.

To see how each tag is performing within those data views, a quick jump to the Tags tab breaks everything down and lets us compare the performance of a segment against the group as a whole.

So, if our national average rank is 29.7 but our Austin keywords have managed an average rank of 27.2, then we might look to them for inspiration as our other cities aren't doing quite as well — our keywords in Yonkers have an average rank of 35.2, much worse than the national average.

Similarly, if our clothes keywords are faring infinitely worse than our other product categories, we may want to revamp our content strategy to even things out.

Go get your national tracking on

Any business — yes, even an e-commerce business — can leverage a national tracking strategy. You just need to pick the right keywords and locations.

Once you have access to your sampled population, you’ll be able to hone in on opportunities, up your ROI, and bring more traffic across your welcome mat (physical or digital).

Got a question you’re dying to ask us about the STAT product? Reach out to [email protected]. Want a detailed walkthrough of STAT? Say hello (don’t be shy) and request a demo.

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