Since this is a fighting game, the characters are often portrayed as independent, and the image of the game tends to be dominated by human drama. However, this work is a fantasy, and the characters have their own stage in which to breathe. Aside from the fact that it is again centered on Sol, I would like to present this kind of world from time to time.

Sol Badguy promotional trading card art and pencil sketch for Guilty Gear XX Art Works. Art and caption scanned from Artworks of Guilty Gear X 2000-2007 by Daisuke Ishiwatari.

Gossip Girl Reboot, Ep. 2 Reaction / Review

This was posted on reddit first, crossing posting it here since I’ve chosen to review the ep’s and post on tumblr as well. So, this post is geared more towards reddit as a whole, this was posted a day after ep 2 aired.

i don't have a favorite character rating but #teamaki, yeah, the acting is awkward but it's getting better and it's not like it's the only bad acting in the show. i like the character either way.

now

people are so extra with zoya and obie and are looking at julien with the rose colored classes. yeah, obie shouldn't be dating zoya but let's not act like julien gave her all and everything to him. from the conversation with zoya in ep 1, his general feelings, audrey calls it out (maybe because she always feels that way)

She admits it at the end, she wouldn’t do the things he wanted when it came to his interest, he’d want to do random and fun things and she’d blow him off...how is this mart of someone fully invested in their other, no, she was invested what he did for her and how he made her feel. She misses him because in their other breaks he’d always come back. We saw a dying relationship and ppl can assume a lot about him but make 0 assumptions when it comes to her.

And then y’all expect Zoya to turn down the one person who’s actually nice, doesn’t ice her out and shares interest? What I want more than anything is for Zoya to find her own friends & her romantic interest, just one episode where her life isn’t an extension of Julien's. Idk wut, maybe she can go off on a find out gossip girl adventure. Idk something.

Then this talk about sisters and sister hood. Yeah, they’re blood related but what sisterhood is there? You say that’s is wrong for Zoya to do that to her sister but what about what her sister did to her? Even in this ep, she wants Obie so instead of idk driving Zoya away from him, she attacks her lil ‘sis’ over her long time boyfriend. She continues to let her friends talk bad about the girl. We can talk sister hood when she gives the mean team a good “learn me or leave me” when it comes to Zoya

At the of ep 1 Zoya says, she’s not playing the game. She’s grounded in fear of losing her scholarship, has already lost her dads trust. So she does that, she keeps her head down and doesn’t bother anyone but it’s the mean team to prompt Julien to after Zoya and she does. She’s minding her business at the even and Julien is the one to storm over and cause a scene. And it’s all about her, she’s scared of her dad finding out without any care that Zoya has lost and what she has left to lose. Of course she doesn’t care about Julien personal problems? When did Julien care really about hers? Then, she wants to sneak away and have fun and because she’s mad Zoya won’t run off and hide like a hood little girl, she once again collabs with GG, brings in the dads and fucks her sisters life up, AGAIN. Yeah, she changed her mind at the end but too little too late. Her come to jesus moment was great but the relationship she wanted/wants it very much damaged.

So yeah, Zoya dating the one person who has empathy for her is not as bad as the older sister who consistently let her be talked down, about and two, plotted with GG and didn’t even ask her if she was okay because, she didn’t mean it, it’ll blow over. Even in the very last apology when Zoya was about to leave, you could see that she had 0 faith in Julien, not only as a sister but as a person.

Which leads me to saying that Julien is probs the most interesting character of the show. She’s lovable and flawed and she is good but she as of right now, she’s mean at worst and horribly complicit at best because right now her career is a bit more important but her 14 year old sister doesn’t deserve the headache of navigating her with her. But I do love Julien because she has layers and I think by the end, she’ll be able to have her influencer career without compromising herself. That does lead us to the the chairmen and co-chair of the mean team.

Monet and Luna weren’t around as much but I do think...I do think...that if Julien goes nice, they’re gonna go super nasty. They have access to her life which mean access to that video if Julien didn’t out right delete it or they find out about it and snooping. They’re her friends but unlike her, they don’t have a much of a Conscious so far of right and wrong and they’ll strike anyone down. I think if we have wild cards, they’re it. If Julien really does go down a new path, learns more to fight for what matters and understand the real her is just as likable, the mean duo will not accept and will try and bring her down. They have their own meaning of friends with benefits.

My dude Obie, I can’t say much. I don’t think he’s as Malicious as y’all make him out to be but he is a bit callous and naïve...which could be worse tbh. I think he does want to do good but he only knows Performative good to counter-act his parents. I do want him to get with someone else but I do hope he learns what true activism means through Zoya and understand how much of a difference he could make if he really put his mind to it. I also want him to learn get out quick, because he wasn’t just looking for a reason to end things but one to stay and Julien didn’t give him that.

Audrey, I like the stuff with her mom. I like the little bit more depth we got, she slept with Max maybe but Aki made out with him, who am I to judge? I hope her mon can step up in the future but I don’t think it’ll be easy and hopefully they explore it more. Not just tease us. Her mom needs therapy but I think I'm a bit invested in her too.

Max, I love max but the dude is Pretentious ~ above earthly love ~ low key a shitty friend and talks in metaphors whenever he has the chance BUT he does it well. I don’t see him with Aki but I want it! I do see him going harder after Audrey but I think he was a bit shocked for all his flirting that he was into the kids with Aki. I think he lives to play with people. I don't know if he really likes Audrey but he does want to bang her, a lot, a lot a lot. I don't think he really wanted to sleep with Aki but he did like playing with him and he could pick up the fact that Aki might be feeling him. I don't think the interest was really, real until Aki kissed him at the pool, home boy was shocked and was like oooo maybe something is there but his focus is on the teacher. And I also think the not in a million years thing had his gears turning too. You tell him it can't or won't happen and now he wants to make it happen.

Aki, my baby, my voice of reason. What makes him great as a person, makes him not great for Audrey when it comes to emotional stuff. He means well and I get where he's coming from with wanting Audrey to understand her mom but she did need a partner. The thing she loves about him is the thing that makes it hard. I don't know how Aki was brought up but I feel like this plays into it, she's always comparing him to a therapist. I wonder if his parents a bit more emotionally cold or curt or just very analytical people. But, like he's been lovely since ep one, the only one of the group to sort of defend Zoya or Julien wanting to know her / keep her secret. (What secrets does he have?) And in ep 2, he really was like 'ya'll fucked in the head' to the mean team. I know some consider him boring because he doesn't speak up often but when he does speak up, he got something to say. I want the show to use him in a way to stir drama just by being friends, his character doesn't have to have a dramatic effect and he could get his own little subplot that's tied into the show but like, my can't become some douche. (If he does, only for a bit.) Now, I don't see Max being endgame for him AT ALL. If it's between the two, Max would go for Audrey for sure while leading my boi on in ways, he could even really start to like him but endgame no. I'd love to see a scene with Max does get jealous of Aki with another dude, in a romantic way or the dude could be hitting on him, I think Aki would be able to humble him just a bit because no one really seems to know what he's thinking. In the end, idk who he ends up with but I want him to find someone who will do my dude right and he should get some non-shitty friends who'll listen to his problems. (Still not over that Max)

The teachers while being shown more, don't have much of a presence. It's mainly Kate and the goofy one for extended scenes. KATE MY GOOD SIS. NO. Please, I want this to be the point where she loses GG somehow and someone takes over or maybe another GG pops up, can market better and isn't willing to have a faltering moments. I want it to spiral. Spiral hard. Also, sexy teach said not on my watch ezra! I stan him. Teachers are still fun for me, they make me want to never teach at a dumb rich private school.

Also, fuck the dads within reason. Esp, Julien's dad but only because we got to see Zoya's more and he is kinda in the right about most of the stuff but not the sister stuff. You can tell he's doing his best to instill morals in his daughter esp when he knows she can fall to outside influences.

Overall, I'm still enjoying it, I'm invested. I see room for growth for all of the characters (maybe not the teachers) and I want to see it play out. It does feel a little rushed but I think they're finding their footing and they have some big things to pull. But's not horrible and if they just play the drama bit longer and then conclude, it wouldn't feel that way. Maybe one more episode or half an episode could've been added to the Zoya-Obie-Julien story line to fully flush it out but I like the ending. Not sisters, not friends but cool with each and possibly re-build, at worst they just don't interact. I noticed some cool things with the promos but I need to confirm when I can find the one for 3.

Sorry if it went from all lower case to proper-ish, I had to switch to my phone and it auto-does it.

Bell curve of skill and “medium content” in Guild Wars 2

(long post)

So, I want to talk a bit more about the medium content and importance of it.

First off, let’s say something about two other types of content: easy and hard.

Easy content is something everyone can do. It can vary in difficulty, but overall there is not much skill, time investment, knowledge or even other players needed to successfully enjoy it. And it’s very, very needed - as a slow tutorial of basics for teaching players and for any other player who, out of any reason, wants to play it at the moment - because they are tired, burnt out, waiting, don’t have time, just want to chill a bit, want spend some time taking it easy, want to play the game how they feel at the moment or for any reason can’t play content of other difficulties. In Guild Wars 2 there is a lot of content that would fit this category.

Hard content is opposite of easy - it’s not for everyone, nor something everyone can or will be able to do. For playing it there is a need for a fair amount of skill, knowledge, often a lot of time investment and other people on whose skill your own success depends. Said things make it also really stressful. Unfortunately, because of said things, it's the studio's resource investment into something most players won’t be able to experience - and because of that I think it wasn’t a priority at all for ArenaNet. But its existence is needed in GW2 as much as the easy content: it challenges players, gives them a level of skill to strive for, gives immense satisfaction upon beating it and generates some kind of prestige and respect in the community for the most successful players. And GW2 has a very intricate gameplay that shines the most in that content. In GW2 there is a lack of hard content - but I won’t focus on that now.

I love both easy and hard content. Many days I logged into GW2 just to relax a bit, listen to a podcast while just running around the maps doing nothing. I spent days just going around world boss trains or mindlessly farming. I also think most of the main story has to stay in the “easy” content so it would be accessible for everyone who wants to experience it. Many other days I got up early with a mission in my mind: that today’s is the day I finally manage to kill some boss or to simply do my best and win a lot in wvw. 

Now what about medium content? It’s somewhere in-between - easy, but no hand holding, you have to know what you’re doing, you have to concentrate, know how to react in certain situations and pull your own weight. Many times different amounts of player cooperation are needed. Sometimes it is a bit harder and you fail and die a lot and have to try a lot of times, sometimes it’s a bit easier, borderline with easy content - but you still have to do your job and not mash random buttons on the keyboard. Also it can be some kind of content you still don’t know how to do or don’t have skill for but since it is not as punishing as hard content, small amounts of players can be carried by the more experienced. Because of all that it is playable and can be successfully completed by most of the players, but it requires more than just basic knowledge of the game. Many times it is not something you can play completely your own way, but it doesn’t require absolute perfection.

And I think there’s an unhealthy lack of it in Guild Wars 2. I want to be clear: on release there was a lot of medium content. Also when expansions came, with each and with next LS updates, Anet added more medium content. Added medium content - in times when added - was always proportional to community skill and power. But with time, months and years after it was added it became trivial because of the uncontrolled power creep. Medium content wasn’t updated to match new levels of power and skill players had and so it transitioned into “easy” content. And so, today, there is not much of it left. Hollythame said it very well. What’s left are DRMs, strikes, T3 and T4 level fractals, Triple Trouble and now Marionette. I would also put WvW into here because of how many people there are - big zerg players even in hardest fights can be carried. I would also say that newer story missions are kind of in the lower medium content - people have to respect some mechanics and work the skills more.

What’s more of a problem: all of the content requires some level of skill, from 0 to 100. Easy is up to, let’s say 15; hard is from 85 to 100. Last couple of years there was almost no medium content. And most of the players miss the steps needed to bite through from easy to hard content. That would be the purpose of medium content.

I believe in bell curves. A lot of stuff about people is easily displayed by bell curves. They kinda work - we’re all kinda the same, but vary around some golden middle. There are always people left and right of us, but the vast majority is in “the middle”. 2 takes from me:

Guild Wars 2 players, the community - are in a somewhat perfect bell curve by the potential of their skill. That potential is the skill they could develop easily and how quickly they would succeed in a task of certain difficulty.

Guild Wars 2 content - the amount of it, as it is today - when rated by skill needed is definitely not a bell curve. It kind of was when the game was released, but with power creep, advancement of mechanics and gameplay many of it was pushed into “easy” where it is now.

And with that being said, next thing is:

Content added into the game has to be more proportional than it is now to the amount of players with the skill level needed for it. Because then most of the players can engage in a bigger variety of content that will satisfy them. And the vast majority of players are by bell curve - in the middle, so I would assume - most of the content in the game that is “for all kinds of players” should be some kind of “medium difficulty content range”.

(graph above: Guild Wars 2 situation - tumblr lowered the quality... RED - current game content distribution / BLACK - players by skill level potential / CYAN goal game content distribution // x - player skill level potential / content difficulty // y - amount of players / amount of game content)

It’s all about what’s promised and what’s delivered. Hard games like Dark Souls get marketed as such and therefore attract the kind of audience that is willing to invest a lot of time, patience and skill in it. Some more chill games, like The Sims or Animal Crossing get marketed as such and therefore attract an audience that is more concentrated in the “taking it easy” part of the graph. All of said games then deliver on that marketing promise - they have most (or all) of the content in a specific difficulty that corresponds to their players’ “skill potential”. Guild Wars 2 may have made a mistake of attracting a wider range of players. At launch it could sustain that promise, but now has more and more problems.

So there it is, the new forming of medium content in Guild Wars 2 could resolve this issue. Players that can clear a raid will be able to play medium content and it won’t be too braindead for them. Vast majority of players will be able to play it - on start or after trying - and will be pretty happy with the amount of challenge. And it is still not impossible to reach for players that struggle with some levels of easy content, like raids or FotM CMs are.

Important bits about adding more medium content are:

it makes the player learn and improve their skill without much effort

gives the player bigger amounts of satisfaction upon completion because some level of investment was needed 

in many cases - it has a need for player organisation and socialisation - which is always the best thing in MMOs. 

GGs, smiles and cheering in chat at the end of difficult content is why I play MMO games. Both low-skilled player and anti-social player problems - gone (I wrote about them in one of my previous essays).

What would I suggest is needed? More in upcoming posts!