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thebibliosphere · 7 months

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I love how transparent you are about what its like to be a self published author in this day and age, and i was just wondering if there was a difference on your side between amazon ebook/paperback and audible - and also if Scribd is any better, because i use it as an alternative to amazon whenever possible (and whenever the library doesnt own a copy of whatever im looking for) is it functionally all the same? What is best for you?

Thank you!

I actually did a huge long post a while back when I got the audiobooks produced and uploaded to various platforms. I included Scribd in the breakdown after people falsely claim that Scrib is better for authors than Amazon/Libraries.

A lot of people were not happy when I burst that particular bubble by showing that Scribd paid me 97 cents out of the 19.99 price tag. Which is less than what Audible paid me.

Now, obviously, Scribd is different because it's a subscription service, and you’re paying for access to multiple things with that subscription. But saying it is better than libraries is just false because I also showed the numbers for that, and my income from libraries was several times higher than both Scribd and Amazon combined (for audio), which is why authors are always begging people to request their work in libraries.

Libraries pay us better and are usually free. Not always. I know it depends heavily on the country, but for most of my English-speaking audience, that is the case.

Now, this is not to say people shouldn’t use services like Scribd. If Scribd is what you can afford and it gives you access to things your library can’t fantastic. Please continue to access our work through that legal option. I would much rather earn 97 cents than zero.

But uh, yeah, Amazon pays me more than Scrib for digital stuff and I really don’t like when people who aren’t on the author side spread misinformation and frame it as some more “gotcha.”

The sad truth is Most retailers pay us the same or within the same royalty range. The difference I earn between Kobo vs Kindle is literal pennies with Amazon coming out on top. I make my work available on multiple platforms to give people options, but unless you’re buying directly from my personal storefront, it's all roughly the same.

I do actually earn more from Amazon paperbacks than I do any other retailers (for self-pub, paperbacks are a flat rate regardless of how much a retailer is charging), but the difference is about ten cents, so I always tell people to buy from wherever is best for them.

I like bookshop.org because they give some of the profit on their end to indie bookstores. Same with libro.fm for audio.

Audiobooks are just a whole fucking nightmare. Audible sets your price point for you and takes 80% of your royalties. And because Audible does that, I have to then use that price tag on all other platforms or risk being fucked by the algorithm gods. Other audio retailers take about 60-70% in royalties, most of them veering toward 70%.

As we say in radical acceptance therapy, it is what it is—fucking end-stage monopoly driven capitalism.

Now, speaking personally, when it comes to digital media, I earn the most royalties from my Payhip store where I keep 90% of my income.

That's the best place for me.

It's also why it's worth looking up an author you like to see if they have their own storefront. It doesn't help our sales rankings or put us on any bestseller lists, but frankly after launch week, who cares. I’ll take being able to feed me and my dog.

I hope that helps!

#indie author shit

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calisources · 5 months

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒 𝐐𝐔𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒. all sentences have been taken from the hunger games: the ballad of songbirds and snakes book and some from the movie trailers. might include spoilers for the movie and book. change pronouns and locations and names as you see fit.

“Nothing you can take from me was ever worth keeping.”

“Being from the Capitol doesn’t give you that right. Nothing does.”

“Well, as they said, it's not over until the mockingjay sings.”

“People aren’t so bad, really, It’s what the world does to them.”

“That is the thing with giving your heart. You never wait for someone to ask. You hold it out and hope they want it.”

“Snow lands on top.”

“I think there’s a natural goodness built into human beings. You know when you’ve stepped across the line into evil, and it’s your life’s challenge to try and stay on the right side of that line.”

“Before need, before love, came trust.”

“And try not to look down on people who had to choose between death and disgrace.”

“What are lies but attempts to conceal some sort of weakness?”

“The strain of being a full-fledged adult every day had grown tiresome.”

“You can blame it on the circumstances, the environment, but you made the choices you made, no one else.”

“Wars are won by heads not hearts.”

“There is a point to everything or nothing at all, depending on your worldview.”

“You're mine and I'm yours. It's written in the stars.”

“But better off sad than dead.”

“What young brains lack in experience they sometimes make up for in idealism. Nothing seems impossible to them.”

“I think it’s more important than love. I mean, I love all kinds of things I don’t trust.”

“I’m planning to build a whole new beautiful life here. One where, in my own small way, I can make the world a better place.”

“If the war’s impossible to end, then we have to control it indefinitely. Just as we do now.”

“What was there to aspire to once wealth, fame, and power had been eliminated? Was the goal of survival further survival and nothing more?”

“They were both after all, still children whose lives were dictated by powers above them.”

“Star-crossed lovers meeting their fate.”

“I’m bad news, all right.”

“The ability to control things. Yes, that was what he’d loved best of all.”

“What happened in the arena? That’s humanity undressed. The tributes. And you, too.”

How quickly civilization disappears. All your fine manners, education, family background, everything you pride yourself on, stripped away in the blink of an eye, revealing everything you actually are.”

“A boy with a club who beats another boy to death. That’s mankind in its natural state”

“Please, Coriolanus, I would never forget the favor.”

“Who are human beings? Because who we are determines the type of governing we need.”

“What sort of agreement is necessary if we’re to live in peace? What sort of social contract is required for survival?”

“It’s just the kind of story that catches fire.”

“And last but least, District Twelve girl . . . she belongs to Coriolanus Snow.”

“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.”

“If history teaches you anything, it’s how to make the unwilling comply.”

“You know what I won’t miss? People. Except for a handful. They’re mostly awful, if you think about it.”

“And to erase me, they must erase the Games.”

“Why did these people think that all they needed to start a rebellion was anger?”

“And if even the most innocent among us turn into killers in the Hunger Games, what does that say? That our essential nature is violent.”

“It's the things we love most, that destroy us.”

“We all did things we’re not proud of.”

“What are the Hunger Games for?”

"If you want to protect people, then it's essential to accept what human beings are and what it takes to control them."

“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear."

“If the cause wasn’t honorable, how could it be an honor to participate in it?”

“He’s a Capitol boy and clearly I got the cake with the cream, ’cause nobody else’s mentor even bothered to show up to welcome them.”

“To dine with her suggests that you consider her your equal. But she isn’t.”

“The endless dance with hunger had defined his life.”

"In nature, things that are prey, that are weak, are marked"

"The world is not kind to those who don't fit in"

"We all wear masquerades in this Capitol"

, "There's a price for everything, Lucy. Sometimes you pay it willingly, sometimes it's taken from you,"

"Freedom is not given, it is taken"

“I’m not convinced that we are all as inherently violent as you say, but it takes very little to bring the beast to the surface, at least under the cover of darkness.”

#rp meme #sentences memes #rp resources #meme call #roleplay memes #sentence meme #( cali meme. )#rp memes #rp prompt #rp musings #roleplay prompt

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comradekatara · 5 months

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Here's a completely random ask for you: what holiday (halloween, valentine's day, national ice cream day, etc.) would each member of the Gaang feel unreasonably strongly about? Can be positive or negative feelings.

oh this is a good question! (i hate so many american commercial holidays so this is a great avenue for me to project my frustrations with us capitalism onto these little guys. and to be clear im just doing us holidays bc otherwise there would simply be too many options and i’d be stuck here forever)

aang: he’s not enough of a hater to dislike any holidays. he’s a big fan of april fool’s day, valentine’s day, and halloween, because he appreciates fun and joy and love and merriment duh

katara: every thanksgiving she goes on an impassioned rant about the historical revisionism of the us empire deployed as a propaganda tool as it continues its genocidal imperialist project and the absolutely sick and twisted audacity of americans to celebrate a known lie in a mockery of the atrocities committed from the past into the present (this one may or may not just have been me, yesterday). every november-december she goes on an impassioned rant about the commercialism of christmas, and how it’s largely a fake holiday devised by capitalists to glorify the sanctity of the nuclear family, and how the supposed “secularization” of christmas is in fact a product of christian hegemony, it’s propaganda and you’re all falling for it because you crave hollow comforts in your cold and dismal life, and instead of attempting to look beyond the scraps you are given under capitalism you all just force yourselves to enjoy a facade of happiness and nostalgia because you refuse to admit that you’re fundamentally uncomfortable in your society!!!!!!!! (this is what i think but wisely refrain from saying because it’s not worth it. katara, however...) also she likes valentine’s day sometimes (depending on whether or not she has a boyfriend). she also has a lot to say on columbus day and the fourth of july of course, but this bullet point is already far too long.

sokka: his favorite holiday is pi day. he does not care for any other us holiday (but he has been known to enjoy a halloween here and there), but he specifically hates april fools because aang insists on pranking him every time, for some godforsaken reason. (he’s just so prankable!)

toph: her least favorite holiday is valentine’s day because it promotes m*rriage, one of her most hated institutions (it’s a long list). her favorite day is taco tuesday

zuko: he insists on celebrating shakespeare’s birth/deathday as if it is a real holiday that anyone actually cares about. and he gets offended when no one else cares. his least favorite holiday is the fourth of july, but not for any political reasons, it just has really bad vibes.

suki: she loves halloween because it has everything you could ever ask for in a single day: dressing in elaborate costume, eating so much candy, and getting really drunk. she’s also one of those people who gets really obnoxious on 4/20, at which point mai is like “you know it’s hitler’s birthday, right?” and immediately kills the vibe. just because she can :)

mai: she has a love/hate relationship with halloween, because theoretically it’s a celebration of the gothic, the liminal, the macabre, the ghostly. but in practice it’s just an excuse for everyone around her to get wasted. she hates christmas more though. santa freaks her out and cloying, forced cheer and merriment is unnerving and infuriating, actually.

ty lee: she dreads valentine’s day every year because she simply has too many suitors and it is very stressful. she likes april fool’s day because it gives her the opportunity to exercise her more devious inclinations. she can prank people so well they don’t even know they’re being pranked; on april first the world is her playground.

azula: she has no real opinion on any specific holidays. they’re petty distractions for mindless drones who require a modicum of frivolity here and there to spice up their otherwise dull, worthless lives. however, she quite likes tax day.

#bonus: yue’s favorite holiday is mid autumn festival <3 #lawful-chaos #asks #the gaang and #modern au #sorry for the katara rant in the middle of this post. it was thanksgiving yesterday. im hearing xmas music in stores. i couldn’t help myself #i should make a holiday tag #since a lot of these points are references to other similar posts ive made #okay:#holidays #if u go thru this tag you can find prev posts #instead of having to add bulky links to the post itself lmfao

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restlesschilled · 4 days

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TMagP 013

Note: As Always, I am a backer so this was written 23 April, 2024 and scheduled to be posted on 25 April, 2024

oh god its another episodes written by Alex

awww thanks odin <3

Im dreading this

PRE STATEMENT/ CASE

OHHH DATE TIME

THE FLIRTING

This is so cute but i cant trust it because alex wrote it

"that you dont know how cute you are" adshfjagdhflakshdf

WERE STARTING WITH THE BIG STUFF

"hi im from an alternate universe"

CELIA IS A MOM

JACK IS HER BABY

"i had a while few years when I first moved here"

IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO CELIA OR JACK I WILL RIOT

HOW DARE

SHES A SINGLE MOM

"that depends on your baggage. DISH"

"they were the first ones that didnt want me" oooooooo\

Alice's Parents are dead good to know

"most pathetic vague post shes ever scene"

"more wine" "please"

LENA OFFICE

GWEN MY POOR BABY

"is it my fault?"

MY POOR PRECIOUS GIRL

"were managing the bad guys" FUCK

CASE

this hold music is a BOP

i had to stop and have my friend explain public school in England to me because that is not the same thing as American public schools

oh lovely a "fiance guy"

a hedge fund guy what i mean is a hedge fund guy

Why in gods name, would you use experimental setting on a hedge fund/ investing app… when you have no idea what it does and it has a shit tone of disclaimers??? i get being desperate but that's just stupid

also the irony of this guy saying hes a good person when hes betting on people failing with hedge funds

do people even steal phones anymore?

i feel like they are not worth all that much and just have to many ways to tack them for it to be worth anything unless you are targeting someone specifically

yeah i figured they might have targeted him

im pretty sure this would qualify as inside trading somehow

betting against your own company and than tanking the company is very illegal

pretty sure betting you'll have a shit time and then making sure you have a shit time would be the same thing

basically this man is committing insurance fraud... but through a hedge fund

it just occurred to me hes calling from the hospital that's what the beeping is

also vertigo mentioned

he was attack by computer bugs lol

shitty "finance guy" gets whats coming to him asmr

post statement

okay i know sam probably mean "be professional" like stop with the flirting

BUT WHEN YOU SAY IT LIKE THAT I SOUND LIKE YALL HAVE BEEN HOOKING UP AFTER WORK SOMETIMES.

HAVE YALL BEEN HOOKING UP?

this is how i choose to interpret this this is my new head canon( it was already kinda my head canon)

But if you ever ask me to be professional again, I'm going to have to take a shit on your desk." ALICE

"you signed the official secrets act in your onboarding. And I know all your school friends say treason's 'bussin'' and 'fire', but it won't look good on your CV." i love her so much

"its fine when I say it"

this episode really said fuck capitalism didn't it

also do week need to talk about the fact that celia's son is named Jack Ripley like jack the ripper

WAIT A SECOND JACK IS A NICKNAME FOR JOHN/JON

DID SHE NAME HER SON AFTER JON?

#this show has me in a chokehold #tmagp #tmagp spoilers #the magnus protocol spoilers #gwen bouchard #celia ripley #tmapg #tmagp 13 #jack ripley #alice #alice dyer #lena #restless reacts to tmagp #live #liveblog

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aditheursula · 9 months

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We're Kind of Doomed...Just a Little

Tonight while I was playing PVE DayZ, I came across a large gas canister that I didn't need. I typed out in the chat that I had a large gas canister that I didn't need and if anyone needs it then it's theirs. I would even leave it where they could find it later if need be. Someone responded with, "We can buy that at the Trader." This didn't exactly break my brain yet it started me thinking. Capitalism is a certain kind of brain rot that goes so deep into the psyche of a person that they impose its rigidity on a fucking video game.

I say this because that person and many other people on the server:

Believe that there should be no "hand outs".

Believe that community is not about sharing as much as it is about making a profit from others and expect rewards.

Find it foreign/baffling when a person doesn't want a reward or payment for something.

Get mean & aggressive when you want to share items with others. (Ex. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?!?!? THAT'S WORTH X-AMOUNT YOU C*NT!")

Cannot comprehend bartering or mutual aid.

What baffles me is that DayZ is about surviving a zombie apocalypse. Keyword being "surviving". Just because there are traders it does not mean that the survival aspect must be capitalistic. Helping people and building a communal aspect in a post-apocalyptic environment where you could be mauled to death by zombies, bears, wolves, etc at any time is the best survival option and not where one must depend on having enough cash on hand to buy every little thing.

The more I think about a zombie/post-apocalypse type scenario happening in a place like the United States or United Kingdom (or any hyper-nationalist capitalist state) the more I think we're kind of fucking doomed. Like just a little fucking doomed. Mainly because of the individualist, "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality that has gotten only the 1% farther in life yet brainwashed billions into thinking they are millionaires in-waiting while they get paid unfairly. Too many do not understand mutual aid...yet they set up GoFundMe accounts so they can pay off their medical bills. It's disturbing how around-the-facts people can go and for how long.

Even in a fucking survival video game where you loot to survive in a post-apocalyptic world full of stuff that wants to kill you there are people that put a price on everything and hold currency over necessity. If you've ever been in a WoW Guild it can also be this way too.

We all saw and were impacted by the Pandemic. We all saw what people did with hoarding supplies and buying up supplies so they could sell them online at a markup...during a global pandemic. The world is still recovering from that greed (and Covid-19 has not gone away at all). Supply chains are still fucked. Imagine if the Pandemic was worse. Imagine if The Last of Us came to pass. I don't even want to think about it not because of the clickers. No. I don't want to think of it because of the ultra-individualism of too many people that would become a faction of rabid capitalists without a world bank or a stable currency.

Just a little fucking doomed.

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donnerpartyofone · 9 months

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I signed up for this online class co-taught by a woman I find maddeningly brilliant, where she lectures on her experience working with and studying people who are on the cutting edge of whatever their professional field is. She discovered this common thread where many of them claim that they don't come up with their innovations on their own--supposedly, ideas just enter their minds spontaneously, or even in a dream, and they follow these disciplined lifestyles (versions of monastic practices, generally) that they believe make them more receptive to those kinds of messages. A good clarifying example is that of a mathematician (Pattie Maes I think? I forgot to write it down) who claimed that as a young student, she would just-know the solutions to math problems without being able to explain the reasoning, so she was always in trouble with her teachers; eventually she got into analytical philosophy, which helped her reverse-engineer and understand the answers she mysteriously received. So anyway the class I'm taking allows you to offer up your own projects for feedback and advice about how you can invite a breakthrough to happen. There are some extremely interesting people in the group, including a couple of guys who are doing futuristic-sounding sustainable farming projects, someone who studies black holes, and just all stripes of scientists and artists. I'm hearing some pretty interesting things, but...

The class is co-taught by this woman who is also obviously brilliant, she has these insane credentials I barely understand involving venture capital and AI, she works with and for extremely high level companies and luminaries and her self-selected title is something like "singularity expert". And like, all of that is inherently interesting whether or not it sounds somewhat sinister to your ears, but I quickly realized that she's one of these people who is just fundamentally excited by the basic concept of Success, and she automatically thinks that any measure of fame and fortune, no matter what it's in aid of or where it came from, is evidence of genius. Which to me is like this incredibly dangerous trap, for what I think are really obvious reasons.

So one of us students brought up a manuscript she's been working on for decades that isn't going anywhere, and the singularity expert told her to just throw it out and do something else, basically. And in her justification for this, she started saying "I know a lot of you probably don't like Elon Musk, BUT" in this really bitter, cold tone of voice that let you know immediately that she's a huge fan and she thinks the resistance to him is just a bunch of ignorant liberal bullshit. And her example of his genius, which we should all imitate, is that when he wanted to make a big update to Tesla/Twitter/(some other shit he acquired from actual innovators), he found that the update was incompatible with all of foundational code, so he just threw out millions and millions of dollars' worth of code to force his new thing into place. And I mean, on one level I heard something useful and true: Don't sacrifice your future for the comforting stability of the past, beware of the sunk cost fallacy, etc. But the fact that Elon Musk did something that *appears* to represent that, depending on how you spin it, does not mean that he is a genius you should seek to imitate. First of all, I didn't leave knowing exactly what the consequences of his actions were, and second of all...millions of dollars doesn't mean anything to that guy. He's impossibly rich and he basically started out that way, and he's never going to wind up homeless or whatever even if he drives every single company he bought into the ground. He's just not a good example of someone with a high risk, high reward mindset that we should all emulate because he could lose hundreds of millions of dollars almost without noticing. The fact that he did this thing that in isolation looks heroic, that's only a tiny part of the picture with him.

(And that's without even getting into the impact that it has on the rest of the world, that he has so much power; like personally I think he's such a negative presence in the world that it's beyond just material effects, actually he's so corrosive that even talking about him is bad. Just contemplating the idea of him brings out the absolute worst in people, it's bad for people's moral fiber to even argue about him, but ANYWAY)

Unfortunately I find that a lot of people who have some kind of overlap with the self-help field will eventually come around to admitting that they're so blinded by the glamor of public, lucrative success that they don't really care where it comes from or who gets it or what people do with it. Damien Echols is someone I really enjoy, I just think it's undeniably interesting to hear from someone who spent almost 20 years on death row studying spirituality (to be glib about it) and pursuing all kinds of monastic disciplines; I mean that guy has things to say that you don't get from circulating in normal society. He practices something that has roots as far back as ancient Sumeria, he's not rich and he's not trying to get rich, but he often reminds people that poverty doesn't have an inherent moral quality and it's not inherently evil to pursue financial success. He'll say that if you have a phobic attitude toward money, if the very idea of it is tainted by guilt and fear in your mind, then it becomes a destructive force in your life--but if you think about money as energy, a resource you can channel into doing what's important to you, then it becomes something positive and supportive. And I can totally understand that. But then Echols will extrapolate that to the point that he's praising megachurch guys who are absolute crooks and scam artists and who definitely rob people through a form of psychological blackmail that tells them they're going to hell if they don't help buy Jim Bakker or whoever a private jet. And I'm like, man...ok so it's worth while to say that having a positive mindset about money can change your life for the better. But that doesn't mean that we have to then lionize every single person who ever got rich no matter how they got there and no matter what they did with their power, that's just fucking insane, right?

I could go on and on actually, about various people I've heard speak about how to break through your subconscious limitations and take a more authorial role in your own life, and how often even the most apparently well-meaning one of these speakers will come around to praising like the Monopoly guy, or some tepid pop star with an incredible marketing machine behind them, as ground-breaking geniuses who we all need to emulate. I mean a lot of people who are visibly successful get there by accident, or nepotism, or coattail riding, or plain ruthlessness. Many people in the big-success category turn out to be inarguably, unfathomably stupid (ironically I spotted the Elon Musk Pop Tart story the morning before I took this class), and some of them are only geniuses insofar as they have an abnormally well-developed predatory instinct that makes them able to think thoughts and perform actions that you really can't conceive of if you aren't, you know, a psychopath. Someone recently posted a bunch of advice on teaching from John Cale, and one of the things he said was "Suspect charisma", and I think THAT is a much more important piece of advice than like, "find someone who is rich and famous and do whatever that person appears to be doing without asking yourself how they got where they are, or just what is the real reason that you personally are so compelled by them." It seems like a lot of people respond to the aura of "success" so intensely that they just don't want to have to question it, and they'll bend over backwards crafting these speculative backstories and dialectic arguments to make their animal reaction to the spectacle of power sound like something intellectually sound. It smacks of stockholm syndrome, of people who fall in love with their own bullies. There's complicated reasons for that, some of which are what got Trump elected I think, but I don't wanna talk about that. I have to go to the doctor's now anyway, and stop thinking about this.

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itsclydebitches · 10 months

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Hey, first ask but I’ve been following you for a while now, got here from seeing your post on a RWBY Reddit(notsurewhichone.) cus I’ve enjoyed all your recaps and reviews.

And I just want to ask your thoughts about Semblances in RWBY. Specifically how no one in the show…like really reacts or thinks of the implication of what someone’s Semblance says about their personality. You’d think Huntsman would be more wary of partnering up with people whose Semblances are linked to emotions when they fight Grimm. Like that’s easy bullying there

so while cool, you’d think some people would feel off about working with others depending on their Semblances.

Realistically we all know the answer why, RWBY’s never been the best(when they tried) at World Building and not every teenager likes to read into everything(most do, I won’t lie.)

Welcome to the inbox, anon! :D

Semblances—and their lack of development—have been a frustration of mine for years, ngl. Honestly, I've got no problem with stories keeping their World Building loose for the sake of things like combat creativity. Just want your characters to have cool powers without unpacking precisely how that's possible and the larger impact it has on the rest of the world? Go for it! That's a perfectly acceptable way to craft a story (depending on the genre + focus) and it gives fans plenty to play with without feeling like they're missing an integral part of the canon. RWBY's problem has always been in introducing these complex aspects and then not doing anything with them.

We could have easily gotten a version of the story where semblances are just generic powers that people unlock with no overtly textual connection to the characters' personalities... but we didn't. Once RWBY introduced the concept of semblances reflecting one's soul, yeah, the viewer expects something to come of that. It's the same with introducing the concept of grimm being attracted to emotion (they could have always just been free-roaming monsters), with one family's semblance being hereditary (just give Winter a similar-but-not-identical semblance that helps her train Weiss), and some semblances being passive (that never needed to be a thing, period). Those ideas raise a ton of questions that the show never capitalizes on and, worse, the show flat-out ignores the questions it does begin to unpack. Why doesn't Weiss have any thoughts about her semblances given her complicated relationship with her family? Why isn't anyone else hesitant to fight beside Qrow given his bad luck? As you say, why aren't those with semblances powered by extreme emotion, like Yang, considered potential liabilities in a fight? Is using her semblance worth it if it just attracts more monsters to deal with? Why not position her as the tank-like member of the team precisely because her powers tend to draw agro? There are so many missed opportunities but, as said, what's worse for me are the moments where the story overtly acknowledges these possibilities and then goes on to drop and/or contradict them. Nothing demonstrates this better than Ironwood's semblance supposedly being an integral part of his fall... and it doesn't exist outside of Word of God. RWBY's not iffy about its World Building, it's endlessly distracted. I'd take a story that flat out ignores questions the viewer might think up—we know what the story wants to focus on and recognizes that we should just leave the rest to fanfic—over stories like RWBY that continually introduces cool ideas and then drops them for the newest, shiniest one.

Another potential snag? Weapons. It's Crescent Rose that we're first introduced to, not Ruby's speed ability. It's Crescent Rose that she spent time building at Signal, inspired by her Uncle Qrow, who in turn was inspired by Maria. It's Crescent Rose Ruby hugs while gushing over others' weapons, saying that they're the glimpse into who they really are. At the start of the series semblances are secondary to weaponry and honestly? I think that worked a lot better. As awesome as some semblance moments have been, for me RWBY's combat shines within the weapon choreography and it's images like the tiny child standing with this giant scythe that are truly iconic. If I were re-writing the series I'd do away with semblances entirely, leaving just aura as a temporary shield and putting the emphasis back on weapons: the versatile, historical tools that the characters have control over. After all, it ultimately tells us much more about them if we get to see what they choose to fight with, rather than simply being told what fantasy genetics handed down to them. The fact that Volume 9 was supposedly this journey of self-discovery and semblances played no part in that for the team highlights how insignificant their connection to the World Building really is, but I find it equally frustrating that the characters' weapons have become insignificant props. Ruby lost Crescent Rose and isn't reacting to that? Who cares. Jaune broke the sword handed down to him through generations of huntsmen and apparently never tried to fix it? Who cares. Weiss' rapier is now literally one of the few remaining pieces of Atlas left in the world? Who cares! The story no longer treats these weapons with respect, so I can't treat them seriously as a means of characterization. That goes double when RWBY pops in once every two-ish volumes to insist that yeah, semblances are totally meaningful to these characters too.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

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thydungeongal · 9 months

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Hey, love your blog! I've been following you for a while now and learning a lot about the world of ttrpgs outside of DnD. I hear a lot about how rule heavy and difficult DnD is to learn, not to mention that I am rather 'sheltered' when it comes to the genre. I always assumed that DnD was like the ONLY ttrpg until I followed you haha. So I have a quick question for you, I have been interested in trying out the Werewolf: Apocalypse ttrpg, have you ever played it? Do you have any advice or opinions about the best ttrpgs for someone who has only ever played DnD, but is looking to try something new? Thanks! Sorry for the long ask, I'm notoriously bad at condensing my words😂

Hello! First of all, no need to apologize. As you may have noticed from some of my really long posts, I have something of a problem with writing tersely as well. :)

I have sadly not played Werewolf: The Apocalypse, but not for a lack of trying: there was a period in my life when I was obsessed with the game but could never get anyone else interested in trying it out, so that never amounted to anything. Here's my unfiltered opinion on Werewolf: The Apocalypse: it's silly, reductive, and even within the context of World of Darkness it is extremely culturally insensitive, but I still kind of love it as a game. It's an extremely flawed game but one that I can't help but think fondly of in spite of its flaws. It is very mired in 90s and early 2000s caricatures of indigenous peoples and even more so than any other World of Darkness game weirdly fetishistic about bloodlines, but if one is willing to treat it as a problematic fave there's a lot of good in that whole mess. Like, you get to play as strong as fuck werewolves with magic powers who fight to protect the Earth from a rogue's gallery of enemies that are basically caricatures of the corrupting effect capitalism has on communities and the Earth itself? That shit owns.

Having said all of that, the information that has come out about how the upcoming 5th edition of the game has been handled does not fill me with hope and I'm not sure if I want to support the current direction of the game. You can find more about what I'm talking about here.

To your next question, sadly there isn't a single definitive answer I can give to someone looking to branch out from D&D: it all depends on what kind of game you're looking. But the good news is, whatever kind of game you're looking for it's probably not going to be as much of an investment as D&D. D&D is kind of an outlier in the sense that it requires three whole-ass books, whereas most games fit into just one. But since you asked, I'm going to list a couple of games that I think are neat anyway. :)

Hard Wired Island. Indie cyberpunk RPG. Easy to learn system, setting heavily inspired by 90s anime, actually uses its setting to present questions relevant to the role technological advancement plays in marginalization instead of simply using cyberpunk as dressing for another cops vs. robbers RPG.

Esoteric Enterprises. Since you asked about Werewolf: The Apocalypse chances are you're interested in urban fantasy, yeah? Esoteric Enterprises is dark urban fantasy where you play as an occult gang in a modern city. The system is based on D&D, albeit one of the older editions, and it plays much more grim and gritty than 5e. While characters default to humans it has rules for supernatural characters. It'll be a very different beast from Werewolf, but it'll have that same grimy urban gothic punkness to it.

Break!!. Science fantasy RPG inspired by video games and anime. Was Kickstarted recently but even if you missed the Kickstarter it's not too late to preorder! I've got my hands on the Beta PDF and my first impressions thus far are that even though it's still very much in the wheelhouse of D&D (It's an action adventure RPG in a fantastic setting) it has amazing presentation and is wonderfully condensed. Absolutely worth checking out if the aesthetic appeals to you.

Voidheart Symphony. This one's a bit from the left field, but I like Voidheart Symphony. It's a game about playing psychic rebels fighting against corrupt people in positions of power. Explicitly inspired by the Persona games, but with a more openly revolutionary stance. Where Esoteric Enterprises leans more on the urban occultism and gothic punk, this one is more about fighting against the Man with your Stand.

Anyway, if you have any further questions, don't be afraid to ask. :) For an example, if you feel like you have a specific wish in mind with regards to an RPG system let me know and I'll see if I can think of something more specific.

#long post

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theoutcastrogue · 2 years

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HOW TO TUMBLR

Unlike other social media platforms, on tumblr you can decide what to see and what NOT to see on your dash. You are not bound to an algorithm that makes that decision for you. However, this unique feature is NOT DEFAULT any more, you need to set it up. It’s a bit of a hassle if you’re on an app, but you only have to do it once, and it’s 100% worth it.

[Y’ALL, I NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE THIS POST MORE USEFUL. I’ve stayed away from apps myself, so I can only give proper instructions for the web. If you’ve seen posts with the same instructions for iOS and Android, or if you can make such a post, and especially if you got screenshots (my goal is to make this as easy as possible for newbies), please send a link my way. Thanks!]

1. Algorithm begone

Tumblr’s “algorithm” isn’t remotely like facebook’s, but it still involves decisions you didn’t make. The option “Best stuff first” was an especially bad move that upset many artists, whose posts suddenly got buried and whose activity plummeted. Here’s how to fix this.

WEB:

click on the little person icon on the top of the screen to your right

go to Settings

go to Dashboard

scroll down to Preferences, and toggle to deselect “Best Stuff First”, “Include stuff in your orbit”, “Include ‘Based on your likes!’”, and “Include followed tag posts” [I suggest to deselect the last one because tumblr chooses which posts from your followed tags to show you, and that’s a decision you didn’t make; you can always look for tags normally]

2. Begone ads and unsolicited recommendations

Install the ad blocker add-on UBlock Origin on your Firefox. If your browser is Chrome, it is STRONGLY suggested you first switch to Firefox, for privacy but also because Chrome is out to get ad blockers, so that won’t work for long.

And/or you can install the XKit Rewritten add-on, which has a number of useful features (Quick Reblog most of all), including “Anti-Capitalism” which hides advertisement containers. This is probably redundant if you have a proper ad blocker, and also slower (X-Kit loads all these elements and then hides them, the ad blocker kills them faster), but I’m not opposed to redundancies when it comes to ads and privacy.

XKit also has a “No Recommended” feature, so you can focus only on what you follow. can You replicate this via UBlock Origin’s Block Element feature, but that’s a bit advanced for the purposes of this guide, so while I do suggest it I won’t elaborate here.

3. Unlock all content

By default, tumblr has to assume (because laws and monopolies etc) that you have the maturity of a small child, and it will therefore hide some content from you without asking you. Here’s how to fix this.

WEB:

go to Settings, as before

scroll down to “Community Labels” and select “Show” for all (current labels are Mature, Drugs and alcohol addiction, Violence, and Sexual themes)

in the same section, toggle to deselect “Hide additional potentially mature content”

ANDROID:

see this post for instructions wrapped in a rant on how needlessly complicated this process is, and see here for tumblr’s Help Center article on Community Labels; on the app it looks like this

Afterword

These were instructions for how to liberate your dashboard from external meddling by letting all content (except ads) through. The cool thing is you can also choose what to NOT let through. In your Settings you can filter tags, and you can filter content. You can choose to blur or hide Community Labels (but keep in mind that’s a brand new feature, and how it goes will depend on how the user base adopts it; it’s safe to say it doesn’t work well yet). More importantly, you can choose who to follow, who not to follow, and who to block altogether.

You can and indeed should curate your dashboard, and decide for yourself what appears there. (With the understanding that no matter what you do or anyone else does, stuff will slip through, and it’s not the end of the world. You have tools to make that happen less and less. That’s feasible. Completely and preemptively isolating yourself from stuff you don’t like is NOT feasible, on any platform. So please manage your expectations.)

#trs #tumblr #rogue tech

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yandere-fics · 2 months

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Theanna's Yandere Alphabet

♡ Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get? ♡

♡ She keeps you at her side constantly and demands you leave your job to be her permanent companion. The affection comes later once she finally has you as her companion. Her affection is not given freely either though but as a tool to keep you at her side. What will people say if she spoiled this former maid in affection and love only for the maid to completely disregard this gift and leave? It's not that she doesn't enjoy showering you in affection however she sees it as a very important tool so you will never leave her. ♡

♡ Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling? ♡

♡ Theanna nowadays prefers to keep her hands clean, excluding torture, and use other methods so she isn't as likely as some of the others to murder for her darling. She may remove people who she views as in the way of her and her darling but there are methods other than murder she can use like sending them away from the capital, she isn't afraid to remove people however if someone who was close to you got murdered it was likely she said she was going to send them away from the capital so an advisor decided they weren't even worth sending away from the capital and had them killed instead. ♡

♡ Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them? ♡

♡ Theanna is a tad bit cruel at times when she reminds you how you've fought her when it's clear almost every inch of your life is now dependent on her. It's just so silly that you tried to run away in the garden when she's spoiling you with such luxuries, you're very lucky she loves you because you likely wouldn't be able to live without her care. ♡

♡ Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will? ♡

♡ Everything she does is at the very least not in your will since she never bothers to ask if she can do something before she does it and even if you seem uncomfortable with how she has her arm around your shoulder at a ball, she is simply smirking at how you can not protest against this, don't worry, you'll grow to like it hopefully. ♡

♡ Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling? ♡

♡ She's not even really open with herself which is why after she became crown princess two of her closest friends already began to drift away from her because she simply thought of herself as boss now and didn't have time for things like friendship. She does miss her friends but doesn't really understand why they drifted apart after she started bossing them around without ever listening to their input. ♡

♡ Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back? ♡

♡ It's a tad bit annoying since she figured her status would prevent you from fighting back against her explicitly, of course she did except a certain amount of resistance from you but she was not expecting you to fight back so aggressively. It's frustrating but she can easily fix it by reminding you how large the gaps in your status are. ♡

♡ Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape? ♡

♡ It's a bit of a game every time you run away, you'll never make it outside palace walls, it's far too spacious and she feels happy thinking that as soon as she lets you run yourself out you'll be too tired to fight her off and she'll be able to care for you as you recover from overexertion and hopefully this will make you less likely to run in the future. ♡

♡ Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them? ♡

♡ The worst experience would be if you fight back against her in front of people, the court likely is aware you're her darling however they also want her to show an example on how to tame your darling and who is she to deny it when she wants to do it too, your wedding will be in five weeks and if you continue to fight after becoming queen she'll lock you in her chambers. ♡

♡ Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling? ♡

♡ She imagines you as her queen, she doesn't need you to do anything special as her queen other than remain at her side, of course if you would like to perform queenly duties then she won't protest however she needs them to not interfere with your main duty of being her companion and lover. ♡

♡ Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope? ♡

♡ She is very jealous however she does not kill people, she simply sends them away from the capital. That does not just include people who flirt with you, that also includes friends who are taking too much time away from her and she also would prefer not to keep your family close, you may see them but far less than you see her. ♡

♡ Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling? ♡

♡ She enjoys making it known that you're hers with small acts of dominance like arranging your schedule around her and forcing you on her lap. For everything you want she will give you some things at first but afterwards she waits for you to come to her for it first so that way you know she's the one who provides for all your needs and you need to be a little more appreciative. ♡

♡ Love letters: How would they go about courting or approaching their darling? ♡

♡ She worms her way into every part of your life until you can't deny that you are most certainly hers. She starts out slowly by just getting you assigned to be her personal maid, then you're promoted to lady in waiting, another maid can do what you were doing before, you simply need to help dress her in the mornings and accompany her everywhere, then you're her companion and before you know it, you're engaged. ♡

♡ Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else? ♡

♡ Everyone is very very scared of her but she's not actually that scary, she's bossy but she does truly care about the people and she has been the best leader the kingdom has ever seen plus the kingdom will not have to deal with another fight for the throne because she would never allow any future child she might have to do that. ♡

♡ Naughty: How would they punish their darling? ♡

♡ Your punishment is the fear of knowing you got caught defying the crown princess and could be punished excruciatingly at any time which means from now on you have to obey her for fear of her telling the guards about the little maid who disobeyed her and fought with her, of course she would never tell the guards but you don't need to know that. ♡

♡ Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling? ♡

♡ Most maids are allowed to venture into the main city part of the capital however she forces you to stay within the palace at all times, you are allowed to roam in the gardens however, she loves seeing you in her gardens especially because when she appears you freak out because she's not supposed to be there but then you smile when she says she'll grant you permission to be there but only you. ♡

♡ Patience: How patient are they with their darling? ♡

♡ She's one of my most patient yanderes, so long as you reside in the castle and she gets to enjoy watching you on a daily basis, she's satisfied. Of course she still wants you very badly but she's willing to wait until her claim on you is completely undeniable before she begins to make her moves even closer to you. ♡

♡ Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on? ♡

♡ If you die she would potentially move on since the kingdom still needs a queen but she would take in a princess from another country and never love them, they'd be encouraged to take a lover so that way there's an heir and your portrait would be everywhere while they would get no portrait. If you simply escape she would never stop looking for you and would eventually find you with Ainsley's help. ♡

♡ Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go? ♡

♡ She's improving your life by forcing you to be her queen so why should she feel regret and beyond that now that you are her queen she can't let you free, while she killed most of her enemies in the fight for the throne there are still plenty of people who would love to take your head to punish her for taking the head of their loved one. ♡

♡ Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)? ♡

♡ The more involved a noble was in the fight for the throne or just simply being in the capital at the time of it occurring, the more likely they are to have yandere tendencies due to how rough of a time period it was and well Theanna is the one closest to the fight meaning it took the most out of her and so it's no wonder that she wound up with these tendencies. You're a great comfort to her. ♡

♡ Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves? ♡

♡ If you scream and cry she's going to actually be pretty surprised because she figured you would be too scared of her status as crown princess to cause a scene which was how you let her get away with more of her attempts to exert dominance over you, if you scream and cry and cause a scene however then she's going to go ahead and force your wedding and see if that will take the fight out of you. ♡

♡ Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere? ♡

♡ She's very unique, as long as you stay her maid in her castle she can wait, of course that doesn't mean she isn't frothing at the mouth just to have a chance to have you but she can wait until you fall under her grasp in order to fully start with her plans, she'll still kill anyone who gets too close to you while she waits however. ♡

♡ Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape? ♡

♡ Her overconfidence. She will allow her darling to run and exhaust themselves because she's sure they won't be able to make it out of castle walls, let alone out of the capital so your best bet is to train in secret so she isn't aware how good your stamina has become and then run as fast as you can. You likely still won't make it out of the castle grounds before becoming exhausted but it's worth a try. ♡

♡ Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling? ♡

♡ No she has no need to do that, she can assert her dominance over you in plenty of other ways besides hurting you. She's not generally much of a sadist anyways, excluding how she can be a bit of a sexual sadist, but ignoring that she would not hurt you in any real tangible way. ♡

♡ Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over? ♡

♡ You're cute in her eyes but nothing mystical, despite being at the center of one of the most religious aspects of the kingdom, the garden, she tends to not pay attention to things of that nature. She would still go through a great deal of trouble to win you over, worming her way into every aspect of your life until it'd be idiotic to deny her claim on you requires a great deal of effort. ♡

♡ Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap? ♡

♡ She can wait an incredibly long time in order to get her hands on you, afterall she wants to build up a claim to you that no one, especially not you can deny and that's going to take awhile, she's only going to snap if you're running away from her consistently, she doesn't mind trying to leave once or twice but if it's too much then she's just going to go ahead and force the wedding. ♡

♡ Zenith: Would they ever break their darling? ♡

♡ Theanna is a much more hands off yandere, preferring to assert her dominance over you casually rather than brute forcing it, forcing you to admit you are hers since she's doing everything for you and well if you aren't hers then why are you making the crown princess do everything for you? You might get frustrated by how she worms her way into every aspect of your life however she likely wouldn't break you. ♡

#yandere oc #yandere lesbian #yandere x reader #yandere x y/n #my oc theanna

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sandsmand · 4 months

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44. and I’m talking INFODUMP. PARAGRAPHS. not some measly little fact 🔫

/nf

If one wishes to become a post apocalyptic warlord they must first understand the basics of how societies form.

The first feudal societies formed around who controlled the food, or depending on where you lived, the water. Eventually the system of "you work for food" became "you make sure they work for food, I don't care how" which gave rise to the first class pyramids. Because roads were unsafe and the wheel was non existent, the easiest way to survive with your fellow humans was to band together into cities where you could get what you wanted from your neighbors instead of a few miles over. As cities consolidated, homesteaders would tame the surrounding lands and provide more food so the city could specialize further into things such as astronomy or metalworking. The city would inevitably build walls as a testament to its power, but also to deter violent invaders from taking everything they worked so hard for.

In our anarchic wasteland, there will be a 2-6ish month grace period of denial where people will be looking for their loved ones and trying to rebuild the familiar world instead of warlordmaxxing. An opportunistic monarch of misery should ascertain the new world. Humans need food, water, and shelter. All of these will allow for a small fiefdom, but for a true empire you must discover a new 4th thing, and whoever finds out what that is first is bound to be Khagan of the new order. It is important to note that there may not be a 4th thing, this however, will not deter a true warlord. Politicians have been able to convince millions of people of the most ridiculous nonsense for centuries as an excuse to surrender their freedoms in exchange for something they don't need- or better yet, the system created a dependency on. That was with competing sources of information, in the post apocalypse, nobody is going to be setting up a competitive journalist organization, so you've got free reign over that- and anyone who does can be 'convinced' to work for you.

Reality is subjective, and once you control the media you can make something as objective and undisputed as the rising sun a clementine by simply saying "nuh-uh" enough times. There will be competing pseudo states in the wasteland to challenge your influence, but whereas their soldiers are fighting for the right to avoid paying your taxes, yours are fighting to break up a group of nazi sympathizers before they join some warlord who will indulge their ideas. Violent conquest is not the only method of expansion; slowly influencing another city until it does what you say, providing markets for villages, and trading with independent states as an excuse to found trade road-cities are all viable methods of expanding influence and population. There are no borders in the wasteland. Only who pays tribute to whom, what the local currency is, and who's soldiers don't get stabbed. All of which can change.

Currency developed as an alternative to barter, whereas instead of haggling over how many cows was equal to however many goats, you could just sell the cow for money and haggle over how many goats that money is worth. Money as we know it today was first used as an official document that could be exchanged for actual currency at a later date, usually issued as I.O.U's by governments that didn't have any money at the time. Merchants would soon start trading these notes as it was as good as gold to them. Only that it was easier to carry. Fiat currency was introduced in the late modern era to facilitate capitalism because the world's gold reserves didn't have enough gold in them for every I.O.U to actually be worth something. The secret 4th thing that allowed 21'st empires to thrive is money, more specifically, the dependence society creates on it. People could amass hundreds of thousands, or even millions in hypothetical debt (or wealth) that they weren't expected to pay back because the money wasn't real anymore. For seemingly the whole world, this was normal.

Thankfully for our empire, people have gotten used to their money being functionally worthless, and as a centralizing warlord, your imperial currency can be anything ranging from junk metal with your face stamped on it to something as silly as bottle caps. An imperial currency can be pegged to that 4th thing at a set exchange rate, or if that 4th thing is taking too long to discover, it may be fiat money. If another state with it's own system discovers that 4th thing and pegs it's currency to that then the economic influence (read: borders) of your aspiring warlord state will be greatly undermined, as force, food, safety, and not having to pay tariffs if they exist are the only things keeping certain territories within the empire. It is possible to dominate an entire nation just by them using your currency, the strength of which is tied to your influence. The more places accept your currency the stronger it is, the stronger it is, the more places will accept it. There will be many currencies in the post apocalypse, and it is important to let them exist, but not thrive, as a centralized monetary system is another barrier between the in-group and out-group. A warlord must not become stiff in their ways however, as the only difference between economic suzerainty and imperial vassalage is a handshake and a good hit of a substance of your choosing.

(Lemme know if you want a part two on how to expand our warlord empire 😙🤘🩵)

#mild mental illness posting #rediscovered my love if writing - even if its not that great #thanks anon!#asks #personal essay #post apocalypse #warlording

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bad-cos-ideas · 7 months

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My RAGE is COMICAL!!

[spoken: a shout that initially sounds outraged, but it's reminiscent of a jester delightedly jingling its bells because it has done well to make the fellows laugh] [the voice of the hulk, but to the tune of "he's a jolly good fellow"]

Anyway, bad idea: They now ban you from the game if you are caught using an alt account to improve your chances of anything ever going right for you because wowee you can't spend every waking moment of everyday on Creatures of Sonaria just to get 1 Deathpoint per 5k studs traveled, 1 Deathpoint per 5 minutes a creature is played, 3 points to finish missions (THAT ONLY REFRESH WHEN YOU DO THEM ALL SO PVP IS NECESSARY WHICH IS LIKE THE BIGGEST CAUSE TO DEATH SO HONESTLY IF YOU DONT HAVE AN ALT OR A REALLY NICE PERSON TO HELP YOU GRIND FOR HOURS STILL, CHANCES ARE YOU JUST DIE AND LOSE ALL PROGRESS WHAT THE FUUUUUUU--), and 1-8 points DEPENDANT ON THE TIER OF WHOMEVER YOU KILL ACTIVELY PROMOTING KOSING AND ANKLEBITING BECAUSE AGAIN UNLESS YOU HAVE A REALLY NICE FRIEND OR AN ALT TO HELP YOU OUT NOBODY WANTS TO RISK KILLING OFF THEIR DEATH TOKEN CREATURE SO FORGET FIGHTING HIGHER TIERS, JUST KILL A SHITTON OF LOW TIERS THAT LARGELY CONSIST OF THE PLAYERS THAT DECIDEDLY DONT WANT TO DO MUCH PVP

[I swear, every attempt to "fix the economy" makes me violently projectile vomit, providing less and less reward for hours of not even playing the game just to have fun anymore ISNT GOING TO CHANGE THAT THE DEVS THEMSELVES FUCKED THE ECONOMY WHEN THEY ARE FICKLE ABOUT ADMITTING WHEN/WHEN NOT A CREATURE IS LIMITED AND HOW LIMITED AS WELL AS CONTINUOUSLY BREAKING THAT FUCKING PROMISE OF NO MORE EXCLUSIVE CREATURES DEVS IM SCREAMING AND CRYING THE ECONOMY WOULDN'T BE SO FUCKING BUSTED IF A SINGULAR CREATURE IS SUDDENLY WORTH NEAR MILLIONS OF MUSH IM LOOKING AT YOU ETHERALOTUS OR WHATEVER THE FUCK I SWEAR THEY CLAIM THEY WANT TO "BALANCE" THE GAME BUT ALL IT DOES IS MAKE IT PAY TO WIN OR BE GOD'S FUCKING FAVORITE TO WIN]

[if anyone takes this as me being whiney or like I just shouldn't play the game, I love the game when it's just that!! a game!! I hate when I have to consider CREATURE CAPITALISM or LITERAL DAYS WORTH OF EFFORT just to get A FUCKING CREATURE on the FUCKING CREATURE BASED GAME]

[and if you think death points aren't FUCKING BROKEN: completing 400 (FOUR FUCKING HUNDRED) missions is your best bet, or if you have an alt 150 kills on 5-tiers exclusively (ON 5-TIERS) because to do it by non-pvp exclusive ways would be 6 MILLION STUDS OF DISTANCE TRAVELED oR HOWEVER FUCKING HOURS BECAUSE GUESS WHAT YOUR 6 HOURS EQUATES TO FUCKING 60 POINTS OUT OF FUCKING 1200 SOMEONE ELSE CAN DO THE DAMN MATH

tHANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT

🦐

#YOURE RIGHT AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT #long post #bad cos ideas #bad creatures of sonaria ideas #creatures of sonaria #cos #roblox

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sukimas · 11 months

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in a broad sense, video games, unless they are intended to be quite literally a resource hole with no expectation of return, will always be moderated by the same market forces all things are under capitalism. social democracies or centralized economies fundamentally have to gamble on which luxuries should be supported (and they do- non-essential industries get subsidies all the time in plenty of places.)

due to the way that programming works nowadays with dependencies and such, making a game at minimum requires a good 5-6 people working on it at one time to complete. use of previously existing libraries does in fact mean the people who build and maintain those libraries count for dev numbers, even if they don't show up in the credits. most, of course, require many, many more.

therefore even under an idealized economic system, you require 3-4 NEETs on UBI working around the clock for years on end to publish a single good game. many indie teams fall apart or if their early games don't get good reviews they no longer want to keep making them. but in a more common scenario (because, let's face it, people are more likely to play big AAA-style games, even if they aren't quite AS big as the AAA games of today- marketing is necessary even if your product is totally free) the game that people are likely to play simply won't get made without outside funding. not everyone who works at a big game studio would rather work there than anywhere else excepting the paycheck; many people would in fact not make games if they had to collaborate with large teams for enough income to survive and have a little left over. in addition, hardware and software packages are needed, and not everyone who works on making THOSE only wants to do it for UBI, either. you need increased incentives for things you want to exist beyond the minimum necessary for existence, because while people do work together, they only work together well up to Dunbar's number and then it all goes to shit.

so, what's the most likely scenario under a non-capitalist economic system for the creation of video games? remember, luxuries ARE created under non-capitalist economic systems, because they make life worth living. it is plausible that some people would find video games a reason life is worth living, therefore you would want to fund it.

i expect they would be created under a system of government grants. you apply to the government with your game scenario, concept art, perhaps a short demo, and they give you grant funding. however, there's a small problem- presumably, the government cannot afford to fund every game that people want to make. perhaps some of those which aren't funded go on to become indie games made by NEETs, but the majority probably crash and burn because their concept was too ambitious.

so, you have to convince the government that your game will be well liked, in order to get the grant money, to make your game. they want to fund things that will increase the satisfaction and well-being of their constituents as much as possible, you see. do you see the issue with this?

yep, it's exactly the same issue with pleasing investors in the modern day. creative endeavors that require large teams and need to aim for an actual specific goal rather than ars gratia artis = people creating proposals that aim for specific keywords and things that are currently in vogue, not for the wildest and most interesting. this creates games that are just like modern AAA games- attempting to appeal to the market as much as possible.

now, how do I know this incentive structure will be created? well, you might have heard of heard of a small organization called the "National Science Foundation"...

#long post #art that can be created independently or mostly-independently (such as writing and visual art) will be easier under non-capitalist systems #art that requires large teams and physical resources (video games and movies et cetera) will not be

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lunarsilkscreen · 7 months

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What makes Debt an Asset, or vice versa?

Because your typical person doesn't understand this incredibly "simple" concept.

It's not simple.

Debt is an Asset, if you can sell it for more than what you owe on it.

A credit card is 100% debt, unless you staple the receipts to what you buy. Or only use it for appliance (large) purchases. Using a credit card for food is highly frowned upon. Because you typically can't return food.

If the new phone you just bought can be taken to a pawn shop for more than what you owe on your credit card, then it's an asset. All items that you do not owe money on, belongings, clothes, knick-knacks are ALL assets. Your physical property is all assets because you can sell it for some amount of cash, and not owe anything. (whether or not it's a large amount of money doesn't matter)

So your house is *only* an asset if you could sell it right now for more than you owe.

A car bought brand-new off the lot is *not* an asset. Because it depreciates in value for up to 50% as soon as you drive it off the lot. But it *does* have a warranty on it, and that warranty will get you through a lot. (But if the bank decides to take your car for lack of payment, you don't owe more on it either. Unlike what happens if you purchase a car off Craigslist with your capital one card.)

As long as what you own is.more than the debts you owe, you're in good standing. That's why many countries disallow the taking of personal property without payment. And why taking of property is frowned upon.

And why insurance exists.

So, let's say you buy a house at the very top of the market, and there's nobody you can sell it too because who *can* afford to buy a starter home for 200k dollars? Or a million, depending on city.

Not the question "who in their right mind?" I mean: who do you know that can and would pay for that?

Probably nobody.

That's what makes it debt. A buyer's market is debt. So when the bank takes your home because of the mortgage, you shouldn't owe anything more on it. (It's a good way to print money if you can time the market, take a reverse mortgage on your home, and buy a new home after the market crash.)

But then here comes the real issue: that's one of the causes of inflation. Whenever you create assets that can print more money than what it's worth, and the bank gives a loan that can't be covered, and then cannot recover that money (because it was spent, put into a trust, or used to purchase other non-revocable assets) then that's extra money the bank has printed that is now in the economy permanently.

Because the banks aren't gonna pay taxes on that purchase, after-all, they lost money.

So my question is: How do you control this *kind* of inflation? The math adds up on the banks balance sheets, there's nothing illegal. Shady, but not illegal. And yet it causes A LOT of inflation, which then will cause workers to ask to be paid more money (because DUH, inflation)

And in the process; a lot of personal property will be destroyed or lost, and millions of people will be held back from everything they've worked towards.

And then the Jews and Gays will be thrown back into camps, because who else you gonna blame? The banks? The only bankers I know are Jewish and/or Gay, so it stands to reason banks won't exist without them.

Just like last time.

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shitpostingkats · 2 years

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Would you enjoy explaining the entire lore of 5ds at someone who would very much enjoy reading it cos I know I fuckin love just rambling about lore of my favourite media at people

I have been saving this ask for days as a little treat for myself. This ask is a little cookie on the top shelf of the cupboard that I've been keeping for a rainy day.

Also, I had a hard time figuring out where the lore of 5Ds even starts. Because all of yugioh is a collage, layers and layers of the most bizarre worldbuilding all stuck together with spit and duct tape and I love it very very dearly for that but it makes it very hard to know what to cut from an overarching summary.

In short (is lying), the world of yugioh is fundamentally linked with a magic dimension of monsters and spirits that, against all logic, manifest multiple times, through the course of all human existence, as collectable trading cards. That is wild enough. Defensible, maybe, given the nature of the show as being designed to sell pieces of cardboard to children, but still incredibly extra. How does this affect human history? What are the rules for such a strange and seemingly duelist dependent magic system? What are these spirits, and what does their world look like?

Yugioh will answer none of these questions.

The only true tennant of ygo lore is that it all leads back to card games. The afterlife? Card games! Dimensional astrophysics? Card games! The creation of the universe and all life as we know it? Card games!

It doesn't really matter the staggering repercussions this has on lore, because the only thing we the viewers need concern ourselves with is how this affects the present of the shows' world. And with every new series, the standards of society become more absurd. Which is saying something, because DM features the invention of the game, an event that causes one billionaire teenager to destroy millions of dollars worth of military research, halt the production of the world's leading weapons manufacturer, and invent portable hologram projectors and several theme parks.

Yeah. The bar only gets raised from there.

Cut thirty years down the line.

There is a magic, running deeply ingrained in the structure of the universe. There are gods and ancient battles and prophecies to be fulfilled. There is an explosion of people with special powers and psychic abilities. The year is 2034.

And it's all fallen to the mundanity of the modern era.

Ygo 5Ds is one of my new paragons of urban fantasy. It truly is an ice cold and honest look at what society, specifically capitalism, would do if granted access to magic; They'd treat it like any other energy.

Magic is real, and dangerous, and it's a battery that powers your toaster. Magic is a tool and a resource, just another thing to dole out to consumers. Which means it's also something that lower classes can be deprived of. Magic is a privilege for the wealthy and the elite, and used to control those who are not. Magic is central to the workings of the universe. And we've figured out how to make it a commodity.

Now, read that previous paragraph again, but replace the word "magic" with "Card games".

#yugioh #yugioh 5ds #ygo #ygo 5ds #rambles #asks #answered asks #And this isn't even SCRATCHING THE SURFACE of some of the wild brass tacks of 5Ds lore #Like the psychic cult or the cosmic dragon gods or the celebrity culture and class warfare

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