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emperorofthedark · 10 months

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Sims Tag

Thank you @pixelatedpanic for the tag!

what’s your favorite sims death?

Mostly my sims die of old age, but I do enjoy a good death by flies.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

"Maxis Mix! My game has zero consistency but I am free."

^ THIS

Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

Nope.

Do you use move objects?

Entering "move_objects on" is the absolute first thing I do every single time I load the game.

Favorite mod?

Impossible for me to narrow it down to just one. simNopke, midgethetree, BoilingOil and so many others have completely transformed the look and behavior of my game, and I'd be lost without them.

First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

I got Sims 1 and Hot Date at Target waaaaaaaaay back in the day. 2002, I think?

Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

"aLIVE" mode.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

I play the premades almost exclusively, but I do have a very, very dark comedy neighborhood filled with original sims that I can never discuss publicly.

Have you made a simself?

A few times, but playing as myself is… weird, and unappealing.

What sims traits do you give yourself?

Loner, bookworm, dog person, family-oriented, socially awkward.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Black or red.

Favorite EA hair?

My bland ass really likes the low bun that Mary-Sue wears.

Favorite life stage?

Adult, tbh. It's the easiest and has the most options.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the game play?

An equal amount of both, I think.

Are you a CC creator?

I wish, but it is beyond my abilities.

Do you have any simblr friends/a sims squad?

I do, and I adore them.

What’s your favorite game (1,2,3,4)?

Sims 2!

Do you have any sims merch?

I have a couple of magnets I bought on redbubble (the pink milk carton with Bella's face, and a cowplant), but other than the games themselves, not really.

Do you have a youtube for sims?

Sometimes I consider it, but ultimately, no. I can't stand the sound of my own voice, and video editing seems like something I would not excel at.

How has your “sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I used to download CC indiscriminately, and had my game so bloated with every random possible style, just in case I needed it someday. I've cleaned it out a lot, and am trying for a more consistent aesthetic. Grungy and rundown, but not necessarily diseased.

What’s your origin ID?

spookythings or spookierthings, I'll have to look. Mostly my daughter uses it, and I'm just the sentient credit card hitting the "buy now" button.

Who’s your favorite cc creator?

@serabiet

How long have you had a simblr?

Since 2012, I believe. I had finally cobbled together the first chapter of Emperor of the Dark, only to realize that everyone had migrated from LJ over to Tumblr.

How do you edit your pictures?

I have an unhinged assortment of Photoshop actions I've created over the years, and just continuously tweak them as I learn new tricks.

What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

Obviously Sims 2 is done now, and I don't play Sims 3 or 4, but more supernatural/occult, anyway.

Or maybe something hobby oriented. I like to bake and am learning to knit irl, so a pack of some sort emphasizing those types of things might be interesting. If I played TS4.

I'm tagging @bayoubashsims, @serabiet, @nigmos, @ghostwaltzsims, @medleymisty and @ofmdee, but feel free to ignore.

#text post #meme #nonsims

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happy-lemon · 11 months

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Get to Know Me - Sims Edition

I was tagged by @papermint-airplane, who you should follow if you're not already.

What’s your favorite Sims death?

I didn't think I had an answer for this because I don't usually kill my sims...and then I remember that the first story I posted on tumblr was a Black Widow Challenge. I think my perennial favorite is the old pool with no ladders trick, which got harder in Sims 3. But if you put cones and caution tape around the pool while someone is swimming... I mean, how did they miss those warning signs when they went swimming? *walks away whistling*

Alpha CC or MaxisMatch?

For Sims 3 I like Alpha hair, skin, makeup, skin details, etc, but I don't mind a lot of the EA clothes. With the right texture or pattern, some of those things can be really cute. And really...I guess it's the same for Sims 4.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

In Sims 3, no. In Sims 4, it's situational. I don't have an issue with overweight sims. I'm overweight myself. But it drove me bananas when Noa, an active sim who swims every single day for her job didn't lose the baby weight. So...sometimes?

Do you move objects?

Absolutely. It's the bane of my existence that you can't pick up and move sims in Sims 4.

Favorite Mod?

My favorites are all the toddler mods by @thesweetsimmer111.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

Livin' Large for Sims 1. I bought the first game for my kids and we just kept going from there. Now, I'm the only one who still plays. My first experience with the franchise goes back to playing Sim City on a Macintosh computer in college, so now you know I'm super old.

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing

aLIVE

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

Okay, so if we count sims born in-game, then in Sims 3 it would clearly be Keahi Solomon. If that doesn't count, then I'd say Ciaran Delaney. For Sims 4, it would be Travis Stephenson.

Have you made a simself?

I don't think? If I did, it would have been in my Sims 2 era, but I don't remember doing so.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

My favorite is almost always pale blonde, either Sims 3 or Sims 4. I rarely use it because I'm super aware that I could easily overuse it.

Favorite EA hair?

None of them in Sims 3. In Sims 4, I like the casual side braid.

Favorite life stage?

In Sims 3, it's toddler. All day, every day. Gimme those adorable toddlers! In Sims 4, the baaaaaaabies. OMG. The babies. I can't get enough.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I haven't gotten the hang of building in Sims 4 yet. Everyone says it's easier but I find it kind of daunting. I enjoy building in Sims 3, but I wouldn't consider myself a builder. Which is a long way to say... gameplay.

Are you a CC creator?

I'm not. I wish I had that skill.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

I do have Simblr friends! At least I think we're friends? And I became friends with @papermint-airplane through the Sims 3 sub on Reddit.

Do you have any sims merch?

I don't, but I think my daughter might still have the plumbob flash drive somewhere in the depths of her closet.

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Trust me, no one wants to see that.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Not a lot, really. I'm still a storyteller (I used to write Sims 2 stories on the TSR community forum) but I'm trying to get better at screenshots.

What’s your origin id?

It's not really worth sharing because I don't do anything online.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

There are so many that I could make a list, but I tend to return to B5 Studio stuff time and time again. I have the entire Grant Park collection and if I make a house that doesn't have one of their doors, please make sure I haven't been kidnapped.

How long have you had simblr?

I think about a year and a half? I really only started it so I'd have a place to post screenshots that wouldn't get downvoted to hell, and I found a really fun community. Y'all are the best.

How do you edit your pictures?

I have zero photoshop skills so I just try to go for composition, angles, and lighting and hope for the best. Doesn't always work, but sometimes I get some bangers.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite?

Sims 3: University, because it has my beloved Jeffery Dean.

Sims 4: Growing Together, because baaaaaabies!

I'm tagging @nectar-cellar, @rebouks, @llamaheart, @erasabledinosaur, @getboolpropped, and @elderwisp. If you've already done it, this message will self-destruct in five second. And if you haven't been tagged yet and want to do it, consider yourself tagged by me.

#meme #tag meme #tag game #get to know me meme #get to know me

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gashface · 11 months

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Hey thrill-seekers with a goofy twist,

Your showtime performances how wow-ed the crowd! All that juggling and lion taming really showed this week. This week everyone really impressed me! We really are a bunch of clowns, with talent <3

Onto the results! This week I was looking for unique ideas, that you would see if you'd visit any sort of circus!

Charline Morel by @cyazurai

Well, at the circus we have clowns, acrobats, lion tamers, sword swallowers, the ringmaster, and all sorts of other things… but one of the less common sideshows was one of Charlie’s absolute favorites. It��s full of adrenaline and a one-of-a-kind fear of death - the daredevil. It was a rush of fear; a person mounted upon the back of a death trap, hurtling around a circular wall, only held aloft by centrifugal force and a lot of control over the machine beneath them. Was it a lack of fear that drove them forward, or a fear of standing still? Of being motionless, of boredom? Whatever it was… it was fascinating and terrifying to behold.

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 10/10

STORY: 9/10

EXECUTION: 8/10

STYLE: 8/10

Parker Winston by @morgynemberisagenderfluiddaddy

When I first joined the circus, I was just a kid running away from a family that didn't love me. I was so desperate to find myself, but all I found was him. He was a contortionist, able to fit in all sorts of unusual boxes, but that wasn't where his true talent lied. I'm not sure he even knew where he belonged or who he really was, he spent so long morphing into something he wasn't. Though that didn't stop me from falling for the shape he had woven himself into that week. He took me under his wing and taught me all his tricks, pretty soon I was just as good at shifting away from my problems, too. He taught me to contort, and I let him morph me into something I wasn't either. I tied myself in knots, I've broken bones, and shifted features for him. Once he left me I was such a strange shape that I didn't fit in anywhere. But I learned, I lived through the pain, and instead of changing who I was I let it shape me. As strange as I may seem to others, I am a beautiful creature, and I don't need anyone to tell me differently. A gorgeous abnormality. So hear me when I say, don't bend, don't break, believe in yourself first.

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 10/10

STORY: 10/10

EXECUTION: 9/10

STYLE: 9/10

Eli Sims by @simsinfinitylt

Madame Zelena had been able to speak to spirits since she was a little girl. The other children in the orphanage had mocked and feared her for it. Unable to find a place in normal society, Zelena eventually found a home in the circus, using her gift as an act. The audiences gasped as she relayed messages from their dearly departed, thinking it was all part of the show. But Zelena knew the truth. The dead were restless, and they refused to leave her in peace.

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 9/10

STORY: 8/10

EXECUTION: 10/10

STYLE: 8/10

Ember Arendse by @wolfrynn313

"Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, I'm stuck in the middle with you" - Stealers Wheel. Ember: "As soon as I saw this week's prompt I knew that I had to do a shoot where I'm portraying a clown. Circus theme aside, you may wonder "Why a clown specifically?". Clowns are often feared and at times rejected by wider society due to the fact that their arduously painted expressions evoke a primal fear and uneasiness in people; the reason for this? People are coded to gauge other people's moods via their expressions and body language and clown's expressions do not truly reflect the paint wearer's mood or intention. As a non-binary person who is often viewed under a skeptical lense and even distrusted at times due to my own chosen form of self expression and identity, I thought it important to align myself with a group of people who are also frequently misunderstood and alienated due to the way/s they choose to express themselves"

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 7/10

STORY: 9/10

EXECUTION: 10/10

STYLE: 9/10

Babylon Fleur Beppu by @everythingaestheticlly

In a forgotten corner of the world, a girl found herself trapped in a life she never chose. Within the colorful chaos of the circus, she danced on tightropes, defied gravity, and painted smiles on faces she couldn't touch. Each night, as the applause faded, tears stained her pillow. But deep inside, a spark flickered, refusing to be extinguished. With relentless determination, she honed her talents in secret. One moonlit eve, she vanished from the circus, leaving behind a note of gratitude. In the spotlight of her own destiny, she bloomed, no longer a captive, but a liberated soul, forever free.

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 7/10

STORY: 8/10

EXECUTION: 9/10

STYLE: 9/10

Dillion Carter by @mewo-ita

Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Pearlie recruited into a flying circus. She juggled, did acrobatics, talked with animals that couldn’t talk back— she grew to love her life there. How wacky and magical it all was. However, after doing the same thing after a long while, she wished upon a shooting star for something more new and magical. The opportunity came the next day, with the sight of a flying elephant high in the sky. They grew to be happy partners at the circus— flying all over. Pearlie named him Dumbo and they grew to be happy partners at the circus.

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 9/10

STORY: 9/10

EXECUTION: 10/10

STYLE: 10/10

GOOD WORK EVERYONE!~

I wasn't kidding when I said I loved all your guy's submissions this week. It certainly was a strong week for all of you, and I am so proud of every single one of you <3 Thank you to everyone who submitted this week!

INFORMATION FOR THE NEXT PROMPT WILL BE RELEASED AROUND 10:00PM AEST 9th of June [Keep in mind, this will be the 8th for many of you haha]

This week's prompt hint!

That's all guys! Can't wait to see what everyone does for WEEK 4!

- Buddy

#SHINE #week3 #results #<3 #ts4 competition #sims 4 competition #TS4 #sims 4 #HONESTLY SO PROUD OF EVERYONE #AS A LOVER OF CLOWNS AND CIRCUS SHIT #THIS WAS SO LOVELY TO SEE #TY EVERYONE

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justaddgame · 2 years

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GOTY 2021: Honorable Mentions

POWERWASH SIMULATOR

This year I got really curious about simulation games. Growing up, I shared playtime with my sister over things adjacently similar like The Sims and classic management sims such as Roller Coaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon. Just about everyone can find the fun in games like those, but sims like Euro Truck Simulator and Farm Simulator? I think they take a certain kind of appreciation; an attention to detail that largely speaks to people who already get it, or have the urge to explore something unfamiliar on familiar ground.

Thankfully, for those like me that are afraid of the deep end, there’s been a recent trend of oddly specific simulator games. These sims don’t require a companion manual or serious tech like a racing wheel. Sims like PowerWash Simulator may not even teach you very much, but I’ve learned it’s an appreciation for the mundane that’s being tapped into. I can’t tell you why I enjoy power washing someone’s rusted-over car or polishing a driveway. It’s just something you feel while playing a sim like this one.

It wouldn’t be worth mentioning if the game itself wasn’t well designed for what it wants to accomplish, and even in its Early Access state, there’s a great foundation here, and developer FuturLab continues to update it on a frequent basis. If you fancy a need for something urgency-free, the continuous developments within PowerWash’s Career and Challenge modes will help you discover what the genre is all about.

TONY HAWK’S AMERICAN SKATELAND

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2’s surprise release on Nintendo Switch offered fans a modern Tony Hawk game on handheld, but there’s a long history of this franchise going portable. From Sony’s PSP to, surprisingly, Nintendo’s GameBoy Advance. But nestled in between those was Vicarious Vision’s excellent Nintendo DS entry, Tony Hawk’s American Skateland, a sort-of demake of the similar Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland released on console.

This was one of the first games I completed this year kept me glued to my DS from beginning to end. It was praised at the time for being more than just an experimental port; everything from the art style to the controls takes advantage of the hardware it’s on while also managing to deliver an authentic Tony Hawk experience. The classic tricks, the authentic soundtrack, the free-roam level design, the story mode packed with creative missions, and the ability to create your own skater. Vicarious Visions left nothing behind.

If you find yourself feeling nostalgic about the DS, I highly recommend making time for this gem.

LITTLE NIGHTMARES

Little Nightmares was one of a handful of brief games that took only a couple of days to blast through, making each one a nice reset between those games demanding more hours as you’re quickly losing daylight. Of them all, I especially liked this twisted, creepy journey wrapped in a puzzle-platformer with an outcome that definitely stuck with me for more than a day or two.

It’s a well-directed story that tasks you as a small child, named Six, to escape The Maw with nothing to defend herself or even a clue of why she’s there. The narrative itself remains silent throughout the game, forcing you to decipher the meaning through dread of the surroundings and the unimaginable things living there. The first encounter of Little Nightmares’ ghoulish creatures was enough to give me pause, and not something I’ve felt outside of something like Silent Hill or Resident Evil. It isn’t especially difficult in terms of gameplay. There are no real game overs and the puzzles won’t leave you scratching your head. Solutions are largely driven by outwitting your captors, which can lead to several failures until that “ah-ha” moment arrives. It was sometimes repetitive, but there are several tense scenes, and one in particular near the finale that had absolutely stellar camera work.

You’ll spend far more time with other games, but Little Nightmares, and other games like it, know we’re busy, and can still succeed to entertain with less.

MARIO GOLF: SUPER RUSH

It hasn’t been easy to be a Mario Sports fan in recent years.

While Mario Kart continued as strong as ever, practically eclipsing all other recreational activities in the Mushroom Kingdom, games like Super Mario Strikers, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, and Mario Power Tennis were yet to be replicated as Nintendo entered the HD era. Glimpses of a revival often turned out to be more experimental and disappointingly safe, such as the Wii U’s Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash.

Are the glory days back with Mario Golf: Super Rush? That remains to be seen, but it’s a promising step in the right direction. If nothing else, the opening cinematic was a brilliant nod to the fans of Camelot’s chaotic shorts featuring Wario and Waluigi hijinks. The core gameplay is solid, though, and actually made a better golfer—only virtually, but still. The story mode itself was far more in depth that I expected and had enough surprises for a fun distraction. Recent updates have rounded the package out to a respectable degree, as well.

Super Rush didn’t meet fans’ expectations unanimously, and those reasons aren’t without merit. But in many ways Super Rush felt like it was at least acknowledging the past games unwillingness to go beyond good enough. And I think it rose above that in places. Let’s hope someone at Nintendo keeps the fire burning, meanwhile.

WARIOWARE: GET IT TOGETHER!

Among the numerous franchises within the magical Nintendo well, WarioWare seems to spring up when we need it most. After a hiatus that saw a couple of spinoffs in the form of Wii U’s Game and Wario and 3DS’s WarioWare Gold, the next evolution in microgames appeared this year on Switch with WarioWare: Get it Together! The initial trailer was both promising and exciting—it certainly looked like WarioWare.

But the latest twist was putting us in direct control of Wario and his Diamond City cohorts. I got the impression after release that not everyone was sold on this new idea, but it ended up being one of my favorite features. What makes WarioWare unique is that repetition is a feature—not a detraction. Each character controls in a unique way, meaning your perspective within every microgame changes slightly upon revisiting them. Flipping light switches is easy when you can move in any direction. Now try doing it when you can’t move. How does jumping over and over again sound?

I’d argue it was a smart design choice given that the WarioWare formula has seen many iterations now, and was in need of a strong comeback. I’m not sure where Nintendo will go forward with WarioWare in the future, but Get it Together! was a neat surprise this year, and a reassurance that innovation is alive and well in Diamond City.

#powerwash simulator #tony hawk's american skateland #little nightmares #mario golf super rush #warioware get it together #goty 2021

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needletail · 3 years

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Nintendogs vs Nintendogs + Cats: a review and comparison.

There’s no doubt that most people want a new Nintendogs game for the Nintendo Switch. But when I see these posts, very few of them are referencing the 3ds variant of the game, but rather the original ds version that everyone continues to know and love.

The addition of cats is Nintendogs + Cats’ most notable feature. It was, while cute and fun for a short period of time, notably worse than its predecessor. But why is that? The formula stayed roughly the same, but the charm didn’t quite hit.

Before we dive into this: these are my opinions on the games, and personal comparisons. Every person experiences things differently, and will likely have different opinions.

We can start with breaking down the original Nintendogs. The graphics have not aged well, but the charm and entertainment factor have. While replaying, I found that the general ambience and the music used endeared me further to the game, and I wanted to play more. The half hour timer on going for walks was frustrating (as was the stamina system), but it otherwise engaged me more to figure out where I wanted to go. The map feels surprisingly big with so much to do, and the side-scrolling walk screen keeps the mystery alive in what you’ll encounter. The competitions were fun and the voice recognition system may have been even better than the 3ds incarnation. The only thing that really suffered were the graphics - but this game is 15 years old and this was advanced for its time, so we can let that slide. The dogs can be a little strange to look at at times, but they’re expressive and distinct, which is what matters in a pet simulator.

The information you can take in is optional, but an exciting part of the game for those who are interested. Your dog’s profile is detailed but easy to understand, going as far as to tell you what it ate last. There’s something so charming about it being displayed as if it were a document you had in front of you - it brings another element of immersion into this sim.

[Image ID: a photograph of the informational sheet on Nintendogs. It includes the name, gender, breed, trainer, time together, coat, hunger, thirst, and things eaten. The trick list and contest results are also on this screen.]

From cars passing by to horns in the distance and dog barks from somewhere vaguely nearby, the sound design of Nintendogs is audibly aged, but still strong. The few tracks spread in the game are iconic, and stay in my head a lot longer than I’d like to admit.

The competitions are another huge highlight of the original nintendogs. The banter between the hosts, Ted and Archie, is something that continues to be remembered. Everyone’s seen the line “you make me feel like a man, Archie”, and the banter they keep up in each competition is less like a mindless tapping chore and just more entertainment. The settings are surprisingly realistic - less so on the obedience, but the ring set up for agility certainly is. The balance between realism and fun is another part of why Nintendogs appealed to all audiences.

Agility is my personal favourite event, and the same goes for a lot of people I’ve met. There’s a level of interactivity here that isn’t met by the successor (something we’ll touch on later). Guiding your dog over hurdles and through tunnels, and later having to balance speed with accuracy - it’s an event that keeps you, the player, engaged. It becomes a sort of fine art once you hit the Championship level, as your dog, by that point, is likely going to be very fast and have a mind of its own, often trying to predict which obstacles it’s going to go through.

[Image ID: an angled photograph of the starter agility training course. The dog is laying on the green, and the hurdles and tunnels are in view.]

Disc is in both versions, and is fun in its own way. I, personally, don’t tend to use the disc competition - in the original Nintendogs, the projectiles can be a little speedier than you intend them to be, and the dogs are a little too determined to hold onto their toys. But, with a well-trained dog, this event can be as fun as anything else. In the original, you didn’t have to contend with the other dogs - something that I’ve grown to appreciate over the years. But, like with the event that removed Agility, I’ll be looking at how the changes fared later.

Obedience is held on a stage, and is a fun event for people who take the time to train their dogs. Your dog can typically learn three or four tricks a day (depending on the dog), and between the tricks listed in the Obedience Guide Book and the unlisted tricks that your dog can learn, you can usually blow the competition out of the park. It definitely requires the most time and effort out of all of the events, and it can be frustrating if your dog suddenly stops listening - but the rewards are surprisingly good. It’s always fun to have a well-trained Nintendog, if only because showing them off when I was a child was my favourite thing to do.

Obviously, competitions are the main money-makers in these games. Tackle a solid few of them, and you’ll find yourself able to afford another dog or two. Though your room is limited to three dogs, there’s also a Hotel to keep some other dogs in. As time progresses and you gain more of a bond with your dog(s), you’ll unlock more breeds.

Something that went over my head when I was a child was the method to unlock Jack Russells, specifically. You need to find an incredibly rare book - something which I don’t ever recall doing, and still haven’t. I found this information via the wikia, so I’m not too sure how accurate is, but it is an interesting breed to lock behind a time and patience-based method.

[Image ID: an angled image of a German Shepherd laying on its side. In the corner is an idea bubble.]

Overall, Nintendogs is a solid and fun pet simulator, and it’s clear why so many people have such good memories. The dogs are filled with personality (even being expressive enough to show you when they’re angry vs happy), the competitions are engaging, and though the format will become stale after playing daily for a long time, it’s always a fun game to come back to after a period of time.

Which is why it’s unsurprisingly that it gained a sequel.

I remember being ecstatic when Nintendogs + Cats was shown in advertisements on television. When I got the 3ds, I also got a copy of Nintendogs + Cats. The Golden Retriever version, specifically, but I do own all three. For some reason? As people got bored with it, they usually gifted me them.

At first blush, it’s almost as charming as the original. The graphics style handles much better than the original, with slightly more realistic movements, and less cardboard-y models. I much prefer the Nintendogs + Cats models to the originals, for obvious reasons - though their movements can be a little repetitive and strange at times, and a lot less expressive than the originals. But that said, I much prefer the Kennel system of petting and exploring the dogs and their behaviours (limited as they are) before you adopt, and I enjoy sorting through colours or getting unique colours/patterns. The rare white variants used to be my obsession, as a child.

[Image ID: a german shepherd holding a present in Nintendogs + Cats. The model is significantly better than the original Nintendogs model.]

Immediately, though, there’s a lot less ambience in Nintendogs + Cats. I play with my volume up all the way, and it’s typically just my dogs and cat making noises. I miss the cars going by and the general background noise that the game can provide. It feels just a little too silent, and the music tracks are repetitive and unmemorable for the most part. Obviously sound design don’t make or break the game, so I won’t harp on this point for too long.

The gameplay is...fine? I’m not a fan of petting a shadow of my dog, but I understand they did that for 3D purposes (something which most people didn’t use, to the point that the 2DS was made. I play on a 2DS). The camera control is an incredibly nice feature to have, the showering minigame is a little more thorough. They didn’t really add anything to the care features, though. If anything, they took away a lot of experiences - reading the care books and instead guiding you through the tricks one by one instead of as you want, forcing you to learn a specific set of tricks before you can move on to the next ones. The game is far more hand-holdy, which can be frustrating at multiple points. But, hey. There’s cats! Let’s talk about the cats.

What’s their purpose? Not much. Which is fine, although they take up a slot in your three-pet designation. As cute as the cats are, they definitely got done dirty. There’s three selections to choose from (Standard, Oriental, and Long-hair), with multiple colours, but not much depth beyond that. Obviously, the cats were just a cute addition - I do like having my little cat wandering around the house with my two dogs, and I know from past experiences that once you bond with the cat, it’ll go out and get presents for you if you leave your ds on. Gaining affection with the cats is very slow-going and if you’re someone who likes your pet simulations to be more interactive, it might be wiser to stick with the dogs. I’m not complaining against the addition of cats - it just could’ve been done much smoother, with better mechanics enabled. Be it adding some breeds and a proper grooming minigame to maintain them, or the ability to train them but have them be much harder than the dogs. There were many ways to put cats into the game, and I just don’t think they hit as intended.

So, how did they do with the competitions? Well.

The short answer: they’re pretty bland, and a downgrade from the original. The long answer...

[Image ID: a white cocker spaniel chewing on a banana lure.]

In the competitions, there’s no more Ted/Archie banter. It’s just Ted. Doing his thing. I honestly do not read the text for this game, and instead tap quickly to progress to the events.

Replacing Agility comes Lure Coursing. I’m not sure about other countries, but that’s an incredibly niche section of dog sporting here, and it’s also notorious for being...very boring. And in the game, it lives up to that. Instead of guiding your dog through obstacles, you wind the cog of a lure and honk it to get the dog to follow it. Sometimes you honk it to get them over hurdles. I have to admit, I usually space out when I’m training my dogs with this - it’s an easy moneymaker once you’ve trained them up to Nintendogs Cup level, but it’s easily the most mind-numbing event. Anything would’ve been better. If they didn’t want to implement Agility, there are other dog sports that could’ve suited well; guiding your dog through the Flyball course and using its name to bring it back until it could do it on command (maybe even utilising a team of three, for reason as to why you can have up to three dogs), or sledding, using your dog to pull a lightweight sled (on wheels) through a course in a race against other dogs (or, again, even using your trio). There could have even been scenting sport in which you teach your dog how to scent and go off to find a mark, or herding. The point is: lure coursing is the most unengaging thing to put in a game.

The Disc competition barely changes, so I won’t say much. I don’t particularly enjoy having the other dogs in the ring to compete with as it becomes all too easy for them to interfere heavily with your own dog, but I understand why it was implemented and know that a lot of people enjoy it. I prefer the throwing speed and the control you can have over the disc, and will admit that overall, the Disc competition is generally improved.

But then you come to the Obedience Trial. AR Cards are mandatory. You don’t have a surface to put your AR Cards on, or lost them years ago? Then you can’t do it. I actually ordered AR Cards, having thrown out my old ones due to damages and general...lack of use. As of this post, I have been unable to play the Obedience Trial, so I can’t say much on whether the system has improved. I do know that AR Cards can work on a laptop screen or something similar, but the 3ds camera is pretty horrible and can glitch out, making it unreliable for screen-based AR cards. Unfortunately.

[Image ID: a white cocker spaniel standing on an AR Card.]

The walking system is fine. I love being able to go to different routes (as limited as they can be - but the original was no saint to repetitiveness once you knew the whole map), and I like having to go between grass patches, with a chance for a surprise present. I think the addition of the BARC stores are a cute touch, and the Miis walking their own dogs are cute, too. The interactions between your dog and theirs is based on your dog’s personality as well as theirs, which makes sense - but there’s basically three outcomes. More than the original, but meeting with other dogs tends to be to see if you can backtrack when you’re near the end of the walk by having them invite you to the cafe or park, or to get presents from Streetpass miis. I like the cone minigame to test your control over the dog and its leash, and as a rule, I just...like it. It’s relaxing. I don’t prefer it over the original, but I don’t prefer the original over it. They both have their benefits and downfalls. The biggest upside to + Cats’ system is that you can take your dog on as many walks as you want.

Interactivity isn’t really a thing, with + Cats. Whereas in the original you could legitimately piss off your dog and it would bark and snarl at you for a while before you regained its trust, this game doesn’t punish you for much. I poked and prodded at my dog for a while, and it didn’t really do much for me. This is a game where you sort of just have cute looking models that hold up surprisingly well for their time, and that’s it. There’s not much game to the game, as it were - and that’s from a game where the gameplay was limited as it was.

Adding multiple accessories to your pets is a very nice addition, albeit expected. Overall, though, the gameplay has been significantly dumbed down and while I understand that kids play it, my generation played Nintendogs as small children and we got by just fine. It’s a very intuitive game, and it’s almost insulting how little Nintendogs + Cats thinks of its audience.

Another nice addition to Nintendogs + Cats, though, is body type for your pets. There’s a few that your pet can be: underfed, skinny, optimal, plump, and overfed. I usually have optimal dogs, but apparently plump and overfed dogs run slower and as such they do poorer in competitions, which is a pretty neat feature to have in-game.

In the short of it, Nintendogs + Cats is fine, but Nintendogs (the original) is Good. I have a lot more nostalgia for Nintendogs which may cloud my opinion, but playing it in 2020 is still fun, and I’m especially happy to play the Agility competition.

For an interactive pet simulator with fun competitions and plenty to do, Nintendogs is the way to go. For a pretty enough game with simplistic gameplay, Nintendogs + Cats is the way to go.

Both games have their perks, but I certainly have a clear favourite. If a Switch edition of Nintendogs ever happened, I’d much prefer the original style with some of the quality of life changes made in the successor. In the end, it’s all up to what you’re looking for in a game - but as someone who’s looking for a fun time, I’m a sucker for the originals.

(Note: I have not played the knock-off Nintendogs for Switch, and would appreciate input on if it’s worth buying or not. Reviews are poor at best, as far as I can tell, though.)

#nintendogs #nintendogs + cats #video games #game review #eph reviews

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lateknightsimmer · 3 years

Text

Sims Tag Game

Rules:

Pick a sim of your choice

Tell us about them

Tag someone else (if you want to!)

I was tagged by @lilyshadowwriter to do the Sims Tag Game. Aww, haha, my first little thing I’ve been tagged in since I started paying attention to my Tumblr again. Thanks! You’re a sweetie. I’ll tag @freckled-pixels because I ♥ wuv her. LOL.

I’m choosing my Generation 3 heir from Echoes of Eternity, the current generation I’m writing.

Name: Armand Decimus Hunt

When is your sim’s birthday? Mimicking LilyShadow here, I’m a bad Sim Mom. I have a super nerdy reference sheet of everyone’s ages, from Generation 1 - Generation 3 (both main and supporting characters, yes like I said I’m super nerdy), but I didn’t give them any specific birthdays. I do know that as of the most recent chapter, Armand is 22.

What is your sim’s zodiac sign? *has to go in game to look it up* *pretty sure I just randomized it* *so if Armand’s personality that I wrote has nothing to do with his zodiac sign, that’s fucking why* ---- VIRGO.

Marital Status: Single.

Does your sim have any nicknames? No. I have bad RL experiences with nicknames, so I tend to not nickname my Sims either. Unless it’s like an obvious shortening that’s something like Maximus (my legacy founder), and he gets called Max. But no nicknames like he has a quirk, so he gets a nickname. None of that shit. LOL. Armand’s name is two syllables and calling him “Arm” or “And” just sounds stupid. LOL.

Do they have a job? Armand just graduated from college, and he is still looking for a job.

Where does your sim live? Armand lives in this three story split level house in Twinbrook, Louisiana.

Who does your sim live with? Armand lives with his best friend, Remy, a Louisiana native.

What environment did your sim grow up in? Armand had a neglectful, spiteful mother, and a kind, loving father. They couldn’t have been more polar opposite from each other. Literal environment wise, Armand grew up in Silicon Shores, California.

What is your sim’s favorite food? *goes in game again to look because doesn’t know* *again probably randomized* *shitty Sim Mom, knows it* --- GRILLED SALMON. Armand is damn fancy.

What is your sim’s favorite drink? Alcohol - Armand likes screwdrivers, they’re pretty simple yet delicious. Non-Alcohol - Armand likes 2% milk.

If they have one, what is your sim’s favorite color? *goes in game again* *doesn’t know* *you know the drill now* --- LIME.

Is your sim introverted or extroverted? Introverted.

What is your sims favorite woohoo position? Armand enjoys being on top of the girl he’s woohoo-ing with so he can see her reactions. He wants his partner to have ultimate pleasure, and the girl’s face often reflects whether the pleasure is there or not.

Is your sim a pet person? No. Armand is often lost in thought in his head, he’s self-aware, but he has a lot of things to think about. He doesn’t really want to put his mind in a place where he might accidently neglect a pet just because he’s spacing off about something.

Does your sim have a best friend? Yes, Armand’s best friend is also his roommate, Remy.

What is / was your sim’s favorite school subject? Art class, anything that has to do with painting, drawing, or sketching.

Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? Armand just graduated from college. He’s been done for about a month.

Does your sim have a favorite TV show? Armand likes Penn & Teller’s Fool Us. It’s a magic show where Penn & Teller try to guess how a magician does his trick. They also give magicians whose tricks they cannot guess a chance to perform at their venue in Las Vegas. This is Armand’s favorite show because it reminds him of his father (a magician), whom he loves and adores dearly.

Does your sim like books? Armand has mixed feelings about books. On one hand, they remind him of his terrible mother, but it’s not like he won’t touch the things. The memories suck, but he did read his textbooks when he needed to for college. However, he wouldn’t turn to books for fun.

What is your sim’s personal style? Armand has a bit of a rock star style, he has some shirts that are ripped in just the right places, and he’s not afraid to wear something that looks a little messy. Armand’s family has a dark hot pink hair gene, started from his great-grandfather, Alexander Hunt, which makes Armand not shy away from bright colors in his outfits.

Is your sim religious? Not really. Patrick (Armand’s father) raised Armand with good values, but they weren’t tied to religious ideals. Although some of them might have similar ideals, like treat others with kindness and respect, it wasn’t religion that was the driving force behind it.

What kind of music does your sim listen to? Armand likes when he plays the guitar, although he hasn’t written anything himself, he does like what he plays. He also likes pop music, like the song Ghost by Ella Henderson.

What is your sim’s favorite type of weather? Armand likes California weather, sunshine, a light breeze, 70s for the high, 40s for the low. He doesn’t like a lot of humidity, he’s finding out as he lives in Louisiana for now. LOL.

Does your sim have a dream job? Armand would love to paint and be a famous artist, selling his art to high end galleries. He just wants to let his creativity out and be paid for it. LOL.

Does your sim have any siblings? No. Armand’s parents didn’t get along very well after he was born, so they never came together long enough to make or want to make any siblings for their son.

Does your sim get along with their family? Yes and no. Armand’s always gotten along with his father, grandfather, and grandmother. He never got along with his mother, who is now deceased. He does get along with his new step-mother.

What is your sims favorite hobby? Armand loves to sing and play his guitar.

What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? For now, Armand has just been playing the field, he’s slept with a few women without searching too hard for romance. All he knows is he doesn’t want anyone who remotely resembles his crazy dead mother.

What is a flaw your sim has? Armand has a traumatic past so he has a bad habit of getting into cycles where his brain makes him think he hates himself and that he’s worthless. He knows at this point that none of that is true, and he’s working on it.

Does your sim have a greatest achievement? Armand is still young and he has his whole life ahead of him, but he would probably say his greatest achievement for now, is that he was able to overcome the bad memories that he associated with his childhood home. He recently visited his parents’ home for Thanksgiving break and he was able to feel happy while being in that house, which is something he’d never been able to do until now.

If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Armand’s mom died young, and their relationship had always been super shitty. His regret is that he couldn’t patch things up with her (if that was even possible) while she was alive.

Wooo! Thanks for tagging me! ♥ This was great fun.

#Lilyshadowwriter #freckled-pixels #OC #Armand Decimus #TS3 #EchoesofEternity

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shortie-babe · 3 years

Text

(I said I would draw my obey me oc. So here it is!) (Sorry about the bad quality I did it on paper because I don’t have enough money for the stuff it draw it digital. Also I’m trying to get better at human anatomy with drawing so it’s bad)

Obey Me Oc:

Emma

Everyday wear:

Night wear:

(I did night wear and party wear chibi style so it can be smaller)

Party wear:

Sexuality: Bisexual

Pronouns: she,her

Race: human

Hight: 5’0 (with her boots she’s 5’3)

Age: 19

About Oc:

• a very sweet and caring girl. Smart with school (especially classes at rad), but can be clueless most times with anything else. Can be very immature sometimes with certain people.

•she’s a big jokester, especially when she’s flustered. When she’s flustered she doesn’t know how to react so she makes jokes but her face just gets redder and redder. And she gets flustered a lot..( Solomon loves this. Makes it funnier to tease her)

• when first meeting the brothers and diavolo she was surprisingly calm and happy.., it confused the brothers (especially Lucifer) thinking ‘why is she so calm?’ , ‘shouldn’t she be quivering in fear?’ , and other stuff like that. Diavolo seemed to enjoy how happy she was. She wasn’t afraid at all..she’s really clueless with danger, but she was just happy to be somewhere new, with new people, and new things. Mainly the people. She was happy she was able to make new friends (reasons I may discuss in a comic or something)

• although she smiles a lot she’s a big cry baby.

• she’s always trying to help others be it the brothers, her friends at Purgatory Hall, and even random demons( which has lead her into some trouble. And possibly 1 or 2 demon friends that aren’t the demon brothers. Demons that wanna eat her can easily trick her into helping them then they can eat her, but Lucifer or any one of the brothers step in to help her. (Even Solomon has helped some times but of course not letting her off easy and will constantly tease her about it.)

• always wants to be with at least one of the brothers, Solomon, Simeon, or even Luke. ( not because she’s scared of the demons. Just because she’s not the best with social interactions and can get shy sometimes.) (she’s mainly with mammon or Solomon.)

• great friends with Solomon ( maybe some romantic stuff happens who knows?) even though she likes to annoy him most times. Or says she doesn’t like his teasing when in reality she does like it..she just probably doesn’t know she likes it.

• she sees Luke as a little brother even though he’s definitely a lot older then her. She still sees him like that. Always wanting to protect him and make him feel safe. Also loves baking with him.

• A big otaku, which leads her to watching anime, playing games, and even cosplaying with Leviathan.

•the biggest foodie a human can be. Can’t eat no where near as much as beel. But can eat a lot. Which leads them to eat together a lot of times. ( which makes them two very happy)

• definitely sleeps with belphie most nights. Listen, she loves cuddling him or playing with his hair til he falls asleep. ( when mammon catches them he gets really jealous and demands to sleep with her too. Which she is more then happy to! I mean more cuddles for her! So hells yeah! Belphie though..he doesn’t like it at all)

• she also loves sitting next to Satan or cuddleing him while they both read. ( she loves it happening most when it’s raining, snowing, or when it’s cold outside.

• always checking on the brothers. She loves them to death and wants to make sure they’re okay Physically and mentally. Mainly Lucifer and belphie. Lucifer works to hard so he stays up most nights or skips meals a lot. Which makes her worry a lot and try to convince Lucifer go to sleep or eat. She once stayed up all night just trying to convince Lucifer to go to sleep. She ended up passing out and Lucifer had to bring her to her room. Also worries with belphie because when he sleeps all day sometimes he forgets to eat, move around, or to go to school. She try’s to wake him up and when she does she legit drags him out the bed. She loves them to death though.

• she’s a huge pyromaniac...uh oh! Which causes problems for the brothers because sometimes she try’s to light things on fire so they have to keep an eye out. Solomon knows not to teach her any magic that can create fires..he learned that out the hard way..

• she loves giving and getting hugs to/from diavolo. I mean yes she was scared at first because of how big they were compared to her. And that was with all of the brothers too. But she got used to all of them pretty quickly. And will gladly give hugs to diavolo.

• she’s good at classes at RAD because she spent most time reading and studying about mythology.

• she has an odd obsession with Cerberus. And constantly wants to play with him. At first Lucifer wasn’t the best fan of this because of how dangerous it was. But slowly started to realize that Cerberus is starting to take a liking to her..which surprised him because Cerberus doesn’t really ever start to like humans..but this human got Cerberus to like her..which made him kinda suspicious of her..

• she has a wear fascination with solomons wand. She’s stolen it multiple times, but Solomon always got it back and told her off. I mean it was dangerous playing with solomons wand..with how much power she might really have..?

• she was scared of the angels at first to be honest. She didn’t grow up with the best family that dealt with religion. Simeon had to talk to her in private to calm her down and to show that they weren’t gonna hurt her and nothing bad will happen. Simeon is the only one who knows about her home life. ( I will probably write about a scene to show how this went down.)

• she will have a panic attack if she’s yelled at. She hates being yelled at. Yes she crys a lot, but this crying is different. The demon brothers learned this out the hard way.

• she doesn’t talk about her feelings or emotions with the demon brothers. It’s not only them she’s like that with everyone. She hides a lot about her which leads to problems where she goes into a panic attack. It’s not like she never talks about how she feels with the demon brothers. She does sometimes but if it’s important stuff like her home life or her problems. She just rather keep it a secret for now.

• she may help people a lot, but she’s not scared to get into a fight. If she needs to then she will.

——————————————————————————

Likes:

Space, stars, and the night sky

Fire

Hugs

The color pink

Magic

Skirts

Animals

Cerberus

Mythology

Food

Baking

Anime

Manga

Dating sims

Video games

Solomons wand

Boots w/ heels

Plushies/ stuffed animals

Fanfic

Fluffy things

Reading

The demon brothers

Solomon

The angels

———————————————————

Dislikes:

Pants

Rude people

Social interactions with people she doesn’t know

Religion

Loud noises

Loud areas

Her hight ( reason she wears boots with heels)

Homophobic people

——————————————

Pact Marks:

( I made it so the pact marks are invisible unless she gets angry or a hand is above the area it’s located)

Lucifer’s pact mark: forehead

Mammon’s pact mark: right under the collarbone

Leviathan’s pact mark: right hand

Satan’s pact mark: tongue

Asmodeus’s pact mark: Left inner thigh

Beelzebub’s pact mark: stomach

Belphegor’s pact mark: left side of the throat

———————————————————

( I might Write a series of my obey me oc and her time with the brothers and everyone else. I don’t know just got a lot of ideas while making this)

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me beel #obey me mammon #obey me oc #art #oc art #sorry it’s bad #hah

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latibulesims · 4 years

Note

any tips on making sims? like i've seen a few a few bodyshop tricks but most ppl tend to keep that type of stuff to themselves. (if you'd be open to doing a speed vid of you making a sim would be cool 👀👀)

Hi! I currently can’t make, or more accurately put, upload, a speed vid (WiFi problems), but I’ll share all the bodyshop tips I can think of!

NOTE: These tips are for realistic looking sims, not sims you’d typically use for gameplay (maxis match is superior with game play don’t @ me). So these tips might not be for everyone! What works for me, might not work for someone else, so keep that in mind going in! I hope they help, anyway. <3 Let’s go.

1) Diversify. I try to never make two sims that are of the same race back-to-back. This is may be the most important tip I can think of, because once you venture outside making all of your sims the same race, you’re just forced to go a different direction than the sim you made prior. Also, you’ll have the added benefit of your sims world having a real-life world touch, and your game becomes way less vanilla. That is, if you don’t end up with your sims all looking like same, with just a different shade of skintone slapped on them. This brings me to my second tip,

2) Reference pictures. This one is something I’ve just recently (in the past 2 years or so) started doing myself and it is a GAME CHANGER. What I do is look up, mostly on pinterest, models for reference. I then try and use those references while creating the sims. This really helps because you get to have an accurate representation of the race you’re trying to create, without having to depend on your sole memory. I’m an Arab, but I find myself constantly blanking when it comes to making Arab sims. I literally forget what Arabs look like, LOL, so I always go back to the references! Here is an example of the same sims from 2017 (before I started using reference pictures) vs. 2020.

3) Age. This is also a really important factor that I don’t think many people account for, which is totally fine if you’re creating sims to play! But if you’re creating sims for machinima (which I, 90% of the time, am) then it’s not something you should overlook. You need to show your sims aging. Most people only do that through CC (namely, wrinkles). That sometimes works, but most times it’s just not enough. You’ve got to also use the sliders. Fact is, a sim that’s supposed to be in their 20s, and another sim that’s supposed to be in their 50s, will share the same age in the game (Adult sim), but realistically won’t have the same face. You can show age by giving them thinner faces, a less defined jawline, eyes that are less open, etc... I tend to use reference pictures from tip 2 to help with that. Here are pictures of two of my characters from my series, The Rivers, as an 18 year old and as a 28 year old (all as adult sims). The pictures are from four years ago, back when there weren’t custom sliders omfg i can’t even fathom a world like that anymore, and my sim-making has thankfully evolved since then, but it’s the only example I can think of where I used the same adult sim to represent different age groups!

NOTE: If you’re just making sims for the sake of playing, and you still want to show age progression in adult sims, I highly recommend these great graying hairs by @deedee-sims Always my go-to when I’m playing!

4) Base. If you’re just starting, or you’re beginning from scratch and don’t know where to start, I’d recommend downloading default face templates - because maxis face templates are horrendous. LOL Or, and only if the creator ALLOWS IT (always read the TOU!!!), use another creator’s sim as a base sim. BUT, if you are going to use someone else’s work (templates or base sim) as your blank canvas, then make sure to make it your own, or else you’re going to end up copying someone else’s style. A lot of people tend to do that subconsciously. You can use references pictures to guide you with that. This tip is only if you’re starting from scratch. If you already have some sims lying around, I recommend to use your own sims as your base sim. That way, you can avoid accidentally copying someone else, and you’ll have your own style of sims that is unique to only you, that I believe every simmer has/should have eventually.

5) Don’t give up! I literally make, like, a minimum of half a dozen sims before I kinda like one of them. And that’s after 10 years of making sims for youtube and sims machinima (not just sims to play!). So, don’t be discouraged if you haven’t yet found your style, or if you’re not happy with the sims you make. Practice makes perfect, you’ll get there eventually. Just venture outside of your comfort zone, try things you haven’t yet tried, and be confident in the work you’ve had so far because you’ll only get better from here!

Hopefully, my WiFi will get better some time soon, and I’ll be able to make a speed CAS video. Until then, I hope these 5 tips help and feel free to ask me more questions or privately DM me if you need anything else!

#ask lati #latips

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vaultdweller · 4 years

Note

for the writing asks, 5, 6, 7, 10?

I didn’t forget about this! Also this was typed on my phone so sorry in advance for typos

5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

That’s a hard question, because to really be able to write a character well you HAVE to be able to sink into them and wear them around. Put yourself in their brain, look out their eyes and see things how they would see them. There are things I truly identify with in both Eve and Villanelle - Eve’s ever-present need to become who she is, Villanelle’s sense of loss at being somehow excluded from some collective experience everyone else seems to be having. And I sneak pieces of myself into characters in my original writing as well, because no matter what anyone says, Mary Sue isn’t a real thing, and sometimes the only way to examine those parts of yourself is through other people

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Villanelle really pushes the boundaries of my writing in a way that’s both fun and exhausting. She has so many facets and quirks and rules, it’s almost like trying to write poetry, and I hated poetry until the moment I could get my brain to work in the rules and then, almost accidentally, fashion something pretty good. It’s easy, as we’ve seen in the show, to rely on cheap tricks and outlandishness with her, but I think to really get her is to push beyond that.

Elena is also really fun because she’s really just an agent of chaos and I forever wish that the Killing Eve writers had kept her in the show, or would bring her back.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Hmm. Well, after 5+ years in journalism, my writing is pretty utilitarian, in that every word has to do something in the story. Either tell you something you need to know about the character, about their headspace or emotional state, or about what is happening. Each word moves the story forward in some meaningful way. I don’t spare a lot of time for descriptions of settings or clothes, or even people , because I’m so trained on having to keep my writing within a specific physical amount of space and using words on that means I can’t use words on what people actually need to know.

Beyond that, I rely a lot on patterns. On mirrored sentence structure. On beats and beats and beats, then breaking it up in a way that stands out.

See look, I’m doing it here.

I use a lot of double meanings in words, too, one right after the other. I always read writing advice that’s like “don’t use the same words too close to each other” and like, fuck that. If it reads well and sounds good do it. I break a LOT of grammar rules, like using fragments and starting sentences with “and” or “or” or whatever. And I use a lot of words in ways they’re not intended to be used, or just straight make up words that fit my need.

8. 10 How would you describe your writing process?

My writing process is about 90% in my head and 10% on the page. I spend a loooottt of time thinking about the story and the characters, letting them just play out, kind of like giving your Sims free will and seeing where they go. Then I massage those scenes until I can really recite and see how it all happens. I need to be able to see it all, in my head, before I write it, though sometimes it does come to me as I’m typing.

Music is also a huge factor. The right music really helps my mind along in imagining a scene, or in building up tension and then a release. Sometimes I feel like I structure my chapters like a song, or a specific song, stitching words together like notes.

Music also helps keep my attention on writing, because otherwise it’s really hard to keep focus. I was never the fastest writer even at work, but when writing in my free time with no real deadline it’s 1,000% worse. Not even one lick of discipline.

I also don’t really do a lot of revision once it’s written. This includes editing for typos or wrong words. I write very clean copy, usually less than three errors in a chapter. I’ll usually only really change something if, when I’m reading it out loud, or out loud in my head, it really trips me up. Or if I’m having a really hard time feeling like I’m trying to force a scene. That’s another thing - I always read everything as if I’m reading it out loud on NPR. It has to flow, almost like a podcast script. Otherwise it’s scrapped.

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anachronisims · 4 years

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replies!

moocha-muses replied to your photo “MEANWHILE…. Rubati smuggled some chips out of the fridge, prompting me...”

I've read apocalypse plays where simmers got around this by just keeping the fridge turned around until they wanted to use it.

Oh yeah, I’ve heard about that trick too. The “fridges” in use here are the Sun&Moon Butcher Set Hanging Animals fridges though, and while they physically could turn around, the aesthetic wouldn’t work for me and having to turn it back around to use it would get old, I imagine.

Far easier to challenge myself with diligently policing their autonomous actions (which are generally few anyway) and, gasp, perhaps make sure they’re all properly fed in the first place. Now (Y1D4) that everyone’s better at fishing, they’re doing it autonomously at the Fishin’ Hole while other characters are active, which means each family usually has at least one fish in inventory already when I enter a lot. Maybe later I’ll make it harder for them to use these fish, but I have got BoilingOil’s mod that makes fish worth fewer food points so they still need more than one per day to stay fed - especially once the kiddos start arriving!

snarkysims replied to your post “!!!!!”

Yay! Glad you found the pics!

Me tooooo, I was really, really confused about it!

snarkysims replied to your photoset “Noel: “Hey, Kimbs, thanks for putting up with me. You’re the only...”

Awww... he was sweet to her. And yes, that nose is, um, interesting.

He’s got just enough self-awareness to be tolerable. Like me :)

His nose is built to stand the test of time lolol, I’m sure we’ll see it all over in Gen 20...

niamh-sims replied to your photo “Didn’t I promise you fireworks and stars and good times had by all?”

That last picture is gorgeous!

I think I actually answered this one on the post itself, but thank you again. I am doing everything in my power to try and keep up the level of gorgeous even as round by round my graphics settings are chipped away :(

niamh-sims replied to your photo “Meraki Y1D1 Summary * We got to know our founders a lot better! ...”

Congratulations! How are you playing your rotations? Are you playing with any mods that change the length of the Seasons or ages?

Thanks! I’m really glad you asked these questions because I love getting into the weeds on gameplay styles!! tldr I’m legit crazy about rotations.

I have pretty much always done rotations of 1-3 days at a time, and it will be flexible within a game depending on when someone is giving birth, aging up, or dying. I’m fanatical about maintaining “proper” birth order - even though everyone ages at the same time every day, and lot sync timer, and blah blah. So like, right now everyone is playing through 2000 on day 4, then Stachia will give birth, I’ll name her baby, and then switch to Rubati’s birth, then play everyone through midnight (yes, a four hour chunk of probably watching them sleep but who knows, maybe someone makes a late trip to grab some water from the Fishin’ Hole), then I’ll do Nadii’ya’s birth, play everyone through till morning, then do Junia’s birth around 0500-0700, THEN everyone will play until it’s the hour of Kimba’s birth, then Saphir’s birth, then Stachia and Rubati’s babies’ birthdays... and on and on and on. It’s probably confusing to read about but less confusing to do - and, you won’t notice any difference because the pictures are going to post normally.

So then why bother?

90% of it is me liking to get interactions with pregnant sims on community lots by making sure the other families get played up until the synchronous hour at which they will give birth. On the old community time mod, I never ever ever let preggos leave home, which was unfair to them but required for the game to calculate the pregnancy correctly/not bork the hood (as far as I know). Now, using CH’s update, it... is workable to let them leave the lot, with judicious use of SimBlender’s pregnancy control options. (I don’t use CH’s pregnancy controller so it still has to be done manually.) But now I’m so used to micromanaging their time that I can’t help it and barely think twice about it.

The other 10%, and this speaks more to the shorter rotations that break at 1800, is wanting to make sure kids are kids on the same day on everybody’s lot, teens are teens, etc etc. If I had a five-day rotation, and Stachia’s kid aged to teen on day 4, then on everyone else’s lot’s days 1-3.99 that Sim would be walking by as a teen instead of as a child, shortchanging them and their peers of precious time for age-appropriate interaction.

No mods to change age lengths or seasons lengths, except that teens should age up to adult when they have anywhere between 11 and 7 days left. I fudge it sometimes if the partner they’re destined for is way older/younger than they are, which is the only reason why I don’t use the mod that shortens it to 8 days. I have been considering getting a shorter pregnancy mod, but probably won’t do it. I like the motive decay of pregnancy to really endanger them :)

In a “real” game, where the point isn’t to churn generations, I have used longer lifespan and other attendant mods. In my last ToT attempt, I used a longer life mod for pets but not Sims, because I didn’t want to have to say goodbye to any of them, but I doubt I’ll do that this time because it’s just too weird to have them basically live as long as the Sims do.

#replies #text post

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northern-angel · 5 years

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Pleasant Household round 1

Daniel Pleasant

Aspiration: Romance/Popularity

LTW: Become Hall of Famer

Job: Assistant Coach (Athletic Level 8)

OTH: Sports (discovered this round)

ACR Preference: Straight

3 Bolts with Nina Caliente, 2 Bolts with Roxie Sharpe, Kaylynn Langerek and Mary-Sue Pleasant, 1 Bolts with Coral Oldie.

Mary-Sue Pleasant

Aspiration: Fortune/Popularity

LTW: Become Mayor

Job: Lobbyist (Politics level 3)

OTH: Arts and Crafts

ACR Preference: Straight

2 Bolts with Daniel Pleasant

Angela Pleasant

Aspiration: Popularity/???

LTW: Become Hand of Poseidon

Job: Waterperson (Athletic Teen Level 1)

OTH: Nature

ACR Preference: Straight

1 Bolts with Dustin Broke

Lilith Pleasant

Aspiration: Popularity/???

LTW: Become Game Designer

Job: Record Store Clerk (Music Teen Level 1)

OTH: Culinary

ACR Preference: Bisexual

1 Bolt with Dirk Dreamer

We start our round with Lilith attempting to bond with her mother and sister. perhaps she should have picked a more interesting topic?

Meanwhile Daniel gets fit in the bathroom and he feel very good about it.

Everyone heads off to work and school and Daniel gets a chance card. I never remember the ‘correct’ answer to these so I guessed.

And guessed correctly!

Daniel is one step closer to his LTW.

He stalls for time (or possibly starts skilling for the next rung up I can’t remember)

Whilst Kaylynn finishes up the last of her cleaning duties.

First some conversation, it doesn’t pay to move too fast.

Of course if you don’t move fast enough you may be interupted by your teen daughters. Poor Lilith is not doing so well at school.

Angela is keeping an eagle eye on dear old dad, he better just be talking to their maid.

A furtive goodbye in the back garden (right in front of the windows though)

Lilith heads off to work.

Whilst A|ngela gets to watch TV and chill.

Mary-Sue returns home and has a soak before making a start of dinner.

Alas she really doesn’t have the cooking skill points to be the family’s main cook. Still I don’t think Daniel needs to draw attention to that so publicly. Angela thinks her dad goes too far.

Mary-Sue wanted a car, so she got one.

Daniel discovers his oh-so-surprising One True Hobby. I mean it’s not like he’s dedicated his whole life to it or something...

Angela can’t concentrate on her homework, not when she has just so much hatred in her heart.

Daniel works on some skill or other. I really don’t remember.

Whilst Mary-Sue pursues her passion.

Lilith returns from work and works on her needed creatitivity skill point.

Mary-Sue makes a plate.

And Angela works on her body skill. I wonder whose face she’s imagining on that bag...

Homework is hard, especially when you attempt to do it in the dark.

Things can’t be so badly wrong in the house, can they?

The next morning, Daniel is stricken with guilt. What’s he doing? He has a good life, does he really want to throw it away?

This was mostly taken to show off Angela’s room.

At least Lilith likes herself.

Once again cooking falls on the skill point less Mary-Sue.

I suspect they are thinking very different things about Angela.

Lilith does not want to do whatever I’ve just directed her to do.

There are no words for how perfect this photo is.

Once again Daniel gets a chance card are work, this time a hobby related one. Once again I guess...

And I guess right! Daniel becomes a Hall of Famer and fulfills his LTW.

Lilth earns a cooking skill point and looks thrilled about it.

And then she gets a hobby related chance card at work. I guess...

And alas for Lilth my luck doesn’t hold.

Daniel takes a victory lap of the pool.

Whilst Lilith brings home a promotion to Piano Tuner.

And a friend in David Ottomas.

Mary-Sue is almost rudely interuppted byt the Arts and Crafts Hobby Master but she Ta-Das until he wanders off.

Lilith sees like minded Miranda Capp wander by and greets her. The two of them hit it off quickly.

Which leaves David loitering creepily.

Completley out of nowhere Angela had rolled the want to study couples counselling. She had finished her studies and Daniel looks pretty happy about it. Using your children as pawns in your crappy marriage is wrong Daniel!

Lilith made another friend that night, his name was Max. And he is totally the kind of dog she’d bring home to fuck with her parents.

He knows quite a few tricks, which endears him to both Lilith and myself.

I love the Play Dead animation so much!

Lilith was also a fan, they made it to friend before Max wandered off. Hopefully he’ll come back next round.

The next morning Mary-Sue gained her Bronze Badge in Pottery.

And she immeadiately made a tea set for her kitchen.

Angela made a start on leveling up her hobby.

Whilst Mary-Sue gave me and Daniel a mild panic when she attempted to have a Bandaid baby. Fortunately this attempt was unsuccessful.

I sent the girls off to 290 Main Street for electronics. Lilith was most taken with the human statue.

They both bought a Sims-based game, The Urbz for Lilith and MySims for Angela.

And then the rarely sighed Phoebe Adams showed up.

I sent Lilith out to meet her.

Whilst Angela played with every animal in the pet shop.

Ah the ancient and mystical practice of kickeybag, surely an excellent way to determine if Lilith is to follow the Path of Light.

But what’s this, another witch has come to steal Phoebe’s potential apprentice.

Frances doesn’t think Lilith should be talking to that Light-loving loser.

Frances: Do you really want your power constrained by all those pointless morals?

I’m not sure what Angela did to that townie, but he sure didn’t like her. Maybe it’s Alternative Lifestyle Follower solidarity?

Once again with the kickey bag. Lilith left the lot with about the same amount of relationship points with both Grand Witches. I guess we’ll see who she goes for next round.

Back at home, Mary-Sue is still hard at work with the pottery. This time with Vases.

Angela’s little seedlings are doing well.

And Daniel learns Physiology, after all it’s important he stays in the best shape of his life.

He’s got a date with Kaylynn at The Blue Llama after all.

I have never seen a Sim read while walking, how cool is that?

That club is sure happening...

They move on to the hot tub.

Where the inevitable happens. It’s a really good thing TS2 doesn’t have Paparazzi otherwise Dan would surely have been caught out big style.

Their date ends with a wonderful score, so I will expect the Dream Date bouquet to be delivered next round.

We finish our time with the Pleasant’s with Daniel pouring over Simblr for fitness tips.

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fizzingwizard · 2 years

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hoo boy... the new sims kit...

took some caps from lilsimsie's vid, but I already knew this one wasn't for me x'D I like that kits have the potential to cater to many different aesthetics, so you can get it if you like it and leave it if you don't... I'd say that's the one plus side of kits... that being said, I haven't loved any kits yet. country kitchen and the plant one get the most use from me, but I def use objects from expansions/ game packs much more regularly, so *shrug*

but anyway, this kit was obvs from the start not my style, because it's style is sooo extra haha. It's the kind of thing that I guess I might buy if Sims hasn't had any new content in a while, and there's a sale or something... (though kits are the cheapest at five bucks and i havent ever seen them on sale :P) But it'd really have to be like... absolutely nothing else interests me...

I will say I actually do really want the wall trim, and I'm rather miffed that they came with this pack when they're basic enough that everyone would want them, not just people who like it Extra. although I assume that was the point, to trick people who don't like the pack into buying it anyway haha. Sorry but not today, EA.

And literally the only other item I like is this peacock:

I would absolutely put that in the garden or something. It would also be great in my spellcaster's home. Very much want, but not enough to pay five bucks.

And here's an example of why I'm so miserly today... (admittedly part of it is still being sooo pissed off about Tartosa, but) just look at these couches

Like the top two - the green and blue - I HATE them. The number one reason is because of the patterns on the pillows. It's not just that they are patterned when the couch is already patterned and it's a bit Much (again, the pack was about Much) I would def have preferred plain or simply embroidered pillows but I can live with the pattern mixing. What I canNOT live with is that specific pattern with the v-shaped stripes, because it is the same pattern as on that little robot figure. I'm having trouble finding a pic but

pretty sure it's one of the swatches for this guy. Obvs I didn't use it here, this is a pic of another build I did, and I hate that swatch so I wouldn't use it... but anyway it's got it and it's just Ugly. Also it makes me think of the university colors lol.

so it's the pillows I hate more than anything on that couch. the pink one above is the only one I'd tolerate, but I still hate the pillows! And the last one with the white and black, hey, at least that is obviously for like a celebrity's mansion or something... but even if I wanted to use it, I don't even know how I'd go about incorporating that gold frame with the rest of the furniture. whut. yeah this pack is soo not for me.

#sims

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britesparc · 3 years

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Weekend Top Ten #488

Top Ten Sport Games

Woohoo! Sport! I love sport, don’t you? All kinds of sports. Remember when Hank McSport scored more sports points than Johnny Sportson? Or when that sport team beat that other team? With the goals? And the scores? Phew. Sport.

There’s a lot of focus on sports of all kinds at the moment. Well, at least two kinds. Maybe more. Are there more than two sports? Probably. If they can have eight different Spider-people in Into the Spider-Verse they probably have quite a few sports. I mean, I don’t really follow many of them. Or any of them, to be fair. I’m not a sporty person, let’s say. But it’s in the air at the moment, isn’t it? You can feel it wherever you look. Mostly because of the red crosses dangling out of everyone’s windows, and the fact that there is only one song anymore. Normally this sort of thing would inspire little more than a tut from me, but even I – yes, even I – am momentarily caught up in something approaching nationalistic fervour.

Which is to say, I’ve been quite enjoying the football and the tennis.

Anyway, I’ve been sufficiently inspired by England getting into a semi-final at bloody last to dedicate this weekend’s Top Ten to all matters sporty. However, because anything that happens in real life is rubbish, I’m turning my attention to videogame representations of sports. Why? Well, because there aren’t enough fictional sports in the MCU or Star Wars (or maybe there are; maybe I’ll save that one for the World Cup or something). So, quite simply, we have a list of my favourite ever sports games. You will see that I remain iconoclastic, and I think the list will also connote my large disinterest in real-life sports by mostly featuring arcade-style representations, rather than earnest simulations. This is because I’ve rarely been bothered if real people or locations feature in my sports games, as long as playing them is good fun. And these ten games are all good fun.

Now, what is a sport without an arbitrary set of rules? Well, the same goes for my Top Tens! So for a start I’ve ruled out racing games. Whilst there are genuine racing sports, I feel like videogames have “racing” as a separate category. And I pretty much only like Mario Kart and Forza anyway. Also I did racing as its own Top Ten six years ago. I’ve also discounted martial arts, because I think fighting games are their own thing. I know there’s a big difference between realistic martial arts and Sub-Zero ripping someone’s spine out; but even so, I think “fighting sims” probably fit into that genre more than not. Sorry, IK+. Where I did have to pause was regarding things like snowboarding, skateboarding, etc; are they races or not? The decision I came to was whether the goal was being first/fastest across a line, or accruing points. So some games have gotten in here because really you’re performing stunts or tricks in order to score, and that makes it a “sport” and not a “race”, so to speak. Some of these I looked at on a case-by-case basis, like a referee consulting VAR.

See, I just made a football reference.

Anyway, here are ten games that I like. And for a change, I’ve actually started including franchises rather than individual entries (sometimes), as I think sports games are often regular if not annual and differences between entries can be incremental.

Sensible World of Soccer (Sensible Software, 1994): there could be only one. As an arcade representation of football, it’s unsurpassed. But what keeps me coming back is the customisation and the depth of the game; whether it’s managing a team from minnow to megalith, or whether it’s creating entire leagues of custom teams, it’s an entire fantasy footballing world in glorious miniature. The only drawback is the thirty-year-old UI which isn’t as helpful as a modern game’s.

Wii Sports (Nintendo, 2006): never has a collection of sport-based minigames been so approachable. Absolutely, unquestionably the most fun multiplayer experience I’ve ever had, and the best Wii game by a mile – and this is a console with two Mario Galaxy games. I can’t explain it, but the sheer simple delight – and relative precision – of the motion controls, combined with the quirky Miis, result in something that I wanted to return to again and again, even on my own, bettering my previous scores (and those of my family). Still responsible for my brother’s greatest ever sulk when our dad beat him at bowling. And, for the record, my favourite of the games is Golf.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (Neversoft, etc, from 1999): ah, franchises! I’m not sure how many entrants I played, or which is the best, but it’s probably part 2. I’ve never fancied a skateboard or being part of skater culture particularly – looks too hard on the knees – but these games make it seem simultaneously huge fun and also insanely dangerous. Complex stunt routines are easy to attempt and difficult to master, and the graphics at the time were considered really good, with a great sense of speed that made the inevitable bails and crashes all the more wince-inducing.

Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding (Indie Built, 2001): of a similar strain to Tony Hawk, Amped is all about perform life-threatening stunts whilst simultaneously travelling at ludicrous speeds whilst riding a plank of wood. Amped also throws you down an actual mountain for good measure, leveraging the then-phenomenal power of the original Xbox to represent entire slopes from top to bottom, with dozens of other nutters flinging themselves off with gay abandon, and snow that looked pristine and deformed realistically beneath your board. It was a heck of a good time and a tremendous launch title for the console. Hey, why can’t they bring it back?!

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games, 2006): Rockstar, mostly known for hulking, propulsive games involving violence and swearing, surprised everyone with this earnest and rather deep simulation of table tennis, a sport everyone else is quite good at apart from me. The graphics at the time were outstanding, with supremely detailed players, but the mechanics of the game were tremendous too. It got a bit too hard for rubbish old me, but as a pixelated take on ping-pong, it’s pristine.

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (The Bitmap Brothers, 1990): I ummed and ahhed about this, because I wasn’t sure if I should include fictional sports. I mean, if Speedball, why not Rocket League, y’know? But in the end I relented because although the sport itself is fictional, the representation here is dense and sim-like. You manage your team through the leagues, dealing with injuries and recruiting players, and the game itself is intense and physical, and every aspect just makes it feel like a real sport, despite the fact you’re pummelling heads as well as chucking a ball. The artwork by Daniel Malone is incredible, too, and is so iconic it’s become for me representative of an entire era of gaming.

Behold the Kickmen (Size Five Games, 2017): it may not have the precision of Sensi, but other than that it’s a totally faithful and accurate depiction of the sport. Right? Dan Marhsall’s disdainful, satiric, frequently hilarious pastiche of football – not just videogames, but the sport itself – is still a playful joy, and the cod-RPG element of one lone “kickman” and his journey, is a nice touch. A fun, daft arcade game, but even better as a piece of piss-takery.

Kinect Sports (Rare, 2010): if Wii Sports is the pinnacle of stripped-down sports as a party game, then Kinect Sports is a close runner-up, and arguably the best-ever implementation of Microsoft’s much-maligned sinister camera. Let’s not forget, even if it spectacularly failed to live up to the unrealistic expectations set by its reveal, and even if it became an albatross that hobbled Xbox for the better part of a generation, the Kinect peripheral was not only a huge success at launch, but actually really good for what it was, and here Rare exploits its features with gusto, delivering some genuinely fun and engaging activities. The addition of online fluff, such as posting embarrassing photos taken by the camera, is a minor joy too, and I’ll always remember it as the game that made my dad create an Xbox account.

Descenders (RageSquid, 2018): again, I went back and forth, as this is a game which features you riding a vehicle along a track. But at the end of the day it’s not speed you’re chasing but points, and I feel pretty strongly that Descenders is a stunt game, with you racking up the score for doing all kinds of crazy and inappropriate stuff on an airborne bicycle. The controls are precise and the action fairly rollicking, like the best of these games, and the procedurally generated levels ensure variety. I think for true classic status all it needs is some over-the-top ragdoll physics when you crash your bike; I wanna see riders cartwheeling through the air, joints akimbo.

Microsoft Golf (Microsoft, from 1992): okay, so this one is personal – although all my lists are personal really. When we got our first PC, which I want to say was Christmas 1995, the only real game I remember it coming with – aside from your FreeCell and your Ski Free and all that – was Microsoft Golf, which I think was the 1993 “Multimedia Edition” (it came on a CD-ROM, can you believe it?!). And I loved the game; I kept going back to it, even though I have zero interest in golf as a sport, outside of really liking the Kevin Costner movie Tin Cup. I think this is the game that introduced me to the normal golf-game style of timing your button presses to control the power of your swing, and I’d play it all the time with my cousins, possibly because it was a fairly quiet turn-based game, and local multiplayer was actually quite rare on the PC in those days. I’ve never really played a big, serious golf game since then – I think I briefly had one on the 360 – but the appeal of golf as a videogame sport has remained, and I’ve had a lot of fun over the years with the likes of Powerstar Golf on the Xbox One, or more casual things such as Golf With Your Friends. And, of course, I love the golf in Wii and Kinect Sports. In fact, the game I most want to play at the moment is Mario Golf on the Switch…

Ha! I did it! A whole list and no FIFA. Sadly also no Kick-Off, but then, it was utterly destroyed for all time by Sensi, so what can you do*? And speaking of football games, I do have fond memories of the (I think) PES game for the N64 that my brother and I turned into a melee by constantly slide-tackling the keeper as soon as he picked up the ball. I wish that’d happen more often in real football; maybe then I wouldn’t wait years in between paying attention.

Oh, and come on, England!

*this is a very deep-cut, old-school reference to the intense and serious rivalry between Kick-Off fans and Sensible Soccer fans on the Amiga, and also to the fact than Dino Dini – the creator of Kick-Off – still seems incredibly upset by Sensi laying waste to his game, even thirty years later when all anybody plays is FIFA. Cheer up, Dino!

#top ten #sport #sports #football #euro 2020 #england #swos #fifa #kick-off #wii #kinect #xbox #games #gaming

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elanorpam · 7 years

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oh look dream

SO i just dreamed about Kado. You know, the cool intrigue anime that turned into a dating sim anime’s yandere path halfway through. I think my dream was cooler than the anime? But also much more overtly shounen.

In the dream, everyone was like middle/high school aged. Yaha-kui manifested to a group of children which only vaguely corresponded to the anime’s human characters…? What’s-his-face, the main dude (Shindo, thanks google), wore glasses for some reason. Anyway, Yaha-kui, in the shape of a kid, shows up to these other kids.

Something in this initial contact, I can’t remember what exactly, makes Yaha-kui look slightly disappointed. He covers it up, but one of the other kids takes notice of it. Yaha-kui teaches the kids about the anisotropic, etc etc, there’s a sense that a lot of time is passing by— for some reason I’m aware that the entire thing is taking place inside one year— and the kids are studying the anisotropic and some of them have even learned to do “magical” tricks (the anisotropic magic in this dream was surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, devoid of colored lights and sparkles, and looked more like Akira-style psychic powers). The government gets involved in some way. There’s like army stuff, the kids get to travel around in convoys and helicopters for super serious meetings.

Where the dream gets really interesting is that Glasses!Shindo is getting both really really good at anisotropic magic AND really really overprotective of Yaha-kui. Yaha-kui seems saddened and concerned. Glasses!Shindo starts straying into yandere zone himself, literally making one of the other kids disappear when they got too friendly with Yaha-kui (the kid is unfazed and unsurprised by turning into smoke starting from his hand; there’s this implication he did it on purpose to gauge Glasses!Shindo’s reaction and knew the dangers. He also noted Yaha-kui’s reactions at the beginning).

So now Glasses!Shindo is growing worryingly unstable, and his powers are nearly at a level with Yaha-kui; following his jealous stunt tho, Yaha-kui denounced him and now Glasses!Shindo wants to make him disappear too. There’s some manipulation on both sides; the army is now divided between those who believe Glasses!Shindo re: Yaha-kui’s danger, and those who believe Yaha-kui and the other kids that Glasses!Shindo has gone nuts. Intrigue abounds.

And then it turns out that Yaha-kui is essentially stuck in a year-long time loop. Something bad always happens; someone goes mad with power, or the government doesn’t take well to them, or sometimes Yaha-kui himself will go yandere and fuck things up before going back to his senses. He’s been repeating the loop thousands of times, each time isolating and analyzing the probable causes for each mistake and/or tragedy. But remnants of each loop cling behind in the kids, which is why they got so good at anisotropic manipulation so fast; and at each loop Yaha-kui learns more about humanity and becomes, himself, progressively more human.

The reason why he looked sad right from the beginning is that something Glasses!Shindo said tipped him off that this would be a Crazy Shindo Loop, and those are always especially bad. Still, he carried on with the loop as usual in hopes of investigating what makes Shindo snap, and whether it could be stopped or derailed. The kid who got disappeared by Shindo had been sleuthing shit as well, and guessed about the time loop— he was chill with “death” because he was just that confident he’d be coming back soon, and he was good enough at anisotropic that he could affect things even as an incorporeal wisp.

Sadly this was the point where I woke up, so I don’t know how or if anything got resolved. The “good” side was doing something about rearranging anisotropic letters into a shape…? But anyway, it sure was a cool dream, and it sure reminded me how Kado changed tack out of nowhere into something both more actiony and more boring than it started out as.

#kado the right answer #seikaisuru kado #what a weirdly specific dream #dream stuff #....do i have a dream tag?

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travelguy4444 · 5 years

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Life in Paris: One Month Down

Posted: 3/21/2019 | March 21st, 2019

It’s been exactly one month since I moved to Paris.

During that time, it’s been nonstop wine, cheese, brasseries, influencer meetups, fashionable social events, writer salons, museums, picnics, and late-night jazz concerts.

It’s been a whirlwind of adventure and romance.

Just I imagined it would be.

Actually…

It hasn’t been that way at all.

I just made that up.

Life here has been the exact opposite of that (though that kind of fabulous lifestyle does sound like fun).

I arrived after a much-delayed flight, plopping my jetlagged self into bed and not waking up until the following day. From there, I met my one Parisian friend and her friends for some wine and cheese. That little outing to a park turned into a late-night wine fueled bar crawl that ended at some ’50s-style American sock hop. (Seriously. I couldn’t believe it. Here I am, in a bar in Paris, and people are dressed up and dancing like it’s 1953. It was kind of incredible.)

But, after that wild night, life slowed to a crawl.

I spent my first week here settling in: I got a SIM card, saw a plethora of apartments (and finally picked one), signed up for French classes, and tried to catch up on work. (I thought about joining a gym but, in paperwork-loving France, you need a doctor’s note saying you’re fit enough to join. I’m told most people don’t follow that rule but, for now, I can’t be bothered.)

After that first week, I moved into my new apartment, went to some meetups in hopes of making friends, and flew to Berlin for ITB, the largest travel conference in the world.

Upon returning to Paris, I came down with a terrible cold and spent the last week inside my apartment trying to recover. Just when I had hoped to hit the ground running, life had other ideas.

Now, as I hit my first full month here, I’m finally feeling better (and thanks to spending so long inside, I’m fairly caught up on work).

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. The weather is getting warmer and sunnier again. Over the next few weeks, I start hosting a plethora of visitors, which will finally get me out of my apartment and exploring the city more. (I’ve lined up a lot of activities, which are basically the museums, tours, and shows I’ve yet to see, so my friends are going to get a very off-the-beaten-path look at Paris.)

Life here is very different than what I imagined it to be.

In my head, I imagined hitting the ground running. I imagined perfectly scheduled days balanced with work and play, including regular French classes, meetups, sightseeing, food tours, and nights out. I imagined myself like Owen Wilson’s character from Midnight in Paris where I just wander around town and stumble into this action-packed life.

But, instead, my time here has been similar to when I moved Bangkok where I spent much of my early weeks there alone playing video games, discouraged that life just didn’t “happen” to me.

It took a long time to find my groove in that city.

But living in Bangkok taught me two things:

First, life just doesn’t happen. Sitting at my kitchen table doing work isn’t going to show me life in Paris. Neither is going to the same co-working space.

This first month has gone by the in the blink of an eye, and, with only three more left to go, I know I have to make the most of every single day.

I need to go out and make thing happen. I need to be more proactive in doing things.

But, when I think of some of my motivations for coming here — to escape the fast pace of New York City, to write more, to relax, to sleep, to be healthier — I realize that, by those metrics, my first month has been a success.

I’ve done all those things.

Yeah, it would be nice to live this life I imagine in my head. But what I really want is exactly what I’ve been doing.

Now I feel settled in and ready to take on the city.

So, though, I’m 25% of the way through my time in Paris, I still have plenty of time left to accomplish the other things I want to do.

I didn’t come here in hopes of establishing a new life.

I came here for a fresh start and to try out what it’s like to take a really extended holiday to one of my favorites cities in the world. To no longer be just passing through but rather to peel back some of the layers of the onion that is Paris.

No move to a new place is ever going to be easy.

Because the second thing living Bangkok taught me? If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.

Bangkok showed me that I could be self-reliant and independent. It showed me that I could adapt to anything.

I’ve done this before.

And I can do it again.

***

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my time here, so here are some answers to for anyone wondering:

1. How did I find an apartment so quickly? I got lucky. Someone on Twitter connected me with someone who rented out apartments. And having a decent budget allowed me to find a place quicker. I was going through some agencies and looking at Facebook groups and Le Bon Coin (French Craigslist), but that personal connection made it a lot easier.

Finding an apartment here in Paris is hard even for the French. It’s a long process filled with a lot of paperwork. The way New Yorkers talk about the price of an apartment is the way people here talk about finding an apartment. It’s the first topic of discussion, as a way to bond with strangers.

2. Are you studying French? If so, where? I was taking French classes at Alliance Française but, disliking the classroom teaching style, dropped out and hired a private tutor. I’m also learning via podcasts and Duolingo.

3. How are you meeting people and making friends as an expat? There’s a bunch of expat meetup groups I’ve joined, and I started hosting my own meetups. I am also reaching out influencers based in France. But if you know of any cool Parisian locals, let me know!

4. I heard you’re running walking tours. Is that true? Yep! I started running my own historical walking tours. You can sign up here. I have put up the schedule through the end of May. I do them once a week and they’re free. Come join! If a date is full, join the waitlist. A few people always end up canceling!

Book Your Trip to Paris: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. Some of my favorite places to stay in Paris are:

St. Christopher’s Canal – Comfy spot on the canal. During the summer months, the terrace is hopping!

3 Ducks Hostel – This hostel has one of the cheapest bars in the city, and it’s just a 10-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower.

Les Piaules – Fantastic chimney lounge, a cool bar, and a rooftop space. It’s a great place to meet people!

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

Looking for more information on visiting Paris? Check out my in-depth destination guide to Paris with more tips on what to see, do, costs, ways to save, and much, much more!

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