#if only id majored in animation instead of game design
Text
Urge to remake/reboot my art blog for the fourth time because of the dopamine boost of being noticed online vs never posting enough to make it feel worth the weird anxiety about what I should and shouldn't reblog to an art blog to keep it organized FIGHT
#as was suggested to me i could just post things here#and keep an art tag#BUT i post so much random bullshit#that i feel like people who'd otherwise follow me for my art#would get scared off by the shitposting#ive also thought about posting worldbuilding on it#and writing snippits#to pad out the posts and motivate me to work on my novel#but hhhhhhhhhhhhhh i also kinda dont want people to look at me ever#internet big and scary and i am but a tiny little crayfish feasting on river detritus#also if i ever get my shit together and make that animatic ive had planned for years#id need somewhere to promo it#if only id majored in animation instead of game design#i likely wouldn't have had a functioning wrist by the end of it#but imagine how fast i could draw#imagine the power i would wield
1 note
·
View note
Text
Weird Question.
What does a good Limbus Company Tier List look like?
[Warning: Long]
Gacha games are, at least in part, games about optimizing limited resources. There is a daily stamina limit, and weeklies and dailies that you need to feed that stamina into. In turn, you receive an amount of rewards that need to be spent to acquire and upgrade units. Limited rewards. And you need so many just to upgrade one unit. Decisions need to made, resources allocated. You only have so much, you want to get and use the right stuff without wasting anything on someone you find out is trash 90 levels in. Right?
This is an aspect of Gacha that is often missed in discourse about pngs of anime waifus: the emotional and intellectual labor of investing into a unit, the constant worrying about if you are making the most optimal choices, and the satisfaction of planning well. How a lot of attachment to a character can stem not from their design or personality but just because they're all you had that countered this boss node and lord almighty they clutched out the win with 0.1% HP after you dumped all you had into raising them. I could talk about it all day, it' super interesting to me. But to refocus, the major consequence of this kind of game design are tier lists.
Tier lists will tell you, at a glance, what units are worth investing in and what's worth avoiding. Good tier lists will provide comprehensive explanations and guides for each unit to contextualize their placement. Bad tier lists won't. They can be the combined knowledge of an entire community for a game, they can also be an edict laid down without compassion or transparency. Again, absolutely interesting. And again, to refocus, Limbus doesn't really have one.
Ok, there are Limbus tier lists. Esgoo has great tier lists on which IDs and EGO you should prioritize when considering Uptie 4. Obviously those are his opinion, all Tier Lists are at the end of the day, but he has a whole hour of discussion covering the why's and hows of each category. There is a Prydwen tier list for units, but its rarely shown to new players in any of the PM communities I'm in and is instead largely chastised to my knowledge. I've seen Sinner tier lists, meme tier lists, so on and so forth. None of these are the Tier List.
Maybe its just a sign of the times, but I remember when Gachas had the Tier List. Community vetted, moderator approved, above any all all others. Offered freely to newcomers and watched feverishly by veterans after a new unit is released. Nowadays I feel like I rarely see them.
Limbus doesn't have the tier list. You may wonder if it even needs one and I think you'd have a point. Boiling an entire ID's value to a letter grade might seem unnecessary, especially as Limbus is a bit different as a Gacha. IDs are easy to get, and though the level cap continues to raise (in a way many others find alarming and I'm inclined to agree) it's still less than a week's effort to max one out. I've played games where it took a month of currency to get a single Unit useable. THere just isn't as much drive to worry about leveling the wrong things, investing incorrectly because basically anything works.
However.
There still are obvious differences in the strengths of each character ID. True, most if not all are "useable", but you're probably better off leveling Pequod Yi Sang than Seven Yi Sang. You are definitely better off leveling Pequod Ishmael than Sloshing Ishmael. Its fair to want a quick cheat sheet to communicate those ideas at a glance, with explanations for those who want to delve a little deeper.
But I ask again, what would it even look like?
By what categories and traits do we subdivide these IDs? How can you convey that W Ryoshu is a self sufficient DPS monster tahat requires no synergy to be good while Maid Ryoshu has AoE built into her kit as well as strong poise gen that also does good damage at a glance? Put one in an AoE group and the other in DPS? Is that truly accurate when part of attack weight is that it's great against Abnormalities, the most common type of one-on-one encounter?
I ask the question "what would it look like" because I truly don't know. Limbus is a complicated, evolving game. I don't think that makes it special or standout in any particular way, but for an example it could be that Seven IDs are top tier next event because of temporary buffs and that throws a whole tier list on its head. I don't know of many Gacha that do stuff like that.
That's kinda the end of the thought. The best I can come up with is a list consisting of three tiers: "great, good with the right team comp, and don't. Further explanation available upon request." That's not very helpful, is it?
12 notes
·
View notes
Text
sonic battle appreciation post
1. The Art style
Sonic Battle's artstyle whips ass, having thick outlines and these nice edgy curves that give it a sorta rebelious and energetic feel. They remain largely faithful to the sonic designs, but with enough style to make them distinct from any other Sonic game.
2. The Sprites
If you were a sonic fan in the early 2000s internet, Sonic Battle sprites were EVERYWHERE. They had sick ass fighting moves for basically every major Sonic character, and there were countless sprite edits and OCs used in all manner of sprite comics, fan games, fan animations, etc. Id go so far as to say that Sonic Battle's sprites alone are integral to the 2000s sonic fandom.
3. The Story
The story mode for the game had no obligation to be anything other than "Sonic and co. fight each other a bunch", but it instead created an engaging story mode that engages every member of the cast and even builds upon existing Sonic lore. The story follows a new character, Emerl, a mysterious robot that is capable of learning and evolving by copying others, and is somehow connected to Gerald Robotnik. With each chapter, Emerl follows and bonds with a different member of the Sonic cast, going from a simple copycat robot to a fully fledged character with his own personality. He learns traits from each character, such as Sonic's confidence, Knuckles's strength, etc. By the time the story reaches its climax, every character is bonded to Emerl in one way or another, so that the finale becomes meaningful to everyone. It's a great story mode to a game that only needed to be a decent party fighter. And that brings us to...
4. Emerl
Emerl as a character is genuis, both to the story of the game and to the gameplay. Emerl is essentially a customizable fighter that you can build by copying every character's moves, which you gain by playing Story Mode. At the start of the game, Emerl has extremely weak and basic moves, but as you play, you'll earn stronger moves from every character, allowing you to improve and customize them however you like. This incentivises you to play a lot and earn as many moves as you can, and getting a really powerful move felt great. For example, Sonic is of course super fast, but his heal is quite weak. Meanwhile, Cream's heal move is one of the fastest in the game. Once you earn Cream's heal and Sonic's run, you get an Emerl that has both their strengths, and it feels amazing to play. Customizing Emerl and finding what moves or abilities work together is so much fun. Emerl even can customize colors, to make them even MORE personalized. By the time you're at the last chapter, your Emerl will be decked out and styling, all based on your choices.
In addition, Emerl is the core of the story mode, driving the plot and connecting every character, as I talked about before. Having them be a learning robot that copies the other characters was an inspired choice, meaning the story has reason to have Emerl hang with each character. The mystery of Emerl's backstory drives them to move the plot forward and find out what the robot's deal is, and as the plot progresses, Emerl also gains more personality, allowing you to care about them. You end up caring for Emerl both on a character and gameplay level, as you're compelled to customize your Emerl with sick new moves, and by seeing them grow through connections with the Sonic cast. Emerl is so good that they were brought back as Gemerl in later Sonic games, and i think it's implied that they get reprogrammed back to normal and hang out with Cream.
Also, Emerl is trans and nonbinary. This is canon now.
the point of this post is MAKE A SONIC BATTLE REMAKE SEGAAAAAAAAA
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
Inshort ipad app review
#Inshort ipad app review how to
#Inshort ipad app review windows 10
#Inshort ipad app review Pc
#Inshort ipad app review plus
Having laid hands on the iPhone 7, I can say that this change is because the new phones no longer have physical Home buttons and instead rely on the visceral boing of the Taptic Engine. You must also click down on the Home button to get access. Simply resting your digit over the scanner no longer works. If you use Touch ID to open your phone with a thumb or fingerprint, you'll notice another tweak. The iOS 10 widget page can be found by swiping right from the main page or the notification panel it's always within easy reach. You must also download the core app if you want the widget these are not standalone features. The size, appearance, and function of widgets are determined by the developer and Apple's guidelines. You can choose and arrange the widgets on this screen from an Edit button at the bottom, but that's it as far as customization goes. IOS 10 also brings a visual redesign to widgets, making them into large, individual cards with rounded corners. Their function is mostly the same: iOS widgets are shortcuts to app functionality, like placing calls, looking at the latest headlines, or seeing if it will rain today. Instead of existing as free-floating windows on the desktop as they do on Google-powered devices, widgets in iOS are small cards that live in a customizable, vertically oriented rail. If you're only familiar with Android, know that widgets on iOS are very different. Swipe right and a new page of widgets is revealed. From the Lock Screen, you now swipe left to open the camera app, which is much easier than the bottom-corner swipe-up from previous versions. Fonts, for example, are a little larger, bolder, and more readable than in previous versions.
#Inshort ipad app review windows 10
Read Our Microsoft Windows 10 Mobile Review From Lock Screen to NotificationsĪfter your iPhone reboots, you'll immediately notice some differences in iOS, if you're upgrading from iOS 9. For this review, I tested iOS 10.1 on both an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 7 Plus. iPod Touch users are less lucky, as iOS 10 only supports the most recent devices. All iPad Pros, iPad Air and Air 2 models, 4th-generation iPads, and iPad minis 2 to 4 can also run the new operating system.
#Inshort ipad app review plus
Every iPhone model from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 7 ($288.00 at Visible) (Opens in a new window) and 7 Plus can run iOS 10. When and WhereĪs with most Apple updates, iOS 10 (including, iOS 10.1, the version reviewed here) is supported by several generations of devices. For all of this, iOS 10 is an Editors' Choice for mobile operating systems. Its first major update, iOS 10.1, adds a new Portrait mode for the dual-camera iPhone 7 Plus, bringing stunning depth-of-field effects to smartphone photos. It's a game-changer that easily outclasses what's available from the competition. This stalwart communication app now does more than just send text messages: It's an ecosystem in its own right, with stickers, animations, and third-party app integrations, challenging the likes of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. But the huge additions to the Messages app overshadow most of the other features, making this more than just another iteration of the operation system. True, iOS now has a sleeker visual design, interactive notifications, and a far more functional widget screen.
Several features require newer devices.Īpple iOS 10 is not just a new version of the operating system that powers iPhone and iPads.
#Inshort ipad app review how to
How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.
#Inshort ipad app review Pc
How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.
How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.
How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.
How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.
How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.
0 notes
Link
Part homage, all farce, the AWFULLY CHEERFUL ENGINE! is an irreverent, affectionate parody of pop-culture tropes and a love-letter to 80s roleplaying games in a new, modern comic-book sized format! It’s a wacky roleplaying game of action comedy!
Hardcover collector's omnibus, softcover rules and adventures, blank ID cards, monster cards, hero role cards, VTT tokens
Are you a fan of the Ghostbusters RPG from the 1980s? Danger Mouse or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Bill & Ted or Rick & Morty? Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Dracula, or sci-fi adventures on the final frontier? Do you enjoy chortling at TV tropes or chuckling at pop-culture parodies? Then the Awfully Cheerful Engine! is here for you!
ACE! is brought to you by Russ 'Morrus' Morrissey (EN World, WOIN, Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD), Dave Chapman (Doctor Who, Star Trek Adventures), and Marc Langworthy (Hellboy, Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD). With a foreword by Sandy Petersen, co-author of the Ghostbusters RPG!
ACE! is designed for everybody! From talking animals to pulp heroes to eldritch horrors, kids and adults alike will find adventures to love with the Awfully Cheerful Engine!
This tabletop roleplaying game, which we’re calling ACE! with an exclamation point, is one of fast, cinematic, action comedy. To play you need a handful of six-sided dice, a pen, and some paper. Each player plays one Hero, except for one player who takes the role of the Director.
Think of ACE! as an irreverent, fun-packed movie. You might play as ghost hunters in New York City, a band of plucky galactic guardians, vampire slayers, or soldiers of fortune in the Los Angeles underground. Heck, you might even be cartoon animals. Good grief!
This is a multi-dimensional, time-hopping, genre-mashing, pan-galactic portal into any type of adventure you can imagine! Want to play in a fantasy world full of elves and orcs? Crew a starship as it explores the galaxy? Hunt vampires in Victorian London? Play as animal detectives, robot cowboys, wizards, ninjas, or time traveling bounty hunters?
The only limit is your imagination, and the requirement that you have fun.
This Kickstarter is for the full five-book set.
What? Five books, you say? Fear not -- they're pretty small books! They include the core rules, and four hilarious genre-hopping adventures. Each book is about 30 pages long. Except for one which is longer, but we wrote 'BUMPER SIZE ISSUE' on the front of that, so it's OK. If you’ve ever held a comic-book in your hand, the Awfully Cheerful Engine! will feel very familiar!
The core rulebook is just 30 pages in a bright, colorful comic-book sized format. We even gave it an issue number, like a comic-book! After that, each 'issue' is a standalone adventure, designed for one-shots or short campaigns with new characters each time. One week you might be fighting ghosts on the streets of Manhattan, and the next you might be exploring the frontiers of space in your trusty starship!
You don't have to play them all, or in order. The standalone format means you can fit them in whenever and however you feel like it. GM can't make your regular game? Go bust some ghosts instead! Pickup game at a convention? Investigate the strange goings-on in a small American town in the 1980s. Running a livestream? Board a starship and fight the Kulkan Empire! Play one of them, some of them, or all of them! It's up to you!
Are they comics? Or are they RPGs? (They're RPGs)
ACE #1: Introducing the Awfully Cheerful Engine! With a foreword by Ghostbusters RPG author Sandy Petersen, this book tells you the rules, how to create your Heroes, and gives you a bunch of Extras (NPCs & monsters) to use. By Russ Morrissey.
ACE #2: Spirits of Manhattan. Strap on your Anti-Plasm Particle Thrower, grab your Electromagnetic Field Detector, and jump into your Ghostmobile. New York City needs your help! By Dave Chapman and Russ Morrissey.
ACE #3: Montana Drones & The Raiders of the Cutty Sark. At the request of Army Intelligence, Montana Drones and her team travel the globe in search of lost or hidden artefacts, often exploring dangerous sites and racing against hostile enemy agents to keep the objects of their quests from falling into the wrong hands. Striking locations, exciting chases, dangerous enemies and monotonous classroom lectures await! By Marc Langworthy.
ACE #4: Strange Science. Welcome to Wilden Falls, your average American town in the heart of the country. Surrounded by trees, nature, and there’s a wonderful waterfall that brings the tourists. It’s a quaint little town. Until weird things start happening at the local research facility, people go missing, and there’s a sudden influx of fitness nuts in the town. That’s before we get to the time travel, bodysnatching, and portals to other dimensions. Maybe ‘strange’ isn’t strong enough a word for it! By Dave Chapman.
ACE #5: Beam Me Up! These are the voyages of the starship FSS Brazen. Its continuing mission: to recklessly go where plenty of people have probably been before… and hope a major interstellar incident isn’t sparked in the process. In this highly illogical adventure for the ACE! roleplaying game, you’ll explore frontiers you never thought you had. By Marc Langworthy.
We give you four adventures to start with, and we have plans for more, but there's also a free compatibility license so anybody can write and publish material powered by the Awfully Cheerful Engine!
Hardy Hobbit. Teenage Samurai. Cheerful Stuntman. Clumsy Vampire. Squeamish Ghost. Who knew you could say so much in just two words? The possibilities are endless.
It’s not just Awfully Cheerful! It’s fast and fun, too!
You won’t get bogged down in endless rules and character sheets that look like tax forms. Your ACE! ID Card contains everything you need to know, and it’s only about the size of a credit card! But don’t try to spend it. It’s not a real credit card. Honestly, we tried, and it didn't end well.
You can download blank ID cards from our website. Don’t worry, there’s a printer-friendly black-and-white version too!
Making your Hero takes about five minutes. And that includes a coffee break.
You can choose from an array of talking animals, alien and fantasy species, and occupations from a bunch of genres. Play a cat, a crow, or a turtle. An alien, an elf, a robot, or a vampire. A knight, a pirate, or a wizard. An astronaut, a burglar, a reporter, or a spy. The core book has dozens of Roles to get you started with, and each adventure book introduces more!
Even better, you can already use our online character builder and make a character in about 30 seconds! It's so quick! Give it a try! And if you felt like sharing your Hero on Twitter with the hashtag #awfullycheerful and a link to this page, well, we'd be most awfully grateful!
Build your Hero online!
Alternatively, each adventure comes with its own selection of pre-generated characters. If you don't want to make your own characters, you can simply use those - perfect for one-shots or new players!
Download the pre-gens for all four adventures from the official website!
In A.C.E! each Hero (that's you!) has a Role. Your Role gives you a special ability only you can use. Here's a quick look at some of the Roles you can play!
Talking animals like Ape, Cat, Crow, Dog, Kangaroo, and Turtle.
Species like Alien, Dwarf, Elf, Ghost, Goblin, Golem, Hobbit, Monster, Ogre, Robot, Vampire, and Werewolf.
Fantasy roles like Alchemist, Assassin, Barbarian, Cleric, Druid, Knight, Ninja, Outlaw, Pirate, Ranger, Samurai, Slayer, and Wizard.
Occupations like Actor, Archeologist, Astronaut, Athlete, Bounty Hunter, Boxer, Burglar, Chef, Con Artist, Cowboy, Detective, Doctor, Engineer, Gambler, Gangster, Hacker, Hermit, Inventor, Musician, Pilot, Priest, Professor, Reporter, Scientist, Smuggler, Soldier, Spy, Student, and Stuntman.
Even a couple of superheroes like Speedster and Vigilante!
Yep, you can play a Ghost. You don’t take damage unless its from a holy source or some special sci-fi ecto-gadget. But you also can’t pick things up. So there’s that.
Each of the adventures adds some more Roles (or recommends some old ones)!
Spirits of Manhattan adds Ghost, Demonologist, Doctor, Engineer, Exorcist, Inventor, Priest, Professor, Scientist, and Student.
Raiders of the Cutty Sark adds Botanist, Double-Agent, Socialite, and Witch.
Strange Science adds Brain, Cheerleader, Outsider, Protector, Radio Presenter, and Tycoon.
Beam Me Up adds Captain, Chief Engineer, Comms, Hologram, Gunner, Counsellor, and Pilot.
ACE! is a pretty fast, light game. If you played 1986's Ghostbusters RPG, you'll see the influence immediately.
Stats! The AWFULLY CHEERFUL ENGINE! is a d6 dice pool system*. You have four Stats -- Smarts, Moves, Style, and Brawn. If you have a Moves score of 3, you roll three six-sided dice when you try to jump a motorcycle over a ravine. If you roll high enough, you succeed. It's pretty simple!
Focuses! For each Stat you also have a Focus. For Smarts it might be a science, or chess, or history. For Style it might be bluffing, singing, or fashion, and for Brawn it might be brawling or swimming. You can choose from plenty of focuses. Foci. Focuses. Whatever. Anyway, if the thing you're trying to do relates to a Focus, you get to roll an extra two dice.
Trait! You choose a trait, like Angry or Cheerful or Rebellious or Despondent. This, combined with your Role, makes you a Gullible Vampire, a Brave Turtle, or a Squeamish Scientist.
Karma! Finally, you have a bunch of Karma points. These can be spent for extra dice or to absorb damage from attacks, and they're recovered by using your trait.
*Fun fact -- did you know that 1986's Ghostbusters RPG, by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford, was the first ever dice pool RPG? Also Sandy Petersen has written an awesome foreword for the AWFULLY CHEERFUL ENGINE!
What, I hear you ask, is a CALAMITY DIE?
The Calamity Die is how you find out that your friends really aren't your friends. You see, when you make a roll, one of those dice is a different color, and is called the Calamity Die. And if your roll fails, and also the Calamity Die rolls a 1, your so-called 'friends' decide what happens to you. It won't kill you or anything, but...
Well, we'll leave that thought with you.
Nooooo! And it was all going so well!
Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, June 18 2021 10:00 PM BST
Website: [Awfully Cheerful Engine] [EN Publishing] [facebook] [twitter]
36 notes
·
View notes
Text
Design Report: Immersion
How enemies help to immerse the player
The importance of in game enemies. this is a detailed explanation on how they important and therefore imperative for immersion in different styles of games.
Enemies can turn the most boring of dungeon crawlers do an exciting impactful adventure and those tense moments and exhilarating action. To make these enemies truly immersive in the gameplay required these three important steps.
· mechanical Immersion
· Spatial Immersion
· narrative Immersion
Mechanical immersion is usually associated with small Untold Stories that are found in the background. These types of stories are not converted the player by npcs they are visual cues that allow a player to interpret the story differently from what is originally presented these are usually hidden to give the players a semblance of Mystery.
I shall give you a scenario of this "you are in a big dark room all the windows are boarded up from the inside and all the plates and dishes are strewn About shattered on the floor and Scattered around, you see drops of blood leading from the cabinet leading to A Door can you see more blood Pooling under the door frame”.
There are other forms of immersion you can acquire immersion from voice clips or in game files , ones that can be found within a book or notes and most commonly from prodding at npcs and even npcs talking with each other a good example of this is how Skyrim npcs interact with each other and the player and sometimes you can acquire quests by Simply listening to npcs talking and you can outright miss this Quest if not paying attention. And these games these forms of information like they can be found as physical objects you can interact within the games you don't just get a PNG of text you actually get a three-dimensional item that you can look around for more clues.
Spatial Immersion is predominantly described with the featuring of this type experience where players experience seasons and topography of the game like far off mountain treading off into the distance that you are allowed to explore on foot, deep gorgeous that's when you fall in them you gradually increase your speed until you hit the bottom, and endless Fields where the player can experience peace with the calm sounds of nature with the gentle sounds of footsteps on grass. The best way to allow people to experience these forms of immersion or it is better if I say the best say the ways in which this shatters immersion is with the dreaded loading screens the more loading screens and the unexplained invisible game walls where the player is individually told they are not allowed to go there. The player experiences the more it pulls him out of the game.
Some of the player base debate about how far must immersion go?
Some people seem to agree that in some games there is way too much realism, and this type of realism can actually pull some people out of the game a common problem did people like to talk about is carry weights do they help immersion or do they break immersion.
Ideally, if you want a player to go through a specific area and not take any shortcuts you would use the actual enemies themselves to block the players pat through that area to gently lead him to the early wish him to experience first.
Mentioning the enemies let us talk a little bit about the enemies and what their purpose basic is it is not that simple as enemies stopping the player from proceeding to make it more difficult it needs to be a smart placement so that you do not frustrate the player, everyone knows you cannot just drop an insurmountable wall to your player otherwise they might leave the game.
Now there are games where there extremely difficult enemies but those specific enemies specially were made like that for the purpose of that particular game and the main mechanic of the game like for example:
“shadow the Colossus” (In this game is about gigantic creatures that requires multiple strikes in specifics places while you are climbing them to be able to kill them.)
They are very important criteria to making a good enemy. For the best example, I can present where the grand majority of the ambience of the game is within its enemies Subnautica.
“Subnautica” (A game where you are free-floating through the ocean trying to survive giant sea monsters trying to eat you.)
What Subnautica has is that you first land in the safe Shallows and what this area is a spot where very few hostels to allow to spawn and until the player integrates with this new environment then he can go deeper where he could find bigger and stronger the enemies. In broader terms the enemy should be appropriately levelled of the current level of player it's ok to have weak enemies at the beginning of the game your Player does not know how to play it so you can forgive him that early And this smoothly leads us to narrative Immersion narrative immersion is someone deceiving because it doesn't only refer to immersion from the story but can also be in the way of how your characters are written a good way of doing this is when your enemies have a specific job some people called them enemy classes find the most common ones being The Archer and bruiser there are different varieties of these enemies and because of their specific abilities they look different from each other. To change the player the enemy doesn't just need to be spammed to lose all of its HP there would be intelligent ways of killing enemies with player made traps or with pre-existing traps they make the enemy Trigger.
The most important thing an enemy need memorable is personality good ways to give your anime personality are physical differences in the different jobs said they are assigned this is not just a stylistic choice this can also help players in coming up with different tactics according to the enemy you could have an enemy type does run away from the player when alone but the text to player when in a group. It is very important that is your characterisation of the enemy is very closely related to how they look and that their weaknesses are clearly visible for it to be easy for the player to realise this week point these weak points don't need to be obvious they just need to be clear.
While making an enemy be very careful of how the enemy looks within the level design you may you could have designed one of the most beautiful and creative enemies but it doesn't matter if they don't fit the place you've put them in or if the level is not built for them and with this you need be very careful the enemy needs to fit in the overall narrative and game play style you have created, if you have a very slow-moving game where the player needs to be slow and cautious to go through puzzles do not throw in a quick enemy where do player doesn't have time to react to it. It might be frightening yes but it could completely ruin the player’s experience.
While making the games enemies keep in mind when you are making these enemies of how they will react with each other will they be hostile, or will they be friendly or will they team up to kill the player. Enemies do not necessarily need to be hostile to the player they can also be there to serve as a problem for the player to solve.
Now let us talk about how to make a game enemy while using these four aspects difficulty, specific, personality, synergy.
CHARACTER CREATION
Let's begin by talking about the environment you're in some kind of cave, now let's say that at the beginning of the game this is going to be a 2 hit kill enemy, where the enemy lets you do a mistake in you getting hit by him immediately kill you the best way to convert these enemies dangerous, is by making him big and angry-looking preferably with big claws that face towards the player now we will start by doing something that will go against realism instead of making our enemy dark give him a bright colour so the player can see him early this will not make the game easier it will make the game fairer for the player.
Now we have a basic description of how the character looks, now we should ask how he will act. The enemy should be aggressive and following player true out the Maze with him giving up after a short while with more of an aggro range this will allow the player to be able to Backtrack if they are in the wrong section of the Maze.
Now we have a description of an enemy. Is only one I know you could create word create synergy with this character I would suggest small but quick anime does very little damage to the player that would not attack the player when alone what would group up and attack the player.
Another section I put focus on is by designing the characters sound like for example the addition off enemies that make insects sounds start the insect phobia of some people and for the bigger enemy large booming steps to show how large this creature is compared to the player this will also help the player not necessarily see the anime first but rather hear him first.
References
Design Report: Immersion
Cheng, K. and A. Cairns, P., 2005. Behaviour, realism and immersion in games | CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. [online] Dl.acm.org. Available at: <https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1056808.1056894> [Accessed 2 May 2021].
Youtube.com. 2017. Before you continue to YouTube. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2gIE5gyA6s> [Accessed 3 May 2021].
Frasca, G., 2010. Rethinking agency and immersion: video games as a means of consciousness-raising. [online] Taylor & Francis. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/digc.12.3.167.3225> [Accessed 3 May 2021].
Katelyn, P. and Clint, B., 2011. An Examination of Flow and Immersion in Games. [online] SAGE Journals. Available at: <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1071181311551455> [Accessed 3 May 2021].
Calleja, G., 2011. In-Game. [online] Google Books. Available at: <https://books.google.com.mt/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KIQKV_MXvBAC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=immersion+in+game+enemy&ots=ykriU7XAE2&sig=VRgi57MxF2RLFdKMYuv_4dusnvc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false> [Accessed 4 May 2021].
Youtube.com. 2017. Before you continue to YouTube. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhU4xywyWU4> [Accessed 7 May 2021].
1 note
·
View note
Text
Tips and best practices for optimizing your smart home
You’ve figured out the basics of setting up your smart home, now it’s time to raise your game. I’ve spent years installing, configuring, and tweaking dozens of smart home products in virtually every product category. Along the way I’ve figured out a lot of the secrets they don’t tell you in the manual or the FAQs, ranging from modest suggestions that can make your smart home configuration less complex, to essential decisions that can save you from having to start over from scratch a few years later.
Here’s my best advice on how to optimize your smart home tools, top tips and best practices.
1. Choose a master platform at the start
These days, an Amazon or Google/Nest smart speaker or smart display can fill the role of a smart home hub (and some Amazon Echo devices are equipped with Zigbee radios).
There are three major smart home platforms on the market, and your smart home will probably have at least one of them installed: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Home Kit. The industry now revolves around these three systems, and virtually every significant smart home device that hits the market will support at least one of them, if not all three.
These platforms are different, of course. Alexa and Google Assistant are voice assistants/smart speakers first, but the addition of features that can control your smart devices has become a key selling point for each. Home Kit is a different animal, designed as more of a hub that streamlines setup and management. But since Home Kit interacts , it too offers voice assistant features provided you have your iPhone in hand or have an Apple Home Pod.
All three of these platforms will peacefully coexist, but you definitely don’t need both Alexa and Google Assistant in the same home, and managing both will become an ordeal as your smart home grows larger. It’s also completely fine to use Home Kit for setting up products and then using Alexa or Google Assistant for control. If you have a Home Kit hub device (either an AppleTV or a Home Pod), you’ll want to use it, as it really does simplify setup.
2. You don’t necessarily need a smart home hub
In the early days of the smart home, two wireless standards, Zigbee and Z-Wave, were going to be the future. These low-power radios offer mesh networking features that are designed to make it easy to cover your whole home with smart devices without needing to worry about coverage gaps or congestion issues.
The main problem with Zigbee and Z-Wave devices is that they require a special hub that acts as a bridge to your Wi-Fi network, so you can interact with them using a smartphone, tablet, or your computer (while you’re home and when you’re away, via the internet). Samsung SmartThings is the only worthwhile DIY product in this category at present; its only credible competitor used to be Wink, a company that is now on its third owner and which has a questionable future at best. The Ring Alarm system has both Z-Wave radios onboard, but it’s much more focused on home security than home control.
As simple as Smart Things and Ring Alarm are, you’ll still face a learning curve to master them, and if your home-control aspirations are basic, you might find it easier to use devices (and the apps that control them) that connect directly to your Wi-Fi network and rely on one of the three platforms mentioned above for integration. It’s worth noting here than the 800-pound gorilla in the smart lighting world—Signify, with its Philips Hue product line now offers families of smart bulbs that rely on Bluetooth instead, so they don’t require the $50 Hue Bridge.
That said, however, you’re limited to controlling 10 Hue bulbs over Bluetooth. The Hue Bridge is required beyond that, and it’s also required if you set up Hue lighting fixtures, including its outdoor lighting line.
The bottom line on this point: Unless you want to build out a highly sophisticated smart home system, I recommend sticking with products that connect directly to your network via Wi-Fi, rendering a central hub unnecessary.
3. Range issues can create big problems
The downside of installing Wi-Fi only gear is that everything in the house will need to connect directly to your router. If your router isn’t centrally located and your house is spread out, this can create range issues, particularly in areas where interference is heavy: the kitchen, bathrooms, and anything outside.
Your best bet is to check your Wi-Fi coverage both inside and outside the house before you start installing gear. Make a map of dead zones and decide whether you can live with them. If not, you’ll want to consider relocating your router or moving up to a mesh Wi-Fi network with two or more nodes. You can read more about mesh Wi-Fi networks here.
Interference can also be a troubling problem that changes over time. If your next-door neighbor upgrades or moves his router, you may find that an area of the house with a once-solid signal has suddenly become erratic. You can tinker with the Wi-Fi channel settings in your router’s administration tool, but deploying a mesh network is a more sure-fire solution. Netgear even has an Orbi mesh node that can be installed outdoors to cover your backyard.
4. You don’t need smart gear everywhere
Many a smart home enthusiast has dreamed of wiring his entire home from top to bottom with smart products. A smart switch in every room and a smart outlet on every wall sounds like a high-tech dream; in reality, it can spiral into a nightmare.
The biggest problem is that while smart gear can be amazingly convenient, it also adds complexity to your environment because all of it must be carefully managed. Does installing 50 firmware updates sound like a great way to spend the weekend? Or troubleshooting that one switch that just won’t suddenly connect properly? Deploying smart speakers all over house, so you don’t need to yell for one to hear you, sounds like a great idea, too—that is, until the speakers have difficulty deciding exactly which one you’re talking to.
Devices such as Leviton’s Decora Smart Voice Dimmer with Amazon Alexa make it easy to put Amazon’s digital assistant in every room, which sounds like a great idea until they start fighting each other to answer your commands.
In choosing where to install smart gear, think first about necessity. The hard-to-reach socket where you always plug in your Christmas tree is a perfect place for a smart outlet that can be set on a recurring schedule. The kitchen is a great option for voice control, so you don’t need to touch anything with dirty hands. My living room feature is lighted by three lamps which would normally have to be turned off and on individually; with smart bulbs and Alexa, it’s easy to power them on with a couple of spoken words. But does the overhead light in the master closet really need to have any of these features?
And finally, there’s the obvious issue: Smart gear isn’t cheap, and outfitting a large home with smart gear can quickly become exorbitantly expensive. Think about what happens when your gear becomes outdated (and out of warranty)?
The bottom line: While it’s a great idea to install everything you think you’re going to use at the start of your project, don’t overdo it. You can always add on to your system down the road. Install smart gear only where you legitimately know you will use it.
5. Consolidate vendors
It might sound like common knowledge to suggest you try to stick with a single vendor when it comes to all your switches or light bulbs, but it’s easy to be wooed by a product that promises new features or better performance. Avoid taking the bait: Over time, bouncing from one vendor to the next will leave you managing multiple apps, and you’ll likely get confused about which one goes with which device.
Many smart outlets and switches don’t carry a visible brand logo, so it isn’t always as easy as just checking the hardware itself to see where you should go. (Making matters worse, many smart products use a management app with a name that that has no relation to the hardware’s name.) And while most HomeKit-capable apps can control other vendors’ Home Kit devices, you’ll still usually need the official app to get things set up initially and to perform regular maintenance.
The good news is that Tech Hive has plenty of buying guides in almost every smart home category to help take the guesswork out of figuring out which brands to build your home around, so you needn’t experiment to find the best products on the market.
6. Give your gear short, logical names
By default, many smart products will give themselves a name during setup that consists of generic terms and random digits, none of which will be helpful to you in identifying them later. It’s best to give your gear a short but logical and easy-to-remember name when you first set it up.
Start by giving all the rooms in your house a name in the management app, even if they don’t have any gear in them. (You might install equipment there later.) “Bedroom” is not a good name unless you only have only one. You’ll want to use the most logical but unique names possible here: “Master bedroom,” “Zoe’s bedroom,” “Guest bedroom,” and so on.
Now, when you install a product, standardize names using both the room name and a description of the item—or what the item controls. For example: “Master bedroom overhead lights” for a wall switch or “Office desk lamp” for a smart plug connected to said lamp. In rooms where you have multiple products, you can use a longer descriptor, numerical ID (1, 2, 3…), or something similar. In my living room, the three lamp smart bulbs are named Living room lamp left, center, and right, so if one isn’t working in the app, it’s easy for me to figure out which is which.
Doing this work up front will save you time if and when you connect your gear to a voice assistant. Not only does having a standardized, logical naming system make it easy for you to remember what to say, changing the name of a product in its app generally means having to re-discover the product within your voice assistant app, which is a hassle.
7. Wiring never looks like it does in the pictures
Manuals and online guides always make in-wall wiring look like a standard, well-organized affair, but I can assure you that many an electrician has taken some significant liberties with the way that switches and outlets are wired in the average home. Don’t be surprised to find multiple black line/load wires when you expected to find just two, strange in-wall hardware that doesn’t look like the picture, and wiring that simply doesn’t make sense.
The neutral wire required by the vast majority of smart switches and outlets is typically white. So which of these two white wires is the neutral?
Of course, you can always experiment as long as you’re patient. There’s little risk of damaging the product if you miswire it the first time. Just make sure you’re turning the power off at the circuit breaker before you touch anything.
As a last tip on wiring, note that neutral (typically white) wiring is essential for most of the smart switches on the market. If there is no neutral wire in the electrical box where you want to install a smart switch, you’ll need to seek out the handful smart switches and dimmers that don’t require a neutral wire, like these C by GE models or certain switches.
8. Expect problems to emerge without warning
You know how your computer suddenly starts crashing every day, or your printer abruptly vanishes from the network? The same kind of things happen to smart home gear, which, after all, are miniature computers of their own, all prone to the same types of issues. Expect the occasional product to abruptly disconnect from your network, vanish from the management app, or stop working altogether—even after months or years of otherwise trouble-free operation, without any discernable reason. In many cases, you’ll need to manually reset the product to get it to reconnect to the app. Sometimes the app will guide you through this process, otherwise a quick Google search can get you squared away.
9. Pay attention to battery life
Devices not attached directly to the grid rely on battery power to operate. Door/window and motion sensors, smart locks, smart doorbells, many cameras, smoke alarms, and more are all likely to require regular battery replacements or recharging, and while many devices claim to last for multiple months or even years, the reality is often shorter than that.
Take stock of the batteries each of these devices use—some are truly oddball cells that you won’t have in the junk drawer—and keep spares on hand for when they die. Devices that use a rechargeable battery like the Ring Doorbell are supposed to alert you via the app when the battery is running low, so you can recharge it before it goes totally dead, but my experience is that these alerts are rarely actually delivered (or end up being ignored).
If your Ring Video Doorbell’s battery is dead, you’ll never know if someone’s ringing the bell (which, in my case, usually means a “missed delivery” slip from FedEx). I check my Ring’s battery life in the app once a week (it’s under Device Health), and when it hits about 35 percent, I remove the cell and charge it back up (you can also buy spare Ring batteries and just swap a dying battery for a freshly charged one).
10. Dimmers can be particularly problematic
Electrical dimmers like the old-school wall-mounted dial type work by lowering the amount of electrical current being sent to the load device, which will, say, lower the brightness of an incandescent bulb or slow down a fan. Unfortunately, dimmers pose particular problems for many devices. Smart home devices are especially problematic when dimmers are attached, because they contain electronics and radios that simply won’t work if the power isn’t coming through at full strength. As such, it’s a bad idea to connect devices like smart light bulbs to circuits that are connected to a dimmer.
On a similar front, you’ll need to be especially observant if you replace an old toggle switch with a smart dimmer. As a shortcut, sometimes switches are wired with pass-through circuitry that is meant to pass along current to other devices (such as a nearby power outlet). If you swap out this switch with a dimmer, you might inadvertently connect the dimmer to those outlets, causing them to lose all or partial power, making for a complex troubleshooting session.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Meet the Players of Haunts & Hellhounds: Laurie Prescott
Laurie - 20 - Party Role: Mage (Offense)
Laurie’s used to making the rules as the designated Dungeon Crawlers’ Union GM. But in the game of Haunts & Hellhounds, Grimm Morreaux is in charge. And according to his rules, someone must play the role of the Final Girl...
Read on for H&H stats, current status, backstory, and fears.
SPOILER WARNING: If you have not finished the most recent chapter of Haunts & Hellhounds over on Wattpad, and you wish to avoid spoilers (including whether the character has survived thus far), DO NOT read past this break.
The most recent chapter is: Chapter 7. *New chapters every Friday at 4PM EST!* :)
Haunt & Hellhound Level & Trope: LVL3 Final Girl
EXP: 500
Student Background: Sophomore, Digital Media Art Major with a Minor in Studio Art
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Defense Stat: 19
HP Maximum: 34
Current HP: 34
SP Maximum: 23
Current SP: 23
MP: 30
Current MP: 30
Spell Attack Bonus: +2
Death Saves:
-Successes: ( ) ( ) ( )
-Failures: ( ) ( ) ( )
Hit Dice: 2d10 (unarmed) or 2d12 (armed)
Proficiency Bonus: +2
Attributes (* = proficient):
(1) Strength*: 12 (+1)
(2) Dexterity*: 17 (+3)
(3) Constitution*: 18 (+4)
(4) Knowledge*: 15 (+2)
(5) Serenity*: 14 (+2)
(6) Charisma*: 11 (+0)
Skills (* = proficient):
(1) Acrobatics* (Dex)(+5)
(2) Alchemy & Chemistry (Kno)(+2)
(3) Animal Handling* (Cha)(+2)
(4) Arcana & Witchcraft* (Ser)(+4)
(5) Athletics* (Str)(+3)
(6) Crafting (Dex)(+4)
(7) Deception* (Cha)(+2)
(8) History & Lore (Kno)(+2)
(9) Insight (Kno)(+2)
(10) Intimidation & Distraction* (Cha)(+2)
(11) Investigation (Kno)(+2)
(12) Perception (Ser)(+2)
(13) Persuasion* (Cha)(+2)
(14) Religion & Occultism (Kno)(+2)
(15) Sanity* (Ser)(+4)
(16) Sleight of Hand (Dex)(+3)
(17) Stealth* (Dex)(+7)
(18) Survival* (Kno)(+4)
(19) Technology (Kno)(+2)
Extra Proficiences:
(1) All Weapons: The innovative Final Girl is proficient in all ranged and melee weapons. If she is armed in battle, she rolls a d12 as her hit die instead of a d10, like the Jock.
(2) Luck of the Roll: The Final Girl rolls every single check and death saving throw at an advantage.
(3) English: This character speaks English.
(4) Latin: This character speaks Latin.
(5) Art: As a DMA major with a minor in Studio Art, Laurie has a knack for creativity. She gains an additional +1 to her crafting ability.
Abilities:
(1) Hide & Seek Champion: As the Final Girl, Laurie gains an additional +2 to her stealth skill, on top of her proficiency and dexterity bonuses.
(2) Pep Talker: Once per battle, the Final Girl may lend 5 points of inspiration to any companion who is in dire straits.
(3) Dark Blast: (Purchased from Damon) The player sends a ball of dark energy at their opponent, dealing 1d10 damage. Cost: 4MP
Inventory:
-2 pockets (cell phone, healing potion)
-Backpack ($10 cash, debit card, student ID, 2 granola bars, H&H player’s handbook)
-1-handed weapon: golf club
-Other hand: Flashlight
Appearance:
-Blue eyes
-Long, straight, dirty-blonde hair, worn in a Dutch braid
-About 5′8″
-Lanky, tall
-No piercings or tattoos
-Only mascara, lightly penciled in eyebrows, and some powdered concealer
-Wearing a mid-thigh-length skirt, off-the-shoulder t-shirt, and Gladiator sandals
Backstory & Personality:
Valedictorian at a prestigious private high school, everyone was surprised when Laurie chose to become a DMA major in college. With grades like hers, they were all so sure she would become a doctor. But video games have always been her guilty pleasure, and she desperately wants to make her own. Since starting college, video games have consumed her entire identity. If she isn’t playing them or designing them, she’s drawing concept art and character sketches. She’s determined to create a AAA title someday, and she feels as though she has something to prove to her family members, who don’t seem to understand why she chose this career path and even tried dissuading her from it. Failure isn’t an option.
When a fellow Studio Art classmate, Tatiana Davis, suggested they start a tabletop RPG stream together, Laurie jumped right on the opportunity, seeing it as a rich fountain of inspiration for her own video game creations. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find a faculty member to sponsor the stream as a student club and the school wouldn’t grant them permission to use the computer lab for a non-school related stream, so the four adventurers had to buy their own tech and stream from their respective dorms and apartments. Laurie offered to be the team’s GM, and the rest is Dungeon Crawlers’ Union history. She’s known for being a bit of a harsh, controlling GM who bristles whenever her players go off the beaten path. The way she sees it, it was mostly her own brainpower that went into the creation of the DCU; no one else offered to build the dungeons and organize the stream, and so she should get full creative control. Hell, she even helped all three of the other members pay for their webcams and microphones. She worries as a result that her fellow streamers don’t really like her. And honestly, she wouldn’t blame them if they hated her. She knows she’s a control freak. She’s tried relaxing her tight grip on life, but when she does that, it feels like her world is spiraling. She likes plans and hates uncertainty, determined to conquer the unknown before it overwhelms her.
Laurie didn’t ask to be the Final Girl when all the Haunts & Hellhounds shit started. She doesn’t even feel like she’s cut out for the part; sure she’s smart, but she’s sort of a one-trick pony. No one else seemed to want the role though. And according to Grimm Morreaux’s rules, there has to be one Final Girl in every group of survivors. So now Laurie’s swapping the GM guidebook out for a handful of dice. And though playing as the Final Girl pretty much guarantees her survival, Laurie doesn’t want to watch her DCU team die. If she had it her way, they’d all make it out alive. Unfortunately, this is one campaign she can’t control.
Favorite Horror Movie: Until Dawn -- “I mean, it’s a video game, but it basically counts as a movie, right?”
Horror Movie She Will absolutely NEVER Watch Because It Is Just Too Spooky: Stay Alive -- “I like my video games to be pleasant escapes from reality, not life-or-death, thank you very much.”
1 note
·
View note
Text
Important for Hugginsverse audience
It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with this blog, really. I’m sure most of my followers have gone away and a bunch of folks straight up think I abandoned Hugginsverse completely (I haven’t), but I feel it’s important to put some stuff out there.
This isn’t a vent, callout, sob story, or anything like that. I just want to say a few things that are very important to me, and if you enjoy Hugginsverse, they might be important to you, too.
When I was 15, I dabbled in RPG Maker and made a game called ?????. It got a major facelift when I was contacted by potential assistants and this remake was called UNKNOWN. I had no idea it would become what it did.
I’ll be 23 in less than a week, and no longer live in the house I grew up in. When I look at UNKNOWN, and the games that followed in its trail, I simultaneously see the happiest point of my life and the cringy doodle in the middle school sketchbook (but in a loving way!...mostly). I hold nothing but appreciation and love for both the stories I had created and the people I had in my audience.
However, I’d like to take a moment to look back on this series through the eyes of an adult, and point out a few things that are going to change now that I’m a bit older and my life experiences have shifted. There will be Cool New Hugginsverse News, too.
The first thing I want to put in here is an apology. I know, I said this wouldn’t be vent, but this is important. I’ll try to make it quick. There will be fun stuff later on, I promise.
The first big change is that in UNKNOWN, the entirety of Zone 2 is hereby removed from canon entirely. No UNKNOWN-related material (I’ve been questioning remakes for a while) I ever release in the future will contain any part of Zone 2 for any reason. I have more than one reason for this, and it leads into my apology.
The main reason for Zone 2′s removal is that it contains a scene depicting assault that was handled in a very insensitive way. In the interest of keeping my promise of not telling sob stories or doing callouts, I will keep it short and say that Zone 2 was not written by me, and this scene was put into the game without my full consent. (If the full story is really needed, feel free to message me on Discord at The largest bee you've ever seen#9642, as this is where I’m most active.)
However, this does not mean I’m not responsible for the scene being in the version of the game that was released to the public. Beyond all else, UNKNOWN was my own project, and everyone on the team was aware of this. At any moment I could have made the choice to remove this scene from my game. I feel insulted that such a scene used a character of mine that I love so dearly, that my favorite OC I’ve ever made is depicted committing such an action, but I had every power in the world to prevent it. I did not do so because I was worried the assistant involved would drop their support -- even though the game was pretty much complete at this point and their refusal to continue would not have mattered.
I want to apologize to anyone who may have been insulted, offended, or triggered by this scene. There was no excuse for it being left in the game. It should be considered non-canon, and will never appear again.
I also want to apologize for an ableist slur used in FastForward. This was used in an attempt to emphasize a character being unforgivable levels of mean, but looking back, it is now clear that my usage of the word at all was in incredibly poor taste and horrifically irresponsible. Any FastFoward related materials I release in the future will have this line removed entirely.
Ok, that was the most serious part, I swear. Let’s do these in ascending order so we keep getting happier.
The second retcon I’d like to introduce is actually a spoiler for 365, so if you haven’t played it, and intend to do so, please do that before clicking this link. I’d also like to warn anyone who is sensitive to animal harm before reading, although it’s non-descriptive. This one is short because it involves a traumatic event from my own life, and I don’t want to upset myself or anyone who reads this.
Third, I’d like to announce a few characters that are no longer canon in the Hugginsverse universe. These include CHARLOTTE THE OBSERVER, BANDIT THE ELSEN, LOUIS THE ELSEN. These characters are no longer included in the universe because permission to use them has been revoked by the owner. I am a bit sad, as I have seen many of these are popular characters in the fandom, but I would like to respect the original creator’s wishes.
Okay! Time for more fun stuff.
An announcement I’d like to make is that I’m working on another game. It will not be an OFF fangame, as I no longer have interest in building off that world, but it is still included in the Hugginsverse canon and features Seneca and the Puppeteer as protagonists. I intend on divorcing the franchise from OFF from hereon out by instead focusing on Seneca and the world he comes from.
I do not know a release date. Hell, I’ve been making, scrapping, remaking, rescrapping this thing for a few years now, as is made obvious by scrolling even just a little on my blog. (The images and news provided there are, unfortunately, outdated and no longer represent the game.) Do not scroll down my blog. I’ve been informed my Tumblr was taken over by sex-related spam bots in my absence. Please message me on Discord using either the server in the link below or my ID above if you wish to contact me or see what I’m up to. Perhaps posting every now and again will motivate me to create the best product I can. I’ve learned a lot since my last Hugginsverse adventure, both from a game design side and technical side, and I want my growth to show as best as it can.
One more thing... I have a Discord server where I post information about games (uncommon) and the world Seneca originated in (common). If you would like to hang out there and discuss Hugginsverse, as I am no longer in the OFF or spinOFF servers, or simply learn a bit more about Seneca’s species and the world he comes from, this server would be a lovely place to do so. I spend most of my time online nowadays on Discord, so anything sent to me there will be seen quite quickly.
Thank you for bearing with me through this very very long text post, and most of all for enjoying the series I put all my little teenage heart into. All of you are wonderful, and I am blessed to have had the experience of making something people loved and were inspired by. I can only hope, and try my best, so my future projects can achieve the same.
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
12 ‘Unpopular’ Viddy Game Opinions
I’ve seen this topic floating around a lot, but didn’t think I had enough ‘unpopular but maybe not’ opinions about games to make a post. Turns out I do! So if you see this and I say something blasphemous, remember it’s just my opinion and my personal experiences with the games I list. Hope you enjoy or hey, maybe even agree with some of this!
Note: Can’t stress enough. This is just me. Also, spoilers under the cut!
12. The opening of Kingdom Hearts II isn’t as terrible as everyone says
Okay, so it’s not brilliant, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s the worst. For those not in the know, KH2′s opening is a basically a massive slog where you play as a character you don’t know or care about with seemingly no real link to the events of the previous game. The general consensus is that there’s some interesting stuff in here, but it’s buried among endless dialogue that really doesn’t mean much. And they’re right, but I really think there’s some great stuff here that people tend to gloss over. The music and the motif of Twilight Town is atmospheric, there’s some genuinely intriguing plot elements that are woven into Roxas’ story and believe it or not, the stuff that happens here is intrinsic to the rest of the game. So yeah, it drags on a little, but I don’t think KH2 would be miles better without this opening.
11. I loved Breath of the Wild’s final boss
One of the problems I see talked about with Breath of the Wild is that the boss fights are fairly mediocre, especially the very last one, Dark Beast Ganon. And I couldn’t disagree more. I think every boss in the game is wonderfully crafted, intense, challenging and great for testing you on what you’ve learned throughout the game by encouraging you to make creative use of your slate powers and the flurry rush technique. And while Mr. Pig Man at the end here is sort of easy and short, it serves as a brilliantly epic finale to damn near perfect game. While the difficulty is mostly gone after the mammoth fight with Calamity Ganon, it’s still just as intense as you frantically fire off arrows into the massive beast in front of you. Plus, the design of this thing is one of the best looking monsters in the game, so I really don’t understand the dislike for this ending.
10. I really like Crash of the Titans
Okay, so maybe childhood nostalgia has something to do with this pick, but every Crash fan I’m aware of seems to hate this game. But I don’t really know where the hate comes from! I played the PS2 version of this and I thought it was a genuinely fun 3D platformer with a variety of locations, good visuals, well-designed boss battles and even a vague story you can sort of follow! The game’s main gameplay feature is also brilliantly integrated, as using Aku Aku to possess various monsters throughout the game keeps everything interesting. One thing I will say though, that tiger dude you have to fight about halfway through is the most annoying thing I’ve ever had to endure in a game.
9. Life Is Strange: Before the Storm is BAD
I loved Life Is Strange when it first dropped, so I was beyond excited when they announced a prequel from Chloe’s perspective. But I really think they dropped the ball and they dropped it hard. But everyone else seems to adore this game! For me, this wasn’t a touch on the original. For a start, they dropped out one of the main mechanics of the first game, the time travel, which they then replaced with a much less interesting ‘Backtalk’ feature, which was then only used about twice throughout the game. Instead of interesting, developed characters reacting to genuinely dangerous or heartfelt situations, it felt to me like a bunch of one-dimensional teenagers who are edgy for the sake of being edgy. Chloe spends the majority of the game being a dick to her mother and bunking off class to spend time with Rachel, who she has literally known for like a day and their sudden relationship drops out of nowhere. Not that I didn’t enjoy the emotional moments of their relationship, it just didn’t feel like it stemmed from anywhere, unlike Max and Chloe from the first game. And the game’s attempts at villains were also rubbish compared to the first, with Damien (random scary knife guy who doesn’t really tie into the plot that much) and Eliot (who doesn’t appear for the whole game and suddenly goes full incel on Chloe when she breaks into Rachel’s house). Yeah I think you can tell I had some problems with this one.
8. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was also a hot mess
I LOVE the Dishonored series. The first game and its DLCs are amazing, the second game was arguably even better. And then this happened. In this one, you play as Billie Lurk, a character I love, and Daud comes back, a character I also love. But both of them are incredibly badly written and it doesn’t feel like there’s any development to them or even much reason for them to do what they’re doing. This entry took the mystery surrounding the Outsider and basically did a big poo on it, giving us the revelation that he was apparently HUMAN this whole time. I think that was the nail in the coffin that made me sort of think this was a bit rubbish. While the combat and side missions were as brilliant as ever, the level designs felt less creative than other entries in the series and lacked variety or colour, all the side characters were entirely forgettable and to wrap it all up, they killed Daud offscreen. Out of nowhere, they just killed him, mentioned it offhand in a cutscene and that was that. If you like this game, fair enough, but it kind of baffles me that more people don’t see this in the game.
7. Mario Galaxy 2 is good. It’s just sort of good
Some people cite this as being one of the best 3D platformers of all time, and that’s fair enough, but I just kind of see this one as ‘good’. Sure, it has a good, satisfying control scheme for the most part, the level design is creative and the bosses and puzzles are pretty standard for a Mario title, but still enjoyable. However, sometimes, the floaty physics and weird knockback effect from jumping into walls led to quite a lot of unfair deaths, especially if I’d been punished for messing up already by losing a life, only to then immediately be punished again by falling into the void. Plus, I found Yoshi near impossible to control at some points with the motion controls. So yeah, this one is genuinely enjoyable, but I don’t think I’d personally put it with the best of all time.
6. I LOVE Dragon Quest IX TO DEATH
This is a game in a legendary franchise that consistently almost always see ranked at the very bottom of the pile in the series. But I really don’t understand how or why. Okay so your protagonist and party are basically silent and don’t have a lot of character, but I don’t see this as a reason to totally write off the game! The side characters, villains and story are all amazing and well-developed, the world is huge, colourful and interesting, the monsters are brilliantly creative and Dragon Quest’s signature lame sense of humour is gratefully carried through the whole game. The music is always brilliant and atmospheric and the bosses are just as memorable as each character you meet. What was everyone’s problem?? This is genuinely one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played and if you haven’t had a chance to pick it up, it is so, so worth it.
5. Sonic Adventure is a broken mess
So before I kick this one off, I’m not someone who hates Sonic and I’m not here to slate the whole franchise, but considering this game is often considered to be one of the best in the series, I thought it was definitely worth addressing. When I first played this, I literally couldn’t believe this was made in 1998, AFTER Mario 64 and yet it’s so broken! The physics and control scheme are totally wonky and hard to control, the unending amount of glitches make a fair amount of the stages almost unplayable, the voice acting and facial animation is cringey and oddly broken and yet, this was all on the Dreamcast. The most powerful console of the time. And I don’t think I even need to mention how boring some of the later stages get, with Big the Cat’s fishing section being the main offender. I can’t vouch for Adventure 2 as I haven’t had a chance to play yet, but I really hope it isn’t like this.
4. Dragon Age Origins is the best Dragon Age
Dragon Age has always been a popular RPG series, but I think it properly shot to fame once Inquisition dropped in 2014. And don’t get me wrong, I liked Inquisition! The world was colourful and expansive and the characters were fairly memorable, but I still think the best experience you can get is in the series’ first entry, Origins. While it’s pretty easy to see that it’s slightly dated considering it’s ten years old now, the best characters and story in the series I think is here. Each companion you recruit is varied and developed and the story wraps up brilliantly in the end with each companion and army you meet playing a different role in the final battle. Plus, I kind of can’t forgive Inquisition for making Leliana lose her sense of humour and making her kinda boring.
3. Oblivion is better than Skyrim
Okay so I’m not sure exactly how unpopular this is, but I just thought Oblivion was miles better than Skyrim ended up being. Just to clear it up, I still love Skyrim and I thought it built on the series’ combat system and variety of enemies really well and still provided an enjoyable experience. But Oblivion feels like more of an adventure you feel at home in. The story is dense and full of twists and turns. The soundtrack has some of the most atmospheric music I’ve ever heard, the world is full of bright colours, each city is vastly different and has its own lore and I found some of this to be absent from Skyrim. I’d go into more detail, but I think the simple fact is that Oblivion had so much more I liked than Skyrim.
2. I don’t think The Witcher III is all that amazing (in some regards)
This by no means says that I don’t like the game, because I do, but I think it has more flaws than people let on. Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of the stuff people praise about this game is true, the quests are in-depth and masterfully crafted, the characters, especially Geralt, are extremely memorable. In fact, Geralt is one of my favourite game protagonists. But most of the problems I had were in terms of the gameplay. The combat, while fast-paced and satisfying, can sometimes feel a little finicky, so a lot of precision is needed. However, I felt that the world itself didn’t particularly interest me and the music is often ambient but outside of combat, isn’t anything special. Mostly though, the leveling system I found to be a bit wonky. I did absolutely everything I could in the first area of the game; all the side quests, treasure hunts, killed a whole bunch of monsters etc. And then I arrive in the second area and find I’m too underleveled to do literally anything. The majority of the quests have too high a level cap, a lot of the monsters kill me very quickly. And because the bulk of EXP farming is in the quests, I’m sort of stuck in an endless loop of constantly not being strong enough to do anything. On top of that, all my equipment keeps breaking and I’m finding that repair kits are extremely few and far between and that makes me even WEAKER. It’s something I’m gonna need to persevere with I think, but hey, this is just my experience with it.
1. Ocarina of Time, as amazing as it is, may have overstayed its welcome as best game of all time
I reckon this might be the most controversial, so it’s number 1. Let me preface this by saying I really like Ocarina and I agree that it was innovative for the RPG genre at the time. There’s a hell of a lot in this game that we have to thank for the games we have today. But considering how far the gaming industry has come since then and the sheer amount of high quality games we’ve been getting year after year, is still fair to call this the best game ever? When more recent games have taken what Ocarina started and built upon it? Games like Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption II, God of War all gave us expansive, beautiful worlds and a story you can really get stuck into. And all the time, more and more games of this caliber are coming out. So yes, of course Ocarina of Time deserves a place in the hall of fame, it was revolutionary and still holds up really well today! I just can’t help but think there have been plenty of games since then, as flawed as some of them may be, that have improved upon the formula tenfold since Ocarina’s release.
Thanks for reading if you got this far! Just to reiterate, these are all just my opinions and my experiences with the games I mentioned, so pls don’t attack me. Got any viddy game opinions you think are sort of not popular? Drop them down below if you feel like it!
#zelda#loz#nintendo#nintendo switch#kingdom hearts#ocarina of time#botw#breath of the wild#oblivion#skyrim#dragon age#sonic the hedgehog#sonic#dragon quest#mario#Super Mario#Dishonored#life is strange#gaming
16 notes
·
View notes
Link
apple newsroom
The most advanced pro camera system ever on iPhone; Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion; a massive leap in battery life; A15 Bionic, the fastest chip in a smartphone; an advanced 5G experience; and so much more
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA - Apple today introduced iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in a smartphone.
Redesigned inside and out, both models introduce an all-new Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion featuring an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz, making the touch experience faster and more responsive.
The pro camera system gets its biggest advancement ever with new Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto cameras that capture stunning photos and video, powered by the unmatched performance of A15 Bionic, more powerful than the leading competition.
These technologies enable impressive new photo capabilities never before possible on iPhone, like macro photography on the new Ultra Wide camera and up to 2.2x improved low-light performance on the new Wide camera. New computational photography features like Photographic Styles personalize the look of images in the Camera app, and both models now include Night mode on all cameras.
Video takes a huge leap forward with Cinematic mode for beautiful depth-of-field transitions, macro video, Time-lapse and Slo-mo, and even better low-light performance. Both models also offer end-to-end pro workflows in Dolby Vision, and for the first time, ProRes, only available on iPhone.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also include 5G with more bands for better coverage, big improvements to battery life for the best battery life ever on iPhone with iPhone 13 Pro Max, new storage capacity of 1TB, and the Ceramic Shield front cover, tougher than any smartphone glass.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max will be available in four stunning finishes, including graphite, gold, silver, and the all-new sierra blue. Pre-orders begin Friday, September 17, with availability beginning Friday, September 24.
“iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max make up our most pro iPhone lineup ever with the biggest advancement for our camera system, the best battery life ever in an iPhone, and the fastest performance of any smartphone, setting a new standard for iPhone and enabling incredible experiences never before possible,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
The new pro camera system offers even more pro photography capabilities like improved telephoto zoom, macro photography, Photographic Styles, Cinematic mode, as well as ProRes and Dolby Vision video.
The Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion is our best display ever; it intelligently responds to the content on your screen, offers fantastic graphics performance, and is perfect for any viewing experience.
The Most Advanced Cameras Ever on iPhone
With new sensors and lenses for all three rear cameras, optimized to work seamlessly with iOS 15 and powered by the new image signal processor (ISP) in A15 Bionic for improved noise reduction and tone mapping, the iPhone 13 Pro lineup features the best camera system ever on iPhone.
The all-new Wide camera has a larger sensor with 1.9 µm pixels, the largest ever on iPhone, for less noise and faster shutter speeds needed across lighting conditions, producing even more detailed photos.
Coupled with the larger ƒ/1.5 aperture, the Wide camera on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max offers a massive improvement in low-light situations, up to 2.2x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro, and nearly 1.5x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) — unique to iPhone — is available on both models, stabilizing the sensor instead of the lens, so images are smooth and video is steady, even when the user is not.
The new Ultra Wide camera features a much wider ƒ/1.8 aperture and a new autofocus system, bringing a 92 percent improvement for low-light environments, producing images that are brighter and sharper.
The new lens design, autofocus capability for the first time in the Ultra Wide on iPhone, and advanced software also unlock something never before possible on iPhone: macro photography.
Users can capture sharp, stunning images where objects appear larger than life, magnifying subjects with a minimum focus distance of 2 centimeters.
Macro also extends to video including Slo-mo and Time-lapse. iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also boast a new 77 mm Telephoto camera, allowing users to get closer to their subjects while recording video and achieve even more classically framed portraits, offering 3x optical zoom for a total 6x optical zoom range on the camera system.
picture from apple newsroom
A faster Neural Engine in A15 Bionic, new ISP, and advancements in computational photography power the all-new camera features on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Photographic Styles allows users to bring their personal photo preferences to every image while still benefitting from Apple’s multiframe image processing.
Preset and customized preferences work across scenes and subjects, and unlike a simple filter, intelligently apply the right adjustments to different parts of the photo to ensure the important elements, like skin tones, are preserved.
For the first time ever, Night mode comes to all cameras on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, including the Telephoto camera, and with Smart HDR 4, users can expect improved color, contrast, and lighting for subjects, even in group shots or challenging lighting situations, making images more true to life.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also offer popular features like Deep Fusion, Apple ProRAW, and Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting.
A Massive Leap in Smartphone Video
Following extensive study of cinematography and the powerful use of rack focus, Cinematic mode on iPhone records videos of people, pets, and objects with a beautiful depth effect with automatic focus changes, so anyone can capture cinema-style moments, even if they aren’t a professional filmmaker.
For creative control, the focus can be changed during and after capture, and users can also adjust the level of bokeh in the Photos app and iMovie for iOS, and coming soon to iMovie for macOS and Final Cut Pro,1 making the lineup the only devices able to edit the depth-of-field effect in video even after recording. Enabled by A15 Bionic and advanced machine learning algorithms, Cinematic mode records in Dolby Vision HDR.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also introduce ProRes,2 an advanced video codec used widely as the final delivery format for commercials, feature films, and broadcasts, to offer higher color fidelity and less compression.
This powerful new pro workflow is enabled by the new camera hardware, advanced video encoders and decoders in A15 Bionic, and flash storage pipeline. iPhone is the only smartphone in the world to provide an end-to-end workflow — capture, edit, and share in Dolby Vision or ProRes.
A15 Bionic with 5-core GPU for Best-in-Class Performance
A15 Bionic in the iPhone 13 Pro lineup is even more advanced, offering impressive power and efficiency, and driving the incredible new display, camera, and video features never before possible on iPhone.
With 5-nanometer technology, A15 Bionic — the fastest chip in a smartphone — features a new 5-core GPU in the Pro lineup that brings the fastest graphics performance in any smartphone, up to 50 percent faster than the leading competition, ideal for video apps, high-performance gaming, and the slate of new camera features.
The new 6-core CPU with two new high-performance cores and four new high-efficiency cores, is up to 50 percent faster than the competition and handles demanding tasks smoothly and efficiently.
A new 16-core Neural Engine capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second enables even faster machine learning computations for third-party app experiences, as well as features like Live Text in Camera with iOS 15. And major advancements to the next-generation ISP provide improved noise reduction and tone mapping.
Super Retina XDR with ProMotion: A Brighter, More Responsive Display
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max introduce the most advanced display ever on iPhone, Super Retina XDR with ProMotion, supporting an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz, for fast frame rates when users need it and preserving battery life when they don’t.
Offered in both 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes,4 the intelligent new display leverages a more efficient OLED panel, new display engine of A15 Bionic, faster GPU performance, always-on touch coprocessor, and is custom designed to operate with iOS 15, making gestures, animations, and activities like gameplay feel faster and more responsive.
This is the brightest display ever on iPhone with up to 25 percent higher max outdoor brightness, at 1000 nits, so users will experience amazing resolution, color, and contrast whether casually scrolling through the web or watching HDR videos.
Redesigned Inside and Out, Durable Design, and a Huge Leap for Battery Life
The all-new Pro lineup features a premium flat-edge design, crafted with exceptional materials, including the surgical-grade stainless steel band, with an elegant finish that is resistant to abrasion and corrosion, and a textured matte glass back.
Both models are available in four striking colors including the all-new sierra blue, created using multiple layers of nanometer-scale metallic ceramics applied across the surface for a stunning and durable finish.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are protected by the Ceramic Shield front cover, exclusive to iPhone and tougher than any smartphone glass, offering amazing durability and drop performance.
With a 20 percent smaller area to house the TrueDepth camera system, both models feature more viewing area on the display, while still packing in innovative technologies like Face ID, the most secure facial authentication in a smartphone.
The rear camera system introduces a new design with beautiful stainless steel trim surrounding each sapphire crystal lens, and the Pro lineup is designed to protect against spills from common liquids with an industry-leading IP68 rating for water resistance.5
On the inside, A15 Bionic, more power-efficient components, a larger battery, and power optimizations made possible by the tight integration of hardware and software enable amazing all-day battery life6 for both Pro models, with iPhone 13 Pro Max offering the longest battery life ever in an iPhone.
iPhone 13 Pro will last up to one and a half hours longer in a day than iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max will last up to two and a half hours longer in a day than iPhone 12 Pro Max.
5G Experiences in More Places
The world is quickly moving to 5G, and iPhone offers an advanced 5G experience, transforming the way users connect, share, and enjoy content. The customized hardware design in the iPhone 13 Pro lineup features more 5G bands, allowing it to work in more places on 5G for greater coverage and performance.7
By the end of 2021, support for 5G on iPhone will double around the globe, with over 200 carriers worldwide in 60 countries and regions. Users can experience higher-quality video streaming on their favorite platforms, more competitive gameplay in multiplayer games, faster download and upload speeds, and so much more.
With iOS 15, SharePlay8 on 5G will unlock powerful shared experiences such as watching HDR movies or TV shows in sync with friends while on a FaceTime call. And Smart Data mode will intelligently conserve battery life by automatically shifting iPhone to LTE when 5G speeds aren’t needed.
Featuring iOS 15
iOS 15 enhances the iPhone experience with new ways to stay connected, and powerful features that help users focus, explore, and do more with on-device intelligence.
FaceTime calls feel more natural with spatial audio and a new Portrait mode, new Focus features help users reduce distraction, notifications have been redesigned, and Live Text uses on-device intelligence to recognize text in a photo and allows users to take action.
Apple Maps brings beautiful new ways to navigate and explore the world with a new three-dimensional city-driving experience and walking directions in augmented reality.
Weather is redesigned with full-screen maps and more graphical displays of data, Wallet adds support for home keys, and new privacy controls in Siri, Mail, and more places across the system further protect user information.9
iPhone and the Environment
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are designed to minimize their impact on the environment, including the use of 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in magnets like those used in MagSafe, 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board and, for the first time, in the solder of the battery management unit.
Both models also introduce 100 percent recycled gold on the plating of the main logic board and the wire in the front camera and rear cameras. Redesigned packaging eliminates the outer plastic wrap, avoiding 600 metric tons of plastic and bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025.
Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to have net zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and all product life cycles.
This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will be 100 percent carbon neutral.
Pricing and Availability
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max will be available in graphite, gold, silver, and sierra blue in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and all-new 1TB storage options.
Customers in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, the US, and more than 30 other countries and regions will be able to pre-order iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max beginning at 5 a.m. PDT on Friday, September 17, with availability beginning Friday, September 24.
Both models will be available in Turkey beginning Friday, October 1, and in Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, and nearly 10 other countries and regions beginning Friday, October 8.
Customers can get iPhone 13 Pro for $41.62 (US) a month for 24 months or $999 (US) before trade-in, and iPhone 13 Pro Max for $45.79 (US) a month for 24 months or $1,099 (US) before trade-in from apple.com/store, in the Apple Store app, and at Apple Store locations.10
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are also available through Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers.
Customers in the US can get ready for iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max pre-orders until 9 p.m. PDT on Thursday, September 16, by visiting apple.com/store or using the Apple Store app. They can choose to pay monthly or in full, add a trade-in credit toward their new product, or upgrade through the iPhone Upgrade Program.
iOS 15 will be available as a free software update Monday, September 20.
The new iPhone Leather Wallet with MagSafe supports Find My, enabling users to be notified of its last known location if it becomes detached from iPhone. iPhone Leather Wallet with MagSafe joins new MagSafe cases in leather and silicone, as well as a clear case with MagSafe, that are available to order today.
Customers can save up to $1,000 (US) on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max with trade-in directly from the Apple Store online or at an Apple Store when they activate it with select US carriers. Terms apply. For eligibility requirements and more details see apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/carrier-offers.
Apple provides customers with a number of services in store and online that make its retail experience uniquely Apple. With personalized support and advice from Apple Specialists, convenient delivery and pickup options, free engraving, and special ways to save with carrier offers and great trade-in values, Apple ensures the best way to buy Apple products is from Apple Store locations and apple.com/store.
ALL THE INFORMATION FROM APPLE NEWSROOM
Low-light photo of a woman taken on iPhone 13 Pro’s Wide camera
0 notes
Text
Importance of jQuery in Designer's Career
Importance of jquery in the web designing
In this blog, we will discuss what is jQuery and why should we use jQuery? So let’s proceed with the intro part initially.
Required Skills
Before learning jQuery you must have knowledge of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. One should understand what DOM is, how DOM is manipulated, and how CSS is applied. Overall a basic understanding of front-end development along with these skills is required.
History of jQuery
jQuery came into existence in January 2006 at bar camp NYC. It was developed by John Resig. John wanted to separate JavaScript from HTML tag so that the code looks clean and becomes easier to understand. This gave him the reason to start the work on JavaScript to start the work on a JavaScript library which he named jQuery.
The first jQuery code:
<button id="test">Click</button>
$("#test").click(function() {
alert("Button is clicked" );
});
Popularity of jQuery
In the year 2015, jQuery was used on 63% of the top 1 million websites (according to BuiltWith), and 17% of all Internet websites.
In the year 2017, jQuery was used on 69.2% of the top 1 million websites (according to Libscore).
In the year 2018, jQuery was used on 73% of the top 1 million websites, and by 22.4% of all websites (according to BuiltWith).
As of May 2019, jQuery is used by 73% of the 10 million most popular websites (according to W3Techs).
Even the percentage of usage is so high, it's discouraged to use the library in new projects, in favor of declarative frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue. There are even websites that show how to use native APIs and that you don't need jQuery. Also, the 73% usage doesn't correlate with actual interest that is constantly dropping.
What is jQuery?
jQuery is not a new programming language, it is built on top of JavaScript. In fact, JQuery is a lightweight JavaScript library that simplifies programming with JavaScript. According to the jQuery.com website, jQuery is a fast, small and feature-rich JavaScript library. It simply makes things like HTML document traversal and manipulation even handling the animation, and Ajax much simpler with an easy-to-use API that works across a multitude of browsers.
jQuery is a JavaScript library that renders some beneficial features and protects some incompatibilities between different browsers' JavaScript implementations.
The major draw of jQuery is that it's more accessible to grasp and easier to scribble than plain JavaScript. Besides, let’s take a dive to know something about the usage of jQuery in the below section. How to use jQuery?
Why jQuery?
The most important reason behind developing jQuery is to simplify client-side scripting (i.e. coding JavaScript).
Now if you are familiar with coding JavaScript you might have faced a lot of difficulties in some situations like:
Selecting or targeting elements,
applying the style to them,
supplementing effects,
creating animations,
event handling,
navigating and manipulating DOM tree &
Developing AJAX application etc.
In other words, jQuery makes all those things simpler than JavaScript. jQuery has changed the way how JavaScript is written by millions of designers and developers all around the world.
As we discussed, jQuery helps us to focus on doing things instead of focusing on how things are done. jQuery has simplified the way of coding JavaScript.
Today most of the websites over the internet use jQuery. jQuery has a really wide community and forum. You can visit the jQuery forum by visiting this given link:
https://forum.jquery.com
There you can get help from professionals. You can ask questions and help others by just answering the questions. jQuery is continuously getting updated. A lot of professionals are developing easy-to-use plugins, which make the designer's and developers' life easy while developing websites or web applications.
So, Why you have to learn jQuery?
jQuery is easy to learn, one of the most popular JavaScript libraries. It simplifies a lot of JavaScript tasks. Moreover, it holds a wide community forum.
How to use jQuery in HTML?
Usually, jQuery comes as a single JavaScript file holding everything that comes out of the box with jQuery. Now, you know what can be included with a web page using the following markup language:
To Load Local jQuery File
<script type="text/javascript" src="jQuery-1.4.1-min.js"></script>
Ideally, this markup is kept under the <head> </head> tag of your web page, however, you are free to keep it anywhere you want.
How to link jQuery to an HTML Page?
To link a separate JS file in HTML is quite an easy task for the designers. We will see here how to link jQuery on the HTML web page.
Below is an example of HTML File which links jQuery file to a new.js
<html>
<head>
<style>
div {
height: 100px;
width: 100px;
background-color: red;
border-radius: 5px;
border: 2px solid blue;
margin-left: 50px;
margin-top: 50px;
display: none;
}
</style>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="new.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div></div>
</body>
</html>
5 Reasons you should be using jQuery?
There are a lot of other JavaScript frameworks out there, but jQuery seems to be the most popular, and also the most extendable.
Many of the biggest companies on the web use jQuery are:
Microsoft
Google
IBM
Netflix
All based on the manipulation of the HTML, DOM (Document Object Model) and designed only to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML, jQuery incorporates parts of HTML & CSS. Many companies are on the jQuery bandwagon, and your company should be, as well.
Let’s proceed over those 5 reasons and grasp something amusing.
jQuery is cross-browser: When we write JavaScript by using jQuery, we don’t have to worry about is this code going to work in IE7, is it going to work in a chrome browser, or is it going to work in safari? We don’t have to worry about all those browsers compatibility issues. All that is taken care of by jQuery for us. So when we write JS using jQuery we can be assured that it is going to be worth it across all browsers. So the greatest advantage of jQuery is that it is cross-browser.
jQuery is a lot easier to use than raw JS
jQuery is extensible
jQuery simplifies and has rich Ajax support
jQuery has a large development community and many free plugins. For example- within your application, if you want to implement an auto-mate textbox. You can either write code for that from scratch or you use one of the free jQuery plugins that are available already, tested, and proven to work in.
Now let’s see how to use jQuery in our application, how to use it with your application. Here, all you have to do is:
Downloading jQuery
Navigate to your jQuery.com website
Download development jQuery file
And reference that just like any other JavaScript file within your application.
So, we navigate to jQuery.com, notice that we have this download jQuery button. Once we click on that, then we go to the download page and note on this page you will see the download button.
There are two versions of jQuery available for downloading:
Production Version- This is for your live website because it has been minified and compressed.
Development Version- This is for testing and development (uncompressed and readable code)
Note: Both versions can be downloaded from jQuery.com
The jQuery library is a single JavaScript file, and you reference it with the HTML <script> tag.
Notice that the <script> tag should be inside the <head> section.
ead>
<script src="jquery-3.4.1.min.js"></script>
</head>
Advantages of jQuery
When it comes to programming there is no dearth of options that are available today. jQuery is a concise cross-browser JavaScript library that is mainly used to simplify HTML scripting. jQuery is a ready-to-use JavaScript library having several visual functions such as ease-in, ease-out effects. These useful features make it one of the most preferred choices for web designers. With jQuery, you can do almost any kind of effects and animation on your website. It is also SEO-friendly and cross-browser compliant. It’s the right time to take a dive and grasp the advantages of jQuery one by one.
JavaScript enhancement without the overhead of attaining new syntax.
It holds the ability to keep the code simple, clear, readable, and usable.
The main advantage of using jQuery is that it is a lot easier to use when compared to any other javascript library.
It supports Ajax and lets you develop the templates easily.
Through some jQuery effects that are almost identical to flash, the major advantage of jQuery is that it can be optimized in terms of SEO.
Disadvantages of jQuery
It’s obvious that jQuery is not to be the Pink of Perfection. It holds many drawbacks as well. jQuery is a tool or a library of tools. It can solve problems or create problems. As said nothing is perfect so it is.
Bandwidth
Not to compatible
Better alternatives
Increased technology stack
How does jQuery help you in career growth?
If you are a front-end developer, then jQuery will add value to your profile. jQuery offers a great deal of flexibility and more power to web designers. It is widely used, it is lightweight and clean, and open-source.
Having this kind of skill will be a major advantage to web developers in the growth of career.
Features of jQuery
Now, we are going to provide you the essential features of jQuery. A designer must have knowledge regarding its features as well. Here are the features that we are going to discuss:
HTML manipulation
DOM element selection
DOM manipulation
AJAX
CSS manipulation
Animations & Effects
JASON parsing
Utilities
Extensibility through plug-ins
HTML event methods
Cross-browser support
All in All
jQuery is worth the effort, money, and time. This library can have stunning & eye-catching effects on the website. With a little coding, it will be a colossal part of web development. It holds all the impeccable tools needed to build a website that is interactive and highly engaging. Overall, this is a game-changing technology to use.
#History of jQuery#How to use jQuery in HTML#Importance of jquery in the web designing#What is jQuery
0 notes
Text
"How Do I Stop Being Kin!?”: A Helpful Guide (Long Post)
so... yup. tumblr ate some of my archive, including one of my most important posts: a list of steps on how to distance yourself from the kin community. as there’s no way (that i know of) to get that post back... here’s this!
how to use the guide: all complaints/problems that kin frequently send when they don’t want to be kin anymore? those are in large bold. each complaint has a list of steps on how to solve it; the steps (my responses) are just in the normal font. don’t see what you need? send an ask saying you want to see it in a part 2!
“I don’t want to be kin with (x) anymore!”
okay! this one centers mostly around keeping lists. and as i said to the most recent anon, the first step toward stopping is wanting to stop.
1. get two separate sheets of paper (or start digital documents you can print later). on one, write “(Your Name) List”. on the other, write “(Kintype Name) List.”
2. fill the YN List first. write down every one of your own traits that you can name. they can relate to appearance, gender, hobbies/interests, mental health, neurodiversity, hopes and aspirations, etc. these do not all have to be good things. try to have a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 balance of good, bad, and neutral traits. (an example of a bad trait/habit is “nail biting”, because that’s harmful. not “brown hair”. if you don’t like your hair color put “brown hair” down as a neutral trait. it’s not bad, you just want a different color.)
3. fill the KN (kintype name) list next. do not use “i”, “we”, “myself”, in this list becase it’s not about you.
• if it’s a fictional character, write down facts relating to the character’s creation. who’s the author/designer/creator? what year was the source released? what type of media is the source -- a fantasy book, a video game, a movie? emphasize that the character is fictional, not real (add ‘in this universe’ if you believe in the multiverse theory) and cannot be reincarnated.
• if it’s an animal, write down all of its behaviors: does it eat meat? what sounds does it make? is it dangerous or not? now, if you believe in reincarnation, it’s way more plausible that animals can be reincarnated and their next lives can be as humans. emphasize that even if you were the animal in a past life, you are a human now -- it is not healthy to think you literally still are the animal and/or to behave like it.
• if it’s a part of nature, like a star or a tree, write down all the facts about it that you know and emphasize that it is not sentient, it doesn’t have a soul, and it cannot make choices or be reincarnated.
keep the lists with you (as a physical copy/paper).
4. tell yourself that it’s okay to like the character, animal, or thing, it’s okay to feel that it represents part of who you are. it’s okay to feel comforted by it when you’ve had a shitty day or you’re in a bad mood. feeling these things does not automatically make you kin. write these down on a small piece of paper and keep the paper with you.
5. even though it is okay to like the character/animal/thing, slowly start avoiding content that includes it. if you are trying to stop being fictionkin, do not watch the source. stay away from fanfic, pictures, etc, that make you have strong emotions about it.
6. if you ever are feeling guilty about something your kintype did (and this applies mostly to villain kin), you are projecting. whether you’re feeling guilty about your own mistakes without realizing, or you want the chance to fix something/apologize, you are projecting. if you are acting out what you really, really want the villain to do -- ie, you relate to them strongly but they’re not repentant and you want them to be... rp. start a roleplay blog, write a redemption au. look back at your lists again.
• if it’s not a villain, but you’re feeling guilty about something bad your kintype did, still do a bit of rp and keep looking back at those lists!
7. whenever you have “kinfeels” or “kin memories”, look at your YN and KN lists. read them to remind yourself that you are not the same person as the character, not the same being as the animal, and not something inanimate.
8. try new things and (now i’m not saying this to be a bitch) go outside. i mean it. vitamin d is good for you. you don’t have to exercise, but if you are able to, go for it. visit the library, the park, a coffee shop, the mall, anywhere. test out new hobbies, like
• writing fiction (could be about the character/animal/thing, if this is how you maintain a connection with it while not identifying as it)
• traditional drawing
• digital drawing
• sewing, knitting, or crochet
• writing movie critiques/analyses
• jewelry making
• making non-kin-related selfcare
• sports
“I want to get out of the community, but I’m not ready to let go of my kintypes!”
so you’re not ready? okay. this is still your first step. you will fuck yourself over badly if you push yourself to 100% stop being kin before you can function without it. this is true in situations like abusive households or trauma: if you pretend that you’re someone else who’s never had to deal with those things, you are using escapism to let off stress and unwind.
1. change your blog theme. i know it sounds dumb and unrelated. however, having a visual change will make you more inclined to change other things -- and it will start to tell other people in the community that you are able to change.
2. update your about, kin page, and byf. take things like “don’t follow if you don’t see me as (kintype)”, “no doubles”, and kin-related discourse out of those pages. anything that typically appears in kin cringe comps? take it out. (look through my blog for example of typical cringe comp material.)
• don’t say “literally me”, “100% me”, “ID” about the kintypes you list.
• instead of having separate sections for “primary”, “secondary”, “tertiary”, things like that... just say “kintypes” once and list them/insert their pictures.
• do NOT link to others’ blogs saying “this person is my (canonmate name)!” or “i found my (important canonmate)!
• whatever your stance on ace discourse... take that out of your pages. i have no idea why, but the kin community is fucking overrun with people thinking that aces/aros aren’t lgbtq+. removing this discourse from your blog will remove you from another common kin community behavior. (it’s totally okay to post ace/aro positivity, but don’t involve yourself in heavy discourse and don’t put “Aces/aros are/aren’t lgbtq!” on your about/kinpage/byf.)
3. if you list kin friends or kin blogs on one of your pages, consider taking out the links and just describing the friends/blogs. this will distance your blog from the network of kin on here.
4. instead of requesting “kintype selfcare/positivity” from those kin resource blogs:
• reblog aesthetics that remind you of the kintypes, but is not labeled as “(kintype) aesthetic”.
• make some aesthetics yourself based on the kintypes. if you’re tagging, then just use general tags (ie, “kin”, “otherkin”, or “fictionkin”), not specifically the character’s name or the type of animal you identify with.
• write positive affirmations for yourself, such as “i got enough sleep so this will be a better day!” or “i didn’t lie in bed all day so i feel motivated!” or “i ate something healthy instead of junk food!”
• if you’re writing affirmations specifically about a kintype, don’t refer to the kintype using “i” or “we”. instead, write “(character) tries their best to fix wrongdoings, so i will too!” or “(character) makes an effort to overcome anxiety, so i’m going to try harder too!” or “(animal) isn’t inherently bad/gross; it’s trying to survive like me!”
• basically, when writing positivity/affirmations, pick a trait that the kintype has that you want to have too. don’t just say “i have this trait because i am (kintype)!”
• sorry not sorry, but the overwhelming majority of the positivity on those blogs is useless. it might make you feel better for a couple minutes, but it’s superficial. even if the person running the blog genuinely wants people to feel better, they are still operating under the obligation to give positivity.
it is not as genuine as it should be. the person doesn’t know who you are, and they might not know a lot about the kintype. the positivity from those blogs is generic, ie, “even if you’ve done some bad things, you’re not a bad person!” You need specifics, which only you can come up with -- because only you know yourself. when something is vague or general, we think deep down that it’s not true. (btw, that’s the same psychology behind the “sounds fake but okay” meme.)
5. if your mutuals get into kin drama, or if you see kin drama on your dash, stay out of it. it does not matter right now if these people are your best friends in the world, because once the drama dies down, your url is still all over those posts. even if the people who started the drama delete the posts, other people have everything saved. the things you said in anger or anxiety or whatever are still on tumblr. and tumblr has an extremely difficult time recognizing that what someone said three months ago doesn’t define what they say now.
6. unfollow people who have ‘typical cringe comp material’ on their pages and/or people who frequently are involved in drama.
• if they have “ask to unfollow” on their pages, unfollow anyway. if they harass you about it, block them (and maybe report for... violating community guidelines. or harassment). DON’T PUT THIS ON YOUR PAGES. EVER. FOLLOWING YOU IS NOT A CHORE. MAKING PEOPLE ASK PERMISSION TO UNFOLLOW YOU CAN CAUSE THEM HUGE AMOUNTS OF ANXIETY. IT’S SHITTY AND ENTITLED. DON’T DO IT.
7. if you’re going to send hate to antis, i can’t stop you, but for fuck’s sake, do that on anon. (”what!?” you say as you read this post. “but don’t antis think anon hate is cowardly!?”) you just don’t want to be known as someone active enough in the community to send off-anon shit.
8. if i have or another anti/cringe blog has screenshotted your post/page, ask for it to be removed. no promises that other blogs will remove your stuff, but here on kce and over at @only-on-tomblr, we will. having your content up on popular cringe blogs can definitely get you recognized among the community, and you don’t want that.
“I don’t want to rely so hard on being kin -- I want kin to be a casual thing!”
1. first off, follow the “i want to get out of the community” list. you don’t have to stop identifying as kin, you just need to distance yourself from that network of over the top, hardcore kin people.
2. recognize that kin is your coping mechanism. it is okay to use escapism (that’s what kin is tbh) to cope. it is okay to step away from reality, unwind, then go back to reality after a few hours of doing kin stuff/rp.
3. recognize that any coping mechanism is going to be harmful when you take it too far. when it goes too far, it becomes an obsession. (because i am sure someone’s going to say this, i’m not dragging special interests. those are not the same as coping mechanisms gone wrong and this post does not relate to special interests.)
4. guess what? you don’t need just one coping mechanism. and because you’re not completely dropping the kintypes, you need to focus your kin-related energy into a creative outlet. what i mean by that is... write about them. draw pictures of them. do commissions, even for people who have the same kintype. not to mention, if you write about/draw them a lot, you are getting so much better at those skills.
5. optional: it would also help to make lists of your traits and the kintypes’ traits, like in the first section of this post.
6. as with the other sections, do not refer to the kintypes as “myself”/”i”.
that’s about it
Other things you can do
• write a brief analysis of an episode, movie, chapter, etc in which the character/kintype appears. what does the person/being do and why? how do their actions result in the episode/chapter/game/movie ending? how do other characters react to it? and how is this different from what you would do, right now, if you were in the same situation? (obviously no one has to see it, so doesn’t matter if it sucks)
• interact with people who have the same kintype so you can become more comfortable with “doubles” and thus be less intense about being kin
• when you’re watching/reading/playing/listening to new media (’source’), and you begin to have “kinfeels” for someone, step back. put the book down. pause the show or podcast. remind yourself that this is fiction. even if the multiverse does exist, your kintype cannot cross between universes and ‘be’ you. you are most likely projecting onto the character or you are inspired to create a similar character/oc.
• aaand.... here it comes... oh god. oh no. limit your time on tumblr. do not spend all day on this forsaken hellsite.
Things to absolutely NOT do
• post anything like “why did the author put me/kintype in a relationship with a girl!? i’m gay!” all that does is imply that you think you have some kind of ownership over someone else’s character. it makes you look like you want everything to go your way -- and not everything can. i am not saying that to be a jerk.
• ask people to unfollow you. as i said before (now, i don’t have anxiety so this isn’t from firsthand experience), do you have any idea how much anxiety that causes people? and how shitty a thing it is to do?
• harass someone over being a double
• tell them to unfollow/stop interacting because they are a double
• compare being kin to being trans or nonbinary. for fuck’s sake. there’s no such thing as a “kingender”.
- even if your kintype was female in ‘your source’, but wasn’t female in canon... that does not mean you are trans and it does not mean the kintype is trans.
- even if you are trans yourself, it has absolutely nothing to do with you identifying as kin. they are not related. you are a trans person who also happens to be kin.
- things like “canidgender: a gender that feels tough and ready to defend, a gender that makes you feel alert, a gender that....” are not real. gender is not an emotion. besides, these descriptions have nothing to do with gender.
• say that you have dysphoria about your kintype. again, if you have dysphoria, it’s because you are transgender/nonbinary. you do not have “species dysphoria” about your astral ears. just because it’s listed on google with a definition does not mean it’s legit.
• use ‘kin pronouns’ like glitch/glitchs/glitchself. ne/nes/neself. star/stars/starself. it/its. the very concept of kin pronouns suggests that gender is automatically tied to kin. it’s not. and you are not an object.
• send people hate or get into discourse about headcanons involving your kintype
• tag art as “me” or “kin” or “id”. even if the artist says it’s okay, avoiding this is another way to distance yourself from a harmful community. if you need/want to keep a tagging system, just tag it with the character’s name or the type of animal.
• tell someone that they are “your (important canonmate).
• especially do not tell someone that your characters dated and that you must begin a romantic relationship because of that!
• insist that someone just has to remember something that you remember! here’s an appropriate exchange on this.
you: “do you remember when our kintypes had that huge fight, then made up and dated for a few months? we drifted apart and stopped dating.”
them: “no... i recall something different.”
you: “oh. well, that’s okay!”
comments i just know i’m going to get (they’re useless. don’t post them and don’t send them to me)
• you’re policing our identities!
•you can’t dictate how we cope!
• you can’t take away our fun!
• how would you know how this stuff works? you’re not kin!
• ableist!
• go do something productive!
• i don’t care. i’m doing these things anyway!
-k
#long post#very long post#not cringe#kin#otherkin#fictionkin#fickin#kin help#kin stuff#antikin#kincringeemporium#kce#refs#resources#guide#resource#mental health#mental help#coping
442 notes
·
View notes
Text
Spacewar! [1962]
Spacewar is still the first video game. Not technically: the developers of Spacewar were already aware of a playable Tic Tac Toe implementation on the very computer they were working on, which by that point was already a more-than-decade-long tradition for computers, not to mention Tennis For Two [1958]. (For greater detail on this cascade of history, watch Ahoy's fantastic and dry documentary The First Video Game.) These prior works are only trivia, though, and false starts all of them. They're what you find if you look at the past not on its own terms but on ours, applying a rigorous schema of definition aspiring to the condition of a science, searching for something specific they couldn't have known they had. Tennis For Two is the only game of that protozoic era to be relevant or even known of to anyone in the field for the next several decades, and even then all that was required of it was the mere fact of its existence (its status as a trivia item) for the sake of a something so banal as a lawsuit. They are worthy of honorary mention, but a medium is not a prescription, it is a chain of tradition. Not only is Spacewar wholly original and something only achievable with a digital computer and not an attempt at transferring a real-life game, but more importantly and ironically, it did not exist in a vacuum.
Spacewar is not something you apply a definition to, Spacewar IS the definition. Although nothing so strident and bold and definitive was intended as it would be with later games, when it was taken as a prototypical guide by those who followed, that is what it functionally became. Not to be too precious and romantic and mythologize it ("First there was nothing, then there was Spacewar!"), not to be too essentialist about it ("Spacewar contains the seeds for all what followed"), not to use it to answer What Doth Games and fall right back into the checklisting trap — but we can read the game itself as a manifesto, a collection of precepts and assumptions, and one of the creators (JM Graetz) was even considerate enough to give us an itemized list of exactly what the MIT Tech Model Railroad Group hoped to achieve in making Spacewar:
1) It should demonstrate, that is, it should show off as many of the computer's resources as possible, and tax those resources to the limit;
2) Within a consistent framework, it should be interesting, which means every run should be different;
3) It should involve the onlooker in a pleasurable and active way — in short, it should be a game.
The expressed reason video games exist as a distinct artistic medium, as anything more than a shadowplay of traditional games and sports, is to show off the power of our computers. I use that word — power — and not the more prosaic and accurate "computer resources" that Graetz used for a reason. It's 1962, and it can not be put out from anyone's mind, viewer, player, or creator, that computers would be instrumental in a real Space War of the foreseeable future. Or even a terrestrial war, which was the sole practical purpose and reason for the existence and funding of computers up to this point in history (if we take pure mathematics for its own sake as "impractical.") It's a show of force, it could even be a threat if it were leveraged in a Cold War propagandistic context against those with weaker or nonexistent computers and not with the giddy, childish innocence that it was created and received with. Better to call the spirit "utopian frivolity," though. Self-proclaimed hackers brought not only Spacewar to the system, but the music of Bach and by extension his rosy vision of the divine and human. Perhaps these programmers may have had their imaginations circumscribed and imprinted with the hitherto military legacy of computing, not to mention American culture... but these eggheads messing around saw the potential of computers reaching far beyond that, towards a hi-tech Arcadia. There's much to admire there, but it carries the unmistakable stench of classical tragedy, and Spacewar serves as a testament of the damnation from within: not just that it is a window into an imagined future of nothing but war, but that its explicit priority is the poisonous ambition to simply use more and more resources, again endemic to American culture as much as it is to future game development culture.
Things like "crunch" weren't around yet, of course. Spacewar is sometimes casually attributed to Steve Russell as the lead or main developer, as in the current lede of its Wikipedia article. The original concept was borne of three-man bull sessions with Russell, but then the very first step towards practical implementation was taken by a fourth man. Russell then created a barebones prototype, including the ships and their ability to turn and thrust and shoot (and it is not mentioned, but presumably, to die.) In response to playtesting, he added background stars. After that point, it became stone soup. Other people in the Tech Model Railroad Club would have a bright idea — bespoke controllers, accurate background stars, freshly optimized ship-turning code, death animations, hyperspace warp, and the big one, the central gravity-well star — and then just implement it themselves. The end result is a game that's simple, but surprisingly polished and full-featured, especially compared to our image of early games as clunky, primitive, blocky things. It reminds one of the hagiographic myth of early-90s Id, a very small team of friends having as much fun making the game as they are playing it, all leaving their personal touch on the work. Steve Russell was not the auteur with a hand on the tiller and an eye on his vision, but one crucial member of the team. It's all very kumbaya, non-hierarchical, no pressure, if we take testimony about its development on face value and don't chuck it out as rose-tinted nostalgia.
This stands in contrast to the game, which is a fantasy of violent domination in competition, with a definite winner. We could unpack the implications of that more, and what it all means that the very first video game was of war, but, well, we'll have plenty of chances to in the future to say the least. Two opponents, precisely balanced and equal in a space ballet, identical in every way except for visually (the distinctive silhouettes of the needle and the wedge are a minor triumph in character design.) Hey, maybe there's some Tic Tac Toe influence there! Spacewar's idea of gaming is inherently multiplayer, and that makes sense. Solo games like pinball or Solitaire card games exist, but the large majority of games at this point that inform what we understand a game to be are all communal activities. The game even came with inviting options to modify the game's parameters to suit the player's preferences.
[I must confess now: other than maybe a couple minutes at a computer museum with a partner, and a few minutes in the middle of writing this awkwardly sharing a keyboard on a browser emulator with my dad, I don't think I've properly played this. I'm just a tourist. Is this an analysis of Spacewar or of JM Graetz's The Origin Of Spacewar? This is more of a programming note than anything about the game, but part of why I'm starting this project is because I've always been on the outside looking in when it comes to gaming. I've always loved reading about games more than playing them, and this writing and canon-exploring endeavor is a hope that I can fill in the gaps and to force me to form my own thoughts. And what's the point if I can't well play the game for myself? Unless I change my mind, I'll be largely avoiding multiplayer games whenever I possibly can, because not only can securing a Player 2 in these early non-online games be an awkward or high barrier to clear for me, and not only are many of them ephemeral, and/or hard to fix in place and get a read on, such as here where the intention is that every run is different because of the guile and fumbles of your human opponent even though the game blatantly remains static, but their basic legibility depends even more than usual on practiced skill that I just haven't personally built up.]
The game is inherently hostile to your continued existence, and both players are only empowered to make it even moreso. Movement is constant, although very slow so as to facilitate strategic marksmanship over spray-and-pray. It's not an anxious atmosphere though, the edge of threat and action is what keeps the player engaged, throws them into interaction and thought. The central star is the key that makes this dramatic and dangerous gameplay: it makes it impossible to stay still, and it serves as the passive threat of death, one that can't be defeated, only negotiated. The only other gameplay element to speak of is your human opponent, but the star serves as the personification of the game itself. It shares something in common with the roulette wheel, not in the randomization which is more in play with the Hyperspace Warp Hail Mary, not even in the gravitational pull, but in the way it stands as an emblem that ultimately, you're playing the game on the terms of the game-maker and at the mercy of physics. Maybe it's only a small philosophical leap from playing against the computer's game and a player to designing a game played against only the computer.
Spacewar exists already at the fruitful intersection of abstraction, simulation, and fiction that games will never escape. You don't get to brake, but instead have to apply reverse thrust, in a nod to simulating what space flight would really be like. But you can pivot freely without applying any thrust at all as though on a Lazy Susan, so that your nose is always pointing in the opposite direction of the thrust for quick visual clarity. Your bullets don't obey gravity like your ship does. These have their respective knowingly-silly technobabble explanations, papering over the gap between simulation and abstraction with fiction. War is its name and theme, but it's really more of a duel, boiling war down to a single dogfight. Space is its name and theme, but it's not empty and it's not infinite, it's a closed area smaller than a sheet of paper that wraps around at the edges and corners, which if I'm visualizing correctly, would resolve to a teardrop shape (which is then projected onto a rectangle, which is then projected onto a circle.) In each case, we are presented with a small slice of what we understand through the minimal text (the title) to represent an almost incomprehensibly bigger idea.
We easily understand its shorthand mostly through intertextuality. We only understand what we're looking at, and why we can regard war with frivolity, because of the pulpy science-fiction wrapper. The inspiration for the concept is explicitly cited as low-culture "genre fiction" for nerds like the seemingly endless procession of science-fiction B-movies through the movie theaters. Specifically singled out is the cheesy space opera book series The Skylark Of Space. The yearning for the combination, a Skylark Of Space special effect B-Movie, was exactly what produced the creative energy in the bull sessions to dream up the totally-unprecedented gameplay concept of Spacewar. That's right: the first original video game was genre trash born of frustrated aspirations of filmmaking. Doesn't get much more fitting an inauguration.
Spacewar spread like a folk song, not a commercial proposition. The determination was made that there was simply no consumer base, so the source was handed out to anyone who asked. Somehow or another, a fellow hacker would catch a look at Spacewar, then return to their own machine to recode it from scratch if it wasn't a PDP-1, and people would keep adding onto it themselves. That's a remarkable method of propagation that has its successors such as the Type-In game but it relies heavily on a baseline of common computer literacy that necessarily dies out as computers get both more widespread and infinitely less demanding on the user to learn how to program just to use it. I can't help but feel a twinge as Spacewar is cloned into Galaxy Game [1971], one of the first if not the first coin-op arcade video game. Money makes it ugly: Is it stealing when it was freely and casually distributed before?
0 notes
Text
22 Jumpstreet
Admin: Requested by @jay-motherfricking-venus and based on this
Warning : NSFW
Pairing: Narusasu
Chapter 1
“Menma, come on. I don’t feel like doing this". exhausted,I tried to pull my arm back from my brother's grip that was trying to drag me in this stupid bar.
“What is your problem? Come on, we deserve this”
“We don’t deserve anything after getting scolded by captain Uchiha. We fucked up the paperwork on the Dani’s case. What is going to get drunk in a bar -that is most likely filled with a bunch of adolescents- going to do for us? Except getting us hungover”
“You know how some athletes have wild sex with chicks before a big game?” My brother asked, opening the door of the bar. I narrowed his eyes when his word echoed through my head.
“I don’t think that is the case...Dattebayo” I muttered, but I ended up following Menma inside the bar.
“I don’t know what your problem is. We meet some people. Tell them we’re detectives. promise to delete any sort of parking ticket they might have acquired. fuck ‘em aaaaaannnnddd~ forget about them. With empty testicles we go to work the next day and we will be more focussed”
“Menma, you are fucking stupid. You know that?” I said, but my bro didn’t listen. Instead he wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer.
“Look around you...Take a deep breath. Smell that?” He asked. It sounded rhetorical, “Desperate pussies. Waiting for some big Namikaze dick to fuck’em”
I rolled my eyes before looking at my brother...But then I cracked a smile. Yes, Menma was a sex-addict , but he made a point. There were a lot of beautiful people here and it would be a shame if none were to come home with us.
“See those four?” Menma pointed at the booth with two woman.
“The two brunettes?” I asked to confirm.
“And four double D’s” Menma grinned as he approached them like some animal going for it’s prey.
“I thought you were into big butts, dattebayo” I looked at him. I know I'm taught to support my brother, but I wanted those girls to throw their drinks on him to see him flip out. I crossed my fingers when he leaned against their table and started talking.
Five seconds later. He got invited by them to sit with them. I couldn’t believe it...Were their fuckboy’s detectors broken? Or is that a thing these days?
“That is my bro. Dickhead, why don’t you come here!” Menma said his arm already wrapped around both of them. No, he wasn’t dividing his attention. He was checking them out and see which one he wanted to call dibs on.
“That is not my name” I said walking towards their booth.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself, handsome?“ The one with green eyes winked at me. I gave her kind smile.
“It is Naruto” I said, extending my hand.
“Actually, it is detective Namikaze, or should I say..Detectives”
Menma started his usual story. I sat down, giving the occasional nod to confirm his story.
“Show him your bullet wound, bro” Menma said. The women gasped.
“Oh, it is not a big deal, dattebayo” I said, pulling my collar down so they could see the scar of the bullet below my collar bone.
“Luckley, that killer is no longer on the street. He will not terrorizing beautiful woman like you two anymore” Menma said. It made them chuckle.
“How about some drinks?” I asked, getting up from the booth. I could use some beer right now.
“Club soda”
“Make that two” The other woman said and I nodded.
“Beer for me, bro” Menma said.
“You get nothing, you drove” I argued.
“One beer!” He got moody and I couldn’t debate with him. I guess I will be the designated driver then. I walked to the bar, waiting for the bartender to finish the order of a few university students. I wondered if he even bothered to ask for their ID's...Tch..I didn’t want to bother. I am a detective not a beat cop.
I turned my head to other side. I saw a pretty boy, looking down at his glass of whiskey. He seemed lost in thoughts, but damn was he beautiful. He had fair skin with black hair.
I narrowed my eyes.
No, I was wrong. His hair was not black, it had this dark blue tint. It was like...The Nightsky.
He looked at me. I couldn't blame him from thinking I was creepy for staring at him like that. I was about to smile at him or chuckle. Anything so he wouldn’t think I was some stalker, but when his face turned to me, all I could think of is how pretty he was. From his lips, to his nose, and those eyes.
I shook my head. Fuck, I was so out of the game.
“Hey”
I tried giving a kind smile. But, seeing my reflection through the window made me look like the cat from Alice in Wonderland.
The smile immediately disappeared from my face.
“Hello” he said, he was on to my thought process. I knew it. He chuckled and I felt this electric shock inside me, and this time not from Menma tasing me by accident.
“You drink?” He asked, indicating to his glass.
“Yea, beer most times ” I said “but I treat myself to some whiskey sometimes. When I have been good at least” he looked down at his glass again and smiled.
“I ordered this..But...I hate it” he admitted when he looked at me. “I don’t want to waste my money. Do you want it?”
“For all I know you roofied it, dattebayo” I sat down on the stool next to his.
“Why would I do that?” He asked.
“Mankind has an dark side. It are those with a pretty face who do the worst things” I said.
“Is that why you accused me of trying to drug you?” He put his elbow on the table before resting his head on his hand.
“I said those with a pretty face. Those with a gorgeous one are always out to harvest organs and sell them on the black market”
“What is your name?” He asked blunlty.
“Naruto” I answered.
“Naruto, I am lucky to inform you that there have been zero reports of people's organs gotten stolen” He said.
“That is because they don’t live to report that,dattebayo” I said. “But I will take it...If you let me buy you another drink”
“That is kind. However, I just discovered I don’t think alcohol tastes good”
“Just? Never had a drink before?” I pretended to be in shock, “Did you recently turn twenty-one?” He looked away before turning his head back to me. “You are not even twenty-one, are you?”
“You are not an officer. I hope”
“No….No,dattebayo” I wasn’t lying...I am detective….Aright, I was lying.
“I am turning twenty-one this Friday. I haven’t had a sip of alcohol before today” he whispered.
“Why the rush? Couldn't you wait a couple of days?” I wondered.
“Because...In my family there is this tradition. Where the father would buy his son the first drink...That drink being whisky. I didn’t want to be that son to.. Spit it out” He shook his head. “I am pathetic, aren’t I?”
“You ask an awful lot of question to a stranger”
I sighed and looked at the bartender who seemed to be cleaning a few glasses no.
“Can I get some blue vodka and….Hnn I forgot” Whatever it was. It is not important anymore. I looked back at the pretty boy.
“What is your name anyway?” I asked him.
“Sasuke” he answered. I extended my hand to him and he shook it.
“Nice meeting you, Sasuke” I said getting the glass of blue vodka before shoving the glass towards him. “I promise I did not roofied it”
“Because handsome guy like you wouldn’t need to” He checked me out before taking a sip. “It is not bad at all” he commented. I am not sure if he meant the drink or me.
“I know, dattebayo” I muttered. Not sure what else to say. “So, Sasuke...Tell me something about yourself?” I took a sip of whisky. I bet captain Uchiha would like this kind of whisky.
“I am biology major at the university of Konoha. Almost twenty-one and I enjoy cutting things open for research. I am actually working on my project where I used pig embryo’s to make human cells.”
“That is impressive” Shit….Now I had to step up my game.
“What about you?” He asked
“What the fuck, dude. We have been waiting for the drinks since forever” I got pushed forward thanks to Menma shaking me. I spilled my drink before turning my head to him.
“Fuck off, bro” I hissed, grabbing a napkin to clean it up.
“Oh fuck, you taking the ten and leaving me with two eights?”Menma punched me in my shoulder. I had to shake him off, and fast.
“If you combine them both you get yourself a sixteen” Sasuke said. I'm surprised he tried to get rid of my brother. He might hate him at first sight or...He could sense my distress Either way...I wanted to buy him another drink.
“You are right...I will have a threeway” He wrapped his arm around me, “Naruto, a threeway!” He gasped.
“Good for you. Go, order some drinks. Your chicks might get dehydrated” Sasuke commented, looking away from Menma. My brother whistled. I let my head hang. I hated him sometimes.
“Playing hard to get?” He leaned against the bar table, checking out Sasuke from top to bottom. He clicked his tongue, “You are fine-”
“Let me stop you there….You are only embarrassing yourself” Sasuke said, causing me to laugh.
“Fuck off, Menma. Go ride that tricycle you wanted so bad” I teased.
“Hey, you are smart right?” He asked Sasuke. He wrapped his arm around me again. “Naruto here is marine biologist”
“Menma!” I hissed pushing his arm off me I didn’t know jack shit about being a marine biologist. ”What the fuck are you doing to me!” I hisse.
“I am making sure you are getting laid at his place. So I have the apartment to myself and two brunettes”
‘You two live together?” Sasuke seemed surprised.
“We are brothers” I answered, “twins”
“What? Can’t see the similarities?” Menma asked.
“Hu, I guess" Sasuke took a sip of his drink, “I am into blonds. So it seems”
“Burn” I said causing Menma to groan.
“We both have a huge cock, but I promise you, darling ,I can use mine better” he whispered the last part before leaving.
“I am sorry about that dick”I sighed. “He is a bit...Cocky”
Sasuke laughed at my play of words. It made me smile. He was the right combination of cute and sexy.
“So where were we?” Sasuke leaned in.
“At the part where I called you awesome” I leaned in so he could kiss me. I had the feeling he was into me. “Say Sasuke, what bring you here? You seem like such a good boy”
“I am”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Good at school, kind, gentle, follow rules and traditions...You parents raised you well”
“My dad..My mom passed away when I was ten” He said.
“I’m sorry” I meant what I said. I wasn’t expecting this.
“It is alright. My dad works full-time and is very tired everyday. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to make life more difficult for him. So...I guess I was always the perfect son”
“You ate your vegetables-”
“I cooked” he corrected me.
“You didn’t make a mess-”
“I cleaned the house” he said. I don’t know why, but this somehow turned me on.
“You never smoked or did any drugs?”
He shook his head, confirming what I said. I sat back in my stool.
“Girls?” I asked.
“Boys…” he mouthed. I don’t know what sick pervertedness I had..But the neck in the back of my hair were standing up.
Maybe it was just the way talked? It was hard to pinpoint my attraction at this point.
“Oh did daddy not get angry when he saw boys in your room?”
“No” he said.
“Were you that sneaky?” I asked him.
“No” he repeated his answer, “I....Never dated” he admitted.
“Really?” I didn't believe him. “You are daddy’s little boy….So...What are you doing at a bar this time a day?”
“Because..” he shook his head and tried to surpass a laugh, “I am having a quarter life crisis and I ..”
He leaned closer to me. “ and I just want to be naughty for a night” he whispered, and placed his hand on my knee, moving it up my thigh towards my crotch.
“Thuss the drinking?” I questioned. I felt sort of excited.
“And talking to strangers..” He whispered, his lips were close to mine.
“Kissing a stranger?” I wasn’t exactly sure what I was asking him, but all I wanted was to kiss him right now. But, I was afraid if I did that he would punch me in the nuts or something.
He didn’t give an answer. In fact, he demonstrated. He leaned in and kissed me on the lips. So, this hottie has never kissed, but he did leave me craving for me.
I leaned in so I could reconnect our lips, but he pressed his index fingers against my lips. I felt his hand on my crotch, causing me to look down.
I had a boner already? Am I that lewd?
“Wanna go to the restroom?” He whispered.
“How does your place sound?” I suggested.
“Of course, but I live couple of blocks from here” he said.
“So?” I asked.
“I walked here...And I am not sure you want to walk around with this..Hard. Big. Cock in your pants”
“Fuck you are naughty” I whispered. He stood up from the stool and grabbed my arm.
“I wanna be” He said, pulling me with him. Yes...I was certain that the entire bar knew what we were up to.
Inside the male restroom, he pushed me against the wall. His hands grabbed my collar and he kissed me. He very rough in it too. Speaking of good boys gone bad.
My hands groped his ass and I was not displeased with the package he had behind him. I couldn't wait to see him bend over,cheeks spread and my dick ramming inside of him.
Fuck, I am perverted.
He kissed my jawline,down my neck. He kneeled down, opening my belt before unzipping the zipper of my pants. I stuck my cock through the zipper and I swear his eyes sparkled...Or I was imagining it?
“There is a condom dispenser…”
He wrapped his hand around my cock. I was certain now that I did not imagine those sparkling eyes.
“W-what?” he looked up. His cheeks were coloured red. I was hoping he wouldn’t chicken out of this right now because I was not going to jerk off in a bathroom stall….Again.
“Condom dispenser-”
“You got something?” He cocked his head. His eyes glued on my dick,
“No” Was it weird to be so fascinated by the view of a pretty boy licking his lips while looking at your dick? “I figured...For you..A goody two shoe..”
He finally looked at me, staring right in my eyes before sticking his tongue out and licking the tip of my erection.
This guy...Fuck.I felt like I was in a porn..A good one too!
I looked at him taking the top in his mouth, moving his tongue over it while sucking. I bit down my lips. This was like a sex-dream I had when I was thirteen. He tried taking more into his mouth, but he was stuck half way. He moved his head back. He did very well for a virgin.
“I thought you never done this before”
I let my hand go through his hair, shoving his bangs away so I could see his lips around my dick. His pretty eyes looked right at me. He removed his mouth, allowing his hand to stroke me.
“I didn’t, but I am a biology major” he said before continuing. I bit down my lip and threw my head back, causing it to bump against the wall. I looked ahead of me.
We were not even in a restroom stall, we were not even in a corner. We were in plain sight for everyone to walk in. Sasuke could be unaware of it...Should I be moving us to a stall? But I did not have the willpower to stop him. I was enjoying this way too much.
“Fuck , Sasuke-” my hand grabbed the hair on the back of head. I moved his head so he would not only suck in the front. If I were going to do a one-night stand. I better make sure this virgin learns something from it. I could heard him make some gagging sounds, but I kept moving his head to take more in. He ended up pulled back, wrapping a hand around his throat. He was panting. I guess he forgot he could breath through his nose. Some shitty biology major…
‘Babe?”
He looked up. Now, I felt guilty, looking in
“Sorry..You are ...Very big” He said, “I guess theory isn’t everything”
How could he be so cute and yet frustrating me so much.
“I wanna do this..” He wrapped his hand around my cock again. “So don’t let me escape, alright?”
This guy surprised me….No...He shocked me.
“Alright”
I was not going to be the idiot to complain if he asked me to throat fuck him.
“We should move to a stall. In case somebody has to pee” I suggested. I guess my senses were getting back to me.
“Nah...Let them watch if they want to” he said. I was so lucky tonight. He put his pretty lips around my cock again and this time...I was not going to give a fuck about him being new at this or not.
I allowed him to have his way before tightening my grap around his hair before pushed his head over my cock. I guess he was a quick student. I moved his head over my cock. I couldn’t close my eyes to enjoy the sensation. I wanted to enjoy the sight too. My dick in this pretty boy’s mouth was incredible. I wished I didn’t leave my phone in the car. I would have recorded it otherwise. I could see the door of the restroom open and I looked down at Sasuke before looking back up at the door.
I saw Menma. He looked surprised before his eyes turned jealous. I was expecting him to walk away and let me have my moment, but he wanted to stardle Sasuke.
“Hey bro!” He raised his voice, but Sasuke didn’t seem to flinch. Either he was blacking out or he was ignoring Menma.
“Fuck off, Menma!” I wasn’t going to have the best sex of my life get ruined by my jealous brother because he couldn’t have Sasuke.
“So while you get your dick sucked empty by this toilet hoe. I am gonna go home-”
I knew I should show concern about my brother going home alone and not with the brunettes he hoped for. But tonight...The world couldn’t end and I wouldn’t give a fuck.
“Yeah. Go!” I hissed. I could hear a ‘pop’ sound when Sasuke removed his mouth from the head of my dick. He turned his head to Menma. Some of my pre-cum sliding down from the corner of his lip, over his chin.
“Don’t wait up” he said. I never saw my bro looking so regretful, jealous and hateful at once. He left rather pissed. I ran my hand down Sasuke’s hair,catching his attention again.
“Your brother is kinda annoying” he said. I couldn’t blame him. I lived with that for twenty-eight years now.
“Ignore him and ...Go back to sucking”
He looked up with a smirk and listened.
“Yes, sir” he said before taking my dick back inside his mouth. Now he got the complete hang off it. Such a quick learner.
My moans were currently filling the restroom. I guess that is the exact reason why nobody was coming in. I was feeling my orgasm coming and I had to admit..It had been a while since I got laid. But I felt I did pretty well for somebody who hadn’t actually fucked anyone the last two months.
“Baby, I am going to cum” I thought it was common currently to warn him up front. But he didn’t seem the stop. Didn’t he hear me?
“Sasuke”
he looked at me. Oh~ he heard me alright. If he didn’t like my cum he could spit it out of his pretty mouth. The idea of his mouth filled with my cum was actually driving me closer to the edge. I imagined him swallowing it, sucking my the tip to get every last bit of cum.
All the factors combined caused me to have by far greatest orgasm ever gotten from a blowjob.
I looked down. He didn’t move, some cum was dripping on the floor. That's when I realized my hand was still holding him by his hair. Fuck, I didn’t even allow him to back off. I know I'm supposed to let him go and apologize, but….I didn’t wanna.
“Swallow it” I demanded. I was taking this too far...For all I know he got scared to back off at this very moment. I saw him gulp down my cum. Much like in my fantasy, he was sucking every last bit out of me. I let his hair go, stroking over the spot that I had been pulling for a while. He got up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. There was a short silin the restroom.
Did I make everything awkward with my perverted mind?
“Was it good?” He wrapped his arms around my neck. He seemed fine..Better than fine..He seemed fucking good.
“Very” I said, zipping my pants and putting my belt back on .
“How about we go to my place?” He asked.
“....Are you sure?” I had to have him confirm it. I didn’t know him too well. It could be sarcasm for all I know.
“Yes, my father isn’t home tonight” he whispered.
“You want me to play daddy for one night?” I asked. He looked at me questionable...Did I say something wrong?
“Depends...Will you punish me for having been naughty?”
I covered his mouth with my hand. So he couldn't turn me on with his words. Damn,I should be marrying this guy.
“Sush~ before my dick hears you. He can be a real...Dick..” I saw him grin at my joke...Which gave me this satisfied feeling.
read chapter 2
35 notes
·
View notes
Text
a quick sum-up of che’s future career plans, bc reasons
im halfway through the dive!! anime show that came out this summer season, and i’m having a lot of thoughts, and plus i finished going through all the footage i missed today of skate america while i was at a bball game, and it’s made me realize different things i guess?
it might be mid-long length so its going under a cut, but to gain intereststart off, this is all about my desire to be an athletic trainer for the usa olympic center at colorado springs, co !
ive been an at(now when you see that abb. you know what it means hah!! not assistant teacher hmm) student since my freshman year of high school, and i’ve loved it a whole bunch. back then i was set on going to columbia U for their writing program, and i wanted to major in graphic design afterwards/during/it wasnt super planned out i was a fr. i didnt know what bfa or mfa stood for yet. it wasnt until end of sophomore year than i thought about being an at for realsies.
but i also still loved gd. so there was a confliction there.
junior year i took a break from working volleyball in the fall and did my one and only year of football and it was terrible primarily bc the team i worked with didnt know how to function as a group and half the group were selfless bitch whores but like thats another storyyy, secondly bc i jus really discovered i didnt care abt football at all. it was mostly for the experience and i gained it and i liked it bc i hung out w a lot of people from helping out w varsity (i was one of two our of the five juniors that had been there since my fr year and was only on jv bc it was my first year w football, but one of the seniors had to work a bunch so when they needed an extra person i was the one w the most experience so i was w them a lot,) point was it was fun!!! and you have fun w ppl you like that you dont work w all the time and i shouldnt say fun bc lots of times it was awful,
basically! it was fun being w the varsity trainers which were the seniors and the other junior that had been around since fr year. volleyball was fun but it had always been a one-at-student-per-team sport , so it was different jus being w other ats that shared the same team and not the same sport(which in the us is made up of at least three different teams, a fr,jv,and varsity). it was a more open environment and so it inspired a lot of talk with the at grad students we had that semester (we got 3-4 every semester in a partnership w the D1 uni in town, it was always cool to hear stories from them!) and anyway i remember talking w a couple of the grads one practice and we were discussing all the different occupations athletic trainers could have, and what they wanted to work with in the future, and the topic veered towards professional sports and the olympics.
i thought it was really cool when we were talking about it, and then we got busy and it flew out of my mind. i dont remember when it came back and became a focus, but sometime before my senior year, i had decided i wanted to work at the olympic level.
real quick i mentioned gd and the struggle, so to bring that into focus, my junior year i took a whole bunch of different tech classes (gd&i, compsci, webtech) and in one of those, i had the opportunity to go to a ... i cant remember what the term was for it, but it was kinda an event for gd students and it had a little competition and stuff, and it was really fun! nd you got a lot of info abt the community college hosting it and i learned their program was really good, so the gd versus at internal struggle continued, and i remember talking to my sponsor teacher (she actually taught all three of my tech classes that year aaa i loved her) about how i didnt know what to do and shit and i dunno what she told me but like, i think she was trying to be encouraging but she basically said it was up to me, like she didnt try and nod me into a direction, that i can recall.
so SOMEHOW bc i honestly cannot remember, by senior year i’ve decided that im gonna jus fuck it and pick BOTH and double major in gd and athletic training. AND i had it all planned out, where i was gonna get a degree in gd and open up an online business, and then go into a masters program for at and then enter into the olympic field.
by this point creative writing is still cool and a great hobby but i couldnt possibly double major AND have a minor that’d be too much. id still love to take a cw course tho one day.
basically a buncha crazy stuff happened that first semester but by winter break i had an acceptance letter to a uni a couple hours north of home with a good accredited undergrad program (accredited basically means you graduate w a masters in four years so its fasttracked which woulda been great but uh..) and by the time i found out that next semester that they were doing away with the accredited program i was already too emotionally invested to consider panic-switching(panic bc it was february and id already been admitted hah...) but i decided it’d be okay. basically if you dont remember/werent around one of my school’s head ats died in a car crash died around early october ‘16. she went to undergrad where i go now, and i’d talked to her about it september that semester wondering if she knew anything abt their program and uh surprise, she’d done the same program small world. after the funeral in november and a ton of thought i applied there. (november was.. crazy in general last year. rly crazy)
may was when i started adding on sports to the future olympics job, bc i started thinking about it and after finally getting a friend to watch yuri on ice, he started making his was through all of sochi’s figure skating stuff, and then the 2010 vancouver olympics, and i decided i wanted to recap a bit on that too.
the 2010 olympics was really my first experience with figure skating. i’m a west texas gal and so theres not a lot out here to get exposed to, so seeing these best-of-the-best class sports was fun, and the earliest experience i can remember of such. i was in fifth grade so i dont remember a ton, but i do remember being captivated by korea’s yuna kim, who won gold that year in fs. shes an fs legend at this point, so if you’re into figure skating and don’t know who she is, go look her up. you wont be disappointed.
in 2012 was the london olympics. i remember a lot from it, like watching the opening ceremony with my parents and seeing the queen jump out of a helicoptor(which is like,, still cool to this day wow) and being fascinated my michael phelps and all the swimming he did so grandly. it was also my first real exposure to diving. the oldest i could recall anything abt the sport was at a pizza hut somewhere.. in town i think, and i was w my best friend at the time and my mom was there so i think maybe we were on the way back from the lake??? sounds right, i think. and we were talking abt how i always held my nose when i went underwater bc i didnt know how to not get water all up my nostrils and be underwter(and i still dont to this day aha) and she mentioned like, joining a diving team would be cool! would help me get over it and all! and i like recalling it dunno what she was talking abt bc we lived in dirt city nothing so i highly doubt there was or is any sort of diving sport happening. swimming, yeah maybe, there were lessons at pools and bodyworks areas around town, competitive teams im not sure tho, but not diving like at all so??? dunno.
so my next and technically first real experience with it was watching the london olympics. and i thought, wow, this is so neat!! i watched from that one day like the opening events, and i think i was old enough to search online like yea i had a laptop by then so i looked up the schedule for the things i wanted to see most of, and i ended up watching i think most of the diving events (i missed a couple for.. archery, i think? maybe?) and absolutely loving it. iunno what it was, maybe something i never thought i could do?(bc not hold my nose?? while i dove???????? scaryy) but i enjoyed it a bunch.
i was older when sochi was a thing, my 8th grade year. i was able to appreciate things a lot more. when i tuned into events, tony hawk and snowboarding were the main focus, but figure skating was on a lot as well. i had a tv in my room by that point, so if i didnt like what was playing on the main tv, i could go watch another event. i learned a lot of names and faces through that, and so while my bff was watching it our senior year if i was with him id point out skaters and their nationalities and stuff, like yuzuru hanyus always been a modern day household name w figure skating, but i leanred abt him BECAUSE of the sochi olympics, and he was one of the ones i’ve never forgotten. i really really liked it, so much that i watched worlds after, and around the same time my fr year, i tuned in to just the worlds championship again. i didn’t pick up trying to watch grand prix(which is their regular season, for those unaware) season until my junior year, and most of it was day-or-two-late videos from youtube, since the ice channel i think it a paid-for thing (i still dont know much abt it hah) and nothing was on tv otherwise, aside from the skate america event. but since that first time after sochi, ive always been around watching worlds fs near the beg of each year. i’d familiarized myself by senior year with the fs world, and actually,
early (i think march?) of my junior year, i searched up trying to find a figure skating anime at the time. and what did i find?? ginban, the only figure skating anime at the time. i watched like maybe all of one episode, it was abt a girl who shared her body w the ghost of a former figure skater while she was competing in events, and it was.. okay? lackluster, in the animation dept, but it was a 2005 show so.. yeah.
so after that i was like kk that wasnt good lets find another. and i didnt. not yet, anyway. instead, i found an announcement for violet evergarden’s animated adaptation, and yuri on ice, a realistic adaptation of the sport of figure skating. thats bolded bc its important. i found that shit abt yoi before it even had a promo poster, certainly before the pv came around that got everyone hyped up. i found it bc i was looking for figure skating in the first place. in fact, i think when the pv came out and got popular, i didnt even relate it to the upcoming fs anime i’d read about previously. it took me a bit to connect the dots.
watching yuri on ice at the same time as the gp 2016 season was surreal, but really interesting. i got my bff into it before the second to last episode came out, and i only remember that bc he finally showed any interest when he found something on twitter abt it being gay (newsflash/// hes gay, and before yoi his fav show was no6 bc that was as close as it got. he still rly likes it, we both do, but his solid favc is now definitely yoi. representation matters and all) and was like well now i HAVE to watch it and i was all yes it ends soon so pls. and he watched it twice in a weekend, and thrice before the finale came out, and then a few more times after that, iunno how many times but certainly more thn i have(i went back after the .. maybe ep 10? w/e ending had the after party reveal that changed everything, so i went back to analyze everything before the next ep) and between the week of 11 and finale 12, he started watching the sochi fs competition, and then the 2010 after the show ended w ep 12.
seeing this great fs show and getting a friend into the world of figure skating really renewed my love for it all. before the semester went out i went back and watched the reruns of the sochi fs stuff. and by may i’d decided i wanted to cosider that to be the sport i worked with.
with diving, it took a similar twist. in the form of the rio 16 olympics. i was all over that shit, i downloaded an nbc app on my phone so i could watch events live while i traveled with volleyball to a tournament in dallas and while i was at practice w them at home and generally jus away from the house and a tv. i planned that shit out had a schedule and everything for what i was watching live, and a lot of it was swimming, but a whoooole lot of live stuff was the diving.
in the hotel room in dallas the tv would always be on to w/e olympics events were airing at the time, either track or diving tho, one or the other, or recaps. quite a few girls ended up in the room in the evening and we’d all do stuff and watch in passing at the same time, and it was suuuuuper fun. watching the chinese women perform flawlessly and walk away w all the gold was fun, but finding a good commentator to actually say such was a disheartening challenge( one of the most memorable moments w live commentary that year was hearing a woman say of one of the chinese ladies that she’d done better before, after they revealed her personal best score ever like rly cmon be unbiased and jus passionate abt the sport youre covering pls.
ive always been super fond of the diving scene. it may not be as much as fs, but honestly, i wish i grew up in an area w a diving team now, or wish i could try it out now, bc thats how much fun it seems. i still wanna go up to the big city like 30min away from uni and learn to ice skate in the civic center there, but hands down if i had to pick a sport to join tomorrow or die i’d pick diving.
so also by may, and throughout the culmination of senior year, diving was the second sport on the olympic to-train-for list. you get a five-year contract w the olympics, now i think it’s usa as a whole and i think its by center so say, if i get a job in colorado springs i cant apply in another five years to chula vista or even like lake placid, but iunno for sure. the five-year thing is involved somehow bc i’ve heard it from a physical therapist and trainer-that-works-in-a-sports-med-clinic duo in one body named sarah, who’s been contracted out from the clinic by my high school since junior year also, bc she knows people who’ve worked w the olympics, and then another from church that worked w olympics that knows my family uh iunno how well but i know of him, i think he also works in the clinic as some sort of on-hand surgeon but a diff person than who sarah knew. so its five years somehow and then i’ll take my bfa in gd and open my online business and do that from a studio at home and look after my owl/cat pet combo.
since may, it had been ‘olympics, with either figure skating or diving’. and it stayed that for a long time. now, since a couple weeks ago, and this is again while gp season is happening for fs, its diving. i wanna work w the usa olympic diving team as their team athletic trainer, and i cant do it this summer bc i have to have completed two years of uni, instead of a certain standing, like be a junior, but so NEXT summer, before my senior year of uni, (i came in a sopho so 6 sem only ah) i’m applying for an internship at the center in colorado springs, and that’s the team i hope i work with.
now i tell people, diving, but if i get offered figure skating, i’ll take it, but diving is the goal now. if i love it and wanna continue professionally, great, i can do that and have an online gd shop. and if i decide i want something different? i’ll work olympics and then join w a professional-level figure skating i actually dunno how it works. coach, and their skater in turn. coach, with multiple skaters under them. a culmination of diff usa skaters. w/e, something in the professional fs world.
and thats uh, thats it! dive has been so much fun to watch, and i realize i talk a lot on here about working w basketball and being an at student in general and the vast majority have no idea what i mean, so hopefully this clarifies. thank you!!
1 note
·
View note
Last Seen Blogs
salemknightts
im in hell
carolxferrisx
MOVED
korzagru
@korzagru
cocoricok22
Men I like
a-loki21
i commit war crimes in minecraft