#it felt like a lore stream from 2020 and as someone who’s been here since the beginning that was nice. it was stupid and stunning and still | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mcytblr-archive · 2 months

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Early MCYTblr Interviews: nibbleinephym

our interviewee is @nibblelinephym (known in 2020/2021 as severely-nearsighted). here is a copy/pasted transcript of the questions and answers!

(if these posts are too long, please let me know, and i'll incorporate a cutoff in the future!)

Q: What do you remember most fondly about ‘Early MCYTblr’? (2020-2021)

A: i think im most fond of how tight-knit the community felt in the 'early days' honestly? dont get me wrong seeing it grow and new creators bring even more people in has been wonderful but theres just something about a smaller fandom that feels nice. we were never by any means a Small fandom but we're a Lot bigger now than we were just a few years ago!

Q: I understand that you were the face of Silverfish2020 (winner of the first MCYTblr elections). What was your experience in the elections themselves like?

A: first, clarifying; unfortunately silverfish2020 was Not the winner of the first election; that was quotes2020, represented by mcyt-quotes (who i believe has since changed urls? apologies but im not sure what their current one is or if theyre still active at all ^^;) by exactly four votes -- for me the elections were a lot of fun! when they were first starting up i wasn't sure if i wanted to join, since there were a Lot of people involved already and i hadn't really solidified myself as part of the community yet (i think i was still almost exclusively a musical blog back in the first days of it, not multifandom, which is so wild to think about tbh). im really glad i did though, i met some truly amazing people through the event that i still talk with to this day :] everything felt very fast paced at the time, especially since the discord was almost always going at blink-and-youll-miss-it speeds; you had to be Constantly in there if you wanted to participate in conversation. i remember whenever someone joined the server there would be a mob of people from different parties trying to convince them to side with theirs. surprisingly, that tactic worked pretty well for a lot of parties. i vividly remember that there was usually a pause of activity in the general server when results were being posted and a boom when they were all out. it was overall just a generally pretty positive environment from what i remember

Q: You were also a contestant in the MCYTblr ‘Friend or Host’ for Paint (adhddream). What do you remember of it?

A: friend or host was great! i wasnt in the competition long (iirc i was one of the first five out??? i dont actually remember how many contestants there were for the round but i know i was pretty early ^^;) but paint seemed really chill, it was just a nice little thing that we did for fun at love or hosts peak. i remember the discord stream of it didnt exactly go very well -- there was an issue with the visuals i think? so it might have been only audio. but im not entirely sure about that, it didnt really stick in my mind as well as other things from that era.

Q: What was the roleplay for Silverfish2020 like?

A: the silverfish roleplay was very,, im not sure what the best word for it would be. chaotic maybe. there were a lot of things going on there just because there were a lot of things going on in the elections roleplay as a whole. we really leaned into the cult thing when the jokes started and it just kinda spiraled from there. in the beginning we toyed with the idea of a chestburster type thing living inside of the party members but it never really went anywhere despite how much we talked about it in our private discord,, instead we just focused on the party being a sort of hivemind. they lived in a stronghold under a dead forest and would try to get others to listen to 'the buzz' (like. insect buzzing. except if you listened to it long enough youd start hearing promises of a new family and respect and power and shit like that). one of our party members, shard (@shardofsun) was very thorough with all of her lore, going so far as to make detailed plans in a notebook of hers. the roleplay extended throughout the other elections as well (if you ignore the third and only through past lifetimes in the fourth) and is still partially going on now!

Q: You’ve been consistently keeping a list of all ‘kinnie’ (content creator imposter) blogs. Which ones stood out to you?

A: i think one of the imposter blogs that stood out most to me was definitely iamdreamwastaken (who eventually moved to tmblrdream) just because they were very interactive and took all the shit we sent them in stride. i also really liked the timedeo imposter despite never watching any of timedeos stuff. just thought they were cool. honourable shoutout to the eret and nihachu imposters too they rocked

Q: What are the biggest blogs you can remember? What was your impression of them?

A: the biggest blogs i can remember are probably gnfkitten [braveboyhalo] back when cat was the only one on the blog, adhddream, hearty-an0n(maybe not a Big one?? but very active and in a Lot of peoples inboxes from what i saw) and wooteena. there are definitely more urls i remember like georgeeehd (i think?) and wormweeb but i dont think i followed georgeeehd and i cant remember a whole lot of wormweebs stuff apart from the infertility post so i cant accurately answer for them ^^; wooteena was an acquaintance of mine; we didnt talk a whole lot but we were mutuals for a while. they were always pretty chill, despite the fact there were people out there shipping them with a friend of theirs?? ive always had huge respect for them just because they had the energy to deal with shit like that. i was friends with gnfkitten and hearty-an0n, at the very least in a 'wave at each other on the street' way, and i have really fond memories of the both of them :] hearty is still active, they post about sports these days from what i see on my dash, but im not sure if cat is despite gnfkitten being active as a group blog. adhddream always seemed really cool! my memory of their blog isnt super clear but i know i really liked seeing them on my dash back in the day. since this is tumblr i have no way of knowing if any of these people were actually Big Blogs but it definitely seemed like they were to me at the time haha

Q: What was the most insane piece of fandom drama you can remember from early MCYTblr? Did you participate?

A: i dont actually remember a whole lot of fandom drama from that time honestly. i tended to stay in my bubble of mutuals and other people i followed so it rarely ever crossed my dash. i was like ,, 15-16 at the time so fandom drama stressed me wayyyyy out, i tried my best to avoid it. the only stuff i can really remember at all was people fighting about whether or not it was okay to ship the characters from the dream smp and if shipping the characters was the same as shipping the players, but i never participated in any of the discourse from what i can recall

Q: Is there anything else you want to mention or that you want to be written down and remembered?

A: nope! though im happy to clarify on anything stated here if needed or answer any other questions that may arise :]

#Early MCYTblr Interviews #Volume 1 #nibbleinephym

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laurawritesandgames · 4 years

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For Beetlelands Week 2020

Title: Write Like the Wind

Fandom: Beetlejuice (Musical)

Rating: T

Ships: Beetlejuice/Adam/Barbara

Prompt: One Bed

Summary: Adam wants to do something for nerd-kind now that he has ghostly powers. Beetlejuice and Barbara help out. Spoilers for The Winds of Winter.

When Beetlejuice returned from the Netherworld, he came back powerful. Barbara wasn’t exactly sure how—the story changed with each telling.

But he returned with enough power to teleport her and Adam pretty much anywhere he could visualize. Thanks to Google Street View, he could visualize quite a few things.

Being able to teleport was very helpful when Adam had a specific request.

The ghosts and demon appeared inside a very fancy home, with sunlight streaming in the windows. Beetlejuice was hovering between Barbara and Adam, holding their hands. Barbara suspected this wasn’t strictly part of his teleportation ability, but it was a nice excuse to hold hands.

The demon shimmered in and out briefly, wincing.

“Everything okay?” Barbara asked.

“Teleporting all the way to New Mexico is a lot. We’re definitely gonna need to stop by a bolt-hole on the way back.” According to Beetlejuice, undead travellers could recharge in places with a lot of “death energy”—graveyards, usually, or famous battlefields.

The clicking of a keyboard drew the three of them to an office where a large, grey-haired man sat in front of his computer.

Adam sucked in a breath. “There he is,” he whispered.

Beetlejuice rolled his eyes. “Sexy, you’re dead. He can’t hear you.” Sure enough, the writer hadn’t turned around at the sound of Beetlejuice’s voice.

“Oh.” Adam looked a bit disappointed. “I guess I just assumed that he’d be attuned to the supernatural. He’s a master of the sci-fi/fantasy genre! Anyway, let’s go see what he’s working on.” He crossed his fingers as the three of them huddled around the author’s computer screen.

Barbara felt a bit awkward reading over someone’s shoulder, and looked politely aside. She’d never gotten into sci-fi and fantasy the way Adam had; he’d know better than she would what they were looking at.

Her husband’s face fell. “Wild Cards?!” he spluttered. “Wild freaking Cards! I know he only edits the anthologies, but they’re a distraction!” He ran his hands through his hair. “Just write the books, George!”

“I can take over his computer and threaten to start deleting files until the books are done!” Beetlejuice crowed. “Make it seem like he’s got a computer virus!”

Adam’s gaze flicked between Beetlejuice and the author’s computer a few times.

Barbara cleared her throat.

“No, of course not,” Adam said quickly. “Thanks for saving me from myself, sweetie.” He kissed her cheek. He focused on the author, holding out his hand. “Sorry about this.”

The author stopped what he was doing. He saved then exited out of the document. Adam searched through the computer files for a moment then made the author open up a document titled The Winds of Winter.

The document opened after a few moments. ‘Want to pick up where you left off?’ Word asked helpfully, and the author clicked on it. There were a bunch of unfamiliar words and names on the page that showed up.

No sense in me reading this. Barbara decided to look around a famous author’s office. She’d expected him to have a bunch of memorabilia from the TV show, but the furnishings were really quite ordinary. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of bookshelves filled with books.

There was silence from the author, whose fingers were poised over the keyboard.

“C’mon, Sexy, get writing.” Beetlejuice hovered in mid-air, bobbing slightly. He was also eyeing the author’s office, but he was probably wondering where to put spiders.

“Er, there’s no way I can give him partial control, can I? I can’t write the next book!”

“Not how it works, newb.”

Adam sighed. “Okay. Um, my thoughts definitely won’t be his, but maybe I can make a start. Barbara, you took that course in creative writing in college, right? Do you have any tips?” Adam was an amazing man with many good qualities, but pure creativity wasn’t one of them.

“I can try, but I wasn’t writing award-winning fantasy novels back in college.” Barbara dredged up some memories of the TV show. “Maybe you should make the White Walkers show up! You know, inject some tension.”

“It’s an Arianne Martel chapter.”

Barbara had no idea what that meant. “Um…have a dragon show up?”

“I appreciate the thought, but Arianne is going to treat with Young Griff, and the entire point is that he’s a supposed Targaryen that doesn’t have dragons.”

Beetlejuice spoke up. “Have some brothers and sisters bone. Shove a little smut in there.”

“Not only does that not work in this chapter, I’m also not comfortable with that.”

“Or skip to a Dany chapter,” Barbara suggested. “I just want good things for her. How’s she doing, anyway?”

“Not well.” Adam made the author pull up a Dany chapter. He watched the blinking cursor for a few moments, frowning in thought.

Beetlejuice added, “You could write a bunch of dialogue in what’s basically a white room and see where it takes you. That’s an A-plus writing strategy, right there.”

Adam sighed, rubbing his forehead. After a few more moments of intense concentration, he looked away from the computer screen.

The author shook his head, blinking a few times.

“Maybe just having the document open will prompt him to write?” Adam asked hopefully.

The author closed out of The Winds of Winter and went back to a document called Wild Cards_edits.

Adam’s shoulders slumped.

Beetlejuice hovered closer. “Just casually mentioning that we can take out the phone, snap some pics of these new chapters, and threaten to leak them if he doesn’t write the books.”

“Photos of chapters over his shoulder?” Barbara said. “That’s pretty terrifying.”

The demon chuckled darkly.

“Ah. And that was exactly the point.” Beetlejuice might have changed a lot since his return from the Netherworld, but his love of fear and chaos that wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“No, Beetlejuice,” Adam said. “It wouldn’t work anyway. What kind of writing would you get if someone was bullied into it?”

“Bleh, you’re no fun. Where to next, Sexy? That Rothfuss guy?”

“Let’s just go home.”

“Have to make a quick stop first, but okay.” Beetlejuice grabbed their hands and teleported them away.

They landed in someplace pitch black. Beetlejuice lit a match of neon green fire, revealing a small underground crypt barely large enough for the three of them. Every surface was draped with dust and cobwebs. A half-open coffin showed patchy, stained velvet. If there was a door to this crypt, the match didn’t reveal it.

Beetlejuice tilted his head. “Ahhh, that’s better.” He frowned slightly, as if listening to something. Barbara couldn’t hear anything. “Yep, think it’s still sandworm free! Lemme just recharge for a while.”

“You’ve been here before?” she asked.

“Nah, but I saw drawings from some ghost hunters back in the Netherworld. Ghost hunters can go topside to bring ghosts back, and they need places to rest, too.”

“So, ghost hunters are ghosts who hunt other ghosts?”

“Yeah, and they’re the worst. The Bureau of the Dead won’t let anyone go topside unless they’re a boot-licker. But it was good to know a few of their tricks when I got banished up here.”

Barbara glanced at Adam, who normally would’ve loved Netherworld lore. It wasn’t every day that Beetlejuice opened up about a place that was, in his words, “total Meh-ville.” But Adam wasn’t even listening. The gloomy atmosphere of the crypt fit his gloomy expression perfectly.

“Hey,” Barbara said softly. When Adam turned her way, she squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way you wanted it to.”

“I guess art just has to happen at its own pace. You can’t force it. I just feel bad for all the other dead readers who’ll never get to read the end of the series. All they’ll have is the TV show’s ending.” He snorted in disgust.

“Maybe you planted a seed. Who knows? Inspiration is a funny thing.”

“And there’s always fanfic,” Beetlejuice added.

“It’s not the same,” Adam said with a sigh.

“Heh, speaking of fanfic….” Beetlejuice hopped into the coffin. “Oh noooo. There’s only one bed!”

Barbara and Adam stared at him. She had no idea what he was talking about.

Beetlejuice huffed. “Oh, come on. None of you ever read a romance fic? Hell, a romance novel?”

“No,” Adam said.

“Not really my thing,” Barbara added. She was a fan of biographies and autobiographies of famous people, personally. “And, also? Not a bed. It’s a coffin. And sleeping in a coffin is also not my thing.”

“Jesus, so picky.” Beetlejuice snapped his fingers, and the coffin became their bed at home. “Get over here.” He hesitated then said, “Please.” Barbara and Adam had had conversations with him about asking instead of demanding; happily, it looked like those conversations were sticking.

Beetlejuice had just done them a huge favour, and a little cuddling might cheer Adam up. Barbara went to join Beetlejuice, shooting a questioning glance at Adam. He followed them, though he was still brooding.

She and Beetlejuice let Adam slide between them as the three sorted themselves out. (Sometimes, Beetlejuice would throw in extra limbs or a few clones just for the added challenge.) After some scooching and wriggling, Barbara’s cheek rested on Adam’s shoulder as she stroked his chest gently and held his left hand. Beetlejuice had one arm over the two of them and was, for some reason, nibbling on Adam’s hair, which sometimes became kissing the top of his head. After a while, you got used to a certain amount of weirdness.

Gradually, Adam began to relax. First, the tension left his shoulders. Then, he cracked his neck and his jaw untightened. (He’d needed to wear a mouthguard when he slept when he was alive. He was always grinding his teeth.)

“Maybe…” he murmured. “Maybe I could write the ending to the books. It’ll be fanfic, but it’ll be something, at least. I can work on that project while the Deetzes are asleep. I’ve never written fic before, but I could try. It’s not like I need to eat or sleep. And I’ve been looking for a new project ever since I finished the model.” His model of the town had a place of pride in the attic, which the Maitlands had cleaned out and repurposed into an arts and crafts room. They still kept up with their hobbies, but they had fewer now that they were busy rehabilitating Beetlejuice and parenting Lydia.

“I’m sure it’ll be great, hon.” Barbara kissed his cheek. “I’ll help however I can.”

“And I can tell you all about what fic tropes you can put in!” Beetlejuice said. “Or what fic tropes we can do ourselves.” He must’ve been thinking about some sexual ones, for he chortled and squeezed Adam’s butt. “Gotta keep the rating PG-13 for Beetlelands Week, but…you know which ones.” He winked at no one in particular, it seemed. Sometimes, he pretended he had an audience; Barbara and Adam just ignored it.

Beetlejuice moved to nuzzling Adam’s throat. After a few moments, he began patting Barbara’s hair.

Barbara giggled. “Aren’t you supposed to be recharging?”

“It’s called multitasking, baby.” Idly, he commented, “Shit, fluff is hard to end. How do you even end something that by its nature has low stakes and minimal conflict?”

What was he talking about? Barbara shrugged.

Adam thoughtfully said, “Maybe with a kiss?”

“Hah!” Barbara couldn’t help but grin when Beetlejuice laughed like that. This wasn’t an evil cackle or a dark chuckle, but an open, cheerful sound that she’d been hearing more and more since they’d started dating. “Perfect! You’re so ready to be a fic writer, Sexy!”

Beetlejuice kissed Adam on the lips, and the cuddling in a false bed in an underground crypt continued.

Not for the first time, Barbara reflected, My afterlife is so weird.

But it did have its perks.

#beetlelandsweek2020 #beetlejuice the musical #beetlejuice #beetlelands #adam maitland #barbara maitland #adam x barbara x beetlejuice

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seanpatricklittlewriter · 3 years

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The Final Blog Post of 2020

Greetings, friends. It has been a while.

I think, as it has been for so many of us, 2020 is going down as a year where I accomplished pretty much nothing.I had big things planned for 2020, as I am sure a lot of you did, and they just… did not happen. Most of the downhill slide started in March, when I accepted a third-shift job. My body did not respond well to working third shift, and it sapped me of just about any will do to anything. I spent my days asleep, and my nights hovering through a weird twilight state where I was awake and doing things, but I was not happy about it. On my days off, I could barely function, and I started getting little fits of narcolepsy. After a doctor’s appointment, I mentioned these issues, and the doctor told me that someone who has the sort of thyroid and metabolic conditions that I have should not work third shift because it throws my whole system into whack.

So, I’m looking for a new job, a better job (hopefully), and something that I actually look forward to doing. If nothing else, I’ve learned that money isn’t as important as actually enjoying your work.But, with this job, and the pandemic, of course, all my routines were knocked out and I have been struggling to figure out a new routine. I used to be able to write at home back when I lived in rented apartments. Since I bought a home, I’ve found it difficult. There is always something around the house that needs doing. I found a refuge at my local Culver’s restaurant. I’d go in, get a diet Mt. Dew to drink, and kick over 3-5 hours in my favorite booth grinding out pages. Now, with that not exactly being a favorable option, my writing output has decreased to almost nothing. A sentence here. Maybe a page or two, if I was lucky. The inability to generate a solid routine has made the story harder to solidify in my mind. So, it’s been a rough year is what I’m saying.

I’m still kicking, though.

As is traditional, I like to list a few things that I found that brought me some joy this year and share them with you, as maybe you might like them, too.

Movies:

--I have not watched a ton of movies this year. The last movie I saw in a theater was “1917,” which I enjoyed greatly. It was an excellent WWI film, and the fact that they made it look like it was done in a single take was a masterstroke. It was beautifully filmed, and almost every frame could be a painting. Well worth the time.

I also just watched “Soul” on Disney+. There was a lot reminiscent of “Inside Out” in “Soul,” but “Soul” was a much quieter, more existential film. I liked it a lot, but it wasn’t one of Pixar’s best outings.

I watched George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky” the other day. It was a long, dreadfully slow, and ultimately pointless film. I did not care for it. Most of the other films I’ve watched this year were fairly forgettable.

They were titles on streaming services that have been out a few years, but never generated a lot of noise.

Television:

I watched a ton of television this year. What the hell else was I going to do, right? I’m sure most of you are in the same boat. Anyhow, I have long believed that TV has become superior to films in the last few years. Better characters, better stories, and the time to tell those stories. I prefer episodic television to just about anything film has given us in the past few years, so here’s what I was watching this year.

--“19-2” (purchase four season on Amazon Prime): If you’ve watched “Letterkenny” on Hulu, then you must be familiar with Jared Keeso, who plays the central character Wayne. Keeso won some awards for a Canadian cop drama called “19-2” before he made “Letterkenny,” and I can understand why. This is a fairly dark, but realistic cop drama about the 19th Precinct in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and deals with the new guy (Keeso) transferring into the precinct from a small town and dealing with his new partner (Adrian Holmes) and the rest of the flawed members of the station in addition to dealing with policing duties around the city. One thing I liked about the series is that it never got away from the day-to-day grind of policing in a big city. The characters’ story arcs had to be worked in around the calls and patrols. The first episode of the second season of “19-2” deals with the precinct responding to a school shooting. It is, by far, one of the finest hours of television I’ve ever seen. Chaotic and hurried, brutal and bloody. It’s everything that keeps your eyes glued to the set. There were only 38 episodes of “19-2,” but I could have watched another four seasons of it. It supplanted “The Shield” as my favorite cop drama. Well worth the time.

--“The Queen’s Gambit” (Netflix): I’m not going to add anything original to this that hasn’t already been written by other people. This highly lauded limited series was well-written and acted, and it actually made competitive chess interesting. Anna Taylor-Joy was excellent in the lead role, and the costumes and sets were fantastic.

--“The Uncanny Counter” (Netflix): My mother watches an insane amount of South Korean TV shows. I don’t know why. She is the butt of many jokes because of this. However, “The Uncanny Counter” is a pretty cool series that feels like an indie comic book. The premise is a group of Grim Reapers run a noodle shop and fight demons. However, the show is much more complex than that. The characters’ stories are all intertwined in odd ways, and it’s very watchable.

--“Hospital Playlist” (Netflix): Another show my mother suggested was the sappy, and almost twee hospital show “Hospital Playlist.” This show is a fairly soft, airy, and cute little hospital drama about five doctors who have been friends since medical school. They’re all heads of their respective departments now, and they work at the Yulje Medical Center. While the show centers around the five main characters, there’s a whole slate of other doctors and interns who add to the story. Inevitably, the show is about life, love, and death—like any other hospital drama. However, the core group of friends also get together once a week and play music to relax, so there is a cutesy pop song at the end of the episodes that plays into a montage of that week’s story wrapping up. The characters in the show are very likeable, and that’s about the best thing this show has going for it. Each episode is like 90 minutes, and there are 12 episodes in the first season, but I watched them all, and I hate to admit it, but I’m interested in seeing what season 2 will bring.

--“Upload” (Amazon Prime): Greg Daniels of “The Office” fame created and produced this series about the Singularity, a hypothetical point in the future when we will be able to merge our consciousness with a computer, and thus physical death will mean we have a chance to live a digital afterlife where we can still interact with our loved ones on the earthly plane through VR. The show is funny and extremely intelligent. It’s satire and commentary wrapped up in a solid existential premise.

--“Star Trek: Discovery” season 3 (CBS All Access): I’m not going to write a ton about ST:Disco, but I will say that season 3 is the first season that felt like “Star Trek” to me. It’s one of the few shows that I have actually looked forward to week-to-week.

--“The Mandalorian” season 2 (Disney+): Like ST:Disco, this is one of the few shows I actually looked forward to. The first couple of episodes felt like the series was in a bit of a rut, but the last three episodes made it all worthwhile. Total fanboy moments abounded.

--“Ted Lasso” (Apple+TV): Strangely enough, a sitcom based on a single-premise joke from a series of Superbowl ads from a couple years ago is, hands-down, my favorite new show of 2020. Jason Sudeikis of SNL fame plays Ted Lasso, the former head coach of the Wichita Shockers college football team who is hired to be the head coach of FC Richmond, a Premier League Football team in England. Initially Ted is hired by the new owner of Richmond, who happened to have won the team from her ex-husband in a messy divorce. Her initial goal is to have Ted unknowingly destroy the team, but Ted’s boundless optimism and true concern and care for his players flips the script. This is the show that 2020 needed. It is funny and joyous, and it’s another feather in Bill Lawrence’s (Scrubs, Spin City, etc…) cap. I watched this show out of a sense of loyalty to Bill Lawrence, but I ended up LOVING it. The fact that Apple renewed “Ted Lasso” for two more seasons immediately is very telling about how good this show was. Highly, highly recommend.

Music:

I barely listened to anything new this year. Not many bands I liked came out with a new record, and I was usually listening to podcasts or watching TV instead. However, there were two albums that came out year that I would note.

--Kyle Kinane, “Trampoline in a Ditch”: Kinane’s newest stand-up album, recorded in Madison, Wis., is a fun jaunt through Kinane’s weird sense of humor and excellent writing style. This record had me and my daughter laughing out loud on the day it came out, and I’ve listened to it several times since. Kinane’s writing is so good, I pick up subtle jokes on additional listenings.

--Brett Newski, “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down”: Milwaukee Dork Rocker Newski put out another solid album this year. Check out the video for “Wha’d Ya Got to Lose?”

Podcasts:

Spent a ton of time listening to podcasts at my third shift job. I’m not going to write a ton about them individually, but here’s the list of the podcasts that got the most listens from me:

--Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing, Colossal Podcast --Fake Doctors, Real Friends --Timesuck --Scared to Death --Office Ladies --Unexplained --Lore --Cabinet of Curiosities --Haunted Locations

Books:

I probably read the fewest books I’ve read in ages this year. I’m usually good for 20-40 books a year, and this year—I just did not get there. I maybe read 12 books this year, and that bothers me. I just could not focus on reading. However, much of what I did read, I enjoyed. The best of those are as follows: --Craig Johnson, “Next to Last Stand” --CJ Box, “Winterkill” --Joe Ide, “IQ” --Sebastien de Castell, “Crownbreaker” --Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, “Crooked River” Anyhow, I hope some of those media suggestions will bring you some joy. We sure could all use some in 2021, no doubt. In the meantime, do continue to stay safe and healthy. Take precautions. Don’t throw caution to the wind. My plans for 2021: --Lose weight (as usual) --Finish the second Abe & Duff novel --Maybe finish another of the several novels on my desktop --Get a job I don’t hate --Make it to 2022 Here’s to hoping I have some good news about Abe & Duff in 2021. Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year. --Sean

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Secrets of the Pro Trading Card Games World

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Presented by:

When it comes to versatile gaming, nothing quite compares to a good trading card game. Anywhere, any time, as long as you each have decks and somewhere flat to lay them down, you can play. Of the many available, Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon Trading Card Game are easily among the best for beginners. One of the pillars of table-top gaming, Magic is a multi-colored blowout of intrepid sorcery and ferocious monsters, all wrapped up in nearly three decades of fantasy lore. Pokémon needs no introduction, and just as the video games have gone from strength to strength since the days of Red and Blue, so too has the spinoff card game.

Giving either of these games a go has never been easier, between the wide circulation of the packs themselves, and the digital versions one can play for free. Indeed, Magic: The Gathering Arena and Pokémon Trading Card Game Online provide a fully digital replication of the intense tit-for-tat the TCGs are known for, allowing you to build and test combinations wherever you can find good WiFi. We caught up with Autumn Burchett, a Magic: The Gathering pro, and Azul Garcia Griego, a Pokémon TCG expert, to discuss their careers in card gaming, why they love these communities so much, and what decks and cards you should be looking for if you want to be among the elite.

Meet Autumn Burchett | Magic: The Gathering

Autumn Burchett is a professional Magic: The Gathering player who, in February 2019, became the inaugural Mythic Champion. Making their Pro Tour debut in 2015, Burchett had previously achieved first place in the UK Nationals in both 2017 and 2018 before making the jump to global gold. In that time, it wasn’t just the best of the best they were up against, but revolving systems, too, as Magic restructured its competitive layout from the Pro Tour to the Mythic Championship, from which it’s changed again to this year’s Players Tour. Finding and competing against the best players in the world is an enjoyable challenge, says Burchett, but the added spotlight wasn’t easy to get used to.

“I felt a lot of pressure at first as I really didn’t want to let down the fans I gained from that victory,” they tell us. “It’s taken a lot of time to adjust to that, and to refocus myself again.”

In a typical year, Burchett would travel a dozen or more times around the world to attend Magic: The Gathering events. Around a third of their life is spent on the road in fact, between the crucial tournaments needed to be in world championship contention and other invitationals. Naturally, playing against Magic‘s top-tier is always a thrill, but getting to see and meet the people who make up the local scenes is the real reward of being a touring player.

“I love competing at the highest level events with players from so many different places attending,” they say. “That said, my favorite part of events will always be spending time with friends, and going out for food after the games are done, whether catching up with local friends who I’ve known for many years or getting to see international friends again.”

Unfortunately, for much of 2020, flying internationally has been a no-go, with even local gatherings being improbable until towards the end of the year. Thankfully, online game Magic: The Gathering Arena means pro players can still practice and compete at a high level. Since its release in 2019, the free-to-play version of the TCG has made it much easier for anyone — veterans or those just curious — to get a deck and start playing. “It has definitely widened the audience,” Burchett says. “I know a few people who have been able to have success in part due to digital Magic just inherently being more accessible.”

Burchett has been using online tournaments to stay sharp, like the Star City Games Tour Online, an Arena-centric version of the Star City Games Open Series that normally occurs throughout the year. It’s expected that Arena will be a cornerstone of pro Magic from here on out, meaning digital competitions will still be integral even when players can roam freely again. Between those and Twitch, Burchett has been able to maintain some semblance of a routine, while still interacting with their fanbase and giving the Magic audience somewhere to hang out. It’s a learning experience on both sides, all coming together for a love of these five-colored spells.

“[Arena] encourages me to try out different decks that I might not otherwise,” Burchett says. “I’ve definitely had people say that they started playing again because they enjoy my content or seeing me succeed which is always flattering and makes me happy to hear.”

For anyone looking to make their first steps into Magic: The Gathering, Burchett recommends going Mono-Red Aggro, a recurring deck type that’s all about blowing your opponent up as swiftly as possible. “Your role in any given match-up is generally pretty clear: try to kill your opponent as fast as possible,” they explain. “It can also have a lot of depth to it too though, which makes it easy to learn and hard to master.”

Although playing against random opponents in Arena is good for developing skills, and streams and YouTube videos can provide a semblance of real-life communal play, nothing compares to sitting down with a friend and going a few rounds to see what’s what.

“Find someone else who plays the game and play with or against them,” Burchett says. “The game is a lot more fun when you’re sharing the experience with a friend, or battling against them, and it’s a lot easier to learn that way too.”

Autumn’s Deck

Burchett’s favorite deck at the moment is Temur Reclamation, a Blue, Green, and Red build centered on Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, a 6/6 mythic rare from Theros Beyond Death. Uro’s a blue-green elder giant that gives you three life, lets you draw a card, and play a land card from your hand when it enters the battlefield or attacks. Getting it out involves exiling cards from your graveyard in addition to its mana cost, but once it’s in play, it’s tough for any opponent. At around $45 on eBay, Uro can be expensive, but it’s easily the largest investment in the deck.

Green and Blue land Breeding Pool is the next highest price-point, coming in at about $30 per card, with Blue and Red equivalent Steam Vent costing $12 or so.

Guilds of Ravnica rare Expansion/Explosion is one of the more costly instants, a Blue and Red split card that lets you either copy a spell and select new targets, or deal X damage to any target.

Brazen Borrower, a Throne of Eldraine mythic rare, is often an accompanying creature for Uro, a flash, flying 3/1 that has an instant power of returning a non-land permanent to an opponent’s hand that’ll run about $15.

Two other enchantments, Shark Typhoon, a Blue spell that makes shark tokens from the converted mana cost of noncreature spells you play, and Wilderness Reclamation, which untaps your lands during the end phase, come in just under $5 to round out the major buys.

“I love Temur Reclamation, it has a lot of flexible play patterns and game-plans,” Burchett says. “Figuring out what role to take in any given game or match-up is a lot of fun as a result.”

Art by Aaron Miller appears in Den of Geek x eBay’s special edition trading card magazine.

Meet Azul Garcia Griego | Pokémon

Azul Garcia Griego began playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game the way many kids did—by just making up the rules so the game was more like the popular anime and video games. But after being invited to a local Pokémon League to learn how to play properly and compete, Griego became obsessed with becoming the very best, like no one ever was. Now he’s a regular international competitor, as well as a streamer and coach, showing new players the ropes as the Pokémon TCG global scene continues to expand.

“When I first started playing, you could go to one regional per season, all the regionals happened on the same weekend, so we went to one weekend,” Griego says. “Now, I’m in America, but if I wanted to go to the ones in Europe and stuff, I could go to 20-plus regionals in a year.”

The last two years, Griego’s been doing laps of this circuit, leaving his home state of Massachusetts around two dozen times, traveling as far as Berlin, London, São Paulo, and Melbourne to compete. Obviously, the playing itself is a major attraction, getting to go against the best from every country and see their approach, but it’s the friendly atmosphere that makes being a career player worthwhile.

“At this point, there are so many people to say ‘hi’ to and just to catch up with, even if just to talk about the games that we’re having today at the regional or whatever it might be,” he says. “Then, doing other stuff like playing other kinds of board games and stuff that people bring to the event to just kill time in between rounds. We’re all just hanging out until the event’s over anyway, so it’s just always a great time.”

Mirroring the Pokémon games, the current sets in standard format for the trading card game are based on 2016’s Sun and Moon and 2019’s Sword and Shield, or generations seven and eight, respectively. So far, two expansions have been released for Sword and Shield, the base set, and Rebel Clash, with a third, Darkness Ablaze, set to drop this August.

Griego doesn’t worry too much about the balancing in standard, always willing to adapt to whatever the prevailing strategies and decks are, but he does think that right now, the playing field is in a decent spot. “It’s pretty good right now, there’s around five or six decks that are contenders to win any tournament,” he explains. “Last meta there was one deck that was by far the best, nothing else was close to its power level, so the meta got played out very quickly.”

Given that traveling and socializing is limited for 2020, Pokémon Trading Card Game Online has been the backbone of competitive Pokémon. He’s been taking part in tournaments there, where he’s encountered a number of players who only play digital, inspiring him to arrange his own for his Twitch and YouTube subscribers.

“I’ve had quite a few people, through just streaming or talking to them, who are only playing in these events because they only play Pokémon TCG Online,” he says. “They don’t play with real life cards, so it gives them a way to play into the game, which is really nice.”

That’s not to say Pokémon Trading Card Game Online isn’t a gateway, but going from playing in the comfort of home, to facing your opponent eye-to-eye, can be daunting. Some of Griego’s Pokémon students actually came to him for coaching so they could build their confidence in making the leap from online to real life. “When the new season comes around, they want to attend events and be a little more refined in their skills going into that.”

While the number of fans for Pokémon TCG related content is relatively small, it’s growing, and Griego reckons that if the online version got a contemporary overhaul, it could see a real boom in interest.

“Twitch would be a great place to grow, and I’m always hopeful that one day a new, clean, fresh client comes out because Pokémon Trading Card Game Online is really old,” he says. “I think it could definitely blow up to the point, you know, of something like Magic: The Gathering Arena or Hearthstone.”

Azul’s Deck

Griego’s deck of choice is the Combo Zacian, a build that surprised him with its versatility when he sat down to play with it. The main mechanic involves cycling through Prize cards on your bench. The namesake, Zacian V from the Sword and Shield collection demands a high price, since the deck is commonly taking players to the top eight, at $74 on eBay. For that money, though, you get a strong attacker – Zacian can do 230 damage for three metal energy – and during your turn you can draw three cards, attach any metal energy to Zacian and keep the rest in your hand.

Metal Frying Pan FLI 144 is the usual companion here, a trainer that reduces the damage a metal pokémon takes by 30, and removes all weakness, for $10 or so.

Griego uses a specific variant that involves Jirachi TEU 99, who lets you search the top five cards of your deck for trainer cards, and generally costs around $14.

The Detective Pikachu version of Mr. Mime who can put your face-down Prize cards on top of your deck is also included, at a cheap $4 average price. Marnie SSH 200 is among the trainer cards, making both players put their hand to the bottom of their decks, then allowing you to draw five cards while your opponent draws four, and has a price of around $32 for a single.

Another piece of the arsenal is Boss’s Orders RCL 189, that lets you switch your opponent’s active Pokémon with a benched one, a trainer card valued at $41.

“You always put the pressure on your opponent to have to deal with you, and I would prefer to be the person in the driver’s seat as opposed to the person always trying to make the comeback,” Griego explains. “I felt like it was very hard to come back against. Once I got ahead with Combo Zacian, I was just ahead.”

The post Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Secrets of the Pro Trading Card Games World appeared first on Den of Geek.

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dezzyparrish · 5 years

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GaryCon XI and my “calling”

I’ve heard the term “missing my calling” in relation to my job and gaming a BUNCH over the last year. That term has led, especially since the end of October, to me doing a Hard Press on making my hobby my career, and breaking into “the industry”. Becoming one of the stars of Twitch, or You Tube, work the Convention Circuit and not only make a living, but make a very comfortable living sharing my imagination and experience with TableTop Roleplaying Games. I felt, and very strongly, that the work I do for a paycheck, spending the old 9-5 working on my assigned projects at work was kind of a “placeholder” while I pursued gaming as a career.

I had decided that I wasn’t really any good at code testing, and my true vocation lay in my creative gifts. “Missing my calling” spoke to me that if I wasn’t making a living at storytelling and adventure writing, I was failing at life. I was doing adult wrong. With that in my head I came to my Third GaryCon and I was intent on using the extensive network I have built over recent years to climb one step closer to the brass ring. Friday Night I went to a seminar, I asked good questions, took notes, the hosts on the Panel were so kind as to keep going for an extra hour.. the panel closed at 11pm. Then someone mentioned going to the Hotel Bar for some drinks, and I asked to come with.

And the reaction I saw from the person was one of suspicion and worry. The answer was “oooohh.. yeah.. ummm.. is there something you wanted to talk about?” and I realized I was intruding. I was “that guy”, one of those pushy and toxic fans hoping to use the celebrities in our community to pull myself up. Maybe some of my desperation came through. After all, with “missing my calling” echoing in my head, I was definitely hearing my life-clock counting down.

“You know Keith”, the clock told me, “even if you started publishing, streaming your work TOMORROW, how much of a career could you really have? 20 years, 30? Look at that guy you’re talking to. He’s maybe in his early 30s, if that. He’s handsome, he’s in Hollywood, he’s already been a Script Writer, he’s a Line Developer for a legacy product for Wizards.. He’s got his whole life ahead of him and you.. well, I hate to tell you Keith, but your life is pretty much over.”

And the clock doubled down, “But don’t quit.. oh no! Even if your career will be hopelessly short, every day you waste just being a *hobbyist* is just one more day that will join all those years since 1980 that you’ve been trying to be a game designer. If you quit now, not only will you NEVER be a professional, your entire adult life will be a big.. glaring.. ZERO and everyone will know it.”

And I had a drink or two, and an awkward conversation and went back to my room feeling like a loser. I mean.. a LOOOOO-HOOOOO-ZEEERRR. I was considering not coming back to this convention next year, because I don’t belong here.. GaryCon is for successful, happy folks.

But somewhere in the middle of the night, something inside me, a calmer, way more rational voice, also in my head, talked me down. It pointed out something simple that I had missed. I haven’t missed my calling, not by a long shot. I’m a community leader and have been for years. I’ve brought fun, joy and imagination to more people than I can count, just by being with them. People look for me at conventions, they want to play in the games that I run at game stores and the campaigns I run at home. I held an impromptu 4 hour DM seminar for one player on Thursday. At BigBadCon in 2017 I ended up giving an on-the-spot workshop about Middle Earth answering lore questions from players in my game, inspired by the trip to Middle Earth I took them on. I have a Calling, that voice told me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I am NOT missing it. I’m in the middle of it, at that wonderful time when I am good, even great at passing my imagination on to others. Many of the palyers who join my game have played in my games in prior years.. they still remember the experience they had and the story they played through. I helped forge awesome memories among strangers and friends alike that last for 10 and 20 years.

There is a twisted standard of success in our society, and by society I refer to a much wider society than gaming. And that standard is money. “the amount of money one makes is the measure of success in your life” And that is a very cynical and hollow way of looking at your life. That attitude of overvaluing money devalues the everything else in your life.

My point is (and we took the long way to get here) I haven’t “missed my calling”. My skill and imagination are honed to a razor sharpness. And, in case you’re wondering.. my 13 year career in software testing is strong as well. I’m good at my job and I’m worth the money they’re paying me. I don’t have to make money to be successful in anything I do. I have three brilliant and wonderful children. I have dozens and dozens of loyal and loving friends. I have a lifetime of stories that build on each other. I still need work and help in dealing with this stage in my life in this time and place in history. But so far as the old work life balance goes, I’m regaining my perspective.

Oh, and GaryCon XII? I’ll be here in March 2020. Though I’ll pack a lot lighter.

#gaming #middleofmiddleage #my life

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