#you know that domino meme of a small one leading to a big one? that's probably how my mom feels about me and orcas lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

marvelingjules · 4 years

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You made me curious about Orcas now! I would love to know more about them if you're willing to share !

I’ve been really bad at answering asks lately (for a variety of reasons) but look. I am NEVER going to turn down the chance to talk about my absolute favorite creature on the whole planet.

If you ask my mom, she’ll tell you I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up from the time I was two. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have the official name for it until a bit later, but definitely by third grade I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to be when I grew up. I have a very clear memory of it being the beginning of the school year, and we were all sitting on the floor with the teacher in a chair in front of us and we were sharing “what we wanted to be when we grew up” and when it got to me, I said “Marine biologist.” My teacher asked me “Oh, what’s that?” I’m not sure if he actually didn’t know, or if he didn’t believe that I knew what it was, but I (probably far more seriously than expected) replied “they study animals in the ocean, and I’m going to study orcas.”

I wrote a research paper on them in sixth grade. It was actually frustrating because I knew all the information I wrote, but I had to have sources and it was like “ME, I AM THE SOURCE” but no, I had to go grab some books like someone who didn’t know all this stuff already. I think I actually tried to tell my teacher on one of my drafts, that I didn’t need to source something because “I already knew it” and she was like “but it’s not common knowledge so you do actually need to prove it”. I was unimpressed. I mean, I did it, but I was not impressed about having to.

I feel like anyone that knows me pretty well, would read or hear that and just laugh. Me, unimpressed that I have to prove that what I know about something I am really into, is in fact factual knowledge and I know what I am talking about? Me, disliking being questioned about how well I know my own interests?

No one is probably surprised. When I am truly, super interested in something, I rarely get into it half-heartedly

So! Orcas!

IDK what your base of knowledge is on them, so some of this you may already know. They’re considered the largest dolphins, though their common name of “killer whale” makes most people think they’re whales. And I mean, dolphins and whales are kind of from the same branch of oceanic animals, but, the difference is there.

Most commonly, people are aware that orcas live in pods. These are family groups that range in sizes (sometimes around half a dozen or so, sometimes a couple dozen) and they are, in fact, matrilineal (like elephants). Often, calves born into pods stay with their mothers their for most if not all their lives. Sometimes family pods get very large, and kind of split off a bit, and keep growing.

Around here, where I live, a lot of the research that’s most readily available will talk about the pacific northwest pods. These pods are known by J-pod and K-pod and I always forget if it’s L or M for the other pod lol. Individuals in the pod are usually identified with that letter of their pod and some numbers in research. These are, in fact, probably some of the most studied orcas in the world! A lot of the population of orcas is in the north Pacific ocean, really, so that makes sense. Orcas are found all over the world though, and there’s differences in them based on where they live.

Orcas are also a protected species, but there’s specific groups and areas that they are in fact considered endangered (such as the pods in the Pacific Northwest - can’t recall atm if it’s a specific pod or the three of them) and at risk. Often, they’re hunted for their meat, their tongues. Sometimes they’re killed because people see them as competition for fishing. They also die from loss of habitat, from there being less food for them, from oil spills, etc. This wouldn’t be news to anyone, really - it’s the same story all over the world, for many, many species of creatures.

Like humans finger prints, orcas have their own version! Their coloring pattern is very distinctive - black upper body, white underside, and the grey saddle patch behind their dorsal fins. These patches are actually unique to each orca! These markings allow researchers to identify the individuals in the pods and their research and photos. You are probably also aware of how their dorsal fins are different - some are tall and straight, some are shorter and curved. This differentiates male from female, respectively. The coloring of orcas of being black on top and white underneath is camouflage typical for ocean predators.

There’s a nickname for orcas - they’re sometimes called ‘the wolves of the sea’. They’re fantastic predators. Not just as a group hunting, not just with their echolocation, but also in their ingenuity when hunting. They’ll purposefully beach themselves to get seals or penguins in the surf of a beach or the edge of ice in that climate. They’ve also got some pretty varied tastes - salmon is a huge one, but some will also attack other whales, such as blue whales! (They like the tongues, I believe.) Basically - if it’s in the ocean, it’s probably fair game for some pod or another.

I got into a very intense argument with a kid once in either late elementary or middle school. They insisted that a great white shark was the top predator of the ocean. I told him that no, it was definitely orcas.

That wasn’t just favoritism speaking.

There’s an island in the pacific ocean (I think down towards southern California area?) that’s basically known as like, shark island. Great White Sharks just congregate there, tons of them.

Unless they sense there’s orcas nearby. Then they all vamoose the fuck out. Why?

Because there’s an orca pod around there that figured out, “Hey, if we can flip the shark over and hold it there, it’ll die and we can eat it!” And they did, and do.

You ever see those “who would win” books or shows? If they pitch an orca against a shark and say the shark would win, life has shown that it will in fact be the orca, probably.

There’s actually a cool fact there too - there’s three different species of orca. As in - they are different culturally as well as in their genetic make-up! Orca pods that are larger and stay in the same area are residential orcas. They mostly eat fish and some squid. Transients have a much larger territory that they move through, and tend to be somewhat smaller pods... and they hunt ocean mammals. Then there’s offshore orcas. These guys are a little smaller than the others, their dorsal fins are a bit different too. They can be seen several miles out from the coast, and they definitely hunt ocean mammals and sharks.

I can’t remember if it was a transient or an off-shore pod that is feared by the great whites, lol. Either’s likely.

What’s kind of really cool about these different species and subspecies of orcas is that... they don’t interact. Oh, sure, they can be seen in the same waters as each other, sharing space, but... they don’t interact socially or otherwise. There’s thousands and thousands of years between a common ancestor for the transient and residential orcas, in fact! These different types are not just different in how they look or where they live or how and what they hunt... they all have different cultures. Different ways of living, communicating, interacting with each other. Just like not all people have the same traditions and beliefs, orcas have their own differences from each other too!

They’re also super fucking smart. I mean. Obviously. We know research has shown how smart dolphins are, and we see dolphins and orcas perform. And that’s really a huge controversial thing, which I’m not going to really get into here, except to say that...

Consider the size of the ranges of where these orcas live. Even residential pods. The range of the southern residential pods in the Pacific Northwest run from southern Alaska to Northern California thereabouts. How could there be any conceivable way to imitate that type of habitat?

Research, last I looked into it (which was a while back, admittedly) about why dorsal fins bend over like you may have seen, hypothesizes it’s due to poor health, basically.

Orcas are very social. Like I said, they stay with their pods, their families, often for their whole lives.

You don’t see very many orcas in one place in captivity.

Many people have heard about the deaths at certain ocean amusement parks. The human deaths of trainers and whatnot.

In the wild, there’s very very few, if any, recorded attacks of humans by orcas. Far far less than those in captivity.

Orcas are incredibly intelligent, like I said. And like with any intelligent creature, if there’s a lack of stimulation, physically, mentally, etc....

Their lifespan in the wild is pretty close to that of a human, honestly. (Actually, cool fact again: like humans, female orcas go through menopause! They usually have their first calf - in the wild - around 14-16 years old. Around their 40s, they go through menopause and often live for three to four decades after their last calf is born! Studies on this are somewhat difficult; earlier ones show less, but that could be due to culling and shooting of them that was done periodically at the time. More recent studies show those that were around back during those earlier studies in the 70s, many of them are still alive! Male orcas live a slightly shorter lifespan than the females.)

In captivity? They live the average of a decade.

Okay, I lied. I said I wasn’t going to get into it.

I am 100% against captivity for them, if you argue with me on this I’ll just dropkick you into my blocked list, whatever, I don’t care.

Anyway!

Orcas are highly intelligent, playful, and creative creatures. They don’t just show it in hunting, but in their own play behavior. They’ll jump in the waves from boats for fun, jump around while traveling for fun, rub on rocks in shallower ocean water because they like how it feels.

They have very intense and close cultural and familial bonds. Young orcas are taught to hunt a lot like a lot of big predators on land are. Sometimes, their parents will catch some prey for them, usually smaller or injured, and release it for them to “practice” on. Sometimes, they’ll... well, they toss the seals they catch around. (Yes, yes, poor seals. I know. But also, circle of life, you know?)

They help each other.

I know I mentioned they beach themselves earlier. They’ll throw themselves up after prey onto a beach. Catch it (or not! sometimes they miss.). Then, when the waves rush back in, they’ll just... wiggle themselves loose and around so the current helps pull them back out into deeper water. Sometimes, they do get stuck.

You can see this just by searching youtube. But here’s a good one I think that I found. The narration is fun, which is always a plus for me. It’s NatGeo, which is reliable.

But also? It shows not just the beaching technique, but the social, familial connections between orcas (it has an older and younger brother pair) as one teaches the other. It also shows something of that “practice” - or maybe it’s that playfulness of orcas. (I mean, we’ve all played with our food at one point or another! I still make mashed potato volcanos with butter centers. Leave me alone about it.)

Anyway, I’ve loved orcas basically since the time I could start conveying that to people.

Why?

Because I was born in 1992, and Free Willy came out in 1993, and by the time I was two I already was in love. I can still, in the year of 2020, recite that goddamn movie almost entirely. Ask my family what my favorite movie as a kid was, the one I could watch over and over?

There’s three possible ones I could imagine they’d say, and the most likely of those would be Free Willy.

I don’t remember a time I didn’t love orcas, love learning about them, want to center my life around them. I didn’t see the ocean for the first time until I was in fourth grade - so around nine or ten years old. Before then, I had just always told people I wanted to live by the ocean. It always looked so amazing to me - and it was where the orcas were! Duh! That first sight I had of it? From the bus window as we drove to the aquarium?

I can’t think of anything to describe it that isn’t some kind of spiritual experience that could convey the awe, the rightness, the pure happiness that overcame me. It was more than I had ever imagined, to see the endless water - moving and glittering and gray at the time because of the overcast weather. I’m still determined to, one day, live near the ocean. (Bonus, it’d be better for my asthma too, air quality wise!)

(Why didn’t I go into marine biology? Well, it’s a sad story of “I was 14, an adult told me that as a woman I’d never end up getting to do anything in the field anyway, and I’d have racked up all those student loans for nothing, and I hadn’t yet discovered that any adult who says ‘you’re a girl so you can’t’ needs to be aggressively shoved off the fourth floor of a building”.

I love being a librarian. I love helping kids find books, learn about topics, read to the little ones, help the parents learn how to read to their kids, etc. I love my job.

And I still, a few times a year, can’t help but wonder. What if I hadn’t given up on it? What if I had gone that route? Where would I be? Who would I be? What might I have discovered more?

But then, if I did that, I wouldn’t be where I am now, and know the people I do, and that would be its own loss.

I like to imagine though, that there’s a universe out there, where I did go out and become the marine biologist I was determined to be my entire childhood, and you know what? I bet I am fan-fucking-tastic at it. And happy.)

So, even though I didn’t end up going into marine biology to study orcas, my absolute favorite animal in the entire universe, I still love them. I still, every once in a while, look up research on them to see what’s new, what’s changed, refresh my knowledge. I’ve never seen one, but I hope to one day - I think it’ll be even more of an awe-inspiring, crystal clear moment of my life than seeing the ocean for the first time. And of my five tattoos? Two are orcas, and I of course plan to get more. Why not decorate my skin with something that has always, since I was so so small, brought me joy and happiness?

TL;DR: I just really really fucking love orcas.

#Jules replies #stereden #oh man. I hope you're prepared for like - a minor overview paper on them lolol #and some little anecdotes about me because it's hard to talk about all I know of them and not talk about me too lolol #Jules rambles #orcas #you know that domino meme of a small one leading to a big one? that's probably how my mom feels about me and orcas lol

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dangerously-human · 4 years

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As far as I get your point, I guess that the template was supposed to show butterfly effect (small things leading to big ones) but somehow turned into "historical event leading to popculture phenomena of today" (9/11 to 50 shades and so on). Also imo placing popculture thing as bigger than historical events adds to comedic effect. When I make a meme I sometimes see the template doesn't fit perfectly but I just go with it bc it's only for lols after all. This or I don't rly know how domino works

I am now questioning everything because maybe dominos do work like that?? Do you start with the little one or the big one? I'm having a minor reality crisis now lol

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clarencenicholsonata · 3 years

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Our Favorite Digital Marketing Campaigns in 2021 So Far

Effective marketing campaigns need to engage with the right audience and motivate them to take action. With so many emerging technologies and tools available, businesses are always finding new ways to approach digital marketing and generate powerful, creative campaigns.

If your business is struggling to create impactful marketing campaigns that make a difference, it always helps to get inspired by other brands that are doing it right. We’ve chosen some amazing digital marketing campaigns this year, and our thoughts on why they are so effective.

Understanding Digital Marketing Campaigns in 2021

Digital marketing is moving at a lightning-fast pace, with new innovating marketing tools and technologies being developed all the time. From SEO to automated emails, social media, and everything in between, digital marketing campaigns cover a broad area.

In 2021, digital marketing is adopting a wide range of technology and processes to create a complex landscape. This includes things AI, video, influencers, chatbots, voice search, social messaging apps, and more. Digital marketing covers a big area, offering increased opportunities to spread your brand’s message and products online.

Successful digital marketing should attract a specific audience and engage with them in a way they can’t resist. Great campaigns will grab attention, inspire the audience, and result in them taking action. Digital marketing funnels can contain multiple steps and processes, and it’s important to get them all working properly if you want to see results from your campaign.

6 Great Marketing Campaigns to Inspire You in 2021

We’re already one-third of the way through 2021, which means we have seen some fantastic marketing campaigns come to life. Here are some of our favorite brands to watch online for marketing inspiration.

Dove, Reverse Selfie

This global skincare brand has been focusing on a powerful digital marketing campaign that empowers women to feel comfortable in their own skin. Through the use of their #NoDigitalDistortion hashtag, the brand has been creating a movement that makes individuals feel more comfortable with who they naturally are.

Dove published its moving Reverse Selfie ad campaign, inspiring women to turn off their filters online and let their natural beauty shine. Big-name celebs and influencers, such as Lizzo, have hopped on board and helped promote the movement via social media.

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Why We Love This

Besides the fact that Dove is spreading confidence in the world, the brand is using this campaign to engage with its audience in a clever way. Instead of just putting out ads to promote their products, they are engaging their audience and building a stronger community. Dove is inspiring its customers and making them feel a stronger connection to the brand.

The results are a skincare brand that has created a deeper connection with its audience, found a new way to build an online community, and created a marketing campaign that motivates and inspires.

Domino’s, Innovative Technology

Domino’s, the pizza giant, has been making the most of technology to boost its marketing efforts. The brand has incorporated a few innovative methods to reshape the way we look at something as simple as pizza delivery.

Domino’s is currently promoting its self-driving delivery option through its social media channels. Self-driving pizza delivery? That might sound crazy to you, but it’s a real thing, and Domino’s is testing it out in the US. This is achieved through a partnership with Nuro - a robotics company.

The pizza brand has also used technology in other genius ways to enhance its marketing campaigns. This includes the brand’s innovative “Points for Pies” loyalty promotion where customers could earn points on their app for pizza ordered from anywhere.

Why We Love This

Does the world need self-driving pizza delivery? Probably not. However, the prospect of it shows that Dominos is reshaping the future of their industry. It shows that they are focused on enhancing the customer experience and that they are trying to add increasing amounts of value wherever they can.

Marketing something like self-driving pizza deliveries online makes the brand stand out as being really interesting and exciting. Customers will be drawn in by a revolutionary move like this, creating marketing efforts that connect deeper with the consumer.

Bud Light, Memes and Lemons

Everyone loves a good meme. Bud Light knows this and uses the power of the meme to enhance its digital presence. This massive beer brand is building a community on its social media platforms by sharing funny, simple memes. Bud Light is a fun brand, beer is a fun product, and Bud light shows that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The brand offers comic relief, great April fools jokes, and easily digestible content to appeal to a large audience.

Bud Light also released an excellent ad recently focused on 2020 and how the year had it “raining lemons”. This ad continues the fun, humorous voice of the brand and helps to add a sense of humor to a very serious world.

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Why We Love This

Bud Light is a major brand, and they have spent their time refining their voice perfectly. This is a lesson that any small business should pay attention to in its digital marketing campaigns. A clear, identifiable voice is a brand that can advertise effectively.

Bud Light uses humor and a relatable personality to engage with its audience. By using its digital marketing campaigns to promote memes, the brand is making use of a simple platform that everyone can relate to and engage with easily.

Netflix, Fans Make the Movies

Netflix released this popular, inspiring ad about the Ikorodu Bois from Nigeria. The ad follows an entertaining story about a group that creates low-budget ad remakes of major Hollywood films. What they do is fun, unique, and they do it for the love of movies. The idea behind this ad is to promote a unique, inspirational story to better connect Netflix with its viewers.

The campaign has been a success online and has quickly racked up popularity. Netflix has used its platform to shine a spotlight on its fans, showing that the brand appreciates creativity and inspiring stories.

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Why We Love This

Netflix has used its online presence to connect deeper with fans and spread the child-like love of films. By creating content like this, Netflix isn’t just promoting their product, but creating a larger community of movie lovers. Of course, this ties into their offering, helping to promote the brand to a relevant audience.

No matter what type of business you run or what size it is, showing that you care about your community is important. Highlighting exciting stories, inspiring like-minded people, and creating a connected audience is an important feature of successful digital marketing campaigns.

Beardbrand, Smart Email Marketing

Email marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. Businesses spend loads of time and effort to grow their email subscriber lists, but are they doing enough to generate engagement? Beardbrand is an excellent example of a business that knows how to get its inactive email subscribers engaging again.

The brand’s email campaign to re-engage subscribers says “Your beard grew 1.5” since your last visit”. This is a clever way to hook in customers as it gets you thinking and eager to learn more. Once readers are enticed by the clever email intro, they are then directed through a list of Beardbrand’s products. The final call to action says “Check out what I’ve missed” which is a great way to get customers thinking about what they have missed out on - exciting them to stay connected to Beardbrand through FOMO.

Why We Love This

Beardbrand uses a clever way to hook in its subscribers and stand out from the noise. They don’t take a typical sales approach, but rather engage the viewer through interesting thoughts and helpful information that relates to their products. FOMO is used to get the readers’ attention and entice them to search for more products.

Email marketing is a tricky thing to get right. You need to use tactics that grab people’s attention and lead them onto your sales page. Follow Beardbrand’s example of how to do this effectively.

Zoom, Virtual Background Contest

Since the global madness of 2020, everyone has taken to Zoom. The platform’s rise in popularity resulted in a brilliant social media giveaway that helped create increased engagement across their social media channels.

The brand gave away monthly prizes to Zoom users who sent in pictures of themselves using the platform’s virtual background feature. The social contest got users thinking about Zoom and using it in creative ways.

Why We Love This

Zoom used a social media contest to raise excellent awareness for the brand, increase social engagement, and get its users excited about their next virtual meeting. Creating a social media contest that works for your brand’s goals can be tricky, and Zoom managed to achieve this perfectly. Successful social promotions can do a great deal for your brand if done in a clever way.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is incredibly competitive in 2021. Brands are running huge campaigns backed by plenty of funding. However, this doesn’t mean that your small business can’t stand out and achieve great results. By applying smart marketing tactics and thinking outside the box, you can run successful campaigns that boost your popularity in a big way. Get inspired by some of the great campaigns above and use your platform to drive serious small business growth.

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shmosnet2 · 5 years

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Best Written Video Games

No matter the form of media, good writing can be admired like good cooking. A suspenseful intro hook thrown in to simmer with an intriguing storyline, seasoned by a logical plot, as well as a satisfying ending is as much akin to a meal as I can think of. I believe it was Ray Bradbury who said something along the lines of “every story has but one (proper) ending,” and I found this quote to be more and more relevant throughout writing this list. In this list we will be examining some of the best written games whose aspects– in terms of writing– are very well-rounded. Good endings require an amazing setup, like propping up dominoes only to watch them fall elegantly and haphazardly into place. So please enjoy this list, gamer or not, because everyone enjoys when dominoes drop (i.e. the climax).

While Mass Effect may just be the latest blockbuster production to hit consoles, there is a specific reason it is included in this list. With many gamers carrying over their previous save from the first Mass Effect, they let their previous choices impact the sequel in ways not seen before. From the start, this is an achievement in writing (specifically in games), rather than continuing a story over starting a new one. You are left to live with the aftermath of the decisions that are made in the first game, in the second. Characters that died don’t return for this round. The narrative aspect of Mass Effect 2 was also highly praised, as it covered every nook and niche that players could find themselves in. Contact with familiar faces from the first game play out like fortuitous reunions between old acquaintances, and with depth like that it walked away with several Game of the Year awards, along with various writing awards and best RPG awards. With Mass Effect 2, writing is becoming ever more prominent in modern gaming.

A platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer, Jonathan Blow, Braid was released to the Xbox Live arcade in 2008, greeted with unanimously positive reviews and became the second best-selling Xbox Live Arcade title in 2008, selling 55,000 titles. While critics labeled its one primary shortfall as its short length, this title proved that games could come with stories at flash fiction length. Braid involves several time-based worlds, each of which involve their own mechanic to solve the puzzles. In a game about time, Tim is a man searching for a princess who has been snatched by a supposedly evil monster. The only relationship we know he has with the princess is that he wishes to reconcile something. As you continue through each world, you learn more about the central plot, mostly through text and the ending is left purposely ambiguous. Some have likened the game to Memento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the way it interweaves its plot and narrative. Others have said the princess is analogous to the atom bomb. If you ever play Braid, carry this simple creed: “you must look back to go forwards.”

Set in an alternate history during 1960, the game takes place in the underwater city of Rapture, the inner workings of which were inspired by Ayn Rand and Objectivist philosophy and rhetoric. This time around, the game is more focused on setting than anything else. The once ordered civilization in Rapture now has become a dystopian society that you, the player, Jack, has crash landed near, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. As he makes his way to the seabed and into Rapture, you begin to uncover the inklings that led to the downfall of Rapture. The underwater realm is filled with a cast of characters that fit the assumptions one would associate with an underwater city, and a half-dreamt nightmare. Big Daddies resembling old-fashioned diving suits, and splicers seeking ADAM from the Little Sisters, commonly accompany the corridors of Rapture, and as the plot begins to thicken you see how this society corrupts under its rules and morals, you realize what’s been shrugged off is that questions are actually implicit commands.

With the advent of the Writer’s Guild of America accepting and commending outstanding writing in 2007/2008, it came as a surprise to those not in the know that Bioshock or Portal were not among those nominated, and even some that were nominated, such as Dead Head Fred, didn’t seem to offer much credibility that the WGA was accepting of video games as a medium for writing. With the small and dedicated team at Valve that worked on Portal, however, it may have come as no surprise, for you needed to be a member of the WGA to be nominated. Portal was lauded for its story, ensuing meme, gameplay, characterization, and its short format, as it was crowded onto a disc within the Orange Box. Its story is centered around Chell and GLaDOS, a simple protagonist vs. technology in strictest terms of literary conflict theory. But this conflict is not immediately apparent, only seeming blatant after never receiving your cake. The quote that spread like wildfire after Portal’s release: “the cake is a lie,” began to become a meme, meaning you were reaching an empty, unattainable goal. The characterization in Portal is that of sheer brilliance, featuring only two characters: a test subject and a somewhat sentient, passive aggressive AI. GLaDOS is our antagonist here, promising you cake, insulting you, and criticizing your every move while Chell increasingly struggles to make it through the next test chamber. As the credits roll and GLaDOS can be overheard in musical overtones, a thought occurs– you’re still alive. 6 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 2006

In a game where you can easily get lost between the subplots and side-stories, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an architectural writing masterpiece. While you may get sidetracked for several days on a sidequest, the main storyline is still at play, laying the groundwork and framework for all your voyages into the environment. Non-playable characters may lie to you, or react to you differently, depending on your race and gender, a subtle, but powerful undertone. Starting off as a lowly prisoner who gets a chance shot at escaping his cell, you begin to tackle the task of closing the gates to Oblivion– no easy feat. Although all of this can be ignored and you, the player, can spend your time exploring the countryside, doing the above-mentioned sidequests, and building your character up, the story is quite driven by the increasing number of Oblivion gates and their dominant presence on the hillsides. Each subplot eventually leads back and keeps you coming back to the main storyline.Though, even when the story is over, the game isn’t finished. There were some jarring dialogue flaws as well as unbalanced leveling by enemies, however, Oblivion won several awards, including Game of the Year and Best RPG from multiple publications. 5 Shadow of the Colossus 2005

At the forefront of the defense of games as an art form (prompted in part by Roger Ebert) is Shadow of the Colossus.The game was made by Team Ico, the developers behind none other than Ico. Shadow of the Colossus is a spiritual successor to the aforementioned game, and will be followed by yet another similar spiritual successor in 2012, by the name of The Last Guardian. To make things more interesting, the game only has 16 enemies in total. You start off your journey as Wander, with your horse Agro, appealing to the god Dormin to revive Mono, who you later learn was sacrificed due to a cursed destiny. In this land, desolate and forbidden, you know little background between the characters and their relationships to each other. You are tasked to destroy the sixteen colossi by Dormin. After you fell the first colossus though, it is clear that there is something more sinister at play, as you are pierced by black energy and awaken at the shrine. The game does an excellent job of creating a bond between you and your horse through the use of minimalistic touches, the horse will steer itself away from cliffs and jump when needed, and will even go off and graze on its own when you clamber off. As the game and story advances you learn that Wander is being followed, and you begin to witness one of the best uses of antihero ever. After every colossus killed, Wander becomes more dirty, ragged and clumsy. This results in your questioning of Wander’s motives, and just which side you should be rooting for. 4 Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) 2005

A cult classic, Fahrenheit, or better known in North America as Indigo Prophecy, was a precursor to the much more well-known Heavy Rain, and its cinematic gameplay. But where the game really stands out is its deep, captivating, and oftentimes disturbing story. The tale, which opens prolifically and profoundly with a murder, and is ranked as number ten on Game Informer’s Top Ten Video Game Openings, centers around Lucas Kane and the supernatural forces that he must fight to comprehend why New York City is being targeted by a series of mysterious murders that follow the same pattern: ordinary people becoming possessed and killing absolute strangers in public. Receiving the Best Story and Best Adventure Game award from Gamespot, Fahrenheit is not a game to be passed over in the used section of your local game shop.

Receiving a letter from his wife asking him to come to their special place, James Sunderland becomes drawn to Silent Hill. It is a quiet town they had frequented in the past, before the sickness took her from this life; she’s been dead for three years now. Upon entering Silent Hill, James encounters gruesome monsters and exaggerated versions of humanity, including a girl oblivious to what is happening around her, a man who has killed someone, and a woman who’s a spitting image of his wife, although she is dolled up and does not possess his wife’s subdued behavior. Finding more and more clues that lead to the revelation of the murder of your wife, Silent Hill 2 addresses your problems with analogies and metaphors. Silent Hill isn’t a town, it is your emotional being, and every door and corridor could contain a clue to James’ past, and the further you delve in, the more you must fight the mental blocks that portray him in innocent and culpable lights.

With a surplus of over 40 Game of the Year awards, and also including the accolade of Best Story, Deus Ex comes loaded with great expectations. In this cyberpunk themed tale of a world controlled by conspiracy and on the brink of collapse, a bionic government agent, J.C. Denton, is issued a series of risky covert assignments by his employer, UNATCO. A lot of background information is presented in the game that is purely optional; books, newspapers, e-mails, passwords, and other lines of text that are pertinent to the story and often contain allusions to science-fiction references, such as Tron and Blue Harvest. UNATCO coworkers react to your actions towards your enemies, appraising you or giving you the cold shoulder, and enemies can be hounded for information. Pioneering the FPS RPG formula, Deus Ex frequently finds its way near the top of the greatest games of all time lists.

For those of you following the list order, it is in reverse chronological order, and with that, we come to one of the greats of modern game storytelling: Half-Life. Considered and cited as being revolutionary in terms of the immersive gaming experience, interactive environment and storytelling, Half-Life was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews and, like Deus Ex, frequents greatest games of all time lists. The game has received over 50 Game of the Year awards as a tour de force first-person shooter as well as holding a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as best selling FPS of all-time. Half-life contained artfully scripted in-game sequences and a story that the player became captivated by. Offering a proposition or a battle Gordon Freeman has no chance of winning, an anticlimax after what you’ve survived, it is time to choose…

L.A. Noire is an upcoming detective video game that looks very promising in terms of writing. Set in post-war Los Angeles and directed in a film noir style, the game is said to focus on a series of murders that the player is openly allowed to solve. However, not every source is reliable, or can be trusted; lying, in video games, is evolving. Honorable Mentions: Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Kingdom Hearts, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Bully, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

https://ift.tt/2Yp0Hqg . Foreign Articles December 06, 2019 at 12:02PM

#. Foreign Articles Best Written Video Games

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