#all with new stories to fit in the period of skyrim and i think there will be voice acting | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blogdeanfullerton · 4 years

Text

Week 5

Video Conferencing -https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/video-conferencing.asp

This is basically what it says, its just conferencing via video which is becoming a norm in the modern world. Companies today have several offices and sometimes are located worldwide meaning conferencing via the internet is not only handy but essential for people to stay in touch.

These meetings/conferences can be done with a webcam and mic or a combo of the two. These are usually in laptops and phones while most desktops will need a separate piece of hardware such as the microphone or webcam to be connected externally. Some companies have rooms built for the purpose of video conferencing by equipping them with high grade cameras and screens to ensure a smooth video display is achieved during the meeting.

The idea of these video conferences are great for a few reasons, the first being that they can be great to get a number of people into one virtual room if they can not fit into one physical room, this is usually used for training seasons for new employees. The video communication also allows people to be on the move but still get the information they need. This type of technology is also good for those people who work for themselves such as designers, they can call a client or temporary employer to update or get feedback quickly, this is also the case for education class that are moved online. The idea of physical or human errors causing people to not get to the physical work place also means that video conferencing allows them to still attend their jobs and not miss out in meetings.

Client Engagement - https://acquire.io/blog/customer-engagement-strategies/

Getting client engagement is a key aspect of the design process. Having a good omnichannel(is a cross-channel content strategy that is used by companies to improve their user experiences and create better relationships with their customers) is shown to have a better percentage rate of returning customer as apposed to companies that don’t put so much effort into this aspect of their marketing. It is estimated that at least tow thirds of a companies profits can rely on good customer engagement. Getting this right is the only and best way to grow a company and to compete with the rivals in the target market. The question must always be asked, why do the customers go to the competitor, its the emotional connection the brand has with them, meaning good design and client engagement ins key to success.

The main thing a company wants is the customer loyalist as this relates to the 1000 true fans concept where these loyal customers will continue to spend in your stores rather than your competitors and continue the stream of review as long as you provide them with the experience they expect from building a good customer experience. Customer engagement is determined by the time spent by a csutomer on your site or shop. If a customer sees an add likes how its advertizing a deal and then clicks on it. This takes them to the store and they buy something thats all considered the engagement from the customer the loyality is built by offering things the perons wants to see and advertinzing them properly.

Below you will see the 7 steps on how to create a good client/customer engament:

Define your customer journey map – Know who your customers are and where they come from.

Identify points of interaction– How your customers interact with you helps identify customer engagement platforms.

Observe their behavior in real-time – Analytics help better understand and fulfill your customers’ requirements.

Offer personalized service – Personalization addresses current customer demands. Generic marketing will not work. Customers will abandon preferring brands offering more personalized conversations.

Observe how many prospects accept the offer and take action – Creating customized offers prompts action from your customers. Measure how many activities to determine the success of your strategy.

Observe how many of the engaged users bounced off without taking action – Bounce rate tells you a lot about the health of your customer service and the experience your customer engagement platforms offer.

Take feedback – Feedback is a gift. Regular CSAT surveys help you understand customers’ expectations. Send a short inquiry to churned customers. Find out what went wrong

Social media - https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/why-social-media-is-important-for-business-marketing/

Social media is apart of life more than ever and it will only grow, the fact of connecting with people all over the world at your finger tips is so much of a norm now that people will at some point not even bother going to the store if there wasn't a human desire for face to face social interaction. In terms of business it is a key gate way to get customers, as you want to be advertising where everyone is aka online. Business that want to grow can not get the growth without being online. There are a number of reasons that someone or a company would want to get involved on social media. The first reason being that it builds brand awareness, put simply if people don’t know you exit you wont sell anything, being on social media is essentially being able to advertisement products and the company for free, not doing it would be a silly as leaving money on the ground. Using good social media strategy will help achieve the goals of the page eg do you want to increase subscribers to a newsletter or to advertise deals and get as many sales on those deals as possible.The second reason is to build reliability with customers, People are more aware that the internet can scam them if they aren’t careful so people will often look for a website or social media account to confirm if your company is worth their money. It helps people feel safer giving their details to your sites by showcasing that you are a legit business but can also be trusted and know what you are doing in your field, social media is great place for people to review your company and share their experiences using your services so people will feel more conformable with your company, it also acts as a customer services platform. Using your platform to directly connect with people keeps them engaged but it also allows for the company to express their voice and let the personality shire through posts and advertisements, this is important as again the emotional connection is what people want not just boring simple adverts that have no story or emotion to them, giving people background information like the makings of is a good way to tell a products story and it also goes a long way to help not only justify a price but it will help people give themselves a reason to buy things, if people see that for example the wood for a knife handle is exported from japan and crafted by skilled craftsmen who are part of a dying trade it will make them feel good and might classify the object as a luxury piece due to the self worth they will be attaching to it. Using the social medias to get in engagement from your customers will help with QA sessions and helps define what the company should make next.Finally using social media is a great way to grow on a strict spending limit, while making is key paying for ads can be hard for small companies, this is why using the social media as a business tool is essential for growth, the growth again comes from being able to connect with people directly by providing support on social media, Marketing and support are all in one here so for small companies one account covers everything until the company can afford to branch out and do bigger and better things with their money. Its amazing to think that a platforms so many people use to talk to their friends is also a site that is making people money and not everyone knows that, some people still act on marketing without social media and its so interesting to think of these platforms as an actual tool for success.

Wearable Tec - https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/wearable-tech/best-fitbit-3679979/

I own my own ps4 headset and have played games that are pushing the boundaries of the technology such as SKYRIM VR which is the first open world large scale game on the headset and works very well and is very impressive to look around and see the sky, birds and be almost fully immersed. The VR headset is a basically a heads-up display (HUD) that allows users to interact with simulated environments and experience a first-person view (FPV). This allows the users to be immersed in programmed worlds that they can experience in 360 degree view. Problems still occur for the Virtual Reality, it allows people to experience things that would be impossible to experience in real life but they are still rather expensive and will therefore leave people behind, other problems it has is that people that use it for long periods of time have motion sickness similar to the 3ds from nintendo when it first launched. In some ways the communication factor for Vr headset and virtual reality can be manipulated and there are still very many issues to fix in the early lifecyle of the product. But with these issuess people will be able to form better realtionships with a more real online world to meet people after work or school for example which was stated by Breon Kaweroa and Edward Omo-Nnadiekwe who said:

"VR redefines the idea of communication, expanding it from people you know in real life to anyone connected to the internet. This means that relationships will begin to be formed more based off interests than general location."

Fit Bit https://virtual-reality.weebly.com/pros-and-cons.html.

The VR headset is not the only wearable technology for example there is the fit bit. A fit-bit is an activity tracker, wireless-enabled wearable technology device that measure data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics involved in fitness. Its is similar to the smart watch which does a-lot of the things as the the fit bit such as track your heart rate and all those things with the downloaded apps but it can play games and of course tell the time along with other functions depending on what apps you have but fit bits might sell more to the fitness world as it is cheaper and more tailored for that specific market.

While the fit bit is a good way of tracking someones health it is still flawed slightly and needs some improvements as for example it can incorrectly track your steps as it has difficulty telling the difference between walking and just arm movement, it also needs to connect to a smart phone to work and use its features which makes its price slightly deceiving even though most people own a smart phone the people who don't are going to have to save more money or not have the product. With these criticisms the tracking does show miles done correctly and can be a great motivator for peoples fitness as it works as a good way to see your progress towards certain goals. But for some reason there are different versions of the fit bit that offer different applications to help with fitness instead of having them all in one which can confuse consumers on which one to buy which was an issue brought up by Simon Jary who says:

"Fitbit currently sells seven activity tracker wristbands – the Fitbit Ace, Flex 2, Alta, Alta HR, Charge 2, Versa and Ionic – and one clip-on activity tracker: the Fitbit Zip. That's a great but confusing range, and the company has replaced its older Surge and Blaze trackers with its new smartwatches".

Emerging Technologies

https://tweakyourbiz.com/technology/trends/2020-emerging-technologies

https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2020/

https://www.iberdrola.com/innovation/technology-trends

From the building of the web extension, it was clear that going with an idea that was thinking far ahead was something I wanted to do, this meaning that I was going to start again and create something for google glass or similar piece of wearable technology. One of the first things I thought to do when thinking for a piece of forward thinking was to see what the industry believed was coming next in terms of technology. As seen below the Gartner chart was for 2019 but still is fairly relevant to this early age of 2020. The things that caught my eye on this chart where the Augmented reality (AR) Cloud, Bio chips and 5g these things are setting a good ground work for ideas involving AR, the cloud and better connection especially with the ideas of low earth satellites means wearable tech will be more connected and more reliable for information, the idea of bio chips means that some people are already trying to by pass the need for actual wearable technology and get right into the bio chipping, its impossible to think of what these bio chips will do, the future dream would be to have something that works like google glass but is a chip on your wrist or side of face.

From extra research into emerging technologies there are a few extra ones that help the idea for designing for google glass/AR Glasses. Some experts are suggesting we will see Mix Reality(MR) fairly soon, which is a concept of merging the AR and VR experiences together this is a great idea and something that makes designing for glass even more interesting as now we can consider combing how VR User Interfaces work along side AR experiences, by combining the use of our hands and other gestures. Voice commands are also still being heavily developed, these few technology are building a very strong base for the world wide use of products such as Glass. There are obviously a few side effects to the increase of digital realities and bio chips, there are human ethics that are needing to be considered, some religious groups could see it as un-religious to replace parts or your body with machine parts and some people could see this advancement of connecting us all online as distancing ourselves from reality.

Other forms of technology such are already taking advancement of some of these advancements, such as home automation, the idea of having your heating, lighting and security all under voice commands can be odd and having augmented reality glass would have everything literally in front of you and at the touch of your finger, this can be seen as putting everything online for hackers but AI security is also on the rise as an emergent technology along with the internet of things meaning everything will be getting faster and stronger.

#ixd303

0 notes

olmopress · 5 years

Text

Episode III: The Return of Manovich

week 11: Vincent Miller, “Key Elements of Digital Media” / Lev Manovich, “The Language of New Media”, Principles of New Media: 2. Modularity, 4. Variability, 5. Transcoding

Today I am very Happy. Even if yesterday night AS Roma lost to some unpronounceable and unspellable German team. You know why? No, it’s not because I am going out why someone I like. And neither because I decided I want to try and go to a rage room once. None of these romantics things.

It’s because today, Hideo Kojima’s long-awaited and frankly strange-looking new game Death Stranding is out!

This is me being happy with the copy of the game I just bought from this pedantic guy at GameStop who really wanted to sell me their useless (and of course expensive) fidelity card. I do not fidelize. I do not permanently associate with the revolting logics of media capitalism. Btw yes that in the background is Patti Smith’s Horses signed by herself. I am so cool, I know. What can you do.

ANYWAYS

Why is this relevant? Well, for a number of reasons. First of all because a videogame is a digital object, a digital medium. So it’s important to us. Secondly, because the themes of this game are SOOOOOOO damn interesting and appropriate for what we are doing in this class.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY

Because I decided to have yet another theme-based post. So Ladies, Gentlment, and all the other 7456 genders out there in the wide wild world, let me introduce you to this week’s issue of my blog, which will be entirely

VIDEOGAME-THEMED

Yes, I will. Sorry not sorry.

OK so as it is now customary I will skip Miller because I don’t like riassunti and synthesis and also I want to continue my honeymoon with Manovich.

Here’s me with my boy Lev.

Today we deal with the last three of Manovich’s Principles of New Media. Today I also want to be reader-friendly so I tell all of you from the start that I am going to explain briefly the principle and then pick an example, of course from some videogame. OK fellas? Ready to go.

Principle No. 2: Modularity

Well, modularity is quite easy. Manovich uses it to explain how digital objects are assembled through independent parts, which working on their own constitute the totality of the aforementioned object. A good example from videogames is the phenomenon of pop-up textures: that thing that happens when you’re playing a game in 3D graphics which uses real-time rendering, but optimization hasn’t been done well enough (or you’re just pushing the graphics beyond your hardware capabilities) and so you get some textures to be rendered with a delay. And this sucks because, well, it’s not very realistic and it makes you realize you’re just playing a videogame.

youtube

:( this is extreme tho. Sometimes it’s just OK.

[Btw pop-up textures are essentially what Manovich is referring to at page 39 when he writes about “distancing” and “level of detail”]

Manovich refers to this also as the “fractal structure” of digital media, which very cool and very LSD-like. So, yeah, cool.

BUT EVEN COOLER THAN THIS

is how this made me think of Aristotle. Your friendly neighborhood Western-culture-generator philosopher loved to talk about how the whole of something is more than the sole value of its components. Which, in some ways, doesn’t really seem to apply completely to digital media.

SOMETHING TO REFLECT UPON

Oh. And I was also thinking that maybe, MAYBE

MAYBE

all this modularity in our daily lives is also affecting the way our minds work. Like we now struggle to create coherent, consistent (“hardwired” Manovich would say) arguments or chains of reasoning, but instead rely completely on modular frames of understanding. Like we now tend to see things as separate and independent from each other, and we have trouble in looking at the bigger picture.

“OF COURSE YOU MUST BE WRONG, WE’RE AS CAPABLE AS EVER IN UNDERSTANDING ISSUES IN THEIR TOTALITY. BUT NO KID CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT REAL BECAUSE ADMITTING IT WOULD MEAN RECONSIDER THE PRIVILEGES I GREW UP AS EXPRESSIONS OF A POST-INDUSTRIAL COLONIAL SYSTEM OF EXPLOITATION YESTERDAY SNOWED IN BERGAMO SO NO TROUBLE”

But let us not be distracted by such irrelevant issues.

Principle No. 4: Variability

Now this is obvious but still so cool. However, the question of variability is so multifaceted and complex that is difficult to pin it down to a single definition. I’ll try my best, though. I would say that

the concept of variability refers to all the ways in which digital objects can be modified, altered, or updated at the source of their distribution.

That is, without having to physically change anything. The only thing that variability needs is some form of the refresh button. It is a sort of physically invisible mutation, a “liquid” transformation, as Manovich says. And of course this has to do with Numerical Representation, Modularity, and Automation.

Before getting into the real interesting stuff about variability, Manovich makes seven examples. A couple of them will help grasp the concept better. So yeah, example three reads like this:

“Information about the user can be used by a computer program to customize automatically the media composition as well as to create elements themselves” (37)

In that unfortunately incomplete masterpiece that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is, you get to play as badass Venom Snake aka (sort of...) Big Boss, a super amazing and incredibly skilled soldier who has to infiltrate military compounds and all sorts of other infiltrable things between Afghanistan and Zaire around the mid-80s. In this game, you can decide what kind of equipment to bring with you, and approach the mission the way you like best. You can bring big-ass noisy weapons and just have a crazy battles, you can use assault rifles of sniper guns with silencers and be very quiet, and you can also use guns with tranquilizers so that you don’t kill anybody. You just put them to sleep.

Now, the cool thing about it is that the more you progress in the game, the more enemy soldiers will adjust to your playing stile. For instance, I remember using only tranquilizers with pistols and sniper rifles. So I would get lots of headshots, because when you headshot someone, he instantly falls asleep. After a few missions, most of my enemies adapted and started wearing helmets! So it was much harder for me to get those headshots.

See? This is an example of automation and variability.

There is also of course example number six. The one about periodical updates. Again, for anybody who ever played a videogame online, this is usual business.

I remember I once was thirteen. Yeah I know that’s hard to imagine, but for a moment just please bear with me. When I was thirteen I was very much into multiplayer FPSs. At that time particular, me and my friends would spend entire days on Call of Duty: Black Ops. Now, the online multiplayer was constantly updated and amended, so that if someone discovered that a certain build for a weapon made that weapon totally over-powered and impossible to play against, the guys at Activision would correct the flaw and balanced the game again. But variability in the game also occurred when DLCs were released: new maps, new weapons, new elements would ‘enter’ the world of the online game and of course alter it. It was cool, really. Cause the game evolved throughout the season. But the you had to buy the new one and spend other money and start back again and… really, can we just say fuck capitalism? That game could have lasted decades. Damn.

ANYWAY

By far the most interesting thing to me came at page 40, when Manovich discusses variability in terms of interactivity and hypermedia. In particular, he distinguishes between two ‘versions’ of interactivity.

Open interactivity: an interactive object “in which both the elements and the structure of the whole object are either modified or generated on the fly in response to the user’s interaction with a program.” (40)

Closed interactivity: an interactive object “that uses fixed elements arranged in a fixed braching structure” (40) and therefore on which users have only ‘liberty of order’. That is, they can only choose in which order to interact with the elements.

Now, try to follow me for a second. I think this distinction opens up one possibility of categorizing videogames. But we need to add one more category. We have

Linear games (Super Mario, the first Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 4…) which display a ‘limited’, ‘scripted’ interactivity. That is: you have to follow the path that has been chosen for you by the developers. You cannot decide in which order to do things. You go ahead with the game – interact with it, sure, but you basically witness the story unfold in front of your eyes passively.

Open world games (GTA, Spiderman, Pokémon games…), which essentially function on a principle of closed interactivity. You’re free to roam around and do whatever you want, to choose your own ‘order of interaction’ with the elements on the map, but you cannot act on the storyline, which is still linear and scripted for you. The story doesn’t change, no matter what you do inside or outside of the main missions.

pure RPGs (Fallout 4, Final Fantasy, Skyrim, Mass Effect…) which instead function on a principle of open interactivity. Your choices inform the way in which the game unfolds in terms of story, world, and sometimes even gameplay. The interaction is open because it allows to be formed in response to what the player does.

I should totally write a narratology of videogames.

I’ve already written a lot and I want to get to the last principle, but

I NEED

to point out something that comes around the end of page 41. Ready? So Manovich writes:

“The principle of variability exemplifies how, historically, changes in media technologies are correlated with social change. If the logic of old media corresponded to the logic of industrial mass society, the logic of new media fits the logic of the postindustrial society, which values individuality over conformity. […] In this way new media technology acts as the most perfect realization of the utopia of an ideal society composed of unique individuals. New media objects assure users that their choices—and therefore, their underlying thoughts and desires—are unique, rather than preprogrammed and shared with others.” (41-2)

Now, I am not sure precisely where Manovich stands on this argument, but this definitely rang a bell for me.

HEY LEV, EVER HEARD OF A LAD CALLED PASOLINI?

Because yeah, digital media gave us this fantastic possibility of escaping omologation because anybody can see, read, do whatever they want without any authority providing them with univocal content.

But are we really sure this is the triumph of individuality? Couldn’t this be just a new, and much more subtle and devilish form of conformity?

My bro and spiritual-granddaddy PPP believed so. And you, he was writing in the early seventies – not long before being brutally killed by neo fascists with the complacency of the State a Roman kid in Ostia – and virtually all of his predictions are becoming a terrible reality. Because Pier Paolo believed the (back then) new consumer society (which let’s face it gave birth to digital media the way we know it today) was only a new, horrible, de-humanizing form of fascism.

youtube

This is for anybody who understands a little italian and loves tragic heroes talking about the horrors of late capitalism on winter beaches.

BUT WE HAVE TO COME TO AN END, DON’T WE?

Principle No. 5: Transcoding

I’ll be very brief, this is easy. Manovich defines transcoding starting from the difference between the “cultural layer” (pretty much the visual, the interface) and the “computer layer” (basically code) of digital media. Using the example of videogames again, the cultural layer of a videogame is all that you see happening on the screen, while the computer layer is the code ‘behind’ it that makes it all happen in that way.

Fine, cool. Transcoding, Manovich says, happens everytime these two layers—these two languages, really—start to mix and mesh with each other.

The best example that I can come up with right now—and I am sorry if I can’t think of anything better but you know I have a graceful lady waiting for me, his date—has to do again with open world videogames.

SO HERE’S THE THING, I THINK

Open world videogames emerged and became the next big thing of gaming when the internet was already a big thing. And there’s a reason for that. It’s because the structure of an open world mimics, in many ways, that of the WWW.

THINK ABOUT IT

An open world is somewhere were you can roam around (I want to say navigate so badly!) pretty much everywhere you want. Most of the times you can jump from one places to another, sometimes using a nice menu/database of possible locations (reminds you of anything? Hyperlinking? Search engines, anybody?). You can’t really create much, but you can see everything. Well, that to me sounds like WWW.

COULD IT BE LOVE? TRANSCODING?

I think it is, baby.

We’re sadly at the end of our ride

But don’t be afraid!

THERE’S STILL ROOM FOR MUSIC AND VISUAL ARTS

Today we celebrate videogames, so what’s better than a collection of some classics in videogame music history? Enjoy.

youtube

As for visuals, I want to come full circle. Hideo Kojima’s game have always been blessed with amazing character design and illustrations by his bro Yoji Shinkawa. Death Stranding is no exception. Except that there is an exception, because these times the characters are actors! Great actors! Like beautiful Lea Seydoux who I hope one day to marry. Or at least to hookup with, come on. Anyways, that’s beyond my point. I just wanted to introduce this beautiful promotional picture for Death Stranding.

It really is beautiful.

до свидания!

Image Sources: Parade, Pure Nintendo, Tech in Asia, GIPHY, Know Your Meme

0 notes

roninkairi · 7 years

Text

GAME REVIEW: The Legend of Zelda- Breath of The Wild

I am kind of hard pressed in finding a good way to start off this review. I mean, I have spent the better half of the past 2 months exploring many of the various locales in Hyrule and trying very hard not to royally screw up, as well as devise ways to make rupees and gain better weapons, what series of sentences could I use to best sum up that kind of commitment to a game?

But then again, maybe I just did right now. I don’t think I could find a proper way to start off a good review without sounding either too fanboyish or pretentious. Also, to be quite fair, many of you who have been noticing certain pics I’ve put up on my Facebook and Tumblr accounts know I’m dedicated to this game. And with good reason, as it seriously is one of the best developed games ever produced for the Zelda series. Now this review is probably gonna take a bit of time for you to slog through, so pull up a chair and relax, this MAY take a while…

Initially made for the Wii-U (the one I will be reviewing here), Breath of the Wild is both the final game developed for the Wii-U and one of the launch games for the new Nintendo Switch. Graphically speaking, it seriously pushes the Wii-U, as you will see as you travel throughout the lands. From the plains of the Great Plateau and Central Hyrule, to the snowfields of the Hebra section and the vast deserts of the Wasteland, there isn’t one real ugly speck of dust out there. Well, maybe with the exception of any areas that is infected with the Malice goop, which I strongly suggest against touching. (Trust me, the stuff is like black slime in Ghostbusters—gets everywhere and is very hard to wash off…)

As the theme of the game is reliant on the nature aspect, it seems almost organic in tone. And many of the other areas that are populated seem to borrow from certain parts of history (the developers said that the inspiration for the art came from the Jomon period of Japanese history. A quick Google search confirmed my curiousity) or are unique in itself, like the Gerudo women and their insertion of their own words for welcoming people and describing men and women respectively. In a way, it’s an interesting approach and gives the world some more personality than you may be used to. It also helps because for the most part, the primary story is simple: Link wakes up after being asleep in the Resurrection Shrine for 100 years and finds out that Ganon, or Calamity Ganon, is about to break out of his prison within Hyrule Castle, so it’s your job to go and kill him (Oh and save Zelda while you’re at it.) The bulk of the plot details are told either through flashbacks, or memories, scattered throughout the game and through journals and interactions with many other NPCs. I can understand why some people may not like the lack of a proper structured story but to be fair, most of the people that Link knew before he was put into sleep are, for lack of a better term, dead. The only handful of people still alive that remember him or personally know Link are either super old or Zora. (They have a RIDICULOUS long life here in the game and it makes a certain side mission a little…ummm…ODD.) I think though that as you make the journey all the stuff you get to do for the people you meet help to keep some semblance of a moving plot. Yeah, the people are aware of a giant Eldritch abomination that is on the loose, but they are preoccupied with other things, like getting married, treasure hunts and getting a picture of a Lynel. (Oh yeah, Lynels…I will get to those fuckers soon enough…)

By now you are probably used to the standard ways that the previous Zelda games have started out, which is a lengthy tutorial section where you learn the ins and out of combat, how the controls work and so forth. Well, not this time. Nintendo really meant it when they said this would not be the standard Zelda game; You start off in the Resurrection Shrine, get the Sheikah Slate, some clothes and a quick briefing on running and climbing, and then…that’s it. You step outside, get a beautiful opening wide shot of the area below and that’s all there is, now go follow that mysterious old man who just noticed you and is walking down the path. You want a weapon? Go find it. The Great Plateau is basically your training ground and you will learn, the HARD WAY I should stress, the ins and outs of combat, when to pick a fight and when not to and just how important it is to horde food. And once you finally get off of the Great Plateau (which itself will take a good chunk of time) the real adventure kicks in.

One of the best things about the original game was the open world aspect, where you have free reign to go out and explore the landscape. This is made very evident here in this game as well. The game is MASSIVE. Seriously. Hyrule here is supposed to be much, much bigger than the world of Skyrim and I will have to take them at their word for it seeing as I’ve yet to play Skyrim. (Yes, shocking I know, give me a break already.) There’s no one way to approach your quest. You COULD, if you wanted to, go and try to take down Ganon right away. I can tell you, after seeing Hyrule Castle later in the game, going straight from The Great Plateau to Hyrule Castle is tantamount to actual suicide. I mean in THEORY you could do it but it would be very hard and you would need to, well, NOT GET HIT. EVER.

Which brings me to the next point: the combat system. It still retains the basic controls, where we have Z targeting and shielding. But there has been quite a few changes. Instead of just a one handed sword, Link can now wield spears, bigger swords, rods and various clubs, boomerangs, halbreds and…a mop. No really, you get to use mops too. But you have to be careful, as durability on various weapons factor in; You could be wailing on a bokoblin horde with a sweet broadsword and then—you get a warning that the weapon will soon break. You are forced to constantly scrounge for weapons, bows and shields as you play. It’s an interesting way to make sure you do not rely too heavily on one weapon AND have the right tool for the right battle, but I would be a liar if I said I didn’t see the disadvantages of this at crucial moments. However, there are a couple of new methods employed now for attack and defense; the flurry, which can be activated if you manage to pull off a perfect dodge and the perfect parry, instrumental in deflecting certain attacks. The latter is very useful in a pinch especially against Guardians. Plus, it’s a good way to reduce wear on the shield. As you play further and further in the game, these skills will become not only second nature, but essential.

The foes you will face are varied too. Each type have their own unique quirks and behaviors, plus they will learn to adapt to your own tactics. If you try to lay a bomb at a bokoblin horde, one of them may have enough insight to kick it back to you. A Moblin may pick up a bokoblin and throw it at you if it lacks a suitable weapon. And then there are Lynels…

Yeah those bastards.

I do not know precisely WHY they made these one of the toughest things to fight in the game. But they are for some godforsaken reason. The Lynels, Talus, Hynox and Molduga are some of the biggest and, at times, tougher fights waiting for you out in the field. They are risky but worth the rewards they reap when you do kill them. And given that the Blood Moon in this game revives all the guys that you kill off, you will not have a shortage of battles. But if, by any chance, a Blood Moon occurs right AFTER you fight a particularly tough battle, then you’re kind of screwed, especially if you are low on food or weapons. And that’s the beauty of the combat in this game, it is simple in theory but when you actually go out there almost anything can happen. The healing system has also undergone a significant change, as you need now to eat food and elixirs in order to regain health out in battle, as opposed to the old ways of getting hearts. And they actually went out of their way to make the cooking system fun to use. You will experiment with cooking to find not only the best recipes for healing, but for gaining serious strength or defense buffs when you need it the most. Trust me, you will NEED to stock any and all ‘mighty’ ingredients.

Also, as you start to play, you may die. A LOT. Enemies can hit hard so getting the best armor will also be a priority. In previous titles, armor only really slighty changed the damage you could receive but here it is a matter of life and death. Some armor sets have idden benefits that can make exploration and combat easier. It’s also required to survive in other regions. Ever wonder how Link manages to survive being in certain places like volcanos without serious heat damage? In this game, it now is a factor. Whether it’s snow capped mountains or desert landscapes, your choice of clothes and/or elixirs can make a difference. But when it rains it can REALLY slow you down. Lightning storms also really, REALLY suck until you get the Lightning Helm.

Another real huge departure now is the dungeon system, or rather lack of. The game has only 4 main “dungeons”, or Divine Beasts, to go through (and of course, Hyrule Castle) while everything ese is now placed into Shrines hidden throughout the game, which house the Spirit Orbs you need in order to gain Heart Containers or Stamina Wheel expansions, and also weapons and treasure. Some of the Shrines just require a simple puzzle, others require more devious means of entry or survival (fear Guardian Scout IV). And even with the Sheikah Sensor just finding them is a task in itself. (Yeah, lets not even discuss Eventide Island, because that may cause some people to have fits.) It’s an interesting deviation, although some may wish to have a go at a standard Zelda dungeon. That may actually be the best way to describe the final area, Hyrule Castle. It was the only one I felt that seemed more in tune with the traditional Zelda game structure (barring the lack of compass and boss key of course.) The Divine Beast area are an interesting new way to get around this, though.

Now the soundtrack is another area I wanted to go into deeper with. You know how there is always a prevalent theme in the main field as you travel? Well…it’s not here. I mean there is music in the game, but only in certain areas and instances. When it does happen, it can go from nice and quiet to awesome in a second. Unless, of course, you are dealing with a Guardian. One second, you will be in the field, walking around and then that single piano chord plays and OH FUCK WHERE IS THAT RED LIGHT COMING FROM?!!!

There are actually quite a few musical nods to previous games (Like the Death Mountain area) along with many, MANY references to past Zelda lore. Certain islands and regions, for example, are named after many characters. You can even, if you have the right Amiibo, get gear related to past LOZ titles, such as tunics, swords, bows and even Epona herself (and Wolf Link, if you bought Twilight Princess). The side quest and other numerous things you can do are also here to help you out and keep you busy. Want more weapons or shields? Go look for Koroks! They can be almost anywhere and getting their seeds helps you to expand your inventory. (I wouldn’t go out of my way to collect all 900 of them though. Yes, you read right, 900. Just stop at 400) You can also take pictures to fill up the Hyrule Compendium, shield surf down slopes, go horseback riding, tackle an obstacle course or two, ride a fucking bear into battle—

No I did not make an error there. You can ride many different animals aside from horses. You can ride deers, elks, a moose, an undead horse, the King of The Mountains and even a bear...while it's ON FIRE.

…lets face it, this is the LEAST badass thing you will do at this point. There ‘s a LOT to do in this game. You can take your time or you could speed through it, your choice. But yeah, I’d take my time to enjoy this.

If I had to gripe about anything, it’s just this; the boss battles may be a little underwhelming. It depends though; I mean if you have the Master Sword with you when you take on any of the bosses in the Divine Beasts and Hyrule Castle then yeah, it can be quick. (Especially if you also get Ancient Arrows to even the odds.) And the final battle…I rather not give away too much, but my only reason for getting through that is the fact that at that point in the game, I had experienced so many other types of fights that when it was time to face Ganon, I pretty much knew what the hell to do at the right time, plus I had the Master Sword and beat all of the Divine Beasts first. Also, as many have said, I think the story progression could have been done a little differently.

I wanna say that this is a complete assessment of everything this game has to offer, but it’s not as we have DLC coming later, which will add some new costumes, a Hard Mode (because apparently this game was taking it easy on us) and a new story that will be added in the fall. But from what I have played now, I can most definitely say this is one of the best games ever made, period. If you have a Wii-U this is a no brainer you get this game. If you have a Switch, yeah ditto, but make sure you charge up that bad boy because you will be playing this. A LOT.

#game review #the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #wii-u #nintendo switch

5 notes · View notes

find-your-rp-partner · 7 years

Text

Dark, historical, 18+ fun times

About Me Alias: Rottikins, Rotti, Rots. Age: 20+, old enough to drink. As such, only looking for 18+ partners. Gender: Female Personality: I’m awful at describing myself. Ugh. Shy at first but will probably open up after we get talking for a while. I like to think I’m friendly enough? I can be really enthusiastic about things I like and talkative once it gets to the point we are comfortable with one another. About Me: I’m here and don’t know what I’m doing with myself I guess. I’m a lesbian living in Kentucky that enjoys horses, monsters, drawing, and learning about history/mythology. I’m big into developing believable characters and worlds and I seriously love writing and roleplaying. I like detailed, 3-dimensional characters and I can even a little big and silly into the symbolism, tropes (though it's mostly turning them on their head that gets me going), and so forth at times. Do you like to use messengers to chat? Yes yes yes. It’s pretty important to me to have a method of OOC communication. I like to develop friendships with my RP partners and I find that banter about the characters and story tends to lead itself to new ideas and plots naturally. Skype, Discord, and Google Hangouts are all viable options here if we decide we might go places writing together! How long have you been roleplaying? 12+ years? Not entirely sure. About Roleplaying What is the plot (or plots) that you'd like to play out with someone? I like developed characters, dynamic relationships, and lots of building things up together between everyone as we go. I usually like my stories a bit on the darker side of things, and have a love of the ugly and the gross. I have a variety of character types I like to play and would prefer if you do as well. I like flexible partners as I try to be flexible myself.

>>>*>*>The plot I’m most interested in currently is something heavily inspired by the show Vikings, but I don’t really want to role-play out the actual characters from the show or anything. I am looking for a MxM plot where one of the characters is a religious man (monk, priest, or maybe just some average Joe who believes God is Great) ends up enslaved by a Northman warrior. The two learn about each others cultures and become romantically involved later down the line. Of course we can involve other characters and plots in and around all of this. I don’t really mind what end of the relationship I play here, as I’ll probably end up dragging my other Viking-esque type characters into it either way, so you have your pick! The world would be Earth, but with maybe a touch more magic than Earth. So some magic spells, strange rituals, and maybe some monsters, but probably not magically drenched if that makes sense? Yeah! <*<*<<<

Historical fantasy of any kind is really my biggest want all the time. I like mixing historical settings with fantastical elements. Some of my favorite time periods include 20s, 50s, American Civil War, American Revolutionary War, Ancient Egypt, Viking Age, Ancient Rome and Post Civil War/Old West. If you have something in mind you don't see here feel free to hit me up.

Crime roleplays. Gangs, mobsters, drug lords, that kind of thing. Particularly something dirty with 1800s London (though maybe it’s not actually London) thieves perhaps.

Post apocalypse.

Sc-Fi (soft)

Werewolves!

Monsters. Especially monsters in odd pairings with humans or the like.

PIRATES!

Mid to low fantasy, MAYBE. But generally not. I’m sort of bored by it unless it’s got some sort of twist or something is different about it. Generally nothing too Tolkien-esque with pretty drifty elves and such.

I’m not too big on fandom role-play, but I may be swayed. I’ve only ever done one before in my life. I don’t ever role-play fandom characters however, and I’m strictly an OC within a fandom universe type of person. Usually these universes are the kind that are big and with a lot of lore. I may be interested in Fallout, Harry Potter, Skyrim, and maybe a few others here and there but not much else.

How often do you generally post? Every day, at least once but I can also do multiple times a day. Depends on how busy I am. I like to RP with people who post fairly often though, I find that more regular replies help to keep me engaged and coming up with fresh ideas. If you’re a once a week role-play reply sort of person then that’s not what I’m looking for, basically. How much do you generally post? As much as I feel is needed for the situation. Sometimes I’m writing multiple characters or I need to establish a setting and it’s a lot and it’s wordy. Maybe there’s an action scene going on and my character is distressed. I’m not the sort that’s going to fluff up posts where our characters are having a rapid conversation with useless filler though. In a nutshell, as much as I deem fit for the situation. Do you like to write in first person or third person? Third person. Don’t do much else. I have experimented with first person for poopies and smiles in the past though. Who are your favorite playbys (PBs)? I don’t use playbys. I prefer to draw my characters to map out their appearances. There may be famous actors or models that I occasionally reference for aspects of my character’s faces or bodies, but rarely are they exactly what the character looks like entirely. I find as a general rule actors are too pretty for my characters though. I like playing people that aren't always perfect looking. I don’t mind if someone else uses playbys though, as long as you don’t mind I don’t! What playbys (PBs) do you hate? N/A What rating are you comfortable with? 3-3-3. I’d actually prefer you didn’t contact me if you aren’t comfortable with things being rated R. I’m not asking for sex, blood, guts and gory all the time, but some of my characters can be inappropriate and so forth. I also just don’t like to feel restricted in my writing practices in general. How do you feel about writing out graphic scenes such as violence, drug use, and sex? I’m good with it all, and I actually like a bit of smut now and then, but not constantly. Porn without plot is not my cup of tea. Violence and gore is one of my most favorite things to write for sure too, and I might get a bit too enthusiastic about it at times but you can always tell me to tone it down. I have a few restrictions but they are pretty much the general no-go's for most people, and we can talk about all of that when we get down to business (to defeat the Huns). Final Statement How do you want to be contacted? You can just PM me on here, but you’d probably have a better time emailing me. After some talking I'll drop my instant messengers for you to use and stuff. EMAIL: [email protected] Anything else?

Sorry if this seems picky I just know what I like and what I don't like at this point in my RP career. I hope no one is turned off by it! I'm not too interested in sites either, so please unless you have something really good don't suggest them to me.

I will not roleplay with someone that is not comfortable roleplaying homosexual pairings. I do M/F, F/F, and M/M. My characters are of all kinds of sexualities and have all sorts of preferences. If you don't have the desire to roleplay with these types of characters then I don't have any desire to roleplay with you. Sorry!

If you’re big on world building and comfortable with playing more than one character in a given story then THAT WOULD MAKE ME SUPER EXCITED TOO.

It would be super swell if you were comfortable with both male and female characters. You can have a preference, just be capable of playing both? Yeah!

#rp partner search #rp partner ad #rp ad #rp search #original #email #skype #googledocs #submission

4 notes · View notes

archived18482939204848 · 5 years

Text

hi @captain-catcat I deleted the oc ask on accident long post incoming 🖤

How do they respond to having a song stuck in their head? Does that happen to them often?

This happens very often with Aphys’s brain. It’s unavoidable and sometimes exacerbated by the fact that she took the mantle of sheogorath.

How do they feel about confronting their friends when issues arise?

Aphys will be very blunt and very clear and if they don’t get it the first time, well, fuck them.

When speaking to themselves in their mind, how do they refer to themselves?

Mantling Sheogorath means unwanted input quite often. Every conversation in her head is often a two person convo

Do they enjoy wearing socks/stockings when they aren’t wearing shoes?

Absolutely, she likes being warm

Do they have any unappealing habits (ex: picking their nose, hawking loogies)?

Making noises with her mouth without noticing and annoying everyone in the room

How do they cope with losing a game?

Sulking for a while before ruminating on another possible strategy and then going back

How do they cope with losing an argument?

Not well. The yelling is overwhelming and abrasive enough and the disrespect would mean she has to leave for a while and sulk

How do they cope with losing a friend?

Friends are few and valuable to her, it’d be like losing a finger. She’d never forget about it and would often still wonder if she could every remedy the situation. She may grow and move on but there will always be a lasting imprint in the back of her mind.

How do they cope with losing a lover?

Very similar to losing a friend. The relationships blur and it’s often just “special” to “most special” in her mind. Losing two lovers in a short span of time pushed her to go into the shivering isles to fuck with Daedra so she doesn’t take it well at all

Do they enjoy sitting on countertops?

Likes to be tall

How expressive is their face? Are they easy to read?

Aphys is often blank and monotone, but the facial expressions that are involuntary reactions to what she’s hearing are VERY telling on what she’s thinking

How do they deal with experiencing physical pain?

Try not to cry and buck up, essentially

Are they easily insulted?

Absolutely easily insulted and holds grudges

Would they prefer to act or react?

Aphys needs time to sit and plan for the best possible outcome, she doesn’t make brash reactions.

How would they respond to performing on stage?

Panic and try to save face

Would they ever wear perfume or cologne? When? What would the scent be?

The constant strong scent might be an annoying sensory thing to her, but if she could pick anything it would be the smell of her home in Valenwood right after it rains

Could their personality or interests be considered “flighty?” Do they change their mind/interests often?

She loses interests relatively quickly if something newer and cooler is introduced to her but is prone to obsessive hyperfixations

Do they daydream? Of what?

Aphys is constantly lost in her own fantasy world of what’s happened, what could be, idealized versions of events currently happening, whatever is happening in the Shivering isles,

What is the most inappropriate thing they have ever done in public?

She’s so obsessed with appearances that the worst would be public intoxication and whatever that entails

What was their favorite toy as a child?

She still carries around a small stuffed frog from her childhood! It’s everything to her!

What was their favorite way to play as a child (ex: playing pretend, playing games with rules like tag,)?

Hide and seek because she could fit into closed off small spaces and doze off until she’s found, and of course elaborate role plays

How do the sneeze (ex: loudly, quietly, openly, into their elbow, hold the sneeze in)?

Pretty loudly for someone so small but always concealed into an elbow or a sleeve or something

When engaged in an irritating conversation, how to they conduct themselves?

Increasingly agitated movements like rocking, tapping, unable to focus for more than few seconds

What words make them cringe?

🤔 probably something pronounced in a way that would annoy her

How do they feel in large crowds?

Overwhelmed! But sometimes the noise can dissolve into a droning buzz to help her stay focused on the task at hand

Would they ever spend an afternoon in a library? What section would they spend the most time in?

Oh absolutely. Probably the horror or fantasy fiction section

Do they find it difficult to try new foods?

YES. Routine is everything

If a friend asked them to taste something and it turned out to be unpleasant, how would they handle it?

Lots of tortured facial expressions but would still say it’s good for the sake of being nice

Do they wear underwear?

Aphys wears so many layers that she’s basically created her own chasity belt

Can they pee in front of other people?

Absolutely not unless she’s drunk and this is a conversation that NEEDS to be continued with someone very close to her

What story gave them nightmares as a child?

Being told about the Wild Hunt and the Ooze

How would they respond to being handed an infant?

Panic internally but make sure she’s holding the infant as carefully and comfortably as possible

How would they respond to being asked to watch over a child for an afternoon?

She enjoys kids and their input about the world around them! She doesn’t like the responsibility and she’s quite stiff and awkward but she wouldn’t adamantly refuse

Do they enjoy climbing trees?

As a kid in Valenwood, all you did was climb trees

In which of their own skill sets do they have the most confidence? Why?

Archery! In Valenwood, she would be considered average, nothing special. But in Skyrim, her methods of archery are completely different to the Nords and their stiff hunting bows so she feels like the top dog

Do they enjoy receiving compliments? How do they respond to it?

Flustered! She LIVES with praise, can’t cope without it. Not very good at receiving it though

How often are they the one to initiate physical contact?

Words are hard for her, finding the right words for certain specific situations is even harder. Sometimes direct touching is the best way to communicate

Do they prefer salty or sweet things?

Salty and sour

Do they get the urge to jump from high places?

Absolutely not, what if she twists an ankle or lands wrong

Have they every written a dirty letter and actually sent it?

She often keeps Those thoughts to herself to ruminate on for a while

How would they describe their love life?

A dumpster fire of mixed emotions and pining and torture and nothing seems to work out ever

How would they describe their sex life?

Active and fun with complicated and twisted emotions lying underneath

Do they hide objects? What and where?

She’s been conditioned to hide the things she collects (like shells or certain rocks) out of fear of it being taken and used as leverage. It’s become a habit to quickly stick something into a hidden pocket and arrange it behind a shelf later

What are their reasons for getting up in the morning (outside of achieving their main goal)?

A garden, her newfound family

Who is their greatest confidant? Who confides in them?

Lucien’s ghost will always be a go-to because she can stomp him back into the void if he gets mouthy. He was always a source of guidance since he seemed to have his shit together, and he’s had 300 years in the Void to be mature about things

What is something they’ve always wanted to do, but know they shouldn’t?

Rob a house for the fuck of it

Is there someone whose laugh makes them laugh as well?

Probably Farkas. I feel like he just has ~ infectious laughter ~

How festive are they on holidays?

She HATES it and will do the bare minimum for everyone else to enjoy

How would they respond to their ears ringing for an extended period of time?

Slowly get angrier and snappier

How likely is it that they would be the first to point out a full moon or a beautiful sunset?

Always the first! She’s the most observant!

#long post #holY FUCK I DID IT

0 notes

15073505-blog · 5 years

Text

The Ultimate MMORPG games

Hello everyone,

This is about the visual design of the 3 games I have researched. The genre of my games is MMORPG which stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. The games are Everquest in 1999, World of Warcraft in 2007 and Elder Scrolls Online in 2014. The visual design of these games has many different unique colors and terrains. These games are RPGs that you can play with friends across the entire world. These games also contain many soundtracks and choices of music to listen to whilst playing the game. Normal RPGs are single player games, which means you play alone, but these types mean if you have friends from all over the worlds trying to connect, you can invite them to join your quest. Each game was created by a different company and these companies had a different goal in mind for how the games were going to sell. The timeline set for the MMORPG games have been created and showed how they have developed from the beginning to end to be from first time playing to iconic masterpieces for generations.

Everquest went for a more fantasy visual style with mushroom shaped trees and includes immersive lighting, meaning if your character is inside a cave then you get darker lighting, so it is not complete and total darkness like most games do with cave designs like a similar RPG game named Oblivion by Bethesda. The game is mostly a night time setting with streetlights everywhere, whilst some places need torches as light. The game has bright visuals, making everything seeable, including bulky armour and fluid movements for the characters in the game.

World of Warcraft is also fantasy style, but the style is more historical, and Viking aged whilst also being partially nature inspired. Close attention to detail is made with trees, often appearing like it is autumn like the leaves are orange while the tree trunk is brown but yellow in the sunlight. Most architecture uses wood as its primary construction resource and white cotton/wool, making an old and dated design. This game was set in a mythical realm with colourful visuals and the animation of the characters are slower and more pronounced than the other games.

Elder Scrolls Online holds the most realistic life style out of all the games. It is also Viking aged but it is more presently based in its time period in comparison to WOW (World of Warcraft) which only kept simple and didn’t focus on making everything look Viking aged. The environment is more nature-styled and took a more detailed approach than other any other game before mentioned. The NPCs are covered in amour just like the player character. The game is inspired by its predecessor (Skyrim). This game has a tutorial of quests that are not in any of the other games.

All games took their own unique styles which gave ratings of up to 7/10, making the games masterpieces with their respective creator’s minds of vibrant and recognizable level design. It took a very different approach, with hard thinking of popular designs to take into account from prior games in the year and what can make it a step-up from other previous games created. The games took a more modern and creative turn when the game was in early development. Each game needed a consistent type of design before making the first area, so it consisted of a long line of thinking to come up with the design. Every game defined the expectations held by the fans and new players, with creators hoping that it would get a good response and the visual design was where the games shined and got the true essence of gameplay captured.

The gameplay of the games is also a significant part of the games and should be not be overlooked when considering its various features.

The gameplay for Everquest included the character creation and the WASD control setup as you move your character around in this fantasy world, fighting monsters in order to gain experience points, mastering the skills of your character. The more experience points you get, the better your skills will be.

The gameplay for World of Warcraft was also using WASD or arrow keys to move and the mouse for the camera with left clicking to attack, with the weapon depending on the class you picked, like a Death Knight being mostly a sword fighter class. You can also use special attacks which are at the bottom of the screen as regular attacks are not as effective to the opponent. Since this is a fantasy game, most special attacks consist of magic, including elements such as fire and ice.

The gameplay for the Elder Scrolls online was the same as the other MMORPGs like World of Warcraft yet again using the same controls. A key difference is the Tab key being able to open a menu for your weapons, armour and abilities. The aim of the game is to fight monsters and complete sets of quests to advance the plot. The games had similar types of gameplay to each other, on the other hand the style and story had more of an impact of the game rather than the bog-standard gameplay and controls. The hype and potential for the games made them masterpieces with state-of-the-art visuals and controls that are easy to understand.

These games have tones of fun to be had and was playable to all the fans that want to get into the series and uncover the mysteries of the companies. These games have secrets that are so hard to spot when playing the game even through the main story that has been told by the NPCs (Non-Playable Characters).

The box art and artwork of the games would be the first things the fan would see when getting a physical copy of the game. The logo on the front cover and the main menu will leave their first impression on the players, each holding an opening cutscene and beginning of the story, sometimes with the inclusion of a backstory. Artwork would support the game’s release and background.

The games appealed to fans of both the 20th and 21st century, with player ranges from children to adults. The two games World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls online can be found on Steam and on their respective websites. The gameplay of each game also made a large impact to the gaming industry, revolutionising the genre as a whole.

All three games are of a 3D style, allowing you to move forwards, backwards, left and right. Whilst also being able to move up (jumping) and down (crouching). A 2D game however is only left, right, up and down. You can switch between first and third-person perspectives by simply the press of a button on the keyboard.

World of Warcraft had an opening cutscene which gives you an insight on what to expect when you play the main story. Opening cutscenes are full motion introductions videos that are viewed by the player before starting the game.

The setting and terrain in World of Warcraft varies from being green with lots of trees, all the way to being white with mountains of snow, therefore the game is set in multiple climates, including but not limited to forests and tundra, unlike main capital cities like Elder Scrolls Online. The architecture for WOW is not particularly admirable in the game as it is mostly open world with numerous journeys trekking through the forest and not coursing through any town presented in the game.

These games went from computer-generated fantasy to realistic design masterpieces, with fun gameplay mechanics, awesome storylines and encapsulating narratives to behold. Steam and Blizzard entertainment are two game platforms which is where some of these kinds of games are found.

The enemy models in WOW don’t look all that threatening to begin with in order to ease new players into the game thus beating them at the start is a cakewalk, hardly providing much of a challenge to fight in order to allow the difficulty curve to build up. These pawns are relative to push-overs in comparison to the monstrous bosses you encounter later in the story.

The enemy models in Elder Scrolls Online appear more warped in order to fit in with the game’s differing setting, almost seemingly like some of them come from the depths of hell, unlike WOW which has enemies specific to their environment in the game. From rats and goblins to abominations made of stone you must master tons of skills to beat the bosses and the main antagonist which flood the world.

The terrain in Elder Scrolls Online is mostly obscured by the architecture in the game, unlike their antecedents, which have terrain of forests that players can easily identify. This has been done in order to transition the game from a simple Single-Player RPG, to a MMORPG. The architecture consists of stone and bricks and takes inspiration from the designs that were found in the time that the Vikings were around. The boat you arrive on in the game does not have any similarities to the ones of the Viking times but are still older than the present-day sea transportation.

The games are all fun and unique, making them worth playing. I suggest giving them a try and enjoy what you will experience from story and style.

0 notes

aurimeanswind · 7 years

Text

Here comes the Storm—Sunday Chats (11-26-17)

Another week, another long time away from those sweet, good people who came to my house for ExtraLife. It’s definitely been the hardest adjustment period after a nice big fun-time event for me, and while I’m still bummed, I’m pushing through.

Game of the Year Season

So I said on a most recent podcast that we will not be doing our annual Game of the Year “Guest Top 10” podcasts, where I would go around, collect guests from different rabbit holes on the internet, and sit down with them for an hour-long chat to essentially interview them on their ten favorite video games from that year. I’ve decided against it, but I did imply that there may be something in its place. It’s still in the early stages of planning, so I haven’t said anything big on it yet, ad I’m trying to keep it pretty secret, so bear with me here.

If you have played any of these ten games, and would be interested in talking about them in a mostly positive manner, please reach out to me:

Breath of the Wild

Nier Automata

Hellblade

Mario Odyssey

Wolfenstein 2

Danganronpa V3

Persona 5

Edith Finch

Destiny 2

Resident Evil 7

Now reaching out to me doesn’t guarantee a spot on any to-be-announced project, but I want to start writing down names. Please reach out to me in whatever way you prefer and tell me what game you’ve played and would be interested in talking about. I’ll keep you posted as best I can.

Game of the Year is always a hectic time for me since it’s a lot of “oh god I need to finish this, this, and that,” but it’s also a time where a lot of great conversations start happening, and when those fun end-of-year announcements come billowing forth. I’m excited because of the conversations I get to listen in on, and possibly partake in, but I’m also hesitant since many of my choice favorite games will receive I’m sure the most scrutinous eye.

Regardless, if you’re the kind of person who gets vehemently upset when your favorite podcast or The Game Awards don’t pick your favorite game as Game of the Year, or RPG of the year, or whatever, my advice to you is: chill. I’ve been in your shoes before, and I know that frustration when the thing you love so much doesn’t get the recognition you think it deserves, but relax. One gaming site, or outlet, or awards show doesn’t reflect everyone unanimously, and just because someone liked one thing more than you did, or didn’t like something as much as you, doesn’t invalidate your feelings. Enjoy what you love.

Chase your bliss, as I sometimes say.

What’s on Tap:

Assassin’s Creed Origins

I finally finished this game!

Woof. It kind of drags at the end.

I’ll say this, I put over 100 hours into two excellent games this year, Persona 5 and Zelda, and they flew by. When I looked at my game counter on AC Origins, the 36 hours I put into it felt much longer at the end of it all.

I’m not saying it’s bad, but there was a point where I felt I had seen all I needed to see, and then there was six more hours of story missions, and I kind of just wanted it to be over.

When you’re in the thick of it, playing the game, it’s exceptionally fun.

I’m still really glad I played it. Bayek is one of my favorite characters from this year. Excellently done, and an Egyptian protagonists added to my list of favorite characters in games is pretty fucking rad I think.

What Remains of Edith Finch

I played through all of this this past week, in what was meant to be breakout sessions, but ended up being one big long session.

VERY GOOD. I loved the vignette style storytelling, I liked the premise, and above all, I loved exploring this big old house with tons of secrets in it.

It’s very much my jam, but the bond between mechanics and storytelling in this game is pretty excellent.

Assassin’s Creed 3

Sigh. Don’t ask.

Skyrim VR

My brother recently got a whole new setup for himself, including a 4K TV, a PS4 Pro, which I set up for him today, and a PlayStation VR. He went on vacation starting yesterday and gave me free reign to play around with it as I’d like.

All I really did was play the tutorial of Skyrim VR, which was... odd.

I don’t know how I feel about movement in that game, but generally I really liked seeing that game from a first person perspective, experiencing the different control sets.

I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV kind of just waving my arms around though, so it wasn’t what I’d call the full experience. Maybe with more time I’ll be able to come to an actual opinion.

I will say, holding my arms out stretched in either direction and blasting fire in one direction and lightening in the other was fucking sweet.

Questions

As always, if you’d like to ask your question and be a part of the Sunday Chats conversations, look for any of my tweets on Sundays with the hashtag #SundayChats and respond with your question!

Next week I will be asking a question, and I already have it in mind, so I won’t be taking questions next week. There seems to be some confusion on this, but just look for the tweet and I try and explain it there.

Goddammmit hahaha.

Okay. Well, I would probably do the L in my first name. Then I’m A Walrus Ex, which implies I am the ex-walrus, or ex-partner of someone, who just so happens to be a Walrus. Now, there is a lot of potential here if we dig a bit deeper. I could replace the “ill” in the part of my last name and be Alex One Walrus. Which you could then punctuate differently, like “Alex, One Walrus”. Hey, why not throw in a question mark there just for fun!

Alex, One Walrus? PLEASE?

Now I know that isn’t in the spirit of the question, you did specify, Steven, that I’d have to replace just one letter of my name, but if you’re gonna sit here and send me some weird questions I am about to say come into this play space and play with me.

Play with me - Griffin McElroy, 2017.

Boy does this thicken the plot up pretty well ey.

I mean I don’t think I’d want to kiss a minion, but if it was one of those princess and the frog situations, a classic pull, I know, I’d kiss a minion square on the lips to see if he or she turned into a beautiful princess or prince.

Think about it, if you were cursed to live in the body of a disgusting, banana yellow, horror side-show creature, straight out of American Horror Story, you’d want someone, anyone, to just come release you from that prison before you know, you get acclimated and start living that life the only way you can: one butt joke at a time.

Ups and downs, ya know? Easily the best weekend of my life happened in this year, ExtraLife 2017, which is both an accomplishment, a look back at the road I’ve taken, and (hopefully) a preview of the opportunity and accomplishment that is yet to come. It was incredible.

On the other side of that is the summer of this year, which saw my worst depression since I first had it in 2012. A lot of factors caused this, but it really put such a hold on some of the things I was working on.

2017 was also the year after launched Alex Talks, and in the calendar year of 2017, I’ve only put up one episode of it. I’ve barely worked on video at all this year, in fact. It’s a year I have to live in the shadow of that accomplishment.

It’s been a great year for video games, for media, and a terrible one for the world at large, for the rights of many people who don’t get any benefit of the doubt. One that has taught me a lot about the bad parts of empathy, and one that has really reformed my perspective.

There is another post for this, with a more complete thoughts, but:

it’s had its ups and downs.

I’m exceptionally lucky that I have friends who fit into all four houses, all of which I love.

I think the house stuff is played up in the book, and I bet if you asked JK today, she’d say she regrets making some of them as villainous as they appeared. But also that was reflective of ‘91-98 of Hogwarts, and in my heart of hearts, I believe things changed after the battle of ‘98.

(See: if you didn’t know how much of a Harry Potter nerd I was before, casual Sunday Chats reader, strap in)

Slytherin gets the worst rap. But tenaciousness and cunning and a sly nature don’t mean you’re a bad person. You’re the person that sticks up for your friend that doesn't stick up for themselves, and gets back. Hard. Maybe things get taken to far, but the Slytherin is the person that takes the action, that punches the Nazi, because they don’t fuck with that.

Hufflepuff gets a terrible reputation! Hufflepuff is great. One word: loyalty. Honor. Diggory told Harry how to get into the Egg in the 4th book because he had the honor to do so. Loyalty to the people you love. You care about. Honor to say what needs to be said. You’re not the leader, but you’re the person the leader trusts the most.

Ravenclaw. Cocky and over enthused. Often seen as a little haughty. But The thirst to seek knowledge is a gift and a curse, and those are the bad parts. What about the longing to teach, to challenge, to instill that knowledge in others? The Ravenclaw is the tactician, the hacker and the brains in the heist. They’re the Rise and the Futaba of the group, to use a Persona reference.

Gryffindor. Cockier, thick headed, stubborn, and not the least bit a little sensitive to their house being undercut, eh? But it’s because Gryffindor wants to be the best. They want to stare the dragon in the face. They want to lead the charge, the be the support beam for everyone, to be the one everyone turns to. They want to be brave, and that’s very important. The Gryffindor is also the person that punches the Nazi, because they don’t fuck with that either.

But take a step back. If you would rather sit and argue over whose house is the best, and believe that one is only full of bad people, and another isn’t, you missed the whole point of the books. You fucked up. Congrats.

It’s not about what divides us, it’s about those differences encouraging us to come together. A lesson that everyone should hold near and dear in their hearts today.

And...

Sigh.

I’ll admit this here. I’ve always proported to be a Ravenclaw, but I’ve taken the test that Pottermore, the most official source, put together, twice. Neither time was I sorted into Ravenclaw.

The first time? Gryffindor.

The second? Hufflepuff.

So take that what you will. Maybe I’m not a Ravenclaw after all.

Maybe I am a Hufflepuff. And all that shit everyone talked about Hufflepuff was about me. How does that make you feel, reader? Maybe have a bit of empathy for the ‘Puffs.

...

Or maybe I’d have asked the sorting hat to put me in Ravenclaw instead of either of them. That’s what I’d like to think.

It was good! It was very relaxed, I ate a responsible amount of food, got some good leftovers, and hopefully can make some good leftover turkey grilled cheese, because that shit is so good.

And I’m alright. I’m really tired. I feel you on the hard to think of good questions. Sunday Chats is always fun because it’s brain food for thought provoking stuff. It’s a lot of fun to throw together, and I try and have a good time with the questions.

But yes. Very tired. Very much enjoyed my day off today.

I have actually fallen off the bandwagon completely. But that’s normal for me. Anime is a thing that comes and goes in my heart. Regardless though, I want to catch up on MHA and maybe sit down and watch something good soon. I’m just... a bit drained of that anime optimism at the moment.

1. I don’t think they’re BS, honestly. I think you just have to take a step back and look at what they are: a bunch of outlets blindly voting things into categories, and then voting again on what they think should win. Each outlet no doubt respects their own deliberations far more, and that’s really how it should. But as a reflection of a bunch of blind votes? Man it’s just like Metacritic, it’s not 100% accurate nor should it be responsibly for some game developer’s “bonus”, but it’s a metric that we can use to gauge a wider audience.

I’m actually really interested in the conversation around PUBG for GOTY and how the Game Awards took that nomination themselves.

2. It’s going alright. There have been a lot more conversations because I’m trying to get the writing team really involved this year. Hopefully they can spearhead some written guest top 10s, in place of the podcasts. And obviously what I said above. Trying not to get too exhausted doing stuff on it this year though.

3. Hah! It’s not bad. i was annoyed at first because everyone did there “omg here is my 280 characters tweet” and that was just dumb. But it’s proven to be a much better way to get a complete thought into a tweet, with proper grammar at least. I’m curious what threads and stuff will look like with it going forward. Already seen some that I really liked.

4. Dressing, foooooor sure. Fuck stuffing.

Alex died peacefully under the weight of 120 people, crashing boxes down on him, as he quietly pleaded, “I’m just trying to help.”

Happy Thanksgiving Brandon!

Yeah I’ve definitely had great pockets of time. Honestly a lot of the events this year (PAX East, and ExtraLife), for the most part, have been really great. Things going off without a hitch. There are always issues, but sometimes it’s just water off the back.

But there have been times when I just take a couple days off and chill, and it’s just about getting lost in whatever you’re working on, or enjoying, or playing, and that’s the best for me. Some nice alone time. But I guess I can’t think of anything specific...

Hrm, I’ll get back to you if I do.

I nice wrapped burrito, because it has a good weight, it’s solid, and if you hit someone hard enough with it, it’ll explode food all over them.

It’s essentially the grenade of the food fight.

God this is such a good fucking question.

Like, think about the pizza slice, hot and fresh, just slapping up against someones fucking raw back, and slowly sliding down. Why a person, any person, wouldn’t be wearing a shirt in a food fight, well I don’t know.

But that image popped in my head.

And here we are Jon. Here we are.

Man found dead in his three story house, bags flooded all over the scene.

First responders, disgusted, harkened it back to the first murder in the movie “Se7en”. Kevin Spacey has not been seen since the incident.

Victims body exploded from within under the weight of, what the note adjacent to the body referred to as, “endless burritos. right here. why would I ever stop.”

Police are still investigating.

In short, you’d fucking know if they did Trevor.

I still haven’t really had the time to read as much as I’d like, I’ve actually been reading a lot of writing that has been sent to me, specifically for me to edit. Which is exciting! But it’s not exactly good to put on display here, per sé. But I’m working on stuff, and today is my 991st day of writing, if anyone was curious.

I plan on stopping writing everyday when I hit 1000, as I’ve said before, but we’ll see if I don’t pick it up again soon after.

Anyway, that’s a conversation for next week.

Until then,

keep it real.

#video games #gaming #sunday #sunday chats #assassin's creed origins #playstation 4 pro #food fight #game of the year #goty #the game awards

0 notes

find-your-rp-partner · 7 years

Text

About Me

Hi! My name is Madison. Back in the day, people called me Shad but most just use my real name now. Call me whatever you want, really! I'm 18 (almost 19, gosh.. getting old..) and I live in Eastern Standard Time. I'm usually pretty active time-wise so don't worry if you live across the world. I'm from Tennessee Hell. My pronouns are she/her and I am a lesbian. I have been roleplaying for about eight years off and on. This past year I've been in a constant story with one partner and I'd love to branch out! I am looking for long-term partners. I'm a social butterfly and I love making new friends!

Contact: My personal/main blog is fragilepandaman! Message me any inquiries about this ad. Please tell me a little about yourself and any characters/plots you have in mind. I'd love to hear all of them, even if they don't particularly tick my boxes listed below. I'm very open.

My Style

Format: I stick to third-person POV in paragraph form only. Sorry if that doesn't float your boat. I prefer longer responses and feel that this is an easier way of going about them. Seriously, if I'm fired up enough, expect some book-like writing. I'm not too big of a fandom person. The only things I know enough about to feel comfortable doing an in-depth roleplay would be Skyrim and Sense8. I could be convinced to do Flight Rising, Pokemon (I really only ever played Platinum, Pearl, Diamond, and Soul Silver though I do love the franchise! You'll need to catch me up on this one.), Dragon Age (I only played Inquisition), Wolves of Mercy Falls, Warriors, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Supernatural (I have a SPN OC that I haven't used in a long time but I could shake off the dust, I suppose), Harry Potter, or Scorpio Races. I highly prefer original roleplays! I love worldbuilding and I am open to worlds slightly based on existing fandoms. I only roleplay OCs! I have one or two premade ones, but I'll almost always create one specifically for our story.

Responses: I currently have a part-time job so I rarely miss a day of replying. I will be starting university in the fall so my responses will definitely be lagging then. I took a gap year for personal reasons and I tend to have a lot of free time at the moment. As long as I have something to work with, expect my responses to be around 3-4 paragraphs in length. The more excited I am equals longer responses, maybe 6-7 in length. I absolutely hate one-liners! If I haven't replied within a few hours, please message me! I might be at work or I may not have gotten the response. If I am actively writing and have the time, expect rapid-fire responses. I hate making people wait just when the story's getting good. Most often, I will inform you of when I will be away for long periods of time (vacation, illness, etc.).

Etiquette: I know spelling and grammar matters a lot to some people but I am not one of them. Actually, I'm positive you'll find a few mistakes throughout this post alone. As long as I can actually interpret what you're saying, you're golden. However, please refrain from text-speak and the like. OOC is a wonderful place for being comfortable and forgetting everything about the English language. I know I do. Speaking of OOC, I'd prefer for us to become great friends! I feel it gets too awkward without friendly contact. Expect being tagged in posts, memes, weird life updates, the occasional doodle, playlists, etc. If you don't want me to be an excited puppy blowing up your inbox, let me know and I'll tone it down. :)

Limits: I am most comfortable with M/M and F/F. I could possibly be convinced to do M/F but it is unlikely. I usually prefer playing male characters. Use as much language as you want! I'm kind of a pottymouth. I don't generally have too many sexual limits. It really just depends on the situation. However, some basic no-nos to cover are incest, pedophilia/ageplay, scat, etc. I'll give a more in depth list if asked. I will only do smut with 18+ partners! I've never experimented with any kinks that I would consider too crazy and I'm definitely willing to experiment! Just let me know beforehand what you have in mind. I'm perfectly okay with smut being common but I'd prefer it not taking away from the plot or generally becoming every reply. Non-smut wise, I'm okay with everything. I love the dark, the gritty, and the gory. As long as it fits the plot or the character, anything goes. However, if something does end up bothering me I will notify you. I expect the same in return. I want to make my partners comfortable and satisfied!

Medium: I prefer email! I can be convinced to use Tumblr's IM, GoogleDocs, and Kik. I don't really enjoy other services. I have no idea how you crazy kids roleplay on Tumblr, but I think your RP blogs are very aesthetically pleasing. :) Guess I'm just old school. The email I use is my personal address so I will only be giving that out once we've gotten to know each other first!

Cravings/Ideas:

Genres: Fantasy (modern/high), supernatural, historical, science fiction, maybe a few splashes of horror. I love epic adventure themes!

You Own Me If You Give Me These Things:

1. I've been craving something with centaurs for the past month or so. Literally, say the word and I'm yours. You own my soul. I already have a character made for this. I have some small fragments of an apocalyptic storyline. Maybe some zombies, maybe a nuclear winter. Mutants. Who knows? Maybe something basic like hubedihubbe's centuary? High fantasy, perhaps? But I really want to write some taurs!!!

2. Speaking of apocalypses.. Apocalypses! Nuclear winters, fallout, zombies, mutants, political uprisings, underground fighting rings, anything goes! This is one of those special topics that could have a base in any fandom, I think. (Think of it like an AU, kind of.) Feel free to add any genre to this one to spice it up.

3. Skyrim! Skryim owns my entire ass! The Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild, bounty hunters! Give me everything!!!

Some Tiny Ideas:

These are not fleshed out! The skeletons of a plot, really.

Hunter(s) x Monsters/Fantasy Creatures, Shapeshifters/Werewolves, Dragonriders, Assassins, Partners In Crime, Trapped Inside A Video Game. Fallen Angels, Superheros

I'm also open to hearing your ideas! Throw them at my face!

#rp partner search #rp partner ad #rp ad #rp search #original #harry potter #email #kik #googledocs #other #submission

7 notes · View notes