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... and I still don't get it. :( Help?

hS

It'd be like Valentine's Day on steroids... well, on something, at any rate.

Meanwhile, on the 'We'd Be Extinct' front, the lack of pregnancy as a relevant factor except on one day means STIs(/STDs) would be likely to go through the population like wildfire. Jinkies.

hS

/salutes back

/salutes, sends Fortifying Vibes

Well, here I am, taking a crack at sporking/recapping a published novel for the first time. I usually prefer reading sporkings to writing them, but this book - Raze by Tillie Cole - made me so angry the first time I'd read it that it was just a matter of time for me to grab a spork and go to town on it.

Sporkings of this book will be available at my Dreamwidth under the tag "raze". Here's the intro to the sporking project, explaining what you can expect from this novel, and here is my take on the prologue. Content warnings for squick and swearing, but I'll be adding a lot more and a lot darker warnings for later chapters; trust me, this is a very bad book. I hope I can make the sporking a fun read, though.

Hello Games have definitely earned my respect after what they did after the launch disaster of the game. They spent nearly 100 days without so much as a word to journalists, during which people assumed they'd taken the money they'd earned, and run for the hills. 100 days later, they released the first major patch to No Man's Sky; fixing many of the bugs, and adding some new stuff too.

They proceeded to add update after update, adding in most of the promised features they hadn't delivered on at launch, and adding dozens of new ones as well. They did this as a labour of love, not as a means of making more money. They didn't know whether anyone would even see their work, as it may have been too little too late.

But they persevered, despite everyone hating what they had made. They redeemed themselves from a place that very few manage to come back from. They did it because they loved making games, not because they saw games as a way of making money.

When something is done as a labour of love, it shows. It is splendid. When something is done from a desire for money, then it also shows. It shows that significantly less care or thought has been put into the product. We see too much of this in so many forms of media. But mostly it's confined to video games, AFAIK.

I see where the modern content creators are coming from when they mention the toxic fans. They do exist and they make other fans look bad.

At the same time, it'd be nicer if they didn't use that as an excuse to paint all the fans that have criticism with that broad brush.

Maybe a good compromise would be to address those toxic fans specifically while at the same time taking the nontoxic fans' criticisms to heart.

I have heard about No Man's Sky launch but I haven't read about the improvements to the game. That's good to hear!

I am smiling at your happy, excitable newbie energy from seven years ago. It's good to have some of that! I'm quite glad you stuck around.

In honor of the occasion, have some Canon Cookies! I think we've finally perfected the Bleepolate Chip recipe. {= D

~Neshomeh

I recently watched a video by a channel on YouTube called Internet Historian talking about No Man's Sky. A game that was panned by audiences and critics for being...well, a piece of HoH...and then was redeemed in the eyes of everyone through the work of its small indie team. Watching the video, I realised something about content creators in general. Not something that applies just video game developers, but for film/television writers, authors, and anyone else who creates media for mass consumption.

Now, for those who somehow missed the massive tidal wave of excrement that was the No Man's Sky Launch (or just weren't interested), I'll give a brief summary. No Man's Sky was a indie game that was overhyped to the point where the game devs were overstressed, overpressured, and underequipped to deal with the situation they found themselves in. The end product was about as hyped as Fallout 76, and failed on launch just about as bad as the aforementioned AAA game.

Now, here's where we run into what I like to call the "Morpheus Choice". Like the red-pill or blue-pill of The Matrix, there are two routs that a content creator can go down. The first choice is to give up on the product, and proceed to either insult the members of the audience who didn't like it, start trying to suck as much money out of it before people wise on, refuse to fix the issues present with the product, or just give up and move on without even fixing the tiniest of flaws. This is the path that Bethesda took with Fallout 76. They chose to make a lacklustre attempt at fixing the issues present with the game, and then proceeded to make much of the content that would have improved the game premium content. I predict that Bethesda will soon give up on 76, and just move on to the next disaster.

Or, you can take the honest option, and fix your issues. Fix the problems, take criticism to heart, ignore the people telling you to go die in a fire; and just keep on improving and fixing your work. Make it a product of love, not a product of greed. This is the route that Hello Games took with No Man's Sky. The game is far from perfect, but they took a game that was hated by so many people, and they turned it around.

In the last few years, we've seen many works in the media that exist because some corporate overlord thought that they could milk a few million dollars out of an audience that they could see. I've already ranted enough about the more infamous examples, and I'm not going to make the same mistake again. But there are other examples to use. Fallout 76, as previously mentioned. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (whose creators chose to call anyone who didn't like the movie "toxic fandom", and completely ignored any constructive criticism). Basically any content creator or organisation who uses the terms and phrases "toxic fan", "only members of [insert hate group here] dislike this [insert media here]", "man-baby", and anything meant to deflect criticism or accuse large groups of people. It's the same stuff parroted by badfic authors who don't want to accept criticism of any kind.

In the end, it comes down to a choice: Either whinge about the issue, or fix it. You can't do both without sabotaging yourself and your product. This is the problem I have with modern content creators.

I've spent the last seven years (currently one-third of my life) listening to and loving Rush. I heard the news two days ago, and I don't think it's quite sunk in yet.

There's not much I can add to what you already wrote. Like you, I'd never heard anything like Rush before listening to them for the first time. Like you, they changed my life. (And you needn't be ashamed about discovering Rush via Ready Player One--just think of it as something good you got out of a bad experience!)

I would not be who I am today without Neil Peart. I would probably not have worked up the courage to come out to my parents or made it through countless other rough patches if it hadn't been for his thoughtful lyrics. His work as a drummer and a writer is irreplaceable and unforgettable.

Rest in peace, Neil. You were one of the best that ever was.

Sorry for posting a new topic so fast after my last one. But... uh... this happened.

On January 7th, Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush, passed away after several years of struggling with brain cancer. My sadness over that event should be a surprise to nobody. I have never been particularly shy about my love for Rush, a love that became a running in-joke in the few interludes I have produced. And with only three members, there is no way to describe Neil as anything other than essential to the band.

Yes, he was an exceptional drummer, but beyond that, he was a truly superb writer. Over Rush's 40 years of activity he wrote the words to almost every single song the band composed. Songs that were clever, funny, epic, emotional, insightful, and heartfelt. As quiet as he was, famously reclusive in interviews, Peart's talent with words allowed him to touch millions over the decades, and while the importance of his bandmates should not be understated, Rush simply would not have been what they were without his contributions. Songs like "Closer to the Heart," "2112," "Losing it," "Time Stand Still," "Tom Sawyer," "Red Barchetta," "Limelight," "Spirit of Radio" and countless others just... wouldn't exist. Not recognizably.

Neil's words and the music he helped to make have changed me. When I first listened to Rush, I'd never heard anything like them. I'd never heard songs about Solar Federations with epic five-minute solos, or B-sides about the Twilight Zone. And I'm ashamed to admit that I was introduced to the band by Ernest Cline's truly... bad book, Ready Player One. But beneath the superficial appeal of geeky subjects and cool guitar riffs, Rush actually had substance (unlike the book that convinced me to listen to them). And when I listened to later albums that dealt more directly with the real world, I was more than willing to make that jump, because the words were just as artful as ever and the emotions in the songs behind those words were more transparent than ever.

Neil's work was beautiful. It made me feel, it made me think. And it made me care.

I will miss what he has brought to the world.

Here's to another seven!

Zing, it's been a real pleasure getting to know you as one of my best online friends. I swear I'll finish that mission I've got plans now on how I'm going to wrap it up

Also, wow—if it's your Boardaversary, that means I'm coming up on five years in a little over a week. o_o

I can't believe it either. I just sat down for a minute and started thinking about where I was seven years ago and in the half a year before I went looking for the Board, and it's...very interesting. I've come a long way, and done a lot of things. Not everything that's happened has been good, but...a lot of it has. I'll take it. And keep working toward more good things.

I suppose I could do some serious musing about the PPC of the past seven years. It's a good chunk of time, and a fair bit has happened in it. There is what to reflect upon. Honestly, though, that sounds a bit exhausting, and lengthy, and ultimately unnecessary. There's been good; there's been bad; but that's life, isn't it? At least there's also been a good deal of writing, even if it has almost entirely supplanted my previous fanfic writing. That's okay, though. If it wasn't this, it would probably have been a new fandom.

Friends, if you think I ramble now, this is nothing. Journey back with me to January 13, 2013, when I made my first post and wound up still excitedly babbling in text form at two in the morning. It's been ages since then; hopefully, whatever dignity y'all potentially think I have can withstand a look back to seven years ago when I was some sort of newbie named DawnFire :D

~Z, totally dignified nao.

PS: CONFETTI! IT'S A PARADE!

PPS: /hands around delicious homemade cake, fresh figs, and lemonade/

PPPS: As the record shows, World-Jumper was responsible for getting the agent ball rolling in my head. I don't know if you're still looking in here sometimes, but if you are: thanks a lot :P Because of that one little question of yours, I have an estimated twenty agents and an orchestra's worth of AU Jacqueses! What am I supposed to do with them all?

...well, provide entertainment for this party, I guess. Hit it!

(There is not, (un?)fortunately, an RL orchestra composed entirely of Jacqueses. This one seems to be having a really good time, though, which is definitely in the spirit of an all-Jacques orchestra. There's even dancing!)

The one I’m talking about is the rewrite of that one.

Hi everyone! We like to have a laugh around these parts, and I like to host game shows where the points are completely made up and don't matter at all, so courtesy of recording computer smartperson Tomash here is another batch of fun Citation Needed episodes, full of jollity and japes and really weird digressions. They're all NSFW and feature strong language throughout, but that's all part of the fun! =]

Episode 5: F.D.C. Willard and Cat Theology (starring Granz, Neshomeh, and Tomash)

Episode 6: The Phantom Time Hypothesis and Charlemagne's Pizzagate (starring Granz, Neshomeh, and Tomash)

Episode 7: Earring Magic Ken and Gay Bob (starring Iximaz, Neshomeh, Thoth, and Tomash)

You can find the rest of the episodes here, with topics ranging from obscure Danish political figures and the potential King of America to swamp universities and nuclear sheep. We have fun, and on behalf of all the panelists and in my own capacity as hostess, researcher, and Chief Idiot, I hope you enjoy the show. =]

Typos and awkward wordings fixed.

I don't know the canon well, but I think I got a good sense of what was going on, and you've got interesting characters. Looking forward to seeing more of them.

Minor notes:

Did you want the Vulpix "arcing" or "arching" its back? The former feels like a typo, but I'm not sure.

"couldn’t much care." feels like it should be "couldn't care much."

"poor SPaG-less and name fixed" seems wrong

“Put this in the RC, and get Maryanne to held carry things" should have "help"

Especially around, well, Mating Day. There'd definitely be a lot of superstitions and rituals and the like.

In case anyone hasn't heard the news yet, Patrick Stewart is returning to Star Trek. As Picard. What I am aware of so far is that it will be about Picard after his retirement, and it deals with Data's death and a refugee crisis in the aftermath of the destruction of the Romulus, in a Federation that's taken a bit of an isolationist turn. It's not going to be like TNG.

I would like to take a moment to pre-emptively address the inevitable complaints about the politicization of Star Trek. And by address, I mean laugh at. Because that ship sailed in 1966, and Gene Roddenberry was on board. Star Trek has always been political, and it could only be more political if Ian M. Banks was in the writing room.

Having said that I am... cautiously optimistic for this new series. Optimistic because Patrick Stewart is very enthusiastic and actively involved in production, cautious because Star Trek. STD was getting a very mixed reception, and the added baggage of something being Star Trek and having that legacy can have negative effects on production in and of itself. But all we can do is wait and see.

People who are actually paying for CBS All Access, please let me know how it is.

Would be to call it "The Day That's In It", but that might be a little Zen for this time of day. ;)