Babylon Revisited

Home of the dorktastic Meimi.

[meimikana]

Meimiday 2026 Wall of Awesome

IT'S 2026!!! 🤔 Wow, it's 2026 and we're still going! 😮 🥳

January 28th is my birthday, dubbed Meimiday many years ago now by my friends (I think it was hojo who started it). For all those years, I would spend all day watching streams from said friends playing games for my birthday entertainment. Over a decade ago, however, when asked what I'd like to see I kinda just went "Why don't you just beat some games?" and so the festivities truly began. Most of us frequent the Backloggery, so it's kinda easy to see why it has snowballed~

THE GAMES ARE READY!!! LET'S GO!!!

Drumble :B: Deliver At All Costs

Lyndis :C: Slay the Spire :C: Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories

mrdots :C: Black Tiger :B: Super Gem Fighter Mini-Mix :B: Thunder Force V: Perfect System

LockDown2341 :C: Suits: A Business RPG :C: The Chosen 2 :B: Tiny Dangerous Dungeons :C: Karma City Police

ShadowStarEXE :B: & :C: Ed Edd and Eddy: The Mis-Edventures :B: Sonic Adventure DX :B: Ancient Roman: Power of Dark Side :B: GANON BEATEN TIMES TWO (rando co-op with burr)

Hojo :B: WWF No Mercy :C: Brave Fencer Musashi :C: Final Fantasy V :C: Breath of Fire IV :C: Breath of Fire III :C: Alundra :C: Super Mario Bros. Wonder :P: Final Fantasy XIV (PS5) :C: Mega Man 11

FireEmblemLord :C: Super Punch-Out!! :C: Ninja Gaiden

AstraeaFeres :B: Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition

Sobou :B: Grand Theft Auto III :B: GANON BEATEN TIMES TWO (rando co-op with bunz)

eski514 :C: The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past :B: Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer :B: Mutazione :B: Wandersong :B: Sid Meier's Covert Action :B: Home Safety Hotline :B: Gunducky Industries++

Valkoor :B: I Expect You To Die :B: Crackdown 2

Floony :B: Soul Hackers 2

SaintTweeter :P: Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster :B: Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster :B: Samurai Warriors 4 Empires

TraceBullet :B: Hollow Knight: Silksong :B: Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Macc :B: & :C: Video Checkers :B: & :C: Super Breakout :C: Snow Bros. :B: Ultra Pong

John :B: The Messenger :B: Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 :B: Kirby Air Riders :B: Donkey Kong Bananza

Endesu :C: Darkest Fear :B: Dead Space (2023)

Try4ce :B: Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Geminias :B: Chrono Gear: Warden Of Time :B: Once Upon A Katamari :C: Octopath Traveller 0

Dia :B: RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army

Slythex :C: Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition

Rockdan :C: Ender Lillies: Quietus of the Knights

CephiYumi :B: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Pally :B: Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga 3

Honorable Mention: Pally :B: Zero Wing (Genesis)

Honorable Mention: MechaGojira :B: Brandish (PSP)

[fantasyanime]

27 years ago today, Final Fantasy Tactics was released in North America for the Sony PlayStation 1 🎂🥳🎉

Final Fantasy Tactics is hands down one of the best strategy RPGs ever made, and it's no surprise given it came from the collaboration between Square Enix and Quest.

Originally released for the PlayStation in 1997, this game blends tactical gameplay with a story that still holds up as one of the most memorable in gaming.

The story takes place in Ivalice, a kingdom torn apart by war and political scheming. It’s full of betrayal, power struggles, and moral gray areas that make it feel way more mature than your typical hero’s journey. You follow Ramza Beoulve, a character who’s both relatable and complicated, through a story that tackles big themes in a beautifully crafted fantasy world.

The gameplay is where this game truly shines. Battles play out on grid-based maps where every move matters. You’ll need to think ahead, anticipate what your enemies will do, and make the most of a deep job system. The customization options are incredible, letting you create a party that fits exactly how you want to play.

Visually, it’s classic 2D sprite work at its finest, with environments that still look charming even today. Sure, it’s not cutting-edge anymore, but the timeless aesthetic more than makes up for it. And the music? Hitoshi Sakimoto’s score is nothing short of amazing, perfectly capturing the game’s emotional highs and lows.

Even decades later, Final Fantasy Tactics remains a masterpiece. Its influence can still be seen in modern games, and for anyone who loves deep strategy and a gripping story, this is an absolute must-play. It’s the kind of game that sticks with you long after the credits roll.

[meimikana]

Meimiday 2025 Wall of Awesome

AROUND AND AROUND WE GO!!!

January 28th is my birthday, dubbed Meimiday several years ago by my friends (I think it was hojo who started it). For those years, I would spend all day watching streams from said friends playing games for my birthday entertainment. Over a decade ago, however, when asked what I’d like to see I kinda just went “Why don’t you just beat some games?” and so the festivities truly began. Most of us frequent the Backloggery, so it’s kinda easy to see why it has snowballed~

IT'S GO TIME!!! LET'S PLAY SOME GAMES!!!

AstraeFeres :B: Tales of Vesperia

Hojo :B: Trials of Mana :C: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest :C: Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble :B: Tuff E Nuff :C: Picross S: GENESIS & Master System edition :C: Picross S4 :B: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle He also complete the ARR fishing stuff in FFXIV to remind me what suffering is.

Cephiyumi :B: Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus :B: Sonic X Shadow Generations :B: Harmony's Odyssey :B: River City Girls 2 :B: THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: Remake :B: BATSUGUN Saturn Tribute Boosted :B: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom :B: Princess Peach: Showtime! :B: YOHANE THE PARHELION -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE- :B: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Neko :B: Metaphor: ReFantazio

Endaso :B: Mouthwashing :C: Darkest Fear: Grim Oak :B: Gylt

Drumble :C: Mario Is Missing :C: Gekirindan :C: Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania

Sobou :B: River City Girls :B: Palworld (co-op with bnuuy)

ShadowStarEXE :B: River City Girls (co-op with burr) :B: Palworld (Feybreak Island boss defeated)

Valkoor :B: Axiom Verge :C: Treasure Planet :C: & :M: Super Mario Sunshine :C: Gravity Rush :B: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty :B: The Legend of Zelda

FireEmblemLord :B: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

mrdots :C: Mortal Kombat Gold :C: Cruis'n World :C: Philosoma

Macc :B: Stretchmo - Mallow's Plaza (3DS) :B: Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge (3DS) :C: Super DX-Ball (PC)

John :B: Metroid Dread :C: The Final Fantasy Legend :B: Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2

Slythex :C: Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate :C: Metroid Fusion :B: Astro’s Playroom

PaperLink :B: Visions of Mana

Moomba :B: Kirby's Star Stacker :C: Doom 3: VR Edition :B: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

eski514 :B: Super Mario Bros. 2 :B: Wargroove :B: STREET FIGHTER II' CHAMPION EDITION :B: Newtonian Inversion :B: Castle Break

Pally :B: & :C: Astro's Playroom

Wude :B: Ninja Gaiden II Black

spagetiii :B: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge :B: Thank Goodness You're Here

Krile :B: Dragon Quest III HD2D Remake :B: Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Lyndis :B: Smushi Come Home

Lottie :B: Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Honorable Mention: Hojo :B: Little Samson

Honorable Mention: Drumble :B: Valfaris

Honorable Mention: Geminias :C: Metaphor: ReFantazio

[mostly-natm]

Women!

[mortalityplays]

This is a dangerous sentiment for me to express, as an editor who spends most of my working life telling writers to knock it off with the 45-word sentences and the adverbs and tortured metaphors, but I do think we're living through a period of weird pragmatic puritanism in mainstream literary taste.

e.g. I keep seeing people talk about 'purple prose' when they actually mean 'the writer uses vivid and/or metaphorical descriptive language'. I've seen people who present themselves as educators offer some of the best genre writing in western canon as examples of 'purple prose' because it engages strategically in prose-poetry to evoke mood and I guess that's sheer decadence when you could instead say "it was dark and scary outside". But that's not what purple prose means. Purple means the construction of the prose itself gets in the way of conveying meaning. mid-00s horse RPers know what I'm talking about. Cerulean orbs flash'd fire as they turn'd 'pon rollforth land, yonder horizonways. <= if I had to read this when I was 12, you don't get to call Ray Bradbury's prose 'purple'.

I griped on here recently about the prepossession with fictional characters in fictional narratives behaving 'rationally' and 'realistically' as if the sole purpose of a made-up story is to convince you it could have happened. No wonder the epistolary form is having a tumblr renaissance. One million billion arguments and thought experiments about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas that almost all evade the point of the story: that you can't wriggle out of it. The narrator is telling you how it was, is and will be, and you must confront the dissonances it evokes and digest your discomfort. 'Realistic' begins on the author's terms, that's what gives them the power to reach into your brain and fiddle about until sparks happen. You kind of have to trust the process a little bit.

This ultra-orthodox attitude to writing shares a lot of common ground with the tight, tight commodification of art in online spaces. And I mean commodification in the truest sense - the reconstruction of the thing to maximise its capacity to interface with markets. Form and function are overwhelmingly privileged over cloudy ideas like meaning, intent and possibility, because you can apply a sliding value scale to the material aspects of a work. But you can't charge extra for 'more challenging conceptual response to the milieu' in a commission drive. So that shit becomes vestigial. It isn't valued, it isn't taught, so eventually it isn't sought out. At best it's mystified as part of a given writer/artist's 'talent', but either way it grows incumbent on the individual to care enough about that kind of skill to cultivate it.

And it's risky, because unmeasurables come with the possibility of rejection or failure. Drop in too many allegorical descriptions of the rose garden and someone will decide your prose is 'purple' and unserious. A lot of online audiences seem to be terrified of being considered pretentious in their tastes. That creates a real unwillingness to step out into discursive spaces where you 🫵 are expected to develop and explore a personal relationship with each element of a work. No guard rails, no right answers. Word of god is shit to us out here. But fear of getting that kind of analysis wrong makes people hove to work that slavishly explains itself on every page. And I'm left wondering, what's the point of art that leads every single participant to the same conclusion? See Spot run. Run, Spot, run. Down the rollforth land, yonder horizonways. I just want to read more weird stuff.

[thegleampt2fromtheglowpt22001]

ppl on Twitter have for no reason I can tell rediscovered Mighty Jill Off, thee cute indie platformer abt lesbian BDSM from 2008. I have no idea why it's gaining traction again but I just thot u all on here wld like 2 b part ov that 2

[thegleampt2fromtheglowpt22001]

anyway check out Anna Anthropy shes dope and u mighta heard ov some other lil games shes done

[foone]

the funniest thing to come out of this game popping back into popularity after 16 years or whatever is that Anna Anthropy herself has seen the twitter threads about it, and she's pointed out how many people are posting this image:

And her reaction is like... BARELY DISGUISED? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THIS IS DISGUISED AT ALL?

It's a game where you're a submissive boot-lover being punished by your mistress for acting like a "greedy slut" and having to climb her tower as punishment, where she ties you up and gags you and makes you do it again.

Frankly, if Anna Anthropy was trying to disguise her fetish, she massively failed. This game is on her wikipedia page. This game has a wikipedia page, which says Anna Anthropy made it because she wanted more dykes in video games, and she (and the artist) were trying to make the game appealing for the BDSM community, because she is also a member of the BDSM community.

It's all listed there in black and white. This is not disguised in any way.

[i-will-write]

[shorteststory]

STOP OUR DAUGHTER

[forgottenbones]

Dave Rapoza

[cy4ngel]

please for the love of god read the rest it’s hilarious

[ororium-z]

Happy Pride!

[rootbeergoddess]

Every pride, you must reblog this. No exceptions

[s-lycopersicum]

[s-lycopersicum]

[jasmine-throne]

[winonaparadise]

Following someone you supposedly hate to their alts is so bizarre. This James Somerton stuff feels like Chris-chan but for leftists. Doing lolcow but wokely

[winonaparadise]

Don't get it twisted the dude seems like a real weed. Frustrating and upsetting corner of the internet where people just churn content out at the expense of others. But dude has been catapulted into the sun. What's the point on spreading an account where he's posting nudes and talking about Disney. Find something better to do with your time before cringe-watching becomes your hobby.

[mionghairearracht]

i fee like this is ignoring a ton of the context surrounding this entire thing: the reason the account was spread was because he faked his suicide and people were being harassed over it, it was shared to combat that.

the reason people were looking is because no one knew what exactly had happened and people who knew him were legitimately worried about him being dead and trying to find out if he was and if so how to support those affected

the nudes, disney posting, and other alts came up because 1. he was doing this while his friends were concerned for his life and trying to contact him 2. because the fucker stole nudes which is illegal and a horrendous violation of others consent and 3. because he was using alts to sockpuppet and harass others and those its happening to might want to know so they can block him

like i think there are definitely posts that treat it like a funny meme but truth is somerton has done massive damage to the queer community, continues to harass and hurt others, and has shown time and time again he will continue the same behavior whenever he thinks he can get away with it.

people being aware of who he is and what he has done so they can avoid him is frankly the only way to deal with his shit. he tried to make an apology (without actually admitting to anything) and restart his patreon and youtube twice before faking suicide. if he thought he could start up again on accounts where no one knew it was him i'm damn sure he would because of everything he's done up to this point.

yeah some posts are treating it as lolcowing or a funny meme but there are legit reasons to make people aware of somerton

[kustavglimt]

Alexandre Dubois-Drahonet: detail of Female nude, back view (1831)

[pikaole]

Me and mom learned new English word.

[pikaole]

Wow…This is probably the most famous my posts on my Tumblr lol. 

This is what I drew after this situation 👇

[grauline]

with more and more sites & hosting services banning nsfw content, being some sort of pervert becomes a moral imperative

[dinosinthedark]

[trek-tracks]

Realizing that Amok Time, from T'Pring's perspective, is basically the equivalent of a Vulcan Hallmark Movie, where a holiday (Pon Farr) makes our hero realize she wants hometown boy Stonn and a simple (Vulcan) life instead of big-city (space) boyfriend Spock, and it all comes to a head in an embarrassing misunderstanding in front of her family, is certainly making me feel some kind of way

[trek-tracks]

It's on a double bill with "The Wrath of Khanukkah"

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

op is a shopkeeper and promotes the shoes sold in her online shop like this (cr:奥戴丽好笨)

[schaudwen]

This is how you convince me to buy shoes i am not lying

[roach-works]

inside every beautiful woman is an angry goblin with sore toes