pleasantly strange fellow

null | he/him | 22 | all art can found on my art blog: null-sketches | artist and streamer | world's most miserable enemy of god

[null-ifi3d]

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ Hello! My name is Null, and I'm an illustrator, minecraft modeler, and youtuber! ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

⋆⭒˚.⋆ Pronouns: He/Him ⋆⭒˚.⋆ Age: 21 ⋆⭒˚.⋆ BFA in Illustration

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁. Links & Info . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

⋆⭒˚.⋆ Twitter: nullifi3d_ ⋆⭒˚.⋆ Twitch: nullifi3d_ ⋆⭒˚.⋆ Bluesky: nullifi3d ⋆⭒˚.⋆ Youtube: nullifi3d ⋆⭒˚.⋆ Vgen: nullifi3d ⋆⭒˚.⋆ Artfight: nullifi3d

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁. Current Ref Sheet . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

[toddsolondz]

destroying and betraying yourself for nothing all by yourself, handsome?

[vash-the-trans-catboy]

Cute little rainbow heart for pride month tumblr but how about you stop disproportionally banning trans women and marking sfw queer posts as mature

[greenishness]

i'm thinking about charlotte brontë spending her last years editing and publishing her sisters' writings and about christopher tolkien dedicating his life to the protection and meticulous reconstruction his father's life's work and about johanna van gogh publishing the letters between vincent and theo that would propel vincent van gogh into fame because she knew how much her husband had loved his brother, and about how so often art isn't just a reflection of the artist's mind and skills but a testament to the fact that they were loved

[greenishness]

My sister just quoted this post at me over dinner bc it was discussed in her philosophy class & I can't even smugly inform her of its authorship. Due to the mindhunter yaoi state of my most recent blog history.

[ralfmaximus]

Years ago back when I worked in cubicle land, we were hiring junior software developers. They didn’t have to have a ton of experience, just a willingness to learn, and some demonstration of their software skills. Like: show me a program you wrote (any language) or a web site you designed. Anything.

And there was this one guy I talked with who seemed super sharp, but had virtually zero experience writing software. When it came time to do the show-n-tell part of the interview he whips out his laptop, brings up a website, and spins it around to show me what he made.

A website of tiny ceramic frogs.

Not for sale. Just… all these ceramic frogs, organized into categories. Frogs on bicycles, frogs with hats, frogs sitting on lily pads. It was a virtual museum of ceramic frogs in web form.

I scrolled through his online collection of frogs, slightly baffled.

“This is your website?” I asked finally.

“Yep!”

“You coded this yourself?” I popped into view-source mode and poked around some incredibly well-formatted, well-commented html. I nodded slowly. This guy was meticulous.

“Yep!”

“So… where’d all the frogs come from?”

“I made those too,” he says, beaming. 

And while I’m processing this he rummages in his bag and pulls out a little ceramic frog working at a computer terminal. He places it on the table before us, next to the laptop.

“And THIS one,” he says, “I made for you! As a thank you for the interview.”

It was adorable. I hired him on the spot. I mean, why not? Worst case he’d wash out in 90 days and we’d hire somebody else. He turned out to be one of the best developers on our team. 

And yes, his cubicle was loaded with ceramic frogs.

[nukesakus]

really not a fan of how ‘realism’ in fantasy and other genres is often synonymous with ‘shitty to women and poc’

[elfwreck]

“Gritty realism” should mean “half the army dies of dysentery and the hero has a rash that’s beginning to scar where his armor chafes his waist.”

[null-ifi3d]

NEW WOODTYPE MEANS NEW KINGDOM FOR SBK SEASON 3!!!!!!! DAPPLED KINGDOM IS GOING TO BE GORGEOUS

[caligulalotus]

all the nothing has changed posting finally got to me

[fagstaynight]

some people on the internet have only been on here for five minutes

[cowboyspones]

i will never get over this one i’m afraid

[polespullspolls]

sexiest punctuation?

!

?

.

,

:

;

" "

( )

-

/

…

[ ]

Voting ended onMay 31

EDIT: asking me where a certain punctuation is does not change the fact that i can't add more than 12 options and i also can't change pre-existing polls

[mismess]

Me: God I wanna talk about my ocs

Anyone: tell me about them

Me: they.......... Exist ☝️

[shivorce]

what is everyone’s media property that they think is good but would get their pretentious card revoked. like i’m talking no irony you think this property is genuinely brilliant and deserves critical acclaim. i will go first. this is us nbc

[queer-as-city-folk]

send this to all the fags in your life

[queer-as-city-folk]

and send this to all the dykes in your life

[betweenlands]

we need to reintroduce the concept of a "content play" to mcyt fandom because there are a lot of people unclear on why saying something behind the scenes ≠ actually changing behavior onscreen and why people almost never outright veto onstream bits even if they're uncomfortable

[betweenlands]

Okay, so: the Content Play is something we first saw demonstrated outright in an old Legundo video -- it's the Game of Thrones scenario,* y'know, pretty much one of the single best ones? Anyway. We're sure the term saw use before as well, but for us this is the first time we saw it acknowledged directly and by name.

* We will be returning to Legundo's run of Scenario SMP a few different times in this essay. It has been a long enough time that we feel its worth as a case study outweighs the risk of offending anyone involved.

The Content Play is based on the following principle: competitive MCYT series have the stated primary goal of "win the game", but the implicit goal is "make a good video". This is important for one reason -- playing a death game optimally is boring. The optimal play is either to slaughter everyone in a single go if you're good at PVP (which, to be fair, does look cool... if you're the person doing the killing), or to simply hunker down like a mole in a branch mine and skitter around the walls until you've reached critical resource mass and everyone has killed each other off, all while never speaking to another person.

Hence, the Content Play -- "telling a story takes precedent over optimal gameplay". This extends past the realm of death games, too -- building competitions, challenge runs, and even just "people hanging out" videos are subject to the whims of the Content Play.

Let's return to Scenario for a bit, though, since it's frequently at its most obvious form in the series. Instead of focusing on the actual namedropping of the term in GoT, though, we'll go back to an earlier one -- Zombie Apocalypse.

Partway through Zombie Apocalypse, everyone's comms light up with an announcement: Sean/Forge Labs (serial backstabber) has Kim, who has been tormenting everyone the entire Scenario thus far, trapped in a box. He calls out a location and tells people to meet him there if they want revenge.

Legundo, onscreen, says he is torn. On the one hand, Forge backstabs people like he has a quota to meet and he's behind for the month, and Legs has already experienced what that means for him at least twice now. On the other hand, Sean has put him in a very tricky situation from a storytelling perspective -- he alludes to this, but doesn't state it outright.

What Sean is doing here is setting up a situation in which the only story-viable move is to do something incredibly tactically unsound. The "smart" move would be not to play and simply to go find something else to do. Unfortunately, that turns the person denying the content play into the jerk -- there is a story beat that has been set up, and they are saying "no" and walking away for the sake of playing safer.

Legundo has a choice mechanically, but he doesn't have a choice narratively. He has to go see whatever Forge is up to, or he might miss out on an important plot beat for a video that is supposed to be more entertaining than it is supposed to be a candid recording of someone playing on a pseudo-anarchy server. As player, he can do whatever he wants to win the game provided it's within the established ruleset. As storyteller, the stakes are high enough that walking away would be insensitive or even outright rude -- and there is no alternative action that would be as interesting.

Forcing a content play is sometimes a bit of a jerk move. People do it all the time, mind, and it is quite tactically advantageous to do so, but it is still a jerk move when done in excess. When someone "forces" a content play, they set up a situation in which the only "right thing to do" from a story perspective is exactly what they want other people to do, and anything else results in a "less compelling" story (or at least seems to do so in the moment).

In addition to innumerable times Forge does this throughout the course of Legundo's Scenario run, we might also consider Scott setting up a narrative arc for his character last-minute in Vampires SMP that seems to make killing him an unsatisfying conclusion, or Grian offering a life debt to Scar in Third Life, or the obstacle course the dead folks set up in the original S6 run of Hermitcraft's Demise, or every single one of Branzy's redstone games during Lifesteal. In less high-stakes situations this can also be as simple as flirting with another person onstream, or Doovid approaching someone with a ridiculous bit, or offering to pay someone with an IOU instead of tangible ingame currency.

And this is where things get tricky -- often, this is not done with intent to be rude. It is done with tactical intent, maybe, but it also might just be someone who's figured out an interesting plot beat they can hit and wants to approach someone with respect to that beat. But everyone in a series or stream group is keeping up the appearance of doing things consistent with their character -- (most) people (allegedly) don't like seeing the exposed artifice of kayfabe built on social convention.

Can you say no to a Doovid bit? Yes, but you've just turned down the ability for your viewers to experience The Doovid Difference. Can you say "hey, stop that" to someone flirting with you in-character? Yes, but you're very abruptly breaking kayfabe in a way nobody will have fun with. Can you walk away from a mutual enemy trapped in a basement? Yes, but you'll never find out what those folks were actually planning. Can you simply not run the deadly obstacle course? Yes, but then your viewers never get to see the deadly obstacle course people put time and effort into creating. Can you not play the obviously deadly murdergame Branzy has created? Yes, but then you don't get to see the obviously deadly murdergame or figure out how he's planning to cheat you this time, the rascal.

The flip-side of this is, of course, that there are ways to set up content play opportunities that aren't forced. In more narrative-driven series, a character might have a planned ending that works regardless of when and if they die, or deliver an ultimatum in such a way that someone attempting to ignore it becomes phenomenally compelling. In more tactically-driven series, you might set up a situation where someone can feasibly make multiple alliances and it's ultimately their choice who to team up with, or offer an obviously bad "deal" to someone where turning it down provides an interesting opportunity for a growing rivalry.

Doovid, despite his earlier mention, is actually very good at leaving people opportunities to do interesting bits in denying him the ability to do a bit. Squiddo's concept of "Squiddo's Law" may seem forced in some cases, but it also provides a failsafe opt-out in that it is equally funny for the ridiculous thing to not happen to an absolutely comedic degree. Scar's "friendship points" and offhanded threats in Third Life make an equally compelling story whether you buy in or refuse to do so.

For many people, this is enough. But sometimes, there are cases where the tactically-minded rush of getting people to do things that help you "win" in one way or another outweighs any guilt over making someone do something they may not want to.

In the second Purge scenario, Forge and Legundo are allied for a time. Legundo, knowing that Sean is probably going to backstab him, pleads his case narratively -- you always do the same thing to me, think about how interesting it'd be if we actually worked together for a change. He is making a counter-bid to the usual content play Scenario people choose of backstabbing Legundo and framing it as "he's playing smart, so I need to do this before he inevitably does it to me."

Sean, predictably, betrays him anyway. There's no tactical reason to keep someone around when you know exactly what they're going to do because they've said it out loud, and the ultimate "interesting story" is about how you win the game you're playing. Legundo is known by many of the Scenario cast members as an intelligent player who plans ahead, someone who plays the game smart. And because the smart thing to do in Scenario, the winning Content Play -- is to betray your friends and allies when it becomes advantageous to do so, Legundo must be a serial betrayer in his own right.

The only winning move against a forced content play is, frequently, to set up a situation in which it is disadvantageous both practically/mechanically and narratively/comedically to force your hand into a bit. Talking these things out behind the scenes only goes so far; people are relying on instinct when they get behind the camera, and fall back on habits they have (whether or not those are good habits at all).

Frequently, these reactions can look drastic with no context: blowing up your own base and/or farms, playing a character that's rougher around the edges or canonically unattractive to most people, locking off the End, retconning one or more major plot beats, ending a series early, lying about being related to someone else.

But, as we've hopefully established, the only way out of an obvious trap is to make it more interesting to avoid that trap than it is to jump into it. And sometimes, in order to do that, you either have to pull something pretty drastic... or live with just walking away and not knowing what happens.

[cake-crumbs]

Rocky now in chonker form! This one was another custom commish for a d20 chonk die.

[gay--dog]

video game with a flaccid -> boner meter in the ui but the whole game it never changes at all and nothing makes the boner meter go up so youre jusg aware of the protags flaccid penis the whole time for no good reason

[gay--dog]

to be clear in my thinking this would only work in a completely nonsexual game, of course it Could have a function in some sort of porn game depending on the sorta porn youre going for but thats not really my idea here. this concept only works to me if its completely useless and unrelated & the protag isnt even sexualized even a little bit, otherwise i think it loses its charm. you just have to know about their penis and you have to wonder why the entire game and you have to try and figure that out until you realize theres no reason and youre just aware of their penis because the dev is probably fucked in the head or something like that. and then by that point youve reached the highest level of connection possible with a game developer aside from maybe ambushing them from behind and drinking all their blood until they die. and thats how we fix the gaming industry

[windowz97]

girl who sat next to me at the coffee shop had that Tortured By Computer Work look in her eye so i turned to her and was like Are u doing research? and it turns out she (white) just started working as an indigenous liaison for an ecological wellness surveying company (hired bc she worked with the local nation for a year) so i was like OMG can i share resources with you. and whipped out my 1 million notes and academic papers on ethical Indigenous-settler relations/research and Indigenous perspectives on ecological restoration. she was like omg are u sure this is basically a whole course for free and i wanted to tear my shirt off liek YES!!!! I WANT TO PROMOTE LOW BARRIER EDUCATION TO ADVANCE DECOLONIZATION AND RECONCILIATION!!!!!!!!!!! STEP IN2 MY GOOGLE DOC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[windowz97]

here's a googoodrive folder containing learnings on Experiential Learning in Ecological Restoration annnddd Research Practice in Indigenous Contexts. each course folder contains a "![Course number] Notes" document as well as PDFs of all the text-based readings that the notes draw from :-)

i plan 2 make accessible the learnings from my other classes too but i think ill only have time to do all that anonymizing & reformatting once i graduate in a few months lol