Meditations 1

pixel skylines

JBB: An Artblog!

titsay
ojovivo

shark vs the universe
Claire Keane

No title available
we're not kids anymore.
Xuebing Du
NASA
noise dept.
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cherry valley forever
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
šŖ¼
Monterey Bay Aquarium
No title available

#extradirty
Jules of Nature

ē„ę„ / Permanent Vacation

seen from United States
seen from South Africa

seen from Malaysia

seen from United Kingdom

seen from Belgium
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seen from T1

seen from T1

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@wordopossum
Meditations 1
My Review of 'No, I'm not a human'
"Slop."
There's something about the way that people are currently using the word slop that feels like such a good summary of todays attitudes.
Personally, I see the term as a demonstration of how an increasing amount of negativity bias has fundamentally altered the way that people talk about things. We live in a time where people are easily willing to dismiss art or any sort of experience on a whim, and the term "slop" is a streamlined version of that instinct. There's also the part that 'brainrot' has played in minimizing actual engagement with a topic. A large number of users (mostly children) have gravitated towards a sense of humour that relies on repetition of words or phrases ad nauseum. This, as most things do on the internet, snowballed into a large demographic centering their attitude and personality around a shallow comedic gimmick.
'Slop' as a concept has literally been derived from engagement-based pessimism and a mutation of very low-brow humour. Its existence only serves as a barrier for people who actually want to engage with art or experiences in any way other than a binary 'good' or 'bad'.
The term "friendslop" has been especially prevalent on my timeline for the last couple of weeks. It's used to describe any sort of free form - often procedural - co-op games akin to Lethal Company. The idea of grinding something down to the nub of surface level comparison is nothing new; the phrase "The Dark Souls of _____" was probably the most recent term we had before friendslop. It worries me, though, to see this pre-existing term being used in a far more dismissive and negative manner. "The Dark Souls of _____" is shameless and shallow, sure, but it doesn't feel nearly as damning as the term "friendslop." It's a negative phrase shortened to a two syllable word -- the length of which has the effect of minimising the amount of agency anyone willing to play devils advocate might have.
I don't really know how to combat this. I love discussing why I love the things I love, and giving reasons for disliking the things I don't. All that I can offer anyone else in terms of advice is to be combative towards any sort of unironic use of this term. If it's just some troll, don't bother. But, if you see someone who is genuinely unsure of something because it had some variation of "slop" assigned to it, take it upon yourself to help expand that argument, find out the why of someone labelling it as "slop."
In the coming years, I'd like to take the approach of caution with everything I read online. We've been in an age where making things as quick and easy to dismiss as possible is not only easy, but lucrative as well. Short form content reigns and that means degrading terms like "slop" are sure to butt in with increasing regularity. Think: "Has this person provided any reasoning as to their dislike?" or "What sort of audience is this post aimed at?" I know this advice might sound obvious, but I think vigilance is the only suppressing force against an era where the internet demands that people numb themselves with endless amounts of forgettable content.
Thank you for reading this, it means a lot that you'd take the time to get to the end <3
Steam queue shows my bestie lovely lady rpg and we instantly bought it because the trailer reminded us of our friend.
Anyway we got on discord call and the 3 of us did voice acting and got a lovely route.
The entire time we shat on orb tho. They failed every easy and very easy checks and succeeded on everything that wasn't that.
Orb sucks. We love them.
Anyway we're gonna be playing this game until we get every fucking achievement.
#LADYSWEEP
Wow! I now have double the amount of options to go and kiss off-putting women in my steam library! Thanks Das Kunstkollektiv!
live laugh love disco elysium and permanent markers
What made āStill Wakes The Deepā my favourite Lovecraftian horror game. [FULL SPOILERS]
This time last year, I experienced a moment that has permanently cemented itself in my mind. It comes just before the finale of āStill Wakes the Deepā, and itās a moment of complete hopelessness.
But before I explain the depth of the feelings this brought up in me, I think Iād best explain a lot of the context that works to make this moment work as well as it does.
I wonāt bore anyone here with a play-by-play of the story, so Iāll probably be jumping around a lot as I explain the literary, visual, mechanical and auditory choices that make this game so dear to me.
During the gameās opening act, Rennick commands everyone to stay put: āYouāll all be back to work in fifteen minutes, once I get all this nonsense straightened out.ā
You could read this in a couple of different ways. I personally treat it as a representation of how higher ups like Rennick will neglect to ever see a disaster coming for the workers until itās far too late. (Also - as a side note - Rennick has a birdās eye view of the entire rig. This could either go to show how strong his neglect is, or how the actual problems canāt be someone whoās as high up in management as him, and yet he still decides who does what.)
For almost every character, a denial of reality is present. In Caz, itās his choice to run away after assaulting Billy Chamberlain, and dodging the law. Rennick, and his aforementioned choice to keep the Beira running, no matter what - before prematurely trying to leave the rig. The other secondary characters, Finlay and Brodie, engage in increasingly complex and unsafe practices just to keep the oil rig afloat a few minutes more.
Even the setting, the rig just off the shore of Scotland and the period of the mid 70s, reflect a period of economic desperation. This wouldāve been a time where inflation and unemployment rates were at a post-war high - the possibility of ākeep calm and carry onā being on everyone's mind would've been pretty damn high.
All of this is to say, when youāre playing through the game you can feel the struggle thatās baked into the walls of the environments. Itās the perfect cast and location for the genre of cosmic horror.
Youāll probably start the gameās first few chapters with an air of optimism - hoping itāll end with you escaping alongside your coworkers and getting home. However, through your continued exposure to the design of the characters and the events that shape the world, the chances of being weathered into pessimism is all but certain.Ā
The gameās best parlour trick is making you believe thatās possible. Youāre running around constantly, fixing parts of the ship, wading through the least OSHA-compliant environments imaginable. You grimace through it all, for the sake of feeling that tangible progress is being made, that help could arrive soon.
The game has a habit of obscuring most of its horror - leaving much to the player's imagination. I think this is an incredible tool thatās used to its maximum potential. Often, the violence that Caz is witness to is implied; the intense shaking of a diving bell, a cutoff scream on the other end of a radio. Usually exposure is limited to viewing the aftermath of violence. Environmental storytelling that has an element for ambiguity wherein the player can imagine what happened to each unfortunate soul they find on the Beira.
Towards the start of the game, navigating the deck would show you the desaturated palette of metal cleansed by years of sea air and brine scraping away at paint and graphics. Itās representative of 70s Britain, of the sense of normalcy that whilst mundane, seems safe and known.
Nothing about the origin of the contaminant is explained, or at least nothing outside of what the characters personally deduce. This conditions you to think of it in the simplest of terms. All you need to know is that itās dangerous and itās growing. No way to combat or avoid it, you feel as though youāre scrambling around on borrowed time - trying to delude yourself with illusions of agency through making repairs thatāll at best buy you another hour.
A fine line is drawn between false hope and cowardice. Itās a respectable goal that Caz wants to see his family again, to leave the oil rig once itās ātoo far gone.ā That goal is questioned as both the player and Caz realise whatās happening - that the contaminant already has a hold on Cazā mind, possibly even trying to nest inside of him so that it can further spread once it gets to the mainland.Ā
The phone calls late in the game, from āSuzeā, where his insecurity of not caring for his children is preyed on forms a doubt in the back of our minds: that perhaps rescue isnāt worth it. Itās like the trolley problem; where doing whatās easiest for Caz results in the most direct harm to the world around him.
Now weāre back to *this* moment, the one I referenced at the start of this piece of writing.
The crimson that paints the rig far brighter than any still-functioning electrical light.Ā
You realise that youāre both out of time, and that you never had a chance to begin with.Ā
At last, I personally realised that there was absolutely no chance we would ever manage to make it off the Beira. However, Caz remains in a state of unavailed desperation for a while longer.
Itās perfect to me, as a way to represent cosmic horror as a whole, a spectacle of power that is quite literally beyond the comprehension of both character and audience. I felt present in that moment, immersed beyond my wildest belief, stuck in a trance, flipping between a feeling of disbelief and of pure admiration of the beauty that the contaminant had spread across the rig. I think that is pure cosmic horror, distilled to a T.
After this the game doesnāt hold back on the feeling of hope for survival being lost. What little you can do now to prolong The Beiraās death throes feels impotent. The number of people left fully human and alive on the rig dwindles to two: Caz and Finlay. Only then, do both the characters finally begin to understand that their fates are sealed - the only thing left is to define the terms of their surrender.Ā
The decision they agree on, to sacrifice themselves *for* the people they love is powerful to me. One of the only things that we know about the contaminant is that they try to encourage the avoidant behaviour that most of the Beira employees exhibit. Keeping both potential hosts and itself alive and preventing them from leaving the rig - using the things they desire and love as motivation.Ā
But that exploit gets reversed, convincing the final two survivors to sacrifice their lives instead.
The ending (and more specifically, its ambiguity) was the flourish that made Still Wakes the Deep go from an incredible experience, to an unforgettable one. Itās another iconic staple of cosmic horror: the unknown extent of tragedy when facing such a powerful force.
Whether or not Caz managed to actually harm the contaminant through the explosion of the rig is ambiguous, as is Suzeās letter that plays over the final moments of the game. I like that a lot. The mutual unknown of what Suze might think of us, and that Suze wonāt ever be able to know what happened to us, itās in knowing that we did all that he could in order to ensure the safety of Cazā family - a truly selfless act. This was the perfect ending to both Cazā arc, and the story as a whole, in my opinion.
Iām writing this now - a year after the game was released - because I know that āStill Wakes the Deep: Sirens Restā will release soon, and Iām worried.
Iām worried that the game will explain the source of the contaminant.
Iām worried that the game will confirm the ambiguous aspects of the game that made it so memorable to me.
Iām worried that Iāll enjoy the base game less as a result.
Iāve been thinking about this game for the last year, the best sort of stories linger in my mind, leaving me to find my own personal interpretation, and I am desperately hoping that the DLC wonāt deprive the game of that value.
The Chinese Room, I trust you.
Please donāt fuck this up.
Hey yeah I know its pride month, and I hope you don't mind if I get very very sleepy whenever I get gay. I have so much pride going through my system, but "ze schleepyness" has a violent hold on me..
the fuck is an ego shipper. are you shipping the superego with the ego and id. are the superego, the ego, and the id, in a polycule. what do you mean
I dreamt that Canada elected lesbian mech girls to defend itself from America, and that America elected Joseph Goebbels as president and he had a 152% approval rating.
One of the mech girls on TV said that she "wouldn't even consider kissing him if he were a girl" and he got very mad. The response was to call the mech girls "woke starmtroopers" and he lost 2% approval rating because he didn't say 'stormtrooper' right
I feel like I should be saying things. Sadly, I have been put in the lobotomy machine and have lost my words. Please be patient. :)
the legend must appear here too. designed her for a photoshoot and over on twt it kinda... seeped into the mass depiction of fem!harry. also I really wanna get on vgen, so can u guys help me out with comments?
https://vgen.co/AlmightyNit
Tiny bit o' writin' since I'm tired and can barely write 5 words before the headache monster comes to kill me
Beavis and Butt-Head go to Silent Hill
Here, a small post about some of my favourite games. It's very brief and undercooked but I thought I'd do it as a fun lil exercise.
In lieu of the Gloomwood Research update: